A Time To Be Thankful

I am glad that this Christmas season, when I look around to think of what I want for Christmas, I can say that I have a hard time thinking of what to ask for because God has given me the things that I need to live, work, and function properly. Ultimately though, I thank God for the spirit of contentment that rests in me, that I am happy with what I have and I can make do with what I have. 

Before I leave that thought, I just wanted to clarify that it doesn't mean that I don't have dreams for a better life. God puts the dreams in our minds of course and He will equip you to reach for that step by step but again, with a spirit of contentment and patience, that while you don't have it yet, you don't feel that you are at a disadvantage because you haven't reached it. 

As I look back on how I started, I can't help but just thank God for where I am today. He has really proven himself faithful countless times in my life ever since I focused on music. He has generously provided me with more than enough and not just my needs but also some of my wants. This is not to say that I have everything and everything that I ever wanted. But I'm the type of person who can live with what I have and be content with it until such time that it stops working or gets damaged, etc. You get the picture I'm sure. I'm really not the type who keeps on letting go of stuff while searching for an elusive "the one" for any particular item. I usually just set my sights to something and then I go for it and once I have it, I'm a happy man. I don't think much of always upgrading to the next "better" thing. I think partly this is also due to how I grew up not always having the best things in life but just enough to get me by. This in turn also helped me to live a no-excuses kind of life. If I had to do or get something, I tried to find and make ways. I rarely found myself having to make an excuse that I "can't" because I "don't have." There are a some people who have difficulty moving forward in life because they always have an excuse for everything when all they had to do was be thankful for their little blessings, that they usually brush aside just because they always think that they can only be the best they can be if they have the best.

What are the things that you should be thankful for? Look around you and take time to think about even the small things that seem mundane. Remember that as simple as those things are, you have those because God made a way for you to be able to afford or enjoy those things. Remember that a lot of other people have it really bad especially with the recent storm that hit Davao. Be thankful and spend time to pray for our brothers and sisters who were affected by the storm.

Lastly... do you know how being content can also help others? Well, once you are, you'll be able to see the bigger picture and be a blessing to others because you yourself have been blessed. Instead of buying that expensive watch, you can set aside some money to give to charity, etc. Again, you may not have your dream house yet... but you have a house. You may not have a car yet... but you always have money for the daily commute. You may be eating the 50 peso mcdo meal but you're eating in Mcdo... etc. Count your blessings.

There really are so many things to be thankful for so as you finish this entry of mine, take the time to look around and thank God for being faithful and loving to you as He always makes sure that your needs are always met. 

Be a blessing to others this Christmas!

God bless!

Cy

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Three of my Goals for 2013

In Habakuk 2:2, it reads

And the LORD answered me: “Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it.

I decided to write this down and share it with everyone so that anyone who reads this, may it be my family, friends or other relatives, can run with and pray for me as I take on this task claiming for the best outcome :)

1. BREAKS

Since I love producing breakbeat tracks, I'm gunning to get in the best Breaks labels in the world. I'm targeting the top 15 labels housing the best of the best out there. As it is, it's already a blessing to have released under Kick It Recordings, which has Access Denied releasing with them as well, who is one of the major players in the breaks scene. The goal for me now is to get in on the top labels and to be recognized as a breaks producer who can deliver. If I can even get a mention at the annual Breakspoll then that would really make my year!

Right now, i'm finishing mixing and mastering, during my free time, my recent 3 best breaks tracks to be submitted for consideration. Once that's done, I blast it off to the labels and see who responds :)

I'm pretty excited. Really excited. 

2. SCORING

I'm planning to prepare a major demo reel of mine for scoring. This is the bigger task since I am starting everything from zero. I plan to make fresh ones and really take my time to produce, mix, and master all of them to pretty high standards to be able to present myself to filmmakers locally and abroad. Of course I want to channel local filmmakers first since I also want to be a player in bringing the quality of local music scoring up. I want to at least, to the best of my abilities, be able to produce scores that can deliver. It may not be as grand as "hollywood" sounding because I don't have a full orchestra in my studio, but that is the target. To get as close to that within my capabilities.

