Mixdown 225

M A D E

B Y

M U S I C I A N S

F O R

M U S I C I A N S

ISSUE 225 JANUARY 2013

FREE

’S H T

GIV EA

ROAD TESTED: YAMAHA THR10C AMP, RADIAL CHEERY PICKER PREAMP SELECTOR, PEAVEY VALVE KING 112, FRET-KING BLACK LABEL ELECTRIC

WAY

THIS MO N

MIXDOWNMAG.COM.AU

SHURE BBEEETTTA 87AA MIC ICCR CRO ROOOPHONEE

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THE DEFTONES

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-CONTENTS-

FORE WORD

6

GIVEAWAYS

8

NEWS & TOURS

12 PRODUCT NEWS 22 THE DESCENDENTS 24 SWANS OFF! 26 DEFTONES EVERY TIME I DIE 28 GEORGE CLINTON

Damn straight we made it! We survived the Mayan Apocalypse, that fat bearded bastard falling down our chimneys and stealing all our cookies, to the impeccable mind blowing post rock whiskey tinged breath that seeped from our bodies come new years day! Damn straight, we’re here and damn straight we’re charged and ready for the new musical year ahead.

Have you made your new years resolution? Have you got your new piece of musical gear within reach? Well, we have and we look forward this issue to bringing you some of the best interviews our country has to offer, all the latest 2013 gear about to hit our shores and a wrap up of review gear that will have your creative spirit chomping at the bit and your wallets just that little bit lighter.

No more dust and no more excuses friends, dig deep and pick up that instrument, write down your musical goals and shred them away. Most of all I urge you to enjoy your next show and remember those moments playing music with your mates. Sure, music lasts forever, but we do not!

ALEKSEI PLINTE EDITOR IN CHIEF

VAMPIRE WEEKEND 30 UNLEASH YOUR INNER ROCK GOD WHAT’S THAT SOUND? KEYS 31 ON THE DOWNLOW BANGIN’ THE TUBS 32 (D)IGITAL (J)OCKEY HOME STUDIO HINTS 34 ROADTESTS

GEORGE CLINTON PAGE 28

VAMPIRE WEEKEND OFF!

PAGE 24

PAGE 28 PUBLISHER Furst Media

COVER ART Mike Cusack

EDITOR IN CHIEF Aleksei Plinte mixdown@beat.com.au EDITORIAL CO-ORDINATOR Lachlan Kanoniuk

MIXDOWN OFFICE 3 Newton Street Richmond VIC 3121 Phone: (03) 9428 3600 Fax: (03) 9428 3611

PRODUCTION MANAGER: Pat O’Neill

ADVERTISING Aleksei Plinte, Ronnit Sternfein

GRAPHIC ARTISTS Gill Tucker, Baly Gaudin, Pat O’Neill, Mike Cusack CONTRIBUTORS Peter Hodgson, Rob Gee, Nick Brown, Adrian Violi, Jess Shulman, Brent Mayhurst

‘LIKE’ US

ACEBOOK.COM/MI X AT F

LAST MONTH’S WINNER

JANUARY GIVEAWAY

NMAGAZINE DOW

- M I X D O W N G I V E A W AY S ASHDOWN FIVE FIFTEEN MINIRIG

SHURE BETA 87A MICROPHONE The Shure Beta 87A is a premium quality supercardioid hand-held electret condenser vocal microphone with exceptionally smooth frequency response and high sound pressure level capability.

Used for professional sound reinforcement, broadcasting, and studio recording applications, the Beta 87A combines superb performance with the ruggedness needed for touring and field production.

We had a massive amount of responses to the Ashdown Five Fifteen MiniRig, but as we’re all aware, there can only be one winner. Big thanks to D’Addario Australia for the sweet hookup, and a big congratulations to Liam

Keesing of Alfred Cove who emailed us their favourite song at age 5 (Tears in Heaven by Eric Clapton) and at age 15 (Parabola by Tool). Look forward to seeing you rock out with the Minirig!

AUSTRALIA'S ONLY NATIONAL MUSIC STREET PRESS WITH A COMPREHENSIVE AND FREE DISTRIBUTION. DESIGNED, WRITTEN AND CREATED FOR MUSICIANS AND LOVERS OF MUSIC.

INTERVIEWS WITH THE WORLD'S BIGGEST ARTISTS AND HOME GROWN HEROES. FEATURE STORIES ON THE MUSIC INDUSTRY PRODUCT NEWS AND GEAR REVIEWS EDUCATION COLUMNS STUDIO Q&A'S AWESOME MONTHLY GIVEAWAYS + HEAPS MORE

HITS THE STREETS AND ONLINE IN THE FIRST WEEK OF EVERY MONTH 2013 ONLINE AND STREET DATES: JANUARY 2ND FEBRUARY 6TH MARCH 6TH APRIL 3RD

PG. 6

MIXDOWN NO. 225

MAY 1ST JUNE 5TH JULY 3RD AUGUST 7TH

JANUARY 2013

SEPTEMBER 4TH OCTOBER 2ND NOVEMBER 6TH DECEMBER 4TH

For your chance to win, simply follow these steps: Step 1. Head to our Facebook page (www. facebook.com/mixdownmagazine), like our page if you haven’t already, then like and/or share our pic of the Shure Beta 87A Microphone.

Step 2. Answer in 30 words or less: The Beta 87A is built for rugged environments. Where is the most rugged environment you could use the microphone?

Step 3. Email your answers to mixdown@beat. com.au with your full name, address and contact telephone number One entry per person. Australian residents only.

Best of luck! *Competition disclaimer* All Mixdown Magazine competition winners agree to having their loacation, name and photo with themselves and their prize published in Mixdown Magazine and online. All entrants must be residents of Australia.

JANUARY 2013

NO. 225 MIXDOWN

PG. 7

THE SMITH STREET BAND

BOOGIE FESTIVAL #7 HENRY WAGONS

Melbourne’s The Smith Street Band won a lot of hearts this year with much-loved sophomore album Sunshine & Technology and some seriously extensive touring. Next, they’ll celebrate summer with buddies (at select dates) with Bomb The

Music Industry and Melbourne bros The Bennies by visiting a whole bunch of fun new places, as well as some familiar favourites, throughout February and March as part of the enormous Young Drunks Tour.

TOUR DATES:

Start craving those Bloody Marys, Victoria’s finest boutique experience will return in 2013, with Boogie 7 announcing a very tasty roster of talent for the upcoming Easter weekend. The first lineup brings us Kitty, Daisy & Lewis, Tony Joe White, Henry Wagons & His Grand Ole

Boogvegas Spectacle, Velociraptor, Don Walker & The Suave Fucks, Good Heavens, Little Bastard, Jeremy Neale, Super Wild Horses, The Preatures, Benjamin Francis Leftwich, Mother & Son, Dirt Farmer, plus more to come! Stay tuned for more announcements.

January 31 - Prince of Wales, Bunbury WA February 2 - Rosemount Hotel, Perth WA February 7 - X&Y Bar, Brisbane QLD February 08 - The Spotted Cow, Toowoomba QLD February 13 - The Shed, Byron Bay NSW February 14 - The Hoey Moey, Coffs Harbour NSW February 15 - The Annandale Hotel, Sydney NSW

February 16 - Great Northern Hotel, Newcastle NSW February 21 – The Royal Oak, Launceston TAS February 22 – The Brisbane Hotel, Hobart TAS February 23 – The Reverence Hotel, Melbourne VIC February 28 - Karova Lounge, Ballarat VIC March 01 - Enigma Bar, Adelaide SA March 02 - The Loft, Warrnambool VIC

CYPRESS HILL

JEFF THE BROTHERHOOD

The amount of sidewaves announced in the past month has been insane. Now it’s become insane in the membrane with the announcement that hip hop icons Cypress Hill will perform two headline shows.

Since appearing at Meredith Music Festival in 2010 and blowing people away with their tiny club shows, fans are dead keen for JEFF The Brotherhood’s return. Support (except at Freo and Byron Bay) comes from King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard.

FESTIVAL DATES:

March 29-31 - Bruzzy’s Farm, Tallarook VIC

BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE,

It is hardly a secret, Bullet For My Valentine are one of this generation’s greatest exponents of metal.

Not simply because of one, two or even three amazing albums destined to be classics in the genre; but also because of the manifest evolution

- with each album pointing the way to peaks that remain beyond the powers of ordinary bands.

Joining them on their Sidewave will be Cancer Bats and Miss May I.

February 25 - Roundhouse at University of Sydney NSW February 28 – The Forum, Melbourne VIC February 28 – Billboard, Melbourne VIC

TOUR DATES:

February 22 - The Hi-Fi, Brisbane QLD February 27 - The Hi-Fi, Sydney NSW

PUBLIC IMAGE LTD

TOUR DATES:

TOUR DATES:

January 17 - The Standard, Sydney NSW January 19 - Great Northern, Byron Bay NSW January 23 - Bridge Hotel, Castlemaine VIC January 24 - The Corner, Melbourne VIC January 27 - Mojo’s, Fremantle VIC

JUSTIN TOWNES EARLE TOMAHAWK

Australia is a big fan of Justin Townes Earle, and with the announcement of a 2013 return, it looks like the love is very much reciprocated. At the start of 2012, Justin performed barnstorming sets at Bluesfest and Boogie hot on the heels of the release of latest LP Nothing’s Gonna Change The Way You Feel About Me Now. TOUR DATES:

After a monumental 2012 that saw the band release their first album in two decades This is PiL, to broad critical acclaim, English post-rock band Public Image Ltd have announced three huge shows on Australia’s east coast.

TOUR DATES:

April 9 - Eatons Hill Hotel, Brisbane QLD April 10 - Enmore Theatre, Sydney NSW April 11 - Palace Theatre, Melbourne VIC

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February 2 – Theatre Royal, Castlemaine VIC February 3 – The Corner Hotel, Melbourne VIC February 5 -The Basement, Sydney NSW February 6 – Coogee Diggers, Coogee NSW February 8 – Heritage Hotel, Thirroul NSW February 9 – Milton Theatre, Milton NSW February 10 – The Annandale Hotel, Sydney NSW February 13 – Lizottes, Newcastle NSW February 15 – Capitol Theatre, Tamworth, NSW February 16 – Star Court Theatre, Lismore NSW February 17 – Byron Community Centre, Byron Bay NSW February 19 – The Old Museum, Brisbane QLD

JANUARY 2013

TOMAHAWK took a break to discover the many truths of the universe. They were primarily holed up in a special place similar to the many caves in the mountains of Appalachia. They found time to create the new tunes that make up their new record Oddfellows that will be released worldwide this month. Tomahawk is Duane Denison (the Jesus TOUR DATES:

February 26 - The Metro, Sydney NSW February 27 - Billboard The Venue, Melbourne VIC

Lizard, Unsemble), Mike Patton (Faith No More, Fantômas) and John Stanier (Helmet, Battles, The Mark Of Cain), and this time around joined by Trevor “field mouse” Dunn (Mr. Bungle, Fantômas).

WOMADELAIDE CAT EMPIRE

ROBERT CRAY, TAJ MAHAL, SHUGGIE OTIS

SLAYER A massive roster of talent has been revealed in the full WOMADelaide 2013 artist announcement. Hitting Adelaide this March will be The Cat Empire, The Tallest Man On Earth, The Herd, Jimmy Cliff, Clairy

Browne & The Bangin’ Rackettes, Tim Rogers & The Bamboos, plus plenty more!. Visit www.womadelaide. com.au for full lineup details.

FESTIVAL DATES:

March 8-11 – Botanic Park, Adelaide SA

THE PRESETS

ROBERT PLANT AND THE SENSATIONAL SHAPE SHIFTERS

ROBERT CRAY It’s blues time! Five-time Grammy winner Robert Cray, the legendary Taj Mahal, and Shuggie Otis join forces to perform a run of Bluesfest sideshows. It’s been seven long years since Robert Cray has toured Australia, but he and his long-serving band still shred the blues like never before. You could call Taj Mahal a singer, composer, producer, two-time Grammy-winner, worldclass musical collaborator, musicians’ advocate, world traveller, fisherman or cigar aficionado. These titles are all accurate, yet none convey the warmth, humour, and soulfulness of Taj and his music. A perennial Bluesfest favourite, last time round Taj Mahal played to sell-out crowds alongside Buddy Guy. TOUR DATES:

March 23 – Enmore Theatre, Sydney NSW March 24 – Hamer Hall, Melbourne VIC March 26 – Tivoli, Brisbane QLD

Ten studio albums, thousands of live shows and nearly three decades into a career that’s made them one of the biggest and most important metal bands in the world, the members of SLAYER know exactly what kind of music they make—brutal but beautiful, punishing yet precise.

TOUR DATES:

February 25 – Luna Park, Sydney NSW

After crushing their headline performance at this year’s Parklife festivals, The Presets have announced their long-awaited return to the touring circuit in 2013.

The premier electro two-piece this year released the critically-lauded Pacifica, following on from the allconquering album Apocalypso. The Presets will be joined nationally by local dance luminaries Parachute Youth and Light Year.

TOUR DATES:

January 31 – Metropolis, Fremantle WA February 5 – AEC Theatre, Adelaide SA February 6, 7 – Palace Theatre, Melbourne VIC February 11,12 – Enmore Theatre, Sydney NSW February 16, 17 – The Tivoli, Brisbane QLD

Aready announced as headliner of the freakin’ massive 2013 Bluesfest, legendary rock vocalist Robert Plant has announced a run of headline shows. Plant will be bringing his Sensational Shape Shifters project to Australia, performing material from his lauded solo projects as well as iconic selections from the Led Zeppelin canon.

TOUR DATES:

March 26 – Entertainment Centre, Adelaide SA March 28 – Entertainment Centre, Sydney NSW April 3 – Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne VIC April 5 – Silverdome, Launceston TAS

Jands has been appointed as the exclusive distributor for Gator Cases

www.jands.com.au MD half page Gator Cases ad.indd 1

PG. 10

MIXDOWN NO. 225

JANUARY 2013

12/12/12 3:06 PM

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KLOTZ JOE BONAMASSA SIGNATURE CABLES

RADIAL SIXPACK WORKHOUSE POWER RACK

The SixPack is a desk-top power rack for 500 series modules that lets you mix and match up to six modules and safely power them to create a stereo channel strip or unique signal chain.

The design begins with a heavy 14 gauge steel construction and baked enamel finish. This provides extra durability when moving the SixPack around the studio while also providing better shielding against stray magnetic fields.

To reduce induced noise, the power supply is external and connects using a 5-pin locking XLR. To ensure positive contact, the module card-edge connector is mated to a double sided EDAC 15-pin receptacle that is 100% compatible with

the old API pin format. Extra safety is built-in to ensure malfunctioning modules will not harm the SixPack or other modules that may already be connected. And with 1600 milliamps of shared current, the SixPack exceeds all others with an average of over 265 milliamps per slot to ensure even the most power hungry tube modules will be satisfied.

KLOTZ signature cables are named after top artists on the international concert and recording scene, including Scorpions guitarist Matthias Jabs and iconic bassist TM Stevens, and designed in partnership with them. The new Joe Bonamassa Signature Cable by KLOTZ is available from music retailers worldwide, as an instrument cable and a patch cable, with straight or angled connectors.

The new Signature Cable features the high-quality Golden Tip jack made in Germany by KLOTZ Cables For more information on the KLOTZ range of products, phone CMC Music on (02) 9905 2511 or visit www.cmcmusic.com.au

PEAVEY BANDIT 112 GUITAR AMP

For more information on the Radial range of products, phone Amber Technology on 1800 251 367 or visit www.ambertech.com.au

TC-ELECTRONIC SOUL IN THE POCKET TONEPRINT PACKAGE

TC-Electronic Toneprints work with select individual TonePrint pedals, the new BH250 Head and BG250 Bass Combo. A wide range of high quality TonePrints enable bassists to rise to any occasion, and the new soul in the pocket series does just that. Some of the sound effects are from Rihanna MD Eric Smith, who contributes with a cool Vibrato TonePrint called Wet Wipe, a fast vibrato with a nasty LFO waveform that adds tons of grit and the English Tickler. A flange TonePrint

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MIXDOWN NO. 225

with a cool and bubbly sound, this effect ‘cuts’ at the start of notes and comes out of the flange sweep towards the top of your sound, which gives a really nice blooming effect.

For more information on the TonePrint range of products, phone Amber Technology on 1800 251 367 or visit www.ambertech.com.au

JANUARY 2013

The Peavey Bandit 112 features the landmark tube emulating Transtube Circuitry, proving sound indistinguishable from tube amps. It’s about cabinet size, bracing, wood and thickness. But most importantly, it’s about what it’s not. Other attempts at tube emulation fail because of a focus on the wrong elements. Peavey concentrated on emulating the tone characteristics we all recognise and love about tubes and 86’d the rest. It’s a deceptively simple concept, but it took three U.S.

Patents to map the entire process for the history books. Set up a comparison at your Peavey dealer and discover the TransTube difference for yourself.

For more information on the Peavey range of products, phone Audio Products Group on (02) 9669 3477 or visit www.audioproducts.com.au

WIN AN ERNIE BALL MUSIC MAN 50TH ANNIVERSARY SUPERGROUP PERFORMANCE CD

DIMARZIO CUSTOM SHOP PICK-UPS

Over their 40 year history, Dimarzio have become the go-to brand for direct-replacement guitar pickups. They first became known for their Super Distortion model, which was the first after-market replacement guitar pickup. It was introduced in 1972 and to this day is still one of the most popular models on the market. These days, the Dimarzio Custom Shop offers guitarists the option to customise their pickups before they order them

– check out the Dimarzio website for the options available and then head on into your nearest music store to order them!

For more information on the Dimarzio range of products, contact Australasian Music Supplies on (03) 9549 1500 or visit www.austmusic.com.au

By liking CMC Music’s facebook page, Mixdown readers have the opportunity to win a truly rare CD. Produced in extremely limited numbers and not available for purchase, the Ernie Ball 50th Anniversary CD documents once in a lifetime live performances by a super group of some of the world’s most accomplished musicians at this year’s Ernie Ball 50th Anniversary party. Some have never played together previously, and we may never have the opportunity to see them together again.

The 8 track CD features Steve Vai, Paul Gilbert, Steve Morse, Randy Jackson, Albert Lee, Joe Bonamassa, Blue Saraceno, Dave Larue, Sterling Ball, Van Romaine, Jim Cox and John Ferraro.

Visit and like CMC Music’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/cmcmusicoz to be in the running to win one of 5 CDs to be given away on February 1.

PEAVEY MAX 115 BASS COMBO

PEARL ZEDSP-1 ELECTRIC KIT STARTER PACK

The MAX 115 bass combo amp delivers more bass in a space saving package. Peavey’s exclusive HyperVent technology pushes bass through specially designed ports allowing the woofer to respond to its full potential. With 60 Watts of power that includes DDT speaker protection and a 15 inch heavy-duty woofer, the Peavey MAX 115 is great for plenty of gigs and rehearsals. Another Peavey exclusive is the patented TransTube circuitry that offers you a choice of three separate

Pearl have just released the ZEDSP1 Electric Kit Starter Pack – perfect for those who have purchased an Electric Drum kit and need a high quality stool and pedal to finish off their set-up.

