TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
MyGadget: Aksan Sjuman: All about music
Musician Aksan Sjuman has kept himself busy from the get-go
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Musician Aksan Sjuman has kept himself busy from the get-go. The music virtuoso supervises not only his Sjuman School of Music, but also the Sumber Cipta Ballet School, which was established by his late mother, Farida Oetoyo.
He creates music either for film or stage performances; an upcoming example is the music for ballet repertoire Tok to be performed at the first Indonesia Ballet Gala on Aug. 22.
The youngest of the country's legendary film director Sjuman Djaya and Bolshoi dancer Farida also creates environmentally friendly handmade musical instruments for sale.
The 44-year-old father of one from his former marriage with actress and musician Titi Handayani Rajo Bintang established Sjuman Instrument last year, but only started the business in April.
Aksan custom-designs electric guitars, bass and pianos, realizing his childhood dream of making his own musical instruments.
'We are starting producing drum sets now,' said the former drummer of rock bands Dewa 19 and Potret.
His communication devices of choice have made his work easier, he said.
'I rely on my phone and laptop to get the job done. I don't have games on my mobile gadgets because I don't have the time to play them.'
Aksan said he could use a phone for a long time, until it was broken.
'I'm not the kind of person who keeps themselves updated with the latest smartphone. I prefer to use a low-end phone but my work demands a fast processor and big data storage.
'I consider a phone priced Rp 5 million [US$366] as luxurious, but if it comes with the features I need for my work then I just have to buy it,' he said.
Samsung Galaxy Note 4
I bought the phone earlier this year while I was weighing up buying either the Samsung Galaxy S6 or Apple iPhone 6. I stumbled on the Galaxy Note 4 and bought it instead.
I don't really like the design because the screen is too wide to hold in my palm, but the wide screen is actually the feature I need for work.
It's equipped with a stylus pen I can use to draw designs that I have to quickly share with the artists.
It operates fast and the camera feature is good.
I usually post pictures of my musical instrument designs on social media, such as Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Path.
Apple MacBook Pro
The laptop is my main device for creating music and for class presentations.
I use digital audio workstation Cubase on my laptop for musical arrangements.
I've been using the program since my school years back in early 1990s simply because it's the easiest program to operate for satisfying results.
Mobile applications
I don't arrange the mobile application shortcuts on the phone screen neatly, so I have most of the phone's features on the screen.
I installed additional applications for photo editing such as Adobe Photoshop Express, Photo Editor by Aviary and Android's Snapseed.
The latest one I installed is NoCrop, a customized editing tool for photos and videos on Instagram for better viewing.
For news articles I prefer to browse for them. I recently removed a media outlet's mobile application because it was posting news I didn't wish to know about.
I'm not a reader; I can digest information better when I watch it. That is why I watch YouTube on my phone because the video-sharing site is actually a source of knowledge for me.
