Category Archives: Pictures

Effective Processing

2 Replies

So if I got myself a Schecter Omen Extreme-6 FR for my birthday, what did I get myself for Christmas?


A Digitech RP255 guitar multi-effect processor!

To be honest, I hankered for effects within the first day of playing with my new electric guitar. I used to have live sound effects on my SoundBlaster Live! 5.1 soundcard but that died, and Creative doesn’t put the sound effects in their newer EAX 5.0 cards anymore. I used to have so much fun with the SoundBlaster, as it had a pitch shifter, auto-wah, distortion, flanger, reverb, delay and the works!

With my current integrated soundcard, all I can do is boost the microphone signal to +20 decibels and rely on this digital overdrive.


The RP255 is the cheapest of the current series to have an expression pedal and a looper. The RP355, one step up, adds XLR jacks.

What really sold me on this, compared to say a Line 6, Boss, Rocktron, Zoom, was that it had a 20 second looper for that price, under RM700 (during the Bentley year-end sale.) The Zoom multi-effects pedals at that price had a 5 second looper, certainly not long enough! The Boss multi-effects pedals didn’t have a pitch shifter. Line 6 was out of my budget.

A pitch shifter is important to me because I have a Floyd Rose floating bridge and I don’t want to painstakingly retune my guitar each time I want to detune my guitar down an entire step. I can also drop it down an octave to become a bass, or pull it up like a whammy pedal would.

Of course, there is also that whammy sound… and the wah pedal, which I’ve missed! Out of the factory it is a bit too sensitive – so you absolutely must calibrate the expression pedal so it doesn’t toggle between volume and wah so easily. You could, of course, assign the pedal to do something else…

I also particularly like the user interface – I played around with all the settings, activating the looper and jamming with myself. I then read the manual, and I found I didn’t learn anything new, because I’d already figured everything out!

It has 120 preset tones – the first 60 can be overwritten. I can also download the X-Edit software and plug it via USB to download the preset tone into the RP255!

Unfortunately my Windows 7 installation is a bit broken so I need to reformat so I can get X-Edit to install properly – more on that once I get around to that! I’d then install Cubase LE 5, included with the RP255.

Since I have a 6.35″ to 3.5″ jack converter (and 3.5″ to 6.35″ as well) I can plug the RP255 straight into speakers, or into my Sony A77’s mike jack! I shall record a video of me using the looper and the pitch-shifted bass once I have an awesome riff to show.

So does it sound digital? I wouldn’t know, really, unless I heard it side-by-side with an analog signal. There is an analog tone, though.

In other news, I broke the low E string again – this time, it seemed to just loosen up at the bridge end. So I clipped it and reversed the string, putting it back in. I should’ve known when it started acting up, since it kept detuning rapidly within 1 minute of bending.

35mm Normally

3 Replies


I got myself the Samyang 35mm F1.4 ED AS UMC for Sony Alpha A-mount!


It is, of course, a full-frame lens, for its full glory on my Sony Alpha 900. It is manual focus though – which is why it costs a lot less than the Sony 35mm F1.4G. It’s got a bit of weight at 700 grams for the A-mount version, and a 77mm filter thread.

My Opteka 85mm F1.4 (rebadged from Samyang) is very, very easy to manual focus. This lens, being wider, is a bit harder – I’d say with the 85mm I could get exact focus 95% of the time, with 5% being slightly off (not noticeable when not zoomed in.)

With the 35mm my perfection rate is probably a 75% – but after a few days, I got used to it and got better, about 85%. That said I’ve had the 85mm for 2 years already…

Interestingly, this is the only lens I’ve bought for all of 2011.

I knew that Samyang made awesome lenses – cheap because they are manual focus, but contrasty and sharp wide open! (Though when compared to a Zeiss it would lose in micro-contrast – the details are just crispier on the Sony Carl Zeiss Planar T* 85mm F1.4 ZA, for example.)