The Drum throne in the pack is Pearl’s famous D-790 throne. With its collapsible design it is completely portable and features a thickly padded round vinyl covered cushion. The Pedal is a Pearl P-890 single chain model which uses the same ergonomically designed footboard as Pearl’s famous P-2000. The footboard surface

voicings MAX, Vintage and Modern each capable of emulating its own distinctive sound. The onboard semi parametric EQ offers some intense tone shaping with controls for low, mid, mid shift and highs.

For more information on the Peavey range of products, phone Audio Products Group on (02) 9669 3477 or visit www.audioproducts.com.au

is smooth for “power slides” but gives ample resistance for control. Integrated hinge adds speed and increases reliability and the heel is tapered for comfort and control. It also includes a heavier duo beater, nylon cam roller and felt insert in the spring for noise reduction.

For more information on the Pearl range of products, contact Australasian Music Supplies on (03) 9549 1500 or visit www.austmusic.com.au

JANUARY 2013 NO. 225 MIXDOWN

PG. 13

MUSE BASSIST CHRIS WOLSTENHOLME USING MARKBASS

SAMSON RESOLV SE5 STUDIO MONITORS

Chris Wolstenholme, bassist for Muse, used Markbass gear on the recording of the band’s latest album, The 2nd Law, and has been using a Markbass rig on tour. In the studio, he used a MoMark SD800 into a Standard 104HF cabinet and an SD1200 into a Classic 152 cab. On the

road he’s being amplified through two SD1200 heads and four Standard 151HR cabinets.

For more information on the Markbass range of products, phone CMC Music on (02) 9905 2511 or visit www.cmcmusic.com.au

VINTAGE SERIES SNARE WIRES

Samson’s Resolv SE5 2-Way Active Studio Reference Monitor offers a redesign from the classic Resolv A-Series monitor, with more accurate sound reproduction and a stylish new look. Resolv SE5 utilizes the latest innovations in speaker engineering, which can be used with multiple monitors to provide superb stereo imaging for recording, post-production and other multimedia applications. Producing 70 watts of power, Resolv SE5 includes a dedicated power amp and electronic crossover that provide accurate tonal balance. The new 5-inch woven carbon fiber woofer provides tight and controlled low frequency response, while its 1.25-inch soft dome tweeter gives the high frequencies a true, natural sound without unwanted resonance.

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The Vintage Series Snare Wires are designed not only to replace worn and no longer available wires on vintage snare drums, they are also designed to enhance the performance of those classic drums.

With a new set of Puresound wires, Dyna-sonics, Radio Kings, WFLs and Ludwig Super-Sensitives will sound and perform as well, if not better than they did when they were new.

For more information on the Samson range of products, phone Electric Factory on (03) 9474 1000 or visit www.elfa.com.au

JANUARY 2013

For more information on Vintage Series Snare Wires, contact D’Addario Australia on (03) 8761 6293 or email sales@daddario.com.au

Freecall 1800 441 440

D’ADDARIO TO DISTRIBUTE EMG PICKUPS

THE LOAR LO-16 ACOUSTIC GUITAR

D’Addario Australia, part of D’Addario & Company Inc. the world’s largest manufacturer of musical product accessories, just announced an exclusive agreement with EMG pickups. EMG is the undisputed technological leader in the pickup industry, creating exceptional products that empower musicians around the globe to explore and express their passion for performance.

D’Addario Australia is very proud to partner with EMG and is looking forward to growing the brand’s presence in Australia into the future.

For more information on Vintage Series Snare Wires, contact D’Addario Australia on (03) 8761 6293 or email sales@daddario.com.au

MUSHROOMHEAD FOR EGNATER AMPLIFICATION

Paying homage to Lloyd Loar’s pioneering designs from the Golden Age of the 1920’s and 30’s, The Loar combine expert craftsmanship and classic designs with upgraded features to appeal to today’s players. From premium handcarved tonewoods to original inlay detailing, each instrument is made for the best sound, playability and timeless beauty. The Loar LO-16 takes the traditional L-00 shaped body style and updates it for today’s players. If you want authentic front

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porch blues-box sound, you can’t do much better than the LO-16. Good enough for Justin Townes Earle who uses it as his main guitar. Not just for finger pickin’!

Having used Egnater Amplification for some time, Tommy Church, guitarist for American industrial metal band Mushroomhead, has adopted Egnater’s latest powerhouse Armageddon rig and now officially endorses Egnater Custom Amplification products.

Mushroomhead are one of the most unique and adventurous alternative metal bands working today. Known for their stunningly theatrical live show and artsy masks, this innovative band has forged new ground in the rock world and influenced many other bands to push the envelope and bring art into rock. Formed in the early-1990s in Cleveland Ohio, the band’s combination of metal, rock and atmospheric elements has struck a chord with thousands of fans worldwide.

For more information on The Loar, contact Dynamic Music on (02) 9939 1299 or visit www.dynamicmusic.com.au

For more information on the Egnater range of products, phone CMC Music on (02) 9905 2511 or visit www.cmcmusic.com.au

JANUARY 2013

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SOUNDART COMPACT 100 WATTS RMS 5-CHANNEL PORTABLE SUITCASE PA SYSTEM

SOUNDART SKC-120 & SKC-120/15 KEYBOARD / PA / MULTI PURPOSE AMPS

The new Soundart Compact Portable Suitcase PA system can be assembled within seconds making it perfect for on the go multi-media presentations, musical performances, press conferences, karaoke events or board meetings. Incredible sonic performance and ultra light weight, with 2 x 75 watt compact speakers housing dual 4” woofers and a single tweeter makes this one impressive unit. It also includes a 24-bit stereo FX processor with pre-sets including reverb, chorus, flanger, delay, pitch shifter and various multi-effects. It also features a Split Track Mix designed specifically to independently control the voice to music ratio, an FBQ Feedback Detection system that instantly

reveals critical frequencies for easy feedback removal, 2 invisible Mic preamps with phantom power for condenser microphones, and 2 Mic/Inst channels with XLR/Jack inputs. A stereo channel with separate CD input and stereo 5-band graphic EQ, headphone out and a mono line out will also make life easier. A storage compartment includes microphone and cable and speaker leads.

For more information on The Soundart range of products, contact Jade Australia on (03) 9457 8000 or visit www.jadeaustralia.com.au

SAMSON AIRLINE MICRO WIRELESS EARSET SYSTEM

Need a versatile amp packed with power and portability? Look no further than the Soundart Keyboard/PA/Multipurpose Amp. With four channels, 120W RMS, Balanced XLR/ Jack Inputs with Treble, Bass, Effect and Volume Controls on each channel. A handy feature for those on the move, the PA/Amp features a retractable handle and wheels for optimal

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portability. The SKC-120 sports a 12” speaker, while the SKC-120/15 comes with a 15” speaker.

For more information on Soundart range of products, contact Jade Australia on (03) 9457 8000 or visit www.jadeaustralia.com.au

JANUARY 2013

The AirLine Micro Wireless Earset System is a breakthrough that utilises the latest in lithium ion battery technology and small, high-quality audio and RF components to bring performance freedom and convenience to a new level. The result is not only our smallest wireless system, but also our most comfortable, reliable and versatile system ever. To eliminate continually changing batteries, Samson

has designed this micro-size UHF wireless 600 Mhz system to be fully rechargeable, supplying lithium-ion rechargeable batteries and USB DC power inputs for both the AH2 earset transmitter and AR2 receiver.

For more information on the Samson range of products, phone Electric Factory on (03) 9474 1000 or visit www.elfa.com.au

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Remo Pro Packs offer the convenience of a full set of tom heads in a single package. Representing increased value when purchased as a set. Pro Packs also feature a FREE 14” Ambassador Coated and are available in today’s most popular models and sizes.

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JANUARY 2013

NO. 225 MIXDOWN

PG. 19

AUDIO-TECHNICA AT5040 CARDOID CONDENSER MIC

CREATIVE INDUSTRIES MANAGEMENT COURSE AT COLLARTS While music represents the largest portion of the $31 billion creative industries sector the opportunities that follow graduation include careers in the film, TV, broadcast, entertainment, media, performance arts, gaming and other creative pursuits. In all over 140,000 Australian are employed in the creative industries. The approach to learning is innovative and features hands-on, project-based learning. Through activities like our Industry Projects, students will use their newly developed skills to help create real industry events, working alongside student and professional musicians, audio engineers, event managers, promoters and other music industry specialists.

Students also benefit from participating in an Industry Placement during their studies. Collarts Career Partners – individuals, companies and organisations from the music industry – will help students gain real-world experience and develop industry connections while studying at Collarts.

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Featuring a major innovation in diaphragm design, Audio-Technica has announced a new flagship vocal recording microphone.

Hand crafted in Japan the AT5040 is a sideaddressed cardioid condenser offering remarkable high-fidelity performance, with profound realism and depth, presence and purity of sound. Its proprietary element design employs four ultra-thin (2 micron) rectangular diaphragms that function as one to provide a combined surface area that is unachievable in a standard round diaphragm. The holy grail in microphone design is theoretically achieved by increasing diaphragm size, however, the practical limits of conventional round diaphragms has already been reached as greater size results in diminishing returns due to increased weight.

Hence the development of the four rectangular element design with each element exquisitely matched and proprietarily summed to function as a single ultra-precise unit.

For more information on the Audio Technica range of products, contact TAG on (02) 9519 0900 or visit www.tag.com.au

PRESONUS STUDIO ONE V2.5 RELEASE

PreSonus have announced the release of Studio One 2.5, a major update to Studio One 2. This free update adds nearly 100 enhancements and features, as well as many bug fixes. Although the update adds some entirely new features, it

mostly builds on existing Studio One 2 features, completing and enhancing functionality based on PreSonus’s original vision and on user feedback. All versions of Studio One 2 have been updated, including Studio One Artist, Producer,

Professional, and Free. For the very long (we warned you) list of Studio One 2.5 changes, visit studioone.presonus.com/studio-one-2-5/

For more information on the PreSonus range of products, phone National Audio Systems on 1800 441 440 or visit www.nationalaudio.com.au

ALLEN & HEATH ICE-16 AUDIO INTERFACE

Allen & Heath has packaged part of its digital technology in a very handy, standalone audio Interface/recorder. The 1RU ICE-16 is a 16 channel in/16 channel out audio interface which allows performers and audio engineers to easily capture high quality multi-track recordings

PG. 20 MIXDOWN NO. 225

direct to a USB drive or interface to a computer. computer ICE-16 is capable of studio quality interfacing, converting and bi-directional streaming of 16 channels over high-speed USB or FireWire at 24 bit, 96kHz resolution. Alternatively, 16 channels can be simultaneously recorded straight to a USB

JANUARY 2013

hard drive or memory stick at up to 24bit 48kHz resolution .wav file. The ICE-16 is expandable, so you can link units together and synchronize recording of many channels.

For more information on the Allen & Heath range of products, contact TAG on (02) 9519 0900 or visit www.tag.com.au

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DESCENDENTS

UPON US ALL

Talk to anyone with any appreciation of punk in the 80s and they’ll reference Descendents. Pioneers of the pop-punk, skate-punk, melodic-hardcore, whatever scene, the Descendents are more than likely the reason that your favourite band are in existence. Combining genius lyrics ‘You suck, Mr Buttfuck’ with epic riffage, key intellect (yep, they are actually all smart, not just Dr Milo) and general nice-guy syndrome, it’s no wonder that the Descendents seem to be one of those few bands that everyone can agree on.

For the second time only, in a musical career that spans over two decades, they return to Australia with three bands’ full of friends in-tow for what looks to be a big ol’ dudefest love-in.

Your guitar riffage is second to none – and I believe you’ve studied classical guitar?

Not really, I started playing really young, I stared at eight or nine. So for the first number of years I was pretty sporadic about it – I’d get into it and take lessons but then I might get into skateboarding for a month and blow off guitar for a bit. I wasn’t some super dedicated fanatic about it. That sort of came when I was eleven or twelve - I started taking it more seriously - and then by fourteen I was completely immersed in it. I didn’t get any real training.

In terms of stuff coming up for you guys – in the absence of any new records, can you tell us about ‘Filmage’?

A while ago some good friends of mine that work in the film industry who had been fans for years said they wanted to start putting this thing together and we thought: ‘That seems like a great idea, go right ahead!’. They’ve been working on it now for about two years and I got to see about a third of it a while ago, and, wow – they know stuff about us that I didn’t know about us! I think for the die-hard fan it should be pretty cool.

How did the tour with the Bouncing Souls come about? Are you all mates?

The Bouncing Souls have been friends of ours for many years. We took them on tour in 1997 – touring the Everything Sucks record. I knew their name but had never met them until then and we got to be great friends through that tour and stayed friends. In fact, our drummer, Bill, produced their last record and we’ve gotten to play together a couple of times since the Descendents have been back playing shows again. So that’s how that came about – it was proposed as a good idea, and we thought the two bands made great sense together and we were good friends. That’s true of Frenzal Rhomb and Bodyjar – we toured with Frenzal before in the U.S and Bill also produced a record of Frenzal’s not that long ago. The first or second time All [a band formed with the remaining members of the Descendents after singer Milo Aukerman temporarily left the band to pursue his PhD] came to Australia we actually did a Bodyjar record. We produced their first record then later on mixed another record for them, so we’ve been friends for ages. We’ve been friends with all these guys for years so, you know, we’re really excited about it!

I thought I read somewhere that you’d studied classical guitar?

[Laughs] No, no, I did study classical guitar for about a year – this is the year right up until before I joined the band, I think I was twentytwo – and I spent about a year really dedicated to it; hours and hours of practice a day, really into it. There was this little period where I was this super-devout-practise-guy with classical a guitar but no real formal training apart from that.

Do you guys still drink bonus cups? Was that even a real thing? [Purportedly, the band would all down 1/3 of a cup of instant coffee grounds with hot water and about five spoonfuls of sugar right before they went on stage.]

It was a real thing, yes! But instant coffee has improved immeasurably… Starbucks do these ready brew things. Maybe in that way we’re a little bit not-punk. The coffee thing is still very real for us – I have a big cup in my hand right now!

You’re a band that’s all about hiatuses. What was it like when Milo went to college?

Milo’s first love has always been science. He’s never made any bones about that - that was true when they were all teenagers. So that’s always been his priority. He’s left the band a couple of times and we sort of forged ahead with All - the three of us - and just kinda kept going, but then the shows weren’t that big and we couldn’t really afford to sustain constant touring anymore. A few of us had started families so we sort of wound it down for a few years. Then all of a sudden people started taking an interest again so when a couple shows were offered a PG. 22 MIXDOWN NO. 225

while back we thought, ‘Well, it’s been a long time, this could be fun’ – we all really enjoyed it. Milo enjoyed it too, I think it was a welcome distraction from his work-life.

He tapped into something that none of us really understood at the beginning, but I think he always understood that - in a way - if you use your music as your escape, and it’s just done entirely for the love of doing it, its ultimately more rewarding. So I think he’d rather keep the music real sort of pure in that regard. And as I’ve gotten older I’ve grown to understand that feeling, and it’s nice to be able to do that stuff for the catharsis of it, for the pure joy of it. So that’s the way of it: we can’t tour fulltime - that’s not who we are at this point in our lives, we know that - but the fact that we can do it in the way that we do now, where we get to do these little ‘bursts’ of shows, that’s just amazing for us. So we get to do it for entirely the right reasons and also not go broke!

Do your kids listen to your records? And what do they make of the toilet humour lyrics like “I am better than you / You are a piece of poo”?

In the case of my kids, I think they were really interested in it and they really liked the records when they were young, but they’re growing out of it now. I think they’re like: ‘yeah, okay dad, you’re in a band’.

So you were cool for a total of five minutes with your kids?

Yeah! Just like Gangnam Style or whatever it is.

We were cool for a little while. But I do notice once in a while, my daughter likes to listen to music as she goes to sleep every night so I’ll go in and turn off the music and sometimes she’s blasting ‘Cool To Be You’ and I’m like ‘That’s pretty cool!’

JANUARY 2013

It’s a bit of a clichéd argument, but do you reckon classical training makes you a better player?

The one thing that I think classical guitar in particular really brought to the table for me, that I probably hadn’t considered because I just wanted to rock the fuck out, was that in order to pull it off you have to learn how to play very distinct and very clear – it’s kinda complicated to pull off. And it taught me a lot about trying to really play in time. It’s not like I had horrible timing, but I didn’t have expert timing. And I don’t think I paid that much attention to it, as I said, I just wanted to rock out….

I believe you said, ‘rock the fuck’ out… …exactly! Classical brought that to it and taught me a little bit more accuracy and definition about how to play, and that did carry over. At first in Descendents they were like: ‘Wha? This is really weird, this guy’s so clinical about playing’, but in the long-run, trying to play as fast as we do, it actually kinda made sense.

Who is ‘Clean Sheets’ about? And is she still a bitch?

[Laughs] In all honesty I think that the girl that it was written about - I think Bill and her are friends, so there’s no bad blood between them.

So she’s not a bitch, no!

Other than mainlining coffee, what keeps you guys going after twenty odd years?

Well a big component to all this is that Bill had a very near death experience about two years ago – a major brain tumor - and his recovery from all that and his ability to play again and to even be here for the rest of us is huge. So when we play, we just really do have an immensely good time and for us, we were always a real fanatical band about practising, we wanted to be as good as we could possibly be, and so that part of it never really left us. We’re still fanatical about how we do what we do, whether we’re as good as we were some other year. As far as what we’ve tried to put out – we’re trying with everything we’ve got, just like we always have. And that part of it we still love doing, and we’re having a fantastic time doing it.

BY JESS SHULMAN Descendents are touring Australia with Bouncing Souls, Frenzal Rhomb and Bodyjar.

February 6 – Eaton’s Hill , Brisbane QLD February 7 – Big Top Luna Park, Sydney NSW February 9 – Festival Hall – Melbourne VIC February 10 – Metro City, Perth WA

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SWANS

LOONEY TUNES For a long while there, it looked like revered American outfit Swans was well and truly dead and buried – as claimed by progenitor Michael Gira since the band’s late-‘90s demise. Unexpectedly, Gira revived the project in 2010 with the resounding LP My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky, and continued their forward trajectory this year with the acclaimed album The Seer. Following on from their triumphant Australian debut alongside My Father…, Swans will return for the resurgent local incarnation of All Tomorrow’s Parties. Not one for talking shit or taking shit, Gira rationalises the relativity of time and his disdain for nostalgia.

The Seer has been labelled by many as the best music of your career. Is that a sentiment you agree with?

Let me look at it this way, if there were two shits on a white plate I would not be able to choose between them. I don’t really care. I’m happy to be working. I’m happy to be making music. I’m happy to hear that some people enjoy it. That’s about it.

Would you consider yourself to be successful?

If I were successful I would have a lot of money, which I don’t.

