Category: Uncategorized

Best Small Modeling Amps

I’ve become quite tired of pedals recently and sold all but two of my favorite ones. I got tired of power supplies, so many connectors, tone mismatching and so on.It was thus that I started looking at “all in one” modeling amps as a way forward into my 40th year (yikes) of performing.

I have had Roland’s Microcube in two incarnations ( original and gx) and found them to be a really useful kind of everything you need in a small box. I’m waiting for a possible upgrade from that to come out this year.

But the other amp that has my attention recently is the Yamaha THR5. I’ve got to say, for feel, the THR has the Microcube beaten by a long shot. The amp models feel and sound like a real amp, no digital tizz or runaway gain. The interface is simpler, with everything laid out in a horizontal line. The only thing I can fault it on is the tremolo setting, but Yamaha gives you free software to access that and some hidden features, as well as recording software to make use of its USB output.

So what can I say? I’m set on the THR5. I’m not even advertising for them. This is, to me, the best small amp available. I’ll miss the Microcube’s acoustic emulation setting. Maybe Yamaha will have that in the software. Anyway, I hope to play it for you at a show soon.

A Poem I Wrote About Courage

randy texas

The Safe Life Is Most Dangerous (Antei No Seikatsu Wa Ichiban Abunai!)

“Nothing is more dangerous than the ‘safe life’.
The risk you don’t take, is the life you fake.
The truth you don’t say, is the lie you pay.
The chance untaken, is a dream forsaken
Love unspoken, is a life that’s broken
The race you don’t run, is your life undone.
And the one who no longer tries is the one who truly dies”.
-Randy Lin

Remember that a musician must take risks. Safe music is no music at all.

The Importance of Etudes in Music Study

When I was in college, I was really blessed to be friends with a pianist from China named Chen Bi Nou. In case you don’t know who he is, there’s a film somewhere of President Nixon visiting China in 1973, and a young Bi Nou playing for him. He had been selected from all of China for this important event of East meets West.
Fast forward 15 years later, and east met west again, and I learned one of the most important things in music from it:
NEVER PRACTICE SCALES!
I had asked Bi Nou what exercises he did to play so smoothly, and he had this to say:
” Scale are useless. I practice songs and etudes. I just find a composition that has everything I need in it and practice that. If you just practice scales you can only do the scales, but if you practice compositions, you have all the practice you need, plus something to play for people.”
This statement went from my young ears to my big mouth, and soon everyone in the music department knew my newfound philosophy, and where I got it. This got Bi Nou a little bit of criticism from my piano teacher, but Bi Nou stuck by his philosophy. And I do too.
I’m not saying one should not learn scales. You have to know what the scales are and their fingering to be able to recognize and play them in a composition. So there is, as my other teachers fought so hard to defend, a need in the beginning to practice scales. But once the scales are learned, one must not stay there, but begin their practice in another context, that of etudes and compositions. No more time must be wasted on the solo practice of scales.
I’ve kept to Bi Nou’s philosophy for decades now. And I always thank him for teaching me.
Try it yourself, and streamline your practice and repertoire.

The Story Behind Tokyo Love

In 1991, I had an opportunity to go to Japan, my first time abroad. I had about 6 months to prepare the money to go. I was living in Houston’s Chinatown, barely getting by as a busboy. My income got so low that i was actually homeless for, thankfully, an hour. Nevertheless, songwriting was going good and was about to get better.
I left Chinatown for a brief time to move in with my brother near River Oaks district. This was the first time I had been exposed to what was (in the 90s) a very free and artistic area to live in. I had never lived in a soho, and i was really inspired by the many shops and bookstores.
But Chinatown never left me. Right down the street across Westheimer was Auntie Chang’s Dumpling House, still there to this day. I got a job as busboy all day until 5pm. My favorite thing at that age of 24 was to take my tip money, get on the Westheimer 85 and stop off at Miyako’s for sushi happy hour (and to see a waitress, which made it a very happy hour, of course). Then I would take my transfer, continue down Westheimer to the second run movie theater, dream about asking my waitress to the movie, catch Bill and Ted’s Bogus adventure, then take the 85 back home.
The other crazy thing was I was also in love with a girl at a karaoke near Beltway 8. I used to go sing for her every Friday. It turned out she knew my boss and passed her number thru him to me. WOW!
Somehow, I didn’t call her. But I went to the karaoke that night and asked her out. She said she was busy. This was actually the last night my brother and I could keep that apartment. He was moving in with friends and the landlord was renting it out. But i met a guy who invited me to be his room mate. He liked Japanese culture, so we attended the Houston Japanese Church together.
It was then I knew why I was there.
I became one of the pianists for the church. And i was asked by a pastor to visit Japan. That sparked me. I got a job and started saving for the trip. Then I borrowed a keyboard and wrote three songs, the surviving of which is Tokyo Love.
That song enveloped my hopes in japan. It’s innocent, maybe even a little corny by today’s standards, but I think it stands as a great song. 30 years later, one of my students loves it. I still do, too.

