[Music] A Folkchestral Drum Cover of "Switzerland" by The Last Bison

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxQBByA-DH4] Happy Labor Day! Here is my most recent drum cover that I put up on Youtube. It's a cover of folk/orchestral/mountain-top chamber music band, The Last Bison's (previously known as just Bison) single, "Switzerland." Be sure to look out for this group because they're going to be big. They perfectly blend folk music with orchestral and appalachian instruments to create a such a sweet sound that I instantly fell in love with.

As far as my actual cover goes, it was a ton of fun to do. The song does not originally have a drum kit in it, so I had tons of creative freedom to do whatever I wanted. As always, I kept it simple and I think my drums complement the song nicely, but that's just me. Chime in and let me know what you think! Be sure to give the song a listen in its original form (and while you're at it, buy their album, Quill, and listen to that too!). I hope you enjoy the cover and discover some great new music in the process.

Also, please check out 2abbit and Solo Jeans! I just had to rep them eventually in one way or another. I don't mean to throw in a cheap endorsement of either, but I really do support and love their product/work. They're definitely worth checking out.

[Music] Custom Snare Drum Build

Though I don't cover it as much on this blog, music is definitely one of my biggest passions - with the drums being my favorite instrument. On the side, I occasionally build drums (read: very occasionally). I just don't have the money to pump out drums all the time, but I do have friends that are interested in getting some custom drums made. That is how this build came to be.

I was talking drums with my friend, Sam, and the topic of snare drums came up. Long story short, he wanted a new one. I told him that I built my personal main workhorse snare and that I could come up with something for him. We started planning it out - shell, size, hardware, finish, etc. and I got to building. After a few weeks of hard work, she's officially done.

The majority of the time spent came from the finishing process. Each coat of stain or finish takes at least a full day to dry before the next coat can be applied. This particular satin finish took me quite a few coats to get right, but in the end, it's totally worth it.

As far as details go, she's made up of a 14x5.5 maple Keller shell with chrome tube lugs, wood hoops, and a deep brown stain with a satin finish. I put an Aquarian Texture Coated Center Dot head on the batter side and an Aquarian Classic Clear Snare Side on the snare side. Finally, I threw a set of 24 strand Fat Cat snares on there. To sum it up for you non-drummer folk, she's quite lovely.

This is my first experience with wood hoops, and needless to say, I'm in love. Wood hoops carry a hefty price tag, but they are totally worth it. Not only are they drop dead gorgeous and just pure classy, they sound amazing.

I also fell in love with the Fat Cat snares. You can get a ton of different sounds out of them thanks to the two sections that are adjustable independently of one another. It's like having two separate strainers. I'll be getting some for my personal snare drums.

Oh, "How does it sound?" you ask? The answer lies below. Here's a quick video I shot.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCQjtxJvlJ8]

Audio details are as follows: GLS ES-57 (SM57 copy, brilliant, especially for the price paid, just read all the reviews on this thing) on the batter head, Karma K-Micro Silver Bullet small diaphragm condensor on the snare side, and a pair of Karma K-Micro Silver Bullets on overheads. No EQ was used, so you're hearing the pure audio signal with a tad bit of compression.

I had a great time building this beauty and I'll be sad to see her go. I honestly want to hold onto her and call her my own. Who knows? Maybe Sam won't ever see her.

[Music] Sweetness, a Jimmy Eat World Drum Cover

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yn9nRa8n7lU&feature=relmfu] Here's a drum cover I put out recently of "Sweetness" by Jimmy Eat World. In my opinion, Bleed American was one of the best records of its time, and is my personal favorite Jimmy Eat World record. The cover itself was shot and recorded in one take with only one camera. It's raw and I just had fun with it. It was also the first video I played around with color grading. Hopefully you all enjoy it.

[Music] Five Iron Frenzy Drum Cover and the Story Behind It

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmaJfOInM3I&feature=channel_video_title] I recently recorded a drum cover of Five Iron Frenzy's newest song from the grave, "It Was a Dark and Stormy Night." If you do not know, Five Iron Frenzy is one of the greatest ska bands to grace the world. Maybe that's an overstatement, but I'll let you be the judge of that. Anyway, they broke up in 2003 to the dismay of fans everywhere. In November of last year, they announced that they are coming back from the dead with an uber successful Kickstarter campaign that met their goal of $30,000 in about 55 minutes. At the moment, they have $186,363 pledged. They also released this track as a free gift to their faithful fans.

After posting the cover to Youtube, I put a link to the video on Five Iron Frenzy's Facebook page on a whim. I was just hoping to share the video with some fellow fans, but what I least expected happened... Five Iron Frenzy liked the post. I stopped for a while and thought, "Wow, the band, or at least someone in the band/affiliated with the band saw it and liked it enough to click 'Like'!" If that wasn't cool enough, I noticed that my view counter started to jump and I started getting comments from random Youtube folk. Sweet, people somehow found my video. It wasn't until user bobbytharabbit told me via comment that the band put my video up on their Facebook page. That just killed me.

I was honored, humbled, and dumbfounded as it all happened. There I was, just another Asian kid on Youtube (there's a ton) posting content for fun, and one of my favorite bands notices! That's the power of social media, I tell ya. I hope all of you enjoy the video.

Technical Info Video was shot on a Canon 7D and Nikon D7000 both with Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 lenses and a 35mm f1.8 on the D7000 for a couple shots.

Audio was recorded with some new mics and a new interface. I had a pair of Karma K-Micros as overheads and on both of my toms, an EV N/D 757A on the snare, and an SM58 on the kick. All the mics ran into a Tascam US-800 and into my computer.

