Leehom MusicMan

爱得 得体 : It's kinda old school song, with a electric guitar solo that sounds a little bit metal (and a little Yingwie Malsteem). Very rich arrangement, yet, the drum beat is a little too repetitive. (Maybe he is trying to introduce Rock/Metal to us via a softer version so that we can take it!). It'll be better if he put in a heavier/thicker electric guitar sound.

心跳: His signature pop song style.. HAHA! No comment!

春雨里洗过的太阳: I love this song. It's having a "Norah Jones" feel.. The cause is mainly the electric guitar inverse reverb effect. Very calming "California style"..??

Everything: I love this song as well. Very emotional, having the 爱错(Shangri La album) feel.

我完全没有任何理由理你: An 'experimental' style (close to) song. He's teasing those critics who refuse to accept the new born singers/artists. I have got some John Frusciante(lead guitarist of Red Hot Chili Peppers) feel in this song, especially the guitar solo, it sounds like his (can refer his personal album, Murderer-To Record Only For Ten Days-John Frusciante). Overall, he is trying to introduce more style to us (i think so..) and it's nice!

另一个天堂: duet. Island romantica feel. HAHA!

玩偶: Mixing the happy rock with the happy Chinese Traditional style. So, in some part, you can get the feel of...Chinese opera style (like traditional wedding song..??). He is playing his voice, great. Electric guitar skills improved.

脚本: Some part, it has some old pop style, some part japanese song style, some part bon jovi style. It's a mix! It sounds very nice. One thing to note is the part after the guitar solo. His voice is changed a little, too trebly and become not very clear. I think he never sang so high and still using the 'real' voice, hence it should sound a little bit..wierd.

可敬的对手: 6/8 song. 1st time listening, i straight away get a "can you feel my world" feel mixed with 伍佰 feel. The centre part where the piano just swing up and down with drum and vocal is my most favoured part! It's like..hanging out in nowhere!

摇滚怎么了!! : He was playing with this song (hear his voice already you knew it), that's the spirit of rockers' song! Suddenly goes back to the 60s' (the accompany vocal), suddenly funk punk rock (rap part), suddenly 古筝.. HAHA! Just that, maybe coz this song he was playing all by himself alone, the whole real rock feel haven't come out.

The coordination of various artists is an important part. Usually when we jam rock, a lot of feel doesn't come just from you alone, other players ill inspire you as well, and this is actually crucial. Same applies to all his rock song. If he could get a full band to play his song, it'll be very very nice!

headphones vs speaker 2

Live Feel!
Last but not least, and the most dicisive part, the bass frequencies that triggers the excitement of every parts of your body! As in live, power mostly came from the bass frequencies. Feel bass, feel live. The 5 main senses of human: see, smell, hear, taste, touch.

In live, we can't taste, hence there are 4 mains.

In home, we can't smell (no sweat smell), there are 3 mains.

In head phones, we can't feel the touch of the sound pressure, there are just two mains! And it's not so desired if a TV is not provided!!

I prefer speaker, but now (due to economical issue) headphones are fine.

If there is a chance, can go try out those good headphone brands. They are really the reference! And there is one 'ultimate' series, "Sennheiser Orpheus", if there is a chance... Because of headphone's accurate positioning and non-colored sound quality, it's usually used as a reference when setting up hi-fi audios, PA systems or even recording studio.

Technical stuff : SPL aka 'sound pressure level'

SPL is a measures in "loudness" of a sound, so that all measurements are made objectively. Just like temperature, asking an Eskimo and an Arabian whether Malaysia is hot, you shall get a different answer! SPL is a log function because sound diffuses in 3D way.

bel (dB) = 10log (P1/P0) where P is power.

Since it's a log function, a double in spl is equivalent to the square of power. It means, if you wish to double the spl output of an amp of power rating 50W, you have to change the amp to a 50W x 50W = 2500W, and not a plain 50W+50W=100W. Hence, if you think your amp is too soft the sound, changing your amp from 100W to 1000W is actually quite common.

For every 6 SPL increase, you will feel the sound doubles its 'loudness'. But this also indicates that sound will become weaker with the decrease of SPL. SPL decreases mainly caused by distance travelled by sound (more energy from the sound is consumed).

new SPL = original SPL - 20log(L1/L0)

This is also why the front row audience will feel pressurized by the loud sound and contrast to the back row audience who ill most probably say "it's too soft!". Different frequency damps in different rate.

headphones vs speaker 1

price
As we know, speakers are expansive, since it needs a whole hi-fi sets to drive it. Some more, in hi-fi's world, watts/power output is proportional to the price, hence bigger room bigger money! Headphones are different, they don't need a very sophisicated system to drive it, except for the desired pure signal (as in any audio system). Some 'head-fier' may integrate a fine pre-amp which is specially designed for headphones into their system. But, overall, it's less expensive if both are getting the same level of sound purity.

comfort
Hedphones are usually less comfortable compared to speakers. It's obvious that anything that we put onto our body will, in return, causes some degree of discomfort.

place suitability
If you stay in an apartment, it's unlikely to place a 300W hi-fi system in your unit. It will not only shake the whole unit (causing terrorism effects, lol), and will get scolded by your neighbours for disturbing their private "meditation" mood, etc..

portabality
If you are a college student, or a traveller, headphones may be a better choice, since you will not have any time spent more than travelling/outdoor. In this case, if you are a music/audio maniac, try an ipod instead of MBL.

health
Headphones have some degree of medical issues due to Sound Pressure Level and electromagnetic(E.M.) field. The E.M. field, when too near too our body, may cause a positive/negative effect. But, some headphone companies, such as Ultrasone, designed products with approximately 70 patents on them. They may be expansive, but the sound quality and its effects on health are positive.