I'm starting over with new ones because I want to really nail things down. I have a pretty good bank of works done in the past decade but this is also a challenge that I put on myself to do new and better ones... Music scoring that I've NEVER done before. That is the challenge for me.

3. TRIKE RECORDS

Lastly, I am now finally going to focus on regular releases for my label, Trike Records. I hope to release monthly at least and twice a month if I can. I'll primarily be releasing silverfilter material of course but will be including releases from other local producers as well. I can't commit now though to regular names because it's also hard to get consistent commitments from other producers so we may just feature some people from time to time if they are able to submit anything for release. So lately I've been looking around for local remixers for my tracks to feature them instead. It's less pressure this way. This is to also help them get their name out so let's see how this goes!

Here's hoping for the best and to fulfilling dreams and achieving our goals in 2013!

 

Cy

 

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Time Can Help Your Mixes

I've just finished mastering my latest EP and to some extent, I can say I'm pretty happy with the outcome. Now how is it related to my title? Well, if I look back to the tunes I've mixed and mastered yeeeeaaarsss back, I can definitely say I've come a long way. Time does indeed help you out improve your sound.

How? Spend time with it. It took me years to be able to ge the sound that I'm getting now from my final output.

If you want to improve your mixes, then mix a lot. Practice practice practice. Spend time listening closely to your tracks and learn to listen critically on how your favorite tunes were mixed. Pick out some nice reference tracks that you want to study and listen to not to enjoy but to dissect. Don't try to go through it too quick and expect to get a nice polished sound. At first, you may think or feel that you're not getting there at all but my advice is to be patient and keep at it. We all go through it and those who come out after are the ones who come up with decent mixes all ready for mastering and release.

Also try to read up on mixing and how each mixing device works and how it can improve (or destroy) your sound. Not knowing what to do will take up a lot of your time trying to tweak things because you rely more on trial and error. Of course in the beginning, that's how it is so you can train your ears on what each knob does to the sound. Don't stop at just knowing that "this knob that says threshold does this to my sound." Understand what the knob's function is and why it's there. 

Don't always rely on "what they say" because people have different approaches to mixing. There are of course guidelines to follow to help you through, but don't hold on to what you may hear from someone as "the right way" all the time. Some may prefer compressing every track on his project and some may just rely on automation.

Also try to understand arrangement and dynamics. This can definitely help your mixes as it can help you tell a story not just with your music elements but also with how you mixed it. How you pull down or pull up volumes or automate things add to the story of your final track.

You may have heard and read this a lot of times already but it's worth reminding... try to listen to your mix in different listening environments like your car, a pair of headphones, hifi components, and even your laptop speakers. You'll be surprised how this can help you fine tune your mix.

Rest your ears. Don't go mixing a whole album in one day and then be surprised the next day why it didn't sound as it did the day before. Give your ears some rest between mixes. If you want to master it also then do it another day.

Now, I'm not trying to say I'm an expert because I don't think I am. I'm just here to share what I've learned along the way having time and practice behind me so that all of you guys who are new at this can at least get there quicker. 

At the end of the day, trust your ears. You may read a lot about mixing, hear a lot about "how to do it" but just arm yourself with the knowledge and always trust your ears in the end. 

Have fun!

Cy

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First 25 Will Get My Latest Album For Free and MORE :)

Promo time once again! This time, I'm giving away my latest album, Manila Electronica to 25 helpful souls.

Mechanics is easy :)

1. Click on http://silverfilter.bandcamp.com/

2. Preview all the tracks from my latest album, Manila Electronica. Great thing about it is it has full track previews! :)

3. Write your own album review and include your favorite from the lot (feel free to give a reason) and post it on my wall http://www.facebook.com/silverfilterofficial 
*I'll just ask everyone to make it a proper album review and not just leave one word like "nice" 

4. While you're on my FB page, It'd be great to get your support with a LIKE as well :)

It's that easy. Really. 

First 25 reviews will receive the album for free PLUS any album in addition to Manila Electronica from my bandcamp. I shall of course get in touch with you to send you the download details as well as to ask for your preferred additional album :)

Looking forward to finding out your favorites and reading your reviews. 