Do you feel guilt that you’ve been afforded the opportunity to earn a living doing what you love?

It’s not a matter of affording, it’s a matter of will.

People have will, and people should use their will to activate their imagination in life.

There’s an obvious difference between how a listener reacts to music in the recorded and in the live setting. What kind of effect do you aim to achieve in each setting?

Well I don’t really think about an effect. I guess I think about the listener in that I’m the listener in both situations. I try to make a situation that’s entirely engulfing in different ways. In a recording situation it’s abstract. No matter how much emotion the band has put into their initial performance, it’s a remnant. These days, it’s a series of ones and

zeroes. So you try to create an architecture and an environment that people can walk around in.

Hopefully you can achieve or gleam some sort of emotional experience. Live, it’s unknown. It’s unfolding in the moment. You have to commit to making horrible, embarrassing moments happen or make moments of ecstasy happen. My goal live is to be always on the edge of that, to just be on the verge of being a complete fool or bringing all of us together towards some kind of ecstasy.

You’re the bandleader, how do you connect with each other in the live setting, particularly performing these extended versions of tracks?

Well I’m James Brown. We have schticks, we have routines, we have habits. I push them, I destroy them, I push the band, and they get very angry at me because I scream at them, I yell at them. Then we make up afterwards. But I kind of try to control this beast and make it roar. Hopefully we create something that none of us expected when we started. That’s my job. Recently the sets are kind of out of control, we’ve been playing for three hours at a time now. That mean the material is always expanding and growing, sometimes it’s completely improvisational. But I interject myself and push the improvisation into new directions, but I rely on the band being my friends and my heartbeat, trying to push things into some kind of extreme state.

OFF!

What material is currently being performed in your set?

The set is half new material, completely unrecorded material, that we’ve worked up in rehearsals and soundchecks, then three or four songs from The Seer, then one old song which we find kind of daintily enjoined to play – ‘The Coward’ from 1986. Which has changed completely. The material changes, not every night, but it gradually morphs. I don’t know how to describe it. It’s like a bionic blueprint that keeps morphing with the imprint of ourselves and circumstance. We play the same set every night, but it’s constantly changing within itself.

Are you a nostalgic being in any sense at all?

I don’t give a shit about the past. I’ve done things, we’ve all done things. I guess I’m not ashamed of it, anyway. We’re not out to play our records or please people in that way.

A lot of the discourse surrounding The Seer relates to the album’s considerable length, and the length of some of the songs.

That’s kind of pathetic. Length doesn’t mean anything to me. I’ve decided that I don’t give a fuck, basically, and I will do whatever I want and lead my band along the way. If a song needs to go on longer, then I’ll do it. What, do we have singles or something? If people want to follow it, that’s fine. If they don’t want to follow it, that’s fine too.

It’s invigorating to hammer on a groove and watch it develop for 45 minutes to an hour. Since we’re so enthralled with it, then I hope it will translate to an audience.

Repetition is very much associated with dance and electronic music. Do you associate with those genres in any way?

I have no relation to that at all. It’s not about doing the same robotic groove over and over, it’s much different than that. The music is playing us, and we follow where it goes. There’s a group from your part of the world called The Necks, do you know them?

Not entirely familiar with them, I admit.

You don’t know The Necks. Man, you need to kill yourself right now. They’re one of the best things to come out of Australia ever. They’re loosely described as jazz music, but they’re not. They play a stand-up bass, a drum set, and a piano. They just start playing, but they don’t improvise in the sense of jazz noodling, they create grand waves of sound.

The piano player in particular creates some of the most ethereal and haunting and beautiful sounds I’ve ever heard. They just start playing, then after an hour that’s it. I feel a tremendous affinity with them. Though we are far more pedestrian than them, I must say.

BY LACHLAN KANONIUK

Swans will return to Australia to perform at All Tomorrow’s Parties plus sideshows.

TOUR DATES: February 13 – Manning Bar, Sydney NSW February 15 – The Corner, Melbourne VIC February 16 – ATP, Melbourne VIC

DROPPING THE BOMB

It’s an experiment that has paid off big time – four well respected musicians uniting to record and tour under the nearly-inflammatory title of OFF! The outfit contains Circle Jerks/Black Flag vocalist Keith Morris, Burning Brides guitarist Dimitri Coats, Red Kross bassist Steven McDonald, and drummer for a list of acts too long to list here, Mario Rubalcaba. Blasting through with a purer strain of hardcore, the band have established themselves as one of the most respected touring acts in the past few years. Before returning to Australia as part of Big Day Out, Keith regales us with his modern musical philosophies.

The way I see OFF! is as an established brand, one that people trust.

From the beginning we didn’t want to adhere to any rules. The only rule was to avoid as many rules as possible. There was a certain path we could have taken, but we tried to avoid that path. We took a detour. We didn’t want to allow ourselves to be placed in a box. When you play, it’s all been played before. And there are certain ways not to do it. We’re playing music that people will say is punk rock, or hardcore. And that’s all fine. If you look at me, if you look at the guys in the band – we don’t look like guys that would be playing in a hardcore band, or a punk rock band. But because of our pedigree and where we come from, we bring that along with us. We have set out to try to jump out of the box. The fact of the matter is, we’re playing Big Day Out. We’re playing a big festival, which allows us to play with all these different bands from all these different genres.

It’s just a big party, and we’ve been invited to bring our own vibe to the party. We took a path where we allowed ourselves to play with all these different bands. There’s this punk rock, hardcore mentality where you’re not cool if you play with someone that is different. That’s the punk rock rule book. Fuck that. Who’s cool?

PG. 24 MIXDOWN NO. 225

Do you think you’re the modern definition of punk in that sense?

None of us look like Sid Vicious. None of us look like the cover boys from Alternative Press Magazine. I’m looking at Hollywood Boulevard from the window of my house, and Sunset Boulevard, all these bands cropped up and they all looked the same, even though they were from different genres of music. These bands would be Motley Crue, Poison, all those type of bands where all the guys would look like they’re replaceable.

You could place one guy from one band into another and you couldn’t notice a difference.

Then there’s the Warped Tour, all of these guys with the stretched earlobes and all of the tattoos, dressed in all black, hair parted to one side. The same thing happened in punk. We made a choice where we would play a lot of these festivals. It’s totally cool to play with bands like that. When we’ve done Big Day Out, we’re coming back here to California and go out on a west coast tour with Negative Approach and a band called Bad Antics. These bands we’re playing with are closer in sound, but on Big Day Out we’re playing with Red Hot Chili Peppers, we’re playing with The Killers – and we sound nothing like The Killers.

What’s great about this is that there’s this wide open space and everyone gets to step into this space. Everyone comes in and it becomes a party,

JANUARY 2013

everybody has a good time. There’s something really great about that. Something great about being able to step outside ourselves and play with bands that we’re not normally associated with.

Dimitri, Steven and Mario are all currently active with other bands concurrent with OFF! Do you think the whole ‘supergroup’ notion is a modern phenomenon?

I don’t know if it was an ‘80s thing or if it’s a modern thing. It’s a pretty great scenario and situation to see that the guys in the band are capable of going out and playing in these different bands. Red Kross started as a punk rock band, but their mentality has always leaned to this crazier pop sort of thing. You have Mario playing in Earthless, which is basically a jam band. Just getting up there and playing for half an hour, these incredibly long pieces of music.

What’s great about this band is that our lineage, it allows us to play these different things. It’s a pretty amazing thing. The first time we got into a room, I drove away and I was very disappointed. But I had my epiphany when I collected my thoughts and aligned myself with the fact that these guys are great players. What I heard was this hybrid – like Black Flag trying to play Led Zeppelin. Two bands from two different genres of music, but it’s still rock and roll. These guys in the band, they’re great players. You don’t tell great players what to play. You just let them play, let their instincts take hold, let it happen. It comes from the heart, not from the head.

Last time you were in Australia you had the four EPs, and you often played songs twice during your set. Since then you’ve released the album.

How’s the setlist looking now?

Of course we’ve added more songs. We got to this place where when the CD came out, and the CD holds 72 minutes of music, and we had bands filling the entire CD with music and songs and jams and whatever, it got to the point where you’re listening and scratching your head, asking “What am I listening to?”. In the beginning these bands were jumping up onstage and playing ten songs, playing their greatest hits. We have this attention defecit, where people’s attention spans aren’t very long. So we understand – get up there and do it.

BY LACHLAN KANONIUK OFF! will be performing at the 2013 Big Day Out, plus a handful of headline shows.

TOUR DATES: January 17 – Annandale, Sydney NSW January 18 – Big Day Out, Sydney NSW January 20 – Big Day Out, Gold Coast QLD January 21 – The Zoo, Brisbane QLD January 23 – The Corner, Melbourne VIC January 25 – Big Day Out, Adelaide SA January 26 – Big Day Out, Melbourne VIC January 28 – Big Day Out, Perth WA

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DEFTONES

WORLDY TRANSLATIONS It’s not often - really ever - that you get to break some big news to an artist.

But that’s what happens when Mixdown is on the phone to Deftones bass player Sergio Vega. Just minutes before our scheduled interview time, Revolver magazine had named Deftones’ new album Koi No Yokan as their album of the year for 2012. It’s a prestigious honour, and one that Vega had no idea about yet. When we break the news to him, he’s momentarily speechless. “No way! That’s great,” he finally musters. “That’s an honour!

There have been a lot of great records this year, a lot of things that I’ve been digging, and I… it’s really appreciated! We put a lot of energy into it, we really dig it, and …it’s nice!”

Koi No Yokan is Vega’s second album with Deftones, the first being 2010’s Diamond Eyes.

He stepped in to fill the huge gap left by Chi Cheng, who continues to recover from a nearfatal car accident he was involved in back in 2008. Vega’s history with the band goes back to 1997, when his former band Quicksand toured with Deftones. When the band needed a bass player to respectfully take on Chi’s role in the band, Vega was a natural choice.

“It’s a very collaborative band,” he says. “They were very open to taking me into their process from the very beginning. The first time we got together on Diamond Eyes we wrote the song ‘Royal’, and that was before they had decided to even make a record. It’s a very supportive environment.

That was surprising to me from the kicker. They’re a very open bunch and I’m stoked to be a part of it.”

that we really were having fun with was playing with tones and textures, creating a lot of cool patches that were different from our instruments and that evoked a lot of interesting parts and riffs,” Vega says. “We would put a lot of energy into creating cool outros and then little outros for that! We tried to make each song a whole experience unto itself. The songs are longer but they don’t feel it. And again, it’s exciting that it transfers to people and to know that they’re vibing with it in the same way that we are.”

“It’s a very supportive environment. That was surprising to me from the kicker. They’re a very open bunch and I’m stoked to be a part of it”

Part of the reason Koi No Yokan seems to have resonated with fans so very strongly is because of its balance of Deftones’ more ethereal elements with the heavy rhythmic drive that is their stock in trade. “Definitely one of the things

Vega’s bass of choice is the Fender Jaguar Bass, a relatively recent model based on the Jaguar guitar.

“I’m a big fan of My Bloody Valentine and The Smiths a lot of bands that played Jaguar guitars,” Vega says.

“So I never really anticipated playing a Jaguar bass. I thought that at some point I would buy some Jaguar guitars for myself for some other project. But when I came across the bass, I bought it and I didn’t think about how it sounded. I thought I would just throw in some EMG pickups. I didn’t really care how it sounded - I just wanted a Jaguar because of Kevin Shields and Johnny Marr. But it happened to sound

awesome, this thing sounds amazing! It has a really nice top midrange that really cuts through, and because I like to use a lot of effects it gives me a lot of distinction. Aesthetically it really works for me right out of the box. It’s perfect for this situation because it essentially has a guitarry kind of vibe for the bass. I’m not one of those guys who goes for the super-low kind of thing.

That’s not my gig at all. And this just spoke to me visually and that it actually did what I was looking for. It’s a comfortable bass to play. I have like 19 of them now! I’m a big fan of the Jaguar bass.”

Effects-wise, Vega has been bitten by the AxeFX bug. “I use a Fractal Axe-FX II,” he says.

“I play some synth on the record too. I have a Moog Taurus, and I play a couple of synth bass and soundscapy things which were created in a DAW. I’m not really a big preset guy. I’m into getting some kind of soft synth - it really doesn’t matter which one - but then stripping it down and getting into pathways, either weaving waveforms into it or some sort of recorded sound then turning that into a synth of some sort. I have a lot of fun experimenting with textures and tones. As well as with the bass: it’s never just a clean bass

tone. A lot of things are happening. The Fractal allows you to do a lot of scene changes. Several things are happening simultaneously but it’s all routed to one footswitch so I don’t have to tapdance on pedals. I’ve always used a lot of effects but things are routed in such a way that you still get the treble and the low end, but the sound is routed in such a way that it’s almost like it’s tripletracked except it’s all just one performance, sent through all these different pathways that are highly effective and can be created per song.

There’s a lot of use of expression pedals and sweeping between things.”

BY PETER HODGSON

TOUR DATES: May 14 – The Tivoli, Brisbane QLD May 15 – UNSW Roundhouse, Sydney NSW May 17 – The Palace, Melbourne VIC May 19 – HQ, Adelaide SA May 21 – Metro, Fremantle WA

EVERY TIME I DIE ALIVE AND KILLING IT

It doesn’t matter who you are or what you’re into: you can’t help but like Every Time I Die. Their music is energetic and infectious, their lyrics are that rare combination of smart, funny, deep and light at the same time, and anyone who slathers their album covers with bright pink obviously has a sense of style more akin to Steve Vai circa 1987 than any band they share shelf space with in the metalcore bin. They’re heading back to our shores in January for the Big Day Out. Woohoo! “Very woohoo,” vocalist Keith Buckley says. “I’ve never played or attended the Big Day Out before, but I have lots of friends that have, and it seemed like something the cool kids always got to do. So now we get to do it and I feel very proud. I feel very cooooool.”

Festival season always begs the question: were you much of a festival dude pre-fame? “Um… going to them? Well, I was, I guess. I didn’t really love it, but keep in mind this was before the internet. There were no cellphones, so you’re standing around in the sun all day, you lose your friends and they’re gone. There’s no way you’re going to find them again. So that was always my biggest thing: going there, the hassle of trying to find everyone, trying to find what time everyone is on. It was just a headache. But now, I mean, jeez, there are apps to tell you what time all the bands are on. So kids these days… I think I would enjoy it if I was just starting off.”

writing. Maybe some type of formal study?

“Well, my degree is in English but really it’s just from reading things. I never really emulated my favourite authors. I just took everything in, and it’s just the way I processed what fascinated me. I don’t know - right now it’s kind of weird, because until recently I’ve never read Chuck… are you familiar with Chuck Klosterman? I’d never read him until now, and now it’s like, ‘Holy shit, where has this guy been my whole life?’

He’s been writing books about pop culture for years and I’d never read them, and now it’s like… that’s exactly what I wanted to do. That’s the guy that I need to get off the throne! I had no idea this was the kind of thing I’ve been going for my whole life. Referencing different things to make them relateable so people can connect with it.”

“If the singers who are like ‘I can’t be around air conditioning’ went as fervently after ‘I’m just going to get drunk and I’m not going to think about it, I’m not going to worry about it,’ I think they would still be as successful.”

One of the big drawing points of Every Time I Die is their lyrical bent. You’d be forgiven for thinking Buckley has some kind of background in creative PG. 26 MIXDOWN NO. 225

JANUARY 2013

The intention behind the lyrics is only one part of Buckley’s performance. Another major aspect is his vocal technique, which shifts from screams to melodicism and back again with confidence, bravado and facility. What does he do as a singer to maintain that range - and maintain the rage? “I don’t worry about keeping my voice in shape,” he chuckles. “The more I worry about it, the more I psyche myself out. So I think it just has a lot to do with confidence and knowing what you’re capable of, and not trying to overdo it.

So I smoke cigarettes and I drink and I don’t do warm-ups, so I don’t really know how to respond to that! I’m a terrible example, I really am, but I’ve got to be honest!” It’s a funny thing because some singers take that approach, but others have to avoid all sorts of things in order to feel confident in their performance: no dairy, no air conditioning, no smoke, no coffee, sometimes even no speaking. “I think if I believed as much in that as I do in doing nothing… I really think it’s just where you put all your energy. If the singers who are like ‘I can’t be around air conditioning’ went as fervently after ‘I’m just going to get drunk and I’m not going to think about it, I’m not

going to worry about it,’ I think they would still be as successful. I really do. I think it’s all really got to do with how you talk to yourself mentally.”

Oh and what about Buckley’s other band, The Damned Things, with Joe Trohman and Andy Hurley of Fall Out Boy, Scott Ian and Rob Caggiano of Anthrax, and former Every Time I Die bass player Josh Newton? Any plans there?

“Yeah! The filing-away has begun. We’re starting to store riffs, and the lines of communication are open between the band members. Our process has begun, I just don’t know exactly what it’s going to end up as or how long it’s going to take.

The last record took four years to make, so who knows where it’s going to go! But now, if we’re willing to - which I think we are - we have some history, so it shouldn’t take that long.”

BY PETER HODGSON

Every Time I Die plays the Big Day Out nationally in January.

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GEORGE CLINTON GOTTA HAVE THAT FUNK

It’s impossible to imagine how the course of musical history would have transpired if it weren’t for George Clinton. Certifiably one of the all-time greats, Clinton stands as one of the most influential figures in rock history, leading the charge with his landmark outfits Parliament and Funkadelic (Clinton’s collective oeuvre is labelled with the umbrella term P-Funk). P-Funk enjoyed a massive resurgence in the early ‘90s with the boom of west coast G-Funk rap, with Clinton’s work forming many foundations in the form of samples. These days, George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic still tour extensively, spreading forth the good word of P-Funk to new generations, while featuring intergenerational personnel within their extensive ranks.

Ahead of his return to Australia, an erudite Clinton recounts his perpetual battles with copyright issues, his hunger for new music, and the lasting P-Funk legacy.

Do you think the social messages you were getting across in the late ‘60s, early ‘70s are still applicable today?

Pretty much the same. Those things are still relevant – free your mind and your ass will follow – I think there’s a resurgence of people finding out about what we were talking about. A lot of what we said was through dance music, and people just danced to it, but now they’re beginning to relate to the things that we said. In the late ‘60s, early ‘70s when Funkadelic were doing rock stuff, with a lot of social messages – like ‘Maggot Brain’. But in the ‘70s they related to the dancing at first. But now they’re relating to what was said – ‘Think, It Ain’t Illegal Yet’, ‘Funkentelechy’, ‘Three Blind Mice’ – all the stuff we was talkin’ about back then.

that, which is hard to do because kids hate their parents’ stars and vice-versa. Kids don’t like their older brothers’ and sisters’ heroes. But I think with hip-hop having so much P-Funk DNA, a lot of the younger generation transfer to us kind of easy. It’s for three generations, all the way from 75 to 80 yearolds, to 12, 13 year-olds.

You’ve obviously influenced hip-hop, but do you see Funkadelic as being an influential rock outfit?

