"kau tau apa pasal sound?"

hmmm. it never hit me, sampai satu hari ada brader tanya aku.

well, to tell the truth, aku pun tak tahu setakat mana pemahaman aku. as i dont have any legit certificate with my name nicely written on it, with fancy signatures and colours saying that i've passed a degree in sound engineering course.

of course, to break the whole picture down to the least particle, i must say, my fascination towards music has grown ever since i was a kid - like any other kids. bezanya, i spent my foundation years, without having much friends to hangout with, even tho i grew up in a kampung. well, so called kampung.

of that, i used to spend my time imagining and observing things on my own.

there was a time, aku igt lagi, masa tu somewhere between 5-6 years old. there were three cassette - Pearl Jam "Ten", Metallica "Black", Nirvana "Nevermind" - tiga keset yang selalu aku putar berulang kali, time abang aku pegi sekolah. and he used to have this whole drawers filled with cassette - Bauhaus, Misfits, The Cure, Alice In Chain.. just to name a few. Banyak sangat.

Ever since - apart of drawing pictures and cartoons as a hobby - music is one of the biggest passion i ever had.

And ever since i got my hands on guitars, minat aku terhadap sound theories and recordings makin mendalam. sampaikan satu tahap, aku dengar lagu, automatik kepala otak aku mcm boleh derive satu persatu detail bunyi trek-trek lagu tu. dari situ, aku belajar kenal apa tu pedal distortion, apa tu delay pedal.. apsal bunyi dia mcm katak, macam baby menangis, etc etc.

There was this one guy aku kenal thru MySpace, Erylasia. Mamat Terengganu yang tak pernah tak balas setiap msg aku, whenever i came and ask about things related to sounds. Dia yang banyak bagi aku hints and workarounds to do basic recording stuffs - with just using a converter jack and your basic/default soundcard.

Aku igt lagi.. PC cabuk paling old skool. Zaman Pentium III baru keluar, aku ada PC Intel Celeron. First music software aku guna, Cakewalk Pro Edition. Messing around with MIDI and stuffs. I did my first try-and-error drawing guides for "Sunday Morning" (yeah, that Maroon 5 single) with just using basic MIDI drums and keyboard mapping. Bangga jugak la sorang2 depan PC kembang hidung.

somewhere around 2006, aku mula kenal dengan Abg Rom. dari situ musical view aku makin luas. i must say, at that time, twas my total downfall. the only thing that saved me from getting myself too fucked up was this fascinations, something yang distract minat aku towards positive thing.

There came this dude named Mijie yang banyak mengajar aku tentang the actual facts of sounds and recordings, apart form Abg Rom. A messed up guy, but with loadsa knowledge yang aku rasa ramai tak tahu, Sebab dia ni jenis yang rajin mengkaji sesuatu, and will not stop until he reaches his goal - such a pretty rare quality.

Of course, sound recordings aren't a low-cost budget investment - especially for those yang taraf hidupnya sederhana. Monitor speakers (which is NOT the same as your Sonic Gear or Logitech orEView woofers), DAWs and hardwares, compressors, mics, preamps, mixers, headphones,.. and thats just few! Not to mention the room itself, kalau bilik boomy, you wont get a proper balanced sound.

And mind you, it's a mind-twisting job. A proper understanding on inputs and outputs, even the location of the mics - everything links to one another. Most importantly, common sense. I'm not going to elaborate on the mixing phase, that's just too depressing.

For most bands or musicians, nothing could satisfy them other than having a good sounding materials to present to the listener. Bila nak cerita bab sound yang best, ultimately perkara akan berbalik kepada satu bende - TONE. dari apa yang aku kumpul selama beberapa tahun bekerja dengan industry music, berkampung ngn musician, itulah bende yang mereka pentingkan.

and of course, kalau nak cakap pasal tone, dari sekecil2 benda yang kau tak sangka seperti tone jari dan jenis finishing gitar sampai lah mastering - semua bende mainkan peranan. mcmana kau nak petik taknak bunyi pasir, tali saiz apa paling cun nak solo macam SRV, kabel apa yang boleh kurangkan noise, mcmana nak set EQ, banyak mana nak taruk gain overdrive, jenis amp apa paling best nak main metal, speaker apa paling cun untuk cabinet, tube apa paling bagus untuk head, miking techniques, mixing, compressing.. memang tak habis. nak cerita pasal gitar je, nak kena derive satu persatu part, dari hujung tuner peg, sampai ke pangkal bridge, semua amik kira.

itu gitar tau? belum dram. dan bende lain. haha.

and as what my father always told me, lagi banyak kita belajar, lagi banyak kebodohan kita yang kita tau.

so bila orang datang dan tanya aku, "macam mana eh nak dapat bunyi macam Fall Out Boy? aku igt nak buat bunyi mcm tu la".



aku hanya mampu senyum.




KAU IGT SENANG? HAHAHAHA. err, unless kalau pakai digital plugins yang dah siap 1000 presets. wah.

dan kalau kau ada studio equipments mcm Opera Music kepunyaan Mark Hoppus Blink182, setidak-tidaknya.