Just like the Samyang/Opteka 85mm F1.4, the aperture ring jumps from F1.4 to F2.0 then clicks in half-stops until F16, where it jumps to F22. Its minimum focus distance is a very useful 30cm close (compared to the rather weak close focusing of the Samyang 85mm F1.4 and Samyang 8mm F3.5 diagonal fisheye…)


On the Sony Alpha 77 – with focus peaking and Live View with magnification, it is a lot easier to quickly manual focus.


On the Sony Alpha NEX-5 with the Sony LA-EA1 A-mount to E-mount lens adapter.


So here are my primes!
Left to right: Peleng 8mm F3.5 M42 circular fisheye, Vivitar 24mm F2.0 OM-mount, Sony Carl Zeiss Distagon T* 24mm F2.0 ZA SSM, Samyang 35mm F1.4 ED AS UMC, Minolta 50mm F1.4 Original, Opteka 85mm F1.4, Sony Carl Zeiss Sonnar T* 135mm F1.8 ZA.


Clockwise from left: Samyang 35mm F1.4 ED AS UMC, Sony Carl Zeiss Distagon T* 24mm F2.0 ZA SSM, Minolta 50mm F1.4 Original, Sony Carl Zeiss Sonnar T* 135mm F1.8 ZA, Opteka 85mm F1.4, Vivitar 24mm F2.0 OM-mount, and the Peleng 8mm F3.5 M42 circular fisheye in the middle.


Be warned! The rear element sticks out when the lens is focused to infinity, so you may not want to put the lens on a table facing up…


Onto the pictures! 35mm F1.4 on full-frame. As a buddy of mine said, it looks kinda toy-camera-ish.


Click the image for the full 24-megapixel image from the A900! Wide open, it provides decent detail, with a minor amount of chromatic aberration.


Click the image for the full 24-megapixel image from the A900! As they say, F8 and be there!


Bokeh is generally good…


…though the out-of-focus highlights may sometimes exhibit concentric patterns like this. I have no idea why this happens.


There is a very slight tinge of brightline bokeh especially in the middle. Also notice that there is physical vignetting – not only do the out-of-focus highlights become cats-eyed in shape, they also get cropped.


There is a bit of barrel distortion.


This is my best effort to fix it without going into complex moustache distortion correction.


Anyway, F1.4! It will rule the night!


It picks up ambient color alright. Note the blue light on the trousers.


1/4th of a second, ISO1600, F1.4. There was a lunar eclipse that night, and the moon ended up looking red.


Jason through the NEX-5, LA-EA1 and of course Samyang 35mm F1.4. The angle of view is perfect for street photography and general multipurpose photography, whether on APS-C or full-frame.

35mm on full-frame is the same angle of view as your phone’s camera.


I took it to Rock The World 11! Here’s Maddame, a most awesome grunge band. I have to say though, that when he first got on stage and started shredding, I thought he looked like a Malaysian Marty Friedman, and even played like one! It wasn’t until he said his band represented the Malaysian grunge scene that I realized he was just playing some pretty riff-ful grunge!


A 100% crop of the above picture, taken with the 24-megapixel A77.


Ewin took this picture. Thanks Ewin!

Notice that the bokeh may sometimes be slightly wiry. That said it is generally good.


Lainey!


Into the night.


Waiting.


Depending on the light, you could turn it into day.


MSC Malaysia Cybercentre, in downtown KL – ironically, the most un-Malaysian part of KL.


Shot with the NEX-5. All I had to do was stand in their path to get a street shot like this!


Shot with the NEX-5 at F1.4. Thanks to Waifon for this picture!

All pictures were taken with the A900, with the Samyang 35mm F1.4 set at F1.4, unless otherwise stated (or if the lens is in the picture).

I bought the lens from Chia Hau – give him a holler if you’re interested! He deals with cameras and lenses.

Schect It Out!

Leave a reply


Meet my early birthday present to myself!


