Mixdown Magazine 277 by Furst Media

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#277 — MAY 2017

Made by Musicians for Musicians

Giveaway! NOVATION LAUNCHPAD MINI SEE PG. 6 FOR DETAILS

Timetable & Map inside

+Ride, Endless Boogie, Touché Amoré, Deep Purple, sleepmakeswaves & more FEATURES — The Sydney Drum and Percussion Show, NS Designs, Sensaphonics Ear Plugs, Electro-Voice EV-ND Series Microphones

REVIEWED — Sakae Almighty Maple Drum Kit, Slam Drum Heads, Jet City Custom 5 Amplifier, Dixon Gregg Bissonette Brass

Snare Drum, Cordoba Leona L9-E Guitar, Electro-Voice ND-Series Microphones, Line 6 Spider V 240HC Head and V412 Cabinet + Loads More

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EVENTS & PROMOTIONS yamahabackstage.com.au

Contents Foreword

Giveaways

Industry News

Music News

Product News

At the Drive In

sleepmakeswaves Endless Boogie

Joe Goddard

Deep Purple Ride

Wet Lips Justin Bernasconi

Advice Columns

Holding onto your Hearing with Sensaphonics

A Closer Look At: NS Designs

A Closer Look At: The EV Microphones

This issue of Mixdown here is a special one for a number of reasons. For one, we’re running with a focus on drum products to coincide with the inaugural Sydney Drum and Percussion Show – which is set to be a landmark event for drum enthusiasts right across the country. But on a more personal level, this is the last issue of Mixdown that I will oversee as editor. After working on Mixdown for 33 issues (11 as assistant editor, and 22 in the driver’s seat) I’m moving on from my post to embark on a new chapter in my life. I’ve had a really, really great time here. I’ve learned more working at Mixdown than I ever thought I would. More about music gear, more about the industry and more about myself. Looking back, I’d say I was quite timid when I took on this role, unsure of myself and my ability to manage a publication with a history as long and storied as Mixdown’s – it was a frightening prospect. I’m pleased to say that I’ll leave feeling accomplished and considerably more comfortable in my seat. I’d like say thanks to all the people who helped make my time here as great as its

been. Firstly to Pat and Kris for taking me on; to all my wonderful writing staff who always got the job done – even if I had to crack the proverbial whip from time to time; to the team at Fashion Journal who I’ve shared an office with for the past 3 years and have had their work routinely interrupted by my nonsensical ramblings about children’s television shows and other equally irrelevant/abstract topics; to the Beat editors Cara and Ali who first took me on as an intern and filled me with enough confidence in my own ability to make present-day me a possibility; to the Mixdown team, namely Alex and Mike for constantly shovelling coal into the furnace and keeping the magazine moving; to all the clients, both the ones who I hassled relentlessly and the ones who hassled me relentlessly; to Mike and the rest of the production team for managing my chaotic deadlines month after month – I know that

when it comes to doing this dance, I have two left feet, thanks for showing me the moves; to the Beat team who are in a state of perpetual deadline; to the wonderful office manager Lizzie, who singlehandedly greases the cogs of Furst Media without breaking a swear; to my partner Gab and all of my friends, who have through thick and thin been a constant source of inspiration, comfort and strength; and lastly to all the wonderful Mixdown readers who have picked up a magazine, entered a competition, ‘liked’ a post and emailed me their thoughts and opinions on the mag – without you this wouldn’t exist. Thanks, KEATS MULLIGAN - OUTGOING EDITOR (Cheers Keats, you’re a ledge. We’ll miss ya *tear* - Art Dept.)

ND-Series 34

The Sydney Drum and Percussion Show

Product Reviews

Show and Tell

Directory

PUBLISHER Furst Media

ART DIRECTOR Michael Cusack

GRAPHIC DESIGN Michael Cusack, Ben Driscoll

EDITOR Keats Mulligan mixdown@beat.com.au

EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS Elijah Hawkins, Alex Pink, Tom Bartha, Elisa Makisalo and Veronica Stampford

ONLINE EDITOR Alex Watts alex@furstmedia.com.au

MANAGING DIRECTOR Patrick Carr

CONTRIBUTORS Rob Gee, Peter Hodgson, Christie Elizer, Nick Brown, Elijah Hawkins, David James Young, Adam Norris, Adrian Violi, Michael Cusack, Augustus Welby, Luke Shields, Alex Watts and Michael Hohnen.

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

for breaking news, new content and more giveaways visit

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MADE BY MUSICIANS, FOR MUSICIANS For more information on Mixdown Magazine contact us at: (03) 9428 3600 or email mixdown@beat.com.au

PUBLISHER Furst Media

EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS Tex Miller

Cusack, Augustus Welby, Luke Shields, Alex Watts.

EDITOR Keats Mulligan mixdown@beat.com.au

MANAGING DIRECTOR Patrick Carr

ADVERTISING Patrick Carr patrick@furstmedia.com.au

ONLINE EDITOR Alex Watts mixdownstaff@beat.com.au ART DIRECTOR Michael Cusack

GRAPHIC DESIGN Michael Cusack, Joshua Barclay CONTRIBUTORS Rob Gee, Peter Hodgson, Christie Elizer, Nick Brown, Elijah Hawkins, David James Young, Adam Norris, Adrian Violi, Michael

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

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CLASSIC DESIGN

B a s e d o n Fe n d e r â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s t r a d i t i o n o f f i n e a c o u s t i c i n s t r u m e n t s , C l a s s i c D e s i g n f o c u s e s o n c o m f o r t , p l a ya b i l i t y, a n d t o n e, m a k i n g t h e s e g u i t a r s a p e r f e c t c h o i c e f o r n e w p l a ye r s .

Giveaways Last Month’s Giveaway Winners

NOVATION LAUNCHPAD MINI GIVEAWAY The Novation Launchpad Mini is a compact and affordable grid controller for Ableton Live. With 64 mini pads for triggering clips, playing drums, controlling your mixer and anything else in Live, the Mini does all the same cool stuff as the Launchpad but is even more portable and gig-ready. Thanks to our friends at Innovative Music Australia we have one to give away.

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.

THE HAGSTRÖM ULTRA SWEDE GIVEAWAY Over the past two months we’ve been running a huge competition for Hagström Guitars. We asked our readers to head out to their local Hagström dealers and try out one of their amazing guitars. Well we asked, and you delivered! We’ve been blown away by the amount of entries we had to this one, and we’re really thrilled we managed to get so many people out of the house and into music shops all over the country. We wish we could give one of these amazing Hagström Ultra Swedes away to all of you, but alas, there can only be one winner, and that winner is: Jay Wedge of Brisbane, Queensland. Congratulations Jay, you are now the proud owner of a Hagstrom Ultra Swede. This guitar features a slender body, an ultra-slim neck profile in an easy ‘D’ shape, and the rich, powerful sound of the company’s Custom 62 pickups. We hope you enjoy it!

AUDIO-TECHNICA LP3 GIVEAWAY In celebration of Record Store Day, we teamed up with our friends over at AudioTechnica to bring you an amazing Record Store Day giveaway. To help you get the most out of your brand new RSD releases, we’re giving away a brand new ATLP3 Belt Drive turntable to one lucky Mixdown reader. We’re very pleased to announce that the winner of this amazing prize is: David Sheridan of Melbourne, Victoria Congratulations David, we hope you get a kick out of this awesome turntable.

*These giveaways are for Australian residents only and one entry per person. For full terms and conditions visit www.mixdownmag.com.au/terms-and-conditions.

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4/12/17 12:54 PM

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Industry News BIGSOUND Expands

The showcase element of September’s BIGSOUND conference will extend to four days of showcases. There’s also a $100,000 Levis Music Prize for acts whose careers jump-started there and need to take the next step. For information see bigsound. org.au.

Helpmann Awards Back In July

Luca Brasi Singer Wins Young Achiever Award Tyler Richardson, the frontman for punk outfit Luca Brasi, was awarded The Coffee Club Arts and Fashion category in the Tasmanian Premier’s Young Achiever Awards. It was for his success in the Australian music industry, which has included 40 songs on five albums, three of which made the ARIA charts, playing to 40,000 people in Australia, UK and Europe, as well as promoting Tasmania and fundraising for LGBTIQ youth, refugees and Indigenous causes.

Study: Radio Figures

According to a study by Roy Morgan Research, 40% of Australians listen to the radio when they work, and reckon they are at their jobs longer as a result. The results found that 7.2 million Australians aged over 14 (36%) count radio as an important part of their day, while full time workers are the most likely to listen to radio daily (41%), ahead of retirees (40%), and parttime workers (35%). The study suggested that people with jobs spend almost 2 and a half hours (147 minutes) a day listening to radio, while those without a job do so for 114 minutes.

