Friday 30 October 2009

I am proud to be Eritrean!!!


This year I had the opportunity to visit my home country "Eritrea" and I did not only have fun (!!!!) but also time to grow mentally and musically in this untouched oasis of a paradise.

I flew in September(just after the tourism season) as I wanted to make sure that I didn't get distracted by people (You know it...clubbing, drinking,..etc)from what I wanted to do "My Music".

Being there was not only a break from facebook (Internet in general...@CAFE was really far and had a slow connection), make up, TV (they had the same news 3 times a day in 3 different languages: English, Arabic and Tigrinya...couldn't be bothered) and £1 trash magazines!!!
Yeah, I had a real Break!!!!!



Don't get me wrong, I do really appreciate the life I've got and I don't take it for granted but now I feel as if we make life harder than it actually is.
Why do we worry so much????

My plan was to go there with my mic, mbox 2 and laptop to record samples...but for some reason my ProTools application wasn't working. I went to Computer specialists in London and Stuttgart (Germany) , but no one was able to figure out what the problem was.....

The week after, when I went back to Germany I found out that Pro Tools 7.4 wasn't working because of the upgraded version of Internet Explorer that I had installed on my laptop....
Even though I was very angry at the beginning (as I spent a lot of money to go to PC specialists and more importantly, the time that I had lost by waiting and thinking)...I was happy that it happened.

It didn't work out the way I planned it, but instead I recorded shots for my "Get down" Music Video and enjoyed a family reunion after 8 years.



I found this really sweet video of Eritrea on youtube.......this is for YOU!!!!



Peace!!!

Thursday 29 October 2009

Input : Output


Over the past 2 months I have had the opportunity to work with some of the finest and most diverse young Music Producers, on the compilation album “Input : Output, London's freshest, up & coming Music Producers.

Gathered from various areas in London, 14 aspiring Singer – Songwriters, Musicians, MC's, DJ's and Music Producer got together from different musical backgrounds to produce this unique album.

We met up twice a week in London's Studio 13 and made use of the extensive range of equipment and Music Programs that were offered. Starting from Pro Tools 7.4, Logic Pro, Reason 4, Cubase 4 to the Micro Korg, MPC 500, Digitech Vocalist, R3 (watch the I/O video).

For my track “My Life” which is featured on the Album, I used various Plug-ins from Pro Tools, drum fills from Reason 4 and a vocal sample from Digitechs' Vocalist.

Digitechs' Vocalist Workstation is one of my favourite performance devices and perhaps the easiest to use. It is a four-voice vocal harmony effects processor designed for live performances and studio applications.

It also contains different programs which enabled me to change a single vocal input to up to a five-part harmony (saves you money for the backing singers). The programs vary from female vocals to male vocals, Pitch correction, backup vocals etc.

For My Life I chose to use the opera setting, which made my voice an octave higher and added a distinctive opera touch to it.

It was absolutely incredible to work with so many artists and a great experience for me.

The Album is now available on iTunes.