This is the Schecter Omen Extreme-6 FR in See-Thru Black, part of the Diamond series (which means that it is not a custom Schecter guitar.)

(Pictures of myself with guitar, credits to Waifon.)


Bolt-on neck – though this is slightly angled which makes it nice to lean your head on when it is in a gig bag.


Obligatory 12th-fret shot.


So you might ask – why not an Ibanez with a humbucker-single-humbucker (2-1-2) setup? You get 5 positions in that switch.


I get a 3-way switch between 2 humbuckers…


…but multiply those options by 2 since the Tone knob can be pulled up to switch to single-coil mode.

Of course, this means I don’t get a single/humbucker mix like in positions #2 and #4, but I get a single coil sound at the neck, or bridge, or both.

Although I’ve always hankered for a Ibanez Gio SA in butterscotch, I was deeply saddened to find that it had only 22 frets.

Also, Ibanez’s necks tend to feel a bit cold and impersonal to me. Maybe it’s the finishing of the back. The Schecters generally come with thicker necks – not size 0s.


The FR in its name is for Floyd Rose – it has a licensed Floyd Rose Special floating bridge. I picked this for my love of Pantera!


Somehow, the idea of your strings being held by a metal block is a bit eerie.


Tuners. I reckon I could turn those pegs any way I like…


…since the double-locking nuts are already in place. Gotta dig the 1st fret inlay too!


Guitar strap.

Those of you with sharp eyes might notice that the low E string is missing! This was because I tried doing a divebomb, then pulling it up to see how far it would go… and I snapped the low E string! Who would’ve thought?

And so, I learnt how to tune a Floyd Rose and adjust the back spring tension. It wasn’t that hard, though tuning up takes forever! So the low E string you see in other pictures is actually an Ernie Ball 0.042 Slinky.

In retrospect, since the string broke at the bridge, I could actually feed it into the block again. Alas!


When I got it from the shop it was leaning slightly back – here I’ve reduced the spring tension so the bridge is floating parallel to the body. Though it does make for stiffer action.

I bought a set of Ernie Ball .008-.038 Extra Slinkys to replace the strings when they wear out (and D’addario XL’s in .009-.042 – like the ones that came with the guitar). I learnt my lesson when breaking a string on my first night – to stock up!

All pictures with the Sony DSLT-A77 with Sony Carl Zeiss Distagon T* 24mm F2.0 ZA SSM.

Sony SLT-A77 v1.04 Compared To v1.03 Speed

Leave a reply

So I’ve updated my A77 to firmware version 1.04, but the lagginess in certain menus is still there. We tested with William Leong‘s A77, on v1.04, and mine on v1.03:

Initially everyone thought that v1.04 improved the speed to switch between LCD and EVF using the Eye-Start Sensor but as it turns out, from a side-by-side comparison, that it was perceptual and random. Both cameras had no memory card inside, though we were not able to match lenses since nobody brought matching lenses at the gathering, oddly.

Even turning on the A77 was the same speed!

We were not able to fairly test turning off the camera, as we didn’t have matching lenses, and it would be hard to record a video showing the EVF going off (or the anti-dust mechanism whirring.)

We did not do any noise tests – that would be far more tedious!

The link to download the A77 v1.04 firmware is here:

http://www.sony-asia.com/support/download/478891

Thanks to 8tvt whose A77 with the Tamron 17-50mm F2.8 was used to record this video. Thanks also for uploading it for us!

Going Up To Genting For A Knight

Leave a reply

…and that is a most Sir Reginald Kenneth Dwight-like title. So I went up to the Arena Of Stars to see the rocket man, the piano rock-and-roll star, Elton John!

Yeah I am not strongly familiar with his discography, but I managed to write down a setlist of what he performed (using audio recording to figure out Honky Cat and The Bitch Is Back – but otherwise the other songs are recognizeable.)

1. Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting
2. I’m Still Standing
3. Levon
4. Madman Across The Water
5. Tiny Dancer
6. Philadelphia Freedom
7. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
8. Candle In The Wind
9. Rocket Man
10. I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues
11. Hey Ahab
12. Gone To Shiloh
13. Monkey Suit
14. Sacrifice
15. Honky Cat
16. Sad Songs (Say So Much)
17. Daniel
18. Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word
19. Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me
20. Bennie And The Jets
21. The Bitch Is Back
22. Crocodile Rock

Encore
23. Your Song
24. Circle Of Life
25. Can You Feel The Love Tonight


This is what I could see from the seats I could afford.

I am still heterosexual, despite his fabulous performance! So you may wonder why I was so keen to go up to see him – I would say that although I don’t know all his songs, I do feel very strongly about certain songs that have a most epic quality about them.

Unfortunately he didn’t play the Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding but he still did the epic Tiny Dancer (which is forever ingrained in every rocker’s brain, in the movie Almost Famous, when they all get on the bus, bedraggled and exhausted, but they sing along to this song on the radio.)

And, of course, Dave Grohl’s excellent cover.

Then, there’s Daniel – he played it like it was, a happier, gospel-ish tune. I knew the song first when Fuel covered it, making it emotional – which the song is, anyway, about a deceased war veteran who is the narrator’s brother. So was the original too happy? And if so, did Fuel just make a very excellent cover?


He didn’t pull out any stops at the song after that, Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word. Perhaps the emo was being saved for that.


His band, with Davey Johnstone having more than one double-neck guitar, and Nigel Olsson on drums. This was in fact the first time I’d ever seen a double-neck guitar in action, live.

After the show, I saw a bit of American Idol Season 10 Top 3, where the fantastic Haley Reinhart covered Bennie And The Jets in a most rockish way. What a coincidence! She did it very well, too.

This was her first performance of Bennie And The Jets. I can’t figure out which was better – this, or her performance of this same song after she was eliminated.

So it would seem, perhaps, that Elton John songs are pliable and can make great covers. The songs are sparse enough to add embellishments, and the chord progressions keep the songs strong however you’d cover it.


Another strong reason for me to go, was to see Rose Stone of the legendary multi-cultural funk band Sly And The Family Stone. She had a bright blonde wig on, a style she had when performing with brothers Sly Stone and Freddie Stone. She was beautiful as ever, as a compliment you’d give to someone’s mother (she’s 66!) Her daughter, Lisa Stone was also singing backup vocals for Elton John. She was demure when Elton was naming all the members of the band – and you can see her demureness in this video:


Not forgetting 2Cellos, which were the opening act, were also part of his band.


As it turns out, I’d seen this video before! They were discovered from YouTube.

Rubik’s Cube Blindfold Solving: My Method

Leave a reply

This would have been an email to Edrei but I thought it would be good to share.

You should read this first, to get a good idea of how to do a cube blindfolded:
http://solvethecube.110mb.com/index.php?location=blindfold

As of time of writing, I have not ever solved a regular 3x3x3 Rubik’s Cube blindfolded (definition: you get to look at it once, then when you look at it again it must be solved, and the cubes are all equal size, texture and shape to avoid differentiation by touch. The Rubik’s Mirror has cubes of different sizes and I can solve that blindfolded.)

I was hospitalized for contact dermatitis – I’m fine don’t worry, and I’m out of the hospital already! So I took the time spent there to learn how to do it blindfolded.

I use the Stefan Pochmann method as described in the link above, where you swap two pieces at a time, and remember which pieces to swap. I would either solve all edges first or all corners first.

Each corner sticker is given a letter. Each edge sticker is also given a letter. Since there are 24, it seems right to give each one an alphabet!


Corners.


Edges.

This assumes you have a proper Rubik’s Cube where the yellow is opposite white, red opposite orange, blue opposite green, like in the picture. You can choose any method of distributing the letters on the stickers.