SAE Offers New Postgrad Program

The SAE Creative Media Institute has a new postgraduate program commencing this month. The Master of Creative Industries encompasses Graduate Diploma and Graduate Certificate qualifications. It is delivered online and includes a choice of six week-long elective courses across audio, film, games and design combined with non-discipline-specific subjects to further bolster students’ knowledge and experience with practical benefits and outcomes.

The Helpmann awards, which acknowledges all sectors of Australia’s $1.41 billion live performance industry, will be held on Monday July 24 at The Capitol Theatre in Sydney, with tickets available for the public to attend. This year, the awards will honour festival director and arts administrator Rob Brookman for his service to the live industry. Aside from co-founding WOMADelaide and being its artistic director for 15 years, he’s also been involved in numerous festivals and venues and this month takes over as executive director of the Adelaide Festival. The Australian live performance sector draws 1.8 million punters a year with contemporary music as the largest sector.

Gunners Draw 342,000 Aussie/Nz Fans

The official figures have rolled in for Guns N’Roses Australian and New Zealand tour, which took place over three weeks in February. They drew a total of 341,511 fans and grossed $51.23 million (AU). The ANZ shows brought the total of the world tour to $230 million (US), which still has a few more months to go after starting in April 2016.

I Manage My Music Workshop The next instalment of Melbourne selfmanaged singer songwriter and Milk! Records co-founder Jen Cloher’s six year old I Manage My Music workshops, is on Saturday June 3 at Music Victoria at 49 Tope St, South Melbourne. Besides Cloher, guest panellists will include Cash Savage, Chloe Turner (LISTEN, Music Victoria), Genna Alexopoulos (Super Duper Agency) and Alex Zaccaria (Bolster Group).

I OH YOU Launches Management Arm

Label and concert promoter I OH YOU (DZ Deathrays, Violent Soho, Snakadaktal, Bleeding Knees Club, City Calm Down) has launched a management arm for bands, producers and songwriters. Converse Management is run by Johann Ponniah and

Scott Armstrong and launched with four acts: Melbourne band Rolling Blackout Coastal Fever who are signed to Sub Pop and heading to Europe in September, Brisbane band The Belligerents, Brisbane-based producer, mixer and sound engineer, Konstantin Kersting and Brisban songwriter, Lewis Stephenson of both The Belligerents and Confidence Man.

NSW Launches Funding For Ambitious Arts

Create NSW has launched a major funding program for ‘ambitious’ arts and culture under the 2017/2018 Arts and Cultural Development Program. It supports music and regional touring as well as visual arts, museums, literature, dance, music, capital works and professional development for artists. Full details at create.nsw.gov.au.

New Live Events Training Firm

Behind The Wall is a new company in Perth set up to teach students the basic skills and knowledge required to start a career in the live events industry. Started by Jared Nelson, it covers pre production design, stage management, stage presence and live performance workshops, artist management, industry business skills as well as stress and fatigue management. It officially launches at Badlands on Wednesday May 3, for information contact jrod@jarednelsontraining.com.

Ultra Music Is Coming To Melbourne

American EDM festival Ultra Music will be held in Australia for the first time in February 2018. A single day, single stage ‘Road To Ultra’ event will take place in Melbourne, with plans for a larger event for both Melbourne and Sydney to occur in 2019.

Instrumental As Anything

The Manly Art Gallery in Sydney will host an exhibition called The Instrumental from Saturday May 27 to Sunday July 9. It is a photographic study by Chuck Bradley of 50 instruments used by high profile musicians, as well as the stories behind them, as collected by Bradley and curator Ross Heathcote. The idea started as just a look at Midnight Oil’s gear, but Rob Hirst put him on to his mates, who in turn recommended their friends. They include everything from Iva Davies’ oboe to Ian Moss’ guitar, Amanda Brown’s (The Go-Betweens) violin mandolin to Buzz Bidstrup’s drums and Kirk Pengilly’s sax.

THINGS WE HEAR These stories are still circulating as fact, so let’s clear these up. No, Coachella is not staging in Australia. No, Splendour In The Grass is not moving out of Byron Bay. No, they’re not building a statue in Cairns for Elton John to coincide with his tour there in September. They were all April Fool’s jokes perpetrated by various music sites. Comedian Tom Gleeson interviewing James Blunt: “You were a judge on The X Factor where you criticised other people’s music. Isn’t that the pot calling the kettle shit?” Airbourne announced Matt ‘Harri’ Harrison has replaced guitarist David Roads, who left amicably to spend more time running the family farm. Victoria Police has a secret hit list of 30 nightclubs it is watching for drug and alcohol breaches, the Sunday Herald-Sun reported. Sydney DJ Dan Single of the Bang Gang collective and founder of denim label Ksubi took down his $250,000 crowdsourcing campaign, which was begun to help pay medical bills after he fell three floors from a Paris hotel balcony. He broke ‘every bone from [his] feet to [his] hips and pelvis’, but was criticised for asking for money when he and his wife celebrated their lavish jetset lifestyle on social media. Only $500 was raised. Can presenters get in the way of ratings? The Media Diary column of The Australian noted in the year that Foxtel closed Channel [V] and replaced it with 24/7 music videos, ratings were up 6% from last year for [V] Hits. Former NRL star Matthew Johns ran into fellow-Newcastle personality Ben Gillies of Silverchair and his TV host wife Jackie at the Logies. After chatting, Johns started bellowing out Silverchair songs and it reportedly embarrassed Gillies so much that he left the event. At triple j’s One Night Stand concert in Mt. Isa before 7000, San Cisco got Thelma Plum to join them for a cover of Peter, Bjorn and John’s ‘Young Folk’. During Thundamentals’ headliner set, Cisco and The Smith Street Band jumped up on stage in fluoro tracksuits to bust out their best moves to their bouncy jam ‘Sally’.

mixdownmag.com.au

Music News Methyl Ethel To Tour This Month Having impressed just about everybody with ears with their recently released album Everything is Forgotten, Perth band Methyl Ethel are backing it up with a national tour, which kicks off this month. TOUR DATES Thursday May 18 – The Corner Hotel, Melbourne, VIC Saturday May 20 – Badlands, Peth, WA Thursday May 25 - Oxford Arts Factory, Sydney, NSW Saturday May 27 – Woolly Mammoth, Brisbane, QLD

Airling To Tour

The Smith Street Band Tour Kicks Off This Month Punk/folk heroes The Smith Street Band have officially sold out their hometown show at Melbourne’s Forum Theatre for their upcoming tour. The 1500 capacity room is one of the city’s best loved music venues and a major achievement for any band to fill. The band have quickly announced a second show at the venue for Friday June 2, with that and the other dates on their tour for their recently released album, More Scared Of You Than You Are Of Me, on sale now.

Having just released her debut album, Hard To Sleep, Easy To Dream, last month, Airling is heading out on a national tour, along with Jack Grace as support act. The album, which was made Triple J’s album of the week, has attracted a fair amount of attention; with several of the shows having already sold out. TOUR DATES Friday May 19 - Jive, Adelaide, SA Saturday May 20 - Babushka, Perth, WA Sunday May 21 - Mojo’s Bar, Fremantle, WA Friday May 26 - Civic Underground, Sydney, NSW Sunday May 28 - Black Bear Lodge, Brisbane, QLD Sunday June 4 - Northcote Social Club, Melbourne, VIC

Radio Birdman And Died Pretty Announce Double Headline Tour

TOUR DATES Thursday May 25 – Odeon Theatre, Hobart, TAS Friday May 26 – Enmore Theatre, Sydney, NSW Saturday May 27 – The Tivoli, Brisbane, QLD Friday June 2 – The Forum Theatre, Melbourne, VIC Saturday June 3 – The Forum Theatre, Melbourne, VIC Friday June 9 – Metro City, Perth, WA Saturday June 10 – Thebarton Theatre, Adelaide, SA

Radio Birdman and Died Pretty will be uniting for a run of joint headline shows in June. This is exciting news for fans of both bands, neither of whom perform live with any regularity. Radio Birdman, who were one of the biggest punk bands to come out of Sydney in the mid 1970s, initially broke up in 1978. Died Pretty emerged from Sydney in 1983, going on to have wide success in the 1990s with the albums Doughboy Hollow and Trace in 1991 and 1993 respectively. The two acts will alternate headlining positions each night, with supports including Kim Salmon and Dave Graney and the MistLY. TOUR DATES Friday June 16 – Enmore Theatre, Sydney, NSW Saturday June 16 – The Capitol, Perth, WA Friday June 23 – The Tivoli, Brisbane, QLD Sunday June 25 – The Gove, Adelaide, SA Friday June 30 – Croxton Bandroom, Melbourne, VIC Saturday July 1 – Croxton Bandroom, Melbourne, VIC

Luca Brasi Embark On Their Biggest Tour To Date

Dragonforce’s World Tour Hits Australia Next Month

Luca Brasi will undertake their biggest run of headline shows so far, visiting venues around the country in June. The Tasmanian punk band are riding a definite high at the moment, having recently appeared at Laneway Festival, Unify Gathering, and Party in the Paddock, while their 2016 album If This Is All We’re Going To Be reached #18 on the ARIA charts.

