MIXDOWN ISSUE #260

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

#260 DECEMBER 2015

FREE!

E

HUG

Gift Xmasid Gu e

MAC DEMARCO

JOSÉ GONZÁLEZ

-TRACK QUAD GIVE M O A DI

!

WAY

M-A U

INSIDE

FRENZAL RHOMB

PLUS: Y O U B E A U T Y , J O S H P Y K E , E D E N S O U N D M A S T E R I N G , T U N E C O R E , Z A K K W Y L D E ROAD TESTS: 2 0 1 6 G I B S O N S , P R S S E 2 7 7 B A R I T O N E G U I T A R S , D I X O N D R U M T H R O N E , V O X V 2 0 X A M P L I F I E R ,

B A D C A T C U B 1 5 A M P L I F I E R W I T H R E V E R B , S H E R L O C K B U D D Y A M P, S U H R G U I T A R S + L O A D S M O R E

MUSIC

SALE ON NOW See pages 2-3 for details. Full catalogue + dealers at livingmusicyamaha.com.au

Full catalogue + dealers at livingmusicyamaha.com.au

MUSIC

SALE YAMAHA GUITARS

KEYS

yamaha PSRE253

$219

GET STARTED

The ideal portable keyboard to get you started with 61 keys, 385 voices and 100 auto accompaniment styles.

GIGMAKER310 Pack $229

EVERYTHING TO GET YOU STARTED Amazingly affordable, the GIGMAKER310 pack includes an F310 guitar, Korg digital tuner, instructional DVD, gig bag, picks, strings, capo, string winder and strap.

BONUS

HPH50 VALUED AT $49.99*

yamaha PSRE353

$299

GET SERIOUS Serious step up — 573 voices, 158 accompaniment styles, 61 touch sensitive keys and a melody suppressor.

GIGMAKER10 Electric Guitar Pack

gigmakerc40 guitar pack $189 FULL SIZE PLUS ACCESSORIES

Recommended by teachers this Yamaha C40 classical guitar comes with a Korg digital tuner and instructional DVD.

$349

NEW

READY TO ROCK Includes a Yamaha PAC012 guitar with bridge humbucker and two single coil pickups, Vox PATHFINDER10 amplifier as well as a Vox cable, Korg tuner, strings, picks, strap, string winder and learn-to-play DVD. Available in Black, Dark Blue Metallic and Red Metallic.

livingmusicyamaha.com.au

YAMAHA P45B PORTABLE DIGITAL PIANO

$589

FOR ASPIRING PLAYERS With an 88 key weighted and graded action with authentic piano sound the P45 is the perfect balance of quality and affordability. Optional L85 wooden stand available, RRP $149.99.

P115 also available for $849.

YAMAHA FACEBOOK facebook.com/ yamahabackstagepass

VOX FACEBOOK facebook.com/ voxampsaustralia

YAMAHA TWITTER twitter.com/ yamahabackstage

YAMAHA INSTAGRAM instagram.com/ yamahabackstage

YAMAHA YOUTUBE youtube.com/ yamahaaustralia

VOX YOUTUBE youtube.com/ voxaustralia

BE REWARDED

Metal

YAMAHA DRUMS

LOUD OR SILENT,IT’S YOUR CHOICE!

DTX400K is an easy to use electronic drum kit. Includes built in training functions, 10 professional drum sounds and kick and hi-hat controller pedals making for an ideal practice partner.

THR10

Classic Rock

The first 250 people to buy a Living Music product through one of our authorised dealers and register it online will be rewarded with a $20 iTunes voucher*. Head to our website to redeem: livingmusicyamaha.com.au. Terms & conditions apply.

DTX400K electronic drum kit $649

AMPS AC30

REGISTER YOUR LIVING MUSIC PRODUCT FOR YOUR CHANCE TO BE REWARDED WITH AN ITUNES GIFT CARD!

Bass

vox amplug2 $59

yamaha THR Guitar Amps

TRUE TONE ANYWHERE

$299–$389

The easiest way to enjoy true analogue amplifier sound in your headphones. 4 models offering the most sought after sounds. Guitar models feature built-in effects, bass model features built-in rhythms.

Limited stock.

THE AWARD WINNING DESKTOP AMP Micro desktop amplifiers with 10 watts of power through two hi-fi stereo speakers. Featuring Virtual Circuitry Modelling (VCM) for authentic tones across the range in a metal chassis, plus USB connectivity and Cubase AI software. Works with free THR Session app, available on the App Store.

USE THE RANGE OF DTX APPS FOR MORE FUN AND FEATURES! Gigmaker Drum Kit

DTX Lessons Learn from the pros

Song Beats Play with your favourite songs

DTX502 Touch Customise your DTX502 series kit

DTX400 Touch Customise your DTX400 series kit

$899

DRUMMING BEGINS AND ENDS WITH YAMAHA The Yamaha Gigmaker is your perfect first acoustic drum kit.

Available in Rock or Fusion configurations it includes bass drum, 2 rack toms, floor tom, snare, quality double braced hardware, Paiste 14” hi-hats and 18” crash/ride. Limited stock.

SIZES Rock: 22”x16”B / 12”x19”T / 13”x9.5”T / 16”x16”F / 14”x5.5”S Fusion: 20”x16”B / 10”x8”T / 12”x9”T / 14”x14”F / 14”x5.5”S

THR5 $299, THR5A $299, THR10 $389, THR10C $389, and THR10X $389.

vox VXI Guitar Amp

paiste PST3 cymbal pack $279

$169

THE EVOLUTION OF PRACTICE With 15 watts of power and a full set of classic amps and effects, the VXI is the best practice amp for players who want flexibility and quality. VXII also available for $259.

PRO AUDIO

Incredibly affordable cymbal set including 14” hi-hats, 16” crash and 20” ride made from Brass.

yamaha MX49 Synthesizer

paiste PST5 cymbal pack

$699

COMPLETE PRODUCTION SOLUTION At the core of the MX are sounds taken from the world famous Motif series synthesizers. With extensive controller functions, the advantages of a hardware synth, MX bridges the gap between traditional and software based music production. Includes Cubase AI software. MX61 also available for $849.

steinberg UR12 audio Interface

$449 Highly musical cymbal set including 14” hi-hats, 16” crash and 20” ride made from Bronze.

$139

Compact 2 in 2 out USB audio interface with iPad connectivity, one instrument input and an outstanding D-PRE mic preamp. Includes Cubase AI software.

YAMAHA HS SERIES monitors

The HS-series offers a full range of accurate monitoring and listening solutions. HS5 $299, HS7 $369, HS8 $469 and HS8S subwoofer $549. HS5, HS7 and HS8 now available in White.

yamaha Stagepas400i

$1,099

PORTABLE PA POWERHOUSE

A complete all in one sound solution that is extremely portable and easy to set up. Comprised of two speakers and a detachable powered mixer featuring SPX digital reverb, on board feedback suppressor, versatile EQ and comprehensive connectivity. STAGEPAS600i also available, $1,599.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS. All offers and discounted prices in this advertisement are part of a national sales program conducted by Yamaha Music Australia Pty Ltd and are valid only between 1st November 2015 and 31st December 2015 at participating Yamaha dealers which can be found at livingmusicyamaha.com.au. Not all products listed in this advertisement are available at all Yamaha dealers. While stocks last. The discounted prices displayed in this advertisement are only intended as a guide. The prices as set out or referred to in this advertisement apply for the duration of the program and may be sold at this price or lower. The Yamaha dealer participating in this promotion may not have sold these products in the past and where it has sold these products it may have sold them at more or less than the advertised price. Errors and omissions excepted. Only stands, stools and accessories outlined in the product description are included. Participating dealers may charge freight. Lifestyle images are for illustration purposes only. iPhone, iPod, iTunes, are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. iPad is a trademark of Apple Inc. App Store is a service mark of Apple Inc. * Apple is not a participant in or sponsor of this promotion. The “value” specified for the bonus offer is Yamaha Music Australia’s recommended retail price of these products. The Yamaha dealer participating in this promotion may not have sold these products in the past and where it has sold these products it may have sold them at less than RRP.

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youtube.com/jmcacademy *Sydney campus only

FIRST AUSTRALIAN TOUR

GRAMMY AND ACADEMY AWARD WINNER

GRAMMY AWARD WINNING

BLUES LEGEND’S FIRST TOUR IN OVER 20 YEARS

FIRST TOUR IN OVER 20 YEARS “A master of the guitar”

“A master of the guitar”

THE NEW YORKER

THE NEW YORKER

23 26 30 1

WED MAR SAT MAR WED MAR FRI APR

SYD ENMORE THEATRE BRIS QPAC CONCERT HALL MELB PALAIS THEATRE PERTH RIVERSIDE THEATRE

“Musical magic.”

LA.COM

MON MAR WED MAR

“Lukas held his own during the enviable task of trading solos with (Neil) Young” THE ROLLING STONE

BLUESFEST

FIRST AUSTRALIAN TOURSIDESHOWS - COWBOY HIPPY SURF ROCK AVANT-GARDE ICONS

28 30

SYD FACTORY THEATRE MELB HOWLER

“Easily one of the best nights of live music.”

LAS VEGAS INFORMER

19 20 22

MELB FORUM THEATRE CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE SYD ENMORE THEATRE

ACOUSTIC MUSIC

MON MAR TUE MAR

21 22

MELB NORTHCOTE SOCIAL CLUB SYD THE BASEMENT

ON SALE

TICKETS FROM 02 6685 8310 BLUESFESTTOURING.COM.AU & THE VENUES INFO: BLUESFESTTOURING.COM.AU

24

NOW!

SYDNEY FACTORY THEATRE “A joyous rude-boy revue from an act as slick and brash as their shiny silver suits” NOTTINGHAM ROCK CITY

WED MAR FRI MAR

“This honky-tonk “Sturgill Simpson is the hero makes Radiohead of country country music music.”

MARISSA R. MOSS SALON.COM rooted in the lean, mean traditions of Merle and Waylon, but “Simpson follows his own has muse.” perfected ROLLING STONE the trick of distilling classic AMERICANA MUSIC ASSOCIATION country from AWARDS 2015 Artist of the Year many eras 2015 Song of the Year and moving NASHVILLE SCENE COUNTRY away from it POLL MUSIC CRITICS at2014 the same Best Male NPR time.”

Vocalist 2014 Best SYD Songwriter METRO AMERICAN SONGWRITERS

Best Album of 2014 2015 favourite song of the year

DENVER WESTWORD

SAT MAR SUN MAR TUE MAR

FIRST TOUR IN A DECADE

THU MAR

THE PLAYLIST

“A wall of talent on stage.”

“ain’t afraid to be the showman... jumping into the crowd, playing his brains out”

TUE MAR WED MAR

22 23

THEATRE MELB 170 RUSSELL

“Alabama’s next big success story” NASHVILLE SCENE

23 25

SYD FACTORY THEATRE MELB THE CORNER

“Unwavering musical strength” DESERT SUN

“The album is full “Stax of glorious noise.” of the ghosts of  DAILY MAIL UK songwriting greats like Otis Redding, Chuck Berry and Van Morrison, and MELB sounds like it should 170 establish Rateliff as RUSSELL the breakneck bar brawler of the new SYD soul movement.”

METRO

FIRST AUSTRALIAN TOUR

THE GUARDIAN

WED MAR THU MAR

30 31

THEATRE

SUPERGROUP FEAT ROBERT RANDOLPH LUTHER DICKINSON AND CODY DICKINSON OF BLACK CROWES AND NORTH MISSISSIPPI ALLSTARS PLUS JOHN MEDESKI OF MEDESKI MARTIN & WOOD BACK TOGETHER FOR THEIR FIRST TOUR IN 15 YEARS

“

God Only Knows is the most beautiful song ever written … (Pet Sounds was) the big influence that set me thinking when we recorded Sgt. Pepper Sir Paul McCartney

”

Opera House Syd Tue 29 Mar Palais Theatre Melb Sun 3 Apr Ent. Centre Adel Tue 5 Apr Riverside Th. Perth Thu 7 Apr

GRAMMY AWARD WINNING SINGER FROM CAROLINA CHOCOLATE DROPS

“A solo debut of phenomenal vocal power, effortlessly jumping between gospel holler, tender folk song and lachrymose country ballad.”

THE GUARDIAN

“He’s a cat that can do an Otis Redding.”

KEITH RICHARDS

MON MAR THU MAR FRI MAR

21 24 25

SYD METRO THEATRE MELB THE CORNER BRIS TRIFFID

“genre-splicing instrumental dexterity” ROLLING STONE

SUN MAR MON MAR

27 28

SYD FACTORY THEATRE MELB THE CORNER

“2015’s next big thing” THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

MON MAR WED MAR

21 23

SYD FACTORY THEATRE MELB THE CORNER

ALLEN STONE THE DECEMBERISTS JACKSON BROWNE JANIVA MAGNESS LORD HURON NAHKO & MEDICINE FOR THE PEOPLE SHAKEY GRAVES SONGHOY BLUES STEVE EARLE & THE DUKES TAJ MAHAL VINTAGE TROUBLE THE WAILERS

CONTENTS

FORE WORD

8–

GIVEAWAY

10 –

NEWS AND TOURS

12 –

INDUSTRIALIST

14 –

PRODUCT NEWS

24 –

NATHANIEL RATLIFFE & THE NIGHT SWEARS

26 –

YOU BEAUTY, FRENZAL RHOMB

28 –

JOSH PYKE PAGE 28

JOSE GONZALEZ,

YOU BEAUTY PAGE 26

JOSH PYKE 30 –

MAC DEMARCO,

THE MIXDOWN

EDENSOUND 32 –

Christmas Gift Guide

TUNECORE, ZAKK WYLDE

34 –

COLUMNS

41 –

BRAND SPOTLIGHT: NEMESIS GUITARS

FOR MUSICIANS

AND BASSES 42 –

THE MIXDOWN

PG. 42

CHRISTMAS GIFT GUIDE FOR MUSICIANS 54 –

ROAD TESTS

FOR BREAKING NEWS, NEW CONTENT AND MORE GIVEAWAYS VISIT

64 –

SHOW AND TELL

66 –

DIRECTORY

WWW.MIXDOWNMAG.COM.AU

GET SOCIAL:

FACEBOOK.COM/MIXDOWNMAGAZINE

@MIXDOWNMAGAZINE

As a young child you often hear whispers of naughty children receiving a lump of coal from Santa for Christmas. It’s an all too familiar threat that’s been perpetuated for generations, and scared little boys and girls half to death the world over. There was a year when I was certain that I was going to feel the full measure of Santa’s dark side. I distinctly remember it, a particularly hot summer, when I put my foot through the lounge room wall practicing aerial wrestling moves on the family couch. I covered it up by rearranging the furniture, but was caught out when my mum suspected that I wouldn’t have done any housework of my own volition unless I was trying to hide something. To my surprise, when I woke up that Christmas morning I found my very first strat copy. I must have learned six chords that summer. I must know about eight now.

In this issue of Mixdown we’re bringing you our ultimate gift guide for musicians.

We have products to suit any musician on any budget. We’re sure you’ll find something for you, a wonderful gift to give someone else, or something to buy for yourself with all that sweet Santa cash!

On top of that we have some great interviews, including one with the wonderful Nathaniel Rateliff, and a host of great road test reviews.

Seasons greetings, KEATS MULLIGAN EDITOR

@MIXDOWNMAGAZINE

MADE BY MUSICIANS, FOR MUSICIANS JANUARY ISSUE #261 DEADLINE AND STREET DATES:

STREET AND ONLINE DATE: WEDNESDAY JANUARY 6 AD BOOKING DEADLINE: MONDAY DECEMBER 14 EDITORIAL DEADLINE: TUESDAY DECEMBER 15 ARTWORK DEADLINE: WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 16 For more information on Mixdown Magazine contact us at: (03) 9428 3600 or email mixdown@beat.com.au

PUBLISHER Furst Media EDITOR Keats Mulligan mixdown@beat.com.au EDITORIAL COORDINATOR Michael Edney

Robertson, Chris Scott and Kate Eardley MANAGING DIRECTOR Patrick Carr ART DIRECTOR Michael Cusack GRAPHIC DESIGN Lizzie Dynon, Michael Cusack

EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS Lachy Forbes, Elijah Hawkins, Phoebe

PG.6 // MIXDOWN #260 // DECEMBER 2015

CONTRIBUTORS Augustus Welby, Rob Gee, Peter Hodgson, Christie Elizer, Nick Brown, Adam Norris, Christ Scott, James Di Fabrizio, Elijah Hawkins and David James Young.

COVER ART Michael Cusack

ADVERTISING Patrick Carr patrick@furstmedia.com.au Phone: (03) 9428 3600 MIXDOWN OFFICE Level 1, No. 3 Newton Street, Richmond VIC 3121.

Phone: (03) 9428 3600

COVER PHOTO: Philip Martins

www.mixdownmag.com.au

GIVEAWAYS M-AUDIO M-TRACK QUAD

GIVEAWAY

Last Month’s Comeptition Winner LEWITT MTP 250DM

With a new issue of Mixdown Magazine comes another opportunity to win a great bit of gear. This time around we’re giving away an M-Audio M-Track Quad courtesy of our friends over at Pro Audio Group. This interface is a top of the range piece of kit and will be either a great addition to your home studio, or the perfect thing to get your home recording started. Who knows, this interface could be the thing that leads to your career taking off.

To enter this competition head to our website www.mixdownmag.com.au/giveaways and follow the instructions there.

For full terms and conditions visit www.mixdownmag.com.au/terms-and-conditions.

*This giveaway is for Australian residents only and one entry per person.

For more awesome monthly Mixdown Giveaways, be sure to LIKE our Mixdown Magazine facebook page at www.facebook.com/mixdownmagazine and regularly check our Giveaways page on www.mixdownmag.com.au/giveaways for your chance to win.

Last issue our giveaway item was the Lewitt MTP 250DM, thanks to Electric Factory. The lucky winner walking away with the prize is Matt Toms from Barangaroo, New South Wales.

Congratulations, and enjoy your microphone!

DIXON’S NEW

JET SET PLUS THE ULTIMATE ALL-IN-ONE TRAVELLER DRUM KIT

FREE

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HALF-BRICK

VERSATILE 4PC OR 5PC SET UPS

With every JET SET PLUS kit purchased 2015 purchasedinin NOV DEC 2015 (RRP $119.70)

Proudly distributed by Dynamic Music • www.dynamicmusic.com.au • www.facebook.com/DixonAustralia

CONVENTIONAL PLAY OR MESH PRACTICE KIT

NEWS & TOURS Bully

Julia Holter

Shellac

The Amity Affliction + A Day To Remember

American rising stars Bully are making their way down under for shows in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane in December, and they will be bringing their fuzzy, high-octane brand of music to Meredith Music Festival as well. Fresh off the back of a Lollapalooza performance and a full US tour, the band will be in fine form when they bring their self titled EP and their debut LP Feels Like to Australian audiences. Having been labelled by Ryan Adams as ‘the best band in the world at this very moment’, the band’s star continues to rise, with their debut album drawing praise from sites like Stereogum and Pitchfork and a performance on Conan O’Brian to boot. This might be the last time to see them in a small venue if their trajectory stays consistent over the next few years.

Los Angeles artist, Julia Holter is set to tour the country in celebration of her upcoming album. Emerging from the Los Angeles arts scene, Julia Holter is about to release her fourth full length album, Have You In My Wilderness, and is coming to Australia to share what she has created with us. Produced and engineered by Grammy-winning Cole Grief-Neill (Ariel Pink, Beck, Nite Jewel), the album is said to explore the troubles of the heart, love, trust and the power in human relationships. The multi-layered album features a variety of electronic and acoustic elements and has been marked as her most sonically intimate album.

Aunty Meredith herself stated that Julia Holter is “one of the most adventurous, experimental, ambitious artists working today. Her music is almost without roots”. With a reputation that cannot be questioned, Holter is sure to be one of the most exciting acts to grace the stage this December.

Shellac has announced a small string of shows across the country in celebration of landing a spot in the upcoming Meredith Music Festival line-up. After twenty three years together, Shellac has released five LPS, a few 7-inch singles and played various shows around the globe.

However, the quality of their music, their performance and their influence on the industry is just as high as ever.

Their latest LP, Dude Incredible, released last year is another example of the undying energy and talent of the three men from North America. While Shellac no longer play shows as often, and have only been to Australia twice over their twenty year span, they maintain a loyal fan base across the country that are patiently awaiting their presence. Don’t miss out on seeing Shellac later this year at their shows in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.

In the ‘Big Ass Tour’ one of Australia’s best-loved heavy bands The Amity Affliction are teaming up with A Day To Remember to play to 60,000 fans in arenas around the country. BThe Amity Affliction is coming off two consecutive Number #1 albums and the #1 ARIA-charting DVD ‘Seem Like Forever’. Their latest album Let The Ocean Take Me only cemented their place at the top of the metalcore and hard rock hierarchy with a Gold certification.

A Day To Remember’s latest full length Common Courtesy saw them claim the #1 spot on the Billboard Hard Rock charts.

Both critically acclaimed bands strive to push boundaries with their music, and each will be playing to more diehard fans than ever before. They will be supported

by Motionless In White, who recently broke through with their album Reincarnate after it debuted at #13 on the ARIA charts. It doesn’t get much bigger than this.

TOUR DATES

TOUR DATES

DEC 9 – OXFORD ART FACTORY, SYDNEY NSW DEC 10 – HOWLER, MELBOURNE VIC DEC 12 – WOOLLY MAMMOTH, BRISBANE QLD DEC 11-13 – MEREDITH MUSIC FESTIVAL, MEREDITH VIC

DEC 9 – NEWTOWN SOCIAL CLUB, SYDNEY NSW DEC 10 – BLACK BEAR LODGE, BRISBANE QLD DEC 11 – HOWLER, MELBOURNE VIC DEC 12 – MEREDITH MUSIC FESTIVAL, MEREDITH VIC

PG.10 // MIXDOWN #260 // DECEMBER 2015

TOUR DATES TOUR DATES DEC 5 – THE TRIFFID, BRISBANE QLD DEC 8 – METRO THEATRE, SYDNEY NSW DEC 9 & 10 – CORNER HOTEL, MELBOURNE VIC

DEC 12 – QANTAS CREDIT UNION ARENA, SYDNEY NSW DEC 14 – PERTH ARENA, PERTH WA DEC 16 – ADELAIDE ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE, ADELAIDE SA DEC 17 – ROD LAVER ARENA, MELBOURNE VIC DEC 19 – THE RIVERSTAGE, BRISBANE QLD

www.mixdownmag.com.au

NEWS & TOURS

Thurston Moore

Wavves

Unknown Mortal Orchestra

Thee Oh Sees

Pioneering grunge guitarist and former Sonic Youth frontman Thurston Moore has announced a string of headline shows across Australia while he’s down for Meredith Music Festival with The Thurston Moore Band. Thurston Moore’s career has been as varied as it has influential, from classic albums with Sonic Youth, to his revered solo material, collaborations with Beck and Yoko Ono and works preserved by the US Library of Congress. Moore’s latest release features a procession of altrock legends with James Sedwards, ex-My Bloody Valentine bassist Debbie Googe and Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley, Moore’s latest release. The Best Day marks a new and decidedly different post-Sonic Youth chapter in Moore’s career. Fans can expect to hear work from the new album, as well as older favourites from past Sonic Youth releases.

Melbourne and Sydney are the lucky cities set to receive headline shows from LA noise pop standout Wavves, with the announcement that the shows will follow the band’s Falls Festival performances. When it comes to washed out fuzz and surf rock hooks, you can’t go past Wavves, the brainchild of frontman Nathan Williams. The release of their fifth studio album V signalled an evolution in the band’s process which saw members Stephen Pope (Bass) and Alex Gates (guitar) contribute new material. No stranger to Australian shores – they have already played in Australia three times including shows at Splendour In The Grass and Groovin The Moo – Australian fans will for the first time get to see the new album played live, and once again be able to experience their energetic, often chaotic, live show.

Unknown Mortal Orchestra has announced an Australian tour after recently being added to the Meredith Music Festival lineup. The band is set to play shows across Australia, stopping in at Perth, Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne. Unknown Mortal Orchestra is eager to perform tracks for their Australian fans from what is said to be their best LP yet, Multi-Love. Front man Ruban Nielson, bassist Jacob Portrait, drummer Riley Geare and keyboardist Quincy McCrary will be returning to the stage for the first time after their shows at the St Jeromes Laneway Festival in 2014. Alongside the band will be New Zealand three-piece, Las Tetas. The girls are said to embody all that is punk-rock and boast the ability to tear sincerity to shreds.

Garage rockers Thee Oh Sees have announced a second headline show for Melbourne, as they return to Australia for a national tour. The first Melbourne show sold out in a matter of weeks, and tickets are moving fast for other shows around the nation as well, a testament to the large following of the band. The Californian natives will visit Australia with an all new lineup consisting of frontman John Dwyer, bassist Timothy Hellman and drummers Ryan Moutinho and Dan Rincon as they bring their high energy shows to fans all around the country. To celebrate, the band’s fourteenth studio album, Mutilator Defeated At Last, was released on limited edition deluxe vinyl for Australian fans only.

TOUR DATES DEC 5 - METRO THEATRE, SYDNEY NSW DEC 7 - OLD MUSEUM, BRISBANE QLD DEC 10 - PRINCE BANDROOM, MELBOURNE VIC

www.mixdownmag.com.au

ORY-2015-12.indd 1

TOUR DATES TOUR DATES

TOUR DATES JAN 2 – OXFORD ART FACTORY, SYDNEY NSW JAN 3 – MAXX WATT’S, MELBOURNE VIC

DEC 3 – ASTOR THEATRE, PERTH WA DEC 4 – METRO THEATRE, SYDNEY NSW DEC 6 – THE TRIFFID, BRISBANE QLD DEC 8 – CORNER HOTEL, MELBOURNE VIC

JAN 8 – CROW BAR, BRISBANE QLD JAN 9 – SHARK BAR, GOLD COAST QLD JAN 10 – THE NORTHERN, BYRON BAY NSW JAN 13 – THE SMALL BALLROOM, NEWCASTLE NSW JAN 15 – NEWTOWN SOCIAL CLUB, SYDNEY NSW JAN 16 – WOLLONGONG UNI BAR, WOLLONGONG NSW JAN 19 – BARWON CLUB, GEELONG VIC JAN 21 – HOWLER, MELBOURNE VIC JAN 22 – HOWLER, MELBOURNE VIC JAN 23 – MOJO’S BAR, FREMANTLE WA

MIXDOWN #260 // DECEMBER 2015 // PG.11

27/11/2015 1

INDUSTRIALIST STUDY: WHY THE ENTERTAINMENT BIZ WORRIES

Studies this year have shown people working in the Australian entertainment industry suffer from a higher rate of depression, anxiety, lack of social contact, lack of sleep and higher alcohol/ drug dependence than the rest of the community. The latest research by Media Super – the industry super fund for creative professionals – found that the three major worries are a lack of good paying jobs (61%), declining investment in the sector (57%) and shrinking revenues (40%).

About 69% worry how their career will progress, 60% predict they’ll have to change careers, and 59% reckon they’ll lose their jobs in the next 12 months. 81% of the under-30s give their work away for free to advance their career or secure a permanent job, but 63% of those are excited about their future in the biz.

75% praise the internet for how it’s allowed them to reach a global audience, find new collaborators, and new ways to do business.

SECURITY INCREASED AT CONCERTS

In the wake of the Paris shootings, the US and European live sector started to take security more seriously. More police and searches were immediately introduced. It is accepted that it’s hard to safeguard clubs worldwide: metal detectors are expensive, bouncers are more worried about drunken behaviour than bombers, and clubs have back and side entrances for load-ins and load-outs, which make security a nightmare. The heads of three Australian promoters – Live Nation, Frontier and Chugg Entertainment – told The Industrialist they were working with venues and the police on future strategies. The immediate moves from this month, at least for major international shows, are bans on backpacks and large bags, and pat-downs for those wearing bulky clothing.

FUNDING CHANGES FOR VICTORIAN ARTS GROUPS

In the wake of Federal funding cuts this year, the Victorian state government threw a lifeline to the state’s not-for-profit arts and cultural organisations.

Grants through its Organisation’s Investment Program rise from a minimum of $40,000 to $60,000.

Small to medium associations now get four year funding allowing them to plan ahead.

More details at creative.vic.gov. au/organisations.

HEALTH AND ARTS TASKFORCE SET UP NSW Health set up a Ministerial Taskforce on Health and the Arts. It will develop a framework where the arts is integrated into the NSW Health System, offering health services, funding arts initiatives and fostering dialogue. To have your say or run a workshop, email arts@doh. health.nsw.gov.au

TWO SONG COMPETITIONS OPEN APPLICATIONS

Details of 2016’s WA Song of the Year are unveiled this month for 16 categories with the winners announced in April at a gala in Perth. Check out wam.org.au.

The Regional Song Contest, open to 12 to 25 year olds, unveils winners at the Best Of Fretfest Concert on December 12 on the Gold Coast. Details at www. fretfest.com/regional-songcontest.

SXSW INVITES SIX MORE AUSSIE ACTS

Six more Aussies have been invited to showcase at SXSW next year. Melbourne’s Ben Abraham, Oh Pep! and Sui Zhen are all set to perform in Austin for the 2016 event, as well as The Gooch Palms (Newcastle), Hockey Dad (Wollongong) and Nite Fields (Brisbane).

TUNECORE OPENS IN AUSTRALIA

Digital distributor and publishing administration service TuneCore has set up its fourth international office in Melbourne.

Aussie members collect revenue from streaming services, digital download stores, songwriter royalties and sync licensing opportunities. New members pay $14.99 to upload a track for distribution. An album is $39.99 the first year and $65.99 after. A one time fee of $99.99 provides access to its publishing administration. Since setting up in 2006, TuneCore expanded to Canada, Japan and the UK, earning artists $600 million.

PG.12 // MIXDOWN #260 // DECEMBER 2015

F OR C ONTE NT SUB MI SSI ONS TO TH I S C OL UM N P LE ASE E MAI L T O CELIZER@ NET S PACE. NET. A U

LOCKOUT STREET RALLY

After 1000 people marched through Sydney streets in September protesting the lockouts, Reclaim the Streets is holding another demonstration on Saturday December 12 from Newtown’s Camperdown Memorial Park. RTS points out, “The city is not just an investment portfolio for the super-rich, it’s our home too. Would you rather a park or a car park? A casino or a dancefloor? A community or a ghost town?”

AUSTRALIA TOPS GLOBAL CREATIVITY INDEX

The 2015 Global Creativity Index sees Australia top the list. It measures the economic growth and sustainable prosperity of 139 countries based on talent, technology and tolerance. The US remains at #2, followed by New Zealand (#3), Canada (#4) Denmark and Finland (tied for #5). Sweden (#7), Iceland (#8), Singapore (#9) and the Netherlands #10. Full report at http://martinprosperity. org/media/Global-CreativityIndex-2015.pdf

REPORT TO MAKE CANBERRA A “COOL LITTLE CAPITAL”

The ACT Attorney General Simon Corbell is considering 25 recommendations in a report called Cool Little Capital, developed by the Live Music Office and Music ACT to bolster the Canberra live scene, which it says is being strangled by red tape and regulations.

It suggested that the ACT Government needs to set up a music roundtable to discuss problem regulations, fund a music body to create ties with business, invest in a 200 to 400 capacity venue, leave low-risk venues out of planning codes, set up an entertainment precinct in industrial areas and use empty government buildings for rehearsals and performances.

ROAD CREW ASSOCIATION GETS HELP

The two year old Australian Road Crew Association (ARCA) has long maintained that roadies are the backbone of the music industry and without them, promoters and venues couldn’t function. Slowly, the industry is coming around to aid ARCA, which exists to address the high suicide rate among crew members. An international Australian act which is returning

to Australia to tour in June 2016 has agreed to donate proceeds, Country performer Allan Caswell has written ‘Boys In Black’ to earn royalties, and a label distributor wrote out a cheque for $1,000. ARCA has a poster with the names of the late roadies: AC/DC signed it on their recent tour, as did all the names at The Age/ Music Victoria Hall of Fame concert at Melbourne’s Palais which included John Farnham and Archie Roach.

Plans are for the poster to be framed on the wall at Melbourne’s AC/DC Lane, with one major organisation this month about to announce a tie-up.

