The 'One' and only

Today was the National Day Celebration in school. This also implies that school ends early. So me and keyboardist went down to Sinamex to get this. 

 Behold! The Apogee

Apogee One is an audio interface that is specially made for Mackintosh users. You can plug your mics and instruments through it (as the picture suggests). It also comes with a built-in condenser mic, a feature which its bigger brother (Apogee Duet) doesn't have. It doesn't come cheap but you are paying for quality. It may be small (after all, One is made for portability) but you shouldn't judge a book from its cover. This small block can do wonders.

How big is it? It is slightly large than an iPod nano. Is it heavy? Well, unless you find your handphone heavy.
Reason for getting: it is for our band!

Sing along with my guitar!

I now have a pedal which will sing along with my guitar. I got it from Swee Lee sales yesterday. The queue was 'awesomely' long. I took me 2 hours before I can pay for my item.

Here's my purchase (and some fries from McDonald's. I haven't taste them for nearly a month.)

What pedal sings along with you? Boss Harmonist PS-6

Now, PS-6 is basically a pitch shifting effect. It has the harmoniser, pitch shifter, detune and special feature called Super-Bend. S.bend allows you to get those 'dive-bomb' effects.

Inside the box. The safety precautions is largest among all the other stuffs in it. Pictures explain that the best!

The PS-6 is preloaded with a GP Alkaline 9V battery. It is said that PS-6 runs on alkaline battery for a maximum of 8 hours or so. I don't need the battery. Maybe it will come in handy elsewhere.

Once again, the Harmonist PS-6. PS-6 is not a very difficult pedal to use but it is not very friendly to any beginner though. I am still at the point of exploring this pedal. The detune and pitch shift are currently my favourites.

"I should be allowed to pay first."

Jumping queue, something I don't like. During my secondary school years, I was a Prefect and I was supposed to make sure people behave when they are getting food (stop them from cutting queue, etc..). 

Every Swee Lee sales is accompanied by a super long queue and crowds. I came late today so I ended up rather far behind the queue. The man behind me looked super 'pek cek' (frustrated). After queuing for only 3-4 minutes, he called out to one of the sale assistant. This is what he said.

Man: Hi, could I ask you something?

S.A: Yes? How many I help you.

Man: I come from Malaysia and I came here to get some stuffs. But the queue is barely moving and I'm in a rush. My wife is waiting for me at the hotel to check-out at 2 pm. (It was 11:45 at that time.)

S.A: I'm sorry if the queue is very long but everyone is doing the same. I can understand that you are in a rush but there is nothing I can do to the queue.

Man: Can you go to the counter to allow me to pay for the stuffs first? I am buying about 3.5k worth of stuffs. I should be allowed to pay first. 

Me: (what? -.-) 

S.A.: Sir, everyone is doing the same thing and there are people spending more than that. I can't do anything about it.

Man: Try first then talk. You can try

S.A: Well, why I bring you to the counter and let you talk to them?

Man: Fine.

The above isn't exactly how the conversation goes but you get the idea. To be frank, I would call him barbaric for something like this. Common senses tell you that cutting queue is a selfish thing to do. Anyone in the right mind would know that. I really wonder.. what was that guy thinking back then?

So don't jump queue. Or....

Well, maybe that's what happened to him since he was never in the line again.

The 'train' day (Episode 2)

The PT-2 is now velcroed. All the pedals are mounted. Power supplies are hooked as well. My rig is still half-done so I don't want to reveal it here yet. Will do so when I've gotten everything.

Why does PT-2 solve the problem of messy cables? You can wired up everything from beneath. This is how it should looks like. You can tie all the cables together like this so that it will look neater. Damn, I like this. 

Oh, all the patch cables can be connected from beneath as well. No more cables over the pedals or stuck at the switches.

Modtone Chromatic Tuner

Something else I got today. A Modtone MT-CT Chromatic Tuner. It is simply a pedal tuner. That's all.

I often get questions like 'What is so special about this?' and 'how is this different from Korg Pitchblack'. 

Here are the similarities:

1. True bypass
2. Silent tuning. When you switch on your tuner, your signal will be muted. The good thing about this is that you can use your tuner as a momentary killswitch as well. 
3. Calibration is adjustable from 436 - 445 Hz

Differences:

1. Modtone is very hungry for power. It draws 3 times as much current as pitchblack. (Ptichblack's max current draw is 30mA
2. Blue LED instead of RED and GREEN. One of the main reason why I get this. My eyes can't stand red lights. 
3. Smaller tuning range of A0 - C8. However, it is more than enough to tune any guitar or a 5 string bass.
4. Slightly smaller
5. No D.C. out. This tuner CANNOT supply power to another pedal.

Modtone items can be purchased at SV Guitars.

The 'train' day

I used to use a pedalboard and often find that those people paying $200 for pedaltrains with hard case are stupid. Yes, that's how naive I was. Now I'm one of the 'stupid' people.

Got it fresh from Ebenex. The customer service at Ebenex is as superb as ever. I didn't get it with the hard case as I don't see the need for it. Soft case should be more than enough for me.

Which model did I get? The tag says it all!

Unzip the bag and this is what you see inside it (there is some piece of paper there though).

'Undress' it further and you get the Pedaltrain-2 (non-stealth mode). Why do I get a pedaltrain? After using a pedalboard for months, I realised that I hate messy cables and wires. Pedaltrain solves all that problem. I'll talk more about it on the next episode.

NOTE: THE PRICES OF PEDALTRAINS ARE SLASHED. PT2 SC would normally cost $200. I got mine for $180.

Tomorrow is the day...

Tomorrow is the day I'll be getting quite a few stuffs after selling away all the pedals I don't really need. Please stay tuned to find out more about it. =P

Words finally materialized

My CCA teacher said we will be getting a new drumset since last year. After how many months later, those words have finally materialized.

A Tama Swingstar. Quite a neat set. So as for the old drumset (which is falling apart), it's time for it to retire after 6 years of use (and abuse).
Now, I wonder why he didn't wait until Sunday to get the drumset. But again, Tama Swingstar is priced on its NETT price, so the 50% discount probably isn't valid.

2 in 1: A pedal case, guitar stand or both?

If you are looking for a guitar stand for multiple guitars and a pedal board at the same time, take a look at what Gator has to offer.

This is what I would call 'killing two birds with one stone'.

Block the Noises~! (Episode 2)

The title may already give you a hint on what I've got today. Need more hints? It is a pedal.
Well, obviously, it is a noise gate. I got Beta Aivin NG-100 for my noise gate.

This is not new though. It was preowned by someone else for at least 2 years. However, the pedal seems to be underused since it is still in a perfect condition. Or the ex-owner takes real care for his stuffs. Well, either way, thumbs up for the good condition and for the price I paid for it. I got it at almost half of what it costs.