Metal powerhouse group Dragonforce are launching themselves onto Australian shores as part of their mammoth world tour. Set to kick off in June, the tour will see the band play in venues across the country in support of their highly anticipated studio album, Reaching into Infinity, which is out this month.

TOUR DATES Thursday June 22 – The Gov, Adelaide, SA Friday June 23 – 170 Russell, Melbourne, VIC Saturday June 24 – Capitol, Perth, WA Thursday June 29 – Brisbane Hotel, Hobart, TAS Friday June 30 – The Triffid, Brisbane, QLD Saturday July 1- The Metro, Sydney, NSW

TOUR DATES Tuesday June 20 – Capitol, Perth, WA Wednesday June 21 – 170 Russell, Melbourne, VIC Thursday June 22 – The Basement, Canberra, ACT Saturday June 24– Manning Bar, Sydney, NSW Sunday June 25 – The Triffid, Brisbane, QLD

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Catch Hellions On Tour Sydney rock band Hellions are currently out on a national headline tour to celebrate their recently released third album, Opera Oblivia. The band have been enjoying some well deserved attention off the back of the album, which debuted at #4 on the ARIA Album Chart and was nominated for Best Hard Rock/ Heavy Metal Album at the 2016 ARIA awards. TOUR DATES Thursday May 11 - Woolly Mammoth, Brisbane, QLD Friday May 12 - Minimum Wage Club, Gold Coast, QLD Friday May 19 - The Basement, Canberra, ACT Saturday May 20 - Corner Hotel, Melbourne, VIC 9

Product News

The Vic Firth Benny Greb Drum Stick Australian Music Supplies |

Bogner Debut The Oxford Fuzz And Lyndhurst Compressor Pedals

Carslsbro CSD180 Compact Electronic Drum Kit Australian Music Supplies |

EGM Distribution | egm.net.au

Famed amp designer Reinhold Bogner has moved into the world of pedal design in recent years, and has just unveiled two new models – the Oxford Fuzz and Lyndhurst Compressor pedals. Both pedals feature Rupert Neve Design transformers based on classic 60’s mixing desks. The Oxford fuzz’s incredibly wide range of gain delivers access to touch-sensitive overdrive, classic fuzz, and over-the-top sonic mayhem with plenty of control for precisely dialing in your ideal shade of dirt. The Lyndhurst allows you to achieve a wide variety of compression levels, from a slight push to clear limiting.

The Carlsbro CSD180 is a compact electronic drum kit made with the company’s reliable quality and durability. Like its predecessor the CSD130, the kit sounds have been made by listening to drummers from all walks of life and combining them with innovative technology, resulting in a startling realistic acoustic drum feel. The Commander 200 Sound Module features a 128x64 LCD display, 458 high quality percussion voices, 26 complete kit presets, 15 user defined kits, and 20 demo songs. It also has a USB interface, MIDI in/out, recording and playback options, adjustable sensitivity, a metronome, three-band EQ, three ambience and a two reverb settings. Combine this with a heavy duty sturdy frame that also contains the kit’s cables, making it sturdy and stylish.

The Vic Firth Benny Greb is a signature stick made for German drumming sensation Benny Greb. A true student of the instrument, his analytical and holistic approach to the drums fuels his enviable ability to groove in any musical setting. In 2016 Greb turned to Vic Firth in search of the perfect stick, and the result is a 5B shaft with a medium taper and shortened tear drop tip, for focused cymbal sound and excellent rebound. Similar in diameter to a 5B, the signature model has some unique adjustments to optimise feel and sound. To attain a little more response than a medium taper normally allows, additional length is secured from the neck by moving the tip further up the stick, and while increasing response usually requires changing the taper or length of a stick, the Benny Greb model does it all within a wellbalanced 16 inches.

The TC Electronic PolyTune Clip Is Now Available In Black Amber Technology | ambertech.com.au

TC Electronic Release The K-115 Bass Cabinet Amber Technology | ambertech.com.au

The TC Electronic K-115 bass cabinet features a high-quality 15” custom driver with a powerful subsonic tone to bring out the low-end and enhance the cabinet’s natural resonance. Developed by bass players, the K-115 was created with the gigging musician in mind. The lightweight and portable design allows for ease of transportation but is without a compromise on tone. Complete with a vintage look and sturdy build, the K-115 is able to be combined with other K-cabinet models to produce different sounds and cater to every bass player’s needs. 10

New From Remo Australian Music Supplies |

Remo have unleashed a slew of new drum products including the Ambassador Classic Fit Drumheads, which feature slightly narrow flesh hoops and step designs to address over-sized drums made prior to the mid 60s. They are ideal for older vintage drums that are out of round with thick overlapping drum coverings. José Pasillas from Incubus has contributed original artwork to the Artbeat Artist Collection, with designs on Cajons and Tambourines. The Powerstroke P3 Felt Tone Bass Drumheads, including the Fiberskyn and Hazy models, incorporating the traditional style of dampening a bass drum with a strip of felt into an easy to install, all-inclusive drum head that is ideal for vintage and contemporary kit applications.

With its elegant and durable design, a trio of tuning modes and increased accuracy, TC Electronic’s PolyTune Clip is their most impressive polyphonic tune-up to date. The PolyTune uses advanced technology to provide users with fast and accurate tuning in any of three modes: chromatic, polyphonic, as well as the strobe tuner with +/- 0.02 per cent accuracy. Featuring an ultra-bright, easy to read display with automatically adjusted viewing to accommodate your needs, the PolyTune is designed to make tuning your instrument as easy as possible. The MonoPoly feature adds to the appeal of the PolyTune with its ability to remember your pitch reference and tuning mode, while also recognising whether you’re playing one or more strings and responding with the relevant poly or monophonic tuning mode. A stainless steel clip with strategically placed padding ensures the PolyTune won’t damage your instrument, and its sleek black exterior finishes the high-quality look. mixdownmag.com.au

Product News Kirk Hammett Versus The Ernie Ball Paradigm Strings CMC Music Australia | cmcmusic.com.au

As reviewed in last month’s magazine, Ernie Ball’s new Paradigm series not only continue the brand’s long history of quality electric guitar strings, but add incredible durability. In fact the company are so sure of this that they are offering to replace them free of charge if they break within 90 days of purchase. To highlight this point, Ernie Ball have been releasing several videos showing well known guitarists playing and attempting to break the strings. The latest celebrity to attempt this is none other than Metallica’s Kirk Hammett, who took up the challenge onstage before a show in Mexico City. ‘Metallica’s Kirk Hammett was invited to put a set of Paradigm strings through his own torture test,’ read a press release from Ernie Ball. ‘Having played Ernie Ball strings since he was 18, and using them on hits like ‘Seek & Destroy,’ ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls,’ ‘Sad But True’ and many other hits, Kirk obviously enjoyed the challenge.’ The strings, however, won this round.

Dixon Blaze Series Drum Kits Dynamic Music | dynamicmusic.com.au

The Ernie Ball Music Man Limited Edition Starry Night Finish CMC Music Australia | cmcmusic.com.au

Once a year, for a limited two week period, Ernie Ball Music Man offer to build their incredibly crafted instruments in a unique finish available exclusively to their Premier Dealer Network. At the end of that period, the finish is retired, and a small range of instant collectables are born. Instruments ordered in the 2016 Premier Dealer Network finish - Starry Night - are now being delivered to Ernie Ball Music Man dealers around the country. Starry Night features an exclusive limited edition sparkle burst finish. The package also includes a figured, roasted maple neck with stainless steel frets atop an unmarked ebony fretboard - a first from Ernie Ball Music Man.

Dixon have well and truly entered the acoustic drum market with a powerful impact, punching well above their weight for both quality and value. More in line with what you would expect from a Pearl Masters or Mapex Saturn, the Dixon Blaze series delivers equally impressive features and finishes at a price that is really turning heads. Dixon believes there’s nothing more satisfying than expecting more from something and getting it. For drummers, the Blaze series is just that; more of what a professional expects from an instrument for less than most sets in its class. Blaze is crafted from North American Maple and Red Silkwood for a balanced foundation giving drummers full control of their sound responding accurately to the multitude of drumhead options available today.