OPENLIVE ADDS ARTIST DASHBOARD

OpenLIVE, the Australian site which lets acts in Oz, UK and last month, the US, record their gigs for live recordings, introduced a free Australian-first feature called Artist Dashboard. It allows acts to schedule their recordings in venues and festivals installed with the OpenLIVE MasterBuilder through automatic scheduling, recording, mixing, mastering and optimisation routine. A test of the feature saw 150 acts take part. You maintain copyright and decide if and when the recording is released. See www.openlive. co/artist-sign-up.

WINNERS ARE GRINNERS

Tame Impala took out five wins at the WA Music Awards in Perth, including most popular act, live act and music video for “Let It Happen”. The Currents album scooped best album while band leader Kevin Parker won best male vocalist.

Tkay Maidza dominated the SA Music Awards – with four wins for best female, best release (Switch Tape) and best song and music video for ‘Switch Lanes’.

Sam Anning won the National Jazz Awards, held as a keystone of the Wangaratta Jazz and Blues Festival. He won $12,000 plus a record deal with ABC Music and a chance to professionally record at the ABC Jazz studios.

Frontier Touring won the Top Independent Promoter (International category) at the prestigious 12th Billboard Touring and Conference Awards in New York.

THINGS WE HEAR Vale: pioneer of Australia’s concert production sector and long time head of JANDS, Eric Robinson, passed at 67 after a battle with cancer. Jimmy Barnes performed ‘When The War Is Over’ at his funeral.

After being fan-funded to the tune of £45,000, a statue of Bon Scott will be unveiled at the 10th annual Bonfest in the singer’s hometown of Kirriemuir in Scotland next April. Former AC/DC bassist Mark Evans will unveil the statue after a solo set and join Scott’s ‘soulmate’ Mary Renshaw for a Q&A and a signing session for her Bon book Live Wire co-written with two others.

Last month’s grand finale of X-Factor was watched by 1.204 million metro viewers – its worst finale figures in its six seasons. In 2013, the winner announcement drew 2.43 million. Last year that fell to 1.42 million.

Adele’s 25 sold 210,000 copies (triple platinum) in Australia in its first five days!

Adelaide music venue Fowler’s Live has received an 18-month extension by the SA Government to stay on at the Lion Arts Centre until May 2017. But does that give owner Peter Darwin enough time to find another place? He doesn’t think so, but still plans to put on the best acts until then.

As part of its Live Music Attenuation Assistance Program announced in June, the Victorian government has provided $250,000 for six Melbourne venues to cover the cost of soundproofing. The six were: Bakehouse Studios, Bendigo Hotel, Cherry Bar, Ding Dong Lounge, 1000 Pound Bend and Revolver Upstairs.

This month’s small films Tropscore festival was cancelled when its founder realised that the operating company had run up a huge debt. But APRA AMCOS stepped in to save the music component Tropscore – which offers the chance to a music composer to produce a music score or sync to a provided film.

The winner will be announced on Dec 3.

Roots music magazine Rhythms is up for sale.

The Gold Coast City Council plans to introduce three or four concerts a year at the 25,000-capacity Metricon Stadium in Carrara during the football off-season.

www.mixdownmag.com.au

PRODUCT NEWS

Mapex MPX Snare Drum Range Electric Factory | (03) 9474 1000 | www.elfa.com.au

The Mapex MPX snare drum range is a perfect option for someone looking for a great snare drum on a budget. Available options are 13” and 14” snare drums in natural or black in maple or birch timbers or a standard steel snare available in 10”, 13” and 14”.

The Mapex MPX Birch snare drum delivers a crisp and bright attack, balanced tone, and a shorter sustain that results in enhanced overall projection, allowing the sound to cut through the mix. The MPX Maple snare drum personifies that ‘pop’ sound. With warm mid and high frequencies, the maple shell projects weather tuned up or down.

Lovepedal DL-1 Delay Pedal Gladesville Guitar Factory | (02) 9817 2173 | www.guitarfactory.net

The Lovepedal DL-1 Delay features switchable modulation and fidelity control for clean, pristine repeats or warm, floating atmosphere. The DL-1 is nice and simple to use, which is important. Some pedals can take weeks to fully learn all of the features. Many guitarists just want to plug in and start twirling knobs without having to refer to a manual. The DL-1 is designed to be very easy to dial in a good, punchy, effected tone using a few different guitars and amps. Lovepedal have included a settings sheet that truly works like a charm.

Cool tape echo like sounds are also no problem with this unit. Twist the fidelity knob counter clockwise and she will get down and dirty like an old Echoplex, with all the warmth and wiggle you could ever need or want.

SoundArt Wireless Microphone Sets Jade Australia | 1800 144 120 | www.musocity. com.au

Pearl

Wood Fibreglass Australasian Music Supplies | (03) 9549 1500 | www.austmusic.com.au

True to the legacy set by their innovative forefathers, new Wood / Fibreglass drums’, 7-ply Kapur-blended shell, features an inner layer of Fibreglass that is hand-applied and lacquered through a painstakingly precise process. To further sculpt the tone of these unique drums, a sharp 45-degree edge is cut on the toms of each kit, while the bass drums feature a fully-rounded bearing edge.

Pearl’s limited production run of new Wood Fibreglass drums will include three traditionally-sized 3-piece shell packs, and a 22” Fusion Plus configuration. These new Wood/Fibreglass models are certainly worth a look in if you’re in the market for a new kit!

Kramer Ltd. Satchel Pacer Vintage Gibson AMI | (03) 8696 4600 | www.gibsonami.com

Kramer joins forces with Steel Panther legend Satchel for the Ltd. Satchel Pacer Vintage available in yellow and purple leopard print. Steel Panther’s debut, Born on the Sunset Strip, caused a sensation when it debuted in 2009 for its wily take on ‘Hair Metal’ backed up with searing chops and incredible vocals, and today Steel Panther is one of the world’s top touring acts and legends in their own right.

Now, Kramer’s Ltd. Satchel Pacer Vintage puts the power of Steel Panther in the hands of Kramer fans everywhere with Satchel-approved Seymour Duncan pickups, a classic Kramer maple body, and two Satchel-designed finishes. The Ltd. Satchel Pacer Vintage features the world-famous Kramer profile with a Maple body and an easy-to-play oiled maple neck with a fast 9.5” radius maple fingerboard with Dot inlays. Satchel chose world famous Seymour Duncan Pickups for his Ltd. Pacer Vintage signature model with a Seymour Duncan JB in the bridge position and Seymour Duncan SH-2N in the neck position. The SH-4 JB Humbucker is 4-conducter pickup with a balanced coil configuration that produces superior harmonics and a high output with the perfect blend of distortion and sustain.

Think you were born to revive 80s metal? Then this is the axe for you.

PG.14 // MIXDOWN #260 // DECEMBER 2015

SoundArt has released their range of Wireless Microphone Sets in Australia, and it comes as a huge positive for entry-level musicians, as these sets operate within the universal legal frequency range.

There are two options available for these sets: single or dual channel. With the dual channel sets, two microphones can be used at the same time at a fixed frequency per microphone. Simply plug the transmitter into a P.A. or amplifier and you’re ready to go. All sets include DC power adapter, all connecting cables and an ABS foam padded carry case.

Different configurations are available for each of these sets, including dynamic microphones, headsets and lapel microphone variations, making the SoundArt Wireless Microphone Sets applicable to any set-up.

Harman’s JBL EON618S 18” Self-Powered Subwoofer Jands | (02) 9582 0909 | www.jands.com.au

Building on its state-of-the-art EON600 Series portable PA loudspeakers, Harman’s JBL Professional is introducing the EON618S, an 18-inch, 1000W, self-powered subwoofer.

With a purposefully designed large-volume enclosure to support true low-frequency extension, the EON618S is the best subwoofer in its class—at the most competitive price.

Borrowing design language from other EON600 systems, the EON618S features premium handles, a standard M20 threaded pole cup and an extremely rugged enclosure. DSP Parameters, including presets for EON600, EON200 and other manufacturers’ full-range loudspeakers, can be controlled via a Bluetooth app for iOS and Android. Selectable crossover presets are available through the EON Connect app.

Completely rethinking the standard of performance for an affordable self-contained portable PA system, JBL engineers purposely designed and built the EON600 Series from the ground up featuring JBL’s advanced waveguide technology, JBL-designed and -manufactured transducers and convenient wireless control of its onboard DSP EQ parameters via Bluetooth. This total redesign of the EON platform leverages the latest technologies in cabinet materials, acoustic science, transducer design and user friendliness, delivering the extraordinary quality of a high-end studio monitor in a fully professional, highly flexible, easy to use and portable system for today’s working musicians and sound providers.

www.mixdownmag.com.au

PRODUCT NEWS Adele: ‘Hello’ (PVG) Sheet Music Music Sales | (02) 9299 8877 | www.musicsales.com

Available now is the single sheet for Adele’s much-anticipated song ‘Hello’, arranged for Piano, Vocal and Guitar. The song is taken from the album 25, with the Songbook available for pre order now.

Amid the hype surrounding the latest album, Adele released a very brief taster of the new song. Soon after, the 27-year-old multiple award-winning singer-songwriter released the single and video for ‘Hello’ on 23rd October to universal acclaim, retaining the powerfully emotive voice and tearjerking lyrics that she’s best-known for.

With this single sheet, you can learn that uplifting vocal melody and those wonderful Piano chords.

Soon to be available will be the complete Songbook (PVG) for Adele’s 25, complete with Piano, Vocal and Guitar sheet music. For more information on pre orders, visit www. musicsales.com.

Apogee and Waves - Ultimate Sound Quality.

Unprecedented Value.

Sound Distribution | (02) 8007 3327 | www.sounddistribution.com.au

Audio professionals and artists have chosen Apogee and Waves products to make countless hit recordings. Now, Apogee Electronics and Waves have partnered to offer recording packages that combine the best audio interfaces with the best audio plugins at unprecedented prices.

When you purchase Apogee’s Duet, you’ll receive the Waves Silver bundle of essential plugins; even better, when you purchase either Apogee’s Quartet or Ensemble, you’ll receive Waves’ very popular Gold plugin bundle. These Apogee/Waves packages provide an open and easily expandable audio interface/plugin system that offers uncompromising quality for superior music production.

Deering Goodtime Banjo Ukulele Zenith Music | (08) 9383 1422 | www.zenithmusic.com

AVX Wireless Microphone Systems For Video Cameras Sennheiser Australia | (02) 9910 6700 | www.sennheiser.com.au

Audio specialist Sennheiser has introduced its AVX wireless microphone systems for video cameras, which ensure totally stress-free audio capture. The amazingly compact AVX receiver plugs directly into the XLR of a camera, where it automatically pairs with the microphone and switches on when the camera does. The system automatically adjusts the correct audio levels and transmits using a specially protected link in the license-free 1.9 GHz range. Setting up and recording high-quality audio for video has never been faster or more convenient.

AVX comes in ready-to-use systems that contain everything required to immediately go live. Alternatively, tailor-made systems can be put together from a wide choice of individual components.

Allen & Heath ZED-18 Mixer Technical Audio Group | (02) 9519 0900 | www.tag.com.au

Allen & Heath’s ZED-18 has an incredibly advanced feature-set for a mixer at this level – it gives musicians, venues and hire companies access to 10 full mono channels and 4 stereo channels in a compact, rack mountable format. Configurable USB audio in/out makes it easy to capture stereo recordings. Getting audio to and from a computer easily is now a common requirement for live sound and music production. No longer do you need to fiddle around the back of your PC to get to the soundcard inputs, only to find that the levels are all wrong and noisy. Just plug in a USB lead to your ZED, select the USB routing on the mixer and the device on your computer and that’s it: CD quality audio to and from your PC or Mac. Also included is Cakewalk’s SONAR LE, allowing you to start recording your own music right away with the most complete introductory music production software for Windows PC. Based on Cakewalk’s award-winning SONAR X3 digital audio workstation, SONAR LE has been enhanced with cutting-edge instruments, effects, and creative tools to make creating your own music as simple and intuitive as possible, no matter what your experience level.

PG.16 // MIXDOWN #260 // DECEMBER 2015

If you are searching for an instrument that is fun and easy to play in any setting, then the Goodtime Banjo Ukulele might be just what you are looking for.

Simply strum a few chords and you will be taken to a land without the stress and distractions of the daily routine. The nylon strings make playing easy on your fingers and the small size and lightweight design allows you to take this instrument with you anywhere.

The concert scale and full size 11” rim produces a wonderfully warm yet noticeably louder and fuller sound across the perfectly balanced Aquila Super Nylgut strings. These tonal characteristics are only further enhanced, not only by the naturally warm renaissance head, but also with the addition of the patented bridge plate, which increases sustain while reducing unwanted bass frequencies.

Whether you are a seasoned ukulele or banjo player or simply looking for something new and exciting to learn, the Goodtime Banjo Ukulele is a stunning instrument that everyone will love.

Ed Sheeran: X (PVG) Songbook Music Sales | (02) 9299 8877 | www.musicsales.com

Multiply (stylised X) is the second studio album by English singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran. The sophomore album

by Sheeran launched him into global success, with the album’s lead single, ‘Sing’, reaching number one in the UK – a milestone for Sheeran.

Available now, the Ed Sheeran: X (PVG) Songbook has been expertly arranged for Piano, Vocal and Guitar and includes the hit ‘Sing’ along with the other 15 songs from the album. Complete with full lyrics, you can now master arguably Sheeran’s most notable album and learn new techniques employed by Ed Sheeran himself to strengthen your playing style.

www.mixdownmag.com.au

VTX

MODELLING TECHNOLOGY TAKEN TO THE NEXT LEVEL Virtual Elements Technology delivers stunning sound quality

VT20X

AVAILABLE NOW

20 watts, 8" speaker RRP $349.99

Valvetronix preamp uses a vacuum tube multi-stage amplification circuit Hybrid digital/analog power amp High-performance DSP delivers next-level sound quality

VT40X

Unique chassis design provides rich lowend and overwhelming amp resonance

COMING SOON

40 watts, 10" speaker RRP $499.99

A broad range of 11 realistic amp models A full complement of 13 high quality on-board effects

VT100X

COMING SOON

100 watts, 12" speaker RRP $699.99

33 preset programs (60 when using the editor/librarian software) Optional VFS5 foot switch allows for easy switching during performance

The new Vox Tone Room app lets you customise existing amps and effects, plus you can create and store your own on you iPhone or iPad.

The RRPs shown are correct at the time of printing and are subject to change at any time without notice. iPhone and iPad are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. App Store is a service mark of Apple Inc.

WATCH US ON YOUTUBE youtube.com/voxaustralia

LIKE US ON FACEBOOK facebook.com/voxampsaustralia

EVENTS & PROMOTIONS yamahabackstage.com.au

PRODUCT NEWS Tycoon New Fibreglass Djembes Dynamic Music | (02) 9939 1299 | www.dynamicmusic.com.au

Just in time for Christmas, and new to Tycoon, is the fantastic fibreglass marble djembe range. Now, no-one needs any convincing about the recent popularity of djembes, cajons and hand drums, percussion in general seems to be enjoying a resurgence.

The djembe and cajon however must be recognised as instruments that have helped bridge the gap between the recreational and professional musician bringing all together to celebrate the enjoyment of music.

Like all Tycoon products after you are impressed by the quality and sound, you are then knocked over by the value, these 2 new drums are released at ‘super introductory prices’ for Christmas.

M-Audio BX Carbon Series 10” Sub Pro Audio Group | (02) 9521 4844 | www.proaudiogroup.com.au

The BX Subwoofer delivers deep, accurate bass response down to the lowest audible frequencies, picking up where your left/ right studio monitors leave off. Recording professionals know that hearing the extreme low frequencies in music is essential for making accurate mixing adjustments and producing the best recordings. The BX Subwoofer easily fulfils this requirement in a powerful and compact package that won’t take up too much of your valuable studio space.

The BX Subwoofer’s frequency response extends down to 20Hz (-3 dB), the lowest audible frequency. It uses the highest-quality components for no-compromise performance: a 10” fiberglass/paper composite driver with an oversized magnet and high-temperature 2” voice coil, powered by a 240-watt Class AB all-discrete internal amplifier with a variable 50-200 Hz crossover. The cabinet is constructed of resonantfree ¾” Medium Density Fiberboard (MDF) with 1” front and rear baffles, and is heavily braced to eliminate the extraneous cabinet vibrations that can rob a subwoofer of its impact and articulation.

Steinberg’s Cubasis LE iPad App Yamaha Music Australia | (03) 9693 5111 | www.au.yamaha.com

Cubasis LE is the compact version of Steinberg’s streamlined, multi-touch sequencer for the iPad, providing the same look and feel of its bigger brother Cubasis. Specially designed for quick and easy operation, Cubasis LE makes recording, editing and mixing a breeze. With MicroSonic, Cubasis LE includes a virtual instrument to be played in real time using the flexible virtual keyboard. Song ideas can be captured with up to four audio and four MIDI tracks and edited and polished to perfection with the integrated editors, mixer and selected effects. Thanks to the Cubasis project importer, Cubasis LE projects can be even opened in Cubase - both on Windows and OS X. With touchintuitive production tools, Cubasis LE opens up a new world of possibilities for your creativity.

Steinberg ‘Cubasis LE’ is now ready in the App Store. You just need to connect your iPad to any of MG-10XU, MG-12XU, MG-16XU, MG-20XU, AG03 and AG06 to make it work.

PG.18 // MIXDOWN #260 // DECEMBER 2015

Audiofly AF240 Headphones Audiofly | www.audiofly.com

Audiofly, innovators of award winning, audiophilegrade in-ear monitors and earphones, announces the availability of its AF240, the company’s first over-ear headphone. Audiofly has engineered the AF240 for the passionate listener who craves rich, detailed sound. First announced at CES 2015, the AF240 boasts honest sound via its 40mm neodymium drivers, ensuring a detailed and faithful reproduction of the artists’ music.

The AF240 is the perfect combination of function and form with its beautiful, minimal, low-profile design. The headphone is constructed with a polycarbonate body and alloy arms for a lightweight feel. It’s designed with a self-adjusting headband and memory foam ear cups offering ultimate comfort, allowing users to listen for extended periods of time. The custom fit isolates up to 20dB of outside noise without compromising the sound.

It tunes out unnecessary noises in planes, commuting and other noisy environments, allowing users to concentrate on the enjoyment of music.

The AF240 comes with an array of exclusive features that separates Audiofly from its competitors including Audiofly’s Audioflex braided cable, which is made with a Cordura fabric outer sheath for outstanding durability.

Tycoon iQ Plus Dynamic Music | (02) 9939 1299 | www.dynamicmusic.com.au

Dynamic Music has launched this range of wonderful, unique and authentic percussion instruments aimed at children and early learning. Included in the range are Congas, Cajons, Bongos, Djembes, Thunder Tubes, Wave Drums and Log Drums as well as a fantastic selection of pre-packaged classroom percussion sets. Music is the pillar of education, so it only makes sense to get the kids involved.

In today’s world it is becoming increasingly difficult to find products that can engage the minds of the young while at the same time stimulate their creativity. Part of Dynamic Music’s range is Tycoon’s iQ Plus is geared towards this exact concept. In a market dominated by cheap ‘knock-offs’, Tycoon’s mission is to provide the very best quality percussion instruments to young players that they may develop the fundamental skills of long-term music comprehension. When you put quality products in their hands for a reasonable and affordable cost, you start to see kids really enjoying music making.

Audio Technica AT-LP5 Turntable Technical Audio Group | (02) 9519 0900 | www.tag.com.au

A perfect balance of technology and design, the sleek contemporary lines of the AT-LP5 turntable grace any room in the home, while delivering performance features born out of Audio-Technica’s rich analog heritage.

The direct-drive engine provides playback for both 33 1/3 & 45 RPM records, with a cast aluminium platter and thick damping mat housed together in a structure that has been engineered for minimum chassis resonance, while skilfully retaining the discreet look that complements today’s listening environments.

The J-shaped tonearm, engineered to minimise tracking error, harks back to the original Audio-Technica designs of the 1960’s & 70’s, complementing the AT-LP5’s clean lines, and comes fitted with Audio-Technica’s lightweight AT-HS10 headshell and the exclusive AT95Ex Dual Moving Magnet cartridge.

www.mixdownmag.com.au

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PRODUCT NEWS Yamaha EMX2 Powered Mixer Yamaha Music Australia | (03) 9693 5111 | www.au.yamaha.com

Yamaha has announced the newest model in the EMX Series of powered mixers, the EMX2. The new model is built around the concept of giving users with little to no experience with live sound reinforcement a compact, versatile tool to configure and operate their own sound system with a minimum of setup and connections.

Each model of the EMX lineup continues to provide users with an integrated, portable unit a mixer to combine and balance your microphone, instrument and line sources, effects and EQ to refine and polish your sound, and power to drive the main speakers and even monitor speakers. The new EMX2 expands on the established design concept of the series, with an updated look and interface, and versatile features to accommodate a wider range of applications.

As the EMX2 is both a mixer and a power amplifier, only speakers and mics are required to have a fully functioning sound system. The unit’s dimensions are modest despite being an all-in-one powered mixer, making it easy to fit in the trunk of a small car. The lightweight body also features handles for more convenient transport and additional portability.

Gibson Unveil All New 2016 Models Gibson AMI | (03) 8696 4600 | www.gibsonami.com

Gibson USA, producer of the world’s most iconic guitars including the Les Paul, SG, Flying V, Explorer and Firebird, has announced its highly anticipated new 2016 Model Year.

With all guitars now available in two versions to suit specific performance needs, guitarists can invest in the ageless beauty of Traditional guitars faithful to Gibson’s time-honored legacy, or experience the thrill of Gibson’s all new HighPerformance guitars that reach-all new heights of playability, innovation, and style.

All 2016 Models deliver the signature Gibson sound—tone with depth, resonance, purity, and sustain—thanks to superior tonewoods, pickups, materials, and handmade-in-the-USA craftsmanship. And as always, playability remains second to none with Gibson’s superb action, silky smooth deep-oiled fingerboard, and expert precision setup.

The Traditional models are built to the same specifications as the classic Gibson guitars that have powered decades of hits, but also take advantage of advances in production and engineering that result in superb playability, consistency and superior quality. The High-Performance guitars invite a new addition to guitar collections, with infinitely customizable action adjustment, titanium hardware, an all-new “fast-access” neck heel for effortlessly reaching the neck’s highest notes, enhanced automatic tuning, new fortified aluminum case and multiple deluxe features that redefine the playing experience.

Alto Professional Trouper Portable PA System Pro Audio Group | (02) 9521 4844 | www.proaudiogroup.com.au

The Alto Professional Trouper is a compact high-performance PA system that perfectly fulfils the unique demands of solo artists and small ensembles. Leveraging technology from our widely acclaimed Truesonic and Black Series sound reinforcement systems, Trouper is the best-sounding and most full-featured small-venue PA system available.

Trouper is a 2-way 200-watt bi-amplified system (130 watts LF/70 watts HF) with (3) 6 ½” (165mm) woofers and a 1” (25mm) highfrequency compression driver, spanning the full musical frequency range from 65-20kHz. The system has thermal and dynamic overload protection, so the sound is always clean and clear no matter how hard you push it.

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Cordoba The Mini Zenith Music | (08) 9383 1422 | www.zenithmusic.com

The Cordoba Mini is something you aren’t going to find anywhere else. It’s a miniature nylon-string guitar. Designed to be transportable for road trips and vacations, the mini gives you the full playability of the full sized nylon string guitar in a compact and lightweight body. Finished with a solid top and a matte finish, it comes with Aquila 96C nylon strings, tuned up a fourth from a standard guitar. It’s available in three different wood combinations including solid spruce top with either mahogany or Indian rosewood back and sides or a solid ovangkol top with ovangkol back and sides.

Yamaha HPH-MT7 Studio Headphones Yamaha Music Australia | (03) 9693 5111| www.au.yamaha.com

Yamaha has announced the upcoming release of the newest addition to their MT Series professional studio monitor headphones, the HPH-MT7. The new model will join the HPH-MT220 and HPHMT120, rounding out the lineup of live audio and studio headphones. Developed around the concept of delivering exceptional precision and fidelity, these headphones will provide audio engineers in professional monitoring environments with an ideal platform to build on with their own signature sound.

Drawing from the same philosophy of sonic purity that inspired the development of Yamaha’s industry standard NS-10M studio monitor speakers, MT7 headphones are designed to deliver flat, high-resolution sound with precise stereo imaging and faithful source signal reproduction, while providing a high level of isolation and comfort—ideal for extended listening sessions.

Tycoon Master Fantasy Boa Series Rope-Tuned Djembes Dynamic Music | (02) 9939 1299 | www.dynamicmusic.com.au

These djembes feature eco-friendly and tonally superior shells made from mango wood found in Northern Thailand. Deep, loud bass tones and high, sharp slap tones roar out of these exceptionally sensitive and responsive djembes.

Special finishing procedures are applied to create its life-like snakeskin appearance and texture. Constructed with 5mm extra strong non-stretch rope, ensures for easy and long-lasting tuning.

Pricing is very reasonable for a top end Djembe, proving cheaper than other professional alternatives. Note: no snakes were harmed in the manufacture of these products!

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PRODUCT NEWS Tycoon Master Fantasy Boa Series Congas Dynamic Music | (02) 9939 1299 | www. dynamicmusic.com.au

The new Master Fantasy Boa Series Congas are another example of Tycoon’s ongoing product development. Constructed from hand-selected, aged siam oak wood, ensures exceptional durability as well as superb sound quality. These 30” tall drums have a distinctive wide belly to create rich and deep bass tones and deliver crisp bright high tones, the ultimate combination of conga sounds.

Chrome Deluxe hoops, reinforced side plates with 3/8” diameter tuning lugs and Die-cast handle-colour matches the hardware to finish off. All covered in a ‘Boa skin’ like wrap that is both unique and eye catching; there is not another conga on the planet that looks the same. Retailed at half the price of most professional drums, Tycoon has once again proven that quality does not have to come at a hefty cost.

Zildjian 19” & 20” K Custom Dark Crashes Australasian Music Supplies | (03) 9549 1500 | www.austmusic.com.au

Zildjian has unveiled two new additions to its popular K Custom Dark Crash, in response to requests by drummers and dealers alike. Now available in 19” and 20” models, these two larger sizes are the latest members of the acclaimed K Custom Series and put out a warm, rich sound that cuts through and sings out.

The Zildjian K Cymbals have the shimmering, classic sound that has been trusted and played by the likes of Art Blakey, Tony Williams, and Elvin Jones. The K Custom Series has been adapted from the original 19th century K Cymbals to produce more volume with a better cut, so that there is both a quick attack and a rapid decay of sound. The result is a dark, trashy sound that is still reminiscent of classic cymbals. The very dark notes of the Zildjian K Custom Dark Crash Cymbal will add a warm, old school sound to your drum set. The larger 19” and 20” diameters also feature a large bell that is designed to provide more volume and cut.

DV Mark DV Jazz 212 Combo Amplifier CMC Music Australia | (02) 9905 2511 | www.cmcmusic.com.au

DV Mark’s Jazz range of combo amps represent a breakthrough in compact amp design. While it’s common these days to find small amps with high output, most of the small format amps fall short when it comes to the demands of players who require clean, dynamic tone at medium to high volume. The DV Little Jazz combo meets and exceeds these requirements. It has a warm, musical sound while its innovative technology gives the discerning guitarist faster attack response and broader dynamics.

The DV Jazz 212 combo is one of the most compact and lightweight 2 x 12” combos available, and can’t be beaten when it comes to volume and tone for its size.

When you do a lot of gigs, weight and size are an issue. Now you can get great tone in a very compact package, with ultra portability.

Now the Jazz 212 offers you an even bigger sound from the same ingeniously designed amp.

Markbass New York 122 Ninja Amplifier CMC Music Australia | (02) 9905 2511 | www.cmcmusic.com.au

Both bassist Richard Bona and Markbass CEO Marco De Virgiliis accept no compromise when it comes to amplifiers, and that passion shows in the New York 122 Ninja Richard Bona signature cabinet. With a full yet focused sound, controlled bottom end delivered from the 2x12” Markbass custom speakers and fantastic clarity and detail thanks to a special new 1.25” compression driver that delivers smooth and crisp highs that are never harsh or brittle, this is truly one special amplifier.

With its 800W power handling it’s a great single cab choice for medium or large gigs, and its 8 OHMS allows you to match two of them with our powerful Markbass heads like the new Little Mark Ninja or Bass Multiamp S.

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Dynamic Music Offers 50% Off Select Drumkits For Christmas Dynamic Music | (02) 9939 1299 | www.dynamicmusic.com.au

As a Christmas gift to the drum playing public, Dynamic Music is offering 50% off on German engineered Drumcraft drum kits. This has to be the best drumkit offer since Santa decided to don the red coat! This Christmas, spoil yourself with either a top quality ‘Series 5’ or ‘Series 6’ complete 5pc drum kit with hardware, half price. Series 5 kits that normally retail for $1699 will be available for $849.50 from your nearest retailer, and the Series 6 kits that normally retail for $2199 will be available for 1099.50. Stocks won’t last, so get in quick to make someone’s Christmas, or your own, very merry indeed.

Alesis Crimson Kit Electric Factory | (03) 9474 1000 | www.elfa.com.au

The Alesis Crimson kit is a new limited edition electronic drum kit hitting the market this month. It offers sensational value for money with full mesh drum pads (including a large 12” mesh snare), ‘chokeable’ crash and triple zone ride, isolated snare stand and a brand new stylish Alesis module.

The Crimson Kit is fully customisable, suiting any drummer’s needs. The all-new drum module features 50 different kits, 600 sounds and 60 songs for you to groove along to, making it perfect for practice, performance and recording. These units will be made available on a very strict one off, limited run. Check one out at your local Alesis DM dealer before they are all gone.

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C O V E R

S T O R Y

NATHANIEL RATELIFF & THE NIGHT SWEATS “I forgot I had to do an interview,” Nathaniel Rateliff chuckles, “so I’m in a bar.”

It’s hard to imagine a more fitting environment to speak with the Missouri ‘Man of the Moment.’ Over ten years he has earned the enjoyment of fans and respect of his peers the old fashioned way; shoulder-to-the-grind touring and a restless artistic temperament, always looking ahead while keeping one foot in the blues/ rock/soul tradition. But with his debut album with The Night Sweats, his career suddenly found itself riding a massive wave. ‘S.O.B’ has become the raucous anthem of the year, and with lyrics beseeching somebody to buy him a goddamn drink, a rowdy bar seems almost divinely ordained to chat about success, touring, and writing bridal songs on the toilet.

“In the past, with all the other records I’ve put out, you have people surrounding you in the industry saying ‘Oh, this is going to be such a big deal, it’s going to be huge, people are going to love this fucking song,’” Rateliff reflects. “So you bust your ass getting the record out, pouring your heart into it, and nobody gives a shit about it, and neither does the label. And that’s horribly, utterly discouraging. You’re out touring, sacrificing your family and relationship time, you’re doing it all out of pocket. The times you’re home you’re thinking of how you’re going to make any cash. Maybe you can write a song for a commercial that will pay enough that you can pay the band. So you’re pushing really hard, but at the same time the people who are telling you the record’s going to be huge are the same ones who already have a house and a salary, while the musicians are living in a van somewhere, crying because they can’t remember when they last saw their wives. You put so much of your life into it, and it doesn’t work out. But now, it’s started to work out! [S.O.B]’s definitely not my favourite song, but what the fuck are you going to do?”

He laughs, while in the background the muddied sounds of live music swells and a crowd starts cheering. If at first Rateliff seems to be mired in doom and gloom about the industry, he is at pains to insist he is not a pessimist. Indeed, even when conversation touches on the harsher side of life and touring, he still sounds jovial about the strange road a musician wanders. In the past he has been described as a pensive songwriter, and while there are certainly moments of sombre reflection in his work, the scale of his output is much more varied.

“I think of myself as a lot of different things. At times I’ve been pensive and introspective, and then I’m also a bit of a ‘dickweed’ and crazy, with a wild hair up my ass. I make different records at different times to fulfil those different parts of me. I always feel the need to personally challenge myself, in a very lazy way.