To some extent, yes. You get groups like Chili Peppers, Janes Addiction. You can hear P-Funk in them.

What keeps you motivated at this stage?

We like doing what we do. That’s the main thing that makes it easy for us to do it. Everybody loves what they do.

You’re obviously in tune with what is happening in the contemporary music world.

I search YouTube to find what’s cookin’ for the most part. There’s a small clique of people putting it out, and they’ve got the power. So you have to find alternative ways to find new shit or to get new shit played, to get people to hear your new shit. I think YouTube is probably the richest with that right now.

How do you view your current audience?

Our shows have always been like a circus. The grandparents will go, the parents will go, and the kids will go. We have enough history and enough styles of music that everybody relates to us in some kind of way. They don’t mind seeing their parents’ heroes, or their kids’ heroes. We kind of get around

What are your thoughts on the internet being an outlet for musicians?

Well I feel more comfortable with the internet being an alternative to regular record companies because record companies weren’t doing anything for artists anyway. Now you at least have a chance of getting stuff out there when you want to, and you’re getting

paid. If you only sell a few, you still make more money than what you were getting from the record companies.

Do you wish that you were starting your music career in this climate, rather than battling through the music industry since the ‘60s?

I’m fighting for the rights to my stuff right now, but I’m glad we’re surviving and we’re still around to fight for the rights to our stuff, or to at least put in motion. We’ve been to congress, to senators, to record companies. Especially now with the new copyright law taking effect next year, for the first time in a long time – since 1978. That’s getting ready to be tested. Record companies don’t want to abide by the law. I’m glad to still be around to watch it change.

Your shows often go for longer than two hours, and you’re still touring extensively. Where do you get the energy?

Funk got Viagra in it. You’re ready to be hard. We got the energy, the people give it back. It makes it so easy to do when the people are part of the show.

The rich Parliament mythology – Starchild, Sir Nose D’Voidoffunk – I can’t help think it’s fertile ground for a Broadway production or feature film.

We’re working towards that right now. A P-Funk show, a play. And a movie of the Starchild, Sir Nose, Mr Wiggles, Dr Funkenstein, Clones, the Mothership.

VAMPIRE WEEKEND

There will be a movie somewhere along the line. … Do you think P-Funk will be eternal?

I don’t think it will stop. It will just be different. There’s a group called Drugs that’s a part of it right now, one called 420. Members have their offshoots, but there will always be some P-Funk, some Funkadelic around.

This will be the first time in a long while that the full P-Funk live experience will be in Australia.

What can we expect?

Everything. We’ll be doing everything up there.

BY LACHLAN KANONIUK

George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic will be bringing their 22-piece Galactic Circus extravaganza to Australia this March.

TOUR DATES: March 7 – Metropolis, Fremantle WA March 8 – The Hi Fi, Sydney NSW March 9 – Billboard, Melbourne VIC March 9-11 – Golden Plains Lucky Seven, Meredith VIC

COOL TO BE KIND

It’s been relatively quiet on the Vampire Weekend front since the 2010 release of Contra – the band’s well-received follow-up to their breakthrough debut. Anticipation has been steadily building for the outfit’s third album, with the first taste coming in the form of Unbelievers, which the band debuted on Jimmy Kimmel Live replete with skeletal Halloween makeup. Chances are Australia will be privy to more new material when the band tour this month as part of Big Day Out. Multi-instrumentalist and cosongwriter Rostam Batmanglij, who spent some of Vampire Weekend’s downtime working with recently defunct rap outfit Das Racist, lets us in on what’s in store for the upcoming album.

It’s that difficult stage in your album cycle where we know there is something in the works, but you can’t really reveal any details. When can we expect to hear material from the third album?

Definitely in the new year. There will be things that you can hear. I think we feel very good about it. There’s a spirit to it that we’re proud of. It feels like fresh ground for us.

What do you think defines the Vampire Weekend sound?

Well I think what’s defined us is this subtle complexity that’s always there. We’ve always driven toward simplicity, but with that underlying complexity that never leaves. I think that’s important in all of our songs that they exhibit these things.

A lot of bands would seem to be scared of projecting simplicity.

I think it’s because we’re not afraid of simplicity. I’m not afraid of chord progressions where the root is moving in very traditional ways, between I IV and V. The way that you harmonise the root doesn’t have to follow traditional harmony. In fact, in classical music it rarely does. You can put any or every chord on top of the I-IV-V in the root and what you get is something, to me, that sounds very fresh. I don’t want to get too deep into the music theory swimming pool, but that’s the technical answer. On a more emotional level, I can say PG. 28 MIXDOWN NO. 225

that we are hard on ourselves and we weren’t going to settle for a song that was just ‘good’ on this record, we wanted to rise above ‘good’ to be ‘great’.

Affording an elongated gestation period for your third album, is that due to relief from overcoming sophomore album syndrome? Has your label applied no pressure this time around?

We’ve always had 100 percent freedom from our label.

Our label wouldn’t want us to put out something that we didn’t feel 100 percent good about. With this record we needed all the time that we’ve taken, and the result has been an album that we’re proud of. I can’t imagine doing it any other way, really.

There’s a noticeable trend on Australian alternative radio where a lot of up and coming bands sound a lot like Vampire Weekend. How do you react to that sensation of being influential?

Well it’s an honour. I wish any them well, I wish any band well in making music. I think music is the most rewarding thing you can try to do and it’s the hardest thing that you can try to do. It’s not something that always comes naturally, that’s why I love it. There’s depth to it because of that. I guess I feel lucky and I feel honoured, and it’s something that I work on every day of my life. Personally, I have not heard many Vampire Weekend soundalike bands, but I’d be curious to.

JANUARY 2013

You had some controversy with the cover image for Contra with some litigation from the model featured in a vintage Polaroid. How careful are you being with cover art selection this time around?

Well we have an image that I really love, and I hope we get to use it and get clearance. There’s some controversy in there. Well it’s not exactly controversy, but there are some hurdles in order to get the clearance.

I do think it’s special and hopefully we’ll be able to get it. Well I’ll say that there is the aesthetic shift with the music, and it signifies that. There’s a shift in tone and personality, and I think that it signifies that as well.

You produced a track for Das Racist, plus appeared in their ‘Michael Jackson’ film clip. Did it surprise you when they announced their break-up?

Yes and no. I think that when you start a band in college, there are changes that you can undergo – you might grow closer, you might grow apart. You might need to grow apart in order to get closer. That’s something I can relate to. I don’t know if it’s the end for Das Racist, and I don’t know what’s going to happen with them.

Vampire Weekend also started in college, correct?

Yeah we did.

Do you think you have grown closer?

Me and Ezra had a songwriting partnership, one that over the course of the records has grown much stronger. In some ways, I feel like we’re leaning on each other more. The majority of the past records were the result of our songwriting partnership, and on this new record I feel like so much of what was written was an intertwining of us individually as songwriters. I guess we have grown closer.

You have your own solo musical outlet, plus there was All Summer with Kid Cudi and Best Coast.

What purpose do these projects serve in the grand scheme of things?

I think the purpose is being able to breathe. The result is that I get inspired to make more music, rather than getting drained. I think if you listen to the songs that I put out on my own, or the song I collaborated with Kid Cudi and Best Coast on, I think it becomes clear that they’re inhabiting distinct worlds, in the same ecosystem maybe, but they have their own worlds. I think sometimes if you have a dream you have to chase it down. I think I’m inspired to write more music, and in the past year or so it’s been in the context of the band.

How many new tracks can we expect to be performed at Big Day Out? I think we’ll be playing somewhere between a couple and a handful [laughs].

BY LACHLAN KANONIUK

Vampire Weekend will be touring as part of the 2013 Big Day Out, as well as performing a headline Sydney show.

TOUR DATES: January 18 – Big Day Out, Sydney NSW January 20 – Big Day Out, Gold Coast QLD January 23 – Metro Theatre, Sydney NSW January 25 – Big Day Out, Adelaide SA January 26 – Big Day Out, Melbourne VIC January 28 – Big Day Out, Perth WA

UNLEASH YOUR INNER ROCK GOD G U I TA R I N T R O S

Extreme

Last month in Mixdown’s bass column we looked at a few classic bass intros and what you could learn from them. But what’s good for our four-string brethren is good for guitarists too. Two strings better, in fact. So let’s check out some unaccompanied guitar intros, and the ideas you can steal… uh, borrow… nah, screw it, steal from them. These intros are going to borrow heavily from the Church Of Guitar Gods, but feel free to email or Facebook us with your own favourites.

VAN HALEN MAN ON A MISSION “What the hell? Why isn’t he choosing Mean Streets or Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love or Hear About It Later …wasn’t Eruption an intro to You Really Got Me?” Yup. And all of those are obvious, legendary and brilliant. Man On A Mission (from 1991’s For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge) deserves a mention though because it’s relatively obscure and a little different to a typical Van Halen ‘featured intro.’ On this one, Eddie Van Halen uses his right hand to tap a root/ flatted fifth/octave pattern, then adds a descending figure by ‘hammering on from nowhere’ with his left hand. Bass player Michael Anthony joins in halfway through. It’s a weird pattern which has a slight Primus feel to it thanks to that flatted fifth, but that same note also ties in with the Minor Blues scale used in the main riff. The same lick is used again in the song to build tension before the solo. So there are three things you can ‘borrow’ from this intro: the ear-catching weirdness, the way it ties in with the main riff, and the idea of calling back to it to build tension during the body of the song. Thanks Ed. JIMI HENDRIX LITTLE WING Jimi’s Little Wing intro takes up a good portion of the whole song, and it’s so damn tasty that he could have left it there and ended up with a

classic without singing a word. Stevie Ray Vaughan took this song and really ran with it too, re-casting it as an instrumental. But what’s especially great about this iconic intro is that Jimi plays around with the chord progression that you’ll hear later during the vocal parts of the song. He does this by throwing in little wiggly notes, hammer-ons, slides, harmonics… he basically throws a whole bunch of guitar at what would be an otherwise pretty but straightforward chord progression. The result is that when the band joins in and the vocals start, you’re already familiar with the chord progression, having just heard Jimi outlining and suggesting it rather than blatantly playing it.

STEVE VAI BAD HORSIE This intro started life as something Vai played during his cameo in the film Crossroads. He extrapolated upon it to come up with Bad Horsie, but the intro itself is kept relatively intact, just recast in a different tuning. Vai mimics a chugging choochoo train, complete with whistle, by combining whammied harmonics for the whistle with varied levels of palm-muting for the engine sounds. Then the main riff of the song is based on the engine pattern. This one teaches us that we can mimic real-world sounds and use them as inspiration for a more abstract song.

EXTREME OUR FATHER I hope they play this when Extreme tour Australia with Richie Kotzen in April 2013. On this one, Nuno Bettencourt’s guitar is panned hard left with a delay repeat panned hard right. He’s effectively only playing half of what you hear, letting the delay fill in the other half. So, if you listen to it in mono it loses its effect, but if you listen to it in headphones or on a stereo with simulated surround sound…whoa! You’ll probably need two amps or a unit like the AxeFX or a POD to pull

this idea off convincingly on stage - even a stereo amp won’t quite do it because the speakers are too close together. I’ve always found this kind of intro to be a bit of a brain-exploder, because we as the guitarists performing it will probably never be able to fully separate the performed part from the heard part in the way that a non-playing listener will hear it.

BY PETER HODGSON

WHAT’S THAT SOUND I ’ VE CAU G HT A VI RUS

So, there have been plenty of synthesizers in the past that have made a name for themselves with their big warm analogue tone and their inability to stay in tune, as their big warm analogue components go out of whack when they get working.

We have always marvelled at the quality of analogue synthesizers and struggled with their problems. I know many people who have further struggled to find solace in a digital synthesizer that can take their place for the sound it produces. Personally, I have always been the believer that the analogue sound is the only sound, so I prefer to deal with the technical issues rather than turning to the other side of the room to use my digital synths. But, am I making the right decision?

Well, I am now forced to take a good look at my opinions and admit that there is tone in digital synths and that tone I refer to is coming straight out of Germany, from the Access factory.

So dear synth lovers, the day has come where I have finally caught the Access virus having had the chance to get my hands on a Virus TI2 in the last couple of weeks. To be frank, the sound is of another planet, the complexity of the engine is mind boggling and the possibilities are just about endless. I had to let the demo song play three or four times over just to hear it again before I even started poking around in the PG. 30 MIXDOWN NO. 225

presets, it sounded THAT good.

Let’s take a closer look at what this particular synth gem actually offers. Firstly, the sounds that are to be found within the Virus cover so many genres and realms of synthesis design that for all the keyboards I have taking up space within my studio, I could just about get a single Virus TI desktop and it could do all the work... just about. For those of you who know and love German synth sounds, obviously they are all in there being that Access is from Germany to begin with.

Secondly, don’t stray if you’re into the tones of Japanese manufacturers either as you will find they can be found in there too. Even a really old school out dated Roland style brass instrument that should have been left in the haze of the early 90’s and never allowed to resurface again, but who knows this might be just what some of you are after.

JANUARY 2013

You may recall from my previous articles, I am a big fan of Novation sounds as they are simply awesome and I will always wear that badge with pride. They have a certain British charm like no other, but the beauty I found with the Virus is that they’ve been able to capture most of that charm with their own twist and squeeze it into the Virus for added value. Put simply, I will continue to use Novation for various projects as each synth has its own voice, but now I have caught the bug, or the Virus as would be the case. Access really have a lot to offer in their keyboards with control, access, integration and samples. They have taken charge to push the boundaries in digital synth design and tonal recreation that has really taken my ideas to a new level and this my friends is exciting. It’s exciting because apart from the obvious, (that the synth is fast becoming one of the leading instruments in many band and artist line ups with their

processing power and tonal, sound and sample variations) is that synth manufacturers from around the globe have heard the virus warning and this will spread, fingers crossed - innovative.

So, with the plague of NAMM 2013 upon us and the word of warning already out, the bar has been raised with exciting developments to come. I personally am not looking back so much anymore as I am looking forward to see the exciting influx of updates and new synths hitting the market in the new year... no doubt, synths about to get crazy!

BY ROB GEE For more information on the Access range of products phone Innovative Music (03) 9540 0658 on or visit www. innovativemusic.com.au

ON THE DOWNLOW NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS

The new year is of course a time for reflection, for aspiration, for sleeping off some pretty brutal hangovers, for changing your number, moving interstate and assuming a false identity to distance yourself a little from the indiscretions of the previous year. Ahem. So aside from hollow promises to get fit, be more responsible with money, cut down on greaseburgers and admit the baby is yours, the new year is a great time to set goals for yourself.

Here are a few goals you may want to consider as part of making 2013 a good one, free of Mayan apocalypses and Gangnam Style.

TRY A NEW STRING TYPE You’d be amazed at what a different string can do for your tone, whether it’s a change in gauge, a different material or some kind of tricky construction method. Start the year with a new set of strings and see if it changes the way you feel about the instrument. Personally I like to keep one bass strung up with Ernie Ball Cobalts which have a great top end and punchy lows, while keeping the oldest, cruddiest set possible on my Jazz Bass for the ultimate in deep, deep boominess. One of these days I’m going to just man up and get some flatwounds instead, which will of course improve the intonation compared to those gunged-up strings.

TIME FOR A SETUP It’s always a good idea to give your bass a thorough set-up to accompany any drastic change in environmental conditions. Wood expands and contracts with hot and cold, so the setup that was great two months ago could be totally shot by the middle of January. Get thee to a reputable tech and have your truss rod adjusted, electronics checked, nut optimised and hey, why not splurge and get your fretboard edges rolled and your frets crowned? It’ll make your bass easier and more comfortable to play, and it’s always nice to start your year off with something inspiring and pleasant, instead of

sitting around under the air conditioner guzzling Slurpees and cursing mighty sun god Ra. LEARN A CELLO PIECE The bass and the cello are distant cousins, and there’s a lot to be gained by adapting a cello piece to the bass. The perfect place to start is the six Bach Cello Suites. They’re in a variety of keys (G Major, D Minor, C Major, E-Flat Major, C Minor and D Major), and there are several adaptations out there for electric bass. But the best thing to do is get your hands on the actual cello versions and create your own arrangement. You can either approach it with an authentically ‘bass’ tone, or you can try to cello it up a little bit by turning down the treble, boosting the mids and applying some reverb. There’s a brilliant version online by Jacques Bono playing the first suite, and it demonstrates how perfect an exercise it is for learning to play all over the neck, maintaining steady rhythm and employing shifting dynamics.

LEARN A DISCO SONG Back in the ‘70s and early ‘80s, Disco was a dirty word among musicians. This was a time when jazz fusion was considered the pinnacle of musical achievement, and disco was considered to be way dumbed down. But in retrospect, disco had a lot going for it. Listen to something

by Chic in particular and you’ll hear some pretty

sophisticated arrangements with a reggae-like knack for locking in, and a blues-like groove.

And remember, back then most of this stuff was played by real musicians in a room, not by drum machines and sequencers. Try deconstructing a disco song and playing as many parts as you can on bass, as a recording project. Nobody ever has to hear it if you don’t want them to, but you’ll learn a lot. The bass parts are often quite minimal but very propulsive, and you’ll pick up some interesting rhythmic skills by trying to imitate the famous ‘scratch’ funk rhythm guitar sound. And those string and flute melodies that drift over the top of disco songs are a great challenge because they force you to think in a very different way, floating over a number of bars rather than locking in with a repetitive figure. So give it a try. It can be our little secret.

CHANGE YOUR PICKUPS I may be a bit biased since I change pickups more often than I change socks (so that’s what that smell is), but new pickups or a new preamp can really goose your tone. There are plenty of options: vintage-output passives, high-output passives, actives, passives with an active preamp, passives with an active preamp that you can turn on and off, single coils, humbuckers, noiseless single coils… most pickup manufacturers have online tone charts to give you an instant idea of what to reasonably expect with your bass’s woods and construction method, so you can buy with relative confidence.

BY PETER HODGSON

BANGIN’ THE TUBS

U S I N G T H E H I - H AT P E D A L I N G R O O V E S

I encounter this little coordination issue a lot in my teaching actually. The general rule of thumb in the earlier days of playing drums is that the ride cymbal gets used as a substitute for the hi-hat. In other words, groove on the hats and then switch to the ride for the chorus for example. Sure, this does the job but let’s look at this with a different thinking cap on.

LAYERS I think of the hi-hat as a real pulse for the groove – something to lock into. So, I don’t like losing that sound and locked in foundation when I move to the ride cymbal. As a result, my left foot automatically kicks in when I move to the ride and suddenly, rather than substituting, we’re adding. I’m referring to layers here. There’s now four voices in the groove – bass, snare, ride and hats. Of course this little opinion of mine is subjective and totally dependent on the situation and if the music needs a really full groove it’s always about what the music requires, but generally, this doesn’t let me down very often. And it often means that the ride cymbal is not required to play straight eighths either, giving you the freedom to change up the pattern on the ride. Win! GET INTO IT Right, so how do you start? The answer is – slowly! But don’t automatically think about just having to get a whole heap of boring coordination exercises going (unless you want to). Rather think about it like this. You want to add hi hat (or a new layer) to your existing grooves you play with the ride cymbal. So start here. By picking your favourite groove you know

you’re probably going to play at the gig on the weekend and slowly start to add your left foot (or opposite if your left handed) in first as eighth notes as shown in FIG A, because that’s what the right hand is likely to be doing or quarter notes FIG B. For something harder, try FIG C where you would play the off-beats.