Dixon Precision Coil Pedal The Celestion G12H-150 Redback Speaker Electric Factory | elfa.com.au

As announced at the top of the year at NAMM, Celestion have released a powerful speaker in the form of the G12H-150 Redback. Designed for players who demand ‘extreme power handling but refuse to compromise on great tone’, the 150-watt speaker is made with a 2-inch voice coil and a heavy G12 magnet. Consequently the Redback manages to retain the tonal character of a Celestion product, while being able to withstand a pummelling from a 100-watt head. Delivering a tight and well controlled low end, a detailed midrange and more relaxed treble, resulting in a balanced and responsive speaker for your cabinet or amplifier. 12

Dynamic Music | dynamicmusic.com.au

Back in 2015, Dixon unveiled their uniquely engineered prototype Precision Coil pedal to the world at NAMM, and they will now be arriving in Australia. 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. 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.

National Pioneer RP1 Black Rust Resonator Electric Guitar Gladesville Guitar Factory | guitarfactory.net

National Resophonic revealed a beautiful new model at NAMM this year in the RP1 Pioneer resonator, which is now available in Australia. The RP1 Pioneer is an acoustic steel body electric that is 25” in scale length, has an ebony fretboard over a maple neck and features a Highlander piezo pickup and a Lollar P-90 combined with an onboard preamp. mixdownmag.com.au

Product News

Fender Announce Wireless Mustang GT Amplifiers

Keeley Release The Mesmer Astral Delay Keeley Electronics | robertkeeley.com

Fender Music Australia | fender.com.au

The Mustang GT guitar amp range combines with Fender’s new Tone app to enhance sharing and parameter altering options through Bluetooth and WI-Fi connectivity. Fender’s Generation Three modelling provides 21 amp models in line with the three available combinations: the tabletop 2x6” G40, and the gig-ready 1x12” GT 100 and 2x12” GT 200. All combinations are capable of USB recording, while the 100 and 200 feature XLR line outs and effect loops to be used with the 45 available effects. The range allows guitarists to create setlists from custom preset groups with Fender also catering to beginners by including advice on basic amp knowledge for less experienced users. Fender has further enhanced the range with playlists created specifically for the amps by artists such as Grimes, Joe Bonamassa, Josh Klinghoffer, and Scott Ian.

Described by Robert Keeley as the ‘stompbox for stoners’, the new Mesmer Astral Delay pedal is set to offer diversity and extended creativity to your playing due to its eye catching design. Complete with a set of 3D glasses which users can use to look at the pedal whilst playing to fully immerse themselves in the experience. Keeley are taking things a little further with the features offered in the Astral Delay. With three different modes of delay, two of which repeat in fifths or octaves and a third that handles arpeggios, things are set to get a little psychedelic.

The SPL Reducer Power Attenuator

Novation Announces The Peak Synth Innovative Music | innovativemusic.com.au

Announced at Superbooth in Berlin, Novation have just released the details of the Peak Synthesiser. The synth utilises an analogue sound engine and CV/gate compatibility to give an enhanced musical experience whilst creating. The Peak is an eight voice desktop Polysynth with sounds that are based around the New Oxford Oscillators. Combining 17 digital wavetables as well as FM capability, the Peak is a step through time that allows users to revisit the analogue sound patches through this sleek new unit. Also included is polyphonic after touch and the inclusion of two animate buttons allowing users to transform sounds at the touch of a button. The Peak has both MIDI and CV compatibility and comes with USB connectivity allowing for DAW sync and patch storage via the Novation app.

Link Audio | linkaudio.com.au

The Reducer is a passive power attenuator for guitar and bass amplifiers designed to help you preserve your tone whilst playing at lower levels. It connects between the amp head and the speaker and converts the amp’s electrical power into heat, which then dissipates. Because the device is passive it reduces your volume with resistors and so does not require any external power supply. Passive power reduction also results in an accurate sound reproduction that will not affect the frequency response curve, even at low levels. For the amp output, impedance can be set to four, eight or 16 Ohm. Reduction is stepped in the first stages, but

Zildjian Artist Series Sticks Australian Music Supplies |

Propellerhead Announces Reason 9.5

Gibraltar Multi-Purpose Drum Key Pro Music | promusicaustralia.com.au

Innovative Music | innovativemusic.com.au

Propellerhead has announced that it will shortly be releasing the latest update to its widely popular DAW. The most exciting part of this news for current users is that Reason 9.5 will add Virtual Studio Technology (VST) support, which the company says is their most requested feature. Now users who own VST plugins such as Native Instruments Komplete, Auto-Tune, EastWest Sounds and others, will be able to integrate them easily within Reason. The new update will be released at the end of this month and will be free for those who already own Reason 9. mixdownmag.com.au

The Gibraltar SC-KZK is a multi-purpose, hinged drum key with several tightening positions to allow for easy use in tight spaces. Not only that, but these highly useful tool for drummers even has a bottle opener built into its handle. The drum key swivels in and out of the handle, allowing for flexible positioning, while the handle itself acts as a wrench for tightening and loosening stands.

Zildjian have released signature sticks for several well known players as part of their Artist Series, including Twenty One Pilots’ Josh Dun, The Mars Volta’s Thomas Pridgen and Parkway Drive’s Ben Gordon. The Josh Dun Artist Series stick is built to stand up to the aggressive grooves that drive Twenty One Pilots. It features a beefed up 5A shaft with extra length for more reach and effortless velocity. Its medium taper keeps everything in balance and the oval tip creates a surface area ideal for punchy drums and bright cymbals. The Thomas Pridgen Artist Series stick is bold and aggressive by design. Its extra length, combined with a short taper, pushes more weight to the front of the stick, allowing the diameter to stay in the sweet spot between the 5A and 5B. A large oval tip translates all that power into fat sound on the drums and plenty of volume from the cymbals. As part of the series Zildjian have also created a limited edition stick for Ben Gordon, which is 0.625” in diameter, 16 5/8” in length with a custom Rockwood tip with Gordon’s name and Parkway Drive’s logo. 13

Product News Neumann’s KH 80 DSP Studio Monitors Are Available Now

Slim Jim Phantom At The Sydney Drum And Percussion Show Pro Music | promusicaustralia.com

Sennheiser | sennheiser.com.au

Neumann has expanded their range of active studio monitors with the KH 80 DSP, which are two-way active bi-amplified monitors featuring a DSP engine with network control. Designed for use as a nearfield monitor, or as a front or rear speaker in a multi-channel system, the KH 80 DSP’s compact dimensions make them perfect for desktop use for a variety of audio applications.

Guild Guitars M-240E Troubadour Acoustic

Slim Jim Phantom is a rock-and-roll icon, a title earned initially through his role as the drummer with the legendary Stray Cats, in which he spearheaded the neo-rockabilly movement of the early 80’s with bandmates Brian Setzer and Lee Rocker. Beyond this Phantom has played a part in numerous successful groups, including Phantom, Rocker and Slick, The Swing Cats, and Dead Men Walking. He is deeply committed to charitable works and has climbed both Mount Everest and Mount Kilimanjaro for the Love Hope Strength Foundation to benefit cancer research. Fans and drum aficionados alike will have a chance to catch Phantom at The Pro Music stand during The Sydney Drum and Percussion Show, which takes place from May 27-28.

Zenith Music | zenithmusic.com.au

Guild pays homage to their F-20 model with the introduction of the M-240E Troubadour to their acoustic archback line. This small-bodied guitar with a vintage sunburst top is reminiscent of the 60’s folk era when the F-20 first became popular. The M-240E Troubadour features a classic wood combination with an Indian rosewood fingerboard and bridge, bone nut and saddle, and tortoiseshell pickguard. The guitar is ideal for fingerstyle playing and light strumming, with its reduced size making it great for use by smaller players and travelling musicians. The Troubadour’s vintage finishes are complete with the DeArmond Tone Boss, a humbucking magnetic soundhole pickup with built-in volume control. Compatible with any amplifier and with a deluxe padded Guild bag included, the M-240E Troubadour is an impressive addition to Guild’s acoustic archback line.

ADK Microphones Studio Connections | studioconnections.com.au

ADK Microphones build high-end condenser microphones for studio, broadcast, and live sound. They count amongst their fans several well known musicians, producers and engineers such as Ray Charles, Eddie Kramer, Lenny Kravitz, Wynton Marsalis, Michael Shipley, Stevie Wonder, and Nora Jones. Some of ADK’s products include the Class A ‘Audiophile Series’ range of studio mics, and the Ultra-Low-Noise choir and orchestra mics from their 3 Zigma Division. The ADK Custom Shop also builds one-off models that are custom-tailored to match the unique character of an individual voice or instrument. The ADK Beta Team have over a dozen Grammy Awards and it’s this collaboration that creates a unique blend of tone and technology, which sets ADK microphones apart from the competition.