I’m not a very ambitious person, so when I say challenge I mean in the laziest way possible. Lazy and self-loathing. And kind of horny. You combine those things, there’s the secret to writing songs. ‘You know, I’m pretty horny, but I haaaate myself. Ah, fuck it, I’ll write a song.’”

These different sides to Rateliff are expressed rather brilliantly on his and the Night Sweat’s eponymous debut. It is like a brief, intense overview of the sounds and styles that have influenced him over the years, although any strict meaning or insight into their composition is something he would prefer to remain ephemeral.

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I’m not a very ambitious person, so when I say challenge I mean in the laziest way possible. Lazy and self-loathing. And kind of horny. You combine those things, there’s the secret to writing songs. ‘You know, I’m pretty horny, but I haaaate myself.

Ah, fuck it, I’ll write a song.’

“I’m always a little reluctant to give information on what songs are about. I think the thing about art that’s most interesting is people’s own interpretations, versus giving away some kind of secret. I might have written a song that somebody got married to, and I probably wrote it on the shitter, I might have been having a real bad day. The thing about music is that the listener’s interpretation is often more important than the artist’s. When people try and get into the head of artists, well, people are obviously quite obsessed with fame and have been for a long time, which is really kind of creepy and strange, how [Western] culture relates to quote-unquote popularity. I think it’s kind of nice to keep it a bit of a mystery. I’d love to know what Leonard Cohen thinks about his songs, but I’d also rather never know.”

He makes a fair (if colourful) point, and one which many listeners struggle to fully appreciate; that the song you’ve connected with, that means so very much to you, has a vastly different history for the composer. Listening to the new record conjures many different impressions, thanks not only to Rateliff’s stentorian voice and a rollicking band, but the arrangement of songs themselves. You hear the album as a short-story collection, each track a distinct vignette.

“I always think of the record as having a Side A and B, like a vinyl. You have to listen to the first side, and those songs have to be good enough and keep your attention that you want to keep up off the couch and flip it over for more. All of the records I grew up listening to are like that. I remember sitting down playing cards and listening to The Basement Tapes over and over again.

Even stuff like Beck’s One Foot in the Grave, I love that record.

I had a bunch of Night Sweat songs written, and just before we went to record I kind of hunkered down at my house and started writing, and ended up with another fifteen or sixteen songs. I had something like thirty songs that we went into the studio with, but at that time I was just writing whatever came to me. I liked ‘Wasting Time’ a lot, but I didn’t know if it was going to fit.

We had other songs that were ruckus-ey, R&B, soul songs, but I thought it was important to showcase different emotions, to have the songs reflect what I feel personally. You have to feel it in order for it to be real.”

The fact there were so many songs that just missed the album cut is a fine revelation to end on, before Rateliff disappears back towards the bar for another whiskey. Nor is the prospect of one day hearing these tracks a hollow hope.

“For years, I’ve been wanting to put out a record called C Sides.

All the stuff I’ve accumulated over the years, tape recordings and demos on shitty 8-tracks. There’s a lot of material there. The nice thing is about having been writing for such a long time is that a song like ‘Mellow Out’ I wrote seven years ago for the hell of it. It kind of came back to my memory while I was preparing songs for the studio with Richard [Swift], and I reworked it for the record.

It’s a song I never thought I was going to use that somehow resurfaced again, and I was like, ‘Oh, yeah, that song. Forgot about you. Welcome back.’”

BY ADAM NORRIS

Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats are playing Bluesfest.

For more information, visit www.bluesfest.com.au.

www.mixdownmag.com.au

2016

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I N T E R V I E W S

YOU BEAUTY The English language is a constantly evolving and peculiar beast. Reach back far enough and you’ll find countless words that have slipped through the cracks of the cultural lexicon, long-lost artifacts of a time well and truly past. One such word is ‘illywhacker,’ which immediately brings up a red line in all good word processors but has a little bit of history to it – and now has a new life, thanks to Sydney band You Beauty.

“It’s actually a really famous Australian book by Peter Carey from the mid-80s,” explains Will Farrier, the lead vocalist, lyricist and percussionist in the band. “I decided to steal it from him – I figured it wasn’t really his to use in the first place. He got the term from this old colonial Australian term for someone that’s a bit of a trickster or a confidence man. I thought to myself, ‘Peter, you’ve had your chance. It’s my turn to take back the word and drag it into the 21st century vernacular. I’m hoping that he’ll find out about it and get really upset and maybe want to sue us.”

The band’s second LP – the slightly-changed Illywhacka – follows on roughly eighteen months after their debut, Jersey Flegg; which saw them tell the tale of a disgraced rugby league star. Although it gave the band an angle – the ‘footy band,’ if you will – Ferrier makes it

FRENZAL RHOMB Not to be all Rocky VII: Adrian’s Revenge about it, but I had an ulterior motive when I put my hand up for this Frenzal Rhomb interview. I last interviewed Lindsay McDougall in 1999, both of us rather green young men. It …didn’t go well. I was new to interviewing bands and I wasn’t prepared for the comic interplay and bratty attitude of McDougall and vocalist Jay Whalley. It kinda felt like being trapped in a Looney Tunes cartoon. Or maybe Ren & Stimpy. It wasn’t a bad interview, but in terms of shocking a young journalist out of his boots and into the realities of trying to craft a story out of 20 minutes of insult comedy, it was a learning experience. So I looked forward to the opportunity to talk to McDougall with over a decade and a half of distance.

“Wow. I apologise for that interview. It must have been horrendous,” McDougall laughs. Dude, I’ve been waiting to hear that for 20 years.

“That was before I’d ever interviewed anyone and we didn’t realise how hard it actually was!”

But the real reason for this interview, of course, is Soundwave, which Frenzal will be laying waste to in just a few short months. “We’ve got

PG.26 // MIXDOWN #260 // DECEMBER 2015

clear that the character and his arc was written and created purely for Jersey Flegg. “It was never a case of prolonging that,” he says. “When we were first starting to play shows, you’d have guys turning up in their footy jerseys and their shorts and everything. Everytime I saw that, I just thought to myself about how disappointed they were going to be. I’m sure there will be some people who just liked the footy subject matter or whatever, and that’s fine, but it was never about the one thing for us.”

Illywhacka follows the story of an online scam artist who has set up a profile on a dating website, looking for rich older women to steal money from. He picks his pray, Dee; but things go afoot when the scammer falls for her. His behaviour is similarly reprehensible to that of the footy star in Jersey Flegg, and the lyrics attempt to gaze into the psyche of such a wayward being from inside his own mind. “I was looking for the same kind of character,” says Ferrier. “Maybe what that character from Jersey Flegg might have been doing in another life. We didn’t want to change the blueprint so much – we just knew it had to have certain aspects that were different. I found some articles online that I found really interesting – just the mentality behind the kind of guys that will do this sort of thing. I read so many stories about these women getting chased online for their cash – it’s pretty full-on when you stop and think about it.”

You Beauty formed two years ago, a hybrid of some of the Australian underground’s great unsung bands such as Mere Women, Absolute Boys and Ohana.

Although all members are now based in Sydney, the four members were previously split between there, Wollongong and Melbourne; meaning that a lot of Jersey Flegg was written by correspondence. Now with a central location, the songwriting process for Illywhacka was considerably easier; allowing for more breathing space and a chance to explore some

further layers of the band’s still-developing sound.

“The stories are shaped by the songs that the rest of the band gives to me,” says Ferrier. “I hear what they’ve been working on, get some ideas in my head and just start writing with whatever I have in mind. For Jersey Flegg, the whole thing was already done. I had to come in and write around each structure – it had to be right down to the beat. They couldn’t go back and re-record anything or make a part longer or anything like that. At least, for this record, I had demos to work with. If I needed a little more rope or if they hadn’t given me enough to work with, we were able to go back and forth a bit easier. I feel more way out of the pocket on this one.”

Although Jersey Flegg and now Illywhacka are both albums with concepts behind them, Ferrier is still turned off by the phrase ‘concept album.’ There might be a lot to think about concerning the moral ground in which his characters stand upon and the actions they choose, but You Beauty are not trying to get too dense or philosophical. They still view it as a band that is simple, straightforward and – more to the point – fun. “A lot of it really is just tongue-in-cheek,” he affirms. “Like, we’re dealing with albums that are about half an hour in length here. It’s not supposed to be some sort of grand commentary on things – it’s a story with an arc, the character evolves and it ends on an ambiguously-positive note. I mean, Ray Warren’s in the first album. Tracy Grimshaw’s in this one.

It’s a cheap laugh. My ideas of concept albums are complete wankery – The Mars Volta or Pink Floyd going on about god-knows-what. We’re more interested in the storytelling.”

a whole album ready to go but we can’t record it until our drummer gets his broken arm better. The nerve damage has almost healed, and these shows will probably be the last we do with our fill-in drummer Kye Smith. We probably won’t do any of the new songs at these shows because we’re not going to teach Kye the new songs. But here’s the good thing about getting Kye in: the new guys know the songs so well and it’s a whole new thing to go ‘Oh that’s how that song’s supposed to go!’

Kye’s like this kind of drum savant who knows every drum part of every song ever. So it’s going to be a masterclass of how our songs are actually meant to be played, for the audience and for us.” There’s something else McDougall is looking forward to about Soundwave too: “You just get to go and watch a bunch of awesome bands! You get your set over and done with and then you go and watch bands or, if you don’t like that band, go into their little dressing shed and nick their beer while they’re onstage. We did that to NOFX.” So what kind of guitar gear does one of Australia’s pre-eminent “elder statesman who’s not even that ‘eld’ yet” punk guitarists get excited about? “I’ve been playing some shows with Briggs, the hip hop artist from Shepparton, and I’ve just pulled my Roland guitar synth out of storage! I’ve started learning how to use footpedals! I’ve never had to use them! I’ve been using the Line 6 M13 stompbox modeller. But in Frenzal I just use a Marshall JMP and a tuner. I bought the JMP quite a few years ago. Around that time I was using 5150s which are rad but too heavy to carry. Then I started using Mesas again because our bass player is our sultan of sound, the guy who sits there twiddling the knobs on the amp. Then last year - maybe it was the NOFX tour - I thought f**k it, I want to use Marshalls again. So I pulled out my JMP, which I’d never used on stage. It hadn’t been modded at all and it was the loudest f**king thing in the room. It was amazing. It was like ‘There’s Malcolm

Young. That’s that sound. It’s a proper amp being overdriven because it’s being blasted in the power amp, not by a BOSS Metal Zone pedal. And I’m really excited to do these shows in NSW and Melbourne because I can drive to the shows and bring my amp.”

McDougall is a longtime Gibson SG guy: “It’s a pretty boring – I say off-the-shelf but really off-the-online-store – model, a 2007 one. And I got another really cheap one from somebody in Brisbane on Gumtree that has really nice P90s in it so that’s my spare guitar. But P90s are very different pickups so if I need to switch to that guitar it’s like, ‘Shit, that’s very loud and buzzy…’

But my favourite guitar is this beautiful Cole Clark Culprit that I used in Triple J a lot. It feels like a Telecaster but it sounds rad, and really angry when you overdrive it. I had astronaut Chris Hadfield come in and I brought that guitar in. We had a little jam together on that and an acoustic. And after the interview I left it in the studio. We had these desks in our studios that can be lifted up or down electronically, and unfortunately I’d left the guitar under the desk and …lowered the desk. The whole thing smashed at the headstock and I cried a little bit. I sent it down to Andy at Cole Clark.

Unfortunately they had a fire a couple of years ago and they didn’t have any necks. So he’s gonna fix it one day when he finds another beautiful neck. It was a really beautiful guitar and it will be again.”

BY DAVID JAMES YOUNG Illywhacka is out now via Rice is Nice.

BY PETER HODGSON

Frenzal Rhomb are playing at Soundwave 2016.

Far more information, visit soundwavefestival.com

www.mixdownmag.com.au

I N T E R V I E W S

JOSH PYKE Josh Pyke has become somewhat of a veteran within the Australian music scene. Over the past decade, he’s made his way from an indie upstart to one of this country’s most revered songwriters, with multiple ARIAS, APRA Awards and gold records under his belt.

Instantly identifiable through his articulate lyrics and keen ear for melody, his latest album But For All These Shrinking Hearts carries all the hallmarks of Pyke’s signature style while beating with an adventurous and experimental heart all of its own.

“It wasn’t something I set out to do,” says Pyke on the record’s experimental tendencies. “I think it was a product of having a studio at home, and having the time and space to naturally experiment with things without looking at a clock - without worrying about money and stuff like that. I was definitely experimenting and I was approaching songwriting from the point of view of just writing songs; not thinking about what it might sound like or if it might get played on the radio.

I do feel like that came through in the end result.”

Building his own studio proved to be a watershed moment for Pyke, who now had the freedom to follow his inspiration wherever it led him. You can hear the fruits of his labour on tracks such as ‘Book of Revelations’, opening the album with an ethereal ambience that covers new sonic terrain for the songwriter. Created by sampling and

JOSÉ GONZÁLEZ José González has put out three albums under his own name in the past twelve years. Four years separate his breakthrough debut, 2003’s Veneer, and its follow-up, 2007’s In Our Nature. A further seven-and-a-half separate the latter with last February’s Vestiges and Claws. Of course, the gaps were filled in González’s own way – heavy touring; two albums with Junip (the band he formed five years before finding solo fame) and much needed time off simply (as he puts it) “sitting on the couch with a coffee watching lectures on Google Talks.” It does raise the question, however, of just how monotonous the touring would have been after playing ostensibly the same set on and off for two years straight – a struggle which, although González partially admits to, doesn’t affect him in the slightest anymore.

“I suppose I was getting a little restless toward the end of the cycle for In Our Nature,” he says. “My album cycles generally tend to last about three years – that includes writing, recording, releasing, promoting and touring them. When touring was coming to a close for that record, I’d essentially exhausted whatever I could play from my two solo albums. A

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modulating his voice alongside an effect laden Autoharp, the exploration of new textures and sounds reinvigorated Pyke’s songwriting and helped him capture the ‘lightning’ of creativity whenever it strikes.

“The whole thing about creativity for me is that it should very much be free,” reflects Pyke. “It should be about returning to that idea of inspiration you had when you were a kid. When I started playing guitar I didn’t know what I was doing, but it was the most exciting thing in the world.

It’s like being a sailor setting out to sea without a map. It feels exciting. So having a studio space for me is an extension of that. It’s just a place to go and play really. Some days I’ll go in there and I’ll come up with a great song and I’ll be able to demo it straight away. Some days I’ll just record weird ambient acoustic stuff, or electronic stuff, or really heavy rock psychedelic stuff - because I can. I think all that feeds into itself and creates an environment were you’re more able to explore.”

Just prior to the release of his latest record, Josh Pyke played to a packed out Sydney Opera House backed by none other than the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. With But For All These Shrinking Hearts, you can hear this influence creeping in as songs are complemented by dramatic, sweeping arrangements. The experience helped Pyke in more ways than one however, offering up a different perspective on songwriting.

“I guess having done the SSO stuff, I was more aware and more open to the idea that songs can end up wildly different to how you envisioned them initially,” he says. “I feel more comfortable to allow other people to expand things that I’ve started, and to have a bit more ownership over those things.” In the case of album highlight ‘Late Night Driving’, this new approach has certainly paid off with composer James Irwin Roscoe turning in a spellbinding string arrangement that brought the track to new heights. “He came back with such

beautiful arrangements,” says Pyke. “It was quite liberating to just let someone else take the reigns.”

As Pyke says, he feels more open with his songwriting than ever before. Becoming less protective of his music has ushered in a greater sense of collaboration, working with Dustin Tebbutt and Jinja Safari’s Marcus Azon on some of his first major co-writes. “Musically, it kind of makes you reflect on the things you naturally gravitate towards,” he says. “Then it helps you push away from those things. You’re kind of seeing your own songwriting through someone else’s eyes in a way, and you’re also looking at their songwriting and being inspired by that.”

With his latest effort, Josh Pyke has created one of his finest and most expansive works to date. In his opinion, it’s his latest attempt at the musical escapism we find in our most meaningful and cherished records. “I just want people to be taken away,” he says. “I want them to listen to the record and be able to forget their own lives in the same way that I listen to an Animal Collective record or a Sufjan Stevens record walking through the city. I feel like I could be anywhere, y’know? I’d like it if other people could have those kind of experiences with my music.”

bit of time away has really helped expand the show – I now have three solo albums, two Junip albums, a bunch of B-sides and some covers as well. I have a lot more music now, which means we’re getting to do an hour-and-a-half or thereabouts when we’re playing headlining sets. I’ve been able to switch from just sitting down and playing by myself to incorporating more and more percussion and singing. The shows I’m playing are more varied than ever.”

Vestiges and Claws is another warm and strikinglyintimate record. It’s rich with González’s textured guitar lines, sparse percussion and simple, emphatic choruses.

It’s also, amazingly enough, the first album González has put out under his own name that does not contain a cover. Veneer famously featured a rendition of The Knife’s “Heartbeats” which went on to become even more popular than the original; while In Our Nature featured a well-received take on Massive Attack’s 1998 classic “Teardrop.” These days, however, covers are of less interest.

“When we were doing the first Junip album [2010’s Fields], we briefly talked about adding a cover or not,” says González. Eventually, we just said no and didn’t think anything more of it. It didn’t even come up when we were making the second Junip album [2013’s Junip] or making this new solo album – that’s just the way that I tend to work now. I don’t want covers to be something that I fall back on – I’m more interested in simply writing until I have enough material to substantiate an album. Personally, it wasn’t that big of a statement; although I’m well aware of how much people love my early covers and what a cover can mean. If anyone has discovered the music of The Knife or the music of Massive Attack through me, then I see that as a huge compliment. I found out about so many artists when I was growing up through artists I liked covering their work – Nina Simone and Chet Baker come to mind.”

A handful of videos have already been made to go along with key tracks from Vestiges and Claws. “Leaf

Off/The Cave” features González and co. performing in front of a congregation in his hometown of Gothenburg in Sweden. There’s also ‘Open Book’, which follows on from a bizarre Calexico video González starred in some years ago; as well as a line-drawn animated video for ‘Let it Carry You.’ González expresses reluctance to appear in videos – if it were up to him, he’d not feature at all. Over the years, however, he’s clearly grown more comfortable with the process.

“Videos are interesting,” he muses. “They take the least amount of time but the most amount of money from the labels. They can be a headache a lot of the time – I never go into making a video wanting to be in it – but I always come out of doing them being really grateful for the experience. Two directors in particular – Andres Nillson and Mikel Cee Karlsson – have kind of become my go-to guys. Mikel even made the documentary about me [2010’s The Extraordinary Ordinary Life of José González], so our relationship is at a point where I don’t even have to really say anything for him to understand what I want out of something like that – and, a lot of the time, neither does he.”

A year on from Vestiges and Claws’ release, González will return to Australia in February for the first time in five years, following on from a visit as a part of Junip.

Several shows – including an appearance at the iconic Sydney Opera House – have already sold out. “It’s very exciting,” González says calmly. “I can’t wait to come back. I haven’t read details, but I hear that we’re playing a zoo?”

BY JAMES DI FABRIZIO

But For All These Shrinking Hearts is out now via Sony Music. For a full list of tour dates, visit mixdownmag.com.au

BY DAVID JAMES YOUNG

José González will be performing for the Melbourne Zoo Twilight Series. For more info, visit mixdownmag.com.au

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MAC DEMARCO

An exuberant force of Canadian rock and roll, Mac DeMarco has proven to be a consistent and evolutionary songwriter with last album Salad Days swiftly followed by mini-LP Another One, blazing a trail globally with raucous live showings. Ahead of his return to Australia for the New Year period, Mac speaks on his approach, inviting fans to his home, and how he would change the world.

Do you feel like an actor when you’re recording or performing?

The recording – definitely no, I mean I’m at home doing it, it’s kind of like a very personal thing for me, so that is definitely – and I mean I try not to think about what people are gonna think like ‘oh, I should try and write about this kinda song’, I don’t really think that way while I’m doing it, so that’s definitely like pretty straight up. With the shows, it can be a little bit different I guess, ‘cause you know, people are coming out, you wanna try and y’know, please people every night, but you know if I’m having a weird time or if the crowd is being weird, then the mood may shift, you never know. But I try not to – I mean I think a lot of certain aspects of my personality are like blown way out of proportion, you know, I’m kind of like an internet meme or something at this point, but you know, I try and

EDENSOUND MASTERING

There are so many delicate choices to make when you record, mix or master your music. The equipment you use, the studios you take advantage of and the people you enlist. We caught up with Martin Pullan of Edensound Mastering to discuss his own projects, and his perspective on where the art of mastering is headed.

What are the most important bits of gear that you use in the studio?

I’m not heavily driven by gear to be honest. For mastering I use some digital (outboard and plugins) and some analogue gear. My Focusrite Blue Mastering suite which includes a very nice EQ, My Tubetech 3 band valve compressor and my vintage Tannoy Gold monitors are probably my most important. They’re built into the studio are extremely handy but crucially my espresso machine.

How has the Loudness War affected the way that you go about your mixing and mastering?

With some projects I think it is an issue but it depends on what genre.

For me, I try to make most of my masters loud enough to stand up to other tracks of a similar style whilst keeping the punchiness and dynamics that are in the mix. Or better still improving these. Loudness has been an issue all along; in vinyl days (the old vinyl days) it was

PG.30 // MIXDOWN #260 // DECEMBER 2015

stay true to myself. I think it’s the only way I can really stay sane doing this. But I try and keep it parallel with the outward persona or whatever that people dig into or whatever.

Even with Andy joining the band a little over a year ago, there seems to be a natural trust and dynamic with the band. Did that come about instantly?

I think it just kind of, I mean it probably came while we were touring I guess. But it’s kinda been that way for so long now that, and even when Andy [guitar] joined the band he was a little bit, you know, quieter at first, but he’d seen us play a bajillion times before he joined, but it’s just kind of, yeah, I mean I give them microphones, they only sing backup vocals on a couple songs, so they can say whatever they want. It’s kind of, you know, it keeps them sane as well, ‘cause if they were doing this like robotic ‘gotta play perfectly exactly the same every night’ I think it’s boring. I let them do their own solos, I let them do whatever they want, really, as long as the songs come across – and I’m not super concerned with them being like, ‘super-tight musicians’ or anything, ‘cause none of us are, it’s honestly just another day of us hanging out, but this time we’re hanging out with a whole bunch of people in a club or at a festival on a stage. It’s a little bit of a different dynamic but yeah, it keeps it comfortable for me.

Are you happy where you’re at currently in terms of touring and output?

I don’t know. I mean, I know I’m gonna keep making records and I’ll keep touring if people wanna see us, but I don’t know. For the immediate future I know that we’re gonna be touring a lot and I know I’m gonna do another record probably early next year or maybe early in the winter or something, but yeah, I don’t know. I’ve kind of just as important and cutting engineers were always trying to get more level on disc.

What project are you most proud of?

Deep Purple Made in Japan 1972 remix and remaster.

What is the most difficult part of remixing an old recording like that?

Remaining sensitive to the material and the importance of the work. Trying to create a new and different version, one that sounds as good, if not better than the original. Otherwise, what’s the point? Making it loud enough to stand up against modern material in a playlist and yet trying to keep the openness and dynamic range of the original.

Obviously, the dynamic range part shouldn’t be a problem as the digital formats now have way better signal to noise than the original analogue formats.

What do you prefer to mix on DAW software rather than on an analogue console?

I think it’s incredible what you can do now in the box. The plugins are amazing now and the control you have over the automation is much better than in analogue. Back in the day we would often spend 15 or more hours on a mix in one hit. It had to be finished in the one session because there was so much equipment involved. Yes you could take notes about all the settings and try and recall it all another day, but it never really matched up and you would spend hours trying to get back to the same mix before you could move on. Now you can work on many mixes at once; do a bit of work on one, move on to another, come back to the first one knowing that in seconds it would be recalled to exactly the same point you were at when you left off.

The danger with mixing (or recording) in the box is the temptation to over-process. The temptation is to make everything too perfect. When you

fallen into this thing where I don’t, I mean I never really have any goals or expectations, like I wanna play shows and you know I’m having a good time doing what I’m doing, but it’s always just kinda been for me like, yeah, you make a record, that’s what you do, that’s what your life’s about, you make songs, you play music, so it’s not, I don’t like ‘I wanna play Madison Square Garden’ or like ‘sell a million records’ – I don’t care about that. I just do what I do, and it’s crazy that people pay attention to it.

Have you got to a stage of certain freedom?

I guess I have kind of always - I mean for me, playing music and playing shows and getting paid to do this kind of thing and like going around the country, it’s not work, it’s not a job. For me music was always freedom from like the 9-to-5 job or freedom from the grocery store shift or whatever, it is crazy now that it is my full, full gig.

For me it’s just the small things that really make the difference, as far as like keeping it the way I want it to be. I don’t wanna take tour buses, I don’t wanna do any of that kinda crazy stuff. Even playing big venues, we’ve gotten to a certain point where we’re able to play like 3000-person venues in some cities, and that’s kind of like pushing it a little bit, and I’d rather do a couple smaller shows than like a big one. I don’t wanna disconnect from what I’m doing. I wanna keep it as down to earth as I can.

Mac Demarco will be performing as part of The Falls Music and Arts Festival. auto-tune or time correct too much you remove the character of the player. Obviously, this doesn’t apply to certain genre but imagine if they had beat detective in the 70’s. How would Keith Moon’s drumming sound if some engineer had gone in and moved all the drums around into his version of in time? It just wouldn’t be Keith any more.

How do you see the landscape for mastering changing? How does running Edensound now differ from the operation of Edensound fifteen years ago?

Who knows what will happen in the recording industry in the future? Apart from the technology, the main difference from 15-20 years ago is that back then, pretty much everyone I worked with was a professional, they were making a living out of music. Now, that is just not possible for so many musos. Most of my clients these days may be excellent musicians, they may be playing 2 or 3 nights a week live but they need day jobs to support what has now become a hobby.

The fact that people are listening mostly on inferior systems like ear buds, mainly when they are on the move, has meant that there’s less importance to the quality of music. Yes, some people are aficionados and will play an album from start to finish on a high quality stereo but these are in the minority. We’ve now got on-line mastering services that use algorithms instead of human ears to put the crucial final polish on your music. If you compare one of these masters with one done by a pro mastering studio they really don’t sound good. Does it matter? I’d like to think so. I still want to believe that it’s important to make music sound the best that we can. Maybe I’m old fashioned!

BY KEATS MULLIGAN For more information, head to www.edensound.com.au

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TUNECORE After ten years of successful operations in the United States, online music distribution service TuneCore has just launched in Australia. For a small fee, TuneCore will distribute an artist’s music to such online retailers as iTunes, Spotify, Amazon Music and Google Play.

TuneCore also offers a publishing administration service, which registers artists’ songs across the globe and collects all relevant royalties. To find out more, Mixdown spoke to TuneCore CEO, Scott Ackerman.

TuneCore isn’t the only platform of its kind – the likes of Catapult Distribution and CD Baby offer similar music distribution services. But TuneCore claims to be the “leading music distribution service provider.”

What are the chief distinctions between TuneCore and these other services?

When distributing music via TuneCore, unlike our competitors, artists keep 100% of their revenues. We believe in simple, straightforward pricing and top-notch support to help artists increase revenue opportunities and advance their careers. With TuneCore, artists maintain complete control of their work and have the freedom to create their own path to success using our best-inclass services.

If an artist’s releases are already available in these online stores and streaming platforms, what’s the benefit of transferring to TuneCore, and how easily can this be done?

TuneCore artists have access to over 150 digital stores throughout the world and artist’s services while maintaining ownership of their work and 100% of their revenues. Registering music with TuneCore is simple, a musician just needs to go to TuneCore.com.au, set up an account and upload their tracks. TuneCore has the added benefit of customised reporting via the TuneCore dashboard.

The publishing administration service claims to do more than performing rights organisations (such as APRA) when it comes to collecting royalties. These organisations do great work, and membership is free. To utilise TuneCore’s publishing administration service, artists need to pay the one-time fee of $99.99. What areas does TuneCore retrieve royalties from that aren’t covered by performing rights organisations?

The performing rights organisations do great work, but it’s only part of the process. TuneCore publishing administration goes further by registering artists’ songs worldwide, in over 60 countries, and collecting all of these separate royalties to ensure creators are receiving all revenues due for use of their compositions.

Additionally, TuneCore’s in-house creative team can help drive new revenue opportunities for artists and songwriters by pitching compositions – and recordings – for various licensing opportunities, like placement in films, TV programs, advertisements, video games et cetera.

Is it possible to be linked up with TuneCore and APRA simultaneously?

Yes, performing rights organisations like APRA are an incredibly important tool for songwriters and publishers.

However, it is also crucial to have a publishing administrator, such as TuneCore, to ensure that all of the money earned from music listened to and used around the world is collected and disseminated to the artists and songwriters that created it.

Is the publishing administration service accessible for artists who have their music in distribution already (not via TuneCore)? Or to utilise this service, are you required to sell your music via TuneCore?

I’m truly blessed in regards to having Ozzy in my life and the opportunity he gave me – Oz gave me this incredibly blessed life that I have. Now that we have our Black Label family, I thank the good lord everyday for everything I have. But every time you go and track a new record, you do it like it would be if this were your first record. That’s how psyched you should be.

ZAKK WYLDE There’s no two ways about it, Zakk Wylde is a man possessed by rock music. The Black Label Society leader and Ozzy Osbourne guitarist fell madly in love with guitars as a teenager, and this passion has continued to intensify. However, it hasn’t prevented him from cultivating other interests. For instance, he’s an avowed follower of American football and baseball – the New York Yankees are a particularly beloved club. At the tail end of Black Label Society’s first Australian headline tour since 2006, Mixdown spoke to Wylde about sport, his application to making music, and his notorious affiliation with the Gibson Les Paul.

You’ve been deeply invested in music since a young age. When did you get into sports?

When I was a kid I always played football, always played baseball, but then I really started getting serious about guitar. I was probably 14 and I was just like, “This is what I want to do with my life.” That’s when I basically dedicated my life to music. It wasn’t like, “I’ll make music as a hobby,” it was, “This is what I want to do with my life.”

Well, that worked out better than you could’ve imagined. Despite your success, does it still feel like hard work? Have you ever felt like you’ve made it? Or do you still have to put in maximum effort?

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It seems like you have that mindset too; intent on making whatever you’re working on as good as it possibly can be. With a creative pursuit, however, it’s not as easy as putting in the hours and consequently reaping the rewards.

Songwriting breakthroughs can be very elusive.

You might wake up one day and write something amazing, but you could spend the next nine months coming up with nothing but garbage.

Without a doubt. I think that happens with everybody when you’re writing all the time. I mean, Neil Young never stops writing. Look at Robert Plant, he doesn’t stop either. He just put a new record out and he’s out touring. That’s from pure joy and love of creating.

Over the last 16 years, you’ve released nine studio albums with Black Label Society – the latest being 2014’s Catacombs of the Black Vatican. Have you learned to accept the fact you’re not always going to generate dazzling material?

You just look at it like, we’re digging for dinosaur bones in a two-mile radius and they’re in here somewhere. Let’s see if we find anything today.

Even if you come up with nothing today, let’s go get something to eat and then we’ll start tomorrow.

We’ll get some coffee and we’ll look again. We know they’re out here. It’s just a matter of, you’ve dug over there, let’s dig over here a little bit more until we find something. It’ll come, but getting freaked out about it’s not helping anything.

Yes, artists are able to sign up for TuneCore’s publishing administration service without a TuneCore distribution account.

TuneCore is a private business, so making money is obviously a core aim. But when the company started, what was the main thing you intended to introduce to the music industry? Do you think TuneCore’s services in the US, UK, Canada and Japan have actualised your founding ambition?

TuneCore’s mission has always been and remains bringing more music to more people, while helping musicians and songwriters increase money-earning opportunities and take charge of their own careers. TuneCore artists around the world have earned US$600 million from over 22.5 billion downloads and streams since its inception in 2005.

Artists in Australia who are completely independent, and who value their independence, may have some reservations about joining TuneCore for fear of losing some control. TuneCore clearly states that artists retain complete ownership, but what else could you say to convince someone to distribute music through TuneCore, rather than off their own back?

Digital music consumption around the world is growing and the industry continues to evolve. TuneCore is committed to supporting independent artists and helping them to identify potential new revenue opportunities.

