Mixdown Issue 271

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Made by Musicians for Musicians

#271 — NOV. 2016

PLUS

Puscifer Peep Tempel The Devil Wears Prada Ne Obliviscaris

GIVEAWAY!

MOOER REVERIE REVERB & TONERIDER OCTANE ALNICO 8 HUMBUCKER PICK-UP PG . 6 FO R DETAI L S

ROAD TESTED: MOOER REVERIE REVERB, YAMAHA FG SERIES, SUPRO 1600 SUPREME, DIGIGRID D INTERFACE, KEELEY SUPER MOD WORKSTATION, PRS CE24 SATIN NITRO, ERNIE BALL CUTLASS BASS, COLLINGS CITY LIMITS, DYNAUDIO LYD 5 MONITORS + HEAPS MORE

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The FG800 features a solid Sitka Spruce top which offers improved dynamic response and tone.

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TERMS AND CONDITIONS. All offers and discounted prices in this catalogue are part of a national sales program conducted by Yamaha Music Australia Pty Ltd and are valid only between 1st November 2016 and 31st December 2016 at participating Yamaha dealers which can be found at livingmusicyamaha.com.au. Not all products listed in this catalogue are available at all Yamaha dealers. While stocks last. The prices as set out or referred to in this catalogue 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

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VOX AC10C1 GUITAR AMP

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YAMAHA HS8 MONITORS

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purposes only. iPhone, iPod, 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. Google Play and the Google Play logo are trademarks of Google Inc. * 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. Free posters only available while stocks last.

Contents 06 08 10 12 18 20 22 23 24 26 32

33 34 35 36 38 40 56 58

Giveaways Industry News Music News Product News Cover Story: Billy Bragg Balance and Composure, Puscifer Caligula’s Horse, Ne Obliviscaris Soft Hair, Peep Tempel The Devil Wears Prada, The Cult Advice Columns The Man Behind Aston Microphones, The Analogue Project with Beatdisc Records Inside the Brand New Forbes Street Studio Talking Drums with Steve Gadd A Closer Look at: Darkglass Electronics A Closer Look at: Sandberg Basses Inside the Busy Life of Ben Weinmann Road Tests Show & Tell Directory

PUBLISHER Furst Media EDITOR Keats Mulligan mixdown@beat.com.au EDITORIAL coordinator Michael Edney mixdownstaff@beat.com.au ART DIRECTOR Michael Cusack

4

Peep Tempel - PG. 23

Caligulas Horse - PG. 22

Blowin’ Bubbles With Keats

Puscifer - PG. 20

for breaking news, new content and more giveaways visit

WWW.MIXDOWNMAG.COM.AU

EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS Elijah Hawkins, Alex Pink, Tom Bartha, Gabriella Redgrave and Veronica Stamford MANAGING DIRECTOR Patrick Carr GRAPHIC DESIGN Michael Cusack, Dane Kerr CONTRIBUTORS Rob Gee, Peter Hodgson, Christie Elizer, Nick Brown, Elijah Hawkins,

Chris Scott, David James Young, Adam Norris, Adrian Violi, Michael Cusack, Augustus Welby, Luke Shields, Northmore Pugin, Tom Bartha, Ray Deegan and Aaron Streatfeild.

ADVERTISING Patrick Carr patrick@furstmedia.com.au

MIXDOWN OFFICE Level 1, No. 3 Newton Street, Richmond VIC 3121. Phone: (03) 9428 3600

“I was 21 years when I wrote this song, I’m 22 now but I won’t be for long”.

It’s a poignant and personal opening to arguably the most famous song in Billy Bragg’s decorated career ‘New England’, and indicative of the his famously familiar writing style. For the sake of the song I think it’s worth forgetting that by the time we were afforded the opportunity to listen to it on record Billy was closer to 27. I mean, he wasn’t going to be 21 forever.

Heck, Coolio was closer to 40 when he rapped about not surviving long enough in Gangster’s Paradise to see his 24th birthday.

The beauty of moments like this is that they transport you back to a specific place and a specific frame of mind. The beauty of Billy Bragg is that he’s so great and creating these moments. For that reason I’m particularly proud of having his grace our cover this month. As he is truly one of my all-time song writing heroes.

Billy aside, we have a great issue of the magazine this month for you, running the proverbial gamut of product types from banjos all the way through to near field studio monitors. We chat to Ben Weinman about life after Dillinger, Steve Gadd about his decorated career drumming around the world just to name a few. With Christmas fast approaching, there’s no better time to start getting on top of your product releases and feverishly writing them down in a letter to father Christmas. Enjoy.

KEATS MULLIGAN - EDITOR

mixdownmag.com.au

WED NOV 23 BRISBANE EATONS HILL HOTEL FRI NOV 25 SYDNEY ENMORE THEATRE SAT NOV 26 MELBOURNE FESTIVAL HALL SUN NOV 27 ADELAIDE HQ

TUE APRIL 11 PERTH CONCERT HALL THU APRIL 13 MELBOURNE HAMER HALL SAT APRIL 15 SYDNEY STATE THEATRE ALSO APPEARING AT BLUESFEST

10 13 14 16 18

DEC DEC DEC DEC DEC

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Giveaways Last Month’s Giveaway Winners

Tonerider Octane Alnico 8 Humbucker Giveaway Tonerider has taken the Mixdown offices by storm this month. Later on in these pages, you’ll find reviewer Nick Brown heading to Kelstudios to test out a variety of pickups from the brand, including the Octane Bridge Humbucker. The all-new Octane humbucker from Tonerider delivers more aggressive, tighter lead lines and focused power chords. Made specifically for use in bridge positions, the Octane is equally suited to high-gain classic rock, metal and djent. This month, you could be taking your shred to the next level as we are giving you the chance to win this awesome humbucker!

Mooer Reverie Reverb Giveaway As you’ll soon find out later in these pages, the Mooer Reverie Reverb is something different. Soaring through a realm of its own, Mooer’s latest Twin Series has an endless and flexible range of possibilities, making it one of this years most exciting pedal giveaways yet. Sporting a skyblue exterior and unrelenting tone that is significantly improved from previous releases, It has impressed our reviewers and this month we’re giving you the chance to own one for yourself.

HOTONE XTOMP GIVEAWAY WINNER

IZOTOPE NEUTRON GIVEAWAY WINNER

Last month we were lucky enough to offer one the most exciting giveaways we’ve done in recent times - the Hotone XTOMP pedal. With Bluetooth control, LED-backlit, the Hotone XTOMP really is one-of-a-kind, with nothing else on the market even coming close. Today we are pleased to bestow all of that power unto:

For all the producers and DAW-lovers out there; last month we were giving away the brand new iZotope Neutron plugin.

The iZotope combines five new processors with new intelligent metering and analysis technology; essentially acting as a virtual assistant. We’re stoked to give away such a ridiculously awesome product to:

Naomi Ryder of Sydney, NSW Congratulations Naomi. We hope you have fun playing with this awesome pedal!

Nathan Santamaria of Melbourne, VIC Congratulations Nathan. The new iZoptope Plugin is now yours. Enjoy!

For your chance to win any of these awesome prizes, head to our giveaways page at www.mixdownmag.com.au/giveaway and follow the instructions.

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

*These giveaways are for Australian residents only and one entry per person.

AU S T R A L I A’ S N E W E S T R E C O R D I N G S T U D I O, FORBES STREET STUDIOS, IS NOW OPEN!

I N T RO D U C TO R Y O F F E R S AVA I L A B L E N O W D I R E C T TO A & R D E A L

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AU S M U S I C M O N T H I N D E P E N D E N T B A N D PAC K AG E D I S C O U N T PAC K AG E S AVA I L A B L E F O R A L L AU S T R A L I A N I N D E P E N D E N T A RT I S T S R E C O R D I N G I N N OV E M B E R .

V I S I T F O R B E S S T R E E T S T U D I O S .C O M F O R M O R E I N F O R M AT I O N

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mixdownmag.com.au

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EMBER TO INFERNO: A B INITIO

H O L

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Featuring vocalist/bassist Troy Sanders (Mastodon), guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen (Queens Of The Stoneage), drummer Tony Hajjar (At The Drive-In) and multi-instrumentalist/composer Mike Zarin.

Mixed by Ken Andrews (Beck, A Perfect Circle)

THE H A RD-TO-FIND DEBUT A LBUM RE-RELE ASED. DELU X E V ERSION INCLUDES NEW A RT WORK PLUS 13 NEV ER-BEFORE-HE A RD TR ACKS

OUT DECEMBER 2

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GIR AFFE TONGUE ORCHESTR A BROKEN LINES

“A SUPERGROUP THAT LIVES UP TO THE HYPE.” – Kerrang! 100/100

Featuring William DuVall (Alice In Chains), Ben Weinman of (Dillinger Escape Plan), Brent Hinds of (Mastodon), Pete Griffin of (Dethklok) and Thomas Pridgen of (The Mars Volta).

OUT NOW

Industry News

More Aus/NZ Acts For SXSW Six more Australian/NZ acts are invited to play South By Southwest in Austin, TX in mid-March. They are CW Stoneking, Perth’s Kucka, NZ’s Ladyhawke, Brisbane’s Thigh Master, Adelaide EDM act PINES and Sydney’s Middle Kids. This year, 750 delegates and 47 acts attended. But SXSW’s local rep Phil Tripp says there might be less Aussies in 2017, citing the US dollar rate, increasing problems getting visas and government slashing in grants funding.

Mental Pain Behind Music Industry Glamour Feelings of committing suicide among performers and people working behind the scenes in the entertainment industry is six times more than that of the Australian population. It’s nine times for roadies.

Suicide attempts are twice the rate. Severe anxiety is ten times more, depression is five times over. These alarming figures are from Working In The Australian Entertainment Industry: Final Report (at www. entertainmentassist.org.au) put together

by Victoria University in Melbourne and healthy charity Entertainment Assist. This might be a glamorous industry and the people who work in it relish that they can express their creativity, however 51% feel they don’t have support from family, friends and even the music industry. There are many reasons. 43.1% work during evenings and 41.9% on the weekends (compared to 16% of overall workers), which means little social interaction. Drug and alcohol intake is high. 44% suffer from stress and anxiety. This has a lot to do with the fact 35% earn less $20,000 a year, which is below Australia’s national minimum wage of $34,112. Of those making less than $20,000, 63% were performers, 28% were support workers and 20% of technicians and road crews. 44% don’t get enough sleep, 45.5% have disrupted sleep. Among key recommendations from the report were targeting specialist interventions, developing support services specifically for the creative industries, and a program to publicise what services were available for performers and industry workers.

Apple Ad Puts Thunderstruck Back In US Chart Apple’s use of AC/DC’s ‘Thunderstruck’ to launch its iPhone 7 in America has seen the track gained 8.5 million US streams, 39,000 downloads (up 167% from the 8

month pre-ad) and 13,000 Shazam tags, it also went to #8 on the Rock Digital Songs chart. In Australia, ‘Thunderstruck’ is used by Colonial First State to reassure people retiring from the workforce not to be anxious.

from digital providers – including download services, streaming services, video on demand, websites and user-generated services – grew 142% to $67.8 million.

This beats revenue from traditional radio at $45.3 million.

QMF Sets Up $15K Carol Lloyd Award

As an indication of a greater amount of Australians finding global success. export revenue was up 12% to $38.3 million. (Over the past three years, export revenue has increased by 75% to more than $38.3 million per annum). Public performance licensing, its core activity for much of the last 90 years, continued to provide increased revenue for songwriters, composers and publishers, reaching over $70 million. Achieving 6.8% growth from its 142,000 licensed businesses, APRA AMCOS performed well above the global benchmark of 3.8% growth.

The Queensland Music Festival has set up an annual $15,000 Carol Lloyd Award. It can be used to make an album of original songs or an EP plus touring six dates, three of which have to be in Queensland.

The award is supported by the Queensland Government, APRA AMCOS and Hutchinson Builders. The award was announced at a star-studded benefit in Brisbane for Lloyd, the original ‘70s “Australian rock chick who is in the final stage of terminal pulmonary fibrosis. Despite her health, she joined her colleagues for the finale, The Rolling Stones’ ‘Ruby Tuesday’.

Visa Costs To Lead To Higher Ticket Prices?

The Australian live sector is anxiously hoping that talks with the Federal Government will avert new visa fees for international performers being introduced on November 19. For years, entertainment visas have enjoyed a discount. But the Government wants to scrap it saying it works against smaller groups. But it’ll hit festivals like Bluesfest which has many international acts: it expects costs to go up by 600% or $55,000, while Falls and Splendour are up 200%. Major bands who travel huge entourages (Guns N’Roses travel with 80, which means the whole visa process will cost their promoter $22,000 instead of $7200) also will be hit. The fear is these rising costs will be passed on to consumers in the shape of higher ticket prices. “The last thing we need,” groans legendary promoter Michael Chugg. The live sector trade body Live Performance Australia has called for an emergency meeting with Immigration Minister Peter Dutton.

Openlive Adds New Features OpenLIVE, the Australian company which launched in August 2015 allowing acts to record their gigs at associated venues and sell them on, now offers 2.5 million tracks after helping 1000 artists record over 1,600 performances. Its CEO Dale Moore reveals it’s added new features. ‘Encore Check’ means that acts who go over their scheduled set times can monitor audio signals to record any additional content.

Automatic Track Recognition inserts track marks into the recording to reduce the time artists need to spend cutting up the audio into separate tracks. Updated sharing features allow acts to now share full shows or individual tracks at will via the OpenLIVE dashboard.

APRA AMCOS Revenue Up 11% To $333M APRA AMCOS reported a record revenue figure of $333 million after a 11% growth during the financial year 2015-2016. Of that, $294.6 million was paid to 248,994 songwriters and publishers, up 14%.

Breaking down the figures, streaming revenue had a huge 140% year-on-year leap to $22.4 million. licence fees collected

Comerford, Memsell, Launch 1825 Records Unified founder Jaddan Comerford and Matt Emsell of Wonder Management (5 Seconds Of Summer, Matt Corby) have formed 1825 Records with a view to sign Aussie acts to break globally. To this end, 1825 is distributed by Warner Music locally and Atlantic Records abroad. The first signing is Sydney multi-instrumentalist, producer, and singer-songwriter Xavier Dunn. The label’s office, in Sydney, will be run by Meg Meredith, ex-SUM Management and Positive Feedback.

Pav’s Modular Touring Owes $1.3M Stephen Pavlovic’s Modular Touring owes $1.3 million to creditors and is about to be liquidated, The Music Network has revealed.

It was behind tours by Daft Punk, LCD Soundsystem, Hot Chip and Jonathan Boulet. It went into administration in July 2013 under Sydney insolvency firm Farnsworth Shepard, which in a report expects to wind up the company in a few months. Creditors include equipment & staging suppliers ($280K), casual staffing ($180K), workers comp $116K, and over $400K in various taxes and super. The tax office is the largest single creditor at $312,000. Farnsworth Shepard said it had hoped to investigate Pavlovic’s “possible offences and other misconduct” but got no funding from authorities.

Funding Turned Off For Sounds Australia?

Despite reassuring coos from the Federal Government about continuing funding for the music export body Sounds Australia, a Senate Estimates committee meeting was told last month that no funding will continue past December 31. The music industry is up in arms. Sounds Australia’s showcase of artists at 48 trade fairs in 52 cities in 19 countries around the world like South By Southwest, The Great Escape and Music Matters saw the breakthrough of the likes of Chet Faker, Courtney Barnett and Flume, among many others. Sounds Australia has generated 1593 examples of Aussies getting deals with labels, bookers, festivals and sync firms.

THINGS WE HEAR Now that the fierce bidding between three promoters is over, how long before the long awaited Adele tour is announced?

Which manager asked a couple of media friends not to mention that one of his acts was headlining a music event which was axed due to low ticket sales, in case it “damaged their brand”?

Entries have opened for the 23 categories of the 2017 Queensland Music Awards, held on Monday March 27at Brisbane Powerhouse. Deadline is December 4. See www.queenslandmusicawards.com.au Also opened is the 2017 Billy Thorpe Scholarship. Available to any Queenslander over 18, it provides $10,000 for an emerging artist to record with an established producer, and receive career-planning advice from Chugg Entertainment Go to qmusic.com.au Hip hop act Thundamentals announced that this year’s recipient of their Got Love Initiative is the National Centre of Indigenous Excellence. All proceeds from new song ‘Ignorance Is Bliss’, written for Got Love and the sale of brand new ‘Got Love’ merchandise, will go directly to NCIE. Speaking of nice folks, after donating $20,000 to a NZ children’s charity earlier this year, Lorde committed $10,000 to a crowd-funding campaign by an Auckland family who had to leave their house for four months due to a leak, and found it difficult to stump up the $260,000 to fix it up. The family’s financial woes were worsened by the fact that one of their three children, a 10-year old, has severe autism and their father lost his job due to health issues.

The Whitlams will celebrate of the 25th anniversary of their forming with a national orchestral tour in April and May. Hits as ‘Blow Up the Pokies’, ‘No Aphrodisiac’ and ‘Thank You (For Loving Me At My Worst)’ get the classy treatment from a 50-piece orchestra under the baton of conductor Guy Noble.

The $10,000 Access Arts Achievement Award provides funding for Queensland artists, arts workers and producers with disability working in any art form to create, develop, present, produce, exhibit and/or tour their work. Now in its third year, the award will continue for a further three years made possible by a donation from Access Arts life member, singer-song-writer Peter Vance. Go to the Access Arts website. mixdownmag.com.au

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Córdoba Guitars are distributed in Australia by ZENITH MUSIC. For more information or to find your closest dealer, contact zenithdavid@westnet.com.au or zenithdylan@westnet.com.au

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LIVE.PLAY.PLAY.

Music News Band of Skulls Band of Skulls are making their highly anticipated return to Australian shores this November. To celebrate the release of their fourth album By Default, the Southampton rock trio will be playing a string of shows, which is highlighted by a headline spot at Perth’s Disconnect festival. Written in a Southampton Baptist Church, produced by Gil Norton (Pixies, Foo Fighters, Patti Smith) and recorded in Rockfield Studios, the follow up to 2014’s Himalayan resonates the sound of a group on the sharpest form of their career, more engaged and focused than they’ve ever been. This will be the first time Australian audiences will be able to experience the sheer brilliance of the album in the flesh.

For a full list of tour dates, head to mixdownmag.com.au

Birds Of Tokyo Descendents Off the back of their new album, pop punk royalty Descendents will return to Australia in February 2017. They will be bringing their four-decades of experience to Adelaide, Perth, Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney, but it is well worth noting that experience doesn’t necessarily equal maturity in this case.

Hypercaffium Spazzinate is the first album in 12 years from the Californians, and still features the reckless energy that the band has become known for. For many years they have been the benchmark for other pop punk groups, which makes sense given they pretty much invented the genre way back in 1978. Playing songs from the new album and hits like ‘I’m The One’ and ‘Everything Sucks’, the live shows will no doubt be a spectacle worth witnessing.

TOUR DATES FEBRUARY 16 – THE GOV, ADELAIDE SA FEBRUARY 17 – CAPITOL, PERTH WA FEBRUARY 20 – 170 RUSSELL, MELBOURNE VIC FEBRUARY 22 – EATONS HILL, BRISBANE QLD FEBRUARY 24 – ENMORE THEATRE, SYDNEY NSW

Julia Jacklin Talk about bursting onto the scene… Blue Mountains local Julia Jacklin made waves around the globe earlier this year, receiving praise from the likes of Radio 1, BBC 6 and NPR. Now, Jacklin is set to propel herself as a mainstay in the Australian music scene with her debut album Don’t Let The Kids Win. Recorded in New Zealand, Don’t Let The Kids Win harmoniously blends alt-country with indie-folk whilst infusing Jacklin’s rich, distinctive voice, and her playful, observational wit. The end product is simply incredible, and has seen the up-and-coming artist receive international praise. Recent months have seen Julia bow to the demand of global audiences, performing a hectic number of shows across Canada, Europe, the UK and US, both her own and in support of Marlon Williams. The months ahead will see her continue her world-beating ways, performing further headline shows and also opening for Whitney, before finally returning to Australia for her very own album tour.

For a full list of tour dates, head to mixdownmag.com.au

Birds of Tokyo have announced their first national tour in over a year, and the Perth rockers will be bringing with them a “dark, dystopic” new record. Brace is released on November 4, just under a fortnight before the band sets off for a six-date national tour. The album was unveiled at a secret gig in Sydney recently, and frontman Ian Kenny is super keen to get out and play it some more. “When we were writing and recording we kept talking about how we wanted to make a really dark and intense rock record that would begreat to play live… So we can’t wait to finally crank out these new songs as well as lots of others at some gigs.” Along for the ride will be Strangers and Introvert, with Pat Chow replacing the latter for the hometown show in Perth.

TOUR DATES NOV 17 – METRO CITY, PERTH WA NOV 18 – THEBARTON THEATRE, ADELAIDE SA NOV 25 – THE TIVOLI, BRISBANE QLD NOV 26 – THE CROXTON, MELBOURNE VIC DEC 16 – ENMORE THEATRE, SYDNEY NSW DEC 17 – WAVES, WOLLONGONG NSW

Angel Olsen DZ Deathrays The sky’s the limit for Brisbane duo DZ Deathrays, who are set to embark on their biggest headline tour to date. The tour comes off the back of the release of new single ‘Pollyanna’, their second single to be dropped this year. ‘Blood On My Leather’ gave fans the first taste of what’s to come from DZ Deathrays in the future, with the track coming two years after their last record Black Rat. However, no news has surfaced yet on a new album, but we can only hope to hear a few more new tunes live this December. This will be DZ Deathrays’ second big Aussie tour of 2016, after the lads played huge sold out shows with Violent Soho and Dune Rats earlier this year. Joining DZ Deathrays around Oz will be Ecca Vandal, who has also enjoyed a breakout year with ample airtime on triple j and a string of headline shows.

TOUR DATES DEC 9 – THE TRIFFID, BRISBANE QLD DEC 10 – YMCA HQ, LEEDERVILE WA (UNDER 18S) DEC 10 – JACK RABBIT SLIMS, PERTH WA DEC 15 – THE FACTORY, SYDNEY NSW DEC 16 – UNI BAR, ADELAIDE SA DEC 17 – THE CROXTON, MELBOURNE VIC (UNDER 18 & 18+ SHOWS) 10

American singer-songwriter Angel Olsen has announced an Australian tour to coincide with her appearances at Meredith Music Festival and Fairgrounds Festival.

Fans in Hobart, Melbourne, Sydney, Lismore, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth will be able to see the Missouri native live, along with Australia’s own Jack Ladder.

The tour is off the back of her new album MY WOMAN, which was released to great acclaim in September. The first shows in Melbourne and Sydney have both already sold out, with second shows on sale now in those cities. Jack Ladder probably won’t be overawed by the occasion, having played four sold-out shows at the Sydney Opera House and supported Florence & The Machine in 2015. He has had his fair share of critical acclaim as well, with two of his four albums being shortlisted for the Australian Music Prize.

For a full list of tour dates, head to mixdownmag.com.au

Kingswood Melbourne rockers Kingswood are set to hit the road in November, playing shows in smaller venues than they are now accustomed to. In a move directly oppositional to a successful band’s ‘normal’ career trajectory, they are going to go from supporting AC/DC in front of 80,000 people at ANZ Stadium, to playing in small bandrooms to a few hundred people. Given that their most recent album tour visited venues like Sydney’s Metro Theatre and Melbourne’s Forum Theatre, only the oldest Kingswood fans would have seen the band in such small spaces.

It’s a great chance for newer fans to get in and amongst it at their typically high-energy shows in a really intimate environment. The tour will serve as an opportunity for the band to road test some new material, which they have spent a large chunk of 2016 working on at Sound Emporium in Nashville, and will no doubt be frothing to play live.

For a full list of tour dates, head to mixdownmag.com.au

mixdownmag.com.au

tickets for all shows on sale now ! tickets.destroyalllines.com

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Get Professional Audio Quality Recordings Anywhere With iRig Pro Duo SOUND AND MUSI C | SOUND-MUSI C.COM

Orange Amplification’s Micro Dark Packs A Lot Of Gain Into A Pint-Sized Head GI BSON A M I | G I B S O N A M I .C O M

Building on the overwhelming success of Orange’s acclaimed Dark Terror and Dual Dark amps, the team has distilled thousands of customer demands into a pint-sized valve hybrid head – the Micro Dark. The Micro Dark shares the same intuitive Shape control combined with a new 12AX7-driven high gain preamp section, which yields screaming dirty tones that make a mockery of its miniature frame. Like its bigger brothers, however, the Micro Dark’s smoky black chassis and simple layout actually disguises its cunning versatility. Of course, there’s plenty of gain on tap to satisfy even the most discerning devotee of distortion, but this little beast is by no means just a one-trick metal monster! Beneath the menacing exterior you’ll find a rich and diverse palette of classy and confident tones. From squeaky clean to brash and mean – whatever your style – you’re gonna love this thing. Other features include a transparent fully buffered effects loop and a headphone output with our popular CabSim circuitry. With the optional PPC108 cabinet, the Micro is an ideal practice rig… Plug into something a little larger, though, and you might find your new secret weapon in the studio!