QSC Introduces The K.2 Series Speakers Technical Audio Group | tag.com.au

The Fender Classic Design Series Fender Music Australia | fender.com.au

Based on Fender’s tradition of fine acoustic instruments, the new Classic Design series focuses on comfort, playability, and tone, making them a perfect choice for new players. Combining traditional and modern designs, the 2017 line includes several player-oriented features, including an all-solid top for increased resonance and sustain, rolled fingerboard edges for player comfort, and a new ‘easy to play’ neck profile, which is said to be ideal for any style of playing. All three models are also available as electricacoustic models with a Fisherman preamp system installed and a single-cutaway body, and/or with a Rosewood back and sides for increased tonal warmth. 14

The K.2 series are the latest addition to QSC’s best selling K Family line of powered loudspeakers. Comprised of the 8-inch K8.2, the 10-inch K10.2 and 12-inch K12.2 full range speakers, the series features several upgrades to the company’s past releases. Each model is equipped with a 2000-watt power module that is matched to high-performance woofers and compression drivers. The K.2 series can function as either the main PA or as a floor monitor. Each model can also be flown, wall- or truss-mounted or placed on a speaker pole, either straight firing or with 7.5 degree down-tilt. This flexibility makes it a smart choice for a wide range of live sound applications.

New Drum Products From Sakae And Murat Diril Hot Apple Distribution | hotapple.com.au

Sakae have released the RF2 Road Anew five piece fusion kit and hardware set. The Road Anew six-ply shells feature an inner and outer ply of Cherry with Asian Mahogany plies in the middle. Sakae’s unique cradle mounting system suspends toms from the bottom rim for more complete tone isolation. Available in natural and sparkle finishes, the fusion kit includes a 20x18 Kick Drum, 10x07 Tom Tom, 12x08 Tom Tom, 14x13 Floor Tom, 14x5.5 Snare and a hardware pack. In other percussive news, Murat Diril have released some new cymbals for 2017, namely the Renaissance range, including the 16” Dark Hi-Hat, a 20” Brilliant Crash-Ride, a 12/12” FX Two Face Stack, and a 20” FX Crash-Ride. Their Artistic range includes a 6” Arena Splash, 15” Black Sea Hi-Hat, 14” Black Sea China, 19” Artistic Black Sea FX Crash, 12” Mosaic Splash, and the 20” & 22” Mosaic China. The Superior range is made up of a 23” Hommage Ride, 19” Hommage Crash, and a 20” Velvet Crash-Ride. mixdownmag.com.au

Mark Colenburg & Jahi Sundance (DJ)

Introducing the all new K Custom Special Dry Collection. We created the dry sound over a decade ago and have now remastered these raw and earthy cymbals for today’s modern music styles. Each cymbal delivers a dry, funky sound with a fast attack and lots of trash for a unique expression. Once again, Zildjian has taken the art of cymbal making to the next level and has left its imitators behind. This is #DryDoneRight. See and hear all 15 models at Zildjian.com.

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You’re going to want more than one. These five models have been staples in our back room for years, and while the name says ‘Modern Jazz,’ we’ve found that they are exceptional in almost any musical setting. Never before available to the public, this collection was developed collaboratively with drummers on the cutting edge of “America’s Original Art Form,” including Jeff Ballard, Greg Hutchinson, Joe McCarthy and Lewis Nash. These fivefive models have been staples in our back room for for years, andand These have been staples in our back room years, For full specs, gomodels to VicFirth.com/MJC. while thethe name says ‘Modern Jazz,’ we’ve found thatthat they areare exceptional while name says ‘Modern Jazz,’ we’ve found they exceptional in almost anyany musical setting. Never before available to the public, in almost musical setting. Never before available to the public, PROUDLY DISTRIBUTED BY thisthis collection waswas developed collaboratively withwith drummers on on thethe collection developed collaboratively drummers AUSTRALASIAN MUSIC SUPPLIES ©2017 Vic Firth Company www.austmusic.com.au cutting edge of “America’s Original Art Art Form,” including JeffJeff Ballard, cutting edge of “America’s Original Form,” including Ballard, Greg Hutchinson, JoeJoe McCarthy andand Lewis Nash. Greg Hutchinson, McCarthy Lewis Nash.

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ForFor full full specs, go to specs, goVicFirth.com/MJC. to VicFirth.com/MJC. PROUDLY DISTRIBUTED BY BY PROUDLY DISTRIBUTED AUSTRALASIAN MUSIC SUPPLIES AUSTRALASIAN MUSIC SUPPLIES www.austmusic.com.au www.austmusic.com.au

GROWING UP

AT THE DRIVE IN

In September of 2000, At the Drive-In released their third studio album, Relationship of Command. A blistering, uncompromising release of scorched-earth catharsis and an evolution of post-hardcore in the most literal sense, it went on to become one of the decade’s most influential and defining releases. For the better part of its legacy, however, the band itself was not around to witness it – just six months later they imploded under the pressure of touring and their cult fanbase expanding beyond their collective comprehension. The individual members would go onto a myriad of other projects – among them The Mars Volta and Sparta – but it would take 11 years from their initial split to regroup. According to the band, even that moment felt as though it would never come – for all intents and purposes, At the Drive-In was finished. “I didn’t think that I would ever reconnect with it,” says Cedric Bixler-Zavala, the band’s lead vocalist and founding member. “That just wasn’t where my head was at. What happened with us was the same thing that happens with any old family members. You embrace the adult version of you now, and you’re able to tackle a lot of the subject matter that you wouldn’t have been able to back then. I think that life has a funny way of giving you time to reflect on how to build your communication skills – especially for people in rock bands. For me, being a parent now gives me a lot of perspective on being able to listen to somebody.” 2012 saw At the Drive-In reunite for a series of shows that took them to major festivals and several countries. By the end of the year, however, the group’s station once again became non-operational. Perhaps it was to do with the extenuating circumstances that affected the tour – in particular, the death of guitarist Omar Rodriguez-Lopez’s mother – but in any case, the band fell silent for another four years. The idea of At the Drive-In making another album was floated, but it had to come at the right time and in the right place. “It was never just going to happen over night,” says Bixler Zavala. “The obvious perspective would be to just grow some thick skin and get on with it, but it’s really not that easy. After we had a few therapy-type sessions together, we committed to living together through a whole campaign. We had to put our money where our mouths were. We just kept writing, and that was always there. Some of it made the album, some of it didn’t, but the ideas were always generating. The only thing that delayed it were those growing pains – for a lot of us, we were getting to know one another all over again. We were learning to trust one another again. The shows in 2012 were baby steps. We knew that if we got through that minimal amount at that time, we’d be able to make this work. It was all about shifting through our different processes until we were ready.” When At the Drive-In returned in 2016, there was a key difference – guitarist/vocalist Jim Ward was not a part of the line-up. In his place was Keeley Davis, a guitarist that – ironically enough – Ward had previously brought in as a replacement in his band, Sparta, for At the Drive-In guitarist Paul Hinojos. Naturally, Ward being out of 16

“We needed time away from one another to grow up, to make music with other people and to get away from our public persona. Rock & roll is not a place where people know how to communicate very well when you’re young – the live setting can be the only place where you can truly express what shit you’re going through” the picture caused even greater backlash from longtime fans. Bixler-Zavala, however, is quick to point out that not only is this not the first time Ward has left the band; but if he still wanted to be playing in the band, he would be. “An important thing that a lot of people don’t understand is that, from the first album onward, there were just four of us that stayed through the whole thing,” he says. “There were lots of stretches of time and effort and touring where people like Jim weren’t even there. That’s all through ‘97, ‘98, ‘99... we’d go on tour for six months and he wouldn’t participate. He would come and go. The bulk of the work and the chemistry of the band was the four of us, but the bulk of what people know is when he was in the band. When it came to doing this band again, it just wasn’t something that he wanted to do. It was on us to find someone who did. We have the greatest respect for all past members of this band, and there’s no hard feelings. With that said, everyone who raised their hand and committed to being in At the Drive-In is what you hear on the record.”