There are only two formulas to truly learn – the T-Permutation and a (modified) Y-Permutation. The T-Permutation works on the edges while the Y-Permutation works on the corners.

The T-Permutation and (modified) Y-Permutation are actually made of 2 same sequences!

Sequence 1 = RU R’U’R’ FR
Sequence 2 = R U’R’U’ RU R’F’

The T-Permutation is Sequence 1 then Sequence 2.

The Y-Permutation is Sequence 2 then Sequence 1.

The T-Permutation swaps UL and UR edges, and UFR and UBR corners. UR is the source piece, so move the target ‘slot’ into UL in any way you prefer on the condition that you not displace UFR and UBR!

The Y-Permutation swaps LUB and DFR corners, and UL and UB edges. LUB is the source piece, so move the target ‘slot’ into DFR in any way you prefer on the condition that you not displace UL and UB!

So in an example cube, I would do the corners by looking at the corner with Q first, then seeing what is the corner piece with the V sticker, and determining where it should go. An example sequence:

JFPGVCXE

Then I would work on the edges, for example:

MSKELBGXUQJTOV

There was a closed cycle, which is why it took longer – on a good day you’d only have to remember 10 letters. For some reason, remembering them on my fingers seems to help. Remembering is not the problem – screwing up on one of the sequences, or doing the wrong reversal steps e.g. moving edge T to position in B via the back face and reversing the steps via the front face!

I have done a complete edge-only blindfold solve (very hard) and a complete corner-only blindfold solve (less hard since there are less corners than edges.) I have yet to commit to memory both a edge letter sequence and a corner letter sequence. Ah, there is so much to practice!

Urbanscapes 2011!

Leave a reply


16th July 2011: Urbanscapes 2011, down at Padang Astaka!


Bumped into ex-colleague Sook Rong…


…and her friend. Ultra-wide perspectives from the Sigma 12-24mm F4.5-5.6 EX DG on the full-frame Sony Alpha 900.


This makes for real easy camwhoring…


…and random grab shots.


It was muddy all over. Reza Salleh smartly came in boots!


Jon YKT, from the back!


Liyana Fizi, from the front!


The weather was nice for a picnic.


Deejays.


Water-conducted beats.


More deco for Publika, a new, very artsy shopping mall in Solaris Dutamas.


Cable rolls have a second life.


The sun was unrelenting.


Sheena! She was spitting rhymes and spoken word. First time I’d seen her do this!


Nearby, you could register to vote. Which you should, anyway.


The original Polaroid SX-70?


One of the few air-conditioned places. This was notably different from KL Performing Arts Center, where you could retreat into the air-conditioned halls and freshen up in the toilets. Instead, at Padang Astaka, we got portable toilets, nowhere as comfortable.


Reza Salleh performing on stage!


Perhaps, suntan tattoos are in.


The Moonshine booth.


A collection of Moonshine posters.


Malaysian records, sold at the Moonshine booth.


Graffiti artists and fans.


So yeah I was saying, picnic…


Which, ironically, Guitar Hero was not. I played against two different people in two different booths, at Hard difficulty.

Now I admit that I do play Expert difficulty most of the time except for extremely technical metal songs… so I was expecting to win both rounds. Instead, I found myself neck-to-neck with my contenders, often trading first and second place! (I ultimately lost both.)

This made me happy somewhat, to know that the level of Guitar Hero-ship has greatly improved.


Sheena, one such secret champion. She admitted to playing Expert, sometimes. Good game!