Have you ever had that moment when a great song idea suddenly hits you, but you aren’t able to record it on the spot? How many times have you rocked up to band practice only to completely forget your moments of genius? IK Multimedia is here to save they day. iRig Pro Duo is the smallest full-featured dual-channel interface on the market. But don’t take its size for granted. This is one seriously powerful and connectible interface. It features two channels with XLR/TRS combo audio jacks and phantom power that can accommodate everything from high-end phantom powered condenser microphones to guitars, basses, keyboards and more. Each channel has it’s own input gain control so you can dial in the perfect amount of input signal for your recording.

IK Multimedia is all about mobility and they bring just that with the iRig Pro Duo. Record great audio anywhere thanks to its comprehensive powering options — for true mobility, iRig Pro Duo can be powered with two AA batteries and does not draw any power from a connected iPhone or iPad.

Ernie Ball Music Man’s New Expression Series Pedals Arriving In Australia C M C M U S I C A U S T R A L I A | C M C M U S IC. COM. A U

Once again Ernie Ball Music Man have proved that they are ahead of the game with the unveiling of the Expression Series. The Expression Overdrive and Ambient Delay pedals provide dynamic control over your effects, giving you incredible control over your sound.

The Ernie Ball Expression Overdrive delivers everything from a hint of natural tube-amp-like overdrive and rhythm crunch to searing lead tones. It features settings for drive, boost and tone, with a foot-sweepable overdrive control, making it effortless to go from clean to roaring all-out growl and everything in between.

The Expression Series Ambient Delay provides 50 milliseconds to 1 second of delay time layered with reverb, for everything from slap-back to extended repeats. It features settings for delay time and feedback, as well as reverb size and level, with a foot-sweepable effect level control to integrate anything from subtle textures to ambient soundscapes.

The newest EBMM pedals are now arriving in Australia. For more details on your nearest dealer, head to cmcmusic.com.au.

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When it comes to hand percussion, it really is a no brainer as to which brand you will be choosing. Tycoon Percussion’s 10” and 12” rope tuned djembes are easily portable and are the most affordable fibreglass djembes on the market.

Its fibreglass shell creates a drum that has a longer lifespan, whilst also creating a lightweight instrument. Like other Tycoon Djembes, these drums feature a high quality 10” and 12” goatskin head and non-stretch rope for durable, long-lasting tuning. This carefully considered construction results in the instrument producing deep, loud bass tones, as well as high, sharp slap tones.

Way Back Home: Live from Rochester, NY By Steve Gadd Band Is Now Available DRUMTE K | DRUMTE K.COM.AU

Steve Gadd remains as one of the most influential drummers today.

The coveted session drummer has featured on many iconic songs over his years, working with artists such as Paul Simon, Steely Dan, Joe Cocker and Eric Clapton – just to name a few. His latest project, The Steve Gadd Band, sees the Gadd being joined by essentially James Taylor’s backing band, made up of Larry Goldings, Jimmy Johnson, Michael Landau and Walt Fowler. The recent release

by The Steve Gadd Band of Way Back Home: Live from Rochester, New York, affords fans the chance to own a collectable double DVD set, featuring the concert and a second DVD of exclusive interviews. The accompanying CD of 8 selected tracks celebrates the band and Steve’s 70th birthday, live. In front of an audience in Gadd’s hometown, another piece of history is made during this unforgettable live concert.

Dixon Go To The Next Level With The New Precision Coil Bass Drum Pedal DYNAMI C MUSI C | DYNAMI CMUSI C.COM.AU

It has been a long time coming, but finally we will soon be getting our hands on Dixon’s Precision Coil bass drum pedal. Back in 2015, Dixon unveiled their uniquely engineered prototype pedal to the world at NAMM. The focus was clear from Dixon; they were here to give users “the power of control.”

Precision Coil delivers just that. The design of the Precision Coil is definitely unique, and especially engineered to deliver ultimate responsiveness and ergonomic action.

Dixon believes the rocking spring mechanism on traditional drum pedals lends itself to interference and inefficiency with every foot stroke – compromising smoothness and playability. Therefore, drummers devote considerable time and energy to developing technical solutions that compensate for what is essentially a mechanical problem.

The Precision Coil is a pedal with a sophisticated and streamlined feel that responds to every move of control. Undergoing testing by SGS, the world’s leading inspection, verification, testing and Certification Company in Switzerland, it was determined that Precision Coil motion is closer to linear motion control as compared with traditional pedal.

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Product News Tycoon Add Two New “Stealth Cajons” To Their Already Massive Range DY NA MIC MUS IC | DY NA MICM USI C.COM.AU

Constructed from a variety of extraordinary woods, the 29 and 30 Series Cajons by Tycoon are not only stunning in appearance; they also feature outstanding tonal qualities. Using exquisite timbers such as North American ash, Siam oak, bubinga, zebrano, Makah burl and birch, their innovative designs represent one of the largest selections available. All individually handmade, they have wonderfully deep and warm bass tones, high sharp slap tones and adjustable snare wires.

Along with their stunning appearance and outstanding sonic quality, they set a new standard for value. Designed in partnership with Dynamic Music, the new “Stealth Cajons” will fit right in to any live setup. The 29 Series Supremo Stealth Cajon features a Black Makah burl front plate, whereas the 30 Series Supremo Stealth Cajon has an eye-catching White Tiger fibreglass front plate. The new Cajons are now available in Australia from all authorised Tycoon dealers.

Mooer Spill Their Most Original Pedal To Date

Apogee JAM 96k Now Compatible With Windows

J ADE AU ST R A L I A | M U S O C I T Y.C O M .AU

SOUND DI STRI BUTI ON | SOUNDDI STRI BUTI O N .C O M .AU

Japanese pedal designers Mooer expand their long-running micro series with the latest addition, the Liquid Phaser Pedal – a rammed digital phaser that is saturated in original liquid FX, holding unbound possibilities and versatility in a little yellow box. Being the size that it is, the Mooer Liquid Phaser uses only one control knob to assist in tweaking the phase, with its functionality dependent on what mode it is set to. Relying on depth, the pedal’s function can also adjust the Q value, feedback and Q+ feedback, which seems to be a free-flowing idea at Mooer. Offering five different effects, the new Liquid Phaser gives a trio of waveforms (round, triangular and square) to help adjust the sweep – which only scratches the surface of what can be achieved. Mooer has now unleashed a massive catalogue of mini-pedals for tone-seekers to feed off; their latest addition only adds more intrigue as the Liquid Phaser sets new standards for the pedal giants.

Apogee Electronics has just announced that its audio interface, the Jam 96k, is now compatible with Windows 10 computers.

JAM 96k is a professional 96kHz, 24-bit USB guitar input that makes it easy to connect your guitar directly to your Mac, and now Windows computer. With JAM 96k and your laptop, you can make studio-quality guitar recordings anywhere. Like many of its previous models, the pocket-sized Jam 96k for Windows and Mac has the same digital converter and instrument preamp (featuring Apogee’s PureDIGITAL technology) from older Mac and iPad version.

PureDIGITAL means no noise, just great guitar tone. JAM’s special circuitry is optimised to make the amps and effects in any guitar or music creation app sound their best. You will notice the sonic difference between JAM 96k and other similar products immediately.

Waves, the world’s leading developer of audio plugins, and DiGiCo, the world’s leading manufacturer of professional mixing consoles, have joined forces to create the most advanced audio interfaces on the market, with under 1 millisecond of latency, award-winning preamps and superior networking and processing capabilities.

DigiGridD

DigiGridQ

DigiGridM

DigiGridS

· Just 9cm cubed in high grade aluminium extrusion for rugged yet flexible use. · 4 types of high-quality monitoring inputs to suit all users. · AES/EBU on XLR for professional audio applications. · CAT5 port for the SoundGrid network connection. · RCA for the consumer Audiophile · Bluetooth for working direct with your digital music collection. · ¼” or 3.5mm jack sockets for your preferred headphone choice.

· Just 9cm cubed in high grade aluminium extrusion for rugged yet flexible use. · Songwriters, musicians and engineers tool for 96KHz recording and headphone monitoring. · 2 inputs / 2 outputs / 48V Phantom / high pass filter and dedicated metering. · Analogue control path for highest quality warm sonic performance. · CAT5 port for the SoundGrid network connection. · Optional stand mount adaptor for maximum flexibility of placement. · Stand alone or integrate into larger DiGiGrid Advanced Audio Networks.

· Compact 4 Input, 6 Output 96 KHz advanced audio interface · Features one upstream (non-PoE) port, · Use as a stand-alone device or as an interface to a larger DiGiGrid system and four downstream PoE ports, which · Analogue controls for pure sonic performance allows connection to four further · Designed for all applications: Studio, Educational, Home DiGiGrid devices. [S] is also Dante Studio and Live use. compatible. · Enhance your DAW and expand your recording capabilities · Professional quality network audio interface for PC and MAC · High resolution input and output meters

Headphone Amplifier

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The Musician’s Recording Interface

Power over Ethernet for Audio Networks

Desktop Interface

www.sound-music.com | Phone 03 9555 8083 | Enquiries: sales@sound-music.com LIKE US ON FACEBOOK: facebook.com/SoundMusicDistribution

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Product News Switch Between Four Instruments On Stage With Tonebone Bumper AMBE R TE CHNOL OGY | AMBE RTE CH.COM.AU

The newest addition to Radial’s Tonebone family, Bumper is a unity gain instrument selector that lets you connect up to four instruments. You can progressively advance through each input using a sequential footswitch, with the sequence determined by the input connections. However, if only two instruments are plugged in, the footswitch will only toggle between the ones that are connected. Each input features Radial’s award-winning Class-A buffer for absolute fidelity while enabling longer cable runs without signal degradation.

This is augmented with Drag control load correction that lets you adjust the load on each instrument for optimal signal transfer, natural tone and feel. Drag works equally well on single coil or humbucking pickups – on both electric guitar and bass. A selector switch for each input changes the Drag control to a Trim to balance louder sources such as an active bass or acoustic guitar with passive counterparts. This lets you quickly switch instruments without having to readjust levels on the stage amp. In addition to the ¼” stage amp output, the Bumper is equipped with a separately buffered tuner output. This is always on to allow on-the-fly tuning while eliminating any clocking noise or loading caused by the tuner.

Keeley Captures My Bloody Valentine Tones In One Pedal With Loomer KE E L E Y E L E C T R O N I C S | R O B E R T K EELEY. COM

Following on from Keeley Electronics’ most recent Dave Gilmour inspired Dark Side and the Jimi Hendrix inspired Monterey, Loomer channels the magical shoegaze guitar tone of My Bloody Valentine’s Kevin Shields. Loomer combines washes of innovative reverb with a fuzz that’s like a cigarette burn on your forearm to bring you tones that are reminiscent of MBV’s epic masterpiece Loveless. Kevin Shields had spent a long time perfecting his tone, often using a Yamaha SPX90 and the Alesis Midiverb II in the studio. Keeley has obviously done his research, as Loomer’s reverse mode is based around these two crucial bits of gear. This is where it gets really cool. Not only does the effect run through a delay line, it also offers a vibrato setting. The vibrato in this mode is envelope controlled. The range runs from 0 to 50ms of time shift. Tone control is loosely based on the Jazzmaster rhythm tone control with a low pass filter centred at 156.6Hz. Strum hard and it pitch bends like you are playing the trem bar on a Jazzmaster or Jaguar.

Combine the two for an unreal dual-guitar player effect!

Deering Unveil Steel String Version of Goodtime Banjo Z E NI TH MUSI C | Z E NI THMUSI C.COM.AU

The wait is over! Deering has now introduced a steel string version of their popular Goodtime 6-String Banjo. The new Goodtime 6 is a new kind of 6-string banjo designed to bring out the creativity in the player and features all of the American craftsmanship and quality that owners of Goodtime banjos have come to expect.

The new Goodtime 6 features a maple fingerboard with a 15” radius, a fast, sleek and comfortable neck profile with a 2-way adjustable truss rod. The rim of the Goodtime 6 is constructed of the same 3-ply violin grade maple that is at the heart of the entire Deering banjo line up, and it is strung with Elixir XL steel guitar strings. The Goodtime 6 will be available in two variations – an 11” Rim model (G6S) and the Jumbo 12” rim model (G6SJ). Both models will be available with or without pickups fitted and are expected to be reaching our stores this month.

JBL’s New All-In-One Linear-Array P.A System Now Available

Genelec’s SAM Compact Studio Monitors Will Adapt To Any Environment

J AN DS | J A N D S .C O M .A U

Designed to adapt, Genelec’s Smart Active Monitor (SAM) Compact range draws on a suite of technologies to make the most of all modern acoustic environments. As studio space becomes limited and listening areas more confined, recordings are starting to take place in a wide variety of locations, many with minimal acoustic treatment. The smart monitors and smart subwoofers of the Compact Series are designed to adapt and assist. Controlled by the Genelec Loudspeaker Manager (GLM) 2.0 software, SAM Compact systems use ground breaking AutoCal to create an optimised and controlled monitoring environment. After automatic calibration, monitoring set-ups ranging from simple stereo to immersive audio will perform with the consistency upon which you rely, compensating for deficiencies in the listening environment.

Compact to fit into the tightest of spaces yet Smart enough to optimise your recording environment, the 8320A is your entry point to the world of SAM. Small but mighty, the two-way, Class-D biamplified 8320A blends a deceptively powerful 4-inch woofer with Genelec’s renowned acoustic design expertise and world-leading Smart Active Monitoring technology. Ideal for facilities that need power and adaptability in a compact package, the 8330A offers colour-free reproduction and the world’s most advanced Smart monitoring solution. Housing a 5 inch woofer and 3/4 inch tweeter, the Class D bi-amplified, two-way Smart monitor is compact enough to fit into studios where space is at a premium, yet still capable of exceeding even the most demanding client expectations.

JBL’s brand new all-in-one linear-array P.A. system, EON ONE, is now available in stores across Australia. Created by the world leaders in loudspeaker and line array technology, EON ONE combines the superior sound quality of a professional system with the convenience and streamlined looks of a compact, column-style solution. Featuring Bluetooth audio and a six-channel mixer and a unique design that can be carried with one hand, EON ONE is ideal for gigging musicians and DJs, coffee houses, fitness studios, corporate environments and more.

With a maximum SPL of 118 dB, the EON ONE provides detailed, distortion-free audio.

An unobstructed 10” bass-reflex subwoofer delivers tight, accurate low-frequency response that is ideal for DJs and playing back recorded music. The high-frequency section features JBL’s patent-pending Directivity Control Geometry, which optimises the spacing and angles of the six two-inch high-frequency drivers. This creates extraordinarily even front-to-back coverage, ensuring that everyone in the listening area hears the sound accurately and consistently.

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STUDI O CONNE CTI ONS | STUDI OCONNE CTI ONS.COM.AU

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DRUMTEK AND DRUMSCENE PROUDLY PRESENTS

STEVE GADD BAND WAY BACK HOME

AUSTRALIAN TOUR

12 - 18 DECEMBER 2016 featuring: STEVE KEVIN GADD HAYS Drums

Keyboards

2 DVD

SE

OUT NT & CD OW!

JIMMY MICHAEL WALT JOHNSON LANDAU FOWLER Bass

Guitar

Flugelhorn/Trumpet

12 - THE TIVOLI 52 COSTIN ST, BRISBANE TICKETS: WWW.TICKETMASTER.COM.AU PH: 136 100 13, 14 & 15 - THE BASEMENT 7 MACQUARIE PLACE, SYDNEY FIRST IAN L TICKETS: WWW.THEBASEMENT.COM.AU A R T S U A 18 - MELBOURNE RECITAL CENTRE ELISABETH MURDOCH HALL TOUR CORNER OF SOUTHBANK BLVD & STURT ST, MELBOURNE TICKETS: WWW.MELBOURNERECITAL.COM.AU PH: (03) 9699 3333 FOR MORE DETAILS PHONE DRUMTEK: (03) 9482 5550 OR GO TO: www.drumtek.com.au

Product News

Yeti Pro Studio AMBE R TE CHNOL OGY | AMBE RTE CH.COM.A U

Get A Unique Finish On Any Tornado Guitar By Fican F I C AN G U I T AR S | F I C AN G U I T AR S . COM

Stuart Monk’s Fican Guitars is a brand that isn’t trying to copy anything else on the market. His guitars aren’t based on those 50s-derived legends we all know and love; instead, Monk plans to pave his own pathway. The Tornado is just one example, it is a solid body electric guitar designed to offer both acoustic and electric sounds, and blends with two input jacks and two tones of acoustic. It goes out of its way to tell you this by referencing certain visual aspects of an acoustic guitar, in the form of the curvy outline, the soundhole-like circular centre section and the laser-etched pickguard.

With Fican’s entire range, you can choose from a range of woods for appearance and weight. All of their wood selections have been chosen for their sonic effects, adding richness to the tone that are not available with cheap light pine bases.

And to top it all off, there are some pretty incredible finishes too.

Our pick of the bunch is Monk’s Lava finish (pictured), which is sure to make a statement on-stage. The personalisation continues here too, with all of the Tornado models available in a range of finishes – or you can choose your own unique colour scheme!

Yeti Pro Studio is an easy-to-use professional studio system for recording vocals, music and more. Featuring three custom capsules and four different polar patterns, Yeti Pro is the most versatile professional USB microphone available. Hi-resolution sample rates up to 24-bit/192kHz provide four times more detail than CD resolution. The on-board headphone jack and separate controls for headphone volume and microphone sensitivity let you adjust your sound in realtime. With PreSonus’ Studio One software you can edit your tracks on screen with ease, and even piece together multiple takes to sculpt the perfect vocal performance. And thanks to a 32-bit audio engine with superior sound quality, you can produce professional recordings with amazing speed and precision. Also included in the bundle is iZotope’s Nectar Eleements. Nectar is easy-to-use, and features 10 sophisticated vocal processors designed to add body and depth, control volume levels, fix pitch problems, reduce “ess” sounds, minimise room noise and more. Yeti Pro Studio also features custom templates handcrafted by GRAMMY award-winning audio engineers for voice, instrument, and multi-track recording applications.

Your Gear Is Now Safe When Travelling Thanks To UDG E L E CTRI C F ACTORY | E L F A.COM.AU

For years now, UDG has been an industry leaders in DJ equipment bags. Their current line-up boasts an extensive range of professional covers and bags, providing ultimate protection and comfort for the travelling producer. UDG’s close eye to detail and high standard for innovation has become a staple for the worlds top DJ’s and producers. Now acting as the benchmark within the industry, UDG has added all new premium flight cases to help minimise damaged music gear, which seems to be making news more and more these days. The UDG Ultimate Flight Cases are constructed from solid 9mm thick plywood, with the outside laminated in a black finished honeycomb/hexagonal “Stage Grip” pattern. The inner sides are protected with high-density diamond embossed EVA foam protective padding. We are about to start seeing a lot more UDG gear around Australia too, with the brand recently unveiling their exclusive partnership with distributor Electric Factory. ELFA will begin shipping UDG gear in late November, so make sure you look out for UDG’s industry standard products.

PreSonus Reveal Their Most Powerful Mixer To Date L I NK AUDI O | LI NKAUDI O.COM.A U

Ernie Ball Music Man Team Up With James Valentine On New Signature Model C M C MU S I C A U S T R A L IA | C M C M U SIC. COM. A U

At NAMM 2016 Ernie Ball Music Man unveiled The Valentine – James Valentine of Maroon 5’s signature guitar – and it won “Best in Show.” This was a HUGE win for the Ernie Ball Music Man team, and a testament to the hard work and ingenuity that went into the creation of this amazing instrument. James Valentine’s guitar work has been at the core of pop hit machine Maroon 5’s studio and live performances for over fifteen years now.

When James got involved in the design, he was looking for a guitar that he could use through the band’s entire live set – a big call when you consider the wide variety of styles you hear at a Maroon 5 gig. However, EBMM were able to achieve this with the Valentine’s pickup configuration. Featuring a slab ash body and two custom fitted Ernie Ball Music Man designed pickups (1 humbucker and 1 single coil), the Valentine is easy on the eyes. With a neatly fitted pickguard, 25.5 inch scale and pressed roasted maple neck with a 10-inch radius maple fingerboard, the Maroon 5 guitarist’s axe oozes with class.

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The StudioLive 32 digital console/recorder is by far the most powerful mixer in its class. The result of nine years of R&D, PreSonus’ third-generation StudioLive mixer is fully recallable, with 33 touch-sensitive, motorised faders and 33 recallable XMAX preamps. Despite its extensive features, the StudioLive 32 actually improves upon PreSonus’ legendary ease of use while letting you customise its workflow and operations to fit the way you work. For instance, you can control the mixer with multiple iPads and – optionally – a computer, each running UC Surface with a different view, enabling you to see and touch all of the controls you need at a given time.

Connect a StudioLive 32 mixer, and you’ll instantly hear details and an open high end you’d expect to find only in an expensive studio console. PreSonus built their reputation designing great-sounding analogue circuits, and they have put all of that experience into designing the StudioLive 32. The coveted StudioLive sound is better than ever, including all-new Fat Channel processing, re-engineered from the ground up, and vintage-style EQs and compressors. Add built-in AVB networking, on-board multitrack Capture recording to SD Card and a complete suite of software, and you have a mixing and recording powerhouse that’s equally formidable in live and studio applications.

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G-Series Multi-Effects Processors

G3n - 70 high-quality digital effects, 5 new amp & cabinet emulators, stereo/mono looper allows recording up to 80 seconds, free ZOOM Guitar Lab software allows downloading of additional effects and patches.

G3Xn -

All the same great effects and amp/cab emulators as the G3n with an added Expression Pedal that can be assigned to Volume, Tone or selected effects parameters.

G5n - 100 custom designed patches, Cubase LE8 included, USB audio interface, up to 9 effects simultaneously, 4 stomp switches and 200 patch locations.

Proudly distributed in Australia by Dynamic Music www.dynamicmusic.com.au

BILLY BRAGG

In September 2016 Billy Bragg received the Spirit Of Americana/Free Speech In Music Award at the Americana Music Awards in Nashville, Tennessee. This would be a big honour for anyone, and particularly so for a British musician. But Bragg’s suitability for the award can’t be denied. He’s perhaps best known for his contemporary protest songs, while his admiration of American folk icons Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan has never been a secret. Additionally, his 2013 LP Tooth & Nail was conspicuously indebted to Americana and country music.

However, Bragg’s Englishness has long been a significant aspect of his artistic identity. So, Americana award aside, it would’ve be hard to foresee his latest release, Shine A Light: Field Recordings From the Great American Railroad – a collection of 13 American folk and blues standards made alongside American songwriter and producer Joe Henry.

As the title implies, the album is made up of what Bragg refers to as “railroad songs”, including those written or popularised by Lead Belly, The Carter Family, Glenn Campbell, Johnny Cash and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott. It’s a covers album, which makes it even more unexpected considering Bragg’s longstanding affiliation with political activism and his punk rock approach to folk music. But he assures us that Shine A Light isn’t a harbinger of fading intent.

“I think it’s very important when you’re doing a covers record that you bring another perspective,” Bragg says. “What’s the point of making art if you’re not going to offer a new perspective on something? That’s what’s always driven my songwriting. Whether it’s a love song or a political song, it doesn’t really matter; I’m trying to impart something that I can see that I don’t think anybody else has picked up on.

“The most you can do with any art is send someone away with a different perspective. You can’t change things, but you can change people’s perspective.”

The album is a stripped back affair, featuring just two voices and two acoustic guitars. Correspondingly, Bragg and Henry haven’t vastly restructured any of the selected railroad songs, but their overarching ambitions were quite pointed.

“A lot of the songs we recorded are songs that people are vaguely familiar with – ‘Midnight Special’ and ‘Waiting For a Train’ – but it’s a long time since anyone’s brought them back into the light and said, ‘Look there’s another way of looking at this,’” Bragg says. “These aren’t some dusty things on a shelf. This railroad is still here, still functions. We’re trying to say to people, ‘This is really still there. You can still do this.’ Because the Americans don’t really think so much about riding on the trains.”

Midway through the 20th century, cars supplanted trains as the primary means of transportation in America. Owning a car is viewed as a symbol of freedom, but in Bragg’s reckoning, the advent of the car was far less significant than the introduction of the train.

“The railroad obviously played a huge part in connecting their country,” he says. “It connected the disparate parts of the United States of America in a way that was perhaps more transformational than any other technology that has come since – much more than the internet. The internet connects us, telephones connect us; but the physical connections of the railroad, coming after millennia where people could only travel as fast as a horse could gallop or a ship could sail, that transformation [was far greater].”