The aforementioned record is in•ter a•li•a, the band’s fourth studio album and first in 17 years. Co-produced by Rodriguez-Lopez and acclaimed engineer Rich Costey, in•ter a•li•a is a rebirth by fire – a boldly-conceptual, energetic album that goes about its business of reclaiming the At the Drive-In name with both force and tact. For Bixler-Zavala, it’s an album that is both dystopic and deeply personal – a reflection on both fatherhood and the future. “I wanted this album to reflect the point of view of a child stuck in what people like to call the parallel universe coming to fruition,” he says. “This child has learned that things like language are illegal, as well as equality and free-flowing thoughts that make us cohabitate with each other. They’re living in a war-torn time, in a place they never thought war would come. The child is sifting through the rubble, trying to make sense of it. It’s a reflection on the times that we’re living in, but set ahead a few generations where their consequences are truly felt. It’s about our children’s children. I was thinking about it when I was waking up every morning and spending time with my kids. I was reminded of what it was like to colour outside of the lines – that freedom of child’s play before you’re told where the boundaries are.” After their initial demise and subsequent false-start reunion, At the Drive-In don’t appear to be going anywhere. With the new album out, the band are about to hit the road yet again – including a return to Australia – and their future is perhaps even more prosperous now than it was circa Relationship of Command. “We’re using this symbol in our stage banner that was created by our friend Chris Friedman,” says Bixler-Zavala. “It looks like two hands coming together, and I really feel like that represents where the band is now. We needed time away from one another to grow up, to make music with other people and to get away from our public persona. Rock & roll is not a place where people know how to communicate very well when you’re young – the live setting can be the only place where you can truly express what shit you’re going through. We have perspective on that time of our lives now, and we’re equipped with tools that allow us to communicate better. We had to learn how to be human beings.” BY DAVID JAMES YOUNG At The Drive In are touring Australia in September and October through Select Touring. in.ter a.li.a will be released on Friday May 5 through Cooking Vinyl Australia. mixdownmag.com.au

Music Interviews “By the time we got into the studio, however, we realised that the songs were there and we can play them. Looking back on it, I’m pretty happy with how it came together. It feels like us, but it has a different emotional aspect to it than our previous records. I like that a lot – I think I’m getting more and more interested in the emotional core of a song, as opposed to what genre it fits into.”

sleepmakeswaves Leave Room To Breathe With the release of their 2014 LP, Love of Cartography, Sydney band sleepmakeswaves finally made it to the top of the mountain as far as Australian post-rock is concerned. Much like the music itself, it was a slow and steady ascent that paid off in dividends when the glorious view from the summit was reached. Upon wrapping up an extensive world tour nearly two years after the fact, it was time to see what the band had in the arsenal for album number three. “It wasn’t always the easiest process creatively,” begins Alex Wilson – bassist, keyboardist, programmer and sleepmakeswaves’ sole original member. “I think we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to meet these expectations we had on ourselves after Cartography. We have more people that are aware of the band now than ever before. I think it brought up all of our anxious protectionism about the music and the band, so it was a bit scary in the lead-up.

Made of Breath Only is the album’s title – a reflection on both human nature and the nature of impermanence. It sees the band delve into heavier, denser territory than Love of Cartography, which Wilson initially wasn’t sure about. Ultimately, it came down to mirroring what life had dealt the band’s individual members between releases. “We thought deliberately about wanting to write a darker record,” he says. “It was an expression of some personal experiences we had gone through, so capturing that sound was intentional. Interestingly, the way the other guys in the band were writing kind of made me want to write some stuff on my end that was a bit more chilled out and a bit less intense. It was this kind of unspoken creative desire that was pulling me back in this direction toward writing the kind of music that ended up on the record.” The album was their second release in a row to be successfully crowdfunded on Pozible, reeling in an impressive $45,000 to put towards its creation. Wilson was initially reluctant to return to the platform but as he watched through his fingers the numbers added up and once again got the project off the ground. “I will admit – as grateful as I am for all of the massive support that we had, I think everyone would prefer not to have that kind of pressure in an ideal world,” he says. “That’s on both sides, too. It’s a gratifying experience, though, having said that – you’re basically saying to everyone that cares about the band that it’s going to be tough for us to pull off what we want to do. There’s a trust there in handing over your hard-

down-and-dirty when the time calls for it. As they have spent the majority of their time trading as a live band, it was important for them to capture that lightning in a bottle. It’s for this reason that the songs themselves are built up through extensive rehearsals and jam sessions, rather than trying to build them part by part. “Our tactic when we’re writing songs is to get in the studio, set our stuff up and play live for hours and hours,” says Major.

Moving In Endless Boogie Time It’s been about four years since Brooklyn blues-rockers Endless Boogie last put out a new record, 2013’s Long Island. It’s the longest gap between albums in the band’s 20-year career, but rest assured they have their reasons for the delays. “We move in Boogie time,” says singer and guitarist Paul Major. “It’s not particularly fast sometimes of course, but we finally got a new record in the bag. We had a few hassles along the way – I broke my arm, which put us back about five months because I couldn’t play. We recovered from that, and then our bass player had a skateboarding accident and broke his hand. That’s why he didn’t come out to Australia the last time that we played there – he was still out of action. Finally, we were able to make it happen, and I’m really excited that we get to share it with people.” Vibe Killer is album number five from Endless Boogie – who, as their name suggests, trade in big grooves, big riffs and getting 18

“We might have a few ideas here and there, but for the most part we just like to jam and let it happen from there. Once we’ve been doing that for awhile, we go through the tapes and see what good parts are there for us to salvage. We like capturing everything live – only after we’ve done that will we tinker with a lyric or a guitar part or something like that. It’s funny to see how things change from when you start making a record to when you finish it – you keep saying to yourself ‘this is gonna be the one, or maybe this one,’ and then they don’t even make the record. Something that you weren’t even thinking about touching might come up, and then you’ll be like ‘y’know what? Let’s see what we can do with that one.’ Everything can change. That’s evolution coming on through the whole process – and that’s part of the fun of it all.”

earned in making that happen. It’s a scary proposition, but I’m glad that we could deliver our creative vision. It’s a massive privilege, and the fact it’s possible for a band like us to do that is pretty cool.” Production was handled by American-Australian engineer Nick DiDia, who has worked with everyone from Kasey Chambers to Korn. Having overseen Love of Cartography, he was the band’s first choice to shack up with once again at his Byron Bay studio. “It only made sense to work with him again,” says Wilson. “He has an appreciation in his style for capturing the live energy of bands. He’s interested in trying to use the studio and its equipment in an authentic way; free of a lot of modern preoccupations with editing and intense sound-shaping. “He brings out a side of us that’s really good – he has a very easy-going, uncomplicated feeling about making records. It’s a very good balance to our tendency to over-analyse and worry to the nth degree. He has this phrase – whenever we want to go back and fix something in the recording, he’ll say ‘well, you could... if you want it to be less magical.’ He’s a calming presence when we’re frenetic about making songs.” BY DAVID JAMES YOUNG

sleepmakeswaves are touring nationally in support of Devin Townsend this month, for more information head to sleepmakeswaves.com. Made of Breath Only us out now via Bird’s Robe Records.

“We like capturing everything live – only after we’ve done that will we tinker with a lyric or a guitar part or something like that. It’s funny to see how things change from when you start making a record to when you finish it”

play with so many guys where the guitarist will have one of those slabs of wood with something like 20 pedals attached to it. I’m like, ‘man, that’d be too confusing for us!’ We like things direct and straight-on. We like to have as little in-between as possible. I’m not a tech-head or an equipment-head at all. I’ve never really gotten into the whole, ‘oh, this amp gets zeropoint-zero-zero-one per cent more tone than this one.’ Honestly, our only real preference is using tube amps over transistors – just for that natural sound that I was talking about. We’ll just screw with whatever we’re going through.” BY DAVID JAMES YOUNG

Vibe Killer was recorded by the band at Garey’s Electric, a studio in their native Brooklyn. Aside from a few guests joining in – including guitarist Matt Sweeney – there are relatively few frills to the Endless Boogie sound. “We’re one of those bands that really keeps it down to the bare minimum,” says Major. “I use a distortion boost every now and then, and Jesper [Eklow, lead guitarist] uses a wah-wah pedal. For everything else, we’re just getting the sound out of the amplifier. Aside from a little bit here and there, we’re mostly just going straight in. We’re into the organic sound of our guitars as much as possible. We

Vibe Killer by Endless Boogie is out now on No Quarter Records.

mixdownmag.com.au

Music Interviews can understand that opinion.” A core component of Electric Lines’ human feel are the vocals that feature on the majority of tracks. Goddard sings a few songs himself alongside tracks featuring UK singer Jess Mills (‘Ordinary Madness’ and ‘Music Is the Answer’), American musician Daniel Wilson (‘Home’) and Hot Chip vocalist Alexis Taylor (‘Electric Lines’). From the outset, Goddard was eager to work with outside vocalists.