Through TuneCore, independent artists have access to best-in-class services to help enhance their careers and are able to distribute their music and collect revenue from over 150 digital partners around the globe, including key emerging markets like Central America, South America and Asia. TuneCore artists maintain 100% ownership and control of their work and can take advantage of TuneCore’s customised reporting via the TuneCore dashboard.

BY KEATS MULLIGAN For more information, visit www.tunecore.com.au It can be a painful assault on the ego, to go from feeling pride in your artistry to struggling to deliver anything above average.

Yeah. but my whole thing is you’ve got to keep digging and digging and then all of a sudden you hit something and you’re like, “All right, this is awesome”.

You’ve got a reputation as a supremely powerful live band. Over the years, has playing live had a big impact on the songs you write?

I don’t think in those terms. I just think, when you write a cool riff then there you go. For me, with the heavy songs anyway, it always starts with the riff. Then the melody comes and it finishes with the lyrics. Because then you get inspired to sing about something and then you put it into the melody you came up with.

You’re well known for your signature Gibson Les Paul Custom. Fans pay a lot of attention to your guitar and effects setup, regarding it with quasireligious reverence. For you, is the gear you use essential for enabling you to do what you do?

My setup is just so basic. It’s just a great tube amp and a really cool speaker. My pedals, they’re basic.

It works best for me – it’s less clutter. If you have a great sounding amp, that’s what you want to hear.

You have a great guitar; it’s a great combination. To me that’s what it’s all about.

BY AUGUSTUS WELBY

Black Label Society’s ninth studio album, Catacombs of the Black Vatican, is out now.

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C O L U M N S

UNLEASH YOUR INNER ROCK GOD

ON THE DOWNLOW

Evil Intervals

Five Great Heavy Bass Players

Metal bass is a funny thing. There are many players who kind of lurk in the shadows, providing a reliable foundation but making a contribution that’s more felt than heard. Then there are other players who either go out of their way to make sure they’re out front, or seize the spotlight via the sheer weight of their voice on the instrument whether they want to or not. Here are my favourites. Tell us yours on Facebook or Twitter!

David Ellefson

Continuing on from our look at metal guitar conventions last month, here’s a look at something that strikes at the black heart of what metal guitar is all about: evil. More specifically, the kind of evilsounding intervals that propel songs like ‘Black Sabbath; by… some bunch of dudes from Birmingham. There are certain intervals (relationships between two notes) that just sound more metal than others, and can be used to conjure anything from a feeling of dread to a feeling of terror to a feeling of horror. Here are some of them.

Now, the major scale is going to come in handy here in remembering what the notes are called, so if you haven’t learned the Major Scale yet, grab a copy of last month’s issue for a refresher. We’ll do this in the key of A, and each interval will be expressed in single notes and then played in the context of a riff with chords. Play each of these at around 94bpm for a creepy Alice In Chains kind of feel or speed them right up for more of an Anthrax vibe.

Minor Second

Play the first and second notes of the major scale. Sounds pretty happy, right?

Well let’s drop that second note back one fret. This is called the Minor Second (because it’s taking the second note - or degree - of the major scale but shifting it down one note). Sound evil now? Hell yeah! You can also get a lot of mileage out of bending a note up to the minor second, or by pre-bending it up to the minor second, striking it then releasing it.

Minor Third

Now we’ll play the root and third notes of the Major scale. Again, sounds pretty happy. You might even say majorly happy.

But flatten that Major Third into a Minor Third by backing it off by one fret and it starts to sound pretty imposing especially if you add a little microtonal bend to it right before going back to the root note.

Flat Fifth - Diabolos In Musica

Now this is where it gets really good. In the Middle Ages this particular interval (one note lower than the Fifth that we’ve already learned about from the power

chord) was considered so evil that it could actually summon Satan him/herself.

It’s the building block of such classically creepy riffs as Black Sabbath’s ‘Black Sabbath’ and Sepultura’s ‘Dead Embryonic Cells’.

Seventh

The Seventh is a very dramatic-sounding interval that works great in breakdowns prior to an all-out chorus or something similar. It’s sort of like the ‘Diabolos In Musica’ but less ominous and more alarming. Depending on how you play it, it can sometimes take on a bit of a weirdo Frank Zappa kind of vibe.

Of course, these intervals aren’t the only way to impose some evil will on your riffage. Sometimes just playing with a pissed-off, brutal attitude will do it.

But they are another handy tool to have at your disposal for when you need to write something real brutal, real fast. Try combining all of these into one riff and you’ll open a portal to hell itself. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

BY PETER HODGSON

PG.34 // MIXDOWN #260 // DECEMBER 2015

Megadeth’s bass overlord has an instantly recognisable style rooted in equal parts Steve Harris and Chris Squire. A few months ago I asked him where it came from. “I grew up on a farm in a very rural part of the United States, in Minnesota. The music bug came on me, it lit me up, I felt alive and like I had a purpose, so I looked for every opportunity and every person I could play with. I would play with the church acoustic guitar player. I’d play with the third-grade band teacher. Then there came a time when I was in my mid-teen years where I was playing in a jazz band in high school and listening to Jaco Pastorius, Weather Report, Spyro Gyra, Al DiMeola.”

Then the metal bug bit via Iron Maiden, and by the time Ellefson moved to LA and met Dave Mustaine, he was ready. “We lived in Hollywood right by the Musicians Institute and we were very influenced by this school and the students that were there. There was one guy we’d jam with, this guy Ed who would come over every day after school, and he was really big into the early Scorpions stuff and it really developed how progressive Megadeth’s early music was. And we took it to a whole other level of complexity. So all those years of growing up playing all these different types of music, playing in the jazz band and stuff, all those experiences were able to be brought together and harnessed basically to a blank canvas called Megadeth where we created this sound and style.”

Jeff Hughell

Whether solo or with Six Feet Under, Jeff Hughell’s style is complex yet effortless and the dude plays a mean 7-string bass by Warwick with Seymour Duncan pickups. “I always had ideas for riffs and techniques that used more than 4 strings,” he says.

“And back in 1997 I saw that Conklin made a 7 string bass. It seemed like the perfect amount of strings for me, not too many and not too little. I bought one in 1999 and primarily have played 7 strings ever since. I was lucky enough to start working with Warwick in 2012 and they built me a custom-shop 7 string! That was so amazing because Warwick has always been my favorite and I have had a 6 string Corvette for 15 years, but they didn’t make a 7 string.

So when I finally got my hands on it, I knew this is what I would play forever!”

Rex Brown

with a guitarist as powerful as Dimebag Darrell and dare to lay finger to fret, but Rex Brown’s playing had the confidence and authority to hold the riffage down tight while Dime soloed, or to lock in with those legendary stop-start riffs. “Dimebag would come up with crazy things,” he says. “Even with simple riffs he’d put his little Dimeisms into it which would make him unique.

One thing he would do was before he would even attack it he would pre-bend the string and then he’d attack it and release it. Some of those little bends and slurs, that was very unique and it’s really hard to do on the bass because of the bigger strings. On a guitar there’s a little more traction. Little things like that, little quirky things that gave things more character. And us playing together for so long, following each other on those parts, we’d get the riff down and then go “oh hell… now we’ve got to work on the solo!”

David Vincent

Formerly of Morbid Angel, David Vincent has the enviable skill of keeping up with hyperspeed death metal riffs while singing at the same time. Granted, his singing style is more rooted in guttural growls than melodic control, but his vocals and bass playing share the same intensity level. “I’m pretty heavy-handed,” he says “I always put my action higher than spec and I retard the intonation a little bit because I bend things out of tune a little bit so that’s the only way to counteract that. My setup is a little different. For whatever reason I’ve always been heavy-handed.” But Vincent finds that his fingers hold up just fine despite the demanding nature of his style. “I find it’s the opposite: on guitar the strings are so small that it’s different callouses you develop between bass and guitar. When I sit down with an acoustic guitar my fingers are very sore after playing for an hour or so. I guess I have to work on that.”

Lemmy

Lemmy needs no introduction. “[My bass style comes from] being a guitar player before I was a bass player, really. I like to do a lot of chords and a lot of fill-ins instead of just ‘bom-de-bom-de-bom,’ because that’s fucking boring to me. I always wanted to be able to show off like the guitar players do. I think I managed that alright!”

BY PETER HODGSON

It’s has to be difficult to stand onstage

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C O L U M N S

WHAT’S THAT SOUND? What’s that feel?

There are so many things to consider when choosing your next digital piano or synthesizer. Of course, brand name can be a big driving force, as can size, weight and often even colour. But then, it comes to the sound, and there are all sorts of things to consider then, depending on what you want the keyboard for. That leads us to the final piece of the discussion in choosing your new keyboard: the key action that it offers. There are a range of keybed manufacturers supplying actions for synthesizer and digital piano brands around the world, so which one is right for you?

There are a number of manufacturers that have developed their own keybed actions, like Roland, Kawai and Yamaha.

All three have put extensive research and development into obtaining realistic piano hammer actions in their digital pianos.

For those of you wanting a keyboard that feels like a real piano, both in how the notes respond to velocity changes and how the keys respond under variations to touch, then a hammer action is going to be what you are looking for. This is different to a simple weighted action, which adds weight and spring tension to each key for increased resistance. A proper hammer action actually feels like you’re driving a hammer within a piano. It starts off with little resistance, and builds as the key is depressed. There are many grades of hammer action, so don’t just buy a keyboard on the inclusion of this feature alone. You really need to get into your local store and feel how each keybed responds. You will find that some may be more realistic than others, but this may not suit your needs. It all depends on your playing style, and each keybed is going to feel different to each person.

There is no right or wrong as to how a hammer action should feel, unless you are looking for an emulation of a specific acoustic piano. No, it is more about how it feels to you. As you are the one playing the instrument, it needs to work with your playing style, which will vary depending on what pianos or keyboards you have played upon in the past. At the same time, it will vary depending on your needs for a keyboard. If you are looking for a digital piano as a compact replacement for an actual piano, then you will certainly be looking for a realistic hammer action. But, if you are using the keyboard for a range of uses, like synthesizer and organ work, you will probably want a different feel under your fingertips. Enter Fatar. Fatar is an Italian company that specialise in building keybed actions for a number of keyboard and synthesizers.

Their keybeds can be found in Korg, Native Instruments and Nord synthesizers and controllers to name a few. They offer a full range from lightweight synthesizer keyboards right up to full hammer actions and everything in between.

What Fatar keybeds offer is a select action to suit the player’s style, based on the instrument in question. Let’s use the Nord range of synths and digital pianos as an example here. The Nord Lead is a wellknown synthesizer that many of you will have heard before. This features a velocity sensitive keybed that has a very light action indeed. The gentle springy action allows for very fast playing of arpeggios and gentle touches with after touch as well. This will be quite foreign to a piano player, but will have a synth nerd feeling right at home. Getting heavier on the touch department, the Nord Electro offers two different styles of weighted keys.

The first being a Semi-Weighted Waterfall action that offers more resistance to that of the Lead, and feels more like a traditional electric organ to the touch.

This is a graded action, so the higher octaves are lighter to the touch than the lower octaves, and has what seems like a slower recovery motion that the standard unweighted velocity sensitive keys. They feel a little more cumbersome, although not with a great deal of added weight to them. For the player who wants a more piano-styled action, but without the weight, there is the Hammer Action Portable grade that sits below the fully weighted Hammer Action. What this tries to achieve is the look and feel of the full hammer action but without the weight in the keys themselves to allow for greater portability in the keyboard. Obviously, this is never going to feel exactly the same, otherwise no manufacturer would ever bother with heavier keys. But, it is a necessary evil to get the feeling right, so a full hammer action requires a heavy keyboard.

Where this leaves you is needing to figure out what keybed is going to best suit your playing style. Get into your local store and try a few out. Where you are looking for a Nord, Yamaha, Kawai, Roland, Novation or any other brand of keyboard, there is going to be the right action for you out there. Go have a play, find what works for you and stick with it.

BY ROB GEE

PG.36 // MIXDOWN #260 // DECEMBER 2015

HOME STUDIO HINTS

The Cans and Can Nots of Home Mixing

Understandably, every home recording environment is different.

Without even considering the equipment being used, there are plenty of obstacles that have to be dealt with in order to get a flat response in the home studio. Every room is different and most of those used are not designed, nor ideal, for mixing audio. More often than not, the home studio is built up piece by piece into a spare bedroom.

It is a setup that starts with a less than ideal room and changes as it grows to suit added equipment. But, often it doesn’t change to suit the different audio environment it has become and leaves us struggling to hear everything we should within our mix. So, short of knocking down the back half of the house and rebuilding from scratch, there are a number of things that can be done to achieve consistent results.

It may be impossible to eliminate environmental sounds or tackle all unwanted reflections within the room, but there are some things we can do to achieve consistency, even if there are some things that just aren’t possible with the limitations of many home studios. So, putting aside the limitations of budgets and physical space, we are able to treat the space we work with to achieve certain results when listening through studio monitors. It begs the question of whether mixing within cans, or headphones, would deliver more consistent results. There are pros and cons to both methods and it all depends on how we work and the space we work within.

The Cans

Mixing with headphones can be a challenging task at the best of times.

But, it is often the only solution for many home recording setups when the space doesn’t work with speakers, or when late nights require the volume to be kept to a minimum. What headphones do deliver is; a very consistent listening environment that can, when well known and understood by the listener, be very usable.

They do reduce any environmental noises that could hinder your listening and place just you and the music into the one space. That, however, can be the biggest hindrance when mixing with headphones, the small space that the sound occupies.

You lose the sense of depth to the sound and an accurate stereo image that is very hard to replicate.

The problem here is that everything you hear through your left ear is just that which comes from the left speaker. All that you hear through your right ear is just that which comes from the right speaker. This is not normal as your brain is used to hearing sound from both speakers in both ears. There is no bleed from the left to the right and vice versa, which you would normally hear within any room when listening to a stereo image.

Further to that, there are no reflections from the space itself; you get a direct transference of sound from the speakers to your ears. Nothing is added by the

room, delivering consistency, but also an unnatural listening environment. This needs to be taken into consideration when mixing, allowing for a room that is not actually being heard.

The Can’ts

Of course, there is the flip side to this, and that is the consideration of who is going to be listening to the music you produce and how they are going to listen to it. So much music is consumed these days in headphones and earphones, so it is not unwise to rule out the need to mix with cans in the studio. Even when your room is well treated and tuned to work effectively with your choice of studio monitors, referencing your mix from a pair of headphones is always a wise move.

Just as taking a CD of the mix out to your car to hear how it sound on a car stereo, testing with cans is an important step in insuring your mix sounds right in a number of environments.

What ultimately comes of this is that you can’t achieve a good mix with just one method of monitoring, no matter how good it is. You need to take into consideration all of your environmental issues and then multiply the possibilities to extend to the variations your listeners will endure. For this reason, mixing for film or television can be a lot simpler than mixing for CD as there is a more consistent listening environment. Now, we even need to consider that our music will most likely be listened to through a computer, be it through headphones or through the speakers of a laptop or tablet, usually in a reduced quality due to compression and various file formats. So, getting it right for every audience is not going to be possible, but finding a happy medium is the best bet. That is why you know you can achieve great results mixing from the home studio with headphones and compact monitor speakers, given that your audience will often be listening to the music on similar.

BY ROB GEE

www.mixdownmag.com.au

C O L U M N S

[D]IGITAL [J]OCKEY On the Mark

Full Score

BANGING THE TUBS Full Score

1

How Do Your Hear Yourself?

A > B > > > > > > > 4 4 ™ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ™ ™ ™ ™4 œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ™™ / ™4 RL LRRL LRRLLRLRRL

RL LRLLRLRLLRRLRL

C > D > > > > > > 4 4 / ™™4 œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ™™ ™™4 œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ™™ RLLRRLLRRLLRRLRR LRRLLRRL LRRLLRLL

RLLRLLRLRLLRRLRR LRRLRRLRLRRLLRLL

E > >> > >>> > >>>> 4 œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ™™ ™ ™ / 4 There are certainly a number of very serious players in the DJ world these days, with some strong new contenders having arisen in recent years with the development of new technologies. But, few companies can stand proud with a history that goes back to the 70’s, starting out in a disco-fuelled DJ era and growing with the times, continually delivering new innovations and ideas to a world that was eager to take them and run. Now owned by a larger group that includes Akai Professional, Alesis, M-Audio, Marantz and Denon DJ to name a few, Numark still continues to lead the way on many fronts and remains the largest manufacturer of DJ equipment in the world.

With such a great pool of research and development available to the team at Numark with the shared ownership of so many other manufacturers by its parent company, it is any wonder that Numark has grown to be the behemoth that it is today in the DJ world. Yet, oddly enough, it’s often overlooked for some other brands that deliver so productively in the world of social media and marketing. It’s in the product line that Numark delivers its best work.

Setting the Numark high

As a company that’s come a long way over such a long time, Numark has been one to change and adapt to the needs of contemporary practitioners well before they even knew what their need were.

Their innovations saw the first sampler in a DJ mixer and the early development of computer based mixing systems in the 90’s, well before it became the norm. So, it’s understandable that any new release form Numark is going to be met with excitement and intrigue as it will often open a number of doors to a whole new workflow and end result. Numark still embrace their roots with a selection of turntables, head shells and cartridges, DJ mixers and CD players available, but they are at the forefront of technology too with their iDJ app for iPad users. From the grooves in a vinyl record to the swipe of a fingertip across the screen of an iPad, Numark are supplying the goods.

What’s new?

Many fans of Numark’s digital DJ systems will already be aware of what is coming from these guys in the not too distant future. For those of you who’ve been living under a rock, there’s a new controller in town, well, almost. Many of you might blow this off as just another DJ controller, but this one is going to be worth stopping to take a look at. The NS7III is going to drop jaws when it becomes available. Not only is this set to be the mother of all controllers in its size, it’s shaping up to deliver on features too. A four-channel mixer section and three full colour screens

that deliver deck and FX information on the outer two and library or waveform views from the central screen. What more, it looks like this screen panel can be retrofitted to the previous version of the NS7 so you can upgrade your workflow if you already own the older model. That’s pretty cool.

But, the real draw card for this controller is the motorized platters that give the two decks a very unique feel and control quite unlike anything else I have come across in the digital controller world before. Numark have gone all out with this and decided to take it way further than just supplying oversized jog wheels on the NS7III. Instead, they’ve added two high torque platters with slip-mats and 7 inch vinyl tops that give you the real feel of controlling a record under your fingertips. These platters then send MIDI information to the system to translate your every movement, no matter how subtle, and turn that into control data.

They have even gone so far as to have a low torque control to allow the platters to feel more like certain turntables that many DJs would be used to, if they don’t want the grip of a high torque platter.

This unit looks like it could finally bridge the gap between software and vinyl as far as control goes without the need of an actual turntable to be added to the setup.

It’s now all built in to the one, albeit rather large, unit. The proof will be in the pudding though when we are able to get our fingertips onto these controllers and see just how they respond. But surely with the high and low torque options to the platter speed, there’s going to be a setting that will feel pretty close to alright for most of us. Let’s face it; if you can’t be happy with what this unit offers, then you really should just stick to playing vinyl anyway. I’ll be interested to see just how this one feels. It will take a lot to drag me away from my turntables, but I am always open to new ideas and Numark seem to be on the money with the NS7III.

BY ROB GEE

PG.38 // MIXDOWN #260 // DECEMBER 2015

R L L R R L L R L R L L R L L R

R L R L R R L R L L R L R L R L

F > >>> > >>>> > >> œ œ œ œœœœœ ™ 4 ™ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ™ / ™4 œ R L L R R L L R L R L L R L L R

R L R L R R L R L L R L R L R L

Most drummers have experimented with accents and know how to approach using them on the drums, but here’s a fool-proof method to make sure you’re really on top of it and sounding good.

When I started learning how to use accents on the drums, I was taught primarily using single strokes and eventually paradiddles.

This is still the recommended way to approach accents, particularly for younger students. The idea is that the rudiments give a solid platform to base accented ideas on that can then move onto the drum set.

Rudiments are essentially small, repeated patterns that are easier to memorize and therefore easier to start experimenting with across the drums – moving the accents onto toms and cymbals.

A little, but notable challenge can occur if you only use the rudiments to approach accent playing, and that is that the drummer can often sound a little too clinical and rigid. A paradiddle for example, has a certain sound on the drums and after a while, there’s not that much creativity involved and it’ll always sound like you’re using a paradiddle.

So to get around this problem and to get my mind out of the rudiments a bit more, I was taught a great concept that promotes freedom, creativity, change of the leading hand and ultimately, improvisation. The simple rule is this: An accent (>) followed by any number of double strokes until the next accent If we look at figure A, we can see a simple accent pattern over 16th notes in 4/4 time – one accent at the start of the bar followed by double strokes until another accent on beat 4. Note that, to keep things moving, you always move to the opposite hand whenever another accent occurs or when double strokes begin. You also don’t need to always do a full double stroke. If you have two accents next to each other or one note apart from each other, there won’t be room but you’ll still attempt doubles and no more than double strokes as playing anything more than two strokes in a row can be harder to maintain at higher tempos.

One thing that you also may notice is that the double strokes aren’t always played on the beat – in fact quite the opposite.

Inward or inverted double strokes are more common with this concept – RLLR RLLR.

This can take some time to get comfortable with but the advantage of this is that the second stroke of every double is now on a strong beat, which can produce a cleaner roll. Win! Figure B shows the concept with additional accents, making for a slightly more complicated phrase. It’s important to remember that the accents are completely improvised with their placement. Since it’s not a strict paradiddle or rudiment, we’re not restricted as to where the accents can go. Simply place wherever you like and fill in the gaps using the formula. Accent, then doubles until the next accent and repeat.

Another challenge is when the pattern ends on the same hand, it started on making the whole pattern opposite to itself. This is actually a very cool thing however. Now your pattern can be played with different leading hands leading to more possibilities for sounds (FIG C).

Figure D shows the same accent pattern from Figure B but with one accent missing from the last note. As you’ll see, this one little change results in the opposite sticking on the repeat. Therefore, when you design your accent pattern, make sure that you’re aware that you may have to do this. Double or multiple accents are also very possible as you can see in figure E but crucially, the formula remains the same.

At this point you may query the fact that each of these patterns, even with the formula is still ‘designed’ and structured, which theoretically is no different to a paradiddle. The difference here and the amazing thing that happens over time (through repetition of many examples) is the brain is able to adapt and use the formula at random resulting in the ability to improvise accents. If you think about it, it’s not that difficult. We’re able to make split second decisions during drum solos aren’t we? Your phrasing will be more spontaneous and more natural to the ear and unlike the paradiddle; the foundation pattern is constantly changing. I suppose, yes, even this formula can have its own sound but at least it’s changing up all the time for a more natural approach.

ADRIAN VIOLI

www.mixdownmag.com.au

C O L U M N S

F.A.Qs with The Amp Doctor VARIOUS TUBE T YPES AND THEIR USE IN AMPLIFIERS I often get asked about the various tube types and their use in amplifiers. So here’s the most common discussions I have with people on the topic of tubes!

There are basically two main sections to a guitar amplifier, the preamp, and the power amp; both using tubes designed for these sections. Preamp tubes are the smaller tubes and are mainly dual triodes such as 12AX7, 12AT7, and 12AU7. These preamp tubes are voltage-amplifying tubes and form the gain stages, and are used to amplify the small signal from the guitars pickups to something more useful.

The gain control is usually placed after the first gain stage and the signal is then shaped with the tone control circuit.

The power stage consists of much larger tubes and are usually power pentodes or tetrodes such as EL34, 6L6, 6550, 5881, EL84. They receive the signal from the phase’s splitter and amplify it to produce enough power to drive a speaker.

There is also another type of tube called a rectifier tube used in the power supply of some amps and it’s used to convert the AC voltage into DC. Common types are 5AR4, 5U4G, 5Y3, GZ34. Modern amps use silicon diodes, but the softer sound obtained from tube rectifiers is still preferred by some amp makers and guitarist.

All Tubes Are Not Made Equal

A tube is a delicate, intricately construct-

ed mechanical device. Although made under strict design and manufacturing rules each tube turns out slightly different to the next one, even though they are all the same types. So you end up with the same tube type, an EL34 for example, but with a spread in their characteristic (the electrical differences in the same type of tubes). To compensate for the differences, we need to adjust bias voltages to suit the individual tube or select the tube for the bias voltages.

Tube Grading Or Rating

As we spoke before of the spread in tube characteristics, it is possible to use this to our advantage. Tubes at one end of this range or spread will conduct a current quicker and require a lower bias voltage than tubes at the other end of the range, which are slower to conduct and require higher bias voltages. The ones that require lower bias voltages will sound dirtier with less headroom and more saturation, great for power amp distortion. At the other end of the range with higher bias voltages required, these tubes will sound the cleanest with maximum headroom and minimum distortion. Some tube suppliers use a scale from 1-12 or colored dots or

just the current value marked on the tube.

Bias Adjustment

Amps are made with either a fixed bias voltage or an adjustable bias voltage, usually with a trim pot operating in a small range. Amps with a fixed bias voltage, i.e. Mesa Boogie, need the tubes to be selected for the amp. This is done so that the amp sounds the way its manufacturer wants it to sound both before and after a re-tube. To re-tube this amp properly, the same grade tubes are needed. Amps

with adjustable bias voltages can use a range of graded tubes without too much change in sound after a re-tube. Using a Marshall as an example, you would select a matched set in its bias range, and then adjust them for the correct current. If you want the amp to sound the same after a re-tube, use the same grading and bias settings as used with the old set.

BY DR. SHERLOCK

A Legendary

Remix.

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The new Pro DJ series carries a legendary sound into a new decade. Everything that DJs love about the HD 25 lives on in specialised versions for live or studio environ-

ments — with a slightly extended bass line and even clearer highs. What we reinvented is the design: unmatched exterior shielding and attenuation. Resonance-absorbing frames.

Circumaural ear pads that pump your mix directly into your ear. And their wearing comfort allows you to drive the crowd for hours and hours.

For more information, freecall 1800 648 628, email sales@sennheiser.com.au or visit www.sennheiser.com.au PG.40 // MIXDOWN #260 // DECEMBER 2015

www.mixdownmag.com.au

B R A N D

S P O T L I G H T

Nemesis Guitars & Basses Touted as the guitar line that aims to satisfy every request of the player, Nemesis Guitars and Basses have set themselves up to make a splash when they eventually arrive in Australia. The line is devised especially to cater for the Australian market, incorporating features that are commonly requested here in Oz as standard. We caught up with Dean Ashton, the man responsible for bringing Nemesis to Australia, to find out a little more about this line.

Tell us about Nemesis Guitars and Basses - what’s the idea behind this line?

The inspiration for Nemesis Guitars & Basses has come from the past 6+ years of creating unique custom instruments for Australian clients. We have gathered the most commonly requested custom features and must-have additions and distilled out the “best of the best”. We have included them all as standard equipment in the Nemesis range. The list includes exotic tone woods, world class hardware, boutique pickups, stainless steel frets, luminous side dots, custom fret board inlays and a range of original colours and finishes. Of course there’s still room for further personalisation of your instrument, as they are all hand made to customer order in the USA by some of the finest luthiers in the business.

Tell us about the construction of these guitars. Where are they being built and what materials are you including.

There is a range of construction methods employed across the numerous different variants in the Nemesis stable. Guitars are available in both neck-through-body and bolt-on neck construction. There has long been argument, over which method is the

best, but we believe both have their own unique, desirable attributes and we want to cater for a wide variety of player tastes, so we have incorporated both styles in the range. Basses will also be available in these two build styles and we will be using a variety of exotic woods to contribute to the tone profile of every instrument.

Guitars will initially be available in 6, 7 and 8 string variants with a 9 string option in future. Basses will come standard in 4, 5 and 6 string variations - but again, we custom build everything so you can go with even more strings if you dare. We have collaborated with S7G in the USA to come up with the designs for this range and they will be completing each project as our customer orders are confirmed. As an interesting sidenote, S7G have just completed a deal to use the same paintwork company as PRS guitars, so all of our instruments will be finished to the same exacting standards as the PRS range.

When are these likely to be available in Australia?

Our first prototypes are nearing completion now, and we will be fine tuning (pun intended) the instrument specification once

we have had a chance to see, hear, smell, touch and play the prototype versions. Since we have spent many months hammering out the specification before producing these first models, we doubt there will be any need for further changes. It will be more a case of finding out what players really want in terms of the cosmetic colour and finish choices once the range is launched on the Australian market - we’re pretty sure the “nuts and bolts” stuff we have specified is spot on for Aussie musos.

We expect that the full range of Nemesis guitars and basses will be available in Q1 2016 but we will be taking customer orders in advance as the production process is approximately 20-24 weeks plus shipping and Customs clearance time. We will work with each client to personalise their specification to their exact requirements in terms of choice of tone woods, hardware options, pick up choices plus colour and finish options to ensure that each guitar or bass is a unique personal statement of the player’s personality and a reflection of their intent to be the best in their field. While they are indisputably beautiful works of art, we also see instruments as “tools of trade” for serious musicians. Master craftsmen and craftswomen will always demand the finest tools!

Is there anything else you’d like to tell us about the range?

We will be announcing some pre-release special deals for potential “brand ambassadors” for the Nemesis Guitars and Basses range over the coming weeks. We will also be running a competition where one

Bad Cat raises the bar and offers an update on the classic Cub circuit. The all new Cub III features a switchable A or B valve in the first position pre-amp. You can select between 12AX7 or EF86 pre-amp tube by a toggle or foot switch.

This new feature is drastically different sonically in gain structure, and character so from any previous Cub models.

www.mixdownmag.com.au

lucky player will have the chance to win one of the first prototype guitars ever produced!

This will be a milestone event in the Nemesis Guitars and Basses development story, and we look forward to seeing one of these unique instruments added to a local players arsenal, free of charge.

BY KEATS MULLIGAN For more information head to the Nemesis Guitars and Basses Facebook page, or contact Ubersonic at www.ubersonic.com.au.

We have added a selectable gain on the bass and treble tone stack to run hotter, or choose to stay in standard Cub mode. Combine this with the EF86 pre-amp and now you’re in territory previously unavailable from older Bad Cat Cub models.

The reverb circuit has been updated to get a deeper, fuller and more plate-like reverb. A two button foot switch is included. Button one controls the selection of the EF86 or 12AX7 pre-amp. The second button offers the ability to punch in the added gain on the tone stack.

With the foot switch you can go from chiming clean to crunch, and all the way to wide open.

Specialising in the supply of some of the world’sMfinest I X D Oinstruments W N # 2 6 0 and / / Dequipment E C E M B E R 2to0 the 1 5 /Australian / P G . 4 1 market.

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THE MIXDOWN

FOR MUSICIANS

THE LITTLE BLACK BOOK OF ROCK CLASSICS RRP: $23.99 PRODUCT TYPE: LYRIC AND CHORD BOOK DISTRIBUTOR: MUSIC SALES

DISTRIBUTOR DETAILS Amber Technology | 1800 251 367 | www.ambertech.com.au Australasian Music Supplies | (03) 9549 1500 | www.austmusic.com.au Audiofly | www.audiofly.com Bernie’s Music Land | (03) 9872 5122 | www.musicland.com.au CMC Music Australia | (02) 9905 2511 | www.cmcmusic.com.au Dynamic Music | (02) 9939 1299 | www.dynamicmusic.com.au EGM Distribution | (03) 9817 7222 | www.egm.net.au Electric Factory | (03) 9474 1000 | www.elfa.com.au Gibson AMI | (03) 8696 4600 | www.gibsonami.com Gladesville Guitar Factory | (02) 9817 2173 | www.guitarfactory.net Innovative Music | (03) 9540 0658 | www.innovativemusic.com.au Jade Australia | 1800 144 120 | www.musocity.com.au Jands | (02) 9582 0909 | www.jands.com.au Music Sales | (02) 9299 8877 | www.musicsales.com Music Link Australia | (03) 8696 4600 | www.musiclink.com.au Pro Audio Group | (02) 9521 4844 | www.proaudiogroup.com.au Sennheiser Australia | (02) 9910 6700 | www.sennheiser.com.au Sherlock Amplifiers | (03) 8802 0499 | www.sherlockamps.com Sound Distribution | (02) 8007 3327 | www.sounddistribution.com.au Yamaha Music Australia | (03) 9693 5111| www.au.yamaha.com Zenith Music | (08) 9383 1422 | www.zenithmusic.com

UNDER $100

Xmas Gift Guide

TONE GEAR STRING CLEANER

RRP: $61.95 PRODUCT TYPE: GUITAR ACCESSORY DISTRIBUTOR: EGM DISTRIBUTION

CONSTRUCTION: The open and shut functionality enables 360 degrees of string cleaning. Its small and compact frame means it will fit into any guitar case or gig bag.