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“What’s the point of making art if you’re not going to offer a new perspective on something?

That’s what’s always driven my songwriting. Whether it’s a love song or a political song, it doesn’t really matter; I’m trying to impart something that I can see that I don’t think anybody else has picked up on. ”

The significance of this shift is reflected in the language that permeates railroad songs.

“In the American tradition the train is often a metaphor for something else,” says Bragg.

“When a car is in a song it’s very often the person who’s driving the car. Nobody ever writes the line, ‘I heard that lonesome car alarm going off last night.’ Or if a plane’s in a song, it tends to be just a plane. But the train is something much deeper.”

Bragg and Henry are adamant that Shine A Light isn’t a nostalgia project, and they were especially interested in emphasising the expressive nuances of railroad symbolism.

“If you think of a song like ‘In The Pines’, the train is the thing that’s broke his heart.

The only girl he ever loved is on that train and gone. If you think of ‘Love in Vain’

by Robert Johnson, the train is the thing that allows something that was fixed, your relationship, to be broken, to be mobile.

It gives your partner other options. So metaphorically it becomes the thing that’s cheated on you. I think it’s the metaphorical aspect of the train in the American railroad song that both Joe and I were really interested in exploring.”

Along with successfully re-contextualising the source material, there’s a great narrative behind the making of Shine A Light. Bragg and Henry recorded it during a three day cross-country rail journey from Chicago to Los Angeles, cutting tracks on the train platform, in station halls or inside the train carriage. It’s an admirable creative approach, the musician’s equivalent of method acting, but more importantly it’s resulted in a compelling 13-track album that plays like a united body of work.

“People only listen to tracks now and we wanted to take people on a journey with the album,” Bragg says. “The vinyl is a gatefold sleeve and it has a map in the middle of it. We wanted people to get on with us in Chicago and stay with us all the way until the end – to listen to the album in its entirety, not just listen to a track here and a track there.

“The album has lost its narrative thread over the last 10 to 20 years because of the digitisation of music. I’ve no problem with digitisation. I don’t have a problem with Spotify. I think if that’s how people want to listen to music, we have to find a way to work with that, but it has broken down the narrative power of the album. And without making a concept album, because that sounds highfalutin, we did want to try and restore some of that narrative by going on a journey, literally, and hoping that the listener will come with us.”

You might be thinking, “that’s all well and good,” but was it absolutely essential to record the thing in and around trains?

Wouldn’t it have been better to go into a studio after the expedition and get everything sounding just right? Well, not only does the record have an impressive sonic quality, highlighting the complementary dynamic between the two folkies’ voices, but the ambience provided by the recording locations enhances the impact.

“What you’re hearing on the record is the environment that we’re in. If you listen closely on headphones, never mind the extraneous noises, I think you can actually hear the space that we’re in. When we’re on the train recording ‘Lonesome Whistle’ you can hear the padded sleeper car. You can hear when we’re in El Paso that we’re in a cathedral of a railroad station. You can hear Alpine is a large room, the waiting room there.

“We had a mike each and we faced each other as we sang, but then we had another two mics at right angles to us that were picking up the environmental sounds and that was really, really important.”

BY AUGUSTUS WELBY Shine A Light: Field Recordings from the Great American Railroad is out now via Cooking Vinyl Australia.

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Music Interviews

Balance and Composure 2013 saw the release of The Things We Think We’re Missing, the acclaimed second studio album from Doylestown’s Balance and Composure. The album saw a mature development of their widely-celebrated blend of post-hardcore and twinkly second-wave emo sound. On the back of the release, the band toured extensively, with the album taking them across several continents and well into the triple digits as far asdates were concerned.

When the band finally reached the end of the cycle, they knew something had to give, and a much-needed time-out was called.

“Up until that point, we had been touring on and off for probably two to three years,” explains Bailey Van Ellis, who serves as the band’s drummer. “I think we really needed time to re-group – everyone had to catch up with their normal lives and put music on the back-burner in order to start over with a blank slate. We really wanted to clear the pallet for what was going to come next.”

Puscifer It’s 12 months since the release of Money Shot, the third album from the Maynard James Keenan-led Puscifer, and now the band have announced some Aussie tour dates for early next year.

Coming four years after its predecessor, Money Shot ties together the various characteristics displayed in the band’s earlier records. There remains a strong focus on electronics, but it sounds very much like the work of a band and features copious vocal interplay between Keenan and co-vocalist Carina Round. There is some lyrical humour, but on the whole Keenan seems more interested in offering social commentary and philosophical musings.

“Like everything we do, it’s about being in that moment and listening to various ideas that we all have and following the inspiration,” he says. “If there’s something that seems inspiring to us now, we have to recognise that as being where we are now. The same things might not have been inspiring us or tilted our ear five years ago. You just have to remain true to your intuition, and think ‘This is inspiring me in this moment, so it must be where I am today.”

Keenan is the figurehead and driving force behind Puscifer, but both Money Shot and the band’s live show are enhanced by the personalities 20

Over the course of roughly a year, the band set to work on Light We Made. It’s an album that, while incorporating several defining factors of the band’s genre-flexible sound, is also indicative of a band keen to expand its collective horizon and delve further into the possibilities of what Balance and Composure can be. This much was apparent from as early as the lead single, the darkly hypnotic ‘Postcard’, which marked a first for the band with its implementation of a drum machine. The idea for its usage, interestingly, stemmed from Van Ellis himself; who found himself fascinated with entering his usual playing style into the digital age.

“I’d been playing around with a lot of drum machines, and it just seemed to make sense,” he says. “I was listening to a lot of hip-hop, and I was really interested in the idea of making a beat that loops and builds incessantly. It threw a lot of people off – they were confused as to why the electronic drums were such a big part of the song. Some people even thought that I had quit the band – even though the beat was not only my idea, but also my programming. We wanted to explore what else we could do with our music, and what we did with ‘Postcard’ was just one element of that.”

Although Light We Made is now out in the world, at the time of this interview taking place, the album is still being spoken of in future tense. Even at this point of proceedings, however, Van Ellis is notably excited about getting to perform live again in support of the record. For one thing, he and the rest of the band are going to get to toy with expanding their on-stage arsenal in order to best replicate songs from Light We Made, as well as potentially reinvent older material.

“I’ve rigged [the drum machine] up to my kit. Now, I can play a drum beat and then loop it,” says Van Ellis.

“Normally, what I’ve been doing is setting up a loop using electronic drum pads and then adding acoustic drums over the top of that loop. I think it’s the coolest that we’ve sounded live. Along with my new set-up, we’ve also got synths and MPCs up on stage with us.

We’ve only played a couple of shows so far, but there’s a low-end and a rhythmic vibe that wasn’t there before.

Some people might be worried that it’s not as heavy as we used to be, but this new sound and this new energy is really exciting to us.”

While a lot concerning Balance and Composure has shifted from a circumstantial standpoint, it’s important to note that the personnel remains intact from the band’s inception almost a decade prior. “We’re still the same people who made [2009 EP] Only Boundaries,” says Van Ellis. “We’re the same people that wrote [2011 debut album] Separation. What is different, however, is that we’re in a different place as artists and people.

It’s pure, natural growth. We’re not trying to be anyone else – this is just who we are in our own little creative world right now.”

At the time of calling, Van Ellis is between rehearsal sessions for the band’s impending world tour in support of Light We Made, with hopes of making it back to Australia sometime in 2017. For now, however, it’s back to the difficult deciding process as to what will make the setlist from across the band’s recently expanded discography. “With every new album, you get further and further away from how you originally sounded and what you wanted to do with your music,” muses Van Ellis. “Often during these rehearsals, we’ll come across something that really throws us. It’s just wild to us to play through an old song – even one from a few years ago – and remember that’s what we sounded like. You get so engulfed in the songs that you forget what it’s like to hear them from an outside perspective. As much as some things stay the same, there’s so much around being a band that changes.”

and ideas of a number of other contributors. The most notable of these are Round and multi-instrumentalist Mat Mitchell. “[Mat Mitchell] and I work off each other very well,” says Keenan. “A lot of the stuff that comes up on the records has to do with, I have an idea or a certain rhythm in mind or a particular paint palette I’d like to pursue and he might’ve just gotten some new gear or something he’s found. So he’s playing around with his new toys and I’m playing around with whatever idea is bumping around in my head and we bring those together and see where they meet.”

From the outset, Keenan has been intent on distinguishing Puscifer from his other two bands, Tool and A Perfect Circle. The significant presence of Round’s vocals goes a long way towards achieving this.

“She’s an amazing writer and amazing vocalist to begin with, but when you look back at other things that I’ve done, most harmonies have been my voice stacked on my voice,” Keenan says. “That starts to paint a particular waveform, because my voice has spikes and valleys and when you layer them those spikes and valleys become more prominent. But when you add the second or third vocal like Carine or Juliette Commagere and you start adding those other waveforms in, they tend to smooth out so you have another chord, another harmony, another feel altogether.”

The band’s done a couple of North American tours and made their first trip to Europe in the time since the album’s release. They’ve kept an open mind regarding the shape and character of the Money Shot material.

“They definitely nod to what the records sound like, but we definitely let them evolve live,” says Keenan.

“Although, there is an electronic element that can hinder it. If we want to expand on that we’ll remove or change those elements according to our whims. Performing it live, it has to have a pulse, it has to have a living, breathing feel to it otherwise we’re just regurgitating the album.”

The Puscifer live show is designed as an immersive and

unpredictable experience that involves much more than just a run through of the recorded songs. In recent times they’ve been touring with Luchafer, a Mexican-style wrestling performance group that specialises in comedic, dramatic wrestling. They’ll be bringing Luchafer with them to Australia as well.

“Quite a bit of our music is written from the place where we live, the Southwest, so that’s our landscape for the most part. A lot of the concepts are from here. Just like wine expresses a terroir, we’re hoping to have these songs express a particular region. In these regions we have a lot of local flavour and the luchadores are part of those flavours.”

Puscifer has been Keenan’s major focus over the last ten years, taking in three albums, three EPs, two live records and a whole lot of touring. He’s often described it as more of a performance piece than a standard rock’n’roll band, and it remains an outlet for creative exploration.

“At the end of the day, if you’re successful in this, you’re considered to be an entertainer,” he says. “And so people expect you to entertain them in the way that they have grown accustomed to you entertaining them. But I think there’s some freshness that should come along with that.

That’s not easy to maintain, that happy medium of not just being a carbon copy of yourself and yet not going so far outside of what you do that it’s unrecognisable from where you started. That’s a very delicate balance to strike, so in a way Puscifer provides me with that going-too-far project, and I can always default back on my other two projects to maintain where I came from.”

BY DAVID JAMES YOUNG Light We Made is out now via UNFD.

BY AUGUSTUS WELBY Money Shot is out now via Puscifer Entertainment.

Puscifer is touring the country this month. For tour dates, head to destroyalllines.com

mixdownmag.com.au

Music Interviews

Caligula’s Horse With a new drummer, a headline tour around the corner and European shows on the horizon, Caligula’s Horse are primed to close out 2016 in fine style. Reinvigorated by the arrival of Josh Griffin behind the tubs, the band finds themselves at an exciting juncture in their career. Lead singer and founding member, Jim Grey, has found himself falling in love with older songs again and, with a new energy surrounding the group, he’s looking forward to heading out on tour in November.

“It’s going to be a good time, we’re definitely bringing some new material with us and playing some stuff we’ve been working on, just to throw it out there and see how people like it,” says Jim. “Basically, it’s going to be good times.” After an amicable split with former drummer Geoff Irish, the band had to find themselves someone new and Griffin was the perfect fit. “Josh has been our friend for a little while, but he was also a fan of the band. He’s getting these great moments coming into Caligula’s Horse with where we are now. All of a sudden we’re going to be touring with Opeth, we’re going to be heading to Europe, we’ve got a headline tour coming up… it’s going to be a big change for him.

Ne Obliviscaris It’s been two years since Melbourne six-piece Ne Obliviscaris released their second LP, Citadel. While listeners may be growing impatient waiting for album three, the progressiveextreme metal act have spent the ensuing period spreading their message across the globe. They’re currently wrapping up a seven-week European tour before a run of Australian headline shows in late November.

“The [European] tour started off with a performance at Euroblast in Germany and we had a couple of quick shows with Enslaved in Switzerland and Germany,” says violinist/vocalist Tim Charles. “Then we had a two week headline tour through the UK and went up to Scandinavia and did headline shows in Denmark and Finland before joining back up with Enslaved to do a month long tour with them.”

Building a solid European fanbase was high priority when planning the release of Citadel, and Charles speaks with accomplished determination about the results.

“This is our fourth time coming to Europe in the last 18 months,” he says. “The first two were festival tours mid-2015, then at the end of last year we did an extensive club tour with Cradle of Filth. This once 22

“Geoff was always a rock drummer and a very feelbased drummer [and] he had great chops as well.

With Josh comes something else, the way I’ve been describing him is as a 'concept musician'. He’s a guy who really feels every part, he understands his position in the music and how it reflects even vocals and things like that. His mastery of dynamic is very strong – he’s metronomically perfect, as well as being full of feel.

He’s a really exciting drummer to work with, and he’s a really exciting drummer to watch as well.

“Obviously Josh is bringing his flavour to the older material, but also to the new material that we’ve been writing, so it’s a very exciting sound. I think people are going to have a good time [at the shows]. I’ve been reinvigorated in terms of my love for those old songs.”

Since forming in 2011, the band has taken on a heavy touring workload, which has seen them play around Australia and all over Europe. For Grey, there’s something special about a hometown show. “I’ve got a real soft spot for playing in Brisbane just because it feels like home,” he says. “We’ve had bigger shows in other cities than Brisbane, but at the same time, there’s just something about it. There’s nothing like getting up on stages, at the venues that you’ve wanted to play since you were twelve.”

Although there’s no place like home, playing shows in Europe was a completely different experience for Grey and the band, with big cultural differences between cities meaning that the live show had to be adapted for each audience.

“I’ve found, on the whole, that at the shows that we’ve played in Scandinavia people are quite pensive in their responses physically. Here in Australia, everyone goes hard. It’s beers and moshing and celebrations and good times, and then in Scandinavia it was a little more reserved in their response. But then if you head to Hungary and play Budapest everyone’s going crazy. In the Netherlands we had a really great physical response and in Paris of course, everyone was moshing and crowd surfing the entire show.

“It certainly informs how you’re going to approach the

show. If I’ve got a crowd of people that are enjoying it and cheering their guts out, having a great time at the end of songs [but] while the songs are on they’re really concentrating on what we’re doing, we’re going to give them a far more physically reserved performance.

They’re not going to be into me jumping out and trying to smash them and landing on their head… whereas if they’re going nuts and having beers and stuff then I’m going to get amongst it. You just play the crowd you’re playing to really.

“It’s very different depending on where you go, and as Australians I think we forget how startlingly different communities and cultures and people can be, despite being relatively close to each other geographically.”

As far as new music, Grey was tight lipped when asked about the next album, but did give some positive signs that it can’t be too far off in the future. “I’m not ready to drop an album release date yet, but I will say that we’ve got a few songs under our belt that we’re very, very happy with. We have a lot of ideas that are happening, a lot of concepts that are in more of an embryonic kind of stage that are just being fleshed out, but we are progressing quite quickly.”

The Hands Shape Stone tour kicks off in November, and with renewed vigour and a new drummer, the shows will be very different to previous Caligula’s Horse tours. “All of a sudden, songs that we’ve played literally hundreds of times on tour are fresh again, it’s like hearing them for the first time… [Josh’s] excitement has fuelled our excitement, and we’re all feeling kind of fresh-faced again about all the tunes.”

again is another very extensive tour with a mixture of a couple of festivals and a couple of weeks of headline shows and a month supporting a fantastic band in Enslaved.

“Everything’s going really well and we’re really excited.

Then hopefully next year we can come back with album number three and do the whole thing again, but as the headliner.”

Europe’s not the only territory they’ve targeted – while their following in Australia continues to blossom, the band’s also made it to North America and through parts of Asia.

“The idea was to try and branch out everywhere and anywhere that we could,” Charles says. “We had become a very established band in Australia, but we had only ever toured once internationally and that was a short Asian tour in 2013. So with the second album under our belts and with a bigger record label [Season of Mist] handling Citadel, it gave us an opportunity to start looking to North America, Europe, India and Asia. And we’ve thankfully had opportunities now to tour to all of those places multiple times.”

A 24-month touring cycle is a demanding workload, exceeding Charles’ expectations at the tour’s outset. The band’s primary intentions, however, were always clear.

“The main thing we did know was that we really had to get to Europe and we really had to get to North America because we needed to give people an opportunity to see us play live,” Charles says. “We view ourselves, above all else, as a live act. We love making records, but the most fun thing about being in the band is doing the shows. So that’s something that we really wanted to give our fans across the world an opportunity to see.”

The music of Ne Obliviscaris is hugely elaborate. The six interconnected compositions on Citadel are highly dependent on dynamic contrasts – sections of hushed respite or ornate tranquillity leading into sections of intimidating aggression. It’s essential to illustrate this dynamic range in the live show, and the band confidently achieves this without having to employ surrogate technology.

“We don’t really have any backing tracks. The only stuff we do, there’s a couple of string sections in ‘Painters of the Tempest Pt. 2’, a bunch of violins and cellos, we have them on a backing track and I think there’s one third guitar part in ‘Pyrrhic’ that we have. But aside from that, everything’s just played live by us. It’s something that has never really been an issue because it’s always been a big priority within the band to make sure that everyone practises their parts as much as possible.”

Integral to the Ne Obliviscaris live experience is sound engineer and producer, Troy McCosker, the band’s unofficial seventh member. “He works with us as a producer on the albums then comes out on the road with us, which means he’s able to give the audience a mix that is extremely similar to the album. That’s something that’s really important because our music is complicated. If you don’t have a good front-of-house mix then it’s going to make it less enjoyable for the fans.

The band are also very particular about what gear they use in order to get the live show sounding just right.

The equipment utilised on this tour has ensured that the sounds heard on record can be replicated.

“Both of our guitarists are now touring with Fractal AX8s.

They don’t use traditional guitar amps and heads. They just tour with these Fractal AX8s and have all their sounds dialled into that, which means that no matter where we go we can have the same guitar tone coming out of the PA. The same with Brendan [Brown] our bassist, he has a DI so he doesn’t use an amp. I’ve just got a DI for my violin and a few pedals. Basically we have a completely self-contained set-up.”

BY ELIJAH HAWKINS Bloom is out now via Century Media. Caligula’s Horse will be touring throughout Australia from November 4 until December 3. For more information visit wildthingspresents.com.

BY AUGUSTUS WELBY Citadel is out now via Season of Mist. Ne Obliviscaris will be touring national from November 25 until December 4. For more information visit wildthingpresents.com mixdownmag.com.au

Music Interviews

Soft Hair There aren’t many acts out there that quite measure up to the long and winding genesis that is Soft Hair. They have never released anything prior to this eponymous debut, have never performed so much as a single song live, and likely won’t for some time to come. Furthermore, the album itself has spent a good while gathering dust. Yet, this fusion of Connan Mockasin of LA Priest and Sam Eastgate of Late of the Pier has got a whole lot of people excited. Listening to the album, it’s no surprise. It’s a startling (though crucially, not inaccessible) psychedelic-pop carousel that first found fledgling life back in the Noughties. Mockasin looks back on what he can recall of Soft Hair’s evolution.

“I think the record label sent out a fictional press thing, or at least they got it wrong,” he clarifies after I ask about the five years the album has sat untouched. “We didn’t work on it for five years, but

The Peep Tempel The Peep Tempel’s music could be placed in any number of categories. Is it punk or hard rock? Garage rock or post punk?

Elements of these genres show up throughout their new record Joy, while the album centrepiece ‘Constable’ is essentially an epic folk ballad. But in the end, conversations about genre are never that constructive. Something that’s definitely true, however, is that The Peep Tempel are a very lyrical band.

They’re lyrical in the sense of including figurative imagery that involves the senses, and in that their songs revolve around the personalities contained within frontman Blake Scott’s lyrics.

“That’s always been a really big thing,” says Scott. “When we’re writing a record, it takes as much time to get to that point and get in the zone to write lyrics [as it does to write the music]. Some of them, topically, come a little quicker than others. Take ‘Carol’ from the last record for instance, that wrote very quickly. It was more a stream of consciousness.

“I really enjoy trying to bring somebody or something to life, a story to life, in a short period of time. We have the music, which basically sets a mood, and then we create the character from the music.”

While there are certain similarities, writing song lyrics is quite different to writing poetry. Because they’re designed for singing, lyrics need to have a certain level of immediacy. But that doesn’t mean they can’t be artfully constructed and equipped with many layers of meaning. Scott’s mixdownmag.com.au

it has been sitting there for around seven years. We worked at it off and on for a couple of years. We were never really thinking of making a record at first, it was more of a soundtrack to a film idea we had.

“We had this record and signed it a long time ago with Domino, and it sat there. Sam and I hadn’t talked for about five years. Friends had been saying we should release it. and we finally got around to putting in the effort to.”

Seven years – it’s an astonishing number to wrap your head around as a practising musician; to have a completed testament to a creative time and place in your life, which has never had the chance to draw breath outside the studio. With that said, the geographic scale of the record is impressive on its own.

From St. Anne’s and Nottingham, to above a mechanic in New Zealand, to a studio in Paris, to a cellar in Loughborough and various hotels throughout Europe, the odd snatches of space that are cobbled into Soft Hair is quite a thing. With so much stimulus at the time of recording, it makes you wonder if Mockasin and Eastgate were tempted to delve back into the mix and start updating.

“No, actually. I was happy with how they were,” he says. “I think both of us felt like we didn’t need to really touch anything. In fact, if it’s left long enough sometimes you forget that it’s you. It doesn’t feel like it’s you that’s there, so that’s nice. I just want it to be out there for people to enjoy, that’s all. I don’t have any worry or embarrassment. Having another person, there’s always someone else you can blame. So if somebody doesn’t like it, well, I can just say that was Sam’s bit [laughs].”

Having started their association in ‘frenemy’ fashion, Eastgate and Mockasin found an unexpected resonance in each other’s musical sensibilities. The proof of this is in the album itself – particularly on a track like ‘Alive Without Medicine’, which is possibly the record’s stand out – but also in the way the pair were able to balance their interests. When I ask Mockasin exactly what were the strengths, he believes they pulled from each other,

he is momentarily silent, thinking hard on where that magic came from.

“There’s something with Sam...” He pauses. “I feel like we’re on the same wavelength,” he muses. “We get excited by the same things. We’ll get moved by the same sound or an idea. I know that sounds really vague, but I feel comfortable to come up with an idea and get him to take it somewhere. I don’t love song writing as such. I love coming up with ideas, and I love writing music, but coming up with a song, to me, sometimes feels like it’s just work. With Sam, if I feel tuned out or not sure, and the other one hears something that you don’t, it can lead to somewhere really good. We do work together really well, but now we also haven’t seen each other for a really long time, which is a shame. I think the Soft Hair record and working together influenced both of my last records.

It’s a mix between Sam at the time and me at the time, seven or eight years ago.”

Although there are now many years between their collaboration, it is sheer circumstance that has kept them from picking up the Soft Hair mantle once again.

A future release is not entirely impossible … but as Mockasin reminds us, let’s do one thing at a time.

“There was a lot left over [from the album]. If we tried again, we’d want to start with something fresh, something different to our separate thing. We’ve been asked a lot if we’re going to do it live. And I’m not sure. I think we’re just going to wait and see. The record’s not even out yet,” he chuckles. “We should probably wait to see if anyone even likes it.”

lyrics typically go through a thorough refining process.

“With this band, throughout everything, we’ve always edited pretty hard,” he says. “A lot of the time I might lose lines that I like because they’re just not sending the song in the right direction. It does take quite a lot of refining.”

It’s not just the words that communicate meaning; it’s the way they’re sung. Scott affects a range of different voices across Joy. And whether he’s sounding gruff and cantankerous on album opener ‘Kalgoorlie’, aggressively exaggerated on lead single ‘Rayguns’ or adopting a conversational tone on ‘Constable’, his voice greatly contributes to the illustration of the characters within the songs.

“It comes back to that performance of the song,” he says. “There was a stage where we were singing a version of ‘Constable’ and then we stripped it right back to the speaking. But it really does come down to, when I go in to do the vocals I really settle into it and it’s just what comes out and what fits.

“Sometimes what comes out doesn’t fit,” he adds.

“Whatever it is you’re trying to bring to life, you’ve just got to settle into that then the voice comes. I’m not standing in there and trying five or six different voices. It’s much more bringing the song to life with a certain performance.”