Joe Goddard’s Electric Soul It’s an antiquated attitude, but there are some avid music listeners who believe electronic music is incapable of having an affecting emotional quality. Hot Chip multiinstrumentalist and producer Joe Goddard is sitting on the cusp of his debut solo album, Electric Lines, which sees him merging his great passion for electronic music with his life long love of soul music. Hot Chip, and contemporaries such as Four Tet, are long time proponents of soulful electronic music. However, that doesn’t mean Goddard is immune to the previously cited opposition, and there are even times when he can sympathise. “I think your run-of-the-mill tech house record is lacking in soul,” Goddard says. “You could level that claim at quite a lot of dance music. It feels very quantised and computerised and lacking [in soul]. You can characterise soul as humanity and human emotion in the music, and that can be lacking in a lot of computer music. So I

mixdownmag.com.au

“A few friends of mine have said to me recently that I should have sung more,” he says. “They were surprised that I’m not on it that much, but for me, I don’t really think of myself as a singer as such. I don’t feel like that’s my forte. I have a very, very quiet, gentle voice that is sometimes not all that in tune. I’m not really a lead singer. So I sing on tracks when I get a good idea and when I feel like there’s something I want to say, but I’m quite happy to collaborate with a singer. “I didn’t want to enlist tonnes of big name artists on this record,” he adds. “I didn’t want it to feel like a list of collaborators – to try and sell the record by hiring in famous people.” Working with Taylor seems like a quite an obvious move for Goddard; they’re long time band mates who are attuned to each other’s creative sensibilities. But there’d also have been the risk of creating something overly similar to their main band’s catalogue. “In terms of the way we worked on that song, there’s really no difference to a lot of Hot Chip tracks,” Goddard says. “I made the music and then sent it to Alexis and he amazingly wrote all the words and recorded them in one night and sent it back to me. It was a brilliant moment to get it back and I really, really loved it from the start and it came together really easily. And that’s how a lot of Hot Chip music

comes together, so yeah, we could’ve kept it for the next Hot Chip record. I guess it was just a matter of, at that time I was putting together this album and so it formed a piece of that.” Generally speaking, Goddard’s a liberal leader when working with vocalists on his productions. He welcomes creative suggestions and adjustments that will introduce the guest’s identity into the tracks. “The vocals are mostly the work of the singer. For ‘Music Is the Answer’, Jess Mills wrote the verses and then we collaborated on the bridge and the chorus. On ‘Home’, Daniel Wilson came to my studio and we talked through the meaning of the song and wrote the words together a bit, but there was a lot of creativity from him. In Hot Chip, I don’t often tell Alexis what to do in any way. It’s really up to him what he sings and the words. He’s a brilliant lyricist, so I don’t get involved that much when he’s writing the words. “If I’m collaborating with someone, I like to not tell them what to do too much. I want to see what naturally comes from them and allow that to happen, but I’ll give guidance and instruction if the singer wants and needs that. You just have to try and get the best out of the person you’re working with in whatever way you can.” BY AUGUSTUS WELBY

Electric Lines is out now through Domino Records.

Music Interviews “In other words - keep the rock and blues, but take it out, then bring it back before everyone falls asleep. So I endeavor to bring in as many ideas to the band as possible and then let them choose what they think are the best. And I won’t get offended if I bring in something that I know is really good but which they don’t like.

The Continuing Legacy Of Deep Purple

“That always happens in any group writing situation but I think in our band the best thing we did was to have Bob Ezrin be involved as producer,” says Morse. “He’s a brilliant man who is capable of juggling lots of things at once. He’s sort of a ruthless taskmaster to me as well, maybe because I’m the only American. He loves British bands and he’s known me longer so he can be more frank and abusive. He challenges me to play outside my comfort zone; I’ll play a solo and he’ll say ‘Morse, that sounds like you’re playing on a solo album. Play me something that surprises me!’ And that’s not so easy.”

To some people Steve Morse is still ‘the new guy’ in Deep Purple. If you’re one of those people, stop it right now. Morse has been with the band since 1994 and has consistently proven himself an integral part of its overall sound and a crucial element to its songwriting. What makes Morse such a perfect guitarist for Deep Purple is that he doesn’t try to mimic Ritchie Blackmore; rather he embodies the same sense of musical adventurousness as his predecessor.

Deep Purple and Ezrin are also on the same page when it comes to recording as much live in the studio as possible. “For me it’s fine because when we do record this way, I do my solos as the song goes down and sometimes you get special consideration on a solo if you can get it in a first take,” says Morse. “If you did it in an overdub session, everyone might say ‘eh,’ but if you do it as a live take they’ll say ‘that’s perfect, let’s leave it.’ It’s cool, you get to save some moments that were special.”

Their new album, Infinite, is a progressive, aggressive, and innovative record by a band that doesn’t know how to rest on its laurels, even after almost 50 years. Which begs the question of how to balance their enduring legacy with the prospect of creating something new. “My viewpoint is this, as a band we decided we’re going to emphasise the vehicle the band was founded on, which is rock, blues and heavier things, with some surprises,” says Morse.

Morse’s Ernie Ball Music Man guitar line is legendary, and it’s about to grow. “There’s a third model in the works. There’s no hurry on this one but Dudley Gimple at Ernie Ball Music Man came up with some great, refined, extra-hot active active pickups, so this guitar is kind of kind of special in that way,” he says. “But it’ll work without batteries. At the moment it’s two pickups and I might use it on this next tour

which is set for release this coming June. While it may be surreal to be talking about Ride over 20 years after their initial demise, Gardener feels as though the band’s return was always in the back of his mind - even if it didn’t always seem like a possibility.

The Return Of Ride Through the wall of their guitars and laconic vocals that would come to define such classics of the era as ‘Vapour Trail’ and ‘Leave Them All Behind’, Oxford band Ride were seen as one of the truly innovative and pioneering groups of the early 90’s rock scene in the UK. However, by the time their fourth album, Tarantula, was released in 1996, the group had concocted enough inner-band tension to unceremoniously split up. No farewell tour, no grand gesture, nothing. Ride, as the band members knew it, were finished. “At the time, straight after we crashed and parted ways, I would never have foreseen what is now happening,” says Mark Gardener, one of the band’s two vocalists and guitarists. “I would never have foreseen anything, really, when it comes to Ride and the success we enjoyed. It’s always been a bit of a trip into the unknown. What made Ride great was also something that was going to make us crash at some point. In some ways this was the same for our party-mad label, Creation [Records], which was also set to crash and change as it did. We were never a career band.” What is now happening, as Gardener refers to, is that Ride are officially back together. Having reunited for a fleeting moment back in 2001 as part of a documentary on Sonic Youth, the band’s original line-up have since gone on to tour extensively since reuniting in earnest towards the end of 2014. It’s culminated in a brand-new studio album from the band, entitled Weather Diaries, 20

“I made music in a different band, Animal House, a couple of years after the Ride split,” he says. “I also played the odd acoustic show with Andy [Bell, vocals/ guitar] and Loz [Laurence Colbert, drums]; so from time to time we did make and perform more music together over the non-Ride years. Personally, I never thought it would be out of the question to play in Ride again. I did, initially, think it would be highly unlikely; but in the last four or five years I started to think it would be a real crime and something I could really regret if Ride never played together again. There was a lot of unfinished sonic business. It was great to have been together, all go our separate ways and then to come back together as in tune as we are now. It feels very special.” Of course a lot has happened in the intervening years for each of Ride’s four members. Bassist Steve Queralt got out of the game entirely and started a family; while Gardener pursued solo work and Bell ended up in an obscure English band by the name of Oasis. All of that has impacted on the way that Weather Diaries was written and performed - and, as Gardener testifies, their collectively heightened levels of experience are reflected in the music itself. “We got much better as musicians, both individually and collectively,” he says. “I know I’m a better singer now than I was. That has a lot to do with lots of solo acoustic shows, lots of collaborations, better lifestyle choices and being stronger and more consistent as a person and performer than I used to be. Technology also means that we can hear each other on stage much better than we used to be able to, which helps massively. We did agree that the way we worked together on the making of [second album, 1992’s] Going Blank Again was possibly the best

but we might add one more pickup. I’ve got a few more experiments to try but I love the way the thing screams. It works really well with any amp.” The pickup configuration on Morse’s standard model is very unique too – it has bridge and neck humbuckers, and two single coils, one of which is straight, and one slanted. “It’s a regular humbucking bridge and a slightly different sounding humbucking neck, and the neck pickup is a little further away from the bridge than many guitars have it. That requires the guitar having 22 frets instead of 24, but it sounds fatter that way. And the distance between the two humbuckers means that when you blend the two, there isn’t any unpleasantness. And then the single coil pickups, the way I use them, are designed to be less intense than the humbuckers so that if I’m playing through amp distortion and I turn down the guitar volume, I regain that little bit of high end that’s lost when you turn down an overdrive sound. It really changes the sound a lot and when I combine the single coils with the humbucking, you get some really nice, funky combinations that are part of my sound.” BY PETER HODGSON

Infinite by Deep Purple is out now via earMusic/Sony Music Australia.

and most enjoyable creative time for us, and where we really played to all of our strengths. That way of working did influence the way we worked now. It’s unusual, but it’s great that we did have the benefit of hindsight and were actually able to use that and do something with that benefit now. Often, it’s too late in life to be able to action some benefits of hindsight.” Overseeing the production and recording of Weather Diaries was London’s Erol Alkan. You may not know his name from the realm of indie rock, mainly because his primary focus has been DJing and making dance music for the bulk of his career. Teaming Alkan up with a band like Ride may seem odd, but after the fact, Gardener could not be more excited about what the collaboration created. “I guess from the outside, Erol might have seemed a curious choice for the record,” he says. “As soon as we all got busy together though, we realised it was going to work fantastically well. Personally, Erol was very liberating for me – I could then totally feel like the guy in the band again. We all got lots from working with Erol. We vibed him up with our shows that he’d come to and the songs we had written for the new record, and in return he then totally vibed the recording of the record. We, like Erol, enjoy and listen to a wide spectrum of music. For me, this is why it all worked and why the album has so many colours, influences and sounds.” BY DAVID JAMES YOUNG

The Weather Diaries by Ride will be released on Friday June 16 through Wichita Recordings via [PIAS] / Inertia Music.