If it all seems just ‘out of control’ hard you can go back to basics. Try rock beat number one with no left foot FIG D and begin to play the hi-hat slowing in time with the right hand. Sometimes, the brain just needs a bit of time to play ball but once it does you’ll find your left foot going all the time, even without you realising it. This is the subconscious that our brains are able to achieve.

When you walk, you don’t think about your feet do you? Playing drums is a similar thing as it’s hard to think about what four individual limbs are doing at the one time. But you can concentrate on one of your limbs and subconsciously control the others. It’s a very cool thing. However, your brain needs to understand it first.

If you’re in a hurry, do the first option of trying to fit some left foot hi-hat over your existing ride cymbal grooves. If you’re not in a rush, you can be more gradual and work on individual coordination issues by revisiting the easiest and simplest grooves you have. Good luck!

BY ADRIAN VIOLI JANUARY 2013

NO. 225 MIXDOWN

PG. 31

(D)IGITAL (J)OCKEY iMIXING

The Apple trend continues to grow and with new phones and new tablets hitting the market every few months it seems, there is also a wealth of third party additions that can turn your iPhone or iPad into a music making machine.

Many of these have been marketed at guitar players to begin with, but slowly we are starting to see iOS products that will find their way into the clubs and allow you to use your iPad with better integration in your DJ set.

Probably the most well known of the iOS products for music making is IK Multimedia’s successful iRig range. Initially testing the waters with a guitar interfacing unit, the range has now developed with microphones, preamps, MIDI interfaces and now, the latest addition, the iRig Keys, a small three octave keyboard for your iPad. So, with the included app, or any of your favourite synth apps, you can now have the power of a range of synthesizers in your iPhone to add extra flavour to your DJ set.

The iRig MIDI enables you to connect a whole host of devices to your iDevice and make the most of your mixing capabilities. And this trend doesn’t look like it is going to slow down at any time in the near future. More appears to be in store for iOS users, especially with Focusrite just releasing their iTrack solo, a breakout box style audio interface for iOS. But, if you really want to get serious with iMixing, as I am sure it will soon be known as, then you need to check out the iRig Mix from IK Multimedia as pictured. This is at the forefront of iOS hardware and software interfacing for DJs who want to turn a pair of iPhones, iPads or a combination of the two into a serious mobile DJ

setup. The iRig Mix is a portable DJ mixer that connects two units together and allows them to work with the free downloadable app from the apps store, DJ Rig. This then allows each iPad to be set up as a separate deck and the mixer works its magic in between the two with gain, two band EQ, channel faders and a cross fader.

There is a headphone output with cue buttons for each channel and a stereo master output on RCA connections. Seriously, who would have seen this coming all those years ago when we got our first glimpse of an iPhone? Hell, I still think these things are designed for making phone calls, but I obviously have my priorities a little backwards.

So, if you have an iPhone, and iPad or both, you are pretty much set up for a full recording studio, practise room and live DJ rig with just the simple addition of a few select pieces of hardware, all of which, I might add, cost far less than you would think. You can turn your phone into a pretty serious musical tool for around a hundred bucks or less in most instances. There really is no excuse for not making music anywhere and everywhere you go. For now, I think I will just get my head around some of the free DJ apps

that are available to see what works for me.

There are ones like iDJ Live, Quixonic and Touch Mix to name just a few, all of which require no additional hardware to run and can give you a good insight into what is really possible with your phone.

For More information on the iRig Mix and the range of IK Multimedia products contact Sound & Music on (03) 9555 8081.

BY ROB GEE

HOME STUDIO HINTS: A NEW RECORD BECKONS

It’s that time of year again where Santa has been to visit and in excess, we have spent all our money on the latest product we can get our music loving mitts on. Our New Year’s hangovers have passed and we find ourselves getting back into the studio for another year of creativity.

But where will it lead you? What does this year have in store? Are we all going to sell the lot and just buy an iPhone to record with? Or should we get back to basics and the techniques that spurred our creativity in the first place...

I think it is all too easy to get caught up with the latest gadgets and lose sight of our recording techniques. After all, if the original audio capture is poor, everything thereafter will suffer. So, this year I am going to go back to basics and look at microphone techniques. If we can improve our signal with the correct use of the microphone at the beginning of the signal chain, then we can save ourselves a lot of work later on in the mixing process to clean up the mess we made to begin with. So, this may be more of an overview, a general guide to get you thinking about how you capture your sound in your home studio, but that is exactly what I want it to be. Get the creative juices flowing and over the following eleven months we will look further in depth at different techniques for different instruments to really bring some life, character and depth to your recordings without having to rely on effects PG. 32 MIXDOWN NO. 225

later in the mix to emulate this.

What I have always told people when they ask me for advice about which microphone to purchase is to not think of one. There is no one perfect microphone. You simply won’t find the ‘one’ mic to record them all. So, if you have a budget, that is fine, stick to it, but instead of blowing it all on just one microphone, maybe look at getting two or three cheaper microphones for the same money, that way you can get a bit of variety in your audio capture. It’s all well and good to go out and blow ten grand on an amazing tube microphone that bares a certain logo on it. But, once you have recorded your guitars, maybe your bass, keys, and vocals with that one microphone,

JANUARY 2013

as good as they will all sound individually; they are going to lack character and variety when put together in the mix. Most people don’t think of this when they go on the quest for the perfect microphone and end up investing more money than they should into one tool that will ultimately result in a lifeless recording. So the first key to home and studio recording this month is to spend the time considering your microphone kit. Whether it be one microphone or fifty, think about how you can get the most out of each microphone for a particular application. Then consider what you are missing frequency, tone and response wise in the microphones you may or may not already have before purchasing your

new one. It’s all about filling those gaps and using the post x-mas sales to your advantage.

Try to fill those gaps sonically and financially by asking all the questions you need answers to at your local music store. These stores know their mics and will let you take your time and test them all out. So, once you have thought that through and made your next microphone purchase, next month we will get into some different recording techniques to make other most of them. Until then, enjoy the summer and remember the big red record button is your friend and not to be feared, so press it and enjoy the journey.

BY ROB GEE

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NO. 225 MIXDOWN PG. 33

PEAVEY VALVEKING 112 GUITAR AMP

ALVAREZ AP70 PARLOR ACOUSTIC

Parlor guitars are one of those under appreciated little gems. They’re physically easier to handle, and their smaller bodies give them a particular voice that sits a little more up-front than, say, a dreadnought. They tend to have less bass, more restrained highs and a strong midrange which is especially great for blues. The AP70 is one of the most popular guitars in the whole Alvarez line, and it’s easy to see why, just on looks alone: it’s super-cute!

STICK YOUR NECK OUT Alvarez’s Artist Series 70 line features hand-selected A grade Sitka and Cedar tops with Rosewood backs and sides. In the case of this particular model we’re looking at a Sitka top. Alvarez uses centre-scalloped bracing to enhance the vibrational mojo of the top, maximising the tone potential. The finish is high-gloss, which enhances the grain and depth of the Rosewood, and it adds some three-dimensional shimmer to the top as well.

Rosewood is a good choice for a parlour guitar because it helps to emphasise the treble and bass, counteracting the potential boxiness of the smaller body size.

The neck is bound Mahogany with a Rosewood fretboard, and the profile of the back of the neck is much bigger than you might expect. It fills the palm nicely, but may surprise some players who are used to more ‘electric-guitarist-friendly’ acoustic necks. The tuners are premium open-gear models in a slotted headstock, and the only inlay on the fretboard is a sort of abstract leaf/feather design at the 12th fret. The neck joins the body at the 12th fret, and access is hampered beyond that point: the furthest you can realistically reach is the 14th, and even that extra few millimetres to get to the 15th seems like a few millimetres too far. But this guitar isn’t aiming to be a jazz lead instrument, so it’s not really a problem, just a traditional design choice. A cutaway would take away valuable resonance space and would therefore impact the tone.

The Rosewood bridge deserves special mention: it’s Alvarez’s famous bi-level design, which increases the

break angle of the strings over the bridge saddle. The saddle itself is intonation compensated too. An abalone rosette is the only real concession to visual flash unless you count that 12th fret inlay and a slightly avocadoshaped pick guard.

STEP INTO MY PARLOR The AP70 sounds full and rich, but definitely doesn’t cross over into ‘boomy’ or ‘strident.’ The frequencies are focused in the midrange and this makes it feel a little louder than it actually is, and it enhances the detail and harmonic overtone content of fingerpicking licks and single-note lines. Strummed chords shoot clear across the room: this is no background guitar. It’d be ideal for a soloist or someone who needs to be heard in the context of a full band, rather than someone who needs to play a supportive role within an ensemble.

Playability is surprisingly supple despite the thicker neck: nothing seems like too much of a stretch, and in fact the fat neck seems to help in holding down certain chord shapes. The string spacing doesn’t present any challenges in terms of fingerpicking either.

MR. PERSONALITY The AP70 is a unique, personality-driven little guitar that really exists to be heard and appreciated, not kept in the background of the soundstage. It really sings, and it’s addictively playable as well. Sure, it doesn’t have a pickup or preamp, but those things don’t matter and you can always add them later. What really counts is that it’s a great sounding guitar that’s fun to play.

BY PETER HODGSON

RRP: $549.99 Distributor: D’Addario Australia Phone: (03) 8761 6293 Email: sales@daddario.com.a

Peavey’s ValveKing series is designed to get boutiquestyle tones and features within reach of real working musicians. In other words, it’s an attempt to build a high-quality all-tube amp for real tone-hounds without flooding the used kidney market.

IT’S GOOD TO BE THE KING There are a few different amps in the ValveKing line, but on review here is the 50 watt ValveKing 112, which offers two channels and a single 12-inch ValveKing speaker. There are two 6L6GC power tubes and a trio of 12AX7 preamp tubes. The Clean channel has controls for Treble, Middle, Bass and Volume as well as a Bright switch, while the Lead channel has Treble, Middle, Bass, Volume and Gain pots as well as a Boost Gain button and a Volume button for kicking up the output for a lead boost. There’s also a true spring reverb. Turn around the back and you’ll find a few secret weapons: a Resonance switch for tuning in a tight or loose cabinet response, and Peavey’s patented Texture knob, which is a variable Class A simulation control which varies the response between soft and punchy. There’s also a buffered effects loop and a foot switch jack.

TWO CHANNELS ARE BETTER THAN ONE Perhaps the most impressive thing about the ValveKing is that it gets out of the way of your guitar while still doing its job. There’s definitely a ValveKing ‘character’ which is especially evident in the cleaner settings, yet it still retains the personality of the guitar you’re plugging into it. Humbuckers sound rich and warm, with a kind of rounded midrange and enhanced harmonics that invite jazz chording and ambient melodies. The power tube drive gives single coils a nice even compressed feel while still giving you plenty of string detail. The ring and jangle of single coil chording is pretty spectacular.

Clearly, if you’re the kind of player who likes to run everything from the guitar’s controls, you’re going to

love this. Ditto if you prefer to just use an amp’s clean channel while using pedals for overdrive and distortion.

But the same retention of guitar sonics also applies for the distorted sounds: there’s a little more of the amp’s own personality pushed to the fore here by default, because that’s what high-gain channels tend to do, but the finer points of each guitar or pickup you play through it sing loud and clear. And it’s a deceptively capable amp: when we think ‘boutique’ we usually conjure images of clean-to-mildly-driven amps being used for non-aggressive musical styles. But the ValveKing holds up especially well as a hard rock or vintage metal amp.

Modern metal styles are a bit of a stretch - the midrange is too thick even when rolled back, and the lows aren’t quite of the type required for death metal. But fusion, blues-rock, hard rock and 70s/80s metal voicings are all here. The Lead channel is definitely more compressed and saturated than the Clean, and this may put some players off but it’ll be pure ambrosia to others. Where you fall depends on what you require from your music.

FROM CLEAN TO MEAN The ValveKing 112 is a very versatile amp which would be even more versatile if there was a bit more depth and dimension to the Lead channel. That would broaden its appeal even more, but then again, anything the ValveKing doesn’t do is done incredibly well by the 6505, so if you’re after scooped-mid death tone, that’s where to look. For everyone else, there are plenty of great tones here for jazz, blues, R&B, country, indie, rock, stoner and prototypical metal styles.

BY PETER HODGSON RRP: $799 Distributor: Audio Products Group Phone: (02) 9669 3477 Website: www.audioproducts.com.au

PEARL SESSION STUDIO CLASSIC DRUM KIT In light of their new distribution by Australasian Music Supplies (AMS), Pearl drums are now a new line of drums and a new range of pretty sweet finishes across the current range. The entry level Forum receives a new Arctic Sparkle, the Vision VB gets the Arctic and Black Gold Sparkles while the Vision BL gets a truly striking Graphite and Vision VML; the Ash Fade Tamo. The higher level Masters Premium kit gets the addition of a wicked Quilted Bubinga Sunburst and it looks rad. However, first thing should be first – the return of a classic – the Session Series. This line has been unavailable to purchase for some time now and was quite a popular choice for years amongst players.

RETRO STYLINGS The recipe includes a blend of birch and kupur for the 7.5mm 6ply shells. These wood choices set you up for a fundamentally lower pitch and depth in your sound. No bad thing there. Other rad features of the Session are the old school depth sizes on the drums – 10x7, 12x8 14x14, 16x14, 20x16, 22x16, and 24x15 are the choices for the toms and bass drums. Choose from a 14x5.5 or 14x6.5 for the snare drum. A great feature about the short stack toms (more on the sound later) is the fact that using the opti-mount tom holders, you can get the drums nice and low or just exactly where you want them. They also, frankly, just look cool. You get a choice of three bold laquer wraps too – Piano Black, Sequoia Red and Sheer Blue. I tried the blue and it was pretty striking. Add on the addition of some hardware/fittings (some from the higher level drums) such the Masters-esque floor tom legs and brackets, new designed session lugs, recessed bass drum claws and SuperHoop II hoops on the snare and you’re ready for battle.

EARS TO THE GROUND The Session, coupled with its Remo Pinstripe heads on the toms, produces a fat tone with plenty of attack followed by a short decay. I immediately thought to myself that this kit would record well hence the name. Birch as a warm, low character and this is evident from the outset. The kit is easy to tune and sounds the biz out straight out of the box. The bass drum has heaps of balls (I tried the 22”) and the snare has a very focused sound with little overtones meaning you can leave it with no dampening and enjoy the projection.

Honestly, I was very impressed with the Session and recommend it whole heartedly. It sounds unmistakeably Pearl but the fact that it behaved itself so well and the short depth toms sucked me right in. Absolute bang for your buck here!

BY ADRIAN VIOLI

RRP:$2699 (FUSION PACKAGE), $2799 (FUSION PLUS PACKAGE), $2899 (ROCK PACKAGE) Distributor: Australasian Musical Supplies Phone: (03) 9549 1500 Website: www.austmusic.com.au

PG. 34 MIXDOWN NO. 225

JANUARY 2013

TIMBERIDGE RIDGE TRBC-1SB ACOUSTIC BASS

FRET KING ELCAT STANDARD ELECTRIC ECTRIC GUITA GUITAR AR A

There are certain e established guitar design icons, and there’s no point skirting around them: the Stratocaster, the Telecaster and the Les Paul are all archetypes which inform our expectations of what a guitar is.

But that doesn’t mean there aren’t areas that can be refined, tweaked, improved upon, altered or just flatout changed. After all, the Strat and Les Paul were designed in the 1950s, and the Tele dates back to the 1940s. Legendary designer Trev Wilkinson has plenty of experience in getting the most out of an instrument, and he’s applied his tech know-how to the Fret-King line. The Elcat Standard is a prime example.

THE FUTURE AND THE PAST As Wilkinson himself says, “We don’t have to tell you what the inspiration for this guitar was...” The Elcat Standard is quite clearly derived from the Les Paul, but even a passing glance will tell you this isn’t just a copy.

Yet at the same time, it features many of the elements that made the Les Paul great. The guitar features a selected two-piece centre-jointed mahogany body with a 3/4” maple cap, and a mahogany neck which joins the body via a long tenon joint for enhanced energy transfer. The fretboard is rosewood with 22 medium jumbo frets and pearl crown inlays, and the fretboard radius is 12” - exactly what you might expect from a guitar of this style. The scale length is the standard 24.75” as well. The hardware is a direct-mounted tuneo-matic style with stop tailpiece But that’s pretty much where the comparisons end. The tuners are Wilkinson WJ01 models which seem to turn smoothly yet securely; the pickups are Wilkinson WVC humbuckers, and instead of the regular pair of volume controls and dual tone pots, there’s just a master volume and master tone, along with Wilkinson’s very clever VariCoil knob. This system takes the place of a coil split switch: rather than turning one coil on or off, it shunts more and more of that coil’s signal to ground as you roll down the knob, until it’s completely out of the circuit when the knob is all the way down. That means that you don’t just get single coil and humbucker tonalities: you get every point in between as well.

The other blatantly non-Les-Paul feature is the

exaggerated forearm scoop (which lets you see just how thick the maple cap is too). It places the forearm at the most precisely perfect picking angle you’ll ever experience, and players who perform a lot of palmmuting are especially going to love it.

NATURE VS NURTURE Wilkinson’s WVC humbuckers are wound to the original specs formulated by humbucker creator Seth Lover, as gifted to Trev in the 80s. I happen to have a set of Seymour Duncan Seth Lover humbuckers in my Les Paul, which were created with Lover’s input and specs in the 90s, so it was interesting to compare them. After all, Lover’s PAFs were subject to various spec fluctuations due to looser tolerances. The Elcat Standard sounds more punchy and a bit hotter than my Les Paul, but the sound is definitely very much within what I would consider the classic Seth Lover sound: clear and bright in the high end, with relatively restrained low end and a nice blooming midrange. The Elcat sounds a little more ‘rock’ than my Les Paul, yet it can be coaxed down into more sedate styles as well, making it a little more versatile - and that’s before you hit the Vari-coil control.

The sheer range of tones available here is astounding, from punchy blues-rock to twangy country and skittery funk. The middle pickup setting offers incredible indie jangle too, with the Vari-coil rolled back about three quarters of the way.

THIS CAT’S GOT CLAWS By its very nature, the Elcat Standard is a highperformance tricked-out take on this classic design, so it’s not a traditionalists’ axe. It’s more playable and versatile, and has plenty of its own character too. And yet there are plenty of sonic traits that link it back to the instrument that inspired it.

