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| Topic Started: Apr 24 2008, 10:45 AM (7,516 Views) | |
| OcarinaNL | May 6 2008, 07:49 AM Post #31 |
Dutch Mod squad
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What do you mean with numbers? |
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| teidon | May 6 2008, 05:36 PM Post #32 |
 
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My package from Focalink arrived today.  It was really well packed. The contents were wrapped in bubble wrap (two layers actually) and somewhere among the bubble wrap were 2 protective bags. Inside the bags were... more bubble wrap! (and an ocarina) Some first impressions follows. I guess everyone has heard enough about the Double Sop G, so I'll just say 3 things: 1) It's small, 2) it's smaller than you just imagined and 3) it's awesome. It's quite precisely as long as the Single Sop G. On to the next ocarina, the "straw fired" Single Sop G. The Double Sop G is actually also "straw fired", that is they look similar. Anyways, I really like this ocarina. After having played only few songs with it I'd say it's my favorite ocarina (I also have Maparam Alto C and Triple and WPN Alto F (which is actually Sop F if we use the same naming method as Focalink/Maparam)). It requires very little breath (less than Maparam Alto C) and I like the sound it makes. Also the finger holes are positioned really well, I didn't have any trouble what so ever playing with it from the moment I picked it up. The sub-holes are also very easy to use.  On to the next ocarina, the "Arrowhead" 6-hole Sop G pendant. The funny thing is that this is also "straw fired" (I took the black one, there's also red), so I now have a little family of similarily colored ocarinas and a minor headache (the smell they have...). As this is my first pendant I can't really compare it to other pendants, but the sound is good, that I can tell. The fingering chart that came with it doesn't have low-C-sharp and low-D-sharp for some reason. I used another fingering chart found from OU forum to figure out how to play them. Half-covering holes isn't fun, especially not when you need to half-cover a hole the size of a needle. This ocarina is small by the way, but it's still suprisingly easy to play.Hmm, the CD. It's pretty good. Distorted electric guitar is one of the last things you expect to hear being played with ocarina in a same classical song. Well, listen to this album and you don't need to expect/imagine that anymore. And last but not least, the book. For only 4USD it's quite big, a whopping 64 A4-pages. For some reason there is a separate paper (A3 folded = 4 pages) that has a song in 2 versions and some text/lesson. The book starts with some kind of history of multi-chambered ocarinas. There's images of Maparam double and triple and Aketa double (I didn't know there is Aketa doubles) among others and of course the whole family of Focalink doubles and triples. Then there's some lessons for double/triple ocarinas. The lessons have musical notations (staves and bunch of notes on them) and lots of text. For example "play the scale by slurring from the beggining to end", "play the scale by doing staccatos", "mix of slurs and staccatos" etc. Then some chamber switching actions etc etc. So while it's all in chinese I think it's probably usefull even if you don't understand chinese. Of course if this book were ever translated to english... That'd be totally awesome! Beside those lessons there's of course the notes for the songs heard in the CD plus some more. I haven't counted how many songs there are in total, but there's atleast over 10. The notes are certainly not meant for beginners. They have key signatures (2 flats or sharps is the max signature), there's some repeat marks (look at some of the kissing's sheet music and you get the idea) and to top it all of some/most of the songs have chords (= 2 notes at the same time)... :blink: Between some of the songs is some kind of lesson about how to play the chords. I haven't tried to play any songs from the book yet, except for one, "Village Rain", but I knew that already. I have the exact same version in my sheet music collection, which I stole from Kissing. One more thing, the most important: All the songs are transposed for C ocarina. And one more thing: There's no songs for Single ocarinas. Oh, there's also numeral tabs for the songs heard in the CD, but not for the other songs. :wacko: --- That was a long post. Anyways, I'm very happy with this purchase. The ocarinas were 234USD total including 40USD shipping. Mr. Zack Shih decided to give the CD and the book as a gift for me.  don
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| Mikael | May 6 2008, 05:44 PM Post #33 |
Does not approve of christmas
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Congrats on your new ocarinas teidon! I would really
love that set of strawfired ocarinas as well. I think I will wait until I can afford the whole set
:lol: I'd think the book would be very difficult to understand with it being in chinese and all. |
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| teidon | May 6 2008, 06:22 PM Post #34 |
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Yea, there's alot of text you won't understand but as the lessons have notes (staff with bunch of notes) besides the text so you can understand atleast something. Though it would ofcourse be nice to know what all the text means as there's probably some tips and tricks and what not good information. But ofcourse there's the notes (sheet music) for bunch of songs so I'd say it's definetely worth the 4USD even if one wouldn't understand the text. And the "straw fired" ocarinas looks really good. Unfortuantely my Single Sop G is quite dark, there's few "light areas" and they are very small. The biggest "light area" is in the mouth piece - behind it.  My Double Sop G on the other hand looks really great. It would certainly be nice to own the whole 7 set of them. Just that 1000USD + 115USD (shipping) + taxes (+25% in my case) is pretty... expensive, to say the least. But if anyone feels like donating the set for me, I'll gladly take it.