Joining Scott in The Peep Tempel is bassist Stewart Rayner and drummer Steven Carter. Joy depicts a band that understands its strengths and knows how to work together to optimally represent their songs. This can mean making a forceful impact when needed, an appropriately physical sound to complement the vocals, or sitting back and steadily building tension.

There are obvious restrictions that come with being a three-piece, but it’s the way The Peep Tempel work with these restrictions that distinguishes their sound. There are extra layers of piano added to ‘We You Forgot’ and sound effects included on ‘Constable’, but nothing too excessive.

In a couple of songs, however, the band just couldn’t help themselves. “‘Neuroplasticity’ and ‘Alexander’ are two songs we really loaded up in,” Scott says. “Just lots of percussive stuff and

keys in ‘Neuroplasticity’, then ‘Alexander’ it was a lot of distorted voices in the background. There’s a lot of highpitched singing. A lot of it was just getting these noises and then we messed around with them a bit and reversed them and played around with effects. That’s about as elaborate as we have ever got.”

Joy was recorded at Sing Sing Studios with engineer Anna Laverty. Scott’s vocals obviously require some precision, and the songs’ dynamic arrangements are dependent on demanding technical delivery and the conjuring of highoctane energy. There was a level of perfectionism that surfaced during the recording process.

“I had one day where I just completely lost it. It’s a certain form of trauma, your anxiety gets so high and you start to freak out. I was listening to this song and I started hearing all these things that weren’t there and things that were wrong with the performance. I knocked off for the day and when I came back the next day none of what was going through my head was there.

“This is the longest we’ve ever been in the studio. There were some distractions. I did a RocKwiz episode at the time and I was really anxious about that getting in the way and wanting to focus on the record, but in the end it was really good for everyone. It gave everyone a chance to get out of it. It starts to get really thick and heavy.

“Every album we’ve ever done there’s a point throughout the process where I’ve thought, ‘We’ve fucked it. This isn’t going to work.’ Then somehow you get to the end and you’re happy with it. Then you go away and you do exactly the same thing in mixing [laughs].”

BY ADAM NORRIS Soft Hair is out now via Domino Records.

BY AUGUSTUS WELBY Joy is out now via Redeye Worldwide. The Peep Tempel will be touring around Australia this month on the Joy album tour. For more details and tour dates, head to wingsing.co.

23

Music Interviews “I had written lyrics that I used in songs, but those feelings weren’t ever acknowledged or confronted until later. In my subconscious I thought to write it, because I was somewhat conscious of it. I think all of those things are the source of ideas behind Transit Blues. A lot of it came from the increasing anxiety that I experience in my life,” Hranica explains of his inspiration. “It can be highly objective, however it was all born from my personal experience.”

The Devil Wears Prada Coming off the back end of extensive support tours with Slayer and Slipknot last year, The Devil Wears Prada have witnessed both ends of the spectrum, alternating performances between small capacity venues to playing for large crowds. Unveiling a somewhat new direction for the metalcore group, The Devil Wears Prada have just released their sixth album, Transit Blues, a personal yet observational body of work. With a new spotlight on the band, frontman Mike Hranica discussed his experiences writing Transit Blues and the origin of the album’s theme.

“I had the name Transit Blues sometime before we started creating the album,” Hranica remembers. “I think Charles Bukowski said, ‘As soon as you have the first line of the novel, the rest writes itself.’”

Hranica speaks of being inspired by Nick Cave’s film One More Time With Feeling, where Nick Cave describes how his subconscious mind will know when there is something to a song or an idea before he is consciously aware if it. “I thought that was one of the most profound things I’ve ever heard in years, because it’s so true.

In order to foster an atmosphere of creativity, The Devil Wears Prada switched up the writing process by venturing to Michigan and Wisconsin to write Transit Blues, bunking together in a small house. To help achieve the group’s new vision, they enlisted producer Dan Korneff.

“Knowing his punctual nature, we definitely wanted to be in there with him. And then when we were actually in there with him and getting to know his personality and characteristics, it only got better with his brilliant sense of humour and the fact that he’s really got the same persona as we do, it’s very much enjoyable,” Hranica says of Korneff. “It’s a lot of good laughs, and it’s also about finishing the job.

“The most productive sort of result from working together in such a close atmosphere was the fact that we were writing on the premises. What made things different was going from living in a hotel with one other person. It’s sort of counter-intuitive, so what we wanted to do was find places to write. We had our house and we had our space to write on the premises, without a drive or without a commute, to basically write at any time of the day or anytime of the night.

That’s what we were able to do in Wisconsin and Michigan and I can’t imagine writing in a different sort of environment, it was very fruitful for us.”

The Cult are innovators. Their music has always carried a certain darkness to it, a melancholy sensibility that endears them to fans of gothic alternative rock and LA hard rock fans in equal measure. Guitarist Billy Duffy is a driving force of that sensibility, offsetting his crunchy rock rhythms with dark, atmospheric melodies and screaming solos. On the eve of The Cult’s Australian headline tour in support of latest album Hidden City, we caught up with Duffy to talk guitar.

24

“That almost feels like something other people would be able to answer better than me,” Hranica laughs.

“It’s much bigger than myself and much bigger than the members, it’s what we create together. It feels a bit like a whirlwind presently. I find it can sometimes be proven worthless to consider too many of these components for making an album and its reception. It’s always good to be intentional but at the same time to predict the result feels somewhat reckless and not of value.

“The Space EP was the first time that Kyle (who recently joined in 2015) recorded and worked with The Devil Wears Prada as far as being the lead guitarist.

Now he had a huge part of actually writing riffs on Transit Blues. Dan Korneff mixed Sound of the City, but this time being with him, there was most certainly a connection. He’s a perfect fit as a producer, mixer and engineer for our band and I think there’s very much a connection to the The Space EP.”

BY TOM BARTHA

Transit Blues is out now via Rise Records.

Transit Blues is the sixth studio album by the band and sees them embracing unfamiliar territory, compared to

There are so many great guitar sounds on the record.

What did you use?

It’s a Bob Rock record – so it’s the kitchen sink, man!

You name it; we used it. Dumbles, Friedmans, amps that are like the Sears and Roebuck things. I’ll tell you a funny story. We did a week just doing guitars on Maui where Bob lives, right? So I went over there around my birthday time last year and I did it as a combination of birthday [celebrations] and some work. Bob shows up in this pickup truck that’s gotta be worth about six hundred dollars, and the gear on the back of it was worth about a million bucks, strapped to the back of the pickup truck! He had a lot of stuff.

The Cult

previous releases such as Space EP and 2013’s 8:18.

Hranica explained his thoughts surrounding the band’s new direction and how The Devil Wears Prada’s previous releases are connected to Transit Blues in terms of style.

So you don’t have a standard studio rig?

I’m not picky; usually when I’m in the studio with Bob, we’ve done so many records together that I’m not precious about using my Les Paul or my Gretsch or whatever. I really don’t care. I’m really picky about it sounding like I want it to sound. And Bob has great pedals too. The Klons and everything. And he got me onto using the SoloDallas thing, y’know the recreation of the preamp in Angus Young’s old wireless system? I can’t explain it, but it just makes things sound better.

It’s not like an effect, it just makes everything sound better! So I’ve been using that live lately. And I’ve got a couple of remade Klons because I’m not buying an original Klon and taking it out on the road. But I can’t even honestly remember what we used on the record. Just anything and everything that was lying around from all the guitar food groups. Even – and check this out, this is a funny one – the beginning riff at the beginning of the album, one of the guitars is Bob playing a red Fender Jaguar, which as you know are horrible guitars – but this one isn’t horrible, it’s really nice! He just bought it in LA from some store and he snuck it out from under the nose of my very good friend from the old days Johnny Marr – who has his own signature Jaguar by the way.

So Bob bought this Jaguar that doesn’t suck. He walked

in with that guitar, plugged it in, started messing around [with the original] riff, sped it up, and it went from there. The guitar inspired him. So that’s how that song came together: on the back of Bob’s shopping spree!

How much gear will you bring to Australia?

Very little because I can’t, otherwise it’ll be the best vacation I ever paid for. So I’ll just be bringing a couple of guitars and pedals and using rented backline.

It’s kind of become the nature of touring that you can’t always bring your backline, so I’ve tried to make it so I can get my tone out of a Marshall JC800, a Vox AC30 and a Roland JC120. And the rest of it is just kind of the way I push them with different overdrives and the way I dial them in with my own thing, really. I’ve always tried to keep it simple. It’s just not financially viable to take the gear down there, really.

The new record is so strong. Are you playing a lot of material off this live?

Yeah, a bit. Y’know, we play about 18 songs per show, and we play about four off the new album. Four of five, maybe. Four’s good, in context. There’s quite a dramatic bit in the middle where we play a couple of new songs.

We’ve been playing four or five over the last year and that seems to be the best combination for our own gigs as a whole, y’know what I mean? When we do play festivals, or for example when we played with Guns N’ Roses this year, we’ll play one new song because it’s not your fanbase.

BY PETER HODGSON Hidden City is out now via Cooking Vinyl Australia. The Cult are touring around the country this month. For more details, head to livenation. com.au. mixdownmag.com.au

Advice Columns GUITAR

A Little More Blues…

Let’s pick up where we left off last time and look at a little more blues. Sticking with our 12 Bar Blues in the key of E, Figure A shows the basic progression (the same as last month). As mentioned previously this is a simple example, feel free to alter the rhythms and add some different voicings or substitutions. Often all three chords are played as Dominant 7ths and one quick trick can be half stepping or chromatically approaching the upcoming chord change from a semitone away on beat 4 of the bar before.

Figure B demonstrates this type of thinking. When E7 is going to A7 on a beat 1 we use Bb7 (a semitone above A7) to give us some movement. Figure B is a very literal example, it’s probably more musical to just use a few of these (not on every chord change) so use your ear to decide.

Building on our lead line example from last issue, Figure C uses the 12 Bar Blues progression in E as our chordal structure. Mainly quavers, the opening two bar phrase uses a common dominant 7th sounding two note grouping and some notes from the E Minor Pentatonic scale. This motif is repeated with a slight variation in bars 3 and 4.

Figure D incorporates a triplet on beat 3 with a typical Minor 3, Major 3, 5th, dominant 7th lick that moves up the neck for the next bar. Starting on the Major 3rd of the E chord, the next two bars sees a descending lick that features chromatic notes and chord tones. It’s worth trying to pull off the E natural to Eb and D triplet on beat 4 (so just pick the first note) for a smooth, rolling type of sound.

Moving to the last four bars of our progression, we get some chord tones to outline the 1st, 3rd and 5th of our B7 chord (B, D# and F#) in Figure E. Followed by a similar lick over the A chord, we also add two G natural quavers to make an A dominant 7 sound (A, C#, E and G). Another typical blues guitar sounding lick in the next bar, with an E drone note played with a descending D, C# and C natural underneath. This descending line creates movement towards the B note (the tonic of the B7 chord) on the first beat of the final bar in our 12 Bar Blues progression. Improvising is an important skill for guitarists and can be really fun. The Blues is a great starting point and leads into a lot of other styles too. A lot of early learning for improvising is copying licks and solos and then trying to bend, twist and mould them into your own phrases and ideas. Have fun, see you next month!

BY NICK BROWN

BASS GUITAR

Open Strings Guitar and bass definitely have some limitations in terms of the way our notes our laid out. However, these also offer some pretty cool options in terms of using open strings and being able to jump around the range of our axe at times much easier than other instruments. A lot of you will already do it without thinking about it, but for some it can be an interesting idea to really make use of. Thinking of E, A, D and G as root notes for lines is a good starting point.

Figure A is a groove based around the low E string. All notes can be played with the right hand (fingers or pick!) but you can also try hammering D to E on beat 2 and B to C# on beat 3 of the first bar. In the second bar the semi quaver run on beat 3 can also get some hammer on treatment.

To extend that idea a little further, Figure B again works around the low E string but adds some more pull offs with a descending line of E, Eb and D broken up by the open G note. Beat 4 of the first bar is also a different use of two notes typically side by side on the fretboard (A and G) but that can also be played by utilising the open G note. Bar 2 copies a similar descending line that then leads to an Eb7 to E7 chord sound finished with another open Low E note.

Figure C is a moodier rock sort of vibe. Based around B minor, the first bar has the root note and then F# and G quavers played on separate strings. Experiment with getting both notes to ring (rather than chopping them off) and you get a wash of sound that’s almost a bit clashy but sounds great with the feeling of the root note (B) in your head. Bar 2 is a Gmaj7 type sound that uses open A, D and G. Again try getting the last two notes (F# and G) to ring out for some added tension. You can also try hammering on A to B and D to E for a smooth legato sound. Bar 3 is the same as Bar 1 and then we’ve got a D Major to E Minor sounding progression. The last two quavers of the riff walk up from A to A#, which creates some tension that then sounds like it wants to resolve to B (so repeat the riff a few times and get the feeling of that sound!).

Taking some cues from ‘80s rock Figure D is based around G Major and mixes crotchets, quavers and some open string goodness to mix things up. Bar 1 works over a G Major chord and utilises open D and G notes whilst Bar 2 has an E Minor sound. Nothing wrong with just pedalling low E, but this injects some extra melodicism with the F# and G and then the walk up from A and B to the C on Beat 1 of Bar 3. With a C Major sound it then leads to 26

Bar 4 with a cool open D string pedal tone that is the basis of the ascending melody on the open G (C, D, E and F#). Possibly a bit corny for some, but hopefully at least opens up some options rather than just

playing root notes and fretted notes the whole time! More next month.

BY NICK BROWN

mixdownmag.com.au

Advice Columns KEYS

Halloween Has Been For all the goths out there who celebrate a different version of Christmas, for the ex-pat Americans who love eating candy and for those of you who are fans of bad ‘80s horror films, Halloween can be a fun time of year. For the rest of you, it just means a bunch of snotty nosed kids knocking on your door while the sun is still up, looking for a handout. But, for the horror genre enthusiasts, of which there are plenty about, the name John Carpenter needs no introduction. With films like the Halloween series, Assault on Precinct 13, Big Trouble in Little China and Escape From New York, Carpenter not only defined a cinematic genre, but also sculpted a soundtrack for that genre quite unlike anything else before it.

The main element that stands out in all of John Carpenter’s compositions it the relative simplicity that works so well. Even though he uses many various layers to build his sound, each one is quite simple, but at the same time, quite unique, creating a mysterious layering effect that sets the mood for his films. Without a doubt, the main title theme to Halloween would have to be his most well-known work, yet it is also one of his simplest.

This is the same with other horror and suspense classics. Think about Jaws, essentially just four notes on a piano was all that was needed there to scare the living heck out of every beach goer for generations. As with Jaws and Halloween, the main driving force behind this is the instantly recognisable piano line that continues to repeat itself through the whole piece. Carpenter gives this momentum by the piercing synthesized hi hat sound that runs from beginning to end. Variation is supplied with the use of three different synth pads with various LFO settings to give additional depth. The strings sounds are typical of those used so often by Carpenter, and a real sign of the times. With a high rate LFO to give them an eerie shimmer, the strings swell up to a crescendo fortifying the suspense he tries to create with his music.

The theme music for The Fog brings in a monstrous sounding church organ to the beginning of the track. This is then replaced by a piano that is echoed by a number of synthesized piano sounds as well. Many of these reminiscent of the DX style sounds created by Yamaha.

But it must be noted that Carpenter composed and produced this soundtrack several years before Yamaha even released any of their DX range of synths, so he really was a pioneer at the time and still is today. It is quite unnerving how much anticipation, fear and terror he is able to achieve with just a piano sound. With the addition of a simple synth pad and some albeit terrible sounding strings, he is able to create a thick atmosphere to compliment the mood of the film. It just goes to show that you do not necessarily need to latest and greatest synthesizer or keyboard to get results. In fact, all of his soundtracks could easily be replicated with a typical Yamaha beginner’s keyboard like a PSRE-345. You don’t need to spend big money to make horror, as the production of many films has proven.

The main title theme to Assault on Precinct 13, several years prior to The Fog, has Carpenter digging around with synthesized bass lines that are quite simple, but offset by the screaming synth strings and analogue drum machine programming.

Even though it is based on a few repeating bars, the main theme was somewhat of a breakthrough for its time when most film scores were relying on funk oriented score with big brass sounds, guitars and full orchestration. Carpenter broke from the mould by using synthesizers to create his sound. The recent resurgence of analogue synthesizers and drum modules in the market makes it possible to recreate these sounds authentically and with not much of a budget either.

The soundtrack to Assault on Precinct 13, although one of Carpenter’s first, has been acclaimed as one of his greatest. He is able to, with the use of synthesizers; evoke all number of emotions within the audience, capturing the fear and desperation of the characters within the film. It is considered

an avant-garde piece, reinventing the rules of classic film scoring as well as the use of so-called “electronic” sounds. The first bars of the main title theme have been an influence on many of the hip-hop and techno sound of the ‘90s and can still be heard in instrumentation today.

Jump forward twenty or thirty years from when these films were first created and you can see Hollywood, perhaps starved for new ideas, rehashing many of these classic films in modern interpretations. It seems that no horror film, or soundtrack, is going to remain sacred and all are up for re-release with CGI and more bloodletting. But, if you want to create some real terror at Halloween, go back to the simple elements.

Use a slightly detuned piano, or a shrill synthesized string pad and let emotion drive the terror, not effects. Three or four notes might be all you need to create a classic. Which ones they are, I could not tell you.

Up until this point, you may have noticed that the left hand has remained stationary on the snare drum playing the softer ghost notes. The next two figures really just continue orchestration ideas but allow the left hand to move from the snare drum to other parts of the kit (FIG F and G). Figure F shows the lick with the left hand on the rack tom whereas Figure G shows the left hand on the hi-hat. This is actually one of my favourite applications of this lick because the hi-hat gives such a contrast in sound compared to the toms. I use this concept a lot.

you’d actually want to use the lick for a whole bar. Most of the time, a smaller twobeat fill is more appropriate than a full bar.

This would be easy enough to do by only playing two cycles of the lick on beats 3 and 4 of the fill bar. Figures H and J show another scenario of using the lick on beats 1 and 2 of the bar followed by another phrase or more generic idea on beats 3 and 4. You could also interpret this by playing two beats of the lick and two beats of your own improvised fill, which is a great way to start incorporating this concept into your playing.

BY ROB GEE

DRUMS

Ah Triplets…

I’ve shared triplet licks before, but I thought I would share another goodie with you to add to your bag of tricks and to experiment with. Once mastered, it’s easy to roll off the hands and doesn’t involve any fancy footwork.

GETTING DOWN Our basic sticking for this concept is fairly straightforward – FIG A. It does feature some dynamic variation however, through the use of accents and ghost notes (unaccented notes played softly), which can add a degree of difficulty. Even without the accents though, the lick will still sound cool and is worth checking out. Figure A shows the lick in a bar of 2/4, written in eighth note triplets and using the six-note sticking – RLRLLF (foot). You can see that the two right hand strokes are accented and the left hand is the opposite and not at all – purely filling in the gaps. The bass drum too, is supposed to be played as a balanced part of the lick.

You have to make it blend with the hands as opposed to slamming it too loudly. You can see at Figure B that you can fit two cycles of the fill in a measure of 4/4.

FINDING THE GROOVE At this point, it needs to be mentioned that how your fill is played is very dependent of the tempo of the song/situation. For example, if you’re playing a tune that is a relatively moderate tempo, eighth note triplets will be quite slow, may feel awkward to play and even become less exciting than you’d planned – we can’t have that! In this case playing the fill at double time/ speed would be more appropriate. Figure C shows the lick as played over 16th note triplets, allowing you to fit four cycles in a bar of 4/4. At this point, you would practice playing some time/groove and being able to smoothly move into the fill for a whole bar and then back to groove with a crash on beat one. Just be mindful of the fact that you’ll need to add another bass drum for the crash cymbal, so you’ll actually end up with two bass drum strokes at this point.

MOVE ON UP If you’re beginning to feel confident, you can start to orchestrate the lick around the drums a little more. Figure D is great way to start by simply moving the two right hand accents onto the toms. This will give you a vibe of how the lick can work in a musical setting and also how easy it is to start thinking melodically rather then methodically. Another interesting sound comes from splitting up the accents across two sounds (FIG G). In this example, I’ve moved from the snare to a tom but you could also play it the opposite way or mix and match as you see fit. mixdownmag.com.au

IN CONTEXT Something else to think about is whether

BY ADRIAN VIOLI

27

Advice Columns A sharp attack with a release that lets the bass line reach peak volume just before the kick triggers the sidechain again.

ELECTRONIC MUSIC PRODUCTION

Sidechain Compression One of the most distinctive characteristics of modern electronic music is the rhythmic pumping, most often a lead and/or bass line ducking in and out around a thumping bass drum. The method behind this is called sidechaining and uses an audio signal to trigger a change in another module – most commonly a compressor.

GET THAT BASS LINE DUCKING AROUND THE KICK I’m using Ableton Live today; obviously the exact step by step method behind sidechaining differs slightly from DAW to DAW, however the main steps should be quite similar.

Set yourself up with a basic beat and bassline, ensuring the bassline plays over the top of your kicks. Now drop a default compressor onto your bass line’s track. Clicking the arrow next to the title of the module opens up the compressor’s sidechain functionality – click on the sidechain button and select your drum rack from the drop down menu below it. Another drop down menu appears below that – select your kick drum.

Ok, now press play. Still sound the same? That’s because we haven’t actually told the compressor to do anything with the bass drum’s signal yet. Click on the activity view of the compressor so we have visual feedback of this next step. Grab the threshold control and wind it all the way back to -inf dB. Now you should have some extreme ducking and be able to see how the signal is being affected. For most applications -inf dB is way too extreme, so wind that threshold back up until it sounds good to you. There’s some other important settings we can tinker with at this point too – Ratio, Attack and Release. Ratio affects the amounts the bassline’s signal is reduced each time the drum hits, wind it up for a more extreme effect. Attack is how long the signal takes to be affected and Release how long it takes to recover once the bass drum’s hit has passed. Experimentation is key here, the results depends on tempo and your own taste.

WHAT ELSE CAN WE DO? A really great feature is that the kick drum - or whatever drum you’ve chosen to trigger the sidechain - doesn’t have to be activated to affect the bassline’s signal, it can be turned off so we have a pumping bassline without actually hearing the kick drum. Pay attention next time you hear a cheesy EDM banger and you’ll hear a lot of this used in the lead ups to drops. An audio source that’s kept silent but used for triggering is often called a dummy track.

A long attack – note the forward sloping dip.

A short attack and release mean the bass line volume returns almost immediately.

Sidechained compressors can be really great when used on percussion too. Give it a whirl on some busy hi-hats or cymbals and you’ll add a rhythmic drive you didn’t know your track was missing.

Of course, your compressor can be on anything. And your source doesn’t have to be the same length as the track it’s affecting, try experimenting with a busy

3 bar loop triggering a compressor on a 4 bar loop. If you’re feeling really wild, put a delay or beat repeat plug-in on your dummy track. There’s mountains of possibilities here, both creative and useful for mixing – so get crackin!

a mouse when you can’t see where it is pointing. It’s even harder to find the Mono switch in the software with your eyes shut.

But, with a small, tactile control surface on your desktop, you can take control of what you hear in playback and adjust it accordingly. Best of all, you are able to switch from one set of speakers to another, drop the volume, flip it over to Mono mode and back to Stereo and do all this with your hands. It doesn’t take long to learn a simple controller and soon you can do it with your eyes closed, literally. Now, think of what this can bring to your critical listening in the mixing process.

You don’t need the large format console if you are only going to use a small section of it. That is why there are a number on monitor controllers on the market designed to accommodate critical listening in the home studio. What more, they operate after the inbound signal path, so they will not have any effect on your recording should you be concerned about audio quality. A cheaper monitor controller, or poor audio cables running to and from it are not ideal, but they will not tarnish the audio recording in any way. That said, you should still consider that they play a part in how you hear and ultimately adjust the sound, so adding noise or allowing loss of quality

in the signal chain at this stage still is not ideal. For those of you who remember the Mackie Big Knob, this is one such controller that turned up in studios all over the place.

Now brands like Behringer, JBL, PreSonus and Radial all offer similar devices for exactly this purpose. It is really a matter of determining your needs now and in the future as to which is going to better suit your mixing requirements.

Many of you will be recording and mixing with just one pair of monitor speakers and may consider it unnecessary as switching is not an option for you. But, switching between monitors is only a small part of what these devices offer. In fact, every home studio operating with just one pair of studio monitors can greatly improve the way they listen with a monitor controller too. Functions such as Phase Reversal, Mono and fixed volume Dimming are all very important to achieving a quality mix and need to be done on the fly, without searching around a computer monitor with a mouse pointer. So, the next time you are listening to a mix directly from your interface into your studio monitors, have a think about what you are hearing and what you could be hearing.