OVERALL: With regular playing, changing strings again and again can become a tiresome task. It also can take its toll on the hip pocket. For those two reasons, and the knowledge that guitar tone will never be compromised by faulty strings make this product a welcome addition to the avid musician’s kit.

TONE GEAR OKNOB CLASSIC

RECOMMENDED FOR: The SpiderCapo will suit the experienced guitarist already regularly shifting between tunings, and looking to utilise different keys and advance their creativity. Alternate tunings are the perfect way to expand your playing and enter new sonic territory.

SOUND AND VERSATILITY: The ability to make hundreds of open string tunings, and to fine tune each capoed string opens up a world of possibilities with your sound going forward.

USABILITY: The SpiderCapo can be implemented in a live setting to alter tunings between songs and even whilst playing. It clings to the fingerboard like any other capo with added versatility of

controlling each string independently. It also allows for fingering above and below the capo.

CONSTRUCTION: When mounted, soft leather protects the guitar’s neck, while the end pieces can be tightened securely without damaging the edges of the fingerboard.

OVERALL: With 945 possibilities in the 1st 15 frets, the SpiderCapo can drastically change the way the guitar is played, increasing versatility and songwriting capabilities. It’s useful for all playing styles and will extend the range of any guitarist.

ZOOM G1ON MULTI-EFFECTS PROCESSOR

RRP: $13.50 PRODUCT TYPE: GUITAR ACCESSORY DISTRIBUTOR: EGM DISTRIBUTION

RECOMMENDED FOR: The effect-laden musician looking for an easy way to alter their sound effects while playing.

SOUND AND VERSATILITY: The OKnob increases your range of sound by controlling a specific parameter on an effects pedal. This could simply mean increasing the volume, gain, modulation or rate of a pedal.

USABILITY: It’s as simple as selecting the parameter you want to have more control over, replacing the factory knob with the Oknob, and then using your toes to swing the knob left and right.

CONSTRUCTION: Made out of highly durable

chords progressions for a plethora of classic rock tracks. It’ll extend the range of any guitarist.

D’ANDREA SPIDER CAPO

RRP: $16.95 PRODUCT TYPE: GUITAR ACCESSORY DISTRIBUTOR: EGM DISTRIBUTION

RECOMMENDED FOR: Perfect for the regular player who enlists maximum wear and tear on their guitar strings.

SOUND AND VERSATILITY: Revitalises and refreshes used and old strings, preserving their tone, while also preventing the muddy and dull effect of worn strings.

USABILITY: Fits guitars of all shapes and sizes. Its straightforward operation makes it an easy task undertaken at the end of each playing session. While the cleanable micro fibre pads make the string cleaner reusable and low maintenance.

RECOMMENDED FOR: Any guitarist who wants to have the chords for 70 of the greatest rock tracks in the palm of their hands. This is the easiest way to learn and jam out on classic rock ‘n’ roll numbers.

SOUND AND VERSATILITY: Everything from Pink Floyd, to The Beatles and Arctic Monkeys are covered in chord songbook format. Capturing the sound and tone is up to you.

USABILITY: Each song is presented in chord songbook format with guitar chord boxes and complete lyrics, making it straightforward and easy to read. A playing guide explains how to read chord boxes and relative tuning if you don’t have access to a tuning device.

CONSTRUCTION: The pocket-sized collection packs a huge range of songs into a book small enough to carry in one hand.

OVERALL: A fun and easy way to learn the

RRP: $89.95 (SPECIAL CHRISTMAS PRICE) PRODUCT TYPE: EFFECT PEDAL DISTRIBUTOR: DYNAMIC MUSIC

materials, the classic model has a shaft diameter range of 5.58-5.96mm fitting all pedals produced by major companies. The friction grip design guarantees a tight grip on the pedal, while its slight frame means it doesn’t get in the way.

OVERALL: This is a no fuss accessory which provides a greater level of sound control. It could be an edge for musicians who make use of a large pedal setup. It’s also available in a glow-in-the-dark variant for those who like to play in the shadows.

PG.42 // MIXDOWN #260 // DECEMBER 2015

RECOMMENDED FOR: Retailed at $129.95, the Zoom G1on is perfect for anyone in the market for a multi-effects processor, but don’t want to withdraw from their savings.

SOUND AND VERSATILITY: With over 75 guitar effects, including a variety of distortion, compression, modulation, delay and reverb, the G1on is a perfect entry-level effects pedal. Its most versatile function is it’s on-board Looper, which allows you to layer sounds up to 30 seconds, making your creativity limitless.

USABILITY: If you are sick of complicated effects pedals, than this is the pedal for you. Easier to use than most multi-effect

processors, the Zoom G1on features a simple design allowing you to switch between presets, add or remove effects in a chain and even change the chain effects.

CONSTRUCTION: Lightweight and no bigger than an iPad, this multi-effects pedal is the perfect travel companion. However, it isn’t packed in the strongest of cases, so don’t go too hard on the pedal.

OVERALL: Adding a ton of possibilities to your guitar rig, the Zoom G1on should be on everyone’s Christmas list this year.

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XMAS GIFT GUIDE

KLOTZ ’59ER VINTAGE CABLE PRODUCT TYPE: GUITAR ACCESSORY RRP: $34.95 (3m), $43.95 (4.5m) DISTRIBUTOR: CMC MUSIC

RRP: $25.95 PRODUCT TYPE: ELECTRIC GUITAR STRINGS DISTRIBUTOR: CMC MUSIC AUSTRALIA

RECOMMENDED FOR: The occasional-gigging bedroom guitarist looking for a higher quality lead with less noise.

SOUND AND VERSATILITY: The 59ers are clear and clean, and don’t lose any punch in the low end, or when the guitar’s volume pot is rolled back.

USABILITY: Available in 3 or 4.5 metre varieties, these leads will have something for most bedroom players, allowing all the required length to rock out in style.

CONSTRUCTION: Each is shrink wrapped, and the lead is housed in a textile outer jacket, which prevents tangling. It has a low capacitance of 115 pF/m and a bare copper spiral shield.

OVERALL: A high quality product for a player aiming for the next level with their gear.

RECOMMENDED FOR: Anyone looking for a longer-lived string but who doesn’t want to go down the ‘coated string’ route. Also anyone looking for a hair of extra power from their pickups.

SOUND AND TONE: Cobalt strings provide an extended dynamic range, incredible harmonic response, increased low end, and crisp, clear highs. They sound a little more muscular than regular strings, thanks to a stronger magnetic relationship between pickup and string.

USABILITY: There is a certain smoothness to the feel of these strings which makes bends feel easier to execute, especially on the wound strings.

CONSTRUCTION: Made with a cobalt-iron blend, and they’re also soft and silky to the

ZILDJIAN ACCESSORIES

RRP: $89.95 PRODUCT TYPE: BASS GUITAR ACCESSORIES DISTRIBUTOR: CMC MUSIC AUSTRALIA

CONSTRUCTION: Here we have multiple options! HD Earplugs by Earpeace®, Weekender and Laptop bags, a massive variety of drumsticks, a Dickie Navy T-shirt as well as a 750ml BPA-Free Plastic Water Bottle and a 355ml Klean Kanteen® Vacuum Insulated Bottle for those coffee hits.

OVERALL: Whether you’re just after a t-shirt or a serious ear protection solution that’s more sophisticated than foam plugs, but still on budget or maybe just want some everyday products that showcase your favourite brand, check out the accessories and extras on the Zildjian website. You’ll be surprised what you find!

REMO SILENT STROKE DRUM HEADS

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RECOMMENDED FOR: Bass players who want that soul and R&B sound with a modern twist to feel and sound.

SOUND AND VERSATILITY: These strings really make you re-think your perception of flatwounds. With added snappiness and sustain, they’re redesigned right across the EQ spectrum to add some gusto, reworking the traditional idea of flats.

USABILITY: The tension feels tight but not super tough, so strict roundwound players might be more comfy giving these cobalt numbers a crack. The feel is definitely flat wound but the response and tone is more in the round camp meaning you can get that snap when you dig in.

CONSTRUCTION: Smooth under your fingers, they have that general feel of quick and slick, but aren’t too slippery.

OVERALL: These new flats combine the smooth feel of traditional flats with the ‘modern power of cobalt’. It’s this balance of cobalt under wrap and a super bright cobalt ribbon on top that works to achieve both the feel and tone.

VIC FIRTH PRACTICE PAD

PRODUCT TYPE: DRUM ACCESSORY RRP: $23.95-$59 DISTRIBUTOR: AUSTRALASIAN MUSIC SUPPLIES

RECOMMENDED FOR: Drummers who live in apartments and who are constantly concerned about the neighbours telling them to stop playing the drums; drummers after the perfect quiet practice solution.

SOUND AND VERSATILITY: As you can imagine by the name, there’s not a lot of sound when you strike these heads. However, the resonant head still rings ever so slightly on the drum creating a very subtle note. As it’s still a head, you can tune up and down as normal making them very versatile.

USABILITY: At lower tuning, the silent strokes can feel closer to normal drumheads but can rebound heavily at higher tunings, particularly on the bass drum. This means in

touch: take one out of the packet and run it through your fingers and it glides along thanks to smoother wraps than any noncoated string you’re likely to encounter.

OVERALL: Cobalt’s do everything Ernie Ball promises: they play smoothly, they sound great, and they work with your pickups to enhance everything you love about them. It’s like an instant upgrade for your axe.

ERNIE BALL SLINKY FLATWOUND STRINGS

PRODUCT TYPE: ACCESSORIES DISTRIBUTOR: AUSTRALASIAN MUSIC SUPPLIES RRP: Various RECOMMENDED FOR: Everyone! So many of us don’t actually realise that Zildjian don’t just make cymbals. These accessories are worth checking out – particularly if you fancy showing which cymbal maker is your favourite!

SOUND AND VERSATILITY: Sometimes the gigging drummer doesn’t realise that the drums/cymbals they use often cater for the lifestyle factors that come into play when being a musician. Of serious note are the universal fit earplugs that feature two sets of 11db and 14db attenuation filters. There’s also a Zildjian stick for every player and the bags are well designed for just about any thinkable situation a drummers likely to find themselves in.

USEABILITY: Most drummers may have seen these types of earplugs before. They’re comfortable and versatile for multiple gigs environments. They even come with a carry case. The T-shirt is a universal sizing scale and the bottles and bags are just cool.

ERNIE BALL COBALT STRINGS

PRODUCT TYPE: DRUM ACCESSORY DISTRIBUTOR: AUSTRALASIAN MUSIC SUPPLIES RRP: $49.95- $89.00

reality, they can have a bit of an electric kit ‘mesh head’ feel, but on bigger drums they’re really good.

CONSTRUCTION: The silent strokes are a single ply mesh material in place of the standard film on regular drumheads, and crafted with the usual excellent Remo head making techniques.

OVERALL: Fantastic. Really, this is the best solution for silent practice ever. They feel good to play, you can tune, you can still hear tone and you can lay into them just as you normally would but without the neighbours busting your chops. Great stuff.

RECOMMENDED FOR: Drummers of all levels and players looking for a no-nonsense practice pad that’s a little larger in size for ease of use.

SOUND AND VERSATILITY: As you’d expect, it sounds like a practice pad would, but the strokes are perhaps a little softer than some of the standard rubber pads. As mentioned, the larger size makes this pad easier to use with regular use.

USABILITY: The slightly softer rubber playing surface still offers the usual rebound you get from a practice pad – don’t be expecting a dead surface or much give. This pad has a familiar feel and playability that all drummers would be used to.

CONSTRUCTION: A single board features a soft, rubber playing surface for quieter

practice and good feel. There’s a non-slip base on the underside to stop it moving. The 12” diameter is perfect for mounting on a snare stand.

OVERALL: It’s a great practice pad. It’s large, comfortable to use overall and not likely to slip away on you. The price might be a fraction too high for some players but if you’re after a fuss free pad, this one works.

MIXDOWN #260 // DECEMBER 2015 // PG.43

XMAS GIFT GUIDE

ROCK SCHOOL: GUITAR GRADE 2

ROCK SCHOOL: PIANO GRADE 2

RECOMMENDED FOR: This book is perfect for the beginner-intermediate guitar player. It will suit those who have played for one year to 18 months, are across the basic skills and have solid basic techniques. There are other books for other levels of proficiency.

SOUND AND VERSATILITY: The book offers notation and tabs for a number of original tracks spanning across a range of genres, including everything from classic rock to ska.

With each song comes a diagram outlining the appropriate amp settings.

USABILITY: Each lesson is preceded by a Fact File containing a summary of the song, its style, tempo, key and technical features. Following each two-page notation is a Walkthrough which highlights common technical issues relating to the song.

CONSTRUCTION: The slim 44-page

RECOMMENDED FOR: This lesson book will suit those who have been learning piano for one year to 18 months. It requires the mastering of the key basic skills and asks for greater use of technique, rhythms, co-ordination and musical understanding. There are other books for other levels of proficiency.

SOUND AND VERSATILITY: Learn to play a number of different genres and styles, including tracks from renowned artists such as Beyoncé and Coldplay. Play along to backing tracks in order to better understand where the sound of the piano sits within particular compositions.

USABILITY: Each piece of music is preceded by a Fact File, detailing information about the original recording. Each test and examination is clearly explained and relates directly to the book’s content.

RRP: $24.99 PRODUCT TYPE: GUITAR SYLLABUS AND EXAM BOOK DISTRIBUTOR: MUSIC SALES

booklet will fit easily into any guitar book or case, while the accompanying CD sits inside the booklet. Enlarged and considerably spaced notations and tabs make it easy to read.

OVERALL: The Guitar Grade 2 lesson book covers all of the bases when it comes to building upon the basic skills and understandings of guitar playing.

RRP: $24.99 PRODUCT TYPE: PIANO SYLLABUS AND EXAM BOOK DISTRIBUTOR: MUSIC SALES

AUDIOFLY AF56 EARBUDS

M-AUDIO M-TRACK MK2 RRP: $199.99 PRODUCT TYPE: USB INTERFACE DISTRIBUTOR: PRO AUDIO GROUP

with any other product. The 13mm driver is powerful and bold, but it’s housed sturdily within the casing, and tough cabling is encased in a fabric sheath to prevent cable damage through every day wear and tear.

Like all Audiofly products, they also look a treat.

OVERALL: Any music lover would love these as a gift. Sturdy enough to endure the rigours of constant and prolonged use.

SHURE SE215-CL IN EAR MONITOR BUDS

RECOMMENDED FOR: Perfect for someone looking for a first audio interface. It meets the needs of someone simply wanting to improve their input and output quality for a beginners recording setup.

SOUND AND VERSATILITY: The preamps on the M-Track MK2 more than do the trick. They don’t offer any fancy promises of vintage tone or extended headroom, but they do ensure your microphone has enough volume without noise.

USABILITY: The simple redesign of this unit takes it away from the desktop style layout and back to the original front panel design seen on similar interfaces. The big

volume knob does make it easier to control you DAW volume for playback.

CONSTRUCTION: For the price point, this is a well-built little box. The pots don’t feel too crash hot, but they aren’t going to suffer like those on a live mixing console will. For a home recording setup, this should meet your needs for toughness.

OVERALL: When you are looking for a great value interface, there are very few units on the market that can compete with this one on price for what it offers; a great starting point for home recording.

MOOER PURE BOOST RRP: $109.95 PRODUCT TYPE: EFFECT PEDAL DISTRIBUTOR: JADE AUSTRALIA

RRP: $195 PRODUCT TYPE: IN EAR MONITORS DISTRIBUTOR: JANDS

RECOMMENDED FOR: This is the ideal upgrade to any in-ear monitoring system where a specialised set of ear buds is needed. For musicians performing live with in-ear systems, these are an obvious choice.

SOUND AND VERSATILITY: The single driver design still delivers high volume and clarity when it’s needed on loud stages. As they sit snuggly within your ears after finding the correct end piece, they block out most environmental noise and allow you to hear the fold back send clearly.

USABILITY: The clear cable design and mounting from behind the ears makes these ideal for stage use. They easily run down your back to the belt pack and don’t stand out visually at all.

CONSTRUCTION: The thick, sturdy cable is designed for stage use, with the included

$100-$250

RRP: $99.95-109.99 PRODUCT TYPE: HEADPHONES DISTRIBUTOR: AUDIOFLY

RECOMMENDED FOR: These are perfect for a real music enthusiast. Someone who’s after a quality consumer-line headphone that’ll produce a top shelf sound, but at a reasonable price.

SOUND AND VERSATILITY: The AF56’s are fitted with Audiofly’s largest in ear driver.

They issue a crisp sound at any frequency, but their strength really lies in the lower frequencies.

USABILITY: The team at Audiofly has put these together with the idea that they’ll be your number one headphones for daily recreational use. They come with an awesome little storage tin, and a mic that’s compatible with Apple and Android devices is available as optional. So if someone calls and interrupts your music listening on the way to work, you don’t even have to break stride.

CONSTRUCTION: Durability has become a cornerstone of the Audiofly philosophy, and it’s as relevant with the AF56 as it is

CONSTRUCTION: A slim 47-page booklet makes Piano Grade 2 easy to bring to any lesson or rehearsal.

OVERALL: An all-round approach that covers material notated for piano, technical exercises, and supporting tests ensures players will feel grounded in all areas of the piano. Directed learning and clear outcomes make this book easy to follow and thoroughly engaging.

zippered bag that hangs off a carabiner you can be sure not to lose them or get them damaged in between gigs.

OVERALL: Although the entry level in the range from Shure, this is an excellent product that leaves a lot of competitors behind on price, sound quality and build. These are the first upgrade you should consider with any in-ear wireless monitoring system.

PG.44 // MIXDOWN #260 // DECEMBER 2015

RECOMMENDED FOR: Players who need an extra kick for a solo volume, or who want to sculpt their lead tone with more gain and a different tone profile, especially through an already overdriven amp.

SOUND AND VERSATILITY: Although there’s no midrange control, the ability to boost or cut bass and treble - in addition to gain and volume controls - means you can smooth your tone out or rough it up. Great for brightening up dark pickups or cooling down overly trebly ones.

USABILITY: The gain control is the biggest, and the remaining knobs could be a bit of a squeeze. But once you’ve found your sound you’re likely to keep it dialled in so it’s not really much of an issue. This pedal can work comfortably within simple and complex rigs, clean amps or screaming ones.

CONSTRUCTION: Small in footprint and (mostly) in control size, it’s hard to mess anything up with a pedal like this. Mooer has

made a tough little stomper with tonnes of tones hidden within its diminutive frame.

OVERALL: A great all-rounder for those who sometimes want overdrive, sometimes want clean boost, sometimes want a little EQ, and occasionally want all of those things at once.

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XMAS GIFT GUIDE

MOOER TENDER OCTAVER

TYCOON PROFESSIONAL TP8970 CARRY BAG

RECOMMENDED FOR: Guitarists and bass players who want to broaden the depth of their sound in either direction with some weirdness thrown in.

SOUND AND VERSATILITY: This pedal gives you sub and upper octave signals to blend in with your dry signal, or you can turn the dry sound down altogether and end up with some very weird, circus-organ-type sounds.

Add some gain or fuzz and you may never come back down.

USABILITY: This pedal is simple to control but it’s all in the way you interact with it.

You can use it as a subtle effect to add a little extra depth and dimension to your sound, or you can take it way, way out.

CONSTRUCTION: The two octave controls are small but they’re not especially cramped, so it’s easy to get at them when you need them.

RECOMMENDED FOR: Any touring percussionists that need to keep their Tycoon Cajon safe and sound.

VERSATILITY: Available in size 29 and 35, these bags are perfect for all Tycoon 29 and 35 series Cajons.

USABILITY: With reinforced handles and a shoulder strap, this Cajon bag is lightweight and easy to carry around, offering maximum comfort whilst travelling.

CONSTRUCTION: Made from highly durable nylon, the Tycoon Pro Carry Bag will ensures superior protection with a heavily padded interior.

OVERALL: Lets face it, as a percussionist you are going to be lugging around a lot of equipment, so your going to want the best

RRP: $129 PRODUCT TYPE: EFFECT PEDAL DISTRIBUTOR: JADE AUSTRALIA

RRP: $119.95 PRODUCT TYPE: PERCUSSION ACCESSORY DISTRIBUTOR: DYNAMIC MUSIC

The unit itself feels very tough, and the dry control is easily accessed.

OVERALL: A great ‘feature’ effect for guitarists and bass players looking for something to set their sound apart during big dramatic moments of sonic mayhem.

ZOOM G1XON MULTIEFFECTS PROCESSOR

possible travel gear around. The Tycoon Professional TP8970 Carry Bag will keep your Cajon safe and well protected, without adding too much extra weight to your luggage. Oh, and did we mention you can pick up one for FREE with the purchase of either a Tycoon TP4129 Wood Mixture Cajon, Tycoon TP4150 Master Series Hand-Crafted Cajon or Tycoon TP4255 Practice Cajon.

Contact Dynamic Music for more details.

PEDALTRAIN METRO 20

RRP: $199.99 | PRODUCT TYPE: PEDALBOARD | DISTRIBUTOR: EGM DISTRIBUTION

RRP: $129.95 (SPECIAL CHRISTMAS PRICE) PRODUCT TYPE: EFFECT PEDAL DISTRIBUTOR: DYNAMIC MUSIC RECOMMENDED FOR: Intermediate guitarist looking for a versatile multi-effect processing power with impressive performance and practice capabilities, without the hefty overhead costs.

SOUND AND VERSATILITY: Offering 100 guitar effects, including a variety of distortion, compression, modulation, delay and reverb, the G1Xon allows you to adapt your playing style to a number of different genres. You can also use 5 on-board effects simultaneously, allowing you to create your own unique sound.

USABILITY: Programming is simple and straightforward, thanks to a streamlined user interface and the large backlit LCD screen. The cursor keys navigate through your five-strong effects chain, while settings are adjusted with the control knob. The two footswitches navigate up and down the 100 patches, and

you can assign the expression pedal to any parameter you like.

CONSTRUCTION: It has a cost-effective plastic shell, however what you lose in durability, you gain in convenience with the G1Xon being lightweight and small enough to fit in your gig bag.

OVERALL: An upgrade to the Zoom G1on, the Zoom G1Xon is a great bargain costing less than most single-effect stomp boxes, and normally retailed at $179.95, it is an absolute steal.

MXL TEMPO USB CONDENSER MICROPHONE

RECOMMENDED FOR: Serious players looking for a lightweight pedalboard for a reasonable number of small to medium-sized pedals.

SOUND AND VERSATILITY: No sound at all unless you bang on it.

USABILITY: With three rails you have plenty of space to attach pedals and to discreetly run cables in between and underneath them. Also includes 60” of Pedaltrain’s professional grade hook-and-loop pedal fastener and plenty of zip ties for securing cables. Available for purchase with either Pedaltrain’s redesigned fitted soft case or

RRP: $199 PRODUCT TYPE: MICROPHONE DISTRIBUTOR: INNOVATIVE MUSIC

GEORGE L’S .155 EFFECTS KIT

RECOMMENDED FOR: Ideal for song writing, podcasts and recording vocals in the home studio.

SOUND AND VERSATILITY: A clear and concise delivery of the sound source is produced with this microphone. It isn’t really suited to high SPLs, but works well for vocals and acoustic instruments. Great for spoken voice recording too, like podcasts and presentations.

USABILITY: It couldn’t get any simpler. The device works with systems going back as far as Windows XP and Mac OSX 10.1, so there are very few computers that won’t work right away with this microphone. The headphone out offers playback too, for overdubs and monitoring.

CONSTRUCTION: Although extremely lightweight, this is actually a pretty tough microphone. All the important parts are housed in a sealed metal casing that can’t easily be accessed and nothing

RECOMMENDED FOR: Anyone who needs to customise their cables to fit the specific parameters of their pedal board or rack.

In essence, this cable kit is one long lead designed to be to cut to specific size and fixed with either straight or right-angled plugs.

SOUND AND VERSATILITY: George L’s ensure optimal sound clarity with the use high-end cable and solderless plugs eliminating unwanted noise and hum.

USABILITY: Solderless plugs make using it as fast and easy as cutting the cable to your desired length, slipping the cable into the plug, and screwing down the end of the cap.

CONSTRUCTION: 10 ft. of low capacitance co-ax cable, and 10 solderless, right angle 1/4 inch plugs deliver superior signal strength.

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Pedaltrain’s new light duty hard case.

CONSTRUCTION: Made of featherweight aircraft-grade aluminium and weighing less than 1 kilogram, it’s light and durable and one of the best things you can do for your pedals aside from make great music through them.

OVERALL: Pedaltrain is pretty much industry standard at this point and their reputation for roadworthiness is legendary. If you have pedals, you need a pedalboard and this is a great one.

PRODUCT TYPE: INSTRUMENT CABLE RRP: $194.95 DISTRIBUTOR: EGM DISTRIBUTION

comes apart when I put it to the test.

OVERALL: With a handy desktop tripod stand, this is about all you need to get recording in a flash. Great for when you want to get some song writing ideas onto your hard drive without having to worry about lengthy setup times. It’s a plug and play device that allows you to get on with the playing.

OVERALL: A clear-sounding cable that offers both exceptional sound quality and pedal board versatility. Its ease of use means the cable can be altered at a gig, or during rehearsal, to obtain the shortest and clearest signal possible.

MIXDOWN #260 // DECEMBER 2015 // PG.45

XMAS GIFT GUIDE

CARL MARTIN PLEXITONE

TC ELECTRONIC POLYTUNE 2 CLIP

RRP: $249 PRODUCT TYPE: EFFECT PEDAL DISTRIBUTOR: INNOVATIVE MUSIC

RRP: $109 PRODUCT TYPE: GUITAR ACCESORY DISTRIBUTOR: AMBER TECHNOLOGY RECOMMENDED FOR: Any serious guitarist.

It’s perfect for the onstage tune up, and for musicians looking to utilise a diverse range of tunings, or playing with a multi-dimensional setup while looking for accuracy. Perfect for acoustic guitarists.

SOUND AND VERSATILITY: Being out half a step, or hearing that undesirable winding bellow of the low E-string will no longer be a problem. The Polytune 2 Clip is designed to be in tune with you and your needs, switching easily between polyphonic and chromatic tuning modes.

USABILITY: Adjust the clip tuner however you like, with it sitting horizontally, vertically, on left hand and right hand guitars with ease, whether it be acoustic, electric or bass.

Flipping between chromatic tuning, strobe tuner mode, flat tuning and capo tuning

modes is done with click of a button.

CONSTRUCTION: The tuner is built with a stainless steel clip, both light weight and durable, with the ability to sit on your headstock without becoming a burden. When you need to tune, the super-bright display is easy to read, and will automatically flip to accommodate your viewing needs.

OVERALL: Polytune is as good as it gets when it comes to tuning your instrument. This clipon tuner is no exception, taking versatility, durability and usability to another level, all compressed into a compact, stylish package.

CARL MARTIN SINGLE CHANNEL’ AC-TONE

RRP: $249 PRODUCT TYPE: HEADPHONES DISTRIBUTOR: AUDIOFLY

CONSTRUCTION: The knobs feel quite sturdy and the casing is very tough. The footswitch is nice and hardy and is true bypass. In terms of pedalboard footprint it’s about average size.

OVERALL: If you want AC-30 tones, especially overdriven, crunchy, bold, brash, loud ones, this pedal will give it to you without the back sprain. If you need AC cleans as well, there’s a two-channel version which can get you there.

AIRTURN PED BLUETOOTH PAGE TURNER

RECOMMENDED FOR: The avid music listener who demands the highest audio quality.

SOUND AND VERSATILITY: These are built with the music lover in mind, as opposed to Audiofly’s range of in-ear monitors. Rather than isolation and accuracy, these are designed to issue rich, full and brilliant tones, presenting your favourite music in unparalleled splendour.

USABILITY: These are rather lightweight, and are comfortable to wear, even for long periods.

I would probably use these when listening in comfortable surroundings, but they’re definitely durable and attractive enough to take out with you. Memory foam earcups mould comfortably to the user and isolates the outside noise well.

CONSTRUCTION: The AF240s are built with a polycarbonate body and alloy arms, to ensure they’re as light as they can be. They feature the same fabric outer sheath that’s a constant

throughout all the Audiofly products we’ve highlighted here. It also features a microphone and Apple and Android compatible button.

OVERALL: The features that Audiofly have included in not only this, but all the products in their recreation line set them apart from the competition. They’re put together with the end user in mind, and designed to be functional from a listening perspective, while remaining sturdy and practical enough to be your go to every day listening headphones. These are the first over-ears that Audiofly have released, and they’ve really hit the ground running.

CORDOBA UP-100 CONCERT UKE PACK

RRP: $199 PRODUCT TYPE: UKELELE STARTER PACK DISTRIBUTOR: ZENITH MUSIC

RRP: $129.99 PRODUCT TYPE: HANDS FREE MUSIC DEVICE DISTRIBUTOR: MUSIC SALES

RECOMMENDED FOR: This is the ideal device for performers and presenters who want a hands free device for scrolling between pages on lyric sheets, Teleprompters, music tabs or even effects controls.

SOUND AND VERSATILITY: Although it has limited functionality, being just a two button switching system, it can be adapted to do a wide range of tasks wirelessly with most Bluetooth smartphones, tablets and laptops.

USABILITY: The AirTurn PED is very easy to set up and works as well as your chosen app allows it to. The foot controllers require no pressure to be engaged, so you can make quick taps to get through fast changes in

OVERALL: A great boutique-feeling take on the classic PlexiTone, equally at home with single coils and humbuckers, clean-ish or super-dirty.

AUDIOFLY AF240 HEADPHONES

RRP: $249 PRODUCT TYPE: EFFECT PEDAL DISTRIBUTOR: INNOVATIVE MUSIC RECOMMENDED FOR: Those looking for classic British tone in a small, portable, analog package, and especially those overdriven textures that an AC-30 is so great at.

SOUND AND VERSATILITY: This pedal is oriented towards overdriven tones rather than the chimey cleans that are equally part of the AC-30 ethos. You can get it down to a brash jangle, which sounds great but it’s best when kicking out smooth, harmonically rich leads and fat chords with a boutique-meetsBritish feel.

USABILITY: Very straightforward - controls for level, drive and cut, the latter letting you go from smooth and silky to bright and bold.

There’s also enough output power to drive a tube amp over the edge.

RECOMMENDED FOR: Blues, rock and alternative players looking for the classic Plexi tone in a single, easily controllable, easily portable unit.

SOUND AND TONE: Crunch, chunk, growl and warmth; the PlexiTone gives you a straightforward way of accessing those classic tones, but with extra gain, giving you an almost Friedman-like sound at the highest settings.

USABILITY: If you’ve ever plugged into a Marshall Plexi - as opposed to a digital recreation of one - you’d know there’s a certain response and interactivity that drives the sound. You have to learn to play a certain way to get it but once you do it’s worth it. The PlexiTone has that interactivity but with more gain available.

CONSTRUCTION: A very tough little pedal with chunky controls, stompable true bypass footswitch and durable casing.

time if necessary.

CONSTRUCTION: This is a tough unit, sitting very low to the floor and not requiring a heavy touch to work, it sits in place too with a non-slip base. Best of all, you get plenty of life from a single watch-style battery and a second battery is supplied in the same cavity for a backup.

OVERALL: This device is something that a lot of people are asking for. There is very little like the AirTurn PED available. Yet, it is so simple and well designed; it is a wonder why we haven’t seen a product like this sooner.

PG.46 // MIXDOWN #260 // DECEMBER 2015

RECOMMENDED FOR: People who are just getting into Ukelele, guitarists who want to muck about with a smaller instrument or kids who are starting out with stringed instruments.

SOUND AND VERSATILITY: Though this Ukelele is a pretty inexpensive instrument, it’s still a serious uke. Cordoba has a solid reputation for producing good products at great price points. For what you’re paying, this kit is not only going to get you started, it’s going to get you sounding good.

