Vector Quantity

Vector quantity - is a physical quantity that has both magnitude and direction.

When you go out, you see more of the world...more than what the most imaginative mind can see..and you see the places where you could be, things you could be doing..

I suddenly realized that life could be much better if it does have not only magnitude, but direction as well.

I'm gonna start to get things done.

Singapore trip

Today is my 5th day here in Singapore. My demo went fine and I'm glad I got some good comments bout my pedals. Still discovered some things about my pedals while doing my tests here:
1. MSD-2 as a preamp can handle a 150W half stack amp, loud enough for small concert. The pedal started to feedback when the boost knob is at around 6, and it was damn loud.
2. It sounds great on a Fender cabinet (Now I really want a Fender amp..nyar)
3. The tone compensator switch is much more reactive in bigger amps, also in lower gain settings.

I also got to try some pedals that are not available in my mother country. Got some ideas feature-wise. I think i can incorporate some of those in my designs in the future.

I have 5 more days to go, so maybe I'm gonna get my Megamac before I get home. And lots and lots of soy milk too!!

Mad Squirrel Distortion

After a lot of developments and refinements, here is my latest gain pedal cooked with passion...

MSD-2 is a high gain overdrive/distortion/preamp. It is basically a tube emulating overdrive/distortion that has a complete features of an amplifier. There is the gain, volume ad 3-band equalizer. The tone compensator switch (namely fat, dry and heavy) helps the pedal jive with different types of guitars and amps. The boost switch gives a lot of added volume (careful use should be considered) and added presence suitable for lead tones. It can also act as a preamp for a more natural distortion tones by just using the power amp and cabinet of an existing combo amp.It can sound cute at low gain settings like a squirrel, but it can do metal tones also just like a mad squirrel.

Soundclips will follow.

Finally done with a new pedal...

I have experienced quite a lot of digital effects, particularly the delay effect. Using them with clean signals were good, but when it comes to lead guitar echo, they sound sterile and lifeless. So i thought of making an analog delay that can quite keep up will digital delays in terms of delay time. Also, I'd want to do something crazy with it, something that normal analog delays can't do. After a lot of experiments, revisions and headaches, I came up with this:

I call this pedal the CELESTIAL SPIDER ECHO. It has 2 selectable range, the short delay which has a maximum delay time of 600ms, and the long delay which has about until 1.3sec. Yes you read it right, 1.3sec. Also, it has stereo outputs, being switchable you can use only the wet output if you want just the effect to be heard. Plus it has an effects loop to which the wet signal will be affected by any effect plugged into it.

Here are some soundclips:

http://www.purevolume.com/sixdayoldstring/albums/Sixdayoldstring+Music+Technologies+Sound+Samples

Gratefulness in sorrow (repost from my other blog)

a man was sitting inside a bus, his ride on the way home… looking closely the lines of sadness openly showed upon his face… he was just fired from work this morning, sued because of a scandal he would certainly never do and now he had torn his reputation, his cruel family left him, unbelieving him and because he’s broke, he’s about to sell his little house because of that, no money left in his pocket except for his bus fare, no friend was there to listen to his sentiments, and now he feels a little dizzy because of a slight fever… in all his life he’d never been teary since 3^rd grade… gazing outside the window he feels most sorrowful and deep pity for himself… as if he was the most unfortunate of all beings…

an hour later, he gets off the bus...he heads off the ride to walk his way home, just to see his house for the last time… and just as he was a few feet away, there was a very loud bang… his terrified head turned to the bus he was riding on a while ago, and it was a burning hell…

Critter keeper

Have you ever thought of something that fascinates you would be someone else's nightmare?

I am certainly a pet lover, but I just came to a point that I thought I'd keep something different. There were actually a lot of candidates, most of them were hard (or should i say impossible) for me to acquire. The list had included likes such as komodo dragon, boa constrictor, bengal tiger, kangaroo (I seriously want this one), and vulture to name a few...until i had discovered these wonderful God-made creatures.

Tarantulas, we see them in movies as very evil creatures...something hairy and dreadful that would jump in the face or neck and suck the hell out of them...or bite the poor victim and let them die after a couple of seconds. Never in my life had I imagine being face to face with these creatures, until now.