BY MICHAEL CUSACK

STUDIO

Monitor Control Without The Console Many of you will know what it was like to operate a large mixing console and have all you monitoring needs at your fingertips in the bus section. Some of you still do, I am sure.

My console doesn’t see much use these days, with most of the work being done directly into the computer with a smaller setup, as is most likely the case for many of our readers.

The fact is, most people recording at home do not have the space or the finances to spare to have a large format mixing console in the home studio. And given that, very few of us actually have the need for it anyway. A good channel strip, or a few pieces of select outboard gear is usually all that is needed in these situations, until you consider your monitoring. That is the one facet of the large mixing console that the home studio misses out on. But there are alternatives.

FINGERTIP CONTROL With all the advances and benefits that the computer has given us in audio recording and mixing, it has taken away in certain areas. The main problem that arose with the advent of the computer DAW was the lack of hands-on control. As recording programs became more and more involved, less and less seemed to be going on with any hardware as most applications get drawn into the software world. What results is a greater reliance on the mouse and an almost endless collection of keyboard shortcuts to keep your mind working.

As each piece of hardware slowly gets replaced by a computer process, we lose a little bit of that organic workflow. The touch and feel of a project slowly starts to become the click of a mouse and an almost robotic process develops, which ultimately has a negative effect on the creative processes. Music comes from the heart, and through the hand, so let’s not cut off the hand that feeds it. Bringing back some of those essential ‘hands-on’ processes in the recording and mixing regime will ultimately improve the workflow and have a carryover effect on the creative side of things. Let’s get back to pressing buttons, tweaking knobs and turning dials.

ORGANIC LISTENING I have mentioned how the computer has removed some of the organic workflow and created a robotic process, and this is not ideal for creativity. Especially when we are listening to emotions and trying to adjust the sounds we hear to capture those emotions at their best.

So, it is vital that our playback schedule is allowed to be as organic a process as possible.

You should be able to close your eyes and start playback, stop it, repeat it and adjust it all without looking at what you are doing. This way, by shutting down one of our senses, we allow the others to be emphasised. It is pretty hard to start and stop playback with 28

BY ROB GEE mixdownmag.com.au

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Features BRAND SPOTLIGHT:

Aston Microphones In a rigid realm of manufacturing and design, Aston Microphones are pushing the envelope to reimagine and redesign what constitutes a quality microphone. After founding SE Electronics back in 2002 and running its global operations for 12 years, Aston Microphones owner James Young found himself unexpectedly out of a job. Yet by the end of 2015, Young had launched his new manufacturing platform, with Aston’s Origin fixed cardioid condenser mic and their Spirit condenser mic breaking new ground in design strategy and sonic quality. It’s been the manufacturer’s willingness to question and challenge industry norms, says Young, which has resulted in the development of products that deliver above and beyond their modest price range.

“One of the biggest problems that you get with any market niche, and especially with things like microphones, is people say to you all the time, ‘Oh, it’s a really crowded marketplace, it’s really difficult to get into.” In my opinion, the only reason people think the mic market is crowded is because everyone’s doing the same damn thing. There’s very little innovation – it’s just rehashes of products made 80 years ago, still copying Neumann mics basically. I think that’s in part because people are looking for cheap stuff, and if you want cheap you get OEM stuff and you don’t get a lot of RND. “And so we had an opportunity when we started Aston to either go down the OEM route and do what so many other ‘boutique’ brands have done over the last 10 years, or to do something from the ground up.”

With the absence of a mainstream microphone brand in the UK and an industry reliance on age-old design features, Young and his team identified areas where they could clearly make a difference.

“When we first sat down to start designing the products, the brief that we put together was to innovate, to make it a novel looking design because it needs to stand out, but not just for the hell of it, you know, it has to have some purpose. We need to match the kind of pricing of the other mass-market microphones; we want to do all of this and make it in the UK.” From a technical standpoint, Aston began to question whether the essential parts of a microphone – the mesh head, the chassis and the capsule being separate from the PCB – were in fact, essential. In each case, the answer is ‘yes’ but the next question is ‘why?’

It was this line of questioning that acted as the catalyst for the remarkable mechanical innovation seen in both the Origin and the Spirit.

“A mesh head’s a good example,” Young says. “If you look at every other mic on the planet pretty much, from an SM58 through to a U87, they’ve got the same rigid, fixed mesh head.

We’ve developed our signature waveform spring, and this is one of the areas where we were able to introduce a major cost reduction which we could pass on the inside of the mic so we could focus on the sound quality. It also meant that we could make it in the UK and hit price

targets, and at the same time radically improve performance in areas such as capsule protection, shielding and plosive control.”

Mirroring the technical innovation found in both the Origin and the Spirit is an intense focus on sound quality. One that saw Aston Microphones completely abandon standard beta testing for double blind listening tests, conducted with 33 industry-leading, UK based, producers and engineers. The results of which are outstanding.

“We gathered about 100 different capsules together from all over the world and we ran tests on those capsules, got rid of about 70% of them and then the last 30 we put through blind tests,” Young says. “So we chopped out the capsules from identical microphones, inserted different capsules into them and then ran tests on acoustic guitar, male and female vocals and sent those blind files out to the panel of endorsees who then ranked the recordings 1-5 and said ‘This one’s great, this one’s crap, I like this because of the high frequency, I hate this because it’s too boomy etc.’ And by that voting system and subjective commentary, we were able to whittle down the capsules to the last couple.

“We did exactly the same thing in reverse

with the PCBs that we designed, putting different PCB designs with the same capsules, and blind testing them with the panel. This was done over a six month period; every couple of weeks we would send out a new batch of files, so it was very intensive. We ended up with 84% of the panel voting the two different Aston microphones you see on the market today as number one, and the rest voting them their number two. So it was absolutely a landslide that these two were the mics that have to go to market.

“By literally taking our hands off guiding the sound design completely, we’ve ended up with 33 high-level professionals choosing the sound of the microphone rather than two or three lab engineers. And I think that’s the real secret to how we’ve got it to the point where all the magazines reviews are saying, ‘Holy shit this is like a Neumann, or a Telefunken or Sony C800 and it’s a $500 mic’…which is a very cool place to be.”

BY CHRIS SCOTT Aston Microphones are distributed throughout Australia by Link Audio. For more information visit linkaudio.com.au

THE ANALOGUE PROJECT by Audio-Technica

Beatdisc Records Since 1995, Beatdisc Records has been serving Sydney’s West with deep punk cuts and local releases, helping to foster and sustain the underground scene. In these parts of Sydney it’s the only true record store still in existence; while riding the waves of the CD boom and the vinyl revival, and hosting some of the city’s most epic in-store shows, it has been fuelled, throughout by a vibrant local music community. As Pete, the stores owner says, it’s the personal connections developed through Beatdisc that have been central to its rewarding longevity.

“Some of my best mates that I hang out with all the time now have come from owning or working in the shop. And I always just come back to the community that surrounds Beatdisc – it’s just so awesome. Like just last Friday the new Dillinger [Escape Plan] album [came out] and two of my friends… they both messaged me separately like, ‘oh is it going to be on time, is it coming in?’ And I was like, ‘yeah, yeah, yeah’. And they sort of both arrived within half an hour of each other and they were just here for a couple of hours listening to it and loving it….

“And these two guys would have never met if it wasn’t for Beatdisc and now they’re good friends. Not because of last Friday but just because of the events we have and whatever, and we all enjoy it together.”

In November Beatdisc will be celebrating 10 years since they first opened their doors for in-store shows. With a reputation for showcasing blistering local talent and the odd international set, in-store’s continue to be a large part of the store’s music-invested, scene-devoted identity, says Pete. “It’s very important and I think that’s where we built the community from that. A lot of people have met through the shows that we do and bands have formed from that, you know from meeting at Beatdisc… I think it’s very important to the sort of history of Beatdisc.

“I always think about the first one which was a band called Unpaid Debt, who are a classic Western Sydney punk rock band that are no longer together. But because it was our first one it was just really memorable and we just got so many kids that day and it was just like a really good eye opener to think, ‘Fuck we can actually do this’, which is really cool. So I always think back to that and we got some funny footage and photos so that’s exciting.

“Another one is… one of the US bands that’s played here called Pity Sex… I’m good friends with Andy who runs Poison City and sort of struck up an annual thing now actually, so almost every year we’ve done kind of a secret show with one of the American bands that have played [Poison City Weekender] and that was just choccas. There was I think 90 people here, which was just incredible and just for a band that we sell heaps of records [for], and everyone’s 32

so into them, to have them play here in Western Sydney was just really special.”

Like many record stores Beatdisc experienced an injection of interest with the vinyl resurgence. Yet, as Pete explains, its punk ties put the store in a unique position throughout this transition.

“It’s probably a similar story with most shops as you say, but I guess for starters we’ve always had a good sort of punk rock following in Beatdisc. I’ve always tried to keep that quite well chocked and punk rock has always been vinyl related as well so our new vinyl sort of grew from that. And you always had your second hand stuff coming through, your ‘70s and ‘80s rock. But I think for Beatdisc our prices are really good – sorry to blow my own trumpet – and we get told almost weekly that our prices are really good and we’ve always tried to be very reasonable, so I think that has something to do with [our success].

“With punk it was always cheap records you know, you could get $20 records and that was great sort of 5 or so years ago, but… the dollar [dropping] and the vinyl revival has unfortunately put up manufacturer’s

prices, and then obviously the suppliers had to charge more. So just because I think there’s more involved now, it’s old technology, consumables, it’s all expensive, they’ve got to use oil to make the vinyl and all that boring shit (laughs). It comes down to the dollar factor unfortunately, and these days we’re seeing really expensive vinyl. But people are still loving it and consuming it which is really exciting for us. Even though we have to charge 60 bucks for a record people still come in and are really excited about it.”

And with this level of enthusiasm reciprocated by Pete and store manager Tom, it’s no surprise to see Beatdisc is still going strong.

“We’re still excited about the music we stock and the music we put out and the music and the vinyl we clean to put out on the racks. And it’s posted on social media and we’re excited about all of that still and that helps massively.”

Beatdisc is located at 11/181 Church St, Paramatta. For more information about the store head to beatdisc.com.au. mixdownmag.com.au

Features STUDIO FOCUS:

Forbes Street Studios Located on the corner of Forbes and William, in the heart of Woolloomooloo’s music industry hub is Universal Music Australia’s newest crowning glory, Forbes Street Studios. In a monumental project, the multi-purpose Sydney studio has been built from the ground up to cater to everyone from international stars to signed artists and independent bands. As Managing Director of UMA and head of the project, Michael Taylor called on the very best music has to offer – the likes of Grammy award-winning Nick DiDia (Bruce Springsteen, Rage Against The Machine) and Eric J Dubowsky (Flume, Chet Faker, Flight Facilities) – to help guide this remarkably resourced, high-functioning studio to its completion.

“I work with producers, writers and engineers all day long, and artists obviously at the key of it, and so when you’re building a studio from scratch because the place used to be a mini mart, a grocery mart right, so we’ve got 220 square metres of space that was just raw so it would be crazy not to reach out to some of our favourite producers, engineers and artists and say, ‘Hey if you could build a space what would you love?’

“And everybody came back saying that a mid-level room size is what they wanted. They wanted a room, DAW accessible, where you could bring in your laptop and yet get master quality stuff if you needed, and have access to all this great outboard gear and mics and a desk – but not have the cost of these huge rooms that come with it.”

While the state of the art studio is owned by Universal, it will also be open to the public, making it a totally unique prospect, says Taylor. “While Universal artists will certainly get an awesome rate to work in this studio and it will be really advantageous for them to use the space, we’re going to take unsigned artists and bands. I’ve had Sony and Warner’s A&R guys come in to the space to check it out. There’s just not that many studios in Sydney left and when you’re making records all the time like the labels are, you’ve gotta always find new places to hit up.”

When it came to the gear and technical aspects of the studio, Universal and Taylor hired Anthony Garvin, the former general manager of Studios 301, as a technical consultant.

It was Garvin along with Taylor who are responsible for Forbes Street Studios’ wealthily specced gear, which stretches across an SSL room, writing room, edit suite and interview room.

“Like for example with the microphones,” Garvin offers when asked about the studio’s versatility. “I said to a bunch of engineers… ‘If you’re recording, what are your essential microphones?’ And each person returned maybe 10 or 12 microphones that they would really like to see in a studio like this. We essentially got a list of 10 or 12 from 9 or 10 different engineers and were able to put all of that together and pick the top mics from that.

With the studio’s equipment wish list coming to fruition, Garvin pinpoints two utterly

impressive pieces of gear that offer a real point of difference.

“So I guess there’s two main things, the first thing in the main studio being the monitoring,” Garvin explains. “We’ve got a pair of Barefoot MiniMain 12s, which to the best of our knowledge they’re the only set in the country. A lot of guys have Barefoots, but these are like several models up from what the kind of standard model is, if you want to call it that. And so yeah they not only look great, but they sound really good. And the other thing would be the console, which is an SSL AWS 924 Delta, 24-channel analogue console. It’s brand new so it’s ultra reliable. It interfaces with Pro Tools as well as having 24 pres and EQs, so it’s kind of just an easy to use, flexible SSL console that’s kind of the centrepiece of the main studio.”

There’s a sense that Universal have left no stone unturned in ensuring Forbes Street

Studios is equipped to deliver high quality recording and production across all music platforms.

“One of the things that you never see when you’re working on a record is the interior of the walls and what it looks like under the floors and the ceilings when you pull them back,” Taylor says. “But there’s so much work that goes into floating a floor and a ceiling. I think there’s 8 tonnes of sand in the floor at Forbes Street Studios. We really wanted to make just a phenomenal sounding space without any room bleed and I think we’ve achieved that. And we’ve had acousticians come in and test the space and they’re just all walking away blown away at how great it sounds.”

BY CHRIS SCOTT For more information about the studio visit forbesstreetstudios.com

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Features

The Steve Gadd Band Australian Tour 2016

Yes, it’s official! Steve Gadd will be here in December, and fans all over the country are in a state of high anticipation for seeing the most famous drummer alive, in person! Steve Gadd is a man that truly needs no introduction – particularly within the drumming community and ultimately with musicians all over the world who recognise his genius and immense contribution to music history.

Steve turned 70 last year, and there is no sign of any intention to slow down or retire. He continues to tour extensively with James Taylor and is still first call for Eric Clapton and Paul Simon when available. More recently Steve has been writing and touring with his own band. Featuring the familiar talents of Kevin Hays, Michael Landau, Jimmy Johnson and Walt Fowler, The Steve Gadd Band has enjoyed great success, both recording and touring their own material as well as just allowing audiences the opportunity to see one of the best line–ups you will ever witness live in concert! The recent release of Way Back Home: Live from Rochester, New York, affords fans the chance to own a collectable double DVD + CD set that celebrates the band and Steve’s 70th birthday. In front of an audience in Steve’s hometown, another piece of history is made in an unforgettable live concert.

Soon Steve and The Steve Gadd Band will be in Australia, performing a series of live shows. It’s a rare chance to see Steve up close and personal and playing at the top of his game after seven decades of performing.

I caught up with Steve recently to talk about his return to Australian shores, and started by asking him about his incredible band and its members who read like musical royalty…

“I’ve done a lot of recording with Michael Landau over the years and then we’ve toured a lot with James Taylor together. I first met him doing recording sessions in LA and then we’ve been touring together with James for quite a few years. Jimmy Johnson is the same, I met him when I was playing with James and we’ve been touring together doing that gig for about 15 years now. Walt Fowler is a great trumpet player and arranger and comes from a very musical family – I met him on James’ gig also – plus Larry Goldings did the recordings, but is not on this tour to Australia, Kevin Hays is going to take his place. We’re all looking forward to playing with Kevin. We don’t have a history together, but I’ve heard his stuff and we’re going to make a new friend and I’m really excited about it.”

You’ve had successful tours in Europe and Asia so far – how have audiences been receiving you to date?

“It’s been very well received. That’s why we’re able to continue doing this and get down to Australia. We’re very happy with the audiences we’ve had and we want to keep touring this band and visiting the fans wherever we can.”

Can you talk about the song writing process? With this being your band, Steve, how does the material come together for the albums and the tours?

“Pretty much everybody in the band writes, so when we put together an album, we all bring in songs. I take them away and listen to them and pick the material that I think is most conducive for the group.

Along the way we’ve chosen some cover songs and various songs we wrote in the studio as band compositions. That’s really how it works 34

start of a continuing relationship and the first of many trips for the future to Australia.”

– everybody’s original contributions - a few cover songs and some material that we all put our heads together on in the studio.”

There’s a new CD and double DVD package you’ve currently released with the band.

Can you talk about when the DVD was filmed and the story behind this package release?

“The live DVD was filmed in my hometown, Rochester New York, at the Eastman Theatre for the Rochester Jazz Festival. It was also a celebration of my 70th birthday. It was exciting and emotional for me to go home and play the Eastman Theatre, where I’ve played a lot before. I went to school at Eastman and did a lot of concerts there during College and other shows with Chuck and Gap Mangione, so it was nice to go back there and take my own band in – I felt a lot of love. It was fantastic. I think the DVD captures that well and I’m happy we did it.

It started out with the idea to take some footage as a concept for an advertisement for Vic Firth and we thought if it came out well, we would release it - and it did!”

Are you looking forward to coming to Australia this year? How many times will this be now for you making the trip down under?

“I think it’s 4 or 5 times now but it’s not nearly enough – I love Australia! It’s going to be great to be back and I’ve been wanting to make this trip for a long time. I don’t get down there enough. I hope it will be the

At 70 years of age you’re playing as great as ever. On one of your DVD’s you said you really didn’t start physically training your body for tours until you were in your early 40’s. Touring is still very rigorous, so is it still an important part of your ability to play as well as you do today?

“Absolutely. I still exercise every day although it can be hard on the road when you’re travelling. I jog and always try to eat well – I do some push ups and just keep focusing on using and exercising my muscles daily. If you stop using them, they stop responding. It’s important, depending on your age, to find a way to exercise regularly that doesn’t tire you out but actually invigorates you. Because I’m doing so much playing, I don’t spend a lot of time just behind the kit practising or experimenting. If I’m home and I’ve got time off, I will always go and sit behind the kit and work on things. I will always continue to exercise and spend time behind the drums just to keep my muscles moving and keep the blood circulating – that’s how you stay ready for the next gig. Some gigs take more stamina than others, so for me it’s important to keep my playing and general fitness at a level that if the gig requires more, then I’m equal to the task.”

The obvious question, Steve, is when you play these days, do you still have to think hard about time and groove? Or has it become just so inherent in your playing from decades of performing?

“No. It’s something that I still have to think about it. Every night you perform, the hall or venue is different and sounds different – or you may be playing with different musicians every night. The groove isn’t any one particular thing! It’s an agreement between the musicians you’re playing with and when it really happens you’re locked into that agreement and committed to the music. That’s what we constantly strive for.”

Do you get much opportunity to see and hear the new generation of players coming through the drumming community these days?

“I hear some of them and I know there are a lot of great players out there. I don’t get as much of an opportunity to go and see them perform as I would like, but I check them out on YouTube and talk to some of them in my travels. I talk to Gerald Hayward - he’s a great guy and I love the way guys like Gerald and Aaron Spears play. Guys like Chris Dave and Mark Guiliana are just fantastic and I’m sure there are guys coming up that I don’t even know about, but there are so many young and talented musicians coming through the ranks these days.”

BY RAY DEEGAN The Steve Gadd Band will be touring Australia next month. For more details, head to drumtek.com.au mixdownmag.com.au

Features STUDIO FOCUS:

Darkglass Electronics Established in Finland in 2008, Darkglass Electronics is one of the world’s better known manufacturers of high-end bass gear. Founded by creative leader Douglas Castro and sales manager Hugo Villarroel, Darkglass’ primary motivation is to produce innovatively designed, unique sounding pedals and preamps. “[When we started] our products fitted perfectly into a gap in the bass market and that was key to becoming internationally recognised in just a couple of years,” says Villarroel.

“Today, we have a presence in more than 50 countries around the world and in the case of Australia, the Bass Centre is our exclusive distributor.”

Villarroel and Castro are both bass players themselves, which is what originally connected them.

“It´s funny how things turn out, because I was actually one of his very first clients,” Villarroel says. “I was in a hard rock band and experimenting to find the identity of my own sound, but after trying everything in the market I couldn’t find that special device capable of performing the sound in my head. As a bass player, that search was over when I met him and his first creation, the Microtubes B3K [overdrive pedal]. We became friends and later partners in crime.”

The Darkglass range now encompasses everything from straightforward overdrive and compressor pedals to more advanced preamps and amplifiers. “We have three groups of products: amplifiers, pedals, and on-board preamps,” says Villarroel. “In the pedal world, we have the ultra series, the B7K and Deluxe pedals, the B3K, Duality Fuzz and the Super Symmetry compressor. Finally, we have the Tone Capsule preamp. This on-board preamp has a very unique layout based in the versatile EQ of the B7K preamp pedal.”

Products like the Microtubes B7K and the Vintage Ultra make it a legitimate option to forgo a traditional amplifier setup, saving bassists a whole lot of hassle when it comes to lugging gear to gigs. However, rather than emulating or replacing other amplifiers on the market, the preamps offer a unique Darkglass distinction.

“Of course Orange and Ampeg are legendary brands when it comes to that ballsy bass, and we respect them very much. But our approach is to offer the best tone, portability and value to bass players in a compact pedal. That is also what drove us to design our own amplifier, expanding the range of possibilities with our own amp and future cabinets.”

The amp in question is the Microtubes 900 – the latest creation added to the Darkglass Electronics range. It’s a 900-watt bass amplifier with an analogue preamp.

“It has a tasty clean channel and the Microtubes engine capable of giving the grit of the B3K overdrive or the warm valve vibes of the Vintage Microtubes,” Villarroel says. “There were many bass players asking for this for a long time, but what really motivated us is the same thing that always inspires us – to make the best products we can possibly make. In this case we wanted to make the best Class-D bass amplifier in the market. Sounds like a simple and very concrete goal, but getting there was not easy.

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“From Doug´s original idea to the final product that can be seen today, it took many months of work. We all had to push ourselves and from this process we learned so many things that’ll have a direct impact on the future of the company. I´d like to believe that the amplifier, and cabinets we already designed for it and other projects, will set the standard for bass in the near future.”

There’s a lengthy list of recognised bassists that use and endorse Darkglass products.

While the majority of them are affiliated with heavier genres – such as members of Cannibal Corpse, Meshuggah, Faith No More and Karnivool – notable exceptions include Jamiroquai’s Paul Turner and The Strokes’ Nikolai Fraiture.

“The Darkglass family is big and most of them are friends or at least close people.

What I really love about it is that besides the famous factor, they are people that actually understand our approach and share

it their own way. When someone such as Billy Gould [Faith No More] tells you after trying out your amp, ‘Man this is the sound that I was looking for. After 25 years, finally,’ we cannot feel more blessed about it. We are humble enough to appreciate their love and support since our beginning. Superstars or not, they are so close with what we do that they always suggest new ideas, projects and their positive vibes are all around.

“Friendship and mutual care is the word that could describe our relationship. We don’t have signed contracts or weird exclusivity deals. At the end of the day, if you use our stuff you will keep using it for a long, long time.”

BY NORTHMORE PUGIN Darkglass is distributed throughout Australia by Bass Centre. For more information visit basscentre.com.au.

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Features

Sandberg:

pic by Guy Palmer

Ida Nielsen & Holger Stonjek

Ida Nielsen is one of the funkiest bass players to ever pick up the instrument. Holger Stonjek is the founder of Sandberg, one of the hottest names in bass design right now.

Both have a lot in common, not least being an appreciation for the nuances and flexibility afforded by bass and a love of the music of the past and the possibilities of the future.

They’re also both interested in more than just bass for bass’ sake; Sandberg also makes beautiful six-string guitars, and Ida is a multi-instrumentalist and vocalist whose new album Turnitup is full of great songs, melodies and lyrics that far transcend ‘bass for bass’ sake.’ And let’s not forget her brilliant stint with Prince, for whom she provided the crucial low-end in 3rdeyegirl and The New Power Generation.

We caught up with Ida and Holger during a recent joint clinic tour of Australia.

Ida, let’s start with how you started playing Sandberg basses.

Ida: It was a long time ago. Six, seven years ago… maybe more! I tried the Masterpiece at the 2009 or 2010 Musikmesse in Frankfurt, and when I tried it I was like ‘This is my bass! I need to have this bass!’ It felt and sounded completely how I wanted it to.

Holger: The funny thing is the bass was sold to a store before Musikmesse. I called the shop who had bought the bass and I told them ‘Ida wants the bass…’ They said ‘Build me a new one and we’ll be even.’

You can always spot a Sandberg bass from a distance, whether it’s a vintage or modern-style model. They’re very identifiable.

How did the design style evolve?