[WTS] Sony Alpha SLT-A55 with premiums

Leave a reply

Item(s): Sony Alpha SLT-A55 camera, body only, and other premiums

Package includes / Pictures:

1) Sony Alpha SLT-A55 camera, body only, everything in the box included. SOLD

2) Sony 16GB Class 4 SDHC card, never opened, 2 weeks old SOLD

3) Sony Alpha Vest SOLD

4) Sony Alpha Laptop Sleeve (Asus Eee Pad Transformer tablet not included, for illustration purposes only – about the same length as an iPad)

5) Sony Cybershot passport holder, cap and card holder SOLD

6) Sony Alpha Duffel Bag (imagine a Santa Claus bag but made of a leather-like plastic – its top folds to become waterproof) SOLD

7) Sony Cybershot leather bag (fits a laptop)

Price: If buying items separately:
1) Sony Alpha SLT-A55 – SOLD
2) Sony 16GB Class 4 SDHC – SOLD
3) Sony Alpha Vest – SOLD
4) Sony Alpha Laptop Sleeve – RM50
5) Sony Cybershot passport holder, cap and card holder – SOLD
6) Sony Alpha Duffel Bag – SOLD
7) Sony Cybershot leather bag – RM100

Warranty: The A55 has a Sony Extended Warranty until 7th October 2013.

Dealing method: Cash On Delivery (COD)

Location of seller: PJ or KL, anywhere accessible by public transport

Contact method/details: send a Private Message.

Age of item: 1 year

Item(s) conditions: With the exception of the A55, everything else was not used and opened only to take pictures.

Reason for sale: Upgraded to A77.

Sunday Night Artista!

Leave a reply


24th July 2011: The Artistic Series Presents: Sunday night at Artista, Tropicana City Mall! Here’s the funky fresh Zalila Lee.


Here’s the guitar-slapping, giant-chord finger style guitarist Az Samad.


Immersive music!


Az changes his guitar tuning.

It should be noted that such a framing is made out of necessity in order to fit both Az’s head and the guitar’s head in the frame, since I use prime lenses – as such I am not able to zoom in or out.


The crowd on a Sunday night.


Brahim, I think. I used to write all their names down in a Google Calendar entry but it seems to have mysteriously wiped itself out. And so as of today, I have instilled a systematic approach to detecting whether any calendar entries are missing, by putting a simple “beginning of calendar” as the earliest calendar entry.


I have waited for this day. Ray Cheong, also a finger-style guitarist, but with funk/blues leanings, in the same gig as acoustic finger-style hero Az Samad.


He also sings, often doing a little tribute to Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughn.


Alda Tan, organizer of the gig, and long-time bassist in many Malaysian bands.


Azmyl Yunor, folk hero. I had no idea that he had a Wikipedia page!

They all had a little showdown jam later that night. An awesome acoustic showdown jam.

Moonshine, July 2011

2 Replies


Moonshine: A Homemade Music Show, 14th July 2011.


Here is the hard-rocking Cats In Love!


They throw us nice crunchy warm tube distorted bluesy licks just like they did in the 60’s.


Jimmy of Tempered Mental looks on.


Then came the modern indie rocking Busco…


…formerly known as Bus Company.


Darren Ashley on drums.


Guitar picks on floor.


Samuel Oh on vocals.


Jack in the back. (No he’s not part of Busco, though I am aware that my narrative style may lead you to think so.)


Then it was the Kugiran Warga…


…the backing band for Azmyl Yunor, folk rocker.


This time though, he was all electric, with scalloped frets!

When I see scalloped frets I only think of Yngwie Malmsteen.


Alas, Azmyl doesn’t do neo-classical – he does a street ditty with his blues harp.


Reza Salleh, the hard-working organizer of Malaysia’s longest-running gig series. Not sure if this is certified by the Malaysian Book Of Records – but the Malaysian Book Of Records is just a jaguh kampung compendium, isn’t it?


I love the new flourescent lights. Unfortunately they removed it a few months later.


Then came the progressive, heavy, artistic and technical metal of Tempered Mental.


Jimmy shows us a groove.


Jack belts out mind-blowing solos in between tricky riffs.

Also check out what Laundry Bar’s Official Photographer took here for a different perspective and more coverage: (with flash, and some borrowing my Opteka 85mm F1.4…)
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150240787869315.326694.128405559314&type=1