:P
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| Myung | May 6 2008, 09:13 PM Post #35 |
~MOHAWKGURLE~
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:blink: What do they smell like?  I'm wanting to get the dbl Sop G next and I have a very sensitive nose XD |
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| xruiza | May 6 2008, 10:05 PM Post #36 |
Old Oc
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Haha im getting better at it ^^, Though I'm learning songs by ear... >>;; xD lol I can kind of get the sound out of the higher notes(kind of xD) and learned some songs already. I'm loving my ocarina so much though X3 played it the whole day during school |
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| Okls | May 6 2008, 10:48 PM Post #37 |
Old Oc
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I just got an email from Mr. Shih saying that he's shipped my order of a Double AC. It's hard to tell what the tracking website for the shipment means, but I figure it will probably arrive here by tuesday at the latest. How long did it take for others to get their focalinks? Though not all my ocarina news is good, My soprano G from stl just broke over the weekend
(even though, the way it broke it still plays fine for most notes) Though I'll probably glue it back together, it will be nice to get a new (non-broken) ocarina. (I'm sure even if it wasn't broken the my soprano wouldn't compare to the focalink) Oh, and he is apparently throwing in a copy of that book for free. Gah, I can't wait...
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| shadowyi | May 7 2008, 12:15 AM Post #38 |
[music of paradox]
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Ooh goodness this book has piqued my interest. I don't suppose anyone is willing to mail me their copy and I'll translate it for them?
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| kitekook | May 7 2008, 05:26 AM Post #39 |
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Pendanters x 2
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They smell like wet straw....at least its better than the wet straw smell I grew up with(my dad had race horses...yep, my job clean out the stalls :huh: ) I wiped down my set with a damp(almost wet cloth) aired them out overnight and it made it a lot better. They also had a ....taste...that was not sooo great....wiping them down made that better as well. Now,a week or two later, they really do not smell or taste bad. |
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| OcarinaNL | May 7 2008, 06:02 AM Post #40 |
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Dutch Mod squad
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My double Soprano G arrived yesterday!
:lol: Wich is pretty fast it was shipped on monday its insane quick! First impression : WOW!!! i love its small but not to small for my hands and the Cd and Book are very cool although i cant read it the sheet speaks for its self and there are some tips on playing both chambers at once. I havent had time to listen to the cd hope to do that today. |
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| Myung | May 7 2008, 09:46 AM Post #41 |
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~MOHAWKGURLE~
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Damn that is FAST O__O I want my vacation money T_______T Ohw how does yours smell and taste btw??? |
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| OcarinaNL | May 7 2008, 11:19 AM Post #42 |
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Dutch Mod squad
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Havent smelled it yet :huh: Why are they bad smellers then   
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| shadowyi | May 7 2008, 01:23 PM Post #43 |
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[music of paradox]
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With regards to the book, a certain member of TON has decided to email the PDF they've started scanning, so I can start translation! :lol: |
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| Myung | May 7 2008, 01:31 PM Post #44 |
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~MOHAWKGURLE~
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Yay Awesomesauce!!! (copyright Gasspoo) |
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| shadowyi | May 7 2008, 04:00 PM Post #45 |
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[music of paradox]
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On second thought, I sent Mr. Shih an email asking if he wanted a translation. Maybe y'all will get free copies of a possible translation! I don't want to get sued.. :P |
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| kissing | May 7 2008, 04:10 PM Post #46 |
The Whistleblower
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I'm sure he'd appreciate it!! He's a very pleasant man to deal with  And if he's really happy....you just never know *hint hint*
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| Andy | May 7 2008, 05:04 PM Post #47 |
Is Narcotic
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Yes indeed. And YAY that's really cool Shadow! =D |
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| teidon | May 7 2008, 05:37 PM Post #48 |
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Can't wait for the translation.
