Music Tweak Blog

Yoshi's Island DS for Nintendo DS Review

Thu, 27 Nov 2008 15:17:43 +1000

If your a Nintendo fan then your going to know who Yoshi is, THATS right, Mario’s little green companion is back, this time for the Nintendo DS. Yoshi's Island DS is a visually amusing game that can be played for many hours or even days. It has tonnes of levels for you to complete and is a fun game for the little ones right through to the older Nintendo fans.

Break it down:
The game includes many of our old Nintendo favorites from Yoshi and Mario through to princess peach and donkey Kong, the twist in this game is most of the characters are babies, all with there own special abilities. Yoshi is on a mission to rescue these babies that were stolen by the wicked bowser!

The look of the game is your typical Nintendo graphics, a lot of colours, a lot of cartoonish levels that are bright and good quality, Nintendo’s always done a good job at keeping things amusing but basic at the same time and Yoshi island is no exception. The sound is also typical Nintendo with fun noises and adventure game music which is generally cheery and bright. The weapons in the game is something new to me (only playing Nintendo games on the Game boy pocket or NES or Super NES) were you catch enemies with your tongue, swallow them and then some how lay eggs, now we all know that is pretty strange, but hey! Its Nintendo, they don’t need to explain anything! The shooting isn’t just a regular up and across shooting system either, its hard to explain but the egg floats in front of you up and down, when the angle is rite you press the button and it shoots in the chosen direction, though it sounds difficult it is actually a very effective control.

You play as Yoshi, on your back your carrying either baby Mario baby princess peach or baby donkey Kong as your running through the levels, unlocking doors an jumping over obstacles, each character with there unique skill helps you get along quicker, for instance baby DK can grab onto ropes, baby Mario can make blocks appear and baby princess can use her dress to float temporarily. The difficulty is challenging especially if you haven’t chosen the rite character but each level can be beaten after 2 or 3 go’s. The controls are nice and basic, B to jump, Y to attack with your tongue and A to shoot eggs. The split screen is a nice feature forcing the player to play the game differently by having to shift your eyes from top to bottom. The packaging is basic, coming in a plastic case with the paper cover on the outside, you get 2 booklets with it, 1 is more of a health and safety booklet explaining the likely hood of seizures attacks, radio wave effects and sore fingers, the other booklet is the games 25 page instruction book telling your the controls of the game in more detail, but the game is pretty basic an you shouldn’t need the manual to figure things out.

Yoshi's Island DS is a pretty fun game for the casual gamers and Nintendo fans, defiantly got the old school feel of the NES and game boy games, it costs just under $70AU from eb games and is well worth the price. We give it 7 Eggs out of 10.

How to record guitars at the home studio

Mon, 17 Sep 2007 11:30:46 +1000

In this video we're going to have a look at how to record electric guitars. With any type of recording its important to configure the signal change. Getting you guitar sound into the mixing desk could include using a pre amp like shown on the video, or you could rely on the pre amp built into the mixer. The video also runs through several micing methods and tips like close micing and what mics to use. Then all you will need to do is set your gain levels so when you play your guitar the gain mite flicker at the loudest part, but it should light up anytime other than that.

Fine Tunings your drums

Thu, 23 Aug 2007 12:41:49 +1000

This is the last video in the series of tuning your drum heads. There are a few things we'll clear up before we get into tuning our drums, First thing is what will we be tuning our drums to? Every drum has a range of tone in which it speaks best, take the tone out of this range and it will sound hollow and dead.

Tuning your drums roughly

Tue, 21 Aug 2007 13:23:28 +1000

Time to tune your drums? When you have put the drum head on make sure you have put all the parts back on, make sure all the tension rods have a washer and tighten them up finger tight, not using your drums keys just yet. Another good tip is to put some oil on the tension rods to help make everything screw in smoother and even extend the life of the rods. Now get two drum keys to tune your drums to save on time and follow the tightening pattern that is shown in the video. Next step is Seating the head, there are three purposes for doing this 1 is to break in the head, 2 to test the head and make sure its not faulty and 3 making the head stick. Just start by tuning the drum higher than what you usually would in a normal playing position, to do this just tune a half turn up with you drum keys as shown in the video. The last step it to give the drum CPR by pushing pressure on the head of the drum, what you will hear is some crackling of the drum, this is a good thing, I means the drum is setting and sitting rite. Now its time to loosen the head all the way till the tension rods are finger tight again. Now to get the rough tuning you will use your tensioning pattern to tighten the head up until you get a tone from the drum.

When should you change your drum heads?