USABILITY: The package comes with the Uke itself, a carry bag, a digital clip on chromatic tuner, picks and a lesson book. As far as usability goes, this is about as usable as it gets.

CONSTRUCTION: This is an all mahogany concert Ukelele put together by an esteemed builder. It isn’t the type of thing you’d find

in a showbag. It stays in tune, resonates well, and boasts a clarity you’d expect from an instrument well beyond this price point.

OVERALL: If you, or someone you know is thinking about getting into the Ukelele, this is a really great place to start. The kit comes with everything you need to get going. For aspiring Uke players it’s a no brainer.

www.mixdownmag.com.au

XMAS GIFT GUIDE

AUDIOFLY AF120 IN-EAR MONITORS

TC ELECTRONIC DITTO STEREO LOOPER

RECOMMENDED FOR: Musicians that like to hear what they’re playing.

SOUND AND VERSATILITY: In-ear monitoring solutions are an entirely different kettle of fish to your rudimentary headphones.

They’re built primarily as a reference tool.

The AF120s feature a paired dynamic driver and balanced armature driver ensure that they fulfil their primary function, giving you a clear representation of your own performance.

USABILITY: The AF120s are Audiofly’s entry level in-ear monitors, but they don’t perform like an entry level product. They provide a reliable representation of your own playing in a live setting, and clarity in the mix for the studio.

CONSTRUCTION: The AF120s feature a combination of dynamic and balanced

RECOMMENDED FOR: The creative musician looking to layer their compositions who are seeking an easy and intuitive way to jam out ideas and songs.

Or for the pedal enthusiast looking to add to their board.

SOUND AND VERSATILITY: If you know TC Electronic products, you are used to things sounding great. There are no exceptions with the Ditto Looper - the loops produced are in 24 bit uncompressed high quality audio, and sound great!

USABILITY: The ultra-simple one-footone-button interface makes using the Ditto Looper unbelievably simple. With 5-minutes of looping time and the potential for unlimited overdubs, this pedal is versatile to its very core without

RRP: $229 PRODUCT TYPE: EFFECT PEDAL DISTRIBUTOR: AMBER TECHNOLOGY

RRP: $249.99 PRODUCT TYPE: IN-EAR MONITORS DISTRIBUTOR: AUDIOFLY

armature drivers to give you a warm, full and crisp response. They also come with a selection of noise isolating silicon tips and mouldable tips so you can find the most comfortable way to keep the stage noise out.

OVERALL: At some point in any performing musician’s life finding an in-ear monitoring solution is going to become a consideration, if not an obligation. At this price point, the AF120’s stack up with the best.

LEHLE LITTLE JULIAN

ERNIE BALL MVP VOLUME PEDAL

$250-$500

RRP: $415 PRODUCT TYPE: EFFECT PEDAL DISTRIBUTOR: EGM DISTRIBUTION

RECOMMENDED FOR: Those looking for a versatile boost/EQ for shaping their sound.

Maybe you have a vintage guitar and you don’t want to change pickups, or maybe you want sophisticated EQ control for a lead tone or recording.

SOUND AND VERSATILITY: This boost and parametric EQ lets you do anything from subtly refining your tone to emulating old-school treble boosters or those tweaked and hyped Frank Zappa lead guitar tones. There’s also 15db of clean boost or cut while lets you control the pedal’s interaction with your amp or recorder.

USABILITY: The knobs are small and fiddly and they’re also hard to see: not the kind of thing you’d want to control on the fly during a gig. The option to select between hi/lo impedance and true/buffered bypass is handy though.

CONSTRUCTION: An oddly shaped unit

RRP: $350.00 PRODUCT TYPE: EFFECT PEDAL DISTRIBUTOR: CMC MUSIC AUSTRALIA

that feels more ‘desktop’ than ‘floor,’ but is certainly strong enough to stomp on. The jacks and impedance/bypass mode buttons are well protected on the back of the unit.

OVERALL: Great for those who want to explore really out-there tones or to finetune more straightforward ones. Physically it feels a little un-pedal-like but it does its job well.

PEARL CENTIGRADE CAJON

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RECOMMENDED FOR: Players looking for more control over their volume in a stage situation, or who want to pull off cool volume swell and pedal steel effects.

SOUND AND VERSATILITY: It doesn’t really have any sound of its own, but it does maintain the clarity of the high end, but you can also effectively use it as a clean boost for getting your tube amp to work harder.

USABILITY: The minimum volume control lets you set the lowest point, while the Maximum Gain control can be used as a boost if you wish. Think of it as a high-quality transparent clean boost and a great-sounding volume pedal smooshed together into a single pedal. There’s also a dedicated tuner output.

CONSTRUCTION: A very roadworthy unit.

The pedal is powered by either a 9v batter or an AC power adapter (not included). Ernie Ball claims there’s no frequency loss at any volume, and it can work with either active or passive signals.

OVERALL: The MVP really is the ultimate volume pedal. Not only does it have a nice smooth taper and musically useful level control, but it’s also able to actively impact on your tone in a positive way if you choose to goose your amp with the boost.

NUMARK TT250USB DIRECT DRIVE TURNTABLE

PRODUCT TYPE: CAJON RRP: $389.00 Distributor: AUSTRALASIAN MUSIC SUPPLIES

RECOMMENDED FOR: Percussionists or anyone after a value for money Cajon that’s easy to play, looks good and is uncomplicated in design, whilst being durable for regular use.

SOUND AND VERSATILITY: The fibreglass shell does a great job of providing projection and cut. There’s significant low end and a good snare sound when you get it right. The sound is fairly classic and would suit many situations.

USEABILITY: This Cajon needs some getting used to in order to find the best tone and strokes, but get it right and the volume and clarity is certainly there. The angled faceplate allows for a relaxed posture and ease of use.

CONSTRUCTION: The Centigrade Cajon

overcomplicating the process.

CONSTRUCTION: All the features on hand are housed in a rugged metal chassis. The pedal runs through a 9V battery or power supply.

OVERALL: The Ditto Looper offers the ability to extend your sound and range, to diversify your musicality and improve your skill. This is all done without compromising your grit, low end and overall depth. It’s quickly becoming an essential pedal for guitarists.

RRP: $399 PRODUCT TYPE: TURNTABLE DISTRIBUTOR: ELECTRIC FACTORY

features a fibreglass shell with a striking Mango Cherry Burst Gloss finish. The faceplate is made of Asiatic hardwood and features two small snare wires on the inside. The most noticeable feature on the Centigrade is the 100-degree back angle on the front, the molded rear bass port and rubber feet.

OVERALL: There’s simplicity to the design – no fancy bits, just the basics to what you need on a gig. Be prepared to be noticed though! The sound isn’t the only loud part of this Cajon.

RECOMMENDED FOR: For both DJs and home vinyl enthusiasts, this is ideal for not only controlled playback and scratching, but digitizing records with the aid of a computer and the USB connection.

SOUND AND VERSATILITY: With pitch control and other features as expected on a DJ turntable, you get the playback your vinyl deserves. The addition of the AD converter and USB output are a real bonus.

USABILITY: Recording vinyl is now a breeze. Connected to your computer, you can transfer your records into audio files and save them forever for easier playback. The high-toque platter ensures quick start-up and consistent speed on playback.

CONSTRUCTION: This is a solid turntable,

and although tough, it isn’t quite as heavy as similar models I have used in the past.

The platter is solid and the tone arm is tough yet still very agile when adjusted correctly to match the head shell weight.

OVERALL: I don’t see enough new turntables these days, so this is a refreshing rebuild of a classic design that I welcome with open arms. Numark continue to prove why they are the biggest manufacturer of DJ gear with great ideas like this.

MIXDOWN #260 // DECEMBER 2015 // PG.47

XMAS GIFT GUIDE

KRK ROKIT 4 G3 STUDIO MONITORS

RED WITCH ZEUS FUZZ/SUBOCTAVE PEDAL (BASS)

RRP: $279 (each) PRODUCT TYPE: STUDIO MONITORS DISTRIBUTOR: GIBSON AMI

RECOMMENDED FOR: Whether it’s a professional studio looking for a compact addition to their monitoring range, or a home studio after a space saving monitoring option, the newest in the KRK Rokit line is here.

SOUND AND VERSATILITY: Whilst missing some of the lower frequencies of the larger models in the range, the Rokit 4s still deliver a clear, focused sound that allows you to hear what is going on in your mix.

USABILITY: The small build of these speakers makes them ideal for home studio configurations, able to be set up on your desk next to your computer monitor, you can make the most of nearfield monitoring in cramped environments.

CONSTRUCTION: Like all the speakers in the Rokit range, these are built into the same

RRP: $449 PRODUCT TYPE: EFFECTS PEDAL DISTRIBUTOR: MUSICLINK AUSTRALIA

rugged cabinet, with front porting that allows the low end to be evenly dispersed without unnecessary chuffing as air is pushed from the box.

OVERALL: This is what the Rokit range has been needing to really round out the options. They are going to take a place in the home studio that the 5 inch version wasn’t able to and come in at a lower price point that’s very appealing.

M-AUDIO CODE 25 MIDI CONTROLLER KEYBOARD

RRP: $495 PRODUCT TYPE: HEADPHONE AMPLIFIER / DAC DISTRIBUTOR: SOUND DISTRIBUTION

surfaces.

CONSTRUCTION: This is a good looking keyboard. It’s pretty sturdy in its build, although it might be a stretch to try and keep it clean if it is going to travel around with you a lot.

OVERALL: A cool looking, easy to operate controller that gives the user more ways to interact with their software than most other MIDI controllers in its class do.

YAMAHA PSRE443 KEYBOARD

RECOMMENDED FOR: This is the ideal solution for anyone using a computer for audio production when a high quality audio headphone monitoring solution is needed.

SOUND AND VERSATILITY: Sound quality is what this device is all about. You notice the difference straight away when going from the headphone out of your laptop to the Groove. The extended frequency response and definition in the sound is what you should want to hear.

USABILITY: Very simple to set up and install, it acts as an inline volume control and extension for your headphones, but can also greatly improve the quality of any speaker system that may have been run from the headphone output of your computer.

CONSTRUCTION: This is a really solid little device. The rubber underside keeps it stable on a desktop and the volume controls offer a firm, but definite click when depressed. The

included pouch and short USB cable make it ideal for portable use.

OVERALL: This is such a simple idea that has been executed very well. If you don’t need a large interface for monitoring only, then why have one? The Groove gives the user just what is needed in a very compact device.

Very clever indeed.

YAMAHA PST3 CYMBAL PACK RRP: $279 PRODUCT TYPE: CYMBALS DISTRIBUTOR: YAMAHA MUSIC AUSTRALIA

RRP: $449 PRODUCT TYPE: KEYBOARD DISTRIBUTOR: YAMAHA MUSIC AUSTRALIA

RECOMMENDED FOR: Ideal for a first keyboard, as well as experienced players looking to develop their sound. The vast range of high quality voices, real-time control knobs and pitch bend, and a sophisticated arpeggio function cater for those seeking advanced functionality. The PATTERN function also makes this keyboard the perfect instrument for DJ’s, with a wealth of powerful beats and loops now at your fingertips.

SOUND AND VERSATILITY: Hundreds of realistic voices provide an arsenal of both acoustic and electric instruments at your disposal. A built-in 2-way speaker system with bass enhancement ensures each sound resonates with depth and range. 200 accompaniment styles replicate realistic instrumentation and tone.

USABILITY: The arpeggio function offers Hold Mode and Allocated key-range to free your hands, allowing for improvisation over a

to minimize the bass roll off, stay sharp and on point, and remain entirely intuitive. The two effects are very easily blended together or used independently of one another.

CONSTRUCTION: The housing of the Zeus is strong, and it doesn’t take long to work out how to get the best out of this pedal. It has true bypass switching too.

OVERALL: Bass is a tough instrument to get clear effects out of, but when you get what you want, you effects can be super effective (pun intended). This is a very intuitive pedal that will help you get your bass to the place it needs to be.

APOGEE GROOVE HEADPHONE AMP AND DAC

RRP: $419.99 PRODUCT TYPE: USB KEYBOARD CONTROLLER DISTRIBUTOR: PRO AUDIO GROUP

RECOMMENDED FOR: For someone looking for a lot of control in a compact device, this is going to deliver plenty of options in a portable casing.

SOUND AND VERSATILITY: This unit is more like a control surface that happens to have 25 keys stuck on the side for good measure.

There is so much going on, from the drum pads to the transport and edit functions, you really don’t need to rely on your mouse much at all.

USABILITY: A big bonus on this control surface is the XY pad that allows you to achieve interesting results with a range of plug-ins and effects that previously couldn’t be achieved with other hardware control

RECOMMENDED FOR: Bass players looking to dirty it up and move away from their ordinary tone, or bass players that are just looking to stand out.

SOUND AND VERSATILITY: In my experience, fuzz on a bazz guitar can work well, especially in smaller bands where the bass sound needs to add a bit more character to the overall mix. This Redwitch pedal will give you that character without compromising that vital bottom end. The pedal also doubles as a suboctave pedal, in case you want to generate a really grizzly and ominous rumble.

USABILITY: The pedal is designed for bass players, and not simply a guitar fuzz with another sticker slapped on top. It’s designed

specific pattern. With the AUX IN connect to an external audio player and play along to the song of your choice. While settings and songs written on the keyboard are never lost with the USB To Device Terminal enables them to be saved, loaded and transferred to a USB. CONSTRUCTION: The 61 touch sensitive keys are made with playability in mind, while the 6.8kg weight makes it suitable for gigging, transferring to lessons and portable for any of your playing needs. The steel colour finish ensures a professional and sleek look.

OVERALL: This keyboard bridges the gap between the beginner-intermediate player and the professional player. The significant tally of voices and accompaniment styles is something that we have come to expect from Yamaha, however the additions of real-time versatility, iPhone/iPod/iPad connectivity and the PATTERN function ensure it meets all the needs of the modern musician.

PG.48 // MIXDOWN #260 // DECEMBER 2015

RECOMMENDED FOR: These cymbals suit the drummer who is ready for their first upgrade, developing their sound beyond their starter cymbals, looking for a more refined sound a touch of sophistication in their sound quality. This set is made for multi-purpose playing, with a balanced feel and versatile range made for regular use.

SOUND AND VERSATILITY: The 14” hi-hats emit a medium bright sound that is clean and full. The 16” crash is energetic, full and focused with a lively intensity, while the 20” ride is warm, full and clear with medium range. All three pieces are controllable and receptive to a variety of applications. The overall clean mix, with the versatility for defined attacks and a nice bell on the ride make for a balanced sound.

USABILITY: The soft to loud volume, medium to medium long sustain, and the powerful, pronounced sound character of these cymbals make them suitable for all musical

styles. They are easily applied to a range of settings.

CONSTRUCTION: The PST3 cymbals are made for an especially selected MS63 brass, copper-based alloy that creates a mellow sound, that is at times complex rather than rich.

OVERALL: These cymbals represent a significant improvement from starter cymbals, and will meet the needs and playing requirements of drummer moving past the beginner stage, where they are pushing their sound and technique to more intermediate areas. They allow more responsive interplay from stick sound, volume and intensity, and while they lack the overall vibrancy and malleable feel of higher ranges, are the prefect combination of great sound and superb value.

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XMAS GIFT GUIDE

SENNHEISER CLIPMIC DIGITAL

CORDOBA MINI M TRAVEL GUITAR

RRP: $299 PRODUCT TYPE: MICROPHONE DISTRIBUTOR: SENNHEISER

RECOMMENDED FOR: For anyone wanting to use their iPhone or iPad as an audio recorder for presentation and video recording, this is one lapel microphone worth considering.

SOUND AND VERSATILITY: The ClipMic Digital delivers a clear and crisp capture of the voice of the person wearing the device and little else. It doesn’t capture unwanted environmental noise and only gives you what you want to hear.

USABILITY: Although slightly limited by the Lightning connection, not allowing older devices to be used, this is still a very workable unit. It mounts easily and doesn’t take too much adjustment to get the target sound source clearly heard.

CONSTRUCTION: With a Sennheiser microphone capsule and an Apogee audio

RRP: $399 PRODUCT TYPE: ACOUSTIC GUITAR DISTRIBUTOR: ZENITH MUSIC

converter, you know that what you are getting in this unit is going to be excellent quality. It’s compact and lightweight, yet well put together and ready for the rigours of location work.

OVERALL: This is a very tidy little solution to location recording with an iOS device.

It offers high quality audio capture and AD conversion for both speech and singing. I would hazard a guess that you could even use it as an instrument microphone in a pinch.

RECOMMENDED FOR: Guitarists who are as keen on travel as they are on music.

Especially those heading abroad, or travelling without their own car.

SOUND AND VERSATILITY: Though this is a small guitar, and plays more or less like a guitar that’s tuned up a 4th, but with a tone that sits more or less between that of a guitar and a ukulele. The construction is sound, and the neck feels great.

USABILITY: As you can probably extrapolate from the name, this guitar is aimed at travellers, but the unique sounds that come with the smaller body might make it an interesting instrument for the folk, country or bluegrass guitarist that likes to experiment with different sounds.

CONSTRUCTION: This features a solid spruce top with mahogany back and sides, but is available in rosewood and ovangkol variants.

SENNHEISER HD25-1 II DJ HEADPHONES

PEDALTRAIN POWERTRAIN

RECOMMENDED FOR: For all DJs working in the home studio, in clubs or at festivals, that are looking for the best sound and comfort in a workhorse set of headphones.

SOUND AND VERSATILITY: Precision is what the HD25-1 II headphones deliver. You get to hear everything in the mix and with plenty of volume too. There’s a reason why similar headphones from Sennheiser are used by pit crews in F1 racing. High SPL without distortion is what’s on offer here.

USABILITY: The lightweight, adjustable frame allows you to position one or both cups over your ears for the ultimate monitoring freedom. They feel like you aren’t even wearing headphones, making them ideal for long stints in the booth.

CONSTRUCTION: These are built pretty tough, but the lightweight nature of them

RECOMMENDED FOR: Anyone who owns a pedalboard and wants to feed their stompboxes with nice clean power.

SOUND AND VERSATILITY: No tone to speak of unless you count nice filtered clean sound with no extraneous ground loop noise.

USABILITY: Selectable input voltage of 115V or 230V. Mounts conveniently underneath all Pedaltrains apart from the NANO and MINI models. Requires some drilling of your pedalboard to install, but Pedaltrain supplies a custom-designed mounting template. No mounting brackets necessary. There’s also a 9/12/15/18v switch for pedals designed for it.

RRP: $499.95 PRODUCT TYPE: HEADPHONES DISTRIBUTOR: SENNHEISER AUSTRALIA

RRP: $359 PRODUCT TYPE: GUITAR ACCESSORY DISTRIBUTOR: EGM DISTRIBUTION

means some care still needs to be taken. You can’t be too rough on them, I know from past experience, but if cared for, they will perform well for years.

OVERALL: This has been a go-to set of headphones for many DJs for the last two decades. The reason for this is simple; they are excellent headphones that deliver what they promise, more than justifying their price-tag.

RRP: $595 PRODUCT TYPE: AMPLIFIER DISTRIBUTOR: SHERLOCK AMPS

RRP: $375 PRODUCT TYPE: MICROPHONE DISTRIBUTOR: SOUND DISTRIBUTION

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CONSTRUCTION: A very chunky-feeling power supply with good positive connections for its various power outlet jacks. There are eight sockets all up including four 9V @ 500mA total, three 9V @ 210mA isolated, and the 9-18V @ 150mA isolated out.

OVERALL: All your power needs for multiple pedal types in one handy unit, with nice clean power to keep your signal clear and clean apart from your dirty, dirty distortion.

SHERLOCK ANGRY ANT

APOGEE MIC PROFESSIONAL MICROPHONE FOR IPAD AND MAC

RECOMMENDED FOR: All iPhone, iPad and Mac users out there that want a high quality audio recording microphone that is simple to use and delivers results without the need for external devices.

SOUND AND VERSATILITY: The studio quality condenser microphone capsule in this microphone sounds fantastic. Although rather small in diameter, it still delivers a very full sound in the lower frequencies and offers a crystal clear high-end response.

USABILITY: Very easy to install and operate.

There is no need to supply external phantom power as it takes this from your device through the USB, Lightning or 30-pin iOS

OVERALL: This is an interesting instrument.

It’s not suited to everyone, but it’s the perfect gift for the people it is suited to.

Incredibly portable, but with a surprisingly booming voice, if you have a friend who’s heading out on the road for a while, this might be the perfect instrument for them to sling over their shoulder for the ride.

cable, all of which are included.

CONSTRUCTION: Made in the USA, this is a very well-constructed device. Even the packaging is tough, with the microphone held into place by a locking screw to ensure it ships safely. It’s over the top and leaves a lot of catching up to do by any competitor.

OVERALL: With an added microphone stand adaptor and a miniature tripod for desktop use, this is about all you need for simple, quality compact recording to your iOS device or Mac.

RECOMMENDED FOR: Players who want a lot of tone in a small amp. Also those who appreciate good aesthetic design.

SOUND AND TONE: You can easily dial in a Vox-like clean tone with full, fat mids, or with a few quick control-twists you’ll find deep, lush jazz tones and even twangy country. But turn up the Gain and you’ll get an overdriven tone that is capable of being either smooth and creamy or more edgy and crunchy.

USABILITY: There’s an art to dialling in different tones with different ratios of Master and Gain control, but once you figure out the best way to approach it it will all become very intuitive. Really it’s the key to unlocking the amp’s inherent flexibility.

CONSTRUCTION: Dale Sherlock has used only the finest components in this amp: Orange Drop caps, carbon resistors and ceramic tube sockets, Carling switches, Cliff sockets and

Alpha pots fitted with chicken head knobs.

The Chassis is 1.6mm aluminium extrusion with machined sides, and the transformers are high-quality hand-wound models using vintage transformer winding techniques, and with grain-oriented steel for sound quality and reliability.

OVERALL: A small amp that can do a lot of things very well and yet do them very simply.

It’s flexible, reliable and surprisingly loud for such a small unit.

MIXDOWN #260 // DECEMBER 2015 // PG.49

XMAS GIFT GUIDE

GUILD D-125-12 STRING ACOUSTIC GUITAR

BLUERIDGE BR-40 SOLID TOP DREADNOUGHT ACOUSTIC

RECOMMENDED FOR: Acoustic players that want to branch out into the world of 12-strings, SOUND AND VERSATILITY: Guild’s slogan is ‘made to be played’, and they do really operate by that motto. Their instruments explore popular guitar traits, and get the best out of them. This is no different. Some people find them to be a little off-putting and are a bit apprehensive about playing one, but they are actually remarkably simple to play and the sound you get from this one is something else.

USABILITY: It’s remarkably easy to play.

The neck is particularly smooth, and the C shape sits well in the hand. It feels sturdy, as though it’s made to go with you for a long, long time.

CONSTRUCTION: This guitar features solid mahogany top, back and sides. The neck is

RECOMMENDED FOR: Those looking to upgrade from their entry-level acoustic to a genuine workhorse of a guitar that’s extremely playable and brilliantly voiced.

SOUND AND VERSATILITY: This is your classic go to guitar. It’s the kind of acoustic that lends itself to a host of different genres and playing styles and feels great every time you pick it up.

USABILITY: This is a light guitar, but one that still resonates well. There’s a real Americana vibe to this one. It’s understated in its design, and quite easy to manoeuvre around for players of all calibres.

CONSTRUCTION: This guitar features solid sitka spurce top with scalloped braces, mahogany back and sides, a mahogany neck, Indian rosewoord fretboard and nicket plated 14:1 tuners. So you

RRP: $799 PRODUCT TYPE: ACOUSTIC GUITAR DISTRIBUTOR: ZENITH MUSIC

$500+

RRP: $1299 PRODUCT TYPE: ACOUSTIC GUITAR DISTRIBUTOR: ZENITH MUSIC

also mahogany, with twenty frets leading up to the nut which is 47.6mm in width. It also features an Indian rosewood bridge and comes in a hard case.

OVERALL: I’m a real sucker for 12-string guitars, so it’s hard for me to find a fault with this one. Acoustic players that are looking out for a 12-string variant that will be a lifelong companion without breaking the bank would be doing themselves a serious favour checking one of these out.

VOX AC10C1 GUITAR AMP

YAMAHA DTX522K ELECTRONIC DRUM KIT

RRP: $699 PRODUCT TYPE: GUITAR AMP DISTRIBUTOR: VOX AUSTRALIA

RECOMMENDED FOR: The guitarist looking for a multi-purpose amp that’s portable, but loud enough for gigging.

SOUND AND VERSATILITY: The classic Top Boost tone circuit provides a plethora of classic and modern tones. Intricate and precise tone shaping is delivered by the bass and treble EQ knobs, while the gain and master volume knobs can be altered to ensure there is enough headroom for multifaceted overdrive and crunch. There’s also studio-quality reverb on board that is expansive, without losing clarity.

The single 1x10 inch Celestion VX10 speaker resonates both at low volume and when being cranked.

USABILITY: With gain, bass, treble, reverb and volume controls, using the AC10C1 is intuitive and will be straightforward for any guitarist looking to shape their tone and sound.

CONSTRUCTION: The combination of two 12AX7 preamp tubes and two EL84 surging 10 watts of output power means there is enough

RRP: $1,299 PRODUCT TYPE: ELECTRONIC DRUM KIT DISTRIBUTOR: YAMAHA MUSIC AUSTRALIA firepower and depth to capture the clean ringing of brighter tones and solid overdrive.

The rectangular housing, which leans closer to the AC15 Custom, provides extra length for more low-end tonality and greater volume projection.

OVERALL: This amp upholds the Top Boost personality of the iconic AC30 in a more compact and versatile package. Without losing too much power, the scope of sound that the AC10C1 provides makes it ideal a practice and gig amp, with the addition of reverb adding another string to your bow.

M-AUDIO BX6 CARBON STUDIO MONITORS

RECOMMENDED FOR: This feature-packed electronic kit packs all that you need to develop advanced techniques and playing styles.

SOUND AND VERSATILITY: The new DTX502 drum trigger module offers twice the wave ROM and over 250 more sounds than its predecessor. New laser technology optimises the kit’s ability to analyse drum strokes, ensuring a greater natural feel and accuracy.

Cymbal muting, natural cymbal swells and smoother snare drumrolls are all made possible by this kit.

USABILITY: A huge range of voices and the ability to utilise advanced techniques creates and fosters a natural drumming experience.

Enhancing the playing experience is a drum training function, which works with you to improve rhythmic timing, pad accuracy and endurance.

CONSTRUCTION: The three-tom, threecymbal, snare and bass drum setup will meet the needs of a diverse range of drummers and drumming styles. There is also the option to use a hybrid kit, with the ability to connect your acoustic drum hardware, and expand the kit with four additional pads or triggers.

OVERALL: With added features such as the 3-zone cymbals and the DTX-PAD snare, both of which increase sound versatility for more realistic production, the DTX522K sits extremely close to the sound of an acoustic kit. A huge array of voices, practice components and playing options then ensure that using this electronic kit will only make you a better and more accomplished drummer.

M-AUDIO CODE 49 MIDI CONTROLLER KEYBOARD RRP: $549.99 | PRODUCT TYPE: USB KEYBOARD CONTROLLER DISTRIBUTOR: PRO AUDIO GROUP

RRP: $699.99 (pair) PRODUCT TYPE: STUDIO MONITORS DISTRIBUTOR: PRO AUDIO GROUP

RECOMMENDED FOR: When you want a budget studio monitor that delivers a clear sound but also has plenty of power behind it for high volume listening, these monitors should be worth a look in.

SOUND AND VERSATILITY: The 6” Kevlar low frequency driver in these speakers ensures you get plenty of low-frequency response form what are seemingly very compact units.

These do sound more like a larger driver, but without having a false bottom end to them.

They still sound relatively flat, considering the size.

USABILITY: As a near field monitor in a home studio, these are going to be very easy to integrate into most existing setups. As they are not a large footprint, they will slide into a small space and operate well at low

could say it’s built from the right stuff.

OVERALL: Blueridge guitars are very reasonably priced, especially considering how playable they are. This guitar makes as much sense to a seasoned veteran as it does to a novice.

levels when you have to work within a close range.

CONSTRUCTION: All six sides of these boxes seem to have held together for the duration of the test. The rugged coating on the shell will take a few bumps and scratches, but it will show up your coffee stains if you aren’t too careful.

OVERALL: These are a neat pair of studio monitors for home use. They offer some room control with a fixed three-position switch to counter the rear ported bass response depending on their placement. Not bad for the asking price really.

PG.50 // MIXDOWN #260 // DECEMBER 2015

RECOMMENDED FOR: Home studio producers who want a lot of control in a slick package will be keen to get their hands on this. It is the ideal home MIDI control surface and keyboard in one.

SOUND AND VERSATILITY: The Code 49 offers so much control over your software.

It works as a keyboard, a sample player, a transport system, a mixing device and an effects editor, allowing you to take control of all aspects of your DAW on this one device.

USABILITY: The centrally located controls above the keyboard have them right at your

fingertips; however having the pitch and modulation wheels off to the side above the drum pads is a little annoying.

CONSTRUCTION: This looks and feels like a really nice piece of kit. It might be tough for some people to keep it clean, but it will hold together at least. Even the drum pads feel like they are ready to take some serious abuse.

OVERALL: I really like what this keyboard offers. Plenty of control and interaction with your DAW, so you can make the most of not only your Mix and Edit windows, but all your plug-ins and effects too.

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XMAS GIFT GUIDE

NOVATION CIRCUIT GROOVE BOX

GOLD TONE OB-250 BANJO RRP: $2195 PRODUCT TYPE: BANJO DISTRIBUTOR: GLADESVILLE GUITAR FACTORY

RRP: $629 PRODUCT TYPE: DRUM MACHINE/SYNTH/SEQUENCER DISTRIBUTOR: INNOVATIVE MUSIC

RECOMMENDED FOR: For anyone that wants to make music and have fun. Anyone who remembers the groove boxes of the late nineties will love this modern spin on that fun workflow.

SOUND AND VERSATILITY: With the engines of essentially two MiniNovas under the hood paired with drums, there is so much you can get from Circuit. Applying filters and effects to your sounds within the sequence makes every new session a unique one.

USABILITY: With modern grid based sequencer controllers popping up everywhere these days, this is going to be very easy for people to get well acquainted with very quickly. The workflow is quite intuitive.

CONSTRUCTION: Solid pads, well mounted pots, firm responsive buttons and a non-slip rubber base all come together as part of a really solid build. The addition of a speaker on the underside and battery option means the Circuit can go anywhere.

OVERALL: This is going to change the way a lot of people make electronic music. One small device with a synth engine inside, it doesn’t require a computer to generate sounds, so you can work wherever you want.

RECOMMENDED FOR: Bluegrass and country players who want a high-quality banjo, perhaps after slogging it out with an entrylevel instrument for a while.

SOUND AND VERSATILITY: A very loud, richtoned instrument with great projection and a clear focus on the upper midrange. The mids aren’t overly honky and the treble isn’t too harsh. The bass is tight, and perhaps a little fuller than you might expect. Nice dynamic range too.

USABILITY: It’s pretty damn heavy especially if you’re used to open-back banjos, but it’s all worth it when you hear it. The fretwork is really nice too, which helps to take some of the sting out of the weight.

CONSTRUCTION: Beautiful inlays and flame maple back, this banjo is made with very solid construction. You could whack someone over the head with this banjo and it would all be over for them. But don’t, because it’s a

GOLD TONE GM-50

PRS S2 CUSTOM 24

RECOMMENDED FOR: People who want to play mandolin?

SOUND AND VERSATILITY: A surprisingly loud little instrument - like, “how the hell does it get so loud?” loud - with incredible sustain. The tone is focused in the highs and high mids but there’s also a respectable level of low end which reinforces the projection of the highs.

USABILITY: Very easy to play with the sole exception of a slightly sharp nut which kind of hurts when playing chords right down low on the neck. Otherwise it’s a well-balanced instrument.

CONSTRUCTION: Nice fretwork, really beautiful wood selection and quality components. Solid top, curly maple back, and the bridge feet are sanded for a perfect fit with the arched top. Gold Tone levels, crowns and polishes the frets, oils the fingerboard, adjusts nut and bridge slots, and intonates the bridge before letting it out the door.

RECOMMENDED FOR: Guitarists wanting that exceptional U.S made PRS Custom 24 build quality.