Shadow, have you already got the page 18? If so, can you tell the name of the song in that page in chinese (so I could look it up) or english if you know the english name for it? It's really good song and I've heard it somewhere before but I just have no idea what the name is. That chinese name doesn't tell me much and I can't type it to be able search for it or translate it or anything. And also what is the name of the composer of that song? EDIT: I said in that long post that I thought the mini ocarina (Arrowhead) would be made of plastic. But then I though that it doesn't really make any sense. Well, I emaild Mr. Zack Shih about it and he said it's made of clay. He also said that all of his products are made of clay. So, yay for that. Also I asked about how to take care of the ocarinas and he said this:
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| shadowyi | May 7 2008, 06:16 PM Post #49 |
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[music of paradox]
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You're in luck, I do indeed have page 18 from kitekook. Unfortunately it's pesky quiet hours in the dorm because of finals, so I can't play it, but I can look it up on YouTube!
Translated, the name is 'The Happy Bird Catcher' (I've never heard of it). 快樂的捕鳥人 are the characters you can copy and paste. [after some searching...] Oh! I think it's one of the pieces from Mozart's Die Zaubeflote. [after more searching and going between English and Mandarin and some other language.. O_O?!] It's Der Vogelfanger bin ich ja sung by Papageno from Die Zaubeflote. Good piece! I can't wait for my Hind to get here!!!
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| teidon | May 7 2008, 06:32 PM Post #50 |
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Thank you for the information, I'll look into it more tomorrow. Have a cookie.
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| stevtomato | May 8 2008, 07:34 AM Post #51 |
The Terrific Tomato
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Der Volgerfanger is indeed from Mozart's last opera: The Magic Flute (K.620 if im not mistaken) and it's the second number in the opera! It's sung by a birdcatcher (who normally dress as a bird =.=) and singing about how joyful he is catching birds but one thing he never catches is a maiden XD A female bird, he is Papageno and in the end he meets a female counterpart called, guess what, Papagena :wub: EDIT: I almost forgot my original intention of posting a post here =.= MY FOCALINK DOUBLE SOPRANO G IS HERE! W00T W00T, IT WAS SO FAST!!!! It came here one day before I expected it to =P Mr. Zach Shih FTEW!!!
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| Myung | May 8 2008, 11:05 AM Post #52 |
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~MOHAWKGURLE~
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Post a video please Tomato!!
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| stevtomato | May 8 2008, 12:01 PM Post #53 |
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The Terrific Tomato
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I'm not used to it yet! xD |
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| Myung | May 8 2008, 12:03 PM Post #54 |
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~MOHAWKGURLE~
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slap1, then just post some pictures of your cute face and the oc :excited: You could sniff it too, tell me what it smells like
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| Okls | May 8 2008, 08:52 PM Post #55 |
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Old Oc
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I just got my new Double AC today!!!
It does have a bit of a weird smell to it. I know I've smelled it before, but I can't place it. The smell isn't that bad though. It sounds great! It's going to take a while to get used to the two chambers though, it's really surprising how much the sound changes when you blow in at a bad angle. The book that came with it looks like a great way to learn to use both chambers. I just wish I could read the introduction. It has pictures of several double and triple ocarinas, including maparam, and I want to know what it's talking about. |
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| stevtomato | May 8 2008, 11:09 PM Post #56 |
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The Terrific Tomato
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Alright I will take a pic of me sniffing it some time =P Come to think of is, Focalink do have a great smell =P Okls, I think shadow is working on some sort of translation for Mr. Shih, so no worries =D |
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| Myung | May 9 2008, 06:59 PM Post #57 |
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~MOHAWKGURLE~
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Does anyone know what range the 6 hole pendants are from Focalink? Since I have a 6 hole from Hind that has a 5 hole range with one extra hole on the bottom for easy sharps and flats (no half covering holes needed). So I was wondering wether these are extended range 6 holes like the Songbirds or 6 holes with a 5 hole range like the Hind. Cause I'm very interested in purchasing the set of 4 long mouthpiece pendants. I sure hope I can choose the colors :excited: |
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| teidon | May 9 2008, 07:09 PM Post #58 |
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Atleast the 6-hole mini ocarina ("Arrowhead") is a real 6-hole pendant. |
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| Myung | May 13 2008, 11:38 AM Post #59 |
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~MOHAWKGURLE~
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Woohoo my vacation money has arrived today!! So I just emailed Zack Shih with my wishlist to inquire about shipping and color options. :excited: Man I sure hope shipping will be as fast as with OcarinaNL!! |
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| Andy | May 13 2008, 05:00 PM Post #60 |
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Is Narcotic
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Hohohohohohohohohohohohohohoho~ I finally ordered my Double Alto C today. :excited: And one of their pendants for the lulz. |
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