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 23:54:58 +1000

When is it time to change the head? In this video there are some tips about when you should change your heads and also what heads you should change them to. To tell you need to change your heads you will need to take it off and look for tears or dings, if the head isn’t flat you will need to change it. If your heads are like this they will sound very dull and will tend to break fast. Another reason to change your heads is if you have a big gig coming up or you’re recording, it will make your drums sound fresh and crisp. Deciding what head you want to use you have two choices, Coated heads and clear heads, Clear heads will be more clear and brighter sounding, coated are more bass and damp and usually made for use with brushes.

Drum Lesson - Dampening and muffling

Mon, 13 Aug 2007 16:11:54 +1000

Dampening and muffling is something ever drummer is going to encounter at some time in there life, they will want to take some of that ring from there drum after they hit it. There are a few techniques to do this, some good and some bad. One of the obvious ways is to buy drum heads that are designed to take some of the ring in the first place, if you buy these you won’t have to dampen them. Another way is to use tape; this way can cause future problems with the adhesive staying on the skin, or the tape ripping of the powder coating on drums like the snare. You can also use O-rings which are made out of the same stuff drum heads are and they sit inside your drum. These are just a few ways you can dampen and muffle your drums to take the reverb/ring sound you get when you hit it. This video lesson will do through all these ways and more and teach you how to apply these methods to your drum kit.

Drum lesson - Parts of the drums

Mon, 13 Aug 2007 15:49:05 +1000

Knowing what parts and pieces are on your drums (like any instrument) is a very import thing to know. This tutorial is part of a series that teaches you about drums, this particular lesson is to teach you what the parts of the drums are called so if you have something that ever needs to be replaced you will know what your looking for. The lesson also gives you some hints about what to do when you’re changing your drum heads or skins. Don’t forget to go over all your hardware and make sure it’s all tight when your taking off your skins, there is nothing worse than tuning your drums and find out soothing is loose. We will also teach you about how important the bearing head of the drum shell is, it will give you your tone depending how it is cut.

Thumb Resting Technique

Sun, 08 Jul 2007 13:21:37 +1000

This video is to talk to you about some beginner techniques including finger placement, Allot of people like to rest there thumb on there pickup which gives you a good resting spot for your index and middle finger on your right (or left) hand. You can buy a thumb rest and fit that onto your guitar instead of using the pickup but the pickup works just as well. Not resting your thumb can make your playing sloppy and awkward. It will help you feel more secure and comfortable.

Fourth fret exercise

Thu, 05 Jul 2007 13:58:34 +1000

This bass exercise will give you great co-ordination and will help you incorporate all your fingers in playing bass. The exercise is as easy as playing the first string first fret with your pointer finger, Your 3rd fret with your 3rd finger, then 2nd with your index finger and 4th with your pinky and repeat this as fast as possible with all 4 strings.

How to trickle down a pentatonic scale

Thu, 05 Jul 2007 13:41:06 +1000

In this bass lesson the instructor is going to teach you how to trickle how a pentatonic scale on bass, This scale is in the key of A and can be used with any song in the key of A. To tricky down you need to play 3 notes in a row, then do back and play the second, then the next 3 than the second. It’s like three steps forward and one step back. You do this until you reach the end of the scale. You can view more lessons in the Bass Section of the sitemap on this site or you can go to ExpertVillage.com

Victor Wooten bass lesson 2

Mon, 02 Jul 2007 14:56:44 +1000

In this video victor talks to us about harmonics on the bass guitar, and also tell us how he views certain shapes and patterns on the fret board.

Victor Wooten Double Thumb lesson

Mon, 02 Jul 2007 14:52:09 +1000

This lesson is given by a great bass player by the name of Victor Wooten, He will be showing you how to use the double thumb technique in conjunction with the other finger. Practise this technique on every string and also practice doing it while fretting notes. He will also give you some different ideas of how to use this technique in making music rather than just being a practise exercise. This bass lesson is in a series so make sure you check out the other lessons too.

Voice Resonance

Fri, 29 Jun 2007 13:23:43 +1000

Resonance is import to develop your voice to its full potential. Better resonance should give you better amplification of your voice and will also project it better. This singing lesson will give you a bit more knowledge about resonance and hopefully help you understand how important it is.

Using your tongue

Fri, 29 Jun 2007 13:20:37 +1000

This singing lesson will teach you how to use your tongue. It is a very important when singing, It gives the most definition in the words you sing.

Vocal projection lesson

Fri, 29 Jun 2007 13:09:44 +1000

The main purpose for this video lesson is to learn to project the voice outward without hurting the throat and using much effort. The lesson will also tell you a bit about how to use your consonance and vouls.