SOUND AND VERSATILITY: The S2 Custom 24 takes the original PRS guitar, the Custom 24, and re-imagines it with stripped-down features and a new aesthetic. Its versatility comes from its custom-wound pickups and 3-way blade switch. Familiar for PRS players of old, and a fresh take for players of all types.

USABILITY: A guitar should be comfortable and feel familiar from the moment you pick it up, and the neck is paramount to that connection. PRS S2 feature a 25” neck with scarf-joint construction and the Pattern Regular neck shape making it extremely comfortable to hold and play.

CONSTRUCTION: Retaining the classic maple top/mahogany back combination, with PRS’ classic body shape and a new asymmetrical bevelled top, this guitar is resonant with a funky familiarity.

RRP: $795 PRODUCT TYPE: MANDOLIN DISTRIBUTOR: GLADESVILLE GUITAR FACTORY

RRP: CONTACT FOR PRICING PRODUCT TYPE: ELECTRIC GUITAR DISTRIBUTOR: ELECTRIC FACTORY

OVERALL: A great playing and sounding mandolin with slinky low action and incredible sound projection. It’s also beautiful to look at, and a lot of care has gone into the final setup, an important step which is often left to the store or distributor instead of the manufacturer.

PRS 30TH ANNIVERSARY CORE CUSTOM 24

PRS SE 245 STANDARD ELECTRIC GUITAR

RECOMMENDED FOR: PRS enthusiasts looking to add a U.S made collectors item to their set.

SOUND AND VERSATILITY: Designed personally by Paul Reed Smith in conjunction with the new 58/15 pickups for PRS’s 30th Anniversary year, 85/15’s are uncovered pickups with remarkable clarity and extended high and low end perfect for more modern applications.

USABILITY: The 30th Anniversary Custom 24 is extremely mainstream in shape, a sloping shouldered ‘C’ that doesn’t feel big or small, just right, in the hand.

CONSTRUCTION: The 30th Anniversary Custom 24 is specially appointed with a unique inlay pattern and commemorative truss rod cover to celebrate 30 years of PRS Guitars and the Custom 24 model. In addition to the specifications that have

RECOMMENDED FOR: Players looking for a classically voiced single-cutaway at a great price, the SE 245 is the answer.

SOUND AND VERSATILITY: Built in Indonesia, the SE Standard 245 has a classic voice that is eminently recordable and gigready. The all-mahogany body is reminiscent of Paul’s first pre-factory instruments and offers a warm, woody tone.

USABILITY: The 24.5” scale length makes this instrument instantly comfortable to players who prefer short-scale guitars. An added gig bag is also a convenient addition for transporting.

CONSTRUCTION: Classic PRS appointments include a set Wide Fat mahogany neck, rosewood fretboard with bird inlays, PRSDesigned stoptail bridge, tuners, and 245 humbuckers.

OVERALL: PRS models are hard to

RRP: CONTACT FOR PRICING PRODUCT TYPE: ELECTRIC GUITAR DISTRIBUTOR: ELECTRIC FACTORY

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beautiful instrument to play, and this level of construction quality is meant to help it survive life on the road, not life on the run.

OVERALL: A fine quality banjo built to last, with a ‘this will last a lifetime’ feel and a ‘this will look good forever’ look to go with it.

OVERALL: PRS’s cost-cutting efforts are smart and thoughtful, resulting in no loss of tone quality. The S2 Custom 24 is everything that you would expect from PRS, with the quality living up to the expected PRS standards. Available in antique white, black, dark cherry sunburst, elephant grey, scarlet red, violin amber sunburst and whale blue, with a gig bag included.

RRP: $999.00 PRODUCT TYPE: ELECTRIC GUITAR DISTRIBUTOR: ELECTRIC FACTORY

remained unchanged on the Custom 24 since its inception, it also features the new 85/15 treble and bass pickups.

OVERALL: Celebrating the rich history of PRS Guitars, the 30th Anniversary Custom 24 is truly a guitar that reflects the high standards of PRS. It celebrates ingenuity, quality, and persistence. However, the price tag is a reflection of the quality.

criticise, and this 245 is no exception.

Available in black, platinum metallic, translucent blue, tobacco sunburst and vintage cherry, the PRS SE 245 Standard Electric Guitar plays just as well as it looks, and should be the next option for any feisty rock guitarist looking to add to their arsenal.

This Indonesian made model is a good way to get into the PRS family.

MIXDOWN #260 // DECEMBER 2015 // PG.51

XMAS GIFT GUIDE

PRS SE CUSTOM 24 7-STRING ELECTRIC GUITAR

HAMMOND XK-1C PORTABLE ORGAN

RRP: $1895.00 | PRODUCT TYPE: KEYBOARD/ ORGAN | DISTRIBUTOR: BERNIE’S MUSIC LAND

RRP: $1349.00 PRODUCT TYPE: ELECTRIC GUITAR DISTRIBUTOR: ELECTRIC FACTORY

RECOMMENDED FOR: For players looking to cover new ground, the SE Custom 24 7-String offers the feel and tones you’ll need.

SOUND AND VERSATILITY: The SE Custom 24 7-String, PRS Guitars first 7-string production instrument, takes familiar PRS aesthetics and playability to new sonic territory. Whether you’re playing rock, jazz, or metal, this guitar provides extended lowend growl, increased chordal variance, and a greater ability to embellish standard chords.

USABILITY: The addition of a low-B string will help you explore new sonic territory whether you’re playing rock, jazz, or metal.

CONSTRUCTION: The SE 7-String features a bevelled maple top with flame maple veneer

and mahogany back, a 24-fret, 25” scale length maple neck with rosewood fretboard and bird inlays. The electronics package pairs SE HFS and SE Vintage Bass pickups with a volume, push/pull tone, and 3-way blade switch.

OVERALL: The PRS SE Custom 24 7-String Electric is a breath of fresh air from the usual 6-string models. This model will be well suited to any rock guitarist looking to expand their tonal range. Available in black and black cherry, it also comes with a gig bag as an added bonus.

RECOMMENDED FOR: Organ players who don’t want a moving van with burly movers to transport their standard organ around.

SOUND AND VERSATILITY: The XK-1c uses the same Virtual Tonewheel ‘engine; as Hammond’s flagship B3-mkII Console Organ, with all the traditional elements, such as Hammond’s original chorus/vibrato and Touch-Response percussion.

USABILITY: The XK-1c features extensive customization capabilities, allowing the Organ to be tailored into replicating any Hammond/Leslie vintage, with all settings stored in each patch.

CONSTRUCTION: Weighing only 7kgs, this organ packs a lot of tone for its size.

Juxtaposing a classic Hammond organ, this sleek, lightweight design ensures that this organ is tour-friendly.

OVERALL: The XK-1c is the real deal, not a clone or imitation, but a genuine Hammond Organ, worthy of the name and the legacy of nearly 80 years, packaged into a lightweight casing at your convenience.

HAMMOND LESLIE SPA-150

LEWITT DTP BEAT KIT PRO 7

RECOMMENDED FOR: Hammond owners who are looking to get the best possible sound out of their instrument. Also suitable for owners of other products of similar prestige, who are seeking to get the full breadth of full and warm sound.

SOUND AND VERSATILITY: The Leslie speakers are designed specifically to be used with Hammonds, so are as compatible as humanly possible. Hammonds (like other organs) run the proverbial gamut of frequencies. Their high frequencies are characterful and rich, as are their low frequencies, unlike other instruments that have a shorter range of frequencies.

USABILITY: While they’re designed to cope with the incredible highs and lows of a Hammond organ without faltering, they are perfectly usable in a host of other applications. In fact because it’s capable of dealing with those frequencies, it’s an extremely dynamic unit that would

RECOMMENDED FOR: Those after a complete drum microphone solution, fitted with all the necessary clamps and mics contained within a durable case. Great for people setting up their own shows, or sound guys that are starting out and looking for an inexpensive, but reliable kit to take with them to work.

SOUND AND VERSATILITY: In the last issue of Mixdown we explored the versatility and quality of Lewitt mics in some detail. These drum mics offer the same reliable quality that you can expect from the rest of the range, with an emphasis on consistent performance and innovation.

USABILITY: This kit really contains everything you need to get yourself set up.

This will be able to competently mic up your rudimentary drum set up with ease. The case it comes with is a huge plus too.

CONSTRUCTION: The frequency response on

RRP: $1595 PRODUCT TYPE: SPEAKER DISTRIBUTOR: BERNIES MUSIC LAND

perform well in just about any loud speaker situation.

CONSTRUCTION: Built in a sturdy and rigid housing, this speaker houses a 10” speaker with two 4” tweeters. It’s a fairly rudimentary construction, not dissimilar to other loudspeakers.

OVERALL: Those who take particular care in their instruments tend to take care in the speakers they use for said instruments.

Typically, if someone has the inclination to purchase and play an instrument as beautiful as a Hammond, they’ll want to acquire a speaker that’s going to deliver the rich tone in all its glory. This is the go to speaker for the go to organ.

each of these mics is individually tailored the percussive traits of the drums they’re built for. Durable all-metal bodies and hardened steel mesh grills ensure that an errand stick or a particularly rambunctious, or (dare I say it, inebriated) drummer won’t put an end to their lives.

OVERALL: A good drum mic kit is necessary to get the best out of your drums in a live mix. Poor drum mixing will completely ruin the overall sound, so it’s good to have your own dependable kit that you know what you’re going to get with. This Lewitt kit ticks all the boxes. Ordinarily it retails at $1749, but it’s also available with additional cardiod capsules for the condenser mics for $2149.

STANMORE MARSHALL BLUETOOTH STEREO SPEAKER SYSTEM

AUDIOFLY AF180 IN EAR MONITORS

RRP: $549 PRODUCT TYPE: IN EAR MONITOR DISTRIBUTOR: AUDIOFLY

RECOMMENDED FOR: Musicians who are seeking a premium in ear monitor.

Something that’s going to give you top shelf, super-reliable accuracy while remaining comfortable and durable enough to go the distance.

SOUND AND VERSATILITY: Clarity and accuracy is the key strength of these guys.

They’re fitted with four balanced armature drivers and designed to perform with the best in any environment. They really separate the mix and give you clarity.

USABILITY: These in-ears are well weighted and comfortable to wear. The assortment of noise isolating tips is a big plus too. They’re really designed to be a tool of the trade, and to perform in the live setting, which they will, again and again.

CONSTRUCTION: Like all Audiofly products,

RRP: $1749 - $2149 PRODUCT TYPE: DRUM MICROPHONE KIT DISTRIBUTOR: ELECTRIC FACTORY

RRP: $649 PRODUCT TYPE: PORTABLE SPEAKER DISTRIBUTOR: ELECTRIC FACTORY

these in-ears are resilient. They feel as though they could take a beating. The four balanced drivers are housed within a very rigid, but lightweight plastic housing, and the tough cordura fabric reinforced sheath is wrapped around the cable, ensuring it doesn’t twist, bend or crack.

OVERALL: A top shelf monitor that delivers.

For the uncompromising musician who demands accuracy in their monitoring.

PG.52 // MIXDOWN #260 // DECEMBER 2015

RECOMMENDED FOR: This is the perfect Christmas gift for the guitarist who has everything, or a welcome addition to any ‘man-den’.

SOUND AND VERSATILITY: Surprising.

That is what comes to mind. The rear ported design on this compact box delivers big bottom end, and there’s a crisp high frequency response. As well as Bluetooth, RCA and mini-jack connectors, there’s also an optical input for the best quality audio playback.

USABILITY: Incredibly simple with a volume, low & high controls, you simply need to select the sound source and you’re away. Bluetooth pairing is pretty easy too, so you can sit back and wirelessly choose your music with ease.

CONSTRUCTION: This speaker is a brick.

Solidly constructed, like a real Marshal amp, but housing a stereo speaker system instead. The sturdy case allows for plenty of volume without rattles or vibrations too.

I only wish there were a handle on top as I kept reaching for one, thinking it was a real Marshall amp.

OVERALL: This is just too cool. It goes down with the Marshall fridge in the “I want one” category. If you have a chance to listen to one, definitely do, it delivers a bigger sound than you would expect.

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The Lewitt LCT 550 is the perfect studio mic. It is incredibly quiet, transparent and sounds great on everything. To be blunt it’s a killer mic and my #1 choice for a FET condenser. // Warren Huart Multiplatinum producer/mixer for artists like Aerosmith, The Fray, Daniel Powter, James Blunt, Augustana, Josh Radin, Marc Broussard, Korn, Emerson Drive, Matisyahu, Secondhand Serenade, Pitbull ...

SHHH ...

0 dB (A) SELF-NOISE // LCT 550

SUPER-LOW SELF-NOISE LARGE-DIAPHRAGM STUDIO CONDENSER MICROPHONE

MORE INFO

Lewitt Audio is distributed in Australia by Electric Factory Pty Ltd visit us on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube

// 0 dB (A) self-noise from electronics and circuitry // Highly precise calibration of capsule and electronics any two LCT 550s will always form a matched pair // 1-inch true condenser cardioid recording mic // 3-micron-thin, gold-layered, low-mass Mylar diaphragm for precise transient response // Extraordinary sensitive: 36 mV / Pa (-29 dBV) // 140 dB dynamic range // 3-step attenuation, 3-position low-cut

elfa.com.au lewitt-audio.com

ROAD TESTS Dixon PSN-K902 Pro Drum Throne Dynamic Music | (02) 9939 1299 | www.dynamicmusic.com.au | RRP: $299

Dixon make a point of stating ‘no longer are Dixon just the guys who make that great cheap hardware’ and this would seem to be true with the likes of their Jet Set Plus traveller drum kit that we reviewed last month. An increased range with top line kits and endorsers such as Gregg Bisonette has seen them really up their drum and percussion ante. High level kits, a huge range of accessories and some signature model snares see them making a spin towards higher quality gear with plenty more specs – plus the backing from a player such as Gregg shows some real commitment to gear, players and drums in general.

Throne home The PSN-K902 throne has thick double braced legs, threaded shaft and a tough and secure clamp that firmly holds the shaft in place. A vinyl type ‘cordovan’ material is used for the seat which is comfortable and supported with some ergonomic shaping for the legs and thighs. A ‘cycle’ type seat this is shaped moreso than a typical round stool and gives some extra balance and size but also lets your legs hang freely with the back of your thighs sitting pretty.

Dixon are also pretty proud of their patented ‘open style clamp’ which adds some extra surface to the connection to the upper tubing. The result is a firm grip that adds strength and ease to the stool. So comfort, strength and feel are all covered – did I also mention that you’ll love the price? Coming into the competitive and more than manageable bracket it’ll leave you more $ for other cool drum gear – ace!

It’s stool rock and roll to me….

Gibson SG Standard 2016 T Gibson AMI | (03) 8696 4600 | www.gibsonami.com | Call for pricing

If there’s one word that comes to mind again and again when you think ‘Gibson SG,’ it’s …well actually, it’s probably Angus. But if there’s a runner-up it’s probably ‘devilish.’ Those pointy horns seem to invite anyone who picks up an SG to play it with a little extra hot sauce. In short, it makes you want to be a badass.

THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAILS The 2016 SG Standard is an affordable, USA-made instrument which captures the spirit of a classic 60s SG. One of the ways it does this is with its use of the larger pickguard shape compared to the smaller

one of recent models. It extends up above the pickups and it enhances the badassery by adding a few extra points to an already pointy design.

The body is made of between one and three pieces of mahogany and the neck is onepiece mahogany with a one-

PG.54 // MIXDOWN #260 // DECEMBER 2015

Kits are ogled over and fantasized about for weeks on end. Cymbals are constantly tested and swapped in that pursuit of crashy happiness, yet hardware, and stools in particular, seem to get little consideration in contrast.

Whilst they probably won’t make a lot of difference to your sound they will make a huge difference to your overall comfort and feel. This in turn should hopefully make you play better and feel more comfortable. Plus, a stool is typically an item you’ll only buy once or twice so why not make it something that you like.

HITS

BY NICK BROWN

• Price • Heavy duty build

MISSES • None

piece rosewood fretboard and 22 frets. The profile is called Rounded SG, which is slightly slim but not cartoonishly so.

There are traditional Green Key tuners, a historically-accurate 1 11/16” nut width, TekToid nut, black Top Hat knobs with silver inserts, traditional Trapezoid inlays and a highgloss nitrocellulose finish. The bridge and tailpiece are the traditional Tune-o-Matic and Stop arrangement. Pickups are Gibson’s 490R and 498T passive humbuckers, with Alnico II magnets, with a relatively hot bridge bucker compared to the tamer neck.

Controls are the standard two volumes, two tones, pickup selector array, and the guitar comes with a durable gig bag, truss rod wrench, 2.5mm adjustable wrench and

polishing cloth.

GOT THE HORN The SG Standard is little more complex in its upper midrange frequencies compared to the Les Paul Studio Faded reviewed elsewhere in this issue, and it’s not as deep in the low end.

This seems to focus the sound a little more precisely into more of a midrange-and-treble region which is great for power chords and mean blues-rock soloing. It also lets you stack multiple tracks during recording without the low end and low mids becoming muddy and cloudy. One of the keys to this guitar’s sonic success is the choice of pickups: the neck pickup has a certain sweetness and sustain, and it really comes to life when you dig in with the pick, but the bridge pickup is bolder, hotter,

brasher and meaner. It’s a great contrast and it means you get plenty of very different tones out of this guitar.

I SEE YOUR POINT This guitar really captures what it is that makes the Gibson SG so iconic. It has the sound, the look, the attitude and the playability. And although it’s not cheap, it’s worth every cent.

BY PETER HODGSON

HITS • Cool bigger-pickguard look • Comfortable neck • Versatile tones

MISSES • Doesn’t come with hard case

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ROAD TESTS Audio Technica AT2020USBi Condenser Microphone Technical Audio Group | (02) 9519 0900 | www.tag.com.au | RRP: $349

Well, it’s certainly been some time now since the first USB microphones started appearing in stores. At first it seemed like somewhat of a bad idea, taking a microphone and squeezing an A/D converter and USB port all into one casing for a budget price. Now we’re beginning to benefit from what many manufacturers learnt with earlier models, and we’re seeing some great microphones being offered in a USB model alongside the original. One such company that has gotten this digital conversion of one of their studio tools right is Audio Technica. Most of you would have used their microphones or headphones at some point and many of you, I’d guess, already own an AT microphone. The AT2020 has, since its release proven to be a great microphone for the money, but now, Audio Technica have taken it one step further with the AT2020USBi, allowing connection to PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad and iPod.

One stop recording shop

What the AT2020USBi offers is a microphone that not only looks

very similar to the AT2020, but sounds like it too. The difference is that this one has a built-in

Tycoon 29 Series Master Fantasy Boa Cajon Dynamic Music | (02) 9939 1299 | www.dynamicmusic.com.au | RRP: $429

Far from just a select percussion instrument, the Cajon these days finds itself in everything from relaxed acoustic arvo sessions to school class rooms, jazz gigs, percussion groups and big latin ensembles. It’s straight ahead design and nature make it an instant draw card and the fact that it can be simple through to seriously involved also covers a lot of bases. Rattling on from some Tycoon gear we saw earlier in the year is a cool take on your standard Cajon. This case in the form of a slinky little number called the 29 Series Master ‘Fantasy Boa’ Cajon.

Sounds interesting? Well read on….

Snake Eyes

You can’t say Tycoon have a limited range when it comes to Cajons. Sizes, colours, specs, woods, sounds – they’ve got a heap going on. Coming under the ‘Master’ Series is the Fantasy

Boa Cajon coming in a super funky boa print. Possibly a cross between the wild Amazon and some 80s guitar shred it certainly is a head turner. Tone wise Tycoon have gone for a siam oak body with an Asian

Gibson Les Paul Studio Faded 2016 T Gibson AMI | (03) 8696 4600 | www.gibsonami.com | RRP: Call for pricing

Gibson caused quite a kerfuffle with their Gibson USA 2015 line, which featured G FORCE automatic tuners, wider necks, adjustable zero-fret nuts and all sorts of other tweaks. In 2016 those tweaks are further enhanced and refined under the banner of High Performance (HP), and you can get HP or Traditional (T) versions of most 2016 Gibson USA guitars. The T models are much more in line with the 2013 model year. It’s great that players now have the option, because each has a lot to recommend it. At the time of writing, the first batch of T models had just arrived in Australia, with the HPs to follow.

STU-STU-STUDIO

The Les Paul Studio Faded 2016 T is one of the more affordable Les Pauls, and unlike, say, the very stripped-down CM 2016 T, it’s a fully kitted out, ready-to-rock, twin-pickup beastie. In many ways it’s like an old-school Standard or the current Traditional minus the fancy wood and paint job,

instead rocking a faded finish that lets the wood breathe, and gives you the feel of a really well-worn vintage guitar. The body is made of mahogany, and in the case of the review guitar it seems to be a single piece of wood although the spec allows for multiple pieces.

The top is book matched plain maple. The neck is one-piece

P G . 5 6 / / M I X DO W N # 2 6 0 / / D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 5

preamp and digital converter.

So, there is now no need for any other equipment but a computer and the microphone. Your signal goes straight into your recording software and monitoring is then taken from the headphone output of your device, not the microphone in this case as it only has a gain control and no headphone output as with other USB microphones. It really couldn’t get any simpler.

Phantom power is even supplied through the USB cable, so no external preamp is required.

That 2020 sound

Now, the AT2020 was and still is a real stand-out microphone in the Audio Technica range in my opinion. No, it is not the best microphone they offer, but it is a good microphone at an amazing price. It is a large diaphragm condenser microphone that

hardwood front panel. At 29” it’s a manageable size that offers plenty of tonal variety for deep low end notes or higher end slap. The snare wires are Allen key adjustable too so you can really tweak to suit the gig. Bass drum like notes can be coaxed out of the middle of the body with an open palm whilst fingers and more a slap technique get some great snare tones towards the edge of the instrument.

There really is a wide palette of tones available and it’s that response and range that fulfil the sound criteria rather than it being just a hip looking cajon.

would work well in just about any microphone kit in the studio. And for the price, why wouldn’t you have one in your kit? My only gripe about this microphone, and the new USB model that shares its audio characteristics, is that it is a little too clinical in its audio capture. Yes, you get a clear and precise capture of the sound, but it doesn’t really have a voice of its own and just lacks a little life in the tone it imparts. But, for the price, seriously, it is an amazing sounding piece of kit.

BY ROB GEE

BY NICK BROWN

It’s quite amazing, but of the four guitars we tested on the day these came in to Gibson, this Studio Faded was the bestsounding of the lot. And that’s saying something because they all sounded great. This had more punch and body, more dynamics, and a little more hair in the top end. This made it a really great

MISSES • Limited to newr model iPads and iPhones with Lightning connection

HIT S • Good range of sounds • Funky finish

Great as an all-round percussion item, the Cajon doesn’t discriminate and can be played by all ages and abilities making it easy enough for the beginner

MORE PAUL FOR LES

• Works with so many devices • No need for external hardware • Great AT2020 sound

to get some simple 2 and 4 happening through to super intricate tones and patterns by more advanced players.

The Boa finish is definitely a little out there so you’ll have no problems standing out at the gig, but if you’re truly concerned Tycoon have a seriously huge range of other Cajons that will surely fit the bill. Bright and punchy with a usable range of tones, the Fantasy Boa is one for the players wanting that little something different. Hiss….

Constrictor

mahogany with a light rosewood fingerboard and 22 frets, and the inlays are trapezoids (a nice concession to fanciness when they could have gone with plain dots to knock a couple extra bucks off: trapezoids really do enhance the ‘real Les Paul’ vibe. Ditto the pickguard). The pickups are a matched set of BB Pro humbuckers with Alnico V magnets and a vintage output level. They’re connected to the standard two-volume/two-tone/ one-pickup-selector arrangement.

HIT S

MISSES • Snake print may not suit everyone

hard rock guitar, and perfect for nasty blues. I guess the lack of a thick finish allows the wood to breathe a little more. The apparently single-piece body probably helps too. Whatever it is, there’s something in this guitar that expresses a very no-nonsense vibe that filters through into your music. And there’s also something about its look that makes you want to play harder too. It’s a blend of aggressive and classic, and it works brilliantly.

THE BOTTOM LINE

If you want a true Les Paul but you’re on a bit of a budget, this will get you the tone and most of the look. Gibson scores a huge win with this one.

BY PETER HODGSON

HIT S • Truly great sound.

• Awesome look.

MISSES • Just a padded gig bag. A case would be nice.

www.mixdownmag.com.au

ROAD TESTS

Tycoon Portable Cajon Practice Pad Dynamic Music | (02) 9939 1299 | www.dynamicmusic.com.au | RRP: $199

We’ve already mentioned Tycoon’s massive range of percussion in this issue and in previous issues, with a particular emphasis on the cajon, which is the proverbial new kid on the block of the percussion world, growing in popularity over the past 12 months. Further enhancing the practice, performance and recording capabilities of the traditional cajon, Tycoon’s Portable Cajon Practice Pad allows for easy transportation and storage whilst giving you the feel and sound of a full-sized instrument. Perhaps opening up its appeal even further let’s check out this reduced sized percussion beat maker.

Practice makes perfect

More of a mini Cajon than just a practice pad, this portable number from Tycoon is about the size of a laptop (30cm x 40cm) and can either be played sitting on your lap or sitting on a chair/ stool supported between your legs. Using siam oak and a beech wood front plate it has all the

response and feel of a full size cajon and a fairly convincing tone too. Obviously some of the low end frequencies aren’t present due to the drastically reduced body size and it won’t fully replicate some of the practicalities and nuances from sitting on a full size cajon but at under a kilogram its super

Diamond Maverick St Dynamic Music | (02) 9939 1299 | www.dynamicmusic.com.au | RR: $1199

Diamond has a number of different styles of guitar in their line-up, some decidedly aggressive and some a little more classic - and some that are downright classy - but the Maverick masterfully balances between these worlds. It’s clearly Telecaster-inspired, but that’s not where it begins or ends.

VINTAGE MODERN

The body is made of alder and it’s expertly carved with a few really unique bevels and a more aggressive treble side cutaway than you typically see on a Tele-inspired instrument. The neck is maple with a rosewood fingerboard and 22 frets, and the inlays are big chunky blocks.

The headstock is reversed, which gives you a snappier feel on the low strings and a slinkier feel on the high ones. The neck joint is nice and comfortable for

upper-fret excursions too. Tuners are Grovers.

Electronics include a pair of Diamond pickups (a mid-output bridge humbucker and a neck single coil that’s hot enough to keep up with the ‘bucker), master volume, master tone and a three-way pickup selector switch. There’s no coil split for the humbucker.

PUNCHDRUNK LOVE

The bridge pickup has a sort of ‘dry’ feel, almost like a slightly

Audio Technica System 10 Portable Wireless Microphone Technical Audio Group | (02) 0519 0900 | www.tag.com.au | RRP: $499

More and more we are seeing the need for portable, battery powered wireless microphone systems as so many digital cameras are giving us the ability to shoot high quality HD video just about anywhere.

Because of this growing demand, Audio Technica have come to the party with a compact, camera mounted receiver and handheld microphone in the System 10. This is the perfect addition to any DSLR, allowing wireless transmission without the need for mains power or bulky receiver units.

The receiver

Sturdy, lightweight and ready to mount on either a DSLR or on your person with the optional belt clip, the System 10 receiver is a handy device indeed. The unit itself will not throw out the weight balance on your camera as you operate it, in

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fact, you hardly even notice it is there once it’s in operation.

The high frequency range digital transmission is all set to comply with new Australian transmission laws, so there will be no issues with operating this device either.

It’s very easy to set up, with two antenna’s extending up from

portable and effective. There’s also a handle letting you ‘grab and go’ when you need to move it or take it to band practice.

Wop, Bam boom

Either sitting on your lap or wedged further between your knees/thighs, the Practice Pad rests fairly comfortably allowing a good play angle and plenty of movement for your hands.

Palms, fingers and everything in between result in a range of tones from cracking snare type sounds down to more resonant open notes. It definitely gives you a fair reference to playing the traditional cajon. You do miss some of the sounds and feels of the full body size but don’t think you won’t get a lot out of this portable model. If you need some reinforcement there are a number of cracking YouTube videos of some Tycoon players really exploiting its capabilities with great results! lower-output Duncan Custom: a muscular, PAF-like punch with nice upper-mids and tight bass. It’s a great all-round rock pickup, sounding just as good with chunky power chords as it does with screaming solos.

But the neck pickup seems to be the real star here. It has a Stratty grittiness that balances with the bridge pickup in terms of output yet contrasts nicely in tone. It’s more strident and yet more full, with lots of detail and body. It combines nicely with the humbucker when you use them together too, but I found that I spent most of my playing time on the neck pickup alone just because it sounded so good.

‘Punch’ is a word that keeps coming back in terms of this guitar’s various tones.

If there’s a criticism to be levelled at the Maverick, it’s that

Cool as a practice tool, outright instrument or something to dip your toe into within the world of cajon the Portable Practice Pad performs super well.

HITS

BY NICK BROWN

MISSES

• Portable • Sounds great

• Doesn’t cover all Cajon sounds/ functions

it doesn’t feel like it has much physical character.

Although the looks and tone are distinctive, if you were to close your eyes it feels like any number of other guitars. I put this down to the neck shape, which feels like a pretty standard mid-price guitar.

It’s certainly not bad, but it doesn’t give you that deeper connection that comes with a distinctive, tactile neck carve.

A NOBLE STEED

This is a great workhorse guitar for all sorts of genres, though it looks a little edgier than something you might use for, say, country or traditional blues. It could use a little more

character in the feel of the neck and in the voicing of the bridge pickup but neither is a dealbreaker.

BY PETER HODGSON

HITS • Great neck pickup • Snappy low-string tones

MISSES • Neck feels a little generic

the housing and a short output cable all that is needed to send your signal into the camera. A headphone output is supplied so you can monitor the audio whilst recording as well, allowing you total control over both the sound and the image at once.

The transmitter

The microphone itself is a little top heavy with the weight of the capsule and electronics all being at one end of the casing.

Because the body is extended to accommodate the wireless transmitter, this throws the balance out a little, which I simply put down to there not being any batteries in the device, until I found they were already in there, actually housed further up the handle than I would have expected. Really, that is neither here nor there in the scheme of things. The capsule itself is well supported and protected, as it is going

to be operating in the field most likely. It delivers a clear, crisp audio capture that is not lost in the AD/DA conversion along the way. What goes into the analogue circuitry at one end is what comes out at the other end, with nothing lost in transmission. Best of all, it was easy to pair up both the transmitter and the receiver to work together, so no cross-talk is engaged when similar devices are being operated in the same area, making it an ideal option

for news reporters and festival recording.

BY ROB GEE

HITS • Compact receiver, perfect for atop of DSLR cameras • Quality digital transmission • Complies with new Australian broadcast laws

MISSES • Microphone is a little top heavy

MIXDOWN #260 // DECEMBER 2015 // PG.57

ROAD TESTS Suhr Modern Satin

Pro Audio Supplies Better Music Group | steve@bettermusic.com.au | www.bettermusic.com.au | RRP: Call for pricing

John Suhr has quite a profile and resume in the guitar business.

From his earliest guitar tinkering and repair work through to time at the famous ‘Rudy’s Must Stop’ in New York to amp collaborations with guru Bob Bradshaw and into the renowned Fender Custom Shop. Now commandeering his own namesake brand John has pushed the Suhr name into the hands of players the world over. Guitars, basses, pedals and amps are the main features in a variety of specs. A new model for 2015, the Modern Satin, is a fresh take on one of their most successful models.

Satin Doll An African mahogany body and neck is the basis of the Modern Satin, with an Indian rosewood fingerboard, gotoh Bridge, Suhr locking machine heads and a H S H pickup setup on this particular model. Suhr’s ‘Modern’ shape is a double cut with a sharper rounded top bout that looks sharp and clean but a little more rock than your typical ‘s’ shaped guitar. Body contours on the top and cutaways add some extra smoothness and increased access with the instrument finished in a thin satin layer. Designed for tonal

and aesthetic purposes this lets the body resonate freely and highlights the guitar’s natural grain. As well as the natural satin of this particular instrument it’s also available in black and cherry along with a straight double humbucker setup if that’s more your thing.