Reference
Super clear and reference level soundstage occurs in good headphones. Speakers do that job as well, but with the prelude of best speaker placement (which should be very hard to achieve for ordinary hi-fier--but this make this game fun!)

Drummer is Musician!

When we talk about music, we would say music is composed via harmonization and rhythm. At least this is true for modern music.

Because for the era long before this ( maybe the classical era, when Beethoven had not started his romantic revolution, rhythm was nothing ). They used mainly tonal harmonization composing style instead of rhythmic composing-which is mainly used nowadays.

Who are the musicians and how we consider harmonization? For me, musician is one of those who are able to play out a sound from something, and it's meaningful-can be solos or harmonization with other musician.

So, as we say that most of the music nowadays are made of rhythmic composing, rhythmic harmonization is at uppermost important. Drummer is the main man in charge of rhythmic session of a song, and the key is to harmonize with other instruments played. Rhythmic harmonization! Although drummer usually don't know about music theories other than beats and pattern, LOL!

Sadly, nowadays, there are too much of music depends solely on rhythm, and sometimes you would be annoyed and disappointed by the identical chord progression and verse-chorus-bridge arrangement style. Hence, if a particular piece of music is composed carefully, that is, considering both rhythmic and non-rhythmic (tone harmonization, as in classical and jazz) part, 'it' should sound very nice. Or maybe i should address that music 'She' or 'He'!

Anyway,

This theory seems doesn't fit in to the 'experimental music'. I still can't get it. One introductory example, try listen to white noise. Yes, White noise, the sound you hear on a TV when those white and black spots come out after the 'national song' sang-when all the TV programs ends.

Lastly, don't think that white noise is annoying. Maybe it's just because your TV speaker is not good enough. Provided the audio system is good enough, white noise is used in some physical-psycho-therapy thingy. It actually makes us feel calm!!! Why?!

Psychoaucoustic, my view.

Sometimes ago, I saw a documentary on Art Central-a TV channel of Singapore. It’s about music. It states, at the end of the show, that human tends to feel happier or ‘high’ if listen to loud music, such as live music. Around 90~110dB, if I’m not mistaken. But, it has its own limit, that’s it, if higher than 110dB, it’ll actually cause uncomfortable situation, or vomit.

And personally, I feel that human likes to listen to far separated frequencies, and as well not a repeated melody. For example, arpeggios (classical), octave (jazz), pentatonic (blues and rock) and tension notes (jazz/ big band). The song ‘Etude in C# major-Chopin’ is so so nice, and it’s a typical piano piece that runs from lowest to highest note of piano within seconds. Other classical songs show this characteristic as well. For some fast songs like ‘The Flight of the Bumblebee’ makes us feel happy as well. In this case, the separation between two ‘far’ frequencies still occurs, just that it’s taking a longer path.

Secondly, human likes both high and low frequencies. Such as when listening to U2 songs, the band plays a motif of high pitched effects generated guitar licks, almost for all the songs. Feels nice, not bored. It feels a bit like breaking the harmony of a classical composing style, but it brings the audience to another level of enjoyment. Many bands use this technique. For solos, the same technique applies, such as how Albert King, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Joe Satriani and Steve Vai play. Why is this so? Some says human ear is more sensitive to mid range frequencies (1kHz). Hence, when we hear something in full range, with bass and treble boosted, it’ll cause itself to appear full. Let’s think if a Mozart masterpiece or Glenn Miller’s big band is recorded without bass and treble (mid boosting), how’ll it sound like?

Chords formation theory.

This is just a brief intro to chord formation. There are still a lot more deeper stuff that i haven't come across with as well as its histories.

Usually, we name a chord as major (M) / minor(m) / diminished(dim) / augmented(aug) / dominant / sus4 / add9..

It's actually quite easy, chord forms via a combination of three notes, the 1st, 3rd and 5th. This is the most basic situation, developed since or even before the bach's era. So, what are these 1, 3 and 5? They are actually just 'dol', 'mi' and 'sol' in its respective scale. Say,

• When trying to get C major, use 1, 3 and 5 of C major scale.
• C minor? 1, 3 and 5 of C minor scale.
• same applies to diminished or augmented.

When you meet something like major 7 (CM7) , minor 7 (Cm7) or dominant 7 (C7), what to do?

• Actually is the same just play an extra 7th note of the respective scale.
• for dominant 7, b7 is played instead of 7th.
• sus4? Play 145 instead of 135. This will give a suspended feel since there is no 3rd note, which is particularly important in chord major/minor determination.
• add 9? even easier, just simply add a 9 to 135. it'll become 1235, since 2=9.

If you are playing chords with tension notes, it's quite important to ponder a while which note to throw away, and which note will be kept. Chords like G13 tends to eat up too much space and you have got not enough fingers on the left hand to play all the 1,3,5,7,9,11,13. So, we just take the important stuffs, like root (only if not playing with a bass instrument), 3rd, 7, 13.

3rd determine the characteristic of the chord (M/m/dim/aug..). 7th determine the 7th characteristic (M13, 13, m13 are all different). 13th is the note that causes us wanna use such a complicated chord.

Frankly, if you are playin' jazz, the score will write G7 instead of G13/Gb13 and stuff like that. This is because, G7 is the main feel that the song needed, the '7th' feel, but meanwhile, adding a tension note (becoming G13) is just to add a 'tension' taste to the '7th' feel, and every tension note has its own ways of resolving itself to a 'non-tension' realm. Someone may scold, "what are these 'FEEL' thingy!?" but it's very hard to explain, and still the same qoute, 'feel it, music or any other arts are very subjective!'

Have FUN!!