A few weeks ago, I went to Bestival. While the music was heavy on DJ sets (which I’m not the biggest fan of), I still had a lot of fun. There were a lot of things that this festival did differently that made the overall experience an interesting one.
I’m helping out with the SOCAN Songwriting Prize again. Do me a favour and vote for your favourite song! Coincidentally all the nominees this year happen to be by female artists. BOO YEAH GIRL POWER.
Started working summer hours today, meaning longer hours 4 days a week to get Friday off. Time for a quick video round-up before I head off to the next thing.
Time for another video round-up! I was busy last weekend at Wavelength’s 15th anniversary so most of these Vlogs are from there. Friday night was a bunch of Canadian bands covering their idols as well as Controller.Controller reuniting!
Next up we had Valentine’s brunch and then I headed to the Polish Combatants Hall for Lowell, The Acorn, Del Bel and more!
Today’s a holiday here in Toronto. It’s Family Day, but I am using it to recover from a very busy weekend at Wavelength’s 15th anniversary music festival. Find all photos and reviews here.
A few months ago, I left my beloved iPod Classic on the subway. I then waited way too long to buy a new one and the classics were now discountinued. This left me with not much option in terms of iPods. Spending $300 for an iPod Touch didn’t seem to make much sense since I had an iPhone, while the lower ones lacked enough space to hold my entire library. I then turned to the internet to research affordable high-end mp3 players and concluded that my best choice would be the FiiO X1 player at $99.
I bought it in gold (silver is the other option). You can watch me unbox the thing here:
Inside the tiny packaging, there were a ton of accessories that I didn’t expect it to come with: 3 screen protectors (1 of which is already on the screen); a silicone case; 2 sets of decorational stickers. Oddly enough it does not come with earphones. You also have to purchase a micro-sd in order to use it as there is no internal storage. It supports cards up to 120GB.
The player looks a lot more expensive than it’s $99 price tag. There aren’t that many instructions that come with the machine, but it’s fairly easy to use. Here are two tips for future FiiO owners:
– You must go into the system settings and hit “Storage Formatting” on your new SD card if you wish to use your own SD card reader instead of the cable to transfer songs.
– Every time you transfer songs going to “Update Media Library” in the system settings is recommended as it refreshes all the album information. Otherwise, songs only shows up in the list of all your mp3s.
Besides the above, everything is basically drag and drop. You can drag your entire iTunes library (or whatever library you use) onto the SD card and leave all folders in tact. It plays FLAC, APE, ALAC, WAV, WMA, MP3, AAC and OGG files, with up to 192-kHz/24-bit resolution. I can definitely hear the sound difference. Everything is more crisp, clear and loud sounds don’t clip. I also hear a certain warmness of each artist’s recording setting that I didn’t pay much attention to before.
Album covers display, but only if they’ve been part of the original mp3 meta data. What this means is that if you did the “Get Album Artwork” thing in iTunes, it probably didn’t embed itself in the metadata, but elsewhere.
The battery lasts very long (12 hours I think) and the system preserves it well. The screen automatically turns off after a certain time and it also turns itself off. The buttons take time to learn but really once you understand how to hit enter (centre button) and go back (top right), the rest don’t really matter. $99 is totally a steal for this thing!
I’ve never applied to go to an award show before but Ride the Tempo was on the red carpet of the Juno Nominations!
The actual announcement of the nominations went by very quickly. There was no way that you could type fast enough on a phone to live tweet everything. Names scrolled past on a screen in an instant. Before I knew it, it was all announced. Luckily, we were handed red pamphlets with all the information
Afterward, we gathered by the red carpet and stood behind the signs of our respective media outlets. It was cool having my own spot and helping out SOCAN at the same time. I learned that connections I made while blogging translated into my job, and I was an excellent wrangler at getting artist interviews and photos.
I’ll be back for the real Juno Awards ceremony in Hamilton in March but for now you can view the portraits I shot during the nominations here.
The biggest surprise was that they fit comfortably on my giant head, a serious problem I’ve had with other headphones like Skullcandy. They Sony headphones are light and the ear pads are soft and comfy. The band is loose enough that it doesn’t add too much pressure to my head.
These were the first wireless headphones I’ve ever owned and I found them very easy to set up with my iPhone. The rechargeable battery lasts for up to 17 hours of continuous play, so it would probably last a normal person a week without charging. While Bluetooth is activated, there are also volume, track control and answer call buttons that can be used. Included in the box is a cord if wired play is desired. There’s also a microphone on the headphones for answering calls. They do take a while to charge though with a laptop. However, the USB end plugs into my iPhone/iPad blocks without problem.
Now to get to the sound! While wired or wireless, I found that the mid to high-end sounds were crisp and amazing. I also swear to god that the headphones sound a bit different now than when I first tested them on my laptop and iPhone. I think they have a burn-in period where it auto-adjusts how it sounds. The bass is just how I like it, but I could see EDM listeners thinking it’s not “booming” enough. However, these headphones react well to EQ adjustments, so for those who want a little more of certain levels than that is an option.
Design-wise these are sleek and like I previously mentioned, super light. They ear cups swivel so that they can easily fold into the included portable carrying case. I’ll definitely be putting these in my purse.
For the past few years, every time I went to a show, I would be “working” in some sense. I’d either be photographing, writing a review, or both. It had been a while since I went to a show for the sake of going to a show.
Last Sunday, I went to Cloud Nothings as an attendee and as a huge fan of the band. I didn’t shoot it and I didn’t review it. I had a blast. I didn’t have to worry about my camera being destroyed by a rowdy crowd, think of the perfect sentences to write or frame the perfect photo. I didn’t have to stand in the front for 3 hours, hoping that nobody would try to steal my spot. Hell, I even joined in the mosh-pit full of bros for like 3/4 of the set. I came out smelling like man-sweat but it was worth it. For the first time in a while, I actually had fun at a show.
That’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy the shows I’ve seen in the past while. London Grammar and How to Dress Well were breath-taking in their own regards. I loved shooting them, but at the end of the day it was still work. To be able to fully immerse myself in the experience last Sunday was refreshing. It’s so weird how sometimes when I’m by the front of the stage taking photos, how removed I can be from the actual show. I think this year, I’ll let myself occasionally step back and be a fan, an attendee again. It’s definitely worth the price of the ticket.
Today my music blog Ride the Tempo was featured in CBC’s list of “Canadian Music Blogs You Need to be Reading”. Normally I don’t care for lists but CBC was one of the early outlets that got me caring about Canadian music and influenced me to change the blog’s format to focus entirely on it. It was actually a difficult decision to make. Canadian music is not as popular or hit-generating as some of the bigger indie artists out there. Blogs that write about everything get a lot more hits, and return generate more ad-revenue.
I don’t blog because I think I’ll one day get rich off of it. I love exploring the Canadian music landscape. I care about it and will continue to do so.
Tiana Feng 