Deep Blue - Skye

It's Skye, not Skype. A local singer who does weekly stints at St. James Powerhouse. Got to know of this album from maggielurva of desirable audio boutique. The album was recorded in Republic Polytechnic Music Room 1 and 2. This was the venue for the past 2 years of NoiSing (07 and 08). Acoustics there is really very good. I think the students may not know that they have such good facilities at RP.

Back to the cd. My wife thinks the CD is horrible. I tend to value her comments. This made me listen more critically to the album. To be fair, she heard the cd when she walked past my room. I play my music LOUD and with no apologies. Maybe if she was in the sweet spot, the comments would be more positive.

Skye has the tendency to sing at a lower volume, then reach a crescendo in later parts of her songs. She slowly builds the energy and anticipation depending on the songs. Track 4 - 味道, seems to be recorded on a totally different day from the rest. It just sounds different in terms of background and gain level. After listening to this track, I can't distinguish if the others are done the same way.

It's interesting to note that William Scorpion and Angie used to sing 味道 back in Canto days (yeah baby!). Now he's paired up with Skye at St. James. I have not listened to them at Dragonfly though. Perhaps will drop by one of the weekends.

Singing covers is always a tough job. These were staple songs during the 80s-90s and there will always be a tendency to benchmark against the original artists. Skye did a good job by using her variation to interpret the songs. I think some of the music accompaniment on the songs are quite distracting. Maybe this is the Iskandar Ismail style.

The recording was done using B&K mics and recorded direct to a 2-track DSD recorder. No mixing and mastering. As simple and truthful as it gets. If NoiSing09 comes along, I wonder how deja vu it would be to play this particular album there.

Buy this cd if you support local music, want to listen to something refreshing, like Mandarin pop, like Skye, like St. James. Overall nice album. Her renditions were not bad. I have a bias for the A-Mei songs. ;)

I got mine at Gramaphone - Cathay. Now I just need to search for 赵学而's cd. Give me a shout if you know where to get one in Singapore.

Slow progress on the UcD

Progress is rather slow on the UcD. Took some time to put in the shield as it will not fit. The aluminum piece is a little too large. Had to round the corners off. Then, with the screw below, it is a little too high. Had to file off the top portion where the wiring is supposed to connect to the UcD modules. Then, one of the psu harness is too short. Had to route by the side... so much for consistency.

I hope to be able to start on the signal wiring when I have time. Now currently finding out more of Steve Millett's 6T10 Mighty Midget. Heard Tony's version of this 3 watter at NoiSing08 and was very impressed by it.

Just over the weekend, I heard it at William's place with the actual 300v PSU on his 9" field coil Feastrex. First up was the driver-tormenting Sheffield Lab Drum and Track Disc.

Silence(from me)... Wow(from me)... it was just incredible...

Field coil drivers aside, I've already ordered the Takman resistors for the 6T10. The GE tube and sockets for this baby will be arriving soon as well. Will be mono blocks and using 6X4 rectifier tubes and probably my stock of Mundorf M-lytic HV cap or a combination of a GE oil cap plus the Nippon Chemi-con cap that I got from HK.

Hmm... question is, with my backlog of projects, should I start on this first? Perhaps so... it satisfies my requirements of low wattage, and esoteric (I did consider building something like the Fi 421A).

NoiSing08 - More of that noise!

While most people flocked down to Parkroyal Hotel over the weekend for the ISSE 2008, there were a handful who went to Republic Polytechnic for NoiSing08. I was there to support the event, having been at most of the NoiSings. Last year's NoiSing was also at RP. Who could have forgotten the simply fantastic horns there. ;)

This year's event was organised yet again by Johari. It's in the plans since March 2008 or even earlier. Unfortunately I was not able to bring my Moskidos since they are not completed yet. I wanted to bring the CDPro2, but there were technical issues to iron out and was not in time for the event. Hopefully in the next NoiSing, the Moskidos can be there. I brought my DIYparadise Monica DAC. The early version. I had it running on a 12v SLA battery. There were so many DACs around that I decided not to take mine out of the bag.

It's a mostly tube turnout. Unfortunately Alberto's 812A transmitting amplifier was only working on one channel. It would have been a ear opener to listen to. If I'm not sure if it is based on Shishido-san's inverted interstage designs. We did listen to it on mono with the Coral Alpha 10 speaker.

More pics here.