BY PETER HODGSON RRP: $1199 Distributor: National Audio Systems Phone: (03) 9761 5577 Website: www.nationalaudio.com.au

Ti b id Timberidge h have proven in i th the pastt th thatt a solid lid acoustic guitar doesn’t have to break the bank. And with a range of shapes, specs, extras and models they’ve got a lot to offer. Bass players shouldn’t feel left out either as Timberidge have also added a number of acoustic bass guitar models to their lineup for anything from ‘unplugged’ gigs, quieter gigs, rehearsals or just adding a different mood to your playing. Like they say a change is as good as a holiday and playing acoustic bass after electric really can open up your ideas as you get your head around a new tone. Let’s have a look....

NST Standing for ‘natural satin’ this particular model of the TRBC-1SB features a solid spruce top, solid mahogany back, mahogany sides and neck and a rosewood fingerboard and bridge. The body design works a bigger rounded body with cutaway for plenty of volume and resonance without being too big and awkward to play. I couldn’t fault the finish on this instrument with the binding and inlay work being super nice and I really like the natural stain finish - something a little more earthly and reserved as opposed to a full high gloss. Using their standard chrome diecast tuners the TRBC-1SB tuned up straight away without any problems and held its tuning after some considerable musical bashing.

sits it att th the shorter h t end d off thi things meaning i nice i access and feel and it plays a treat. The action was good straight out of the case too and as a result you could genuinely make use of the cutaway for forays up the top of the fretboard. Acoustically it was warm and round with plenty of depth that easily handled the low E string. Open strings and further up the neck felt responsiveness and sounded clear for a balanced all round feel.

WOOD YOU? Yep. The TRBC-1SB is a great acoustic bass for the price. Realistically it’s a good acoustic bass for much more! Comfortable 81.5cm scale length (and 44mm width at the nut) with a solid choice of woods that whilst aren’t anything exotic work well to produce a full, loud acoustic tone. B-Band A3T preamp/pickup/tuner electronics are the brand of choice for Timberidge guitars and for me they really seem to perform well reproducing the instrument’s fundamental tone with little fuss. So it sounds like they’re keeping everybody happy at Timberidge now with a range of acoustic bass models adding to their existing guitars, minis, 12 strings and nylons.

For a solid instrument at a more than decent price check out the TRBC-1SB to get your acoustic vibe on.

BY NICK BROWN

UNPLUGGED A fretted acoustic bass can often be a tricky number as they still need the shape and size to produce the lower registers yet need to be user friendly enough to be played like an electric bass (as opposed to standing up playing double bass). Scale lengths often vary with acoustic basses and the TRBC-1SB

RRP: $799 Distributor: Jade Australia Phone: 1800 144 120 Website: www.jadeaustralia.com.au

SHURE FP WIRELESS SYSTEMS For those of you wanting wireless microphone applications with a truly portable nature, the FP Systems from Shure are really going to get you excited. I have had many colleagues looking for units like these over the years and have yet been able to find a cost effective system that offers the flexibility that is need for mobile video production work and mains power free wireless setups – until now.

FIELD PRODUCTION The Shure FP System removes the need to be chained to an extension cord and relieves users from dealing with bulky receivers when they just aren’t needed. These systems are perfect for location recording and video production where a small, battery powered receiver is needed for mounting on a camera or portable audio recording device. The system is made up of a variety of components that can be obtained to work with the battery powered FP5 wireless receiver. This itself is a small unit, like most belt pack transmitters and comes with mounts for attaching to a video camera or digital SLR. SENDING ALL THE RIGHT SIGNALS There are a variety of transmitters available with the FP series. The obvious ones are the FP2 handheld microphone with the classic SM58 capsule and the FP1, a body pack transmitter for use with lapel and headset microphones. But a couple of other additions to the range make the versatility just about

endless. The FP2 handheld transmitter features a VP68 omnidirectional capsule for environmental and room recording, not a common capsule, but a handy one to have. Probably the most exciting transmitter in the range is the FP3. This is a plug in transmitter with a female XLR termination on the end. Basically, you can use this transmitter to turn most handheld or boom operated microphones into a wireless device. So, you can use your favourite microphone for field recording with your digital video camera any time you like now. It also comes with a belt clip adaptor so you can use it like a belt pack if you so wish and run a lapel or headset microphone to the FP3. The transmission of all these units is excellent, offering plenty of range and no audible interference that I could detect, even when moving into a different room within the house, not that this is advisable, but it is always good to know. Basically, what this means is that just about any recording environment you will find yourself in you know you will be able to trust the FP wireless systems to get your message across.

BY ROB GEE RRP: $399 SHR-FP2VP68-L4 (MICROPHONE) $599 SHR-FP3-L4 (PLUG-ON WIRELESS TRANSMITTER) $689 SHR-FP15-L4 (BODY PACK SYSTEM BELT BACK AND WIRELESS RECEIVER) Distributor: Jands Phone: (02) 9582 0909 Website: www.jands.com.au

JANUARY 2013

NO. 225 MIXDOWN PG. 35

RADIAL ENGINEERING CHERRY PICKER

LEWITT LTS240 WIRELESS MICROPHONE

The newest and freshest name in the microphone game is certainly Lewitt Audio as they continue to release new products that remain with their ideals for how a good microphone should be built and how it should perform. And so, with their first step into the world of wireless microphones, they seem to have nailed it again with the LTS240 UHF diversity system, a wireless system that offers a rugged handheld dynamic or condenser microphone (depending on whether you choose the ‘C’ or ‘D’ set) and a solidly built receiver ready for use in a variety of applications.

HANDHELD STABILITY I had the LTS240 Diversity C set to try out this month, with the LTS240 MXc handheld microphone included. This is the condenser microphone in the range, but you can choose the wireless system with a dynamic microphone if you so prefer. The microphone itself has a fairly solid build. The bottom half screws off for access to the battery compartment and controls for changing the channel of the transmitter, with four different channels available, so you can run multiple systems on one stage. At the other end, the capsule is well protected within a cage pop filter, but inside you can see how Lewitt have put the design team to work to ensure the lowest handling noise possible with this sensitive microphone. The capsule itself is further encased in a metal housing with a fine mesh grill around it.

This entire assemble is mounted to the handle with

a rubber suspension system that reduces handling noise and keeps the capsule properly isolated from the rest of the transmitter. There was no surprise when I powered up the microphone to hear the side rejection of this capsule. You can see in its design how it allows for a very direct audio image and so is well protected against unwanted feedback.

ALL BOXED UP The receiver unit is cased in a metal housing, making it ideal for the rigours of live use. It features a recessed gain and squelch control that are accessible with the provided screw driver for adjustments. The front panel allows you to scroll through the available channels easily and has a four point LED to show RF levels when the transmitter is switched on. Included with the system is a rubberised microphone clip that firmly holds the handle in place but is not likely to snap with misuse, as well as a power supply for the receiver and batteries for the transmitter. So, right out of the box, all you need is the appropriate lead to get it hooked up to you PA system and you are ready to go.

BY ROB GEE RRP: $239 Distributor: National Audio Systems Phone: (03) 9761 5577 Website: www.nationalaudio.com.au

For those of you who have been living under a rock and have never come across Radial products before, you need to get out more. This Canadian company builds some of the toughest pieces of kit going around and cover just about every musician’s needs with their intuitive designs. This month I got to play with some of the tools designed to keep audio engineers smiling, one such tool was the Cherry Picker, a neat little unit that is going to change how a lot of people work with microphones in their recording set-ups. So, let’s take a closer look.

TAKE YOUR PICK This is such a simple design, yet so bold in said simplicity. Basically, this little box allows the passive pass through for a microphone signal to a variety of sources. Why haven’t we seen a unit like this before?

Setting it up is simple, running your microphone into the input you are able to take the four outputs and run them to a variety of pre-amplifiers for a variety of tonal characteristics. So, instead of having to rig up a monstrous patch bay to access your preamps, or dig around behind the rack every time you want to run your signal through a different unit, you can just go to the Cherry Picker and change the direction of the signal path, allowing you to do multiple takes of a recording through different mic preamps quickly and easily.

appearance of a unit that can do more than it promises.

No, it is kept to a bare minimum, giving you the options you need and nothing else in order to retain the integrity of your signal path. When routing your microphone signal to your preamp, you want transparency in your signal flow and that is exactly what you get from the Cherry Picker. Each channel has a selection switch and a ground lift button and that is it. There is an overall mute button to stop the signal flow altogether and a recessed phantom power switch, only accessible when you really want to get to it, so it isn’t accidentally applied when using ribbon microphones. All these controls are built into a recessed area on the side of the unit, with the top and bottom housing protruding around the controls to protect them from any unwanted damage. The whole thing is well thought out and seriously well built. You get a beautifully transparent signal flow and a build quality that will keep the Cherry Picker working for you for many years to come. Top job Radial Engineering!

BY ROB GEE

RRP: $499

BARE BONES Like any other Radial product, you are not given an overabundance of flashy gizmos and wild effects to give the

Distributor: Amber Technology Phone: 1800 251 367 Website: www.ambertech.com.au

YAMAHA THR10C AMPLIFIER “A new kind of amp”.Yamaha's catch cry for the THR series of amps sets you thinking straight away. What's so different though? Going for an amp that's portable and small in size yet big in features and usable as a home amp, small gig amp and recording amp, they might be onto something.

TICK OF APPROVAL Looking a little like a '60s radio the THR10C comes in a dark casing with a slight sparkly speckle in it. Dark gold lettering on the top of the amp is clean giving the amp a slick, understated retro look. Firing the THR10C up you get a funky orange glow through the front grille to simulate some amp glow and running on either mains power or batteries (for up to 6 hours according to the manual) there's no problems using it in spots where access to a power point is tricky. A quick scan of the top of the amp and you'll find the typical controls with - On/ Off, Gain, Master, Bass, Middle, Treble alongside a dual control button for Tap Tempo or accessing the Tuner.

Amp which lets you flick through the 5 Amp Models and 3 extra switch settings, 5 User Memory editable preset locations, Effect for a choice of Chorus, Flanger, Phaser and Tremolo if so desired and DLY/REV with Tape Echo, Echo/Rev, Spring and Hall variations. The control panel is rounded out with i/o - Input jack, Phones out and an Aux jack and an Output control section with Guitar and USB/Aux levels. Yamaha have made connectivity a big feature here with a USB jack on the back of the amp for direct connection to your computer as well as supplying a copy of Steinberg's Cubase AI 6 software for recording. An extra tick for the Aux input jack too handy for jamming with backing tracks or an MP3 player.

LIVE? STUDIO? PRACTICE? WHAT? A little bit of all of those would work. At 10 watts you might not think you're getting much juice but the design and technology behind Yamaha's two 3.15" speakers and Extended Stereo imaging gives a big full sound with lots of spread. And we're not talking tinny practice amp tones - fat, full range, warm amp sounds. Pretty amazing

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really when you look at the size of the amp and speakers and the fact that it can run on batteries. I liked all of the included amp models with Yamaha sticking to a classic selection with Deluxe, Class A, US Blues, Brit Blues and Mini. Clean and slightly broken sounded great, low to medium volumes and you've just got to hear the THR for yourself to understand how fat and clean this amp sounds for such a little package. Whilst there isn't much tweaking range for the effects, they still sound good too, warm and usable. Perhaps as a decision to keep the controls to a minimum you essentially get the chosen effect off and then incrementally in effect before scrolling through to the next effect. Not always ideal but fine for a lot of useable effects and still a worthy inclusion.

I could definitely see the THR10C USED for small, small gigs (typically solo stuff or even acoustic guitar duo) when battery powered amps are needed for outside or awkward places. It's also perfect for home, be it practice, working out tunes or writing. With its USB connection, recording is straight ahead and the tones are damn good quality - easily on par with a lot of other well 'known' guitar DI/recording devices.

LITTLE RIPPER The THR10C is a really intuitive little amp for home use, recording and as a grab and go rig. The concept is great, the tones are really good plus it's portable and can run on batteries if needed. Sticking to the more traditional tone palette and vintage vibe with the THR10C's amp models and effects, you've got a solid base to work with. Yamaha also offer a few other models with slightly different features if that's your bag which I also look forward to getting my hands on. All in all, Yamaha have come up with a fantastic new amp at a great price.

BY NICK BROWN RRP: $399.99 Distributor: Yamaha Australia Phone: (03) 96935111 Website: au.yamaha.com

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NO. 225 MIXDOWN PG. 37

RADIAL ENGINEERING GOLD DIGGER

ALVAREZ RT-16 ACOUSTIC TRAVELLER

Alvarez’s aim for the all-new Regent series is to redefine the entry level acoustic guitar. The RT16 is a travel guitar which occupies a similar niche to certain other travel instruments by some of the big US acoustic builders, but with a very distinctively Alvarez vibe at the same time.

HONEY I SHRUNK THE GUITAR The RT16 is designed to play like a full-sized acoustic, and it’s built using many of the same components and techniques used in Alvarez’s higher-end instruments. It features a Spruce top (Alvarez doesn’t state that it’s a solid top, so it’s reasonable to assume it’s not, especially at this price) and it has Mahogany sides and back, with simple and well-executed creme binding. There’s a pearloid soundhole rosette which looks quite interesting, given that we’re all much more used to abalone or inlaid wood rosettes rather than pearled.

The fretboard is bound and the back of the neck is surprisingly deep for a guitar of this size, although the tighter string spacing reminds you that you’re playing a smaller instrument. The neck joins the body with a dovetail joint for optimum tone transfer, and the guitar features Alvarez’s bi-level Rosewood bridge, which keeps the string pegs down far lower than the saddle, providing a steeper break angle for the strings, further pumping energy into the top for big tone. The tuners are die-cast chrome, and construction quality is quite decent for the price.

TEENY AND TONEY The tone is slightly boxy, as you might expect from such a diminutive instrument, but that works in its favour, punching the sound clear across the room with powerful mids, a solid low end and defined

highs. It’s a very warm sound, great for downtuning and fingerpicking. There’s plenty of note separation in firmly-strummed chords, while single notes sing with an almost vocal quality. I’ve always found these kinds of mini travel guitars to be great for slide thanks to their midrangey voicing, and this one is no different.

Playability is effortless whether strumming, flat picking or fingerpicking, but you will be aware that you’re playing on a narrower neck. It may take a few minutes to get used to, especially if you’re more accustomed to wide classical-style freeboards, but this can sometimes be a very good thing, bringing complex chord shapes within easier reach.

HAVE COOL, WILL TRAVEL The RT16 doesn’t have any bells and whistles - no preamp, and not even a pick guard - but it offers plenty in the way of tone and performance. A few slight workmanship issues aside (which could be cured by a half hour on the bench), it’s a very capable beginners’ or travel guitar and a nice secret weapon for recording.

BY PETER HODGSON

RRP: $299.99 Distributor: D’Addario Australia Phone: (03) 8761 6293 Email: sales@daddario.com.au

This month I got to play with some of the more studio oriented tools from Canadian manufacturer Radial Engineering. Firstly, I have to say, I have always loved their gear. Everything they build is done to an exacting standard and it always seems to fill a gap in your setup where no other manufacturer has been able to do so. That’s why when I unboxed the Gold Digger, a four channel microphone selector box, I was keen to plug it in and hear how it sounds. Let me tell you, this is exactly the kind of tool that can bring diversity to your recordings simply and easily, without ruining your signal quality or requiring large numbers of inputs to your DAW. FOUR VOICES What the Gold Digger is essentially, is a gating system for a selection of microphones. It’s just that simple. No real hidden tricks, no fancy promises, just a very useful tool that allows you to take four separate microphones and run them into your recording device with the ability to switch effortlessly from one to another. This is great news for small recording setups where a large console is not in use, but you want to make the most of a variety of microphones. You now can have them all plugged in, all the time and simply switch to the one you want to use without fear of adding unwanted noise or stripping the tone from your signal with a poor quality mini mixer.

THE INS AND THE OUTS OF IT The Gold Digger is simplicity at its finest. You

have four balanced XLR microphone inputs and one balanced XLR output on the rear of the unit.

Around the front, in the classically recessed panel that is prominent in many of Radial’s designs, you have the controls for each of these inputs. Each input has a trim control pot so you can level out the input volumes for varying microphones and there is a single, non-latching switch for each input to allow you to select your source microphone. In addition to this, there is a recessed phantom power switch for each input, keeping it out of harm’s way when you really don’t want 48 volts running down your lead to a sensitive ribbon microphone. That, in a nutshell, is it. The build quality is impeccable, giving you the confidence to use this device time and time again and the noise flow is inaudible, allowing just the tone of your microphone to pass through to your DAW or preamplifier. The Gold Digger is the perfect way to add flexibility to your recording setup and allow you to have several microphones set up and ready to go at the press of a button.

BY ROB GEE

RRP: $499 Distributor: Amber Technology Phone: 1800 251 367 Website: www.ambertech.com.au

VOX AMPHONES Continuing on with the amPlug idea of headphone amps that plug straight into the jack output of your guitar Vox have now developed the amPhones range. This new addition to their lineup cuts straight to the headphone chase with a portable, easy to use set of headphones featuring the iconic UK brand’s logo. Looking like a normal set of cans they are powered meaning you get an amp type sound through them plus you can tweak tones, play along with your favourite tracks and they can function as normal headphones too!

CANS Produced by Audio-Technica, Vox have gone for a reputable headphone company in the first place which seems like a good move. Cushioned and padded around the ears the amPhones aren’t fully sealed but are more a comfortable, enclosed type headphone that sit fairly snug on your ear. Both ear piece sides are extendable with the top of the unit again padded so long bouts of jamming should still be comfortable with minimal fatigue.

As the amPhones are active, one of the ear capsules has room for 2 AAA batteries whilst the other side has the controls with Standby/On, a red status LED, Effect, Volume, Tone and Gain. You also get an Aux input if you want to plug in your iPod/MP3 player to jam along with. Battery life is very dependent on the type of batteries used and varies anywhere from 7 - 16 hours meaning you can still get quite a bit of use from a single set.

STRAIGHT OUTTA THE VOX Coming in a range of models Vox have gone for AC30, Lead, Bass and Twin to cover a bit of ground tonally. Obviously the AC30 is one of Vox’s iconic amps, so I was keen to check it out. Batteries in, plug in a guitar and fire it up. Jangly, edgy and a

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hint of breakup make it definitely in the AC30 vibe.

Balancing the Volume and Gain switch controls get you nicely into the Vox tone realm (pushing the gain for some extra breakup) and you can work the volume level to get a comfortable sound without deafening yourself. The Tone control is good for brightening up a darker guitar and with effects you’ve got a choice of Reverb, Chorus and Delay. These aren’t very tweakable but still handy to have onboard and nice for a little variation. Being headphones your sound is very in your face but still sounds realistic at low volumes and you get the benefit of being able to arc up your guitar without annoying the rest of your household!

STRAIGHT AHEAD Audio-Technica onboard - check, can be used as normal headphones with your music player/device - check, amplifier for your electric/semi acoustic guitar, bass - check, battery powered and portable - check. Vox seems to be onto another winner with the amPhones. The walk around, not annoying anyone else factor would be a major plus for a lot of people and you’re still getting quite a good guitar tone to boot. For different models again you can check out the Lead, Bass and Twin models which share the same premise – setup and layout with controls, effects and AUX in, and more – but carry their own distinct tones. And at a decent price it isn’t out of the realms of possibility of players wanting to own a few different sets.