Holger: Well the four-dot logo was designed by a friend of mine 25 years ago. Before that we only had the name ‘Sandberg’ written in a kind of modern typeface. Then I asked him, because he’s a very good designer, if he could design a… what is the word? Distinct. And then two weeks later he came in with about 50 different ideas and he said ‘That one is my favourite.’ My first impression was ‘It’s boring! Just four dots! I paid a lot of money for four dots?’ But it’s so clear and everybody can recognise it and you can put it easily into a body as an inlay. He was right.

Any product that does well in the market has to do something that nobody else does. What do you think you’re able to bring to the bass that nobody else is doing?

Holger: I think it’s the combination of a lot of details. It’s not only one thing. Just lots of details. It starts with our own-designed hardware. Our own bridge, our own pickups. The string retainer for the California basses is a good example; it’s very fast and easy to change the strings. Our own machine heads are made from 36

aluminium, which of course is very light and gives the bass much better balance. The neck profile is very important. Over the last 30 years we’ve done a lot of experimentation with different materials and shapes. And the zero fret; when we started with the zero fret every music shop in that time was disappointed: ‘You can’t do this! A cheaplooking zero fret!’ But then everybody realised it was so much better.

Ida, what’s your approach to bass tone?

Ida: It depends on which style of music I’m playing. If it’s my own stuff, that’s straightup funk so I like a ‘70s kind of sound, that old-school funk sound. But I feel like the signature bass we built can do that – but it can do a whole lot of other things, so it’s not limited to that. It has a really very broad variety of sounds.

And there’s so much sound in your fingers, you obviously need a bass that will allow all of that to translate.

Ida: Yeah! I feel like you can’t get everything in one instrument. So the bass we designed is definitely for the style of music I play most, which is funk and rock, but I also love to play melodic stuff, chords and stuff like that. I feel like the sound of that particular bass fits me very well for how I play. Sometimes you can get a bass in your hand and it’s like ‘It’s just not workin’,’ even though it’s a great bass.

And what’s your approach to effects? I know you’ve done some great things with TC Electronic.

Ida: I see effects as a fun addition, and you play differently with your fingers when you have different sounds. They can add something else, and I love my effects.

Right now I have a little travel board which basically has a little tuner, compressor, octaver and touch wah and that’s it. But normally if I play in a bigger venue I also like to use a fuzz and all the stuff you can do to bring some colour to the sound

without taking it over, if that makes sense. And if I play a solo I love to add octaver just to have a little more punch because I always feel a little jealous of guitar players because they can take one long note and sing on it, which you can’t really do as a bass player because it doesn’t have that sustain, so I use the octaver to get a little help for that, just to help out what is already there, to add some stuff.

This might sound like a weird question but at what point did you realise you were really good?

Ida: I think when I got asked to demo stuff. And then when Prince called! But I feel like you keep on learning though. Being in the States there are so many great players. There are dozens of really great bass players so it’s a constant learning process.

What were your early bands like?

Ida: Cover bands. I did have one band where we were writing our own music together, which was cool. Nowadays I write all my music on my own but in those days everybody had their input.

Do you guys do a lot of these clinics?

Holger: We first started in Germany in May this year. In the same weather as this! It’s been the Raining Clinic Tour! The clinics that we do are more like a concert. We always play with a drummer and two basses, and it’s not a teaching clinic, like scales and things like that.

It’s more like a concert, and between songs I explain to people the main things about different woods and pickups, assembly, truss rods and things like that.

Ida: People can ask questions, because I’m not good at just starting to talk, so people can ask me questions and I’ll explain stuff. I’m very happy to answer questions, and if you just see us play it’s maybe easier for you to say ‘Ah! What did you do there?’ and it makes more sense to explain it.

BY PETER HODGSON Sandberg is distributed throughout Australia via themusicconnection. For more information visit themusicconnection.com.au.

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Features

The Busy World of Ben Weinman

The Dillinger Escape Plan

Of The Dillinger Escape Plan and Giraffe Tongue Orchestra One of the most significant bands in heavy music over the last two decades, The Dillinger Escape Plan have remained unmatched in their DIY ethic, unrelenting tunes and seeit-to-believe-it live shows. Alas, all good things come to an end with the band announcing its departure from the music game. Guitarist and Mr Escape Plan himself, Ben Weinman, talks of the band’s end-of-an-era release, Dissociation, and his newest project’s debut album, Broken Lines, with the super group – Giraffe Tongue Orchestra.

“I think this ‘extended hiatus’ thing has been a little overexaggerated,” he says of The Dillinger Escape Plan’s decision to take leave following the release of potentially their last record Dissociation. “You know, this is it! The band is over. However, that doesn’t mean we won’t ever get into a room together again. I mean look at Van Halen the original lineup was playing shows at some point, 40 years later, so who knows? It’s less likely that we will get back together, but it’s possible.”

Thankfully for The Dillinger Escape Plan fans, Weinman confirms the band will make the trip to Australia as part of their final tour, “Oh yeah, man, we plan on it!” Since the band’s formation in 1997, Weinman has been a major driving force, simultaneously commanding the role of musician, producer, manager and record label owner.

“I think with the knowledge that this would be the last album – we didn’t let anybody tell us how it should be done. We literally took it by the reins and made sure everything went how we wanted it to go. From putting it out on my label, Party Smasher Inc., to doing the album’s artwork – we’re just so hands on with all of it. This is our last chance, we don’t have next album to try it. I think that has had a big influence on the album.”

Weinman’s DIY ethos and drive has made him not only an influential guitarist, but also an entrepreneur, launching his brand Party Smasher Inc. in 2009, which has since transformed into a record label, its first release being The Dillinger Escape Plan’s 2010 record Option Paralysis. It’s this juggling of roles that has shaped his career into one of various talents and responsibilities – a facet that has come at some cost to his development as a musician.

“I think it’s had its upsides and downsides. I’ve been so busy with this band behind the scenes – self-management and production, setting things up and dealing with all the logistics – it’s definitely taken away time devoted to playing guitar. [In the early days] As the band got busier, I played guitar a lot less and it probably crippled my growth a lot. If I had people wiping my ass all over the place, I’d probably just be sitting in front of the TV, eating Doritos and playing guitar all the time.

“But it also forced me into this really narrow vision of, ‘this is what I do and this is what I’m good at.’ I want to be the best at what I do, which isn’t even being the best guitar player, but being in the most badass band, one that I’m really stoked and proud of as a whole. It’s grown me as a person and as a musician, but it’s also made it hard for me.”

Tied up in everything Dillinger, it’s understandable that only now Weinman’s other project, Giraffe Tongue Orchestra, is seeing the light of day. Consisting of Thomas Pridgen [Drums; The Mars Volta, Trash Talk, Suicidal Tendencies], Pete Griffin [Bass; Deathklok, Steve Vai], William DuVall [Vocals; Alice in Chains, Comes with the Fall] and Brent Hinds [guitars; Mastodon, Fiend without a Face] – it’s hard not to associate the band with the insufferable label of ‘super group’, for Giraffe Tongue Orchestra is indeed a band of well-seasoned and accredited musicians.

Both Hinds and Weinman worked at the group behind the scenes on and off for a number of years. The band’s debut, Broken Lines, is a record that combines the two guitarists’ signature sounds into one cohesive stream of guitar magnificence, complimented by the best in the business. Weinman says writing with the band has been a whole new experience for him, “It was definitely a lot more collaborative than I’m used to.

“It was the type of thing where Brent [Hinds] and I played around with different ideas and different people. A first it was the kind of thing we wanted to collaborate with musicians that we had toured with over the years, people we wanted to be in a band with. We 38

would jam with various people and it either worked or it didn’t. The guys in the band now just happen to be the guys who had the chemistry. It ended up working and the magic just happened. It’s weird to think about how long we’ve been working on this project, and to know that a lot of the work has been done and finalised only in the last year. What I learned the most by playing in a new band is that you can’t just play with people you like or people you are fans of – you really have to find the right chemistry, and I did with this group,” explains Weinman.

Band chemistry aside, it’s a wonder the two guitarists’ differing styles have found a middle ground; working together, rather than competing for sonic space – a feat considering each guitarist’s varying strengths and abilities on the guitar.

“For some reason we work really well together. Brent’s one of my best friends.

We’ve known each other for over 15 years.

We do this weird thing where he’ll play something and I’m like, ‘Wow, that’s really interesting, I could never play like that.’ And then I’ll do something and he’ll be like, ‘I can never play like that!’ But then there’s this tie that binds us together and we play and it just makes sense. “ Though both guitarists have emerged from the heavy music scene, their playing styles couldn’t be more different – Hinds’ with his blue grass and country techniques and Weinman with his jazz influenced time signatures, and abrasive tonality. Weinman concurs that although both are polar opposites, their musical roots stem from similar influences, “I started out on blues first, like Stevie Ray Vaughn and stuff like that. And I think he [Hinds] did too.

“He got into country and some of the fingerpicking stuff he’s known for; I got more into fusion. We kind of came from the same base and just went off into different directions, and it’s that base that really melded together, and you can hear it on

Broken Lines. Somehow it just works,” Says Weinman. “Like on the first track ‘Adapt or Die’, there’s these back and forth solos and honestly it’s hard to tell who’s doing what. It was cool for me to sit there and improvise with him and just have it work out like that.”

Although the writing process was different to what Weinman has grown to know with The Dillinger Escape Plan, the recording process remained the same, “I mostly used my signature LTD BW-1 Evertune guitar on Broken Lines. That guitar has so much diversity with the pickup selections and the semi-hollow body,” he says.

“The truth is, having that Evertune bridge is just a dream come true, especially for recording. You can play out of time or a little sloppy and show feeling and aggression, but you can’t get away with a whole bunch of guitars and instruments out of tune, it just doesn’t work. Being able to tune that thing up and have it stay in tune throughout the whole recording process and barely ever having to check it makes your life so much easier for recording an album like that, so that guitar definitely came in handy.”

Recording with Steve Evetts, a long-time friend of Weinman’s, and producer of The Dillinger Escape Plan’s entire back catalogue, Giraffe Tongue Orchestra produced an album that steers clear of its comprising musicians’ well-known projects.

“We [Evetts] have a really good chemistry and throughout the years.

I’ve learned so much from him. We’ve now got this kind of rapport with each other; we’re very honest with each other. We’ll sit there and fight like cats and dogs in the studio and just push each other.”

“It’s a really cool combination because we really just do push each other and sometimes we can finish each other’s thoughts,” says Weinman. “Having the two of us together in the studio and then having a guy like [Pete] Griffin, who’s one of the most naturally intuitive bass players I’ve ever played with in my life is just amazing. Every single note that guy hits is perfect for the situation, everything he does is perfect and appropriate. Then having Thomas Pridgen who just likes to play drums all the time. Like all day and enjoy it and never ever get tired, and just have fun. Being able to sit there with Pridgen, Griffin, DuVall and Hinds and sharing that chemistry that Steve [Evetts] and I have – it’s incredible.”

BY AARON STREATFEILD Dissociation by The Dillinger Escape Plan is out now via Party Smasher/Cooking Vinyl Australia.

Broken Lines by The Giraffe Tongue Orchestra is also out now by Party Smasher/Cooking Vinyl Australia.

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When it was introduced in 1966, the Yamaha FG proved that a great acoustic guitar didn’t need to cost a fortune.

The new 2016 range features the best-ever FG tone, new specs, new finishes and the same great playability and class-leading quality that’s made it the choice of millions of guitarists.

Wherever your musical journey’s going, it all starts here.

Limited Edition FG180 50th Anniversary Guitar Strictly limited and available now at the stores listed below.

STORE

STATE

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WEB

PHONE

Better Music

ACT

Phillip

bettermusic.com.au

02 6282 3199

Guitar Factory

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guitarfactory.com.au

02 9635 5552

Logans Pianos

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Burwood

loganspianos.com.au

02 9744 2400

South Coast Music

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02 4421 8688

Turramurra Music

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Turramurra

turramusic.com.au

02 9449 8487

Bandland

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bandland.net.au

07 3849 7088

Music Express

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musicexpress.com.au

07 3849 7088

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vivacemusic.com.au

07 3344 1883

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08 8371 1884

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03 9799 5400

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keyboardcorner.com.au

03 9761 0003

Music Workshop

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musicworkshop.com.au

03 5221 5844

Pat’s Music

VIC

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patsmusic.com.au

03 9563 8711

Mega Music

WA

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megamusiconline.com.au

08 9330 2777

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Road Tests PRS CE24 Limited Edition Satin Nitro Electric Guitar Electric Factory | elfa.com.au | Expect to pay: $3100

Style is a unicorn. Like Miles Davis’ inestimable cool; no sooner have you saddled it up, it disappears in a cloud of smoke leaving you slack jawed and gawking, clutching at your designer sunglasses wondering how it could all go wrong so quickly. Guitars are not immune to the ephemeral nature of the beast and yesterday’s dream riff-stick can quickly become today’s rusted up 7-string with the Korn sticker between the pickups. Few companies are lucky enough to borrow their sense of style from sheer antiquity or association with genius and fewer still can claim to have crystalized theirs of their own accord.

PRS guitars came to prominence in the late 90s, an era where – for better or for worse – modern rock adopted a slick, highly stylized, glossy sheen. Unfortunately a lot of the acts that toted their Custom and McCarty ranges aged almost instantaneously, as audiences quickly reminded corporate music entities of the fact that they no longer we’re willing to have their tastes dictated to them. Thank Christ for the Internet putting the burden of choice back on the consumer! Far from suffering the impact of this association though, PRS gallantly kept on their way, steadfast in their determination to make guitars of an unsurpassed quality and

singular personality. Rarely has this been truer than in the instance of their CE24.

Skip to almost twenty years later and PRS’s builders have been steadily pushing their designs forward inch by inch. That signature on the headstock is a sign of the level of craftsmanship and modern adaptability that bolsters the PRS name.

The newer iterations of their patented 85/15 pickups get smoother every year.

Mounted in the deep, mahogany back and quilted maple face of the body, there is an unprecedented fireside warmth and roundness in the tonality that balances out the snappy responsiveness of the bolt on, 24-fret neck. Gone is the brisk, nasal quality of earlier builds; replaced by a more classic voicing that speaks to the increasing maturity of the PRS heritage.

One thing that PRS guitars have always lead the charge in is the finishing touches.

Sometimes subtle and classic, other times

flashy and peacock-proud, the CE24 series adds a buttery, satin nitrocellulose patina to their extensive palette. The particular beast I had in my clutches was a saccharine kingfisher blue, faded to icy silver in the middle of the body. Now, some would argue that aesthetics shouldn’t determine the worth of an instrument, but with an axe this visually stunning you can hardly say it detracts at all! The other advantage to that satin finish is that the back of the neck is a much more steady, feathery ride than epoxy finishes, which can be alternately sticky and slippery depending on environmental factors. It’s a subtle difference, but a classy one as you sail up the fretboard with the greatest of ease.

They’re not the new kids on the block anymore, nor are they the sentinels of the old guard, but Paul Reed Smith and his band of builders have carved a comfortable niche for themselves in today’s swollen guitar market. I didn’t want to like this

guitar nearly as much as I did, but as soon as I set aside my pretenses, I had no choice. It looks great, plays itself and sounds like a satisfying mid point between 70’s humbucker lead classics and to-theminute innovation. The CE24, with its modern take on classic tonality, silky finish and unmitigated playability, marks a sort of coming of age for one of the more stylish of the second generation of guitar makers.

BY LUKE SHIELDS

HITS • Super tasty satin finish • Effortless playability • Richer, warmer tonality.

MISSES • May not be everybody’s cup of tea.

GUILD T-50 Slim Arch Top Zenith Music | zenithmusic.com.au | RRP: $2499

Call me crazy but I’ve often wondered what it would’ve been like to live in the 50’s and 60’s. Setting aside the enormous political upheaval, sexual liberation and general exploration of selfhood that the human race did, so much of what happened in those glorious decades still resounds tremendously in so much of what we do, make, say and think. I wonder if people on the ground knew how profound just about every little thing they did would turn out to be and what it would be like to get about your business with that much electricity in the air? More specifically, today I wonder what the luthiers working at Guild’s Newark St factory knew of the legacy that flowed from their hands every time they picked up a lump of wood, dreaming of it becoming one of their instruments?

A LOOK BACK The Newark St range that Guild offers today is far and away one of the more faithful approximations of an entire era by an instrument maker. Not only has the company returned to form since it’s schism from Fender a few years ago, but they are putting out guitars today that rival the builds that made their name in the first place. My hat goes off to them time and time again. Brand new Starfires are as good, if not better than the ‘70s ones, the Polara and acoustic ranges have SGs and Martin respectively running for their money and, last but not least, the T-50 Slim is just about the nicest guitar I’ve ever had my grubby mitts on.

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There’s something about arch-top electrics that demands a bit of extra attention from the player; where modern shredders do a lot of the heavy lifting for you, the elder statesmen of the league ask a bit more of your hands and in the end are, for me, a more satisfying experience. This particular old mate T-50 is set up quite low to the Indian rosewood fretboard, lending itself to some quick, jazzy runs. The neck is a comfortable, even ‘C’ shape and balances out nicely as it rises high off the shoulder of the slim-line, maple body. It sits light and familiar on your lap like an acoustic, but has all the sustain of a solid slab of ax like a Les Paul. Even though it’s fresh off the workbench, it feels lived in as an old bar.

OLD TONE Although it sounds pristine even before you plug it in, with an incredible amount of

projection for such a thin hollow-body, the signature P90 style dog-ear pick up is the real gold tooth on this old pirate. Modelled intimately on the original pickups as manufactured by Franz of New York back in the day, they’re packed with all the clang and calamity you’d expect with everything at 10. There’s almost no bottom of the well of possibility in the pots though; wheel in anything from woolen blanket warmth to delicate, almost ghostly sensitivity. All of this is down to the sheer sensitivity and attention to detail paid in putting the design together. From the bone nut, past the pinned rosewood mount under the hard tail bridge to the iconic harp style trapeze tailpiece, every inch of this guitar is as faithful as it is masterfully built.

Long story short, I hope they did know how important every thing they made back then is to us now. I hope every wood shaving and drop of lacquer that fell to the floor

was charged with the joy and satisfaction of playing this T-50 Slim and I hope Guild never let it wane.

BY LUKE SHIELDS

HITS • Incredibly faithful to it’s heritage, balanced and satisfying to play, unmatched tonal richness and surprising versatility.

MISSES • None

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ERNIE BALL MUSIC MAN Expression Series Overdrive and Ambient Delay Pedals CMC Music Australia | cmcmusic.com.au | RRP: $395 each

They say necessity is the mother of invention, and that behind every great idea is a thousand failed experiments. These two precepts have arguably fueled the vast majority of twists and turns that the history of the humble stompbox has taken.

Originally conceived as a way of mimicking the searing bristle of torn speakers and burnt out tubes without ruining expensive gear, that little box of rock has taken on so many personalities that today the possibilities are seemingly endless. With all that limitless option whirling around the head of every noisemaker, have we finally drunk the well of good ideas dry?

EXPRESS YOURSELF For the most part, Ernie Ball is a quiet achiever on the ground bound engineering front. A lot of their success comes from their extensive string menu and their guitars made in conjunction with the Music Man family. One nail they have hit clean on the head is their suite of expression and volume pedals; the VP JR and MVP are staples of players of just about every style and have little competition in that niche in the market. Never a company to rest on their laurels, Summer NAMM 2016 saw the unveiling of their latest innovation, the Expression Series of effects pedals.

Housed in impressive rose and yellow gold metallic chassis, the first two cabs off the rank are the Ambient Delay and Overdrive.

Road Tests

What’s so innovative about these two newbies is that the expression plate on both drives a potentiometer that rolls in ether effect under your clean signal. This means gain and spatial texture swells are the order of the day in a way that no other pedal has managed before without displaying some fancy footwork with the toe of your boot.

THE DRIVE The Overdrive is an interesting one to say the least. Simple tone and gain controls across the topside of the unit are augmented by a boost knob that works to shape the texture of the dirt tone that acts as bedrock for your dry signal. The tone shaping is a quite a shallow sweep through the upper spectrum, which works well to notch within the clean tone as opposed to muddying up proceedings. The boost works quite well on it’s own and I can see it being the most readily utilised feature as it allows you to really ride your own playing and dynamics on the fly. The drive itself is quite low gain in the grand scheme of things and is almost better suited to driving other dirt pedals later in your chain than on it’s own. Working on the premise of being able to lay a foundation of warmth underneath everything, almost in the way double tracking would work in recording, it has the potential to be a handy way to colour both bass and guitar without lugging around various preamps, comps and whatever else.

THE DELAY The Ambient Delay is, in my humble opinion, the more successful of the two in that it is just that little bit more versatile than its dirty brother, and offers a more useful, real world set of colours. The delay

time and feedback rate offer everything from tape-style slap back to long, digital tails that are reminiscent of the MXR Carbon Copy without the low-end roll off.

This works well enough on it’s own, but take the time to dial in some lush, almost dusty reverb and you’ll find yourself adrift in a sea of warm textures. Ignoring the tap tempo extension, it could’ve been a good option to switch from clean blend to delay time ramp if your heart desired. But who’s to say that’s not in the suggestion box for future updates?

So, we venture back to the dichotomy of necessity and good ideas. The one thing that maligns EBMM’s volume pedals is their size; taking up just about the same space as three regular stompboxes seems to be offset by their sheer usability. For their newest inventions the engineers have graciously reduced the foot print by about a third. This means that if you are going to replace tone stacks in favour of either of these two, you don’t lose out nearly as

much as you would we’re you to insert, say, an MVP in your chain. This seems to be the genesis of the idea here. The Expression Series seeks to do the job of two or three pedals at a time with an eye on spatial economy, which is increasingly at a premium for a lot of players. Herein lies the crowning glory of the design. While they might not lay every possible option at your feet, they are doing enough heavy lifting to earn their place on the board.

BY LUKE SHIELDS

HITS • Smooth, unbridled sweeping • Clever application of a clever idea • Housed in a snazzy looking casing.

MISSES • Overdrive never gets to 100% dirt • Delay colour is a little limited

The all-new Octane humbucker from Tonerider delivers more aggressive, tighter lead lines and focused power chords. Built using a custom Alnico 8 magnet and two different gauges of magnet wire on each bobbin, the Octane is warmer than ceramic magnet pickups, and allows for amazing harmonic complexity at high gain settings.

Made speciically for use in bridge positions, the Octane is equally suited to high-gain Classic Rock, Metal and Djent. The rich harmonics also tighten up your tone when drop-tuned.

mixdownmag.com.au

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Road Tests

PRS 2017 Custom 24 Electric Guitar

as opposed to poking out like a sore thumb.

With the extra option of the pull-up coil tap in the tone pot, surprisingly by bringing the tone more in line with tonal classics the 2017 Custom 24 feels that much more versatile than it’s predecessors.

Electric Factory | elfa.com.au | RRP: $1449

Paul Reed Smith started out just this way, building his first guitar as a challenge from his high school woodwork teacher. From there he founded the company on the rampant self-belief and earnest, local-boy-makesgood confidence that saw him sneaking back stage at Santana and Al Di Meola shows in an attempt to ply his wears. Clearly something he was doing struck a chord, as his design has become as much a part of Carlos Santana’s signature as the Latin infused guitar rock that launched his career in the 70s and again in the late 90s. PRS builds are a thorough combination of traditional techniques and technological advancement and it’s this refusal to adhere to any way of working purely for tradition’s sake that renders them the gold standard in modern guitar design.

The Custom range has long been the flagship model in the PRS catalogue and to

a point it seems 2017’s update flies the “if it ‘aint broke, don’t fix it” flag. The instantly recognisable Bird In Flight fretboard inlay, beveled cutaway and Smith’s signature in the headstock are all present and tie the design together as nicely as they ever have. The patented PRS molded tremolo anchors the façade together, floating a few millimeters off the deep scarlet, flame maple top side of the guitar, offering the best of both traditional and Floyd Rose style whammys. I’m not entirely sure which aspect of this design works so well but I’ve been dive-bombing on it long enough for it to

lose itself altogether and lo and behold, it’s still in tune. Chalk that up as a win.

The biggest update by far is the in the pickup system. The PRS website briefly alludes to having advanced something about their workhorse 85/15 pickup that cleans up some of the spanking mid range while maintaining the uncompromising high-end clarity that is the design’s bread and butter. Signified only by the ‘S’ in the spec sheet the distance between this and previous models is profound. It’s a much less obtuse characteristic, less singular maybe but only inasmuch as it slots in more effortlessly next to other axes in your armory

ERNIE BALL MUSIC MAN Cutlass Bass CMC Music Australia | cmcmusic.com.au | RRP: $3995

As the eldest sibling in a reasonably large litter, it has always been my job to bear the focus of my parents as they set off on the first lap of the child-rearing racetrack.