[Music] Feliz Navidad! (and a drum cover)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TctUaGR3SGE] Hello everyone! I know it's been a very long time since I've posted, but here's a little gift for you all! I recorded a drum cover of José Feliciano's "Feliz Navidad" with some of my new recording gear. I was inspired by Brad Davis of Adventure Drums, so I donned a faux-moustache, my naughty boxers, and a rather creepy tude. Feel free to subscribe, comment, rate, whatever your heart desires, maybe I'll start posting more videos. Merry Christmas, I love you all!

Technical Info Video was shot on a Canon 7D and Nikon D7000 both with Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 lenses. The 7D shoots at 60 fps while the D7000 shoots at 24 fps, so there is some noticeable difference between the shots from both cameras. I was able to work around this for the most part.

Audio was recorded with some new mics and a new interface. I had a pair of Karma K-Micros as overheads and on both of my toms, an EV N/D 757A on the snare, and an SM58 on the kick. I'm still waiting on clips and stands for most of my mics, so I used some gaffers tape and got the mics decently placed around the kit. The sound isn't where I want it to be yet, but I'll be working on it. All the mics then ran into a Tascam US-800 and into my computer.

[Music] Mighty Mouth - Tok Tok ft. Soya Drum Cover

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PRwfzv2-W8&feature=feedlik] I've been playing a lot of drums again now that I'm back home. A while back, I asked my friends for some song suggestions for drum covers. This is one of the songs that was suggested by my good friend Nathanael. It's a Korean song called "Tok Tok" ("톡톡") by a group called Mighty Mouth. I don't listen to much Korean music myself, so this was rather new to me. However, it was fun to play along with, so I went ahead and recorded it.

This is also the first video on my brand new Youtube channel at www.youtube.com/edwinchomusic! Please feel free to subscribe, like, favorite, comment, etc. It would be great to get some support especially with this fresh start. I felt that my old channel had no focus and was just random videos of mine. This is just another step in rebranding my identity online.

Technical Info Video was shot on a Canon 7D and Nikon D7000 both with Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 lenses. I shot somewhere between 1/30 and 1/60, f2.8, and ISO 1000. Video was edited in iMovie.

The audio signal was as follows: Shure SM58 over the snare, EV N/D 757A over the floor tom and ride pointed towards the snare, both equidistant from the snare. The mics ran into a Mackie mixer (with slight EQ and a tad bit of reverb), which ran into a Behringer UCA 222 interface, into my MacBook Pro, and into GarageBand.

[Music] Livingwater Album Recording

Last Thursday I got the opportunity to go into the studio at Expressions College with my church here in Berkeley, Livingwater. Studio time was graciously given to us thanks to our producer, Sean. We were supposed to record chorus vocals for all the tracks, but due to technical difficulties and the need to record instrumentals, we couldn't lay down too many tracks. We did get Mickey Cho's (see my post on Mickey Cho and The Nehemiah Band) 8 bars on "Set a Fire," which was filthy (as in freaking awesome) as always.

When I stepped into the studio, I felt like the cliche kid in a candy store. It was my first time in a real studio, so all the high end mics, preamps, effects, and whatnot made me develop a serious case of GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome).

[Edit] I guess I should mention that I also took some video footage. That some of that might go into a behind the scenes DVD that might come out with the album, so look out for that as well!

Click here for more photos in a slideshow!

[slideshow]

[Music] Behringer Tube Ultragain Mic100 Preamp

This will be my first product review. Well, I guess I wouldn't call this a review per se. More like a warning, I'm not even going to take photos. Just don't buy this. Don't. I got the Mic100 because I needed a preamp and this one was cheap, but it made my recordings hard to use. It's full of noise; whenever it's plugged in, you get this horrendous hum. It also didn't warm up my recordings, but gave them a tinny sound instead. I used this preamp on my latest recording, "Rocketeer," which I put up here two posts ago. I had to put some EQ on the tracks to counteract the tinny properties of the preamp and add the shaker to cover up the hum. The recordings were salvageable, but I would not use this box again. I'm returning it.

[Music] Rocketeer Cover

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XMPoxQmsWk] Here's a song I recorded with a couple of my friends. Elliot came to me asking to record some songs with Kristen; this is one of them. Elliot wrote the third verse and chorus. The signal chain for the audio was SM58 > Behinger Mic100 Preamp > Mixer > Behringer UCA222 > Computer. Video was shot with a Nikon D7000 and a 35mm f1.8.

[Music] "Beamer, Benz, or Bentley" Drum Cover

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zh3OYJFGew] Hey guys, here's my first musical post. This is a little drum cover of "Beamer, Benz, or Bentley" by Lloyd Banks and Juelz Santana. Now, I don't normally enjoy popular songs on the radio because honestly, nearly all of them suck, but wow, this song was so catchy and I knew that it would be fun to play along with. So I made some time while studying for finals and did the cover.

TECHNICAL INFO: The video was shot on a Nikon D7000 with a Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 lens at 1/30 second, f/2.8, and ISO 3200. Yep, that video was shot at ISO 3200, pretty clean, eh? The video and audio were synced together in iMovie.

The audio signal was something like this: Shure SM58 over snare, EV N/D 757A over the floor tom and ride pointed towards the snare as well to cut down on phasing issues. The mics ran into a Mackie mixer (with slight EQ and a tad bit of reverb), which ran into a Behringer UCA 222 interface, into my MacBook Pro, and into Audacity. I'm personally not a big fan of Garage Band only because I'm not that used to it quite yet. I plan on messing around with it in the future.