BY NICK BROWN RRP: $149.99 Distributor: Yamaha Australia Phone: (03) 9693 5111 Website: au.yamaha.com

JANUARY 2013

NO. 225 MIXDOWN PG. 39

ALVAREZ AG60CE GRAND AUDITORIUM

STEINBERG CUBASE 7 RECORDING SOFTWARE can now be done with text, colour and even ven icons so you can see what they are at a glance. nce. The new mixer window brings so many features es onto the screen without opening separate windows; ows; it is beginning to feel like the DAW I have wanted anted Cubase to be for so many years. EQ, noise gate, compressors, hard limiters, effects sends and a host of other functions can be added to each channel nel with pull down menus on the mixer’s surface itself. lf.

This makes it easy to quickly set up each channel el with the features you want it to have, with just a few mouse clicks and without ever leaving the mixer to begin with.

LOCK IT IN I really got hooked on the new grouping features in Cubase 7. You can easily lock a selection of channels together for a temporary group and the changes made to any function in one channel will affect the same function in all the channels of the group to a relative value. This can be disabled at the press of a button to make a singular change and then re-enabled again to make group changes. You can also change group settings to absolute values by switching another button in the group mode.

Well, we were all wondering when it was going to happen, and with the success of Cubase 6 and the great new features it had to offer, I am sure many of you are wondering what is coming your way with the latest version. Now, finally, Steinberg have got it polished up and Cubase 7 is ready to go with a sleek new look and a host of great new features that will have most existing users eager to update and will surely entice a host of new users into the Cubase community.

IT’S IN THE MIX As Cubase 6 saw a host of new features that were more along the lines of integrated plug-ins, Steinberg has taken a different approach to how you are going to benefit with the upgrade to Cubase 7. I could fill this entire magazine if I was to go into detail about all the added features, but I have limited space, so you will only get an overview here and will have to check the rest out yourself.

Basically, the new Cubase 7 is going to completely change the way you work within the mixer window.

Don’t be fearful though. Many users are afraid to adapt to new versions because of the learning curve, but with Cubase 7 it is so intuitive you will have no problem at all. New elements like grouping your tracks are made very easy and labelling tracks

The overall effect of these new changes means a faster and more reliable workflow. You can change the view of the mixer to show you the features you need to see and even have an overall meter bridge panel to give you an idea of all the tracks that are running. Now, I know this barely scrapes the surface of what is in Cubase 7 and I can tell you, you really do need to see the changes to understand how well they will work with you production, so get out to your local store and check it out. I am sure most of you, like myself, will see this as the facelift Cubase has needed for quite some time and will welcome the new changes readily.

BY ROB GEE

RRP:$599 (FULL VERSION), $399 (EDUCATION VERSION) Distributor: Yamaha Australia Phone: (03) 9693 5111 Website: au.yamaha.com

Alvarez says their new Artist ‘60 Series is ‘probably the best guitar we have ever made’ in terms of value. That’s a pretty big call, because even the highest-priced Alvarez guitars are considered good value. Seriously, have you ever tried to buy a used Alvarez? They only come up for sale about once a decade, because once you’ve got one you don’t let it go! One of the saddest days of my life was finding a beautiful Alvarez in a Salvation Army op shop and finding out they knew exactly what it was worth, instead of slapping a $20 sticker on it. Damn. But I digress. Let’s check this beauty out.

AIN’T IT GRAND The AG60CE is a Grand Auditorium instrument from the Artist Series, which also includes Dreadnought, Folk, Baritone and Bass instruments. It features a hand-selected A Grade solid Sitka Spruce top with Mahogany back and sides. A solid top (as opposed to ply) is the preferred construction method for many players (even though ply is a legitimate tone wood for acoustic instruments, unlike in electrics where lowerquality variants of the stuff are used to cut costs), but a solid top will settle in and age in a unique way after years of strumming.

The neck is Mahogany with a Rosewood fretboard, premium die-cast chrome tuners, an understated 12th fret inlay, and a cutaway that gives plenty of access to the higher frets. The strings are D’Addario’s long-life EXP offering, and you can plug this baby in thanks to an Alvarez/B Band SYS650 system. This system uses B-BAND’s patented electret film technology instead of Piezo materials (which are known for their sonic brittleness). It’s a dual pick-up system incorporating one under saddle pick up and a transducer pick up placed under the soundboard. The preamp offers individual controls for Bass, Middle and Treble as well as a tuner with a liquid crystal display, a Notch Filter knob for feedback elimination, a master Volume control, a low

battery warning light, and a Mix control for dialling in the right level of bridge and body pickups.

TONE TIME Straight out of the box, the AG60CE feels great.

Workmanship is nearly flawless (there are a few light marks on the fretboard from some sloppy fret finishing, but these will be worn down by regular playing), but otherwise it’s killer. The natural tone is clear, lively and vibrant, with a full low end, singing upper mids and a crisp treble. It’s a great guitar for fingerpicking or strumming, and it’s utterly gorgeous when you plug it in and combine it with effects. There’s none of that annoying piezo quack, and the Mix control does a great job of balancing the fullness of the body with the clarity of the attack. Try it with some ‘space echo’ from your favourite digital delay unit (or the real thing if you have access to an old analog Roland Space Echo) and you’ll be in the Devin Townsend Ghost zone. Try it with some light ambience and you’ll have a beautiful, inspiring and surprisingly realistic acoustic tone that will fool all but the keenest of ears that you’re playing a mic’d up acoustic rather than one using an onboard system.

I KNOW WHAT’LL BE ON NEXT YEAR’S XMAS LIST… Aside from the slight finishing issue with the fretboard (which doesn’t affect playability in the slightest), this is a gorgeous guitar which sounds as good as it looks - and it looks damn fine. The acoustic tone and easy playability are good enough to sell it on its own, but the plugged-in sound really knocks it out of the park.

BY PETER HODGSON RRP: $579.99 Distributor: D’Addario Australia Phone: (03) 8761 6293 Email: sales@daddario.com.a

TIMBERIDGE TRAC-3C ACOUSTIC OUSTIC GUITA GUITAR Spruce and Rosewood has been the combination of choice on a tonne of acoustic instruments in the past and more than proven itself as an excellent match for tone and feel. Falling into the Auditorium shape of acoustic guitars Timberidge’s TRAC-3C utilises this Spruce and Rosewood arrangement for r ned, curvy semi acoustic guitar that’ll provide a a refi a nice alternative to the standard dreadnaught shape.

CUT Althou Although its similar to a dreadnaught in depth there something about the grand auditorium there’s tha makes it feel a bit smaller. The pronounced that bulges and waist of the TRAC-3C make for a really comfortable guitar to play. You really feel like you can get stuck into the guitar and the cutaway gives you good access to the higher registers of the guitar. Tasteful binding further outlines the TRAC3C’s shape with the detailing and soundhole inlays adding to the guitars understated and natural looks. As mentioned earlier Timberidge have used a combination of solid spruce for the top and rosewood for the back, sides, neck, fingerboard and bridge. All this feels solid, looks great and a hard case is also included in the equation to look after your instrument in the first place.

GRAND AUDITORIUM With its narrower waist and fatter bottom you definitely get a snappy, clear tone from the TRAC3C. There’s a lot of note definition and the low end is sharp and full. Strumming some open chords the guitar sounded balanced and resonant with some nice zing that wasn’t overpowering into ‘tinny’ territory. Further up the neck was still rich with barre chords and single note lines. Fingerpickers and flatpickers will also enjoy the guitar for its responsiveness and ease of playing. You might want to look at a bigger gauge of strings for some

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extra oomph but that, like setups, string type and pick choice can be a very individual thing. As a starting point the TRAC-3C comes ready to play and could handle a range of styles with ease from big, loud strumming to the nuances of finger picked parts. For plugging in you get the B-Band A3T preamp/pickup/tuner combo meaning you can handle anything from bedroom strumming to loud, amplified gigs and the output section of the guitar features both jack and mic XLR giving you a couple of options.

COVERED Whilst the dreadnaught styled guitar is probably the most common and recognisable shape I really like the Grand Auditorium for its snappy resonsive tone and accentuated body style. With the TRAC-3C Timberidge cover another base with a well priced, value for money grand auditorium acoustic-electric guitar that sits up there with plenty of instruments retailing for a lot more than this. The B-Band electronics are solid and the guitar sounds great acoustically as a starting point anyway. Coming with a deluxe paisley hard case you’re covered (literally!) for looking after your new axe too - another well priced beauty of a guitar from Timberidge.

BY NICK BROWN

RRP: $699 Distributor: Jade Australia Phone: 1800 144 120 Website: www.jadeaustralia.com.au

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NO. 225 MIXDOWN

PG. 41

SAMSON METEOR USB MIC response range is 20Hz to 20kHz, and it records at CD quality - 16-bit, 44.1/48kHz. TESTING TIME I tested the Meteor Mic with vocals to start with (both my own and my four-year-old’s (dude loves singing Beatles songs whenever I set up my recording stuff, and who am I to say no?). The sound was extremely clear, with great “breathiness” and a refreshing lack of low-end boominess and sibilance. What I really dig about the Meteor’s vocal sound is that it has just the right character to play nicely with processing very important if you’re a crap singer like me who needs to perform a little tweak here and there.

PROPELLERHEAD BALANCE AUDIO INTERFACE input and monitoring from Reason Essentials, or just about any software platform. It allows two channels of audio to be sent into your computer together, but the guys at Propellerhead have made your life easy by including extra inputs so you can plug a number of devices in and switch between them as you need to. As well as a pair of balanced TRS outputs for monitoring, you get two microphone inputs, two pairs of stereo line inputs and two guitar inputs with pad switches for varying pickups.

The front panel allows you to switch each channel running into the computer to the desired input to speed up your workflow and adjust the input level with gain controls. Along with your switching options, the front panel also features two great big knobs. It couldn’t be simple. One controls output to you speakers and the other controls output to your headphones. The look and feel of the unit is just great. It is finished with a rubberised coating that allows you to grip the controls comfortably and enhances the design of the unit.

I am sure most of you have heard of Propellerhead, the Swedish software company that gave us Rebirth in the 90’s and has continued to improve with updated versions of their Reason software ever since. Nowadays, they have taken it one step further and designed a compact audio interface, called Balance, to match up in design and specification to suit the latest version of Reason. It even comes bundled with Reason Essentials 6.5 software, so you are ready to record and produce your next album with this one system.

SHARP LINES The Balance interface is a striking unit with sharp European design and elegant functionality allowing

ALL THE ESSENTIALS Now, as great an interface as this is, it is made even better with the included software. In the box your also get Propellerhead’s Reason Essentials 6.5 software. Yes, this is a cut down version of Reason 6.5 but don’t let that put you off. It has more features to it that the original Reason software did and feature a bold new design and workflow with detachable mixer and rack windows for better use on multiple computer monitors. The mixer itself doesn’t quite have all the features of the one found in Reason 6.5, but it still has that familiar SSL layout with new channels being instantly added to the board with every instrument that is added to the rack. Put simply, you really need to check this unit out. Reason has come a long way and Propellerhead have pushed it further with Balance. It is no longer a locked up program for soft-synths. This could well be the new way to record for many musicians.

BY ROB GEE

RRP: $429 Distributor: Electric Factory Phone: (03) 9474 1000 Website: www.elfa.com.au

So you have a home studio. You’ve been getting by with plugins, but you’d really, really like to record the sound of an actual acoustic guitar instead of the quacky clack of string against piezo element. Or you have a killer vocalist lined up, but you’re frightened to admit to them that you sang all your guide vocals through your laptop’s built-in mic then covered up the resulting audio mess with processing. That kind of stuff won’t fly with a real vocalist - oh Lordy, no!

Enter the Samson Meteor Mic. THROW YOUR OLD INTERFACE AWAY (JUST KIDDING) The Meteor is both physically and conceptually neat.

At its heart is a large diaphragm (25mm) condenser mic with a cardioid pickup pattern, encased in a chrome-plated shell with handy inbuilt legs that fold out into a self-contained desktop tripod. Would you rather mount the Meteor to a mic stand? The bottom of the Meteor will screw on, no worries.

Another very handy bonus the Meteor Mic has going for it is that it’s its own interface. Y’see, it’s a USB-only mic that you simply cannot use without a computer. Plug it into your computer (a USB cord is supplied along with a handy carry pouch) and you shan’t need an external interface. The Meteor includes a headphone jack, along with a 3.5mm headphone volume control, an input overload LED and a mute button. The Meteor’s frequency

Samson also points out that you can use two Meteor Mics for stereo applications, such as micing a grand or upright piano, or on an acoustic guitar where you might angle one toward the neck joint for boominess and body and another around the bridge for attack and clarity. As it was, I was able to use the Meteor Mic to find a great sweet spot on a Breedlove acoustic, and the handy fold-out feet allowed me to angle the mic at exactly the right position to nail the sound consistently.

I also tested the Meteor with a Marshall valve amp and Celestion-loaded speaker cabinet. It sounded great in an all-purpose kind of way. Some mics may do a more distinctive “yep, I totally know what mic they’re using on that” kind of thing, but the Meteor does a fine job of translating your axe into your recorder. I especially liked the sense of depth obtained by turning the mic at an angle of about 45 degrees, around a foot away from the speaker.

TWO METEORS ARE BETTER THAN ONE The Meteor is a very nifty all-purpose mic that is as inexpensive as it is useful. A very strong case could be made for picking up at least two and experimenting with stereo sound fields and combined close/distant micing techniques. It feels bulletproof, and the only check against it is a high level of surface noise if you touch it - which you really shouldn’t be doing, since it’s not a stage mic. Aside from that small point, which becomes utterly nebulous if you’re using the Meteor as it is intended, it’s a winner.

BY PETER HODGSON

RRP: $124 Distributor: Electric Factory Phone: (03) 9474 1000 Website: www.elfa.com.au

DV MARK TRIPLE 6 GUITAR AMP DV Mark introduces the Triple 6 by explaining that they keep a very close eye on market trends, aiming to respond to the real needs of working guitarists.

It’s an approach which allows them to keep right on the ball rather than playing catch-up. So the Triple 6 takes what many players love about the Bad Boy 120 amp and turns everything up to 666: DV Mark says “If the Bad Boy 120 is ‘bad,’ the Triple 6 is pure evil!’ That’s a big claim - let’s check it out.

WHAT STANDS BEFORE ME? The Triple 6 is a 120 watt all-tube head rocking a pair of KT88s and an ECC83 in the output section - you read that right, an ECC83 in the output. There are also four ECC83s in the preamp. There are three channels, each of which has Gain, Master, Presence and Solo (boost) controls as well as individual passive Low, Mid and High pots for each channel. The first channel is based on that of the Bad Boy 120 but channels 2 and 3 are voiced much more aggressively. Importantly, the effects loop is very carefully engineered to meet the needs of working players. Not only does it have individual Send level control/Mix control (for optimising the performance of pedal or rack units), but it also has a Loop Assign rotary control which lets you choose which channel it’s assigned to. DV Mark’s Pedal Controller automatically memorises your effect loop and stores them in memory until the next poweron. Speaker outputs are 2 x 8ohm (or one 4ohm), 2 x 16ohm (or one 8ohm) and 1 x 16ohm. I tested it through my Marshall 1960A cabinet, using my Buddy Blaze prototype 7-string with splittable Seymour Duncan Full Shred and ‘59 humbuckers, and a Gibson Les Paul Traditional with Seth Lover humbuckers.

FIGURE IN BLACK WHICH POINTS AT ME Channel 1 is the clean channel, and it has plenty of clarity in the high end along with a tight bass zone and rich mids. It seems to especially love single coil pickups, ringing out with lots of string definition.

The Blaze’s humbuckers sounded a bit less distinct, although the lower-output humbuckers of my Les Paul sounded a bit more characterful. It seemed to be a little more work to get the perfect tone out of

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the ‘buckers, whereas it was hard to make the single coils sound bad.

Channel 2 seems to start at a vintage Sabbathapproved level of roar before charging onwards to heavier, darker styles. Here you’ll find killer hard rock, vintage metal and stoner metal tones with nice responsiveness to the guitar’s pickup switch and volume control (especially on the Blaze, which has a high pass filter to retain the highs when the volume is rolled back). This is the one to choose for most players because it gives you great variety. Channel 3 offers great saturation and heft, whether cranking out modern metal and djent tones or screaming solos.

You certainly won’t need to beef up your lead sound with an overdrive pedal: everything you need for your lead tone is right here in the box, aside from maybe some delay and reverb if you want to add some ambience. Whether using the hotter pickups of the Blaze or the vintage-voiced ones on my Les Paul, this channel always sounded soulful, smooth and singing.

And at no point did any channel break a sweat when presented with the full force of the Blaze’s low B string.

BIG BLACK SHAPE WITH EYES OF FIRE The Triple 6 is a deliciously devilish tone machine which can cover a huge range of genres from country to death metal, making pitstops along the way at blues rock, hard rock, stoner, shred and djent. It’s a real virtuoso’s amp that will force you to really focus on your technique, because it gives you nowhere to hide. And that’s perhaps its biggest strength: it doesn’t cover up your playing, but if you’ve got your technique together (like Triple 6 user Greg Howe) it’ll show you in your best light.

BY PETER HODGSON

RRP: $2550 Distributor: CMC Music Phone: (02) 9905 2511 Website: www.cmcmusic.com.au

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MUSIC

GUITAR MAKING

Music Performance Music Industry Sound Production From year 10 to Certificate IV Govt funded Music courses from $200.

Write, Record & Tour while you study.

Secure hands on experience through work experience with Maton Guitars Aust / Instrument construction / Repairs and setups / Design and documentation / 3D Modeling technology / Business planning / Work placement / Occupational Health and safety

Develop work ready skills from guitar professionals in manufacture, repair & set up.

Work alongside professionals to build solid body and acoustic instruments, using the latest technology.

The college is currently taking applications for Certificate III & IV programs.

Govt funded programs.

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Mature Age applicants welcome

www.ncat.vic.edu.au

NCAT specialises in

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/ Digital Work Stations / Apple Mac computers / Professional software / Full Recording Studio / Practice rooms

Mature Age applicants welcome For a complete listing of Arts & Technology studies go to;

www.ncat.vic.edu.au JANUARY 2013

NO. 225 MIXDOWN PG. 43

HIWATT T40 GUITAR COMBO AMPLIFIER

PEAVEY IPR DSP 3000 POWER AMPLIFIER

Peavey’s guitar amps, guitars and basses are so popular that it’s sometimes easy to forget that they have such a reputation for PA equipment. They have a knack for designing gear that offers prolevel sound and performance but with simplified features that make it relatively easy for anyone to quickly get a sound happening, from experienced soundies to whoever happens to be asked to turn on the mic at a school or community centre. The IPR 3000 DSP power amp combines user-friendly loudspeaker management with the lightweight power and high performance of the original awardwinning Peavey IPR power amps, adding onboard digital signal processing for several key functions.