The Story Behind Taipei Midnight Bossa

When I first moved to Taipei, I was being shuffled around to various A&Rs at the major recording labels. But still I had no  contract. Feeling down, I left my agent’s office one day and went for some sushi, which always seems to give me a lift. I had only a week left before having to return to the States and money was running low.

As I left the sushi place, I turned left and saw a small English language school and went in for an interview. They arranged a teaching demo and I got the job the next day. With the day job taken care of, I went down Shin Seng South Road to a small jazz pub called Bluestown. I brought my guitar in and played some Fingerstyle jazz blues for the boss. He put me on the prime spot, Friday at 9:00pm.

After the  show at Bluestown which paid 300NT (about $10 USD), a get you thru the weekend life-saver in those days, I was introduced to a producer. At that time I had a choice: write some sappy love songs for a singer at one of the big labels, or take a chance on something I really love–being a music studio cat. I ditched the diva opportunity and headed over to his studio.

I ended up sleeping in the studio on the floor, borrowing a motorcycle to get to my part-time English job and returning in time for music sessions. One of the cases we got was Hey Song Cola.

After the Hey Song case, my boss had an idea for an album of romantic jazz music that would be released in Kmart in America, sort of a bargain rack item. He asked me to get started on a piece or two.

I went home, grabbed an ovation classical, and played the harmonics you hear at the beginning of Taipei Midnight Bossa.  In less than 30 minutes, the song  was finished.

Before I could bring the song to the boss, the company broke up and the case was canceled. Luckily, I kept the song in my head. Since I did it in my own free time, I wasn’t going to give it to them anyway^^.

Is Taipei Midnight Bossa original ? Good question. There’s a little bit of Dan Fogelberg’s Guitar Etude #3, but I also borrowed a lot from techniques I developed in my twenties, especially the harmonics. There’s also some Wes Montgomery octaves in there.^^ The sheet music to Taipei Midnight Bossa will be available sometime soon for those who would like to learn the piece. I hope to play this for you all at the next show.

Randy’s Ten Commandments of Recording

1. Fat in/ fat out, thin in/thin out – use a good preamp. There is no way to fix a weak signal later. All preamp, EQ, and compression is going in, not later.

2. Put each instrument you record in it’s own EQ range going in via high pass and low pass filter

3. compress what’s weak, limit what’s over, again, going in not later

4. record in mono, use stereo reverb later for width. An exception may be piano and drums, but not always.

5. record dry, reverb on monitor only. add reverb later

6. mix in mono, then pan to stereo, placing instruments according to an imaginary clock, ie bass at 11:00, acoustic guitar at 2:00, and so on.

7. use the same stereo reverb on all tracks via aux in, stereo out

8. Never use headphones for final reverb level. Do this on monitors or you will have too much reverb.

9. You need to know only three mics: A Shure SM58, a Shure SM57, and a  Stereo Ribbon with mono/stereo switch. The SM58 is for vocals, the SM57 is for amps, horns, and acoustic guitars, and the ribbon is for drums (from front and over the set) and for piano ( lid open high).

10. Curtains, wooden floors, and nice throw rugs are the functional sound furniture of a good studio, and never sing thru headphones.