As time wore on, and subsequent siblings arrived, the authors of my days became more relaxed and liberal as experience allayed their deepest fears and allowed them a little more elbowroom in their approach. Now that’s not to say I turned out stilted for that extra pressure, quite the opposite, I am the flagship. I’m the first thing they got right and some might say the others are softened for having not sat under the heat lamp for as long as I did. In this metaphor I am the iconic Stingray bass and the young’un under the microscope today is the Cutlass, one of the newest weapons to join the Ernie Ball Musicman arsenal.

MOOER Reverie Reverb Jade | musocity.com.au | RRP: $229

THE APPLE NEVER FALLS FAR FROM THE TREE The Musicman lineage is renowned for being the first company to properly open up the world of modern tonality for those of us operating in the lower register.

Famous for the Stingray’s laser sighted mid-range, streamlined aesthetic and active electrics they are truly a company that sought to seriously rethink the way bass players see themselves as well as their playing. Subsequent models have seen the design team tweak and nudge this blueprint in ever more interesting directions and the Cutlass is nothing if not a prime example of this relentless experimentation.

On first glance the whippersnapper’s visage isn’t too far removed from its older brother;

the sleek curves, high gloss poly finish and chrome hardware are familiar enough.

However, this is about where the association ends. It’s made of the same tough stuff, select maple body and neck, rosewood fretboard and hardened, chrome-plated steel everywhere but it looks to its predecessor with a sneer as if the association offends its sense of individuality.

small footprint clones of big name effects pedals, they’ve not only driven their own engineering forward exponentially, but simultaneously forced the hand of a lot of the big guys, ensuring that they never get too big for their boots.

spectrum, essentially only going from dark to darker, but surprisingly enough if you play into this coloration it will yield some really pretty results, especially with the shimmer setting soaring above your head. The left side is where the wackiness starts to take over. Here you start to bring modulating filters like wah, LFO, flanger, tremolo and the enigmatic ‘water’ setting into the mix and hone in on a reverb sound that is truly your own. From spaghetti western, heavy tremolo verbs to completely alien flanger sounds panning through the stereo outputs, you’ll be forgiven for getting swept away by possibilities for hours at a time.

TWO IS BETTER THAN ONE With their Twin Pedal series the engineers at Mooer have made a concerted effort to add versatility to their long list of attributes. Options like tap tempos, dual gain stages and any number of added extras have long been the forte of names like Boss and Strymon. The latest edition to the double barrel squadron is the Reverie Reverb. One step removed from the everpopular Shimverb, the Reverie adds variety and modulation to the mix.

If necessity is the mother of invention then surely competition is the father; there’s nothing like having David come along to rattle Goliath’s cage I say. Ever since Mooer Audio burst on the scene a few years ago with their extensive range of affordable, 42

On the right hand side of the pedal you have the choice of five unique reverb types; basic, plate, shimmer, octave and modulate.

All of these are built around a kind of darkened, spacious tail that is not unlike what the Holy Grail has to offer. Tonally it’s quite a shallow sweep across the frequency

GREAT MINDS The biggest difference is in the way it’s brain works though. The electrics are passive here, which is territory that the makers don’t often venture into. This coupled with the single, split coil pick up means the characteristic is much closer to a snotty P bass or even, if

GREAT REAL ESTATE Another thing that Mooer has also had in spades is functional usability. You really have to applaud the engineering here as there is so much more room for error with a package this small, which is easily avoided with precision and aplomb. Storing up to five presets is a simplified push of one button only as opposed to ‘hold this, stand on your head and hope for the best’ routine

The Custom 24 is as lean, fast and sleek as player as its ancestry. For 2017 however, PRS have encouraged their favourite child to mature somewhat and the result is a guitar that it more comfortable with itself than it has ever been.

BY LUKE SHIELDS HITS • Visually stunning • Cleaned up tonal thumbprint • Lightening quick fingerboard MISSES • Very modern sound and feel that not all players will connect with

pushed to extremes a Grabber. The low end is focused and aggressive, the highs bright and steely and that infamously nasal mid range pluck is almost completely absorbed by the outer extremities of the frequency range. In a way it’s as if where the Stingray would try to nestle into it’s own confortable corner of a mix, the Cutlass says “Bollocks to that!

You’ll make room for me once I’m in there” as it rips through its own version of whatever song you were playing at breakneck speed.

This punk kid is, to me, a welcome addition to the Ernie Ball Musicman range. Every bit of the accuracy and build quality is there but with a sizeable helping of grit and moxy thrown into the mix.

BY LUKE SHIELDS

HITS • Bright, punchy voicing, refreshed design and attitude.

MISSES • None! that some other pedals are guilty of. In spite of the reduced footprint, only a touch more real estate than a standard Boss unit takes up.

Long story short, Mooer Audio is never going to win prizes for originality.

Essentially they take somebody else’s idea and compact it in an attempt to please you, the player at the end of the signal chain. The Reverie Reverb is a particular example of a company that makes playable pedals for players who want everything but don’t necessarily know where to put it all.

BY LUKE SHIELDS HITS • Spacious and lush basic reverb tone with options you didn’t know you needed.

MISSES • Slight volume drop when active.

mixdownmag.com.au

Road Tests EPIPHONE Masterbilt Century Deluxe Classic Gibson AMI | gibsonami.com | RRP: $1799

Occasionally a guitar comes along that challenges your ideals and makes you reconsider what it is you are looking for in an instrument. So many players have just become accustomed to a certain style of guitar that they really know no other. There are plenty of acoustic guitar players who play amplified, but never consider using an archtop electric guitar. And for the same notion, there are numerous archtop players that are stuck in their ways and would rarely consider an acoustic guitar. This is where the Epiphone Masterbilt archtop range is going to challenge the ideals of plenty of players and enable them to find something new in their playing.

THE F-HOLE ACOUSTIC This was the second Masterbilt guitar I got to road test this month, but it was certainly the first one I wanted to talk about. It’s not often that you see an acoustic guitar with F-holes on the top.

They are more akin to the guitars of the 1920s and 1930s and are not very prevalent today. But, the Century series from Epiphone Masterbilt is taking you back with the Masterbilt Century Deluxe Classic.

It sits halfway between a modern archtop electric and a vintage acoustic guitar and has all the tonal characteristics of neither – in a way. What makes me say this is in hearing it, acoustically and amplified. This is quite a unique instrument and one that

will certainly add a new flavour to your sound and sit very differently in the mix to where you may have expected.

Acoustically, it doesn’t have the volume and projection of a modern flat top acoustic guitar, nor does it try to. It offers a very mellow sound that is very much a product of the timber used as well as the physical design. And, this is how it sounds with the supplied Cleartone long life strings; you could easily get an even darker sound from it with a quick string change if you so wanted.

PLAY IT LOUD Of course, this is a guitar designed to be played on-stage. When you plug the Century Deluxe Classic in, it really jumps out. The vintage tone is brought to life with the on-board preamp and produces a sound that is almost like taking a step back in time. It offers a vintage warmth paired up with a modern clarity that would see this guitar work equally well in an acoustic or electric ensemble. And what more would you expect from a solid spruce archtop, with the warmth of a jumbo body and the floating tailpiece to ensure the top can freely resonate through the F-holes. Take

PLUG AND PLAY Acoustically this is a little on the quite side, with a rather dark tone that will have blues players eager to get their hands on it. The almost grand auditorium body shape lends itself to plenty of bottom-end, but the bridge system – unlike a modern acoustic guitar – doesn’t emphasise the string’s brightness quite so. When you plug it in, everything changes yet again and you hear all sorts of tonal variations. The onboard EQ circuit gives you plenty of scope to have it sit in the mix where you need it, but you still get that undeniably vintage sound from this great guitar. It really

sounds like it isn’t sure what it is intends to be, and could be mistaken for both an electric and an acoustic, depending on the EQ settings. Because of this, you end up with a very versatile instrument that will encourage you to play outside of your normal range and search for a new – or rather old – sound. Beautifully appointed, well-built and with a great feeling in the hands, this instrument was a bit of a surprise as it came out of the box. You’d be doing yourself a favour to find one and have a play some time.

all that, and add a beautiful, vintage stain look that is embellished with flame maple back and sides and you have an instrument that looks as interesting as it sounds.

BY ROB GEE HITS • Big, warm, vintage tone • Beautiful finishing all over • Really cuts through the mix MISSES • None

EPIPHONE Masterbilt Century Zenith Gibson AMI | gibsonami.com | RRP: $1599

There is a certain special ‘something’ that some guitars have. What makes them special is often hard to put into words; you really need to hold them and hear them to understand what it is all about.

This is exactly what I thought when I tuned up the Epiphone Masterbilt Century Zenith guitar and played the first chord.

These beautifully crafted guitars have that certain ‘something’ about them, and in such a way that you’ll find they might just change how you approach certain music and give you a whole new appreciation for a sound. And that sound is old.

TAKE A STEP FORWARD, INTO THE PAST What Epiphone set out to do with this instrument is to create an acoustic guitar that feels like the blues and plays like jazz. What exactly that means, I am not sure, but it certainly felt like that to me.

These guitars bridge the gap between an acoustic and an archtop electric guitar.

Not only is this an archtop guitar, but the back also has a subtle curve to it, giving it an all-round unique feel. With a slightly shorter scale length than most steel string acoustic guitars and a raised bridge that is facilitated by the angle of the neck joint to the body, this feels more like a big jazz-box electric guitar, but sounds quite different.

Of course, there are no magnetic coil pickups like an electric; it gets its sound from a Shadow Nanoflex pickup and preamp system that work with string resonance and the acoustic tone of the guitar.

44

HITS • Its blues meets jazz in an acoustic • Great finish, great feel • Cool retro look MISSES • None

BY ROB GEE

mixdownmag.com.au

Road Tests SUPRO 1600 Supreme Dynamic Music | dynamicmusic.com.au | RRP: $2499

Once upon a time there was a guitar player.

Having cut his teeth playing in a few notable blues and R&B bands around London, it came time for this particular guitarist to form his own group and stamp his name on music history forever. And so he did, that band holing away for months at a time turning lead into gold gradually until it was ready to put that alchemy on tape. When the time came, inspired by the heroes of Chicago’s Southside blues scene, he plugged his ’52 Telecaster into an old tube combo amp and turned music history on it’s head. That player was Jimmy Page; the record was Led Zeppelin’s 1st and that amp was a Supro.

LEGEND IN THE MAKING Throughout the ‘30s, ‘40s and ‘50s Supro amplification was the amp of choice for ax slingers across America. Famous for their ferocious growl and extraordinary amount of power relative to size, it’s a tragic irony that the company responsible for what would become the white whale of so many collectors went out of business the same year the aforementioned game changing record was released. New York’s Absara Audio resurrected the famous lightening logo in time for NAMM 2014 and was clear that these newly anointed are more than capable of treating the Supro legacy with the piety and respect it deserves.

Never has the phrase ‘tiny but mighty’ been more fitting for a piece of kit than in the

case of the 1600 Supreme. The cabinet is only a touch bigger than your dad’s briefcase, but it is every inch true to the specifications laid down three quarters of a century ago. One custom voiced 10” speaker sits in wait behind the silver grill cloth and as soon as you fire up the two 6V6 power tubes it roars with the velocity and veraciousness of a much bigger rig. It’s loud, but not uncontrollably so, in so much as the circuit design is so raw and true to the earliest manifestations of engineering that it has a startlingly touch sensitive dynamic that plays as much into tonality

as it does volume. It plays directly into the hands of producers like Daniel Lanois, who’s ‘turn it up and let the amp play itself’ rubric draws lineage from Page’s groundbreaking performances.

BEAUTY, BRAINS AND BRAUN The control panel is one of the more intuitive ones I’ve come across. Two input channels drive twin gain stages that can be run either in series or parallel. Plug into channel two for a modicum of bite, extremely low noise floor and incredible headroom; plug into channel one for all of

that and more, bridging both gain stages in order to use both volume pots to find any number of sweet spots. Both channels dive headlong into one tone stage, which serves up swathes of tremendous, booming low end readily making way for the snappiness of your playing to take care of the highs.

You really have to thoroughly explore these dials a lot more than with other amps as the two channels dance with each other in a way that renders the familiar, linear 1-11 directive obsolete. It’s ephemeral, spritely and you really have to keep an eye on it in case it changes its mind and decides that you’re both going to sound completely different to what you had planned.

History has rendered the mythic Supro amps something of a unicorn in the amp world.

The 1600 Supreme is as singular as the players who made it so sought after. It’s nothing if not a wild, almost untamable ride, after which neither you nor your playing will ever be the same.

BY LUKE SHIELDS HITS • Incredible throw for such a small footprint.

• Ferocious growling tone.

MISSES • One leans heavily towards the low-end with not a lot of attention up top.

DARKGLASS ELECTRONICS Vintage Ultra Pedal Bass Centre | basscentre.com.au | RRP: $599

Seriously hitting the low-end market with a bang, Darkglass Electronics has gone from some initial ideas to running a serious line of pedals. Recently releasing their first amp head, opening a new fancy headquarters in Helsinki and receiving a heap of good vibes (including over 50,000 Facebook followers), this is one brand you need to keep your eye on. Still relatively new to the market, Darkglass now boast an impressive list of players using their gear and don’t show any signs of slowing down. Doug and his crack squad seem to be ticking all the right boxes, and their last few releases have been some of the most anticipated bits of bass gear for many moons. Let’s see what all the fuss is about…

ULTRA WHAT? Essentially a preamp in a pedal, the Vintage Ultra features a heap of tonal controls for you to use it live or in the studio.

Furthermore, it can be a pedal to add to your palette or your entire rig for sending to FOH. The Vintage Ultra has standard In and Out jacks (top mounted) for running as a pedal or to put on your board, along with the handy dedicated Direct Out if you want to send it to a mixer or recording unit. With EQ there are Bass, Lo Mids, Hi Mids and Treble controls, with the Mids (Lo and Hi) having an additional toggle switch for targeting more specific frequencies.

Master, Level, Blend and Drive round out the top row of controls with two more toggle switches marked ‘Attack’ and ‘Grunt’. mixdownmag.com.au

want your sound and the Blend control mixes your clean sound with the distortion.

Master then lets you set your overall level making it easy to balance the Vintage Ultra and really turning it into almost two channels of usable sounds.

Attack deals with the amount of Treble whilst Grunt handles low-end – more on these soon though. So there are plenty of options on-board and seemingly enough to let you suitably shape your bass tone. And of course (as with everything from DG) it looks super slick. A modern colour scheme and choice of fonts all clearly marked and in a tough housing that will handle plenty of gigs.

CONTROL As a clean tone shaper, the Vintage Ultra has plenty of EQ options, adding some

top-end sizzle to a round sound or adding some extra thump. The Mid controls are gradual and effective with the toggle switches allowing more intricate equalising.

You can get mid hump honk or more scooped aggressive tones. The low-end seems natural and musical – not too fat and warbly but also not sterile. Then for all of those wanting some edge, you can add Distortion, with its separate on/off switch letting you get a little warm and fuzzy right through to razor sharp zing and growl. The Level and Drive controls are good for balancing how in your face you

GLASS HALF FULL Man, the Vintage Ultra sounds good. Really good in fact! I’ve heard many people say the Vintage Ultra has taken over the mantle for the go-to, all you need preamp in a pedal, and I tend to agree. It’ll suit a wide range of styles as a preamp thanks to its musical EQ range and then has the addition of a fine sounding (switchable) overdrive.

Studio, live, small gigs, home practice, straight into a mixer, interface or to the FOH; the Vintage Ultra delivers in a big way. It’s easy to see what all the Darkglass fuss is about!

BY NICK BROWN

HITS • Great tone • Incredibly versatile • Plenty of EQ options • Did I mention how good it sounds?

MISSES • Hard to find any faults in this one 45

Road Tests TONERIDER Pickups

A NICE LITTLE PICK ME UP The Tonerider premise is cool, and they definitely don’t like or sound like el cheapo pickups. Like any brand they offer a range, so there’ll be some models that grab you more than others. At their price range, it makes experimenting with tones much easier on the bank balance and I’m sure they will open the door for many more budding home modders to get more into pickup swaps/changes/choices. The new Octane is cool – thick and responsive, great for heavier styles but also usable with cleans (and the option of a coil tap). A great selection of pickups.

TonePro Shop | toneproshop.com | RRP: Pure Vintage set of 3 $129, Humbuckers (uncovered) $65 each, Humbuckers (covered in Nickel or Gold) $70 each

There are so many variables that go into your electric guitar tone – amp, guitar, wood, strings, pedals, leads, length of leads, speakers and the list goes on.

Pickups are very much part of this equation too, yet they are often overlooked. Perhaps the perceived improvement in tone isn’t considered enough versus the cost of new pickups? Whatever the reason, Tonerider are definitely bridging the gap, offering you pristine tone without having to fork out loads of cash. Originally founded in 2003, Tonerider set out to deliver quality gear at ‘prices the working musician can afford’. With a range of single coils and humbuckers from vintage through to hotter windings, their latest release is the ‘Octane’ humbucker.

RIDERS ON THE STORM Playing through a range of guitars (thanks to Melbourne guitarist/engineer/producer/ studio man Mark Kelso), it was great to hear the broad array of tones and sounds in the Tonerider lineup. Rocksong, Generator, Pure Vintage and of course the newly released Octane humbucker (plus many more). Covering your classic Strat, Tele, Humbucker and P90, Tonerider offer a great starting point for vintage sounds that add both some sparkle and chime, or more hotrodded grunt for those that like a bit more oomph. At not a great expense (compared

BY NICK BROWN

HITS • Octane has great clarity and plenty of grunt • The price • High quality pickups to your average pickup brand) they’d be a great upgrade from stock pickups in a heap of guitars and a nice option for those that wanna check out different sounds on a budget.

OCTANE Aimed as a hotter, more aggressive humbucker, the Octane uses a custom Alnico 8 magnet with two different gauges of magnet wire on each bobbin. Specifically made for the bridge position, the Octane

is thick with plenty of guts and output. I enjoyed the fact that it wasn’t too bright and with heavier gain sounds you could still get great clarity from power chords and lead lines. Rock, Metal and modern heavy type players will like the thick tone, but I could also see the Octane being a nice foil for those in any style wanting some extra juice with good mid and bass response.

MISSES • None

RME Fireface UFX+ Innovative Music | innovativemusic.com.au | RRP: $4599

Just when you thought you’d seen it all from the German audio interface gurus – when the Fireface UFX was still dazzling audiences with its immense channel count and stunning A/D conversion – they have gone and outdone themselves. RME have never been content with ‘just delivering’, they always strive to take their products to the next level, and deliver the results too.

So with that said, I would like to introduce you all to the RME Fireface UFX+, the next level in MADI audio interfaces for Mac and PC users alike.

MORE WITH MADI For those of your who have seen or used the original Fireface UFX, you will know just what it is capable of. Now, as a special 20th anniversary edition, RME have stepped it up with the release of the Fireface UFX+, which boasts an incredible 188 channels of 192KHz audio. This thing can really carry some juice and do it all with RME’s famous high quality conversion that doesn’t miss a beat. The use of the MADI (or Multichannel Audio Digital Interface) is what allows this high channel count. This gives the user up to 128 channels more than what the Fireface UFX offered, and goes a little way to explaining why the user manual runs up to 124 pages per language. This is serious audio interfacing and it is prepared for anything that may come with peripherals in the future. RME have included not only USB3 connectivity, but also Thunderbolt 46

for the Mac crowd and that added piece of mind as this interface can now outlast several computer rebuilds into the future.

ON THE FACE OF IT Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to set up a 94 channel recording session in the home studio; there wasn’t enough room to fit the string section into the room. But, I was able to listen to the physical inputs on the device, of which there is a good offering.

They include twelve analogue inputs, four of which offer pristine microphone preamps, and eight analogue outputs, with a pair of headphone outputs as well. Two MIDI Ins and Outs allow connectivity from the front or rear of the device and there are a host of digital options including ADAT, AES and

MADI all coming together to total 94 audio inputs and 94 audio outputs.

Personally, I don’t know what I would do with them all, but you could sure get some microphones around a drum kit with one of these. For many of us, the included analogue inputs are going to be more than enough, but it is always nice to have the option to expand. For the small studio that envisages future growth, right up to the largest of enterprises, this is the audio interface that will see you through for years to come and allow expansion as needed. Not to mention, offering amazing audio conversion and perfect time along the way. RME have set the bar even higher with the Fireface UFX+.

HITS • 94 channels in and 94 channels out, plus MIDI • World renowned RME A/D conversion quality • Pristine microphone preamps MISSES • It might just be too many inputs for some

BY ROB GEE mixdownmag.com.au

Road Tests DIGIGRID Desktop Series D Interface Sound and Music | sound-music.com | RRP: DigiGrid D $1249.99, DigiGrid M $809.99, DigiGrid Q $759.99, DigiGrid S $539.99

Most of you will have heard of DiGiCo, one of the leading manufacturers of digital mixing consoles for live and studio use. And I am sure many of you will have not only heard of, but also used, Waves plug-ins in your recording and mixing processes. But, what many of you may not be aware of is that a recent joining of these two stalwarts of the audio industry has seen the development of a new company and a very special range of new products. Introducing DiGiGrid, one of the most forward thinking audio interface design companies that we have ever come across. This is not just another solution for recording vocals and guitar at home, this is a serious solution for the musician and engineer who want to hear a difference and take control of the recording process. Of course, you would expect nothing less for the pairing of hardware and software companies of this calibre.

DESKTOP REDEFINED The Desktop Series from DiGiGrid is a very exciting range of interfaces that is going to get a few of you needing them right away.

I had the DiGiGrid D in my possession this month, and I was quite happy with this as it is the more expansive model in the range and allowed me to best see what they are capable of. The smaller S, Q and M models allow for specific tasks in separate units, whilst the D is going to deliver the most benefit to

mixdownmag.com.au

many small studios with its extended array of inputs and controls. Where this device differs from so many others on the market is that it isn’t relying on USB or Thunderbolt to interface with your computer, but instead runs on an Ethernet connection and so allows for greater expansion possibilities. With the use of the DiGiGrid S you can run up to four of these devices. Because of the use of network cabling, you can have very long cable runs from your PC or Mac to your device, allow you to take it into different rooms of a studio, connect to the network and then run short cables from your instruments, microphones and headphones to your DiGiGrid D. If you fit out a multi-room facility with network cabling, it is very easy to turn any room into a recording space, whilst the computer stays put.

IN, OUT AND INSIDE The DiGiGrid D offers four analogue inputs on the unit itself – two instrument and two microphone. There are two line outputs, two monitor outputs and a headphone output, all offering latency free monitoring up to 75 meters away from your machine. A very well-designed top panel makes adjusting your inputs a breeze and large headphone and monitor volume knobs give you great monitoring control. Mute, Dim and Mono functions are also available, because someone actually thought this one through before it was released, which is very nice to see.

But of course, it isn’t just about the hardware and the exceptional audio quality it offers. Waves have taken the DiGiGrid

devices to the next level as the partnership opens up the ability to take advantage of their extensive range of plug-ins to compliment your recording and really make it shine. This also means that, with the pristine audio playback that the DiGiGrid offers, you can set up a recording booth some distance from you main computer and hear the beauty of the Waves plug-ins.

Nothing is lost in the audio transfer. You will hear the difference right away when switching over from other audio interfaces, and you’ll not be locked to one position, held back by the capabilities of your USB cable. Whether you need to record a couple of feet from your computer, or a couple of hundred feet away, the DiGiGrid will not compromise in quality, ever.

BY ROB GEE

HITS • Amazing audio quality on both inputs and outputs • Ethernet connection for greater studio flexibility • Great monitoring control form the unit MISSES • I wish I had this sooner

47

Road Tests

YAMAHA FG Series Acoustic Guitars Yamaha Music Australia | au.yamaha.com | RRP: GIGMAKER - $469.99, FG820 - $499.99, FG840 - $699.99

Once you’ve been at it for a while playing guitar should feel like coming home. You can waste your in the neon hell of your crappy day job, doing what you need to do. However, having the knoweledge that when you return home there is an old faithful six-string waiting for you is enough to melt the world away. For most players the most faithful old friend is the one they learnt on. Cheap, beat up, dusty and in desperate need of TLC as it may be your first guitar is invariably the most comfortable, the most like an old pair of jeans, without preciousness or pretense stopping you from doing exactly what feels right.

That’s the feeling I get whenever I pick up a Yamaha FG series guitar.

For 50 years, the FG series has been bread and butter for Yamaha. Easy on the hip pocket without compromising any of the quality materials they’ve always utilised, not only do they remain the most purchased acoustic in the world, but I would argue the most common choice for those just getting ready to rock.