God bless!

Cy

 

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Lookin' for silverfilter Roadie/PA :)

When I first posted the announcement, I received an email asking about the description and qualifications so I decided to post it here on my blog as well to make things straightforward :)

Well, I'm basically looking for a roadie/PA: someone I can train for setup, help carry stuff, assist with whatever's needed during gigs. I'm hoping to find and stick to one who is willing to take on the task for the fun and experience and who's in it for the long haul. Of course for paid shows, then he will definitely be compensated for as well.

I'm looking for a commited one so that I can stick with that one whether it be for local manila gigs as well as for out of towners as I plan to be busy this 2013.

Qualifications: Just someone with a heart willing to learn and someone who would be fun to hang with as well. 

Cy

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It's About Time

I dunno why it took me so long but I guess it's better late than never :)

For the past days (and in the coming ones), I have started to consolidate all of my releases and I've just been uploading most of the time and tagging everything. I realized it's about time I put together my releases and start letting people know that there have been a few already over the years and I need to draw people to what was on offer before. 

So mainly, I've been loading it up heavily on my bandcamp site http://silverfilter.bandcamp.com so everyone who plans to buy my albums and releases may also do so there. I figured it would also be easier on my end to maintain and have more focus on a site like that as a host then into my official site.

Also, I am slowly preparing my back catalog that were just once released independently, to be uploaded and released into the digital stores we all love like iTunes, Beatport, Juno, Amazon, and tons more. So expect that before the year ends, hopefully all my stuff are up on those stores. 

That's it! That's what's been happening lately. It's not much but these are the small things I failed to do before, that in reality, were the most important :/

I've also sent a proposal to get my new chillout album sponsored so help me pray for that! :)

See you in the next one.

Cy

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November Update

Moving forward after a stressful work month in October, I've come to realize a lot of things... seriously. 

One thing I learned is that it's better to release the material and learn as I go than to just keep all my tunes locked up in my hard disc for literally years. That is why from now on, I shall aim to be consistent in my releases and stop being too critical of myself thinking a tune isn't good enough yet that is stays dormant until I forget about it. Believe me, I've got tons of tunes that are sleeping here :/

___

Anyway, I just finished a few minutes ago, sending my latest single to Deeper Manila. As some of you know, I also am part of the artist roster releasing on that label as I am in full support of our local dance labels. From now on though, I guess it'll be twice the work because I also have my own label, Trike Records, to look after. So it'll be quite a busy one on both camps. 

___

And in other news, while I was searching for my tunes on Beatport, I happened to find out that one of my most recent releases Hangin On is included in the Breaks and Beats Essentials Vol. 1 compilation released over on Beatport. Hope you can check it out and support the release!

http://www.beatport.com/release/breaks-and-beats-essentials-vol-1/970712

___

I'll be making time to get back on my "artist" feet with the label and the releases in the coming weeks. Slowly but surely. I'll really make it a point to get to it now.

Hope you guys are still around :)

Cy

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Something good out of this halloween hoopla...

If you're out for some new sounds and samples for your music making, BHK is on sale now at 50% off from their libraries for their halloween sale!

http://bhksamples.com/

Enjoy!

Cy

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Mac DVD regions annoying you?

Here's a quick and easy way to sort out the DVD region problem you may have in playing different DVDs on your MAC.

What problem you say? Well, if you have different DVDs that run in different regions, chances are, it won't play on your Mac because it's set to only read a particular region. DON'T keep on selecting a region because you only have 5 chances to change it and you're left with the last region... very bad Apple.

Here's how to get around it easily...

Just download VLC player http://www.videolan.org/

Don't open your DVD player software on your Mac. Instead, when the DVD is detected and appears on your desktop, simply drag the icon into VLC for it to play. IGNORE the prompt Mac will give for you to change your DVD drive's region preference. Don't choose a region and don't press cancel as well since it will eject your disc. Just follow the instructions I wrote previously :)

Enjoy!

Cy

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Mono EFX Kondensor Review

If you're looking for a gig bag or simply a new laptop bag regardless if you make music or not, check this out :)

Cy

Posted via email from silverfilter living