Shred plus more Marketed as a ‘stealth shred machine’ the Modern Satin definitely has some shred aspects to it with the Elliptical neck profile and 14” flat fingerboard radius allowing for some quick fingers on the fretboard and the 24 frets

Soundcraft Ui16 Remote Controlled Digital Mixer Jands | (02) 9582 0909 | www.jands.com.au | RRP: $1099

The live mixing game has certainly changed a lot in the last ten or so year, and Soundcraft are not one to be left behind in this.

The release of their new Ui12 and Ui16 remote controlled digital mixers are sure to get a few ears pricked up around the place.

This month I got to test out the Ui16 and see just what this fairly unassuming rack mounted box was actually capable of.

More than a stage box At first glance, you might just pass this off as a stage box that has been built into a rack housing. It doesn’t give much away on the surface, but

the variety of connections, including USB ports and a wireless receiving aerial suggest there is a little more going on under the hood; and that, there is. The unit itself

P G . 5 8 / / M IX D O W N # 2 6 0 / / D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 5

giving you increased range if you really need to hit high D, D# and E notes. Thanks to its feel and range of tones however, the Modern Satin really offers more than just shred. Pop, rock, blues, funk, country and plenty of other styles are possible too thanks to the pickup configuration blasting out fat humbucker rock tones but also doing the in between thing if you wanna crack out some funk rhythms or muted quacky tones. Clean tones are pristine and chimey and add some distortion to

is built to the high quality that you would expect from a Soundcraft mixer. This is designed to go the distance in a range of live environments even in touring racks, and continue to deliver results time and time again. There are 12 XLR inputs and a further two stereo pairs supplied on RCA and USB, giving you a total of 16 inputs. Two headphone outputs and two pairs of master outputs compliment the four auxiliary sends, which I was delighted to find are supplied on XLR, so you can run long balanced signals to your fold-back speakers. But that is just the hardware, the real magic happens behind the scene, for this is a mixer after all, and you need some way to

the mix and you get thick rock sounds with nice clarity and separation. The Gotoh Floyd Rose feels secure and solid yet allows plenty of room for both subtle and extreme whammy bar work. Of course there is also a non-locking option too if you’d prefer the Gotoh 510 bridge.

Modern Life I could see the Modern Satin being a hit amongst the rock, shred, metal, prog crowd thanks to its great playability and tones. Coming in at a

mix, as such.

Remote control Soundcraft have jumped ahead of the pack with this device, that’s for sure. All your functions are controlled through a software program, but it is not limited to an app that will only work on certain tablets or smartphones. The editor and mix software can be controlled by just about any device that can run a standard web browser.

The mix program itself is not only intuitive and incredibly easy to use, but it gives you all the control you could need in a great user interface.

Gain, Volume and Send levels all have their own screens showing all channels together, making group adjustments

good deal lower (price wise) than most other Moderns in the Suhr range opens it up to a whole new list of possible buyers too. Cherry, black or natural – take your pick. A great axe.

BY NICK BROWN

HITS • Great player, quick and easy • Quality parts and workmanship • Price

M ISSES • Jumbo frets may not suit everyone

easy.

Effects all have separate screens for each one on each separate send. A four-band EQ is incredibly easy to use with a great visual display that many user will be familiar with having used recording software plug-ins before. The same goes for compression and multiband EQ across individual channels and the entire mix.

But it goes even further than that. You also get some great sounding Lexicon Reverb, Delay and Modulation effects as well as Digitech guitar amp and effects modelling too. It’s out of this world and all hosted in your device to control from wherever you want, while the Ui16 sits on stage near the microphones keeping cable runs to a minimum. This is going to be a real winner.

BY ROB GEE

HITS • Software works with any web browser in any device • Great visual user interface • Intuitive control with saved settings for regular setups

M ISSES • There just aren’t any really

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ROAD TESTS

Yamaha THR100H Dual

can stack clean and edge-ofdrive tones together for a big Stevie Ray Vaughan sound.

It’s really just limited to your imagination. And it’s great that a stereo effects loop is included so you can really get the most out of your external gadgets within the context of this amp.

Yamaha Music Australia | (03) 9693 5111| www.au.yamaha.com | RRP: $1099 (Head), $699.99 (Cab)

If you’ve played Yamaha’s THR series lunchbox amps you’d know they’re something pretty damn special. They were one of the big ‘dude, did you see this?’ items at NAMM the year they were launched. The latest evolution is the THR Head, designed to pack true dual-amp functionality into a single 5kg package.

TWO AMPS FOR THE PRICE OF ONE. SORTA. The way this works is there are effectively two amps in this little unit, each featuring five custom-voiced types designed with natural, organic overdrive and tube-style power amp dynamics in mind. They even let you select different output tube simulations (6V6, EL84, KT88, 6L6GC and EL34) and Class A or Class B/B topology, independently assign boosters, reverbs and speaker simulations, and select single or true dual-discrete inputs for genuine dual-path connectivity.

Each amp has five modes modern, lead, crunch, clean and solid - and you can use either amp independently or

both at once. Yup, that means you can have simultaneous clean and dirty sounds, or different layers of overdrive, two completely different amps running at once for a wide rhythm sound, or just set it up like a conventional two-channel amp. Effects include booster (white/amber/ green), reverb (hall/room/ plate/spring), noise gate, FX loop and speaker simulation.

Control knobs include amp type, booster, gain, master, bass, middle, treble, presence, reverb and level. And around the back there’s a headphone out, footswitch connection, FX loop send and return (and it’s stereo!), two speaker outs and two line outs.

DUAL OF THE FATES This is a great amp for those who have wanted to explore multi-amp rigs but didn’t have the resources. It’s not a tricky amp to learn, it doesn’t feel overly techy if you’re typically weary of digital amps, and most importantly it sounds and feels like it should.

TWO TIMES FIVE EQUALS AWESOME If you’ve played a THR amp before you’ll already know that they’re among the closest digital recreations you’ll find for boutique-style semi-dirty tones, are great for sparkling cleans, and have plenty of punch and power for distortions. What’s really revolutionary about this particular amp

is the ability to blend them.

It’s fun to call up two different Crunch amps and change just one element - maybe a power tube or a gain level - and create the illusion of two guitars.

Or you can create a main tone with a subtle effect sound hidden underneath it. For example, the second voicing can be EQ’d differently and fed through delay for a nice dimensional solo tone. Or you

BY PETER HODGSON

HITS • HITS • Revolutionary idea • Great dirty tones

MISSES • None

single coils, with a bit of a ‘fat 60s Strat’ vibe. They definitely keep up with the humbucker, and have plenty of character of their own. The H.D.R. imparts more midrange and output to each pickup setting while removing a little treble edge, giving you fatter, creamier, rounder, hotter tones to go alongside the regular settings.

COVERING THE BASES

Godin Progression Plus Dynamic Music | (02) 9939 1299 | www.dynamicmusic.com.au | RRP: $2199

Godins are the classic “I didn’t know I wanted it until I played it” guitars. I’ve told this story a few times in these pages but when I worked in a music store we sold a lot of them to people who came in expecting to walk out with something else until they decided to give a Godin a go, and realised how nice they are. This model is equal parts traditional and forward-looking, and is sure to appeal to those who want something a bit Stratty but aren’t necessarily concerned with it being an actual Strat or direct copy.

THAT’S A PLUS The body is made of Canadian Laurentian basswood with a flame maple top - or is it a photo-flame or veneer? Godin doesn’t make it quite clear in their marketing, but whatever www.mixdownmag.com.au

it is, it looks great. The neck is hard rock maple with an ergocut rosewood fretboard (maple is optional) and a 12” fretboard radius. The scale length is 25.5” and the neck is relatively thin, certainly more

modern in feel than an old Strat or something, but a little more rounded than most thin necks. There’s also a Godin Tru-Loc tremolo bridge, which lets you dial in the resting point of the tremolo arm with an allen key.

Electronics consist of a Seymour Duncan JB Jr. single coil-sized humbucker (a smaller version of the venerable SH-4 JB humbucker used over the years by artists with surnames such as Beck and Mustaine and Cantrell). There are also two Godin GS-2 single coil pickups with oversized pole pieces; master volume and tone controls; a five-way pickup selector switch; and Godin’s H.D.R. High-Definition Revoicer switch, which

revoices each pickup and effectively gives you the benefits of active pickups at the push of a button.

PROGRESS REPORT The bridge pickup isn’t quite as fat as a regular-sized JB, but it’s intriguing to compare it to one and see exactly how they differ. Basically the tone is very much within the same neighbourhood but the JB Jr. is a little more focused, since it senses a smaller area of the string than the full-sized pickup. It’s still recognisably JB though, which means it’s great for percussive palm-muting and screaming solos alike.

Think ‘hot PAF with an attitude problem’ and you’re halfway there. The other two pickups feel a little darker and more midrange-heavy than typical

This would be the perfect guitar for a cover-band guitarist who needs to cover single coil and humbucker tones in a single gig, and who needs to go from clean to ultra high gain without sacrificing clean character or dirty definition.

And the tuning stability is quite nice too. Give it a try.

BY PETER HODGSON

HITS • Versatile tones, especially with the H.D.R. switch • Nice trem • Comfortable neck carve

MISSES • None

MIXDOWN #260 // DECEMBER 2015 // PG.59

ROAD TESTS Bad Cat CUB III 15R

considerably, with one being more gritty and angry, the other sweeter. It really is like switching between different channels while still retaining a consistent feel.

EGM Distribution | (03) 9817 7222 | www.egm.net.au | RRP: Call for pricing

Bad Cat’s Cub III series of amplifiers builds on the legacy of the company’s classic Cub line but with all new features including a switchable A or B valve in the first-position preamp: you can select between a 12AX7 or EF86 - and not just via the toggle switch, but also via footswitch. It’s not the kind of feature we would normally lead with in a review, but it tells you a lot about how Bad Cat tirelessly innovates while building upon established forms.

WHEN I WAS A CUB To backtrack, this is an EL84-based 15-watt Class A combo with a single channel although the foot switchable valve feature essentially gives you two channels. Controls include volume, a five-position tone rotary, a tone switch which toggles between the tone rotary and an active bass and treble EQ circuit, a bass/treble boost switch, reverb, presence and ‘K Master.’

What’s K Master, you ask? It’s all got to do with Bad Cat’s new method for separating the preamp and power amp gain. Now you no longer need

to drive the preamp into saturation as an unwanted side-effect of cranking up the power amp. Basically the way it works is you turn the preamp to the amount of breakup you want, and then use K Master to dial in your desired level.

Other features include an effects loop and a footswitch for the boost circuit, plus a Bad Cat proprietary Celestion 12” speaker.

OBEY YOUR MASTER One of the greatest things about the K Master control is that it lets you get killer tones at home-friendly volumes, which is very helpful when

GOOD KITTY

you’re reviewing an amp and you want to not piss off the neighbours any more than usual. But it also means that if you want to really blast the volume, you can maintain a clear, punchy clean tone. Sorry neighbours, had to test it.

Mwah ha ha haaaa! The tones here range from compressed and sweet to brash and angry; all five positions of the tone switch are useful and musical,

and you’ll definitely find something in there that’s voiced for whatever recording or live situation you find yourself in. But when you flip over to the treble and bass controls you can get some really unique hairy tones too. Either way, it’s great to be able to find the perfect balance of preamp and power amp gain. And the two preamp valve modes open things up

you can pretty much figure out what’s being replicated here. There are two ‘pedal type’ effects sections (compressor, chorus, overdrive and distortion, then flanger, phaser tremolo and delay) and one ‘reverb type’ section (room, spring, hall, plate), plus noise reduction, eight user programs, 33 inbuilt programs or 60 with the editor, 24-bit A/D and D/A conversion, and plenty of connections. There’s an Aux In jack, headphone jack, footswitch and USB Type B mini port.

VOX VT20X Amplifier Yamaha Music Australia | (03) 9693 5111 | www.voxamps.com | RRP: $349.99

Vox’s long-running ValveTronix line of amplifiers and processors has been consistently reliable and great-sounding, to the point where I know of several guitarists with really, really nice amps who have instead used ValveTronix stuff for recording. The latest iteration of the ValveTronix concept, the VT20X has a whole new modelling engine designed to sound better than ever.

VOX BOX The VT20X uses VET (Virtual Element Technology), which is based on an analysis of the components and amp circuits themselves. In other words, Vox can replicate specific

capacitor values, signal chains and other fun stuff like that.

It all adds up to making the amp feel more like whatever amp it’s replicating. The new line also features a multistage Valvetronix tube preamp

PG.60 // MIXDOWN #260 // DECEMBER 2015

which incorporates authentic analog circuitry to give you the nuances of tube amps.

And to cap it all off they’ve used a tightly sealed cabinet and a proprietary bass-reflex designed to deliver deep, powerful resonance.

This is a 20-watt combo with 11 built-in amp models but 20 when using the Tone Room editor/librarian sofware. The models hit all the expected types, with names like Deluxe Cl, Tweed 4X10, Vox Ac30, Boutique Od, Vox Ac30Tb, Brit 800, Brit Or Mkii, Double Rec, Boutique Cl, Brit 1959 and Boutique Metal; if you know your amp history

20 WATTS OF ROCK The tones are indeed very responsive. It’s funny because the control panel looks kinda space-age, but the tones feel surprisingly traditional. A big part of this is how the valve works with the circuit to warm everything up and give you more of that natural response. The cleans are very sweet and delicate but there are also some really nice ‘edge of overdrive’ tones that seem to speak particularly well when you turn it up loud. The chorus sounds great on the clean sound too, which doesn’t always happen with amps like this: often the chorus sounds kinda synthetic and sucky. The

This is a great amp for clean players because it really lets you blast the volume without the tone becoming gritty. So it’s ideal for indie, blues and country players who don’t necessarily want dirt. But it’s also perfect for players who like to get their distortion from pedals. And the gritty tones are great too, almost punky one minute, sweet and singing the next. Also available in a bunch of wicked colours. A truly great amp.

BY PETER HODGSON

HITS • Clever switching options for a single-channel amp • Innovative K Master control • LOUD

MISSES • None. Are you kidding? This is a Bad Cat.

dirty tones are appropriately grungy and complex, and again they really sound great in those crucial mid-gain regions.

The high gains are downright brutal, in all the best possible ways, with satisfyingly natural saturation and articulation.

Sure, the delay sound could use a bit more character, but the reverb is really nice.

EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN This is a great choice for a practice amp or for small jams and gigs, teaching and recording. It feels very authentic and full of character, and although it looks kinda space-age, it sounds like the best of the last five or six decades of guitar history.

BY PETER HODGSON

HITS • Responsive feel • Great cleans • Useful effects

MISSES • An external cab output would be nice.

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ROAD TESTS

PRS SE 277 SEMI-HOLLOW SOAPBAR BARITONE

pick attack and dynamics, whether that means picking harder or picking in different areas of the string. In the middle position you’ll notice a slight dip in midrange, which brings out a slightly more acoustic-like tone that’s great for ringing chords, while the bridge position can sound twangy and utterly ‘country’, or it can sound much more mean and avant garde.

Electric Factory | (03) 9474 1000 | www.elfa.com.au | RRP: Contact for pricing

Do you have deep, low baritone riffs and melodies in your heart but the metal-oriented baritones out there just aren’t for you?

PRS to the rescue! The PRS SE 277 Semi-Hollow Soapbar is similar in many ways to the solidbody, humbucker-loaded version but with some important if not utterly redefining alterations.

HOLLOW THERE This guitar features a chambered mahogany body with a bevelled maple top and a flame maple veneer. In other words, there’s a thick maple top but the flamey bit you see on the surface is a thinner slice. This is a way for luthiers to keep costs down because they can get more slices of thin flamed maple out of a piece to use on multiple guitars, while using more affordable chunks of non-flamey maple for the sonic benefits.

The neck is maple with a rosewood fretboard, PRS bird inlays, 22 frets, 27.7” scale

length, PRS’s Wide Fat neck shape and PRS-designed tuners. The bridge is a PRSdesigned plate-style bridge with through-body stringing.

The pickups are a pair of PRS SE soapbar single coils.

BARK & BITE This is probably even more of a great all-rounder guitar than the humbucker-loaded version. The tone is deeper and more versatile, and although again you won’t get satisfying death metal tones, you’ll find sounds that are suitable for everything from super-clean surf guitar right on up to Mastodon-style growl.

BY PETER HODGSON

GET DOWN In some ways this is the perfect format for a baritone.

The soapbar pickups have a little bit of bark and gristle to them, with lots of detail or ‘string zing.’ Both pickups have a really pleasing, musical midrange that helps to give them lots of character. The neck pickup feels particularly responsive to differences in

HITS • Longer neck is easy to adapt to • Nice pickups • Great dynamics

MISSES • None

For more information visit:

www.hola.jandspromo.com.au

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MIXDOWN #260 // DECEMBER 2015 // PG.61

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27/10/2015 1:37 pm

ROAD TESTS Sherlock BUDDY 15DR

really start to dig in. Plus the reverb is rich and ambient, and the volume level is pretty respectable too, although you don’t necessarily need to get to jet engine levels for this amp to sound good.

Sherlock Amplifiers | (03) 8802 0499 | www.sherlockamps.com | RRP HEAD - $1195.00, COMBO - $1495

Dale Sherlock is a legendary figure in the Australian amp-building scene, and it was great to see so many folks flipping out over his creations at the Melbourne Guitar Show back in August. His Fat Head amp is very highly regarded and we’ve looked at the Grid 30 and Angry Ant in these pages before. Sherlock’s popular mods and MIDI upgrades are great ways to add extra functionality to an amp, but when it comes down to it everything with Sherlock is about tone and getting it right.

WHO’S A GOOD BUDDY? The Buddy 15DR is a small, well made little amp. It’s a 15-watter powered by an EL84 output valves in a Class A push-pull output stage. It’s a very simple circuit, with gain, bass, treble, reverb and master controls. The natural mids seem voiced well enough that you won’t miss the midrange control, but more on that later. There are three selected 12AX7 valves in the preamp and a 5U4G or 5AR4 rectifier tube, and you can select Celestion Vintage 30 or Greenback speakers. Sherlock can also use a Jensen 12” or

fit a 10” in a smaller cab on request.

Sherlock uses high-quality hand-wound transformers made from using vintage techniques and with grain-oriented steel for great sound quality and reliability. Point-to-point wiring is used, with Orange Drop/Mallory caps, vintage carbon resistors and ceramic tube sockets, plus Carling switches, Switchcraft sockets and CTS pots fitted with black Bakelite ‘chickenhead’ knobs. The chassis is 1.6mm steel with welded seams, covered in gloss black powder

Yamaha HPH-MT7 STUDIO MONITOR HEADPHONES Yamaha Music Australia | (03) 9693 5111 | www.au.yamaha.com

There are plenty of headphones and earbuds out there made for regular listening with your portable music device, and these are mostly designed with a fashion angle in mind rather than audio quality as the driving force of the design process. So when I received the Yamaha HPH-MT7 studio monitor headphones I knew I was not in for more of the same old rubbish and I was going to hear high quality audio reproduction.

RECORDING ENABLED The HPH-MT7 headphones are designed for recording and mixing applications, so they are ideal for use in the home studio. Whether you intend to use them for playback during overdubbing and recording, or as a reference point in the mixing process, they are going to let you know just what you want from the mix. For those home studios where space or noise restrictions are an issue, these headphone will also work as a viable option when trying to find a consistent mixing monitor without using speakers in the room. The HPH-MT7s offer not only a closed environment from the

BOUTIQUE TONE FOR DAYS

rest of the room, but also the ability to deliver plenty of volume if needed. That said, they sound best at moderate levels, where a level frequency response lets you hear all that is going on in the recording.

Plus, they don’t strain your ears during long listening period if run at lower volumes.

However they certainly have enough grunt in them to cause issues if you run for too long without a break.

COMFORT AND VERSATILITY The fully enclosed design is very comfortable, not over-heating the ears after extended periods of use and feel great across the head.

PG.62 // MIXDOWN #260 // DECEMBER 2015

coating. The cabinet is made of CC grade Australian marine plywood, and Broco Tolex is fitted, with other colours on request (the review model is a classy white). It’s not an overly heavy amp but it doesn’t feel like a little toy either.

CLEAN AND CREAM If you want clean sounds, this amp can do it with plenty of pristine sparkling tone at a sizeable volume for such a

small amp. It seems to strike that great balance between broadcasting your guitar’s natural voice and adding a little of its own magic too, giving your clean sound plenty of character. But once you push the amp into break-up you can get some beautiful creamy lead tones that work great for blues, fusion and rock, and which seem to bloom forth with beautiful harmonic overtones when you

This is a great amp for small gigs, recordings, jams, around the house; it’s not designed to be an arena monster but it’s more than capable of handling simpler sonic tasks at reasonable, non-neighbourangering volumes. Well maybe some neighbours. It’s simply a great boutique amp in a small, portable, not-tooloud-but-not-wimpy-either configuration, and affordable as far as this type of thing goes.

BY PETER HODGSON

HITS • A lot of tone from a simple circuit • Very well made

MISSES • None

With an extra-long cable, it is easy to position yourself when recording around instruments and microphones.

Without the need for a headphone amp or extension, I was able to get about in my compact recording space and still monitor through the HPH-MT7s with ease. On top of this, they are not a very heavy set of cans, but they are quite sturdy. The overhead band adjusts easily, but holds its play firmly and the drivers are well protected in a solid case with soft leather-like pads around the ears.

THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX Yamaha may not be the first name you might think of when you are looking for a set of studio cans, but these headphones were a bit of a surprise. I’m glad I got a chance to really give these a good workout and having listened to them now, I would urge you all to get down to your local dealer and have a go yourselves.

BY ROB GEE

HITS • Lightweight, comfortable design Plenty of headroom • Very natural low frequency response

MISSES • The cable might be too long for some people’s needs

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ROAD TESTS

Suhr 2015 Collection Grafted Pistachio 24 Fret Classic T Pro Audio Supplies Better Music Group | steve@bettermusic.com.au | www.bettermusic.com.au | RRP: Call for pricing

Pushing the boundaries of their already solid line Suhr have released some limited ‘2015’ models incorporating familiar Suhr shapes with exotic woods, intricate appointments and individual pieces to give them a rare and collectable look and feel. Available worldwide in very low numbers, these guitars show off that extra dazzle and nous from the Suhr workshop, building on their well playing instruments with some extra non run of the mill specs.

WOODS A combination of raw and rootsy with some modern bling this Classic T really looks sensational. Some not so common woods are on display here, black limba with grafted pistachio for the body and black limba and ebony for the neck/fingerboard combination.

This guitar really needs to be seen in person to do it justice – a mix of grain, colours and highlights that come together as a classy guitar with rough, almost driftwood type looks (in a good way). Some added zing comes in the form of

the ebony knobs, switch tip, tuner buttons, cavity covers and pickup covers brass ring and dot fretboard inlays and a maple leaf logo. Matching the gold hardware the grafted pistachio 24 Fret Classic T is topped off with a 24k gold plated raised logo on the headstock – sweet!

I SCREAM! Yes this 2015 Collection Classic T looks pretty amazing but it also plays well and sounds great to boot. A slightly wider neck with a skinny flattened D type shape (from my feel)

PRS SE 277 BARITONE Electric Factory | (03) 9474 1000 | www.elfa.com.au | RRP: Contact for pricing.

There are many reasons for wanting a baritone guitar. Lower metal riffs, deeper blues riffs, more supportive wide-ranging chords… maybe the music in your head just lives a little lower and you need a non-standard guitar to access it. A baritone has a longer neck and appropriately wider-spaced frets and a furtherback bridge to accommodate lower tunings with heavier strings.

PRS has released a few baritones over the years and this one is quite the looker.

HOW LOW CAN YOU GO? PRS states that this particular model is designed for heavier, more aggressive playing styles, but with a bit of extra versatility worked in. It has a

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mahogany body with a maple top. The neck is maple with a rosewood fingerboard and 22 frets, with classic PRS bird inlays and the Wide Fat neck profile. The scale length is

it gives you plenty to hold onto whilst remaining fast.

The rounded heel joint is great and lets you run all the way up the neck with ease, taking full advantage of the 24 fret design. Plugged in you get a clean and clear tone thanks to the Suhr SSV and SSH+ humbuckers. Sparkly and bright or more rounded and brown with the tone slightly rolled off. Add some gain and you can chug away on open chords

27.7”, compared to typical PRS 25”, and the tuners are a PRS design. The electronics consist of a pair of Tone Furnace pickups, a master volume, a master tone with a coil split (which operates on both pickups) and a three-way pickup selector.

All in all it’s a pretty simple guitar but for the fact that it’s a bit bigger than usual and the frets are further apart, which can take some getting used to.

You might also find you need to whack the strings a little harder than usual to get the same amount of bounce out of them. But these are all things you’ll adjust to.

DOWN AND DIRTY Surprisingly for a guitar with a

or cut through with licks up in the higher registers. If you want a T that can do T tones plus more you’ll be pleasantly impressed.

MR T Chicken picking, funk, blues, rock, pop, just about anything would suit the 2015 GP T. The guitar is very resonant unplugged and feels comfy weight wise. I was slightly hesitant playing it at first as it looks so damn nice (and

stated goal of sounding great for heavy material, I found the Tone Furnace pickups to sound best when running medium levels of gain; more ‘crunch’ than ‘kill.’ The bridge pickup has a warm but punchy character with tight low end and clear highs, making it great for palm-muted riffage or for ringing open chords. And the neck pickup has an almost SG-like quality to it, a little juicy, a little round, and with great note separation within dense chords. And the single coil sounds are great: clear and ringing, a little punch in the bridge pickup, a little grit in the neck pickup. Almost Stratlike, which is hard to achieve with this particular wood combination and construction method.

carries a significant price tag) but once you jump in it’ll keep you hooked. Suhr guitars are serious instruments so it’s cool to see them release these limited collections. They won’t be for everyone and a lot of people won’t have the budget to even consider them but if you’re looking for Suhr quality in an individual guitar that you won’t just see anywhere you should check out this Grafted Pistachio beauty.

BY NICK BROWN

HITS • Individual and collectable • Rare woods and finish looks stunning • Plays great

MISSES • So nice you might not want to actually gig it/take it out!

TO LOW-B OR NOT TO LOW-B If you play really, really extreme metal, you might want to consider the SE 277 Baritone and a pickup swap. If you play broader styles of metal, rock, blues or alternative and you need something that gets low, real low, this is a really killer instrument.

BY PETER HODGSON

HITS • Longer neck is pretty easy to adapt to • Great sounding pickups • Awesome single coil mode

MISSES • Pickups aren’t great for extreme metal

MIXDOWN #260 // DECEMBER 2015 // PG.63

SHOW & TELL

WE CHAT TO MUSOS ABOUT THEIR MOST TREASURED GEAR

WAFIA

What piece of equipment do you have to show us today?

The TC Helicon, Voice Live Touch 2.

How did you come across this particular item?

I was researching looping stations and the VLT2 is the one I felt most comfortable using.

What is that you like so much about it?

The easy interface, programmable vocal effects, midi control, & how easy it is to travel with.

How do you use it, and how has it shaped the way you write music?

The VLT2 is a very big part of my live set — between each song we jam out and create vocal loops that intertwine the set list together. I also write a lot on it — it’s the way I start all my songs and I use it to record the very first demo of all my songs.

TIM GUY

Any other interesting points/stories about it?

The very first time I met Wally De Backer (Gotye) at his house, he did a quick rendition of ‘Heart’s A Mess’ on it while he was hooking up the VLT2 to his sound system for me.

Tell us a little bit about what you have coming up?

Well I just released my debut EP via Future Classic titled XXIX. I’m playing a few shows in the new year that are yet to be announced as well as playing Beyond The Valley, Field Day & Southbound with Ta-Ku.

What piece of equipment do you have to show us today?

Roland Dimension D SDD-320 How did you come across this particular item?

I read about it about 5 years ago when I started to explore vocal sound possibilities a little further than the standard reverb/delay type approach.

There didn’t seem to be many around in Melbourne at the time, but always in Japan, but I found one at the shop in Carlton about 2 years ago and it cost $850, which I think is pretty standard.

What is that you like so much about it?

Well, it has 4 buttons. So, it’s either dimension 1,2,3, or 4. I take a very naïve approach to recording music, so that fact really works for me. But, the sound of the thing is incredible if a fantasy world is what you hope to create.

How do you use it, and how has it shaped the way you write music?

I take it everywhere - each time I record, and every show. Sometimes we just get the live engineer to place it over the whole band, actually that’s my preference.

I hear that it’s ultimately a Chorus effect, but I feel saying it like that just cheapens the work that Roland did to create this thing.

Any other interesting points/stories about it?

You can hear it on a lot of hit songs, it pops up in all matter of places. It’s not a ‘magic box’ but it’s a very interesting piece of equipment. I thought about selling it a few months ago, and I mentioned so to my buddy as he was picking it up from the back seat of my car, and the arm broke off it then and there.. it doesn’t want to be sold!

When’s the next show?

The next shows are in Adelaide on November 25 at Crown & Sceptre, Sydney on December 5 at the Bearded Tit and Brisbane January 17 at The Triffid.

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PG.64 // MIXDOWN #260 // DECEMBER 2015

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DIRECTORY

FOR FULL S T ORE P ROFILES , HEA D T O MIX DOWNMA G.COM.A U / FEA T U RES / BA C KS T A GE

MELBOURNE MUSIC CENTRE

EVOLUTION MUSIC

(MUSIC INSTRUMENTS RETAILER) A | P | E | W|

(MUSIC INSTRUMENTS RETAILER)

8/2 Northey Rd, Lynbrook VIC (03) 8787 8599 info@evolutionmusic.com.au evolutionmusic.com.au

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AA DUPLICATION

(PRINTING/CD & DVD DUPLICATION) A | P | E | W|

84 Nicholson St, Abbotsford VIC (03) 9416 2133 sales@aaduplication.com.au aaduplication.com.au

EASTGATE MUSIC

(MUSIC INSTRUMENTS RETAILER) A | P | E | W|

4/2181 Princes Hwy, Clayton VIC (03) 9546 0188 info@skymusic.com.au skymusic.com.au

(MUSIC INSTRUMENTS RETAILER)

1131 Burke Rd, Kew VIC (03) 9817 7000 sales@eastgatemusic.com eastgatemusic.com.au

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(MUSIC INSTRUMENTS RETAILER) A | P | E | W|

1/30 Station Rd, Indooroopilly QLD (07) 3878 4566 info@music440.com.au music440.com.au

BINARY MUSIC

SKY MUSIC

FIVE STAR MUSIC

(MUSIC INSTRUMENTS RETAILER) A | P | E | W|

525 North Rd, Ormond, VIC (03) 9578 2426 info@melbournemusiccentre.com.au melbournemusiccentre.com.au

MUSIC 440

102 Maroondah Hwy, Ringwood VIC (03) 9870 4143 websales@fivestarmusic.com.au fivestarmusic.com.au

(MUSIC INSTRUMENTS RETAILER & EDUCATION) A | P | E | W|

48 Bloomfield St, Cleveland QLD (07) 3488 2230 sales@binarydesigns.com.au binarydesigns.com.au

WILD HORSE GUITARS

(MUSIC INSTRUMENTS RETAILER) A | P | E | W|

Brumby Street Surry Hills NSW (02) 9690 0800 info@wildhorseguitars.com.au wildhorseguitars.com.au

ARCADE SCREENPRINTING

(SCREENPRINTING & DESIGN SERVICE) 15/17 Hutchinson St, St Peters NSW (02) 9550 6965 info@arcadescreenprinting.com.au arcadescreenprinting.com.au

A | P | E | W|

GLADESVILLE GUITAR FACTORY

(MUSIC INSTRUMENTS RETAILER) 280 Victoria Rd, Gladesville NSW (02) 9817 2173 mail@guitarfactory.net guitarfactory.net

A | P | E | W|

TURRAMURRA MUSIC (MUSIC INSTRUMENTS RETAILER) A | P | E | W|

1267 Pacific Hwy, Turramurra NSW (02) 9449 8487 general_sales@turramusic.com.au turramusic.com.au

JABEN AUDIO

(HEADPHONE SPECIALIST RETAILER) A | P | E | W|

Shop 2 398 Lonsdale St, Melbourne VIC (03) 9670 8231 info@jaben.com.au jaben.com.au

NOT IN THE DIRECTORY? C O N TA C T

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PG.66 // MIXDOWN #256 // AUGUST 2015

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