First appearing in ’66, the FG180 quickly cemented the Yamaha name as the horse to back in both the affordability and playability stakes. Fast forward through any number of iterations and innovations the FG800 series is the best example of the forward thinking, scientific approach with which Yamaha’s engineers ply their trade. All three models, the 800, 820 and 840, utilise the brilliance and clarity of solid Sitka spruce for their top sides.

That crispness is bolstered by rosewood 48

fretboards, ivoroid binding and Urea nut and saddles; all of which ring true of the classic, all rounder tonality that keeps people coming back.

The most recent tweak the builders have made to the design is in the bracing.

Countless hours of research and analytics went into what is ultimately a simple yet incredibly effective nuance that, frankly, I can’t believe hasn’t been explored already.

‘What could it possibly be?’ You ask? The difference is the scalloped profile of the bracing rods that crisscross the inside of the resonating cavity. That miniscule pile of wood shaving on the factory floor is the reason these most recent models are so much more balanced and controlled across the length and breadth of the frequency spectrum. The lows are rich and heady,

the highs are bristling and focused and it’s all tied together by a singing, violin like midrange. Chords chime like Ryan Adams is playing them and single notes are uncluttered. Overall, the way that the body wrangles the dynamics of your playing is as though someone was riding the faders for you.

The big difference between the three siblings that sit before me is the tonewood that forms the body of each guitar. The 800 (which comes kitted up with a gig-bag and tuner) gets it’s lively clang from a combination of Nato, also known as ‘Eastern mahogany’, and African okume, both of which offer a medium density and energetic personality to the voicing. The 820’s voice is a much warmer, earthier conversation thanks to its classic mahogany back and sides. The big brother of the trio, the 840 seems to really want to converse with both of its brethren as the flamed Maple reels in a precocious combination of the effervescence of the 800 and the roominess of the 820. This is the real success of the series in so much as the difference is quite pronounced between each member of the line-up, so much so that picking one over the others is a decision worth furrowing your brow over.

‘C’ shape, 43mm nut width and matte finish implores just the right amount of effort without inducing carpal tunnel syndrome.

Satin poly finish, tortoiseshell pick-guard and ivoroid binding bring home the quintessential image of a guitar you could spend some time with.

Being the starting point for so many guitarists’ journey down the riff-stick rabbit hole must be an intimidating mantle to maintain. It essentially sets the benchmark for every guitar a player will wrestle with thereafter. Every neck shape, every body size, every tonal fingerprint will go up against this comparison forevermore. It is clear that Yamaha take this point very seriously and they continue to draw the perfect blueprint for players new and old in the FG800 series.

BY LUKE SHIELDS

HITS • Wide tonal variety • Perfect balance • Impreccable playability MISSES • None

From here the experience is every bit as familiar and classic as it should be. The traditional Western body shape draws you up the length of the neck, whose shallow mixdownmag.com.au

Ormsby GUITARS

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Road Tests COLLINGS City Limits Deluxe

Gladesville Guitar Factory | guitarfactory.net | RRP: $7995

Collings Guitars is a guitar manufacturer that has a real appreciation for the craft. It was only in 2006 that Bill Collings – then a renowned acoustic guitar-maker – turned his focus towards electric guitars, bringing with him a meticulous and uncompromising approach towards construction and tone.

A descendant of which is the Collings City Limits Deluxe electric guitar. This little known gem nails the classic shape of a Les Paul, draped in custom design features and sophisticated subtleties, matched by complex layers of satisfying tone. It’s the perfect introduction to a high-end guitar company determined to set new sonic standards.

UNVEILING A 21ST CENTURY CLASSIC There aren’t many guitars on the market that have been able to successfully reinterpret that timeless Les Paul shape.

Yet with the Collings City Limits Deluxe we have exactly that. With further inspection though, it’s clear that this guitar is instilled with its very own character and personality. The mahogany body and neck are stunningly rich, coated with a high gloss nitrocellulose lacquer finish that draws out the intricacies of the grain. The grain of the rosewood fingerboard is just as beautifully subtle. The reviewer’s guitar is dressed in a Tiger Eye maple finish.

While not usually one to warm to a quilted top finish, this particular maple top isn’t overbearing or too ‘loud’. It actually suits

the ‘modern classic’ vibe of the guitar down to a tee. A nice feature across the guitar’s entire aesthetic is the use of grained ivoroid. Everything from the body binding, fingerboard binding and headstock binding, to the pickup rings and knobs, are in this slightly off cream. This will be hit or miss for some, but considering the overall look and feel of the guitar, these touches really bring home a sense of class.

TAILORED TO PERFECTION This is a lightweight and carefully balanced guitar. The back of the body is contoured to create a glancing pocket that you can really lean into; it’s a guitar that hugs your body and, overall, is very comfortable to hold. The medium-fat C-shape neck profile fills up the hand nicely when playing chords, and is generally fairly smooth to navigate. While the high gloss nitrocellulose lacquer finish on the neck can get a little sticky, it’s not a major

drawback. With a smooth fingerboard that also provides great traction for complex fingering, the City Limits Deluxe really delivers on playability.

SOUNDS OF THE CITY The elephant in the room is the price of this guitar – it retails at just under eight grand. But a clear result of this heavy price tag is the quality of tone found in the guitar. The City Limits Deluxe is equipped with dual Lollar Standard Imperial humbuckers. On the bridge pickup there’s remarkable articulation of highs, mids and lows. With the simple strum of a bar chord the sonic makeup of each note can be heard, after which you’re left with an abundance of sustain. There’s brightness for sure, but by dialling back the tone knobs you can get more warmth. When used with OD the bridge pickup can land a nice country-esque crunch. But with a bit more grunt and fatter tonal character the neck

MERIS Ottobit 500 Series Bit Crusher

1 Bit / 0.1 Hz With so many companies striving to achieve higher bit rates and bigger sample counts in their audio conversion, the Ottobit turns its nose up at this and takes you all the way back to essentially nothing. The first two controls you’ll find on this module completely crush your bit depth and sample rate allowing you to break down your signal at any desired amount you like. Perhaps not for everyone, especially at the more extreme settings, but these functions gain more appeal when you start working through the other features on the panel.

50

LFO The Ottobit’s LFO adds all sorts of interesting variations to your sound.

This depth control for the LFO is simple enough, with its own dedicated knobs, and speed can be adjusted with the tap tempo button to easy align the modulation with the tempo of a song or other effect.

This button also works as a Alt Function button when held down, allowing you to use the depth knob to scroll through a selection of LFO options. This includes a very cool and rather random sample and hold feature that pretty much does what it likes to the artefacts created by lowering

TIME TO TRY SOMETHING NEW If you’re in the market for an extremely well made guitar that can cover everything from classic rock, to jazz, blues and pop, this is for you. It’s a long-term investment, but well worth a look.

BY CHRIS SCOTT HITS • Exceptional tonal articulation • Attention to detail and craftsmanship • Delivers on fit and feel MISSES • The price of this guitar means it’s not going to be for everybody

very complex ring modulation that sounds smooth and almost too controlled for this device. It has both AM and FM outputs, with a blend control between the two. The AM output has a classic ring modulator sound, whilst the FM output will find you wanting to compose soundtracks for horror films. But, you can blend these and find a balance in between that creates another unique sound, which is somewhere in the realms of a flanger and a chorus and actually works very nicely as a traditional guitar effect. But, it gets even better when you engage the Pitch Track function on the ring modulator, which sets the frequency to match the pitch of your input signal. So, each new note changes the frequency to suit, creating a responsive ring modulator.

In all, this is a fairly complex device in a very simple and unassuming housing. Meris has proven that the 500 Series isn’t just about preamps and compressors, it can be fun too.

Studio Connections | studioconnections.com.au | RRP:$895

To be honest, I had not heard of Meris until I received this item earlier this month.

But I am now glad to have come across this small audio design company form California. This brand is striving to deliver a difference in their products and bring something new to audio creativity. And I have to say; the Ottobit certainly does just that. Designed and manufactured in the USA, this 500 series module is a little on the quirky side and is ready to take your sound to places you probably never even considered. Essentially it is able to create sounds that are reminiscent of your favourite video games from the Atari era and even wanders into a series of spooky sounds that is ideal at this time of year.

So, get your 500 Series rack ready, slot in the Ottobit and let’s have a listen!

pickup lends itself more to the use of OD. From here it has no trouble dialling in a purring blues sound.

the sample rate. On top of this, there is an envelope control found in the Trigger Depth knob, allowing you to bring in a sweeping envelope that engages for each new note played through the Ottobit. This also affects the LFO and the sample rate, creating some very wild sounds that can be carefully sculpted to suit your needs.

IN THE RING My favourite of the features on this device is the ring modulator, which has a very wide scope with the frequency control. You can set it very low to create a warbling tremolo sound, or wind it right up for a

BY ROB GEE HITS • Creates video game sounds from any signal source • Adds eerie effects other devices can’t even conjure up • Great for a range of instruments, not just guitars MISSES • Not for everyone, but still super cool

mixdownmag.com.au

This changes everything.

Introducing the TouchMix™-30 Pro With a host of all-new Pro features and even more “Results Made Easy” Presets and Wizards, the TouchMix-30 Pro will forever change your expectations of what a digital mixer should do. New Pro features include: 32 Total Inputs Large (10-inch) Multi-Touch Display Screen Anti-Feedback Wizard Room Tuning Wizard Two Real-Time Analyzers (RTA) USB interface for Mac® DAW Compatibility 32 Track Record/Playback Directly to USB Drive MP3 Playback

Shown with optional Tablet Support Stand and iPad (not included). Mac and iPad are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. © 2016 QSC, LLC. All rights reserved. QSC and the QSC logo are registered trademarks of QSC, LLC in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and other countries. TouchMix is a registered trademark in the U.S., China and the European Union.

www.qsc.com/beyondmixing

Road Tests DYNAUDIO LYD-5 Nearfield Studio Monitors Amber Technology | ambertech.com.au | RRP: LYD-5 $949.50 each, Primacoustic Stabilizers $169

engaged in small spaces.

I was able to test these with a couple of Primacoustic RX7 Recoil Stabilizers. Both in the standard flat version and the up fire angled model. Now, these are not just a piece of foam that softens the vibrations, these are heavy duty recoil pads that firmly hold your monitors in place, but also allow for the natural movement of the drivers and cabinet as the air is pushed from them. On the lower desk I was using, the up fire models were ideal, allowing the LYD-5 monitors to be aimed more toward my ears, rather than into my body, greatly improving the listening position and stereo imaging. If you are going to invest in some Dynaudio nearfield monitors, you’ll get the most form them with a pair of Primacoustic stabilizers to allow them to operate at their best.

There is something to say about the quality of products that come out of Denmark. They really know how to build stuff up north, and the team at Dynaudio is no exception. I have always enjoyed listening on their studio monitors, and have over the years tried and tested a great variety of them. I think it is safe to say that the new LYD series of studio monitors from Dynaudio is going to be the most usable range of speakers they have ever produced for the home studio. There are a few tricks that are included in these monitors that will make them ideal for most of our readers. So, let’s have a listen to the LYD-5 nearfield active studio monitors and see what they’re made of.

LET THERE BE LIGHT The first thing that got my attention when these came out of the box was that they were not in the big, black and ominous casing that many Dynaudio speakers come in. In a refreshing change, these compact speakers feature a white front fascia, with black trim and black drivers. When it comes to the sonic quality, the LYD-5 feature one inch soft dome tweeters with the tri-angled diffuser bar that splits the sound and stops a direct path to your ears that might create harshness in the top-end. It’s a simple enough idea, but well executed to deliver a crystal clear high frequency response without fatigue to the listener.

THE RIGHT SPACE What sets these monitors apart from so many other smaller nearfield speakers is that Dynaudio have designed these to work in two very different environments.

The rear porting has a flanged design to allow the air to be relieved naturally and with a balanced low frequency control. On the rear of the unit, alongside the EQ preset switches for high and low frequency controls is the real hidden beauty of these monitors. There is a switch that you can set between Free and Wall. This is designed to take into account the space you are

working within and where your monitors will be placed. The Free setting is used for when you monitors are set up in a larger space, away from any walls, most likely on stands behind a desk. The Wall setting is what makes these ideal for the home studio, as it changes the tuning of the speakers for when they are used within 50 cm of a wall. As is so often the case in home studio environments, monitor speakers have to be set up right in front of a wall as space is at a premium and the low frequency response suffers greatly from this. The LYD-5 monitors offer a very natural, flat response when this setting is

BY ROB GEE

HITS • Perfect for small home studio monitoring • Made in Denmark to exacting standards • They look as good as they sound • Perfect response and no vibration with the Primacoustic stabilisers MISSES • None

ALLEN & HEATH Qu-SB Compact Digital Mixer Technical Audio Group | tag.com.au | RRP: $2199

A lot has changed in the world of digital mixers in the last few years, and classic console designers Allen & Heath know all about this. With iOS remote control very much an ‘in demand’ function in modern live mixing, the team at Allen & Heath haven’t just thrown together a “me too” option to fill the marketplace, but have instead gone above and beyond many others to create a very serious mixing solution for performers and engineers alike. The Qu-SB compact digital mixer is a feature packed unit that delivers the I/O needed for live performance, with studio control over preamps, effects and pre-sets.

THE HARDWARE This cleverly built unit will work a treat on a desktop within a mixing booth, or even on the floor, side of stage, where the stage box would often be found. It is very well constructed and offers more I/O options than any other device I have come across for its size. With 16 microphone inputs, it is going to take care of most live setups, although it can be linked via a dSnake connection to another device to expand the system to 32 microphone or line inputs.

The same goes for outputs, with a good selection on offer. Ten mix outputs and a master stereo output are supplied on the device, allowing for front of house and plenty of monitoring options to be catered for. Now everyone on stage can have their 52

own monitor mix. Plus, it acts as a USB interface to a computer for live recording of your performances too.

THE SOFTWARE I don’t like to refer to the software as an ‘app’ in this instance, as that tends to leave people thinking it’s a simple platform. One thing’s for certain, this is not a simple mixing app. It is a fully fledged mixing solution and gives you total control over all physical inputs, outputs as well as virtual channels within the software.

You have four effects engines within the software, offering a wide range of dynamic, EQ and creative effects for your mix. Up to 11 monitor mixes can be created, with six able to be reassigned as three stereo pairs.

Also, up to seven separate iPads can be

run on stage for different monitor mixes, allowing the performers to adjust their own mix to suit their needs, whilst being locked out from other critical mix functions.

Even better, Allen & Heath have teamed up with Sennheiser, Shure and AudioTechnica to create a library of microphone preamp pre-sets ready to suit a wide range of microphones from these three companies. Simply select the microphone you are using, apply the intended purpose and the software sets up the EQ just right to meet the criteria. Now, you can not only save your room on EQ settings and patches for mix setups, but easily adjust the microphone settings to instantly fit your rig. The Qu-SB pretty much takes the guesswork out of the equation for those who may not have the engineering skills of

others. Digital mixing is now very much an option for every musician, on any stage.

BY ROB GEE HITS • Excellent array of inputs and outputs • Well-designed control software • Excellent microphone pre-set library MISSES • None

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Road Tests RADIAL ENGINEERING MC3 Monitor Control Amber Technology | ambertech.com.au | RRP: $549

I think it is safe to say that most modern home studio setups are lacking in the monitoring department. From listening to the people I regularly speak to on this subject, there seems to be a lot of you out there that are unhappy with your signal routing solutions that your audio interface offers and a little more monitoring control is

indeed what is needed. Of course, being the final stage in your listening chain, you don’t want the audio quality to be compromised right before it gets to your monitors, so a high quality routing solution is a must.

Therefore, a compact device like the Radial MC3 Monitor Control is going to be just what many of you are missing in your home recording and mixing setups.

TAKE CONTROL Most audio interfaces are concerned with input counts and don’t give you the flexibility you need on the monitoring end. Or, if they do, you often have to use software to control the signal path.

Being able to switch between monitors and headphones, engaging a subwoofer or bringing the entire mix into mono to take scope of the stereo spread are all things you want to be able to do on the fly, with the press of a button. Radial Engineering knows this all too well, which is why they created the MC3. It takes a single stereo source from your interface and then allows you to route the signal in a number of ways.

Two monitor pairs can be connected along with a subwoofer that can be independently engaged. You can switch between the two monitor pairs, or run both at the same time as well as switching to a Dim level to achieve a low volume reference. On top of all this, three headphone outputs are supplied, with two different sized connections, so you have no excuse for not being able to hear your mix the way you want to.

FROM STAGE TO STUDIO The compact range of audio devices that Radial is so well known for have been built with stage use in mind – meaning that they are designed to take a beating and keep on delivering time and time again. Clever design elements, like the folded steel case that has upper and lower lips to protect the controls from being trodden on, certainly have their place on a crowded stage floor, but aren’t a necessity on a studio benchtop.

That doesn’t stop Radial from building their studio tools to the same specifications and taking in the same concerns about the life of your equipment. That said, they might

ICON iKEYBOARD 4S Innovative Music | innovativemusic.com.au | RRP: $349

I’ve seen a range of different products from Icon over the years, as I am sure many of you have too. If you are looking for well-priced control surfaces that offer you plenty of versatility, these are your guys.

But, for all their products I have seen in the past, it was this month’s unveiling that really got me excited, as I was testing out the Icon iKeyboard 4S. Seemingly just another budget USB MIDI controller keyboard in a market that is awash with more of the same, I wasn’t too keen until I got this unit out of the box and was able to see what it had to offer. As for the price, well, that’s just the icing on the cake.

MORE THAN A CONTROLLER This is not necessarily a new idea, but it is one that isn’t often embraced by controller manufacturers in that the iKeyboard 4S is not just a MIDI controller keyboard,

KEELEY Super Mod Workstation Pedal Keeley Electronics | robertkeeley.com | Expect to pay: $419

With the Mod Workstation already released you may be wondering what the deal is with the ‘Super Mod’ title. Well in the first 54

have gone a little too far with the MC3 when they recessed the attenuators into the casing so that a screwdriver is required to adjust the levels. Sure, it does keep the controls safe from unwanted bumps and boot prints, and these are not controls that you would adjust frequently, but it does make you think that perhaps they over-engineered this one slightly. But, one cannot find grievances with a device offering too great a build quality, and Radial certainly offers that.

BY ROB GEE

HITS • A compact and clever monitoring solution • Plenty of output options • Built like a tank MISSES • Recessed attenuators makes adjustment complicated

graded. But they are fully encased keys, not just cheap strips of plastic and they do have a nice touch with a satin finish on the black keys. All of the buttons have seen an upgrade on older Icon models where spongey rubber buttons caused some issues. These are firm, and solid with a definite engagement. The Pitch and Mod wheels are not great, and the Mic Gain and Headphone Volume controls are a little finicky, being so close together. But, those two points aside, you really can’t complain with what Icon has delivered here, this is a really great product at a smashing price that deserves more attention.

but an integrated audio interface as well.

It’s really quite obvious, but not often available. So, on the top panel you get a single microphone input, with two line level inputs at the rear of the device. Two line level outputs are found there as well, whilst a headphone output is found on the front. The iKeyboard 4S offers 24-Bit / 96 KHz audio recording and playback via USB, as well as MIDI and transport controls. It’s an excellent option for someone starting out in home recording, especially given that it includes Steinberg’s Cubase LE software via download as well. Aside from a microphone, headphones and a little talent, you pretty much have it all here in the one device. Transport control allows you to use less of the mouse when dealing

with the computer and gives you a more ‘hands on’ approach to your music making.

You also get channel controls, with Record Arm, Solo, Mute, Channel Select and Master functions and a touchpad fader, all of which can be toggled up and down through your channels or banks within the software.

part it refers to Mod as in ‘Modulation’ – as in Chorus, Trem, Phaser and the like – and the Super hints at the fact that there’s a little more Mod on-board; two banks of eight effects all up to really let you create some modulated goodness.

DOUBLE TROUBLE So, you can have one effect on (from either bank) or obviously two effects on (one from each bank), which means you can get some pretty serious combinations. As a starting point all the effect types seem to be pretty damn good. I love the chewiness of the phaser, the sparkly chorus and the warmth of the verbs as an intro. And all of these would be great by themselves, but then think of having a verb setting (for non verb amps) as an always on and then being able to drop in a nice rotary or trem if needed. It isn’t quite earth shattering in its concept, but it is great in its application, working like multiple pedals in one unit and more importantly – sounding good!

Modulation effects is often the subtleties – a hint of trem on an arpeggiated part in the bridge, or a slightly bigger verb on a sustained chord at the end of a chorus.

CENTRAL STATION With plenty of choices you may be a little overwhelmed at first. For me, the thinking is you’ve got a huge palette to choose from, but you don’t have to always go all out with every sound. The beauty of

HITS • A huge palette of tones • 16 high-quality Robert Keeley effects

WORK IT… Jumping into the ‘Mod 1’ section of the pedal you can flick between Tremolo, Harmonic Tremolo, Fliter/Wah, Phaser, ADT (Automatic Double Tracker), Rotary, Digital Delay and Analog Delay. ‘Mod 2’ comes packed with another eight effects including Harmonic Tremolo, Phaser, Analog Chorus/ Vibrato, Flanger, Leslie Rotary Speaker, Digital Delay, Hall Reverb and Plate Reverb.

All packed into a compact footprint, the Mod Workstation features top mounted jacks (which are typically pedalboard friendly) with additional inputs for Tap Tempo and Expression pedals. ‘Mod 1’ effects can utilise Tap Tempo whilst ‘Mod 2’ can have Expression control if you so desire.

A BETTER BUILD The first thing I did notice upon removing this from the package is that Icon seem to have put a lot of effort into bringing up the build quality of their lower priced devices in recent years. It feels like it is going to last, with a sturdy chassis and a decent amount of weight to it for its size. The 37-note keyboard is touch sensitive, with a springy semi-weighted feel, although not

BY ROB GEE HITS • Great bang for buck • DAW MIDI controller and audio interface in one • Compact yet sturdy build MISSES • None

I like the concept of the Workstations mainly focusing on a one type of effect, but then combining the ‘Workstation’ aspect with other effects to make it the kind of pedal you could solely take to a gig and be covered for a fair range of tones. I now also like the ‘Super Mod’ idea to give you a little more scope – be it at home or on a gig.

BY NICK BROWN

MISSES • Can be a bit too much for some people mixdownmag.com.au

FOR THE LOVE OF TONE Introducing LunaStone TrueOverDrive ™

Digging classic overdrive with a cutting and mid-focused crunch? Then you need to take the Wise Guy out for a spin. Expect the transparency and sweet responsiveness you know and love from great vintage amps.

The Three Stage Rocket is the result of a collaboration with the Danish guitarist, Søren Andersen, who wanted a pedal that delivered the tone he was hearing in his head, but had never truly found in a stompbox.

The Big Fella is your one stop station to an intense and modern rock tone. The tone of this hard-hitting drive gem will fill the room with a massive overdrive that is super fat, yet with a firm low end and tons of sustain.

Available Through All Good MI Retailers or Visit www.lunastonepedals.com/dealers

Proudly Distributed in Australia by Amber Technology www.ambertech.com.au | 1800 251 367 | sales@ambertech.com.au

Show & Tell Pete Cornelius What piece of equipment do you have to show us today?

It’s a PW Guitars Performer equipped with Tonerider Alnico IV pickups. This beauty was made about 50km from my house using all Tasmanian timbers.

How did you come across this particular item?

The guys at PW have been making acoustic instruments for some time now but have only just crossed over into making electrics.

They contacted me to help develop and showcase their finely crafted machines. So naturally I installed a set of their Alnico IVs. They match the instrument so well. The provide versatility, with a constant vintage tone.

What is it that you like so much about it?

I love the sound and the feel, but most of all I love the fact that it’s made by humans using sonically beautiful timber. I find that the Toneriders really help pronounce the individual sound of each instrument giving each guitar its own character.

How do you use it and how has it shaped the way you write music?

I have only had this particular guitar for about 6 months but so far it seems to provoke a smoother, more articulate playing style.

Currently I run it through a Fender Deluxe Reverb Re-Issue with a WGS 12” Blackhawk speaker. It’s a great size and wattage for most venues not to mention it has that classic Fender clean sound.

Any other interesting points?

I have always enjoyed fooling around with customising guitars, and pickups are an easy mod and can make a huge difference. They seem to produce the sound I’m hearing at one hell of a price!

Tell us a little bit about what you have coming up?

Well, normally this summer period is flat out with gigs and tours but we’re having our 3rd child late December. So ill be changing more nappies than strings! But our next ‘mainland’ outing will be for the Thredbo Blues Festival Jan 20-22.

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Formula 602 ARRIVING THIS MONTH

MODERN ESSENTIALS

Formula 602 Modern Essentials have been bridging the gap between dark and bright with richness and complexity since they were first developed with Vinnie Colaiuta in 2013.

Now, these new additions expand the range give you even more choices. Which one will you use?

24" Ride

22" Crash

19" Crash

17" Crash

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