Keeping them is quite a challenge, but they turn out to be rewarding pets if you take good care of them. So I thought I'd share what I have and had for a time.

The Chilean Rose (Grammostola Rosea) is one of the most docile tarantulas I have. Here in the picture is Jennifer, a sub-adult female. She doesn't like moisture at all so I gave her a dry substrate with a deep waterdish for her water needs. Currently she is about 5inches DLS (diagonal leg span, for those unfamiliar).

The Brazilian Fire Red (Lasiodora Difficilis) is one big guy. Steve here has quite a good appetite, and likes to stay on top of his clay pot hide. As a sub adult male, he monstrously measures 6.5inches DLS, and to date, is my biggest tarantula, and yes he is still growing.

The Asian Fawn Bird-eater (Chilobrachys Huahini) is a very defensive species. Lori is a sub-adult female, and she was my first tarantula. I manage to redecorate her enclosure while she was inside, because she doesn't like to move a lot. I have read that their kind were opportunistic arboreals (meaning they may settle on treetops and barks or they may end up burrowing). Lori decided to be a burrower and likes to hide in her web-made tunnel. She's about 5.5inches DLS.

The Indian Ornamental Tree Spider (Poecilotheria Regalis) is the most common arboreals. Stanley is a mature male tree spider and measures around 5.5inches DLS. He was always the one to get me nervous, for he moves very fast and has a good appetite. And he hates worms. Poecilotheria species were known to have the most potent venom in the tarantula world.

The King Baboon Tarantula (Citharischius Crawshayi), one of the most sought after species in the tarantula world is really a gem. I can't name him/her yet because I ain't sure of it's gender, but mine would probably be a female. For a long time it hasn't molted ever since I got this as a gift, and that would only prove it can live very long. She made a very very cool tunnel, something like a cave or labyrinth comes out at night just to wander over her territory.

This one is not a tarantula, but a centipede (Scolopendra Morsitans), not to be mistaken with the Arizona Tiger Centipede. I got this guy crawling in our sink so i decided to keep him. He just molted this afternoon, and maybe he grew a few centimeters. He never refuses a meal and is quite fast.

Here are some of the tarantulas I had and had to let go for some reasons.

Trey, Brazilian red tarantula (Nhandu Carapoensis). Hope he makes it to create lots of mini-Trey's.

Jeff, Mexican Fireleg (Brachypelma Boehmi). This one's a crazy brachy. He prefers to bite rather than flick.

Carrie, Honduran Curly Hair (Brachypelma Albopilosum). She was formerly named Kerry until I discovered he was a she and felt the need to change her name.

Greg, White Stripped Birdeater (Nhandu Chromatus). He died in a mating project. But good news! The female he mated with is possibly gravid. Hope he'd make a lot of little Greg's.

Tony, Cobalt Blue tarantula (Haplopelma Lividum). He also died in a mating project. Still waiting for updates.

The babies will have their turn when their mature colors appear.

Silver Bunny

Everyone in the audio industry knows how important preamps are. As an instrument player, I have been quite late in discovering its wonders, and how it can totally change and maximize the sound of my instrument. I have used quite a number of 'em, different instruments, different applications.

About a couple of months ago, I was working on a bass preamp for my bestfriend/bass player which could behave like a tube preamp, with a passive tone control and can be plugged directly into a power amp or into the effects loop (return) of a bass combo amp. I also want it to serve as a boost to drive a bass amp, but as a preamp it can have a separate drive channel, to simulate the overdrive produced by a boosted tube amp, and add some grit. I came up with a prototype after a while and it looked like this:

It doesn't look presentable at all, so I reworked it and here it is:

I called it Silver Bunny preamp, a preamp where you can

dial vintage tones for light music as pop, jazz and funk to

modern day music such as metal and electronic music

(without the space age effects of course). It includes a

bright switch to compensate the loss of treble in low volumes without cranking the treble knob(more treble = more high

frequency noise), and a drive switch which pushes the tube emulating preamp to a light overdrive. It can also provide a

lot of boost to a bass tube amp and push it to hard

overdrive.

I'll be posting the soundclips soon.