BRAINS AND POWER The IPR 3000 DSP pumps out 1,490 watts RMS per channel a 2 ohms (840 watts RMS x 2 at 4 ohms) and it weighs just 3.5kg, making it very portable for use with small mixers but powerful enough to be paired with more sophisticated setups too. It’s so ridiculously light that it feels like it’s empty! There are two channels and a variable-speed fan housed in a lightweight aluminium chassis. Inputs are Speakon combination quarter-inch and XLR, and the outputs are combined quarter-inch/twist-lock connectors. Speakers are protected with Peavey’s DDT technology with multi-point clip sampling, and there are also DC, Temp, Signal and Active safeguards, all represented with front panel LED indicators. There’s also a Through Out so you can daisy chain a bunch of these if needed.

The IPR DSP makes setup a breeze no matter what level of technical competence you possess: there’s an intuitive setup wizard which helps you to set EQ curves, delay speakers, crossover (full-range or full-range with sub), high pass and low pass; adjust a four-band parametric EQ and horn EQ; even and specify the amount of Waves MaxxBass processing from 0-100%. This is a clever system which uses psycho-acoustics to calculate precise harmonics related to the fundamental tones of the input material sound. When you combine these harmonics via the Waves MaxxBass system, you’ll get the effect of deeper low frequencies even with

less capable speakers.

The DSP also lets you access preset banks for popular loudspeaker types and configurations, again for super-easy setup for inexperienced or simply rushed sound engineers. These include many popular Peavey loudspeaker types, including the QW, SP, EU, Impulse, PR and SSE Sanctuary Series, as well as standard generic 10, 12 and 15-inch loudspeakers. There are preset program EQ curves for you to use for styles including rock, pop, jazz, hip hop, contemporary worship, speech and acoustic, and you don’t need to worry about fidgety fingers messing with your settings: a builtin security lock can be selected to lock down all functions apart from volume (which you might need to access in an instant for whatever reason).

SPEAK NOW OR FOREVER HOLD YOUR PEACE! The IPR DSP 3000 is a great choice for anyone who needs clean power, easy setup and flawless reliability. It packs a deceptively high amount of features into its incredibly light frame, and it’s bound to be a big favourite for small to medium sized venues. There are other versions which pack enough power for larger requirements (the IPR DSP 5000 offers 2,525 watts RMS per channel at 2 ohms and the IPR 7500 DSP Power Amp dishes out 3,750 watts RMS per channel at 4 ohms), and there’s also the The IPR 1600 DSP rated at 900 watts RMS per channel at 2 ohms, so if the feature set sounds like something you’re into, there’s an IPR DSP model for any application.

BY PETER HODGSON

RRP: $1199 Distributor: Audio Products Group Phone: (02) 9669 3477 Website: www.audioproducts.com.au

Hiwatt amps have been powering rock for about four decades now, most notably via guitarists like The Who’s Pete Townshend and Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour. As Townshend knows, there’s something magical about a Hiwatt power section when pushed to breaking point - an alchemical combination of punch, growl and ring that you just can’t get from any other amp. And as Gilmour knows, Hiwatt’s clean tones are a great platform for effects too, from simple ambience swimming around a clean sound to full-on modulation and fuzz. The T40 Combo is designed with these two sounds in mind, but with another trick up its sleeve: a dedicated overdrive channel.

WATT’S WHAT The T40 is the Tube Series range’s equivalent of Hiwatt’s Classic A Range State/Studio 40 watt head and combo. There’s a 20/40 watt switch which halves the number of EL84 power valves in operation from four to two. The preamp features two 12AX7s and a 12AU7; there’s a Master Volume, Reverb, Treble, Midrange (with push-pull frequency shift), Bass, Normal Gain and Overdrive Gain controls and a channel select button. There’s only a single input jack, unlike some Hiwatts which feature four which you can jumper together. Around the back you’ll find the speaker jacks, a line out jack, an effects loop and a footswitch jack for controlling channel selection and reverb on/off. There’s a pair of 12” Fane speakers in the cabinet, and the whole unit is relatively portable - a bit of a heft, but nothing you can’t handle if you’ve eaten your Weet Bix. HiWatt also offers an extension cabinet with the same speakers.

WATT A SOUND I tested out the T40 with my Fender American Vintage Reissue ‘62 Stratocaster with Fender Custom Shop Vintage ‘57/’62 pickups. First up, the clean sound is pretty spectacular. It leans more towards the ‘crystal clear reproduction of the sound coming from your pickups’ style of channel vo voicing, especially at lower gain levels, and this is aw awesome if you have a guitar that you like to play unp unplugged around the house. Turn up the gain on

the Normal channel and you’ll get more warmth and compression, and this is exaggerated further by turning up the Master Volume and flipping to 20 watt mode. What I particularly like about the T40’s clean sound is that while some amps seem to have one great clean sound, with all the other settings being mere points on the way to hitting the really good stuff, the T40 is packed with great cleans.

Sparkly, jangly, mellow, punchy, ringing, muted and overdriven, it’s all here and it all sounds great. The midrange shift plays a big part in this flexibility.

The Overdrive channel doesn’t quite have the same depth of variety as the Normal channel but what it lacks in flexibility it makes up for with character. It sounds fat and creamy, a great blues-rock lead tone of the kind sometimes employed by players like John Mayer. It sounds especially great when you roll back the highs and crank the mids. The response is a little compressed and smoothed off around the edges, and double-stops sound great too, with plenty of growl.

The Reverb deserves special mention too. It never overwhelms the guitar, even when turned all the way up. Again it doesn’t have plenty of character, meaning it won’t draw attention to itself the way, say, an old standalone external reverb tank from the 50s might, but it more than does the job for general spring reverb duties.

GET HI The T40 HD is suitable for many different players, particularly those who tend to spend the majority of their time on the clean channel or on the edge of overdrive, but those creamy overdrive tones are pretty enticing too, especially for blues rock lead players.

BY PETER HODGSON RRP: $999 Distributor: CMC Music Phone: (02) 9905 2511 Website: www.cmcmusic.com.au

ALVAREZ AD30 ACOUSTIC GUITAR AR

The AD30 is the entry to Alvarez’s Artist seri series. The AB60CE acoustic other instruments in the line are the AB6 bass, acoustic baritones, four ass, ABT60 and ABT60E acou classicals AC65CE, AC65HCE and AC70), ssicals (AC65, AC65CE a whole (including straight hole bunch of dreadnoughts d acoustics, electros, cutaways and 12-strings), Folk stics, elec models, Auditoriums, Jumbos and a Parlour s Grand G guitar. While these are all undoubtedly fine guitars,

PG. 44 MIXDOWN NO. 225

the AD30 is the most honest, stripped-back, barebones representation of their acoustic art.

YOU SPRUCE UP NICELY The AD30 has a solid Sitka Spruce top supported by advanced scalloped bracing. Like all solid tops it’s bound to become more tuneful, resonant and rich over the years. The back and sides are Mahogany

JANUARY 2013

beautiful streaky grain which almost looks (with a beau while the Mahogany neck has like Rosewood), Rosewoo a Rosewood fretboard. There’s no cutaway, but of unfettered access up to the 15th there’s plenty o fret, and a bit m more if you have decent reach and tough fingers. Unlike Unl a few other instruments from the Artist line, this one has a full set of position markers on the front of the neck - small dots, in this case - as well as the standard side dots. The pick guard is the same abs abstract avocado-shaped design found on a few other instruments in the line, and the abalone abalo sound hole rosette is tastefully and und understatedly applied.

There are a few other nice touches: a bone saddle and nut, and Alvarez’s extremely clever bi-level Rosewood bridge. This bridge provides a steeper break angle for the strings to pass over the bridge saddle, enhancing the transfer of vibrational energy from the strings to the top. Some players also feel that such a steep angle also makes the strings feel snappier and to stay in tune a little better. The jury’s still out on that (and it’s probably part of a rich tapestry of elements including the nut, headstock pitch and neck joint) but it sure sounds good.

There’s no kind of pickup, mic or preamp on the AD30 but it’s easy enough to install a sound hole pickup or internal mic.

PICKIN’ AND GRINNIN’ The AD30 is a very bold strummer. The individual notes of the chord all knit together for a very solid, unified and full sound. It’s a little less detailed than

many dreadnoughts, but that’s not a bad thing at all - in fact, if you’re a big chorder you’ll probably prefer the thickness of the tone compared to the top-andbottom-heavy nature of most dreadnoughts. But it’s not just a star strummer - there’s a fullness and authority to fingerpicked lines which once again sounds thicker than the average dreadnaught. If you’ve played a lot of acoustics it’s almost odd to play a dreaddy with such a bold, warm midrange.

It’ll be a great choice for those who need a powerful rhythm instrument or for bluegrass flat pickers.

A SOLID CONTENDER The AD30 may occupy an entry-level place in the Artist line, but it doesn’t sound like it. The tones are as big, bold and powerful as you could possibly hope for, and with more character than the average dreadnaught. Amplify it with a sympathetic system and you’ll have a killer pro-level tone despite the budget price.

BY PETER HODGSON

RRP: $399.99 Distributor: D’Addario Australia Phone: (03) 8761 6293 Email: sales@daddario.com.a

YAMAHA PSRE433 KEYBOARD

Bring out your

DEAD !

With the entire PSR range from Yamaha getting an overhaul in the last year, it was only a matter of time before they got to the E423 and gave it the facelift it so deserved. With that, Yamaha have now presented us with the PSR-E433, the latest and greatest version of this keyboard that has grown and developed over the last decade to represent not only great value for money in the middle of the PSR range, but also a keyboard that really packs in the extra features that the lower prices ones are lacking. What this reminds me of almost is some of the keyboards Yamaha were producing four or five years back at about twice the price, but the PSR-E433 features even more tricks and newer sounds.

BLACK IS BACK The most noticeable difference at first glance is that the PSR-E433 has undergone a thorough facelift with a new layout and a black and grey facia that gives it a more menacing look to the previous model. This keyboard no longer wants to be seen as a toy, but as a serious piece of equipment. But, it is not like Yamaha to simply change the colour of a keyboard and release it as a new model. No, they have to give us far more than that or it wouldn’t be worth doing. The sound bank has gotten an overhaul with new sounds added included new voices from their “Cool!” and “Sweet!” sound sets found in higher priced Yamaha models. In all, you get a staggering 731 sound to make use of and 186 varieties of styles for accompaniment, including styles from all parts of the world.

NEW TRICKS To make the most of these new sounds in the PSR-E433, Yamaha have introduces a pattern function that allows you to access all number of loops and beats and trigger them as you play, making the unit behave more like a modern DJ sampling system. You can then make use of the real time control knobs to adjust selectable parameters and bring you performance to life.

This keyboard is designed to be a step up from the beginner PSR models and takes you into the realm of live performance, rather than just being designed as a learning tool. The 61 note keyboard is complemented with the addition of a pitch bend wheel to further allow you to improvise with your sounds and make them your own. A USB to device port is included on the rear of the unit which allows you save song settings to a USB device and load previously store settings back into the keyboard.

PC connectivity is also available via USB, with the old standard 5 pin DIN MIDI connection being left behind to make way for new avenues. In all, there are too many features to mention here, so the best option would be to get down to a Yamaha keyboard dealer and give one a test run.

BY ROB GEE

HUGE TRADE-IN DEALS on Sennheiser Wireless Mic systems

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FOR A GREAT TRADE-IN DEAL For those of you have not heard of them, yet, let me introduce you to Urbanears. These guys are paving the way for fashionable headphone and earphones that actually sound as good as they look. So, don’t just write these off as a fashion statement, they are actually a really well designed set of headphones. Plus they come in a great array of colours like pumpkin, rust, indigo, mocca, tomato and most definitely teal.

BOLD SOUND These headphones are designed with the fashion conscious DJ in mind. Not only do they work well in a DJ environment, but for home listening use and with some handy features, as a day to day MP3 aid. Don’t let the compact design of these headphones fool you. They deliver a powerful bass kick that will keep just about any DJ satisfied and a sparkling top end that brings even MP3 files to life... somehow. I have tried more pairs of headphones this month than most people do in a lifetime and these ones really surprised me. I was not expecting the quality of sound that they delivered to bellow into my ear drums. Being compact in design, the Zinkens are built to a high standard that will see them stand up to the rigours of DJ lifestyle or everyday listening uses and the replaceable cable alleviates any concern for wear and tear.

CLEVER DESIGN Just about everyone suffers from never having the right adaptor for their headphones to go with a certain device. Sure, you get supplied with one when you buy them, but that usually gets lost in about a

week and can never be found when you really need it.

The Zinken headphones have solved that problem for good with a reversible cable that can be connected into two different fittings on the headphones. One end has a stereo 6.5mm connector and the other has a three way 3.5mm connector for stereo sound and microphone input. This means you will always have the right sized connection for your device without needing an adaptor. Just turn the cable around and you’re set. With the 3.5mm end in use, you can take advantage of the handy microphone built into the cable, making them ideal for use with smartphones.

A function button is located on the cable alongside the microphone for use in this instance, but it does not have any effect if accidentally initiated when in use without a microphone wired device.

These sound great and look the part too. Obviously, Urbanears are going for a decided aesthetic with the design of these. Their entire range of headphones and earphones has been purpose built to match your lifestyle. You many even want to get a few pairs, that way you will be able to accessorise with your choice of clothing for the day or even find a pair that matches your fixie.

visit

ddready.com.au for more information

Freecall 1800 648 628 sales@syntec.com.au www.sennheiser.com.au

BY ROB GEE RRP: $249 Distributor: Amber Technology Phone: 1800 251 367 Website: www.ambertech.com.au

JANUARY 2013

NO. 225 MIXDOWN PG. 45

LAG STAGE SERIES UKULELES

AVID ARTIST CONTROL

I have had the pleasure of working with a number of AVID control surfaces and each one is always well designed and well suited to the needs of the user.

AVID’s goal in their control surfaces is to bring the experience of working with the computer more into the hands of the producer to create a faster and less complicated workflow. Now, this month I was very excited to have the Artist Control land on my desk for review. For the price point that the AVIC Artist Control comes in at, it is without a doubt the best featured control surface on the market. Best of all, it isn’t just designed for use with Pro Tools, but also supports other DAWs like Cubase, Logic and Digital Performer. So, most home studios out there can now take their DAW control into their own hands and use less of the mouse for a more natural mix process.

ALL AT YOUR FINGERTIPS The thing that really struck me about the Artist Control was how it just draws your hands towards it. You want to work with it and you find that your hands spend more time on the control surface than they do on the mouse or keyboard. It really does bring you one step closer to being one with your DAW and makes the recording and editing process a dream. The four channels on the right hand side take the place of the conventional mixing desk with motorized faders, record/automation keys and On/ Solo buttons. These can be easily toggled through the channels within you session, with the faders instantly snapping to the correct position as you shift channels. The other exciting design change is in the transport section. Rather than the typical layout that many controllers have for transport, the buttons are fanned around the jog wheel, so your

PG. 46 MIXDOWN NO. 225

right hand easily has access to these features as it rests on the unit.

TOUCH AND GO Obviously, anyone who has seen one of these units will know there is a huge advantage to it that is rarely optimized in similar controllers. If you have seen the picture you will know I am talking about the touch screen. Yes. Touch screen! And it isn’t a small addition that looks like it has been thrown in at the last minute for a selling point. The Artist Control is built around this large full colour touch screen and openly invites you to make use of it for greater DAW control. What this LED backlit screen offers is a list that is too long to mention really. It gives you full control over most software features, allowing you to navigate through automation modes, very track information and parameters and even access plug-in controls and EQ settings, all at the touch of a screen. The addition of a further twelve buttons located beneath the screen give you four rotary encoders on either side of the screen allowing you to enter information for parameters brought up on the display.

The AVID Artist Control is going to revolutionise the way home and pro studio owners work with Pro Tools and other DAWs, making editing and mixing a speedier process. Put simply, I want one.

BY ROB GEE

RRP: $1799 Distributor: Avid Website: www.avid.com

JANUARY 2013

The ukulele has definitely been a favourite in recent times. Relatively easy for an amateur to get a start on, portable, small and with a host of rootsy artists bringing them back into the popular purview they no longer carry the daggy tiptoe through the tulips association. Coming in a host of models, sizes, colours and prices they can be seen with anyone from country and pop stars through to primary kids.

Lag are one of the many makers adding the uke to their existing guitar lineups and having seen a number of their value for money acoustics of late I'm interested to check out their smaller, four string brothers.

LAG Originating from the South of France thanks to Michel Lag-Chavarria, the 'Lag' brand has been prominent in Europe for years with a range of steel and nylon string acoustic and electric guitars.

Recently landing in Australia, Lag too offer a line of Ukuleles at various price points with the following three coming from their 'Stage' series - a baby soprano, concert and tenor.

THE THREE AMIGOS Starting with the smallest of the bunch is the U700SE baby soprano ukulele with 12 frets and a 345mm scale. Stepping up in size is the U700CE, a concert size ukulele it has 14 frets and a larger 380mm scale.

The largest of the lot being the U700TE tenor uke with a noticeable 435mm scale and 18 frets.

Apart from the differences in size, all three of these models share similar specs. Solid Koa top, back and sides with a rosewood and maple bound body. The finish on these ukes is gorgeous and it must be seen with a rich, dark grain and rounded bound edges that feel beautifully smooth and make for exquisite darker tinged contrast to the body. Black tuners add to the overall 'darker' vibe of these ukes and if anything shows off their exquisite builds. Going for the acoustic/electric capability Lag have utilised shadow preamps and Nanoflex under-saddle pickups meaning you can plug your Uke into an amp or mixer for some extra volume. Although fairly

conservative in terms of controls (volume and tone) the fundamental sound of these three should point you in the right direction as a start. A thumbs up for the inbuilt tuner too! To help look after your instrument and make it easy to carry around, each model come with a padded gigbag so you can throw it over your shoulder or sit it on the front seat on the way to your next gig.

UKE CAN DO IT! Coming standard with D'addario strings I found the concert and tenor uke to have great sustain and resonance whilst the baby soprano really does sing for such a small bodied instrument. Those with large hands and fingers might struggle a little with the baby soprano, but like anything a little time to get acquainted and you'll figure out the best way to handle this little pearler. With their larger bodies and fretboards I felt more at home playing the concert and tenor uke at first but can appreciate that all three models have their place and like any instrument will have their own individual appeal to different people. Different strokes for different folks as they say!

So, these aren't your entry level/priced ukuleles but for an instrument that feels, plays and sounds that bit more special you really can appreciated the extra quality of these Stage series Ukuleles.

Whilst Lag still seem relatively new to the Aussie market they are definitely jumping in feet first with a range of solid instruments at favourable prices that really need to be considered.

BY NICK BROWN

RRP: $549 U700SE, $599 U700CE, $649 U700TE Distributor: Australasian Musical Supplies Phone: (03) 9549 1500 Website: www.austmusic.com.au

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