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Music Interviews their grief; others told me it hit too close to home and they couldn’t listen to it more than once. It’s a record that really hits people in different ways. It’s been interesting to see how differently people react to it. At the end of the day, though, I’m proud of it. I’m glad it’s out there, and that people are responding.” As well as strengthening the band’s musical resolve, trading in more of an indie-rock and post-punk scope on a lot of songs, Stage Four also marks a proper foray for Bolm into singing. As someone who has spent the better part of their career screaming at the top of their lungs, the stylistic switch-up is a little surprising – and one that, Bolm admits, he’s still getting used to.

Touché Amoré on Grief and Resolve In 2016, Los Angeles post-hardcore outfit Touché Amoré went out on a limb for Stage Four – their darkest and most emotional release to date. When you consider just how dark and emotional the band had gotten on their three prior records, it says a lot about Stage Four that it surpassed all of it. Detailing the loss of vocalist Jeremy Bolm’s mother to cancer, the album presents the band at its most writhing and vulnerable – to the point where some might consider what is being shared to be too direct and personal for public disclosure. “I’ve come to realise that the more hyper-personal you make your music, the more it somehow connects with people,” Bolm says. “When you get into the specific details when you’re writing songs, you might initially worry about alienating people. Over time, though, you realise it’s by writing so directly that you’re able to have something that people relate to. I’ve seen every response to it – some people have told me the record helped them cope with

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“I’m never going to be a confident singer,” he says. “I’m doing my best. I’m finding different ways of making it work – in the song ‘Benediction’, which has probably the most singing on the record, I’ve started playing guitar as well. In a way, that gives me something to hide behind – it’s a little bit of a comfort zone. The songs where I’m singing, I can feel so naked and so vulnerable. I really feel like I need something to hide behind in order to get through it. It’s been a real learning experience. I can’t say that I’ve been getting up every night and nailing it. Still, if people can tell that I’m putting in the effort, I’m hoping they’ll give me a pass.” Stage Four has received some of the strongest critical reception of the band’s career, as well as its best commercial reception. Hitting the top 20 on the independent Billboard charts, the album’s performance represents a greater expansion of what was once strictly considered a cult fanbase. It’s given the band an extra boost of confidence in a record that they were already insurmountably proud of – and touring in support of the album has only helped to put that properly into perspective.

“I’ve started playing guitar as well. In a way, that gives me something to hide behind – it’s a little bit of a comfort zone. The songs where I’m singing, I can feel so naked and so vulnerable. I really feel like I need something to hide behind in order to get through it. ”

“We didn’t finish [previous album, 2013’s] Is Survived By being 100% confident in the songs. We did with Stage Four. I should say that we do like Is Survived By – it is what it is – but I think it says a lot that, when we’re writing a setlist, there are fewer songs off that record that we’re properly amped to play. Compare that to a record like [second album, 2011’s] Parting the Sea Between Brightness and Me, which is the record where we gained most of our current following from. That still takes up a good 45% of the setlist, with two or three songs off Is Survived By and one or two songs from [debut album, 2008’s] ...To the Beat of a Dead Horse. The rest is Stage Four, and that’s what we really want to be playing – it’s nice to know people have been reacting so positively. I see that record as a perfect snapshot of where we are as a band right now.” BY DAVID JAMES YOUNG Touché Amoré are touring Australia in July through Destroy All Lines. Stage Four is out now through Epitaph Records.

Music Interviews

Taking No Prisoners – The DIY Journey Of Wet Lips Wet Lips’ first show was at the poorly named IDGAFF bar on Hoddle Street in Melbourne, opening for another act. Vocalist and guitarist Grace Kindellan and bassist Jenny Mckechnie were both 19 at the time and describe the show as a train wreck. “We had about two songs, it would be generous to be described as ‘ready.’ I don’t remember exactly how the set went because I drank most of a bottle of tequila that I had snuck into the venue,” says Mckechnie. From these humble beginnings the band emerged onto the local scene; their sonically charged punk anthems encapsulated the very essence of what it is to be ‘a girl in a band’. Fast forward five years, and we now have their self-titled debut album, due to come out on

Friday June 9 and released through their own label, Hysterical Records.

HABITS. Consequently they enlisted Georgia Maggie of Girl Crazy to take the reigns.

The record was recorded over a weekend last year at Secret Location Studios in Fairfield. “It’s definitely a record of us all being in a room together at what was quite a weird time for us as a band,” says Kindellan. “It’s an odd collection of songs that we wrote almost five years ago and ones that we have been playing for about a year. The album is self-titled, and in a way it sums up how we have changed as a band over five years.”

“I think we’ve developed a lot as a band,” says Mckechnie. “To begin with we were a pretty sloppy, punk mess. It was fun and loose and falling apart was almost an essential part of the set. The later tracks we wrote with Mo like ‘Can’t Take It Anymore’ have a more focussed sound and lyrical content. Now Georgia is in the band our sound is changing again and I think album number two will be totally different.”

While you wouldn’t call it a concept album, it would be rare to find a debut LP with a more structured message coursing through it. “Quite a lot of the album is about being a woman in Australia in the 2010’s; being objectified, ignored, slut-shamed, condescended to, sexually harassed and subtly excluded,” says Kindellan. “And it’s about being expected to tolerate all of this happily, quietly and politely while looking fantastic and doing a lifetime of extra domestic and emotional labour.” These themes are all over the tracklisting; Hysteria tackles men’s innate sense to condescend towards women; Shame is about the power people have over you when you’re attracted, digging deeply into how shit that makes you feel and the conditioning that women have to feel shame simply for desiring someone. “Some are garage songs for the sake of garage songs, like Spacejam and Period,” says Kindellan. “But Period is also about menstruation which is another thing we’re meant to be ashamed of and keep quiet about.”

“I grew up in the Cambridgeshire Fens,” says British-born, Australian-residing guitarist, singer and songwriter Justin Bernasconi. “It is full of amazing history and folklore – Viking invasions, the life and death of witches, World War II airfields – and, of course, Oliver Cromwell. As a young musician, I latched onto the deep, disturbing history of my surroundings as fodder for my first songs. “When I was kid, I was into heavy rock and used to see heaps of bands around town. When I was a little older, I heard Elvis Presley’s Sun Sessions in a local record store. His guitarist, Scotty Moore, blew my mind. From then on, I got into finger-picking styles of Richard Thompson, Mississippi John Hurt and Fred McDowell. They paved the way for me to appreciate the great folk scene around East Anglia, including the Cambridge Folk Festival.” A lifetime of stories and experiences detail all of Bernasconi’s music – which, of late, he’s been performing under his own name, away from his longtime folk-country band The Stillsons. This month 22

While Wet Lips are by no means the first ever femme punk band to come out of Melbourne, their takeno-prisoners DIY ethic has seen them both connect with the local community and open doors for other like-minded individuals. The album itself was funded by the band’s own WETFEST, an annual gig that celebrates diversity in all forms, especially in gender and music. “We had the first one in our backyard to launch our EP,” says Mckechnie. “Since then it has sold out The Tote two years running and is always best day of our lives.” BY ALEX PINK Wet Lips will be released on Friday June 9 through Hysterical Records.

Between the time the album was recorded and released Wet Lips underwent a member change, with drummer Mohini leaving to focus on her other band,

sees Bernasconi release his second solo album, entitled Barefoot Wonderland. It’s a work that stemmed from some life-altering events a few years back, which in turn would dictate the creative process. “In 2015, my doctor told me I had early stages of chronic fatigue syndrome, and that I had to slow down my lifestyle,” says Bernasconi.

Justin Bernasconi Finds His Voice

“We didn’t really start the band to make music, more to take up space,” says Kindellan. “I would say that now we’re trying to hold on to the space we have carved out for ourselves and to make space for other artists that need to be heard.”

“I was pretty burnt out. The Stillsons had been touring for four years, and I’d just put out my first solo album [2014’s Winter Pick]. I took up gardening to switch off from the daily grind of life. As my energy returned, I spent lots of time in the garden playing guitar, composing bits and pieces and feeling reinvigorated about music, life and performing. Come 2016, I booked some solo gigs at a tiny country pub in the Victorian Goldfields called The Guildford Family Hotel. It was great to get out of the city, and onto a small stage to workshop my new songs to a live audience without any pressure of having my musical peers around. “Soon after, I called up Jeff Lang to see if he was interested in co-producing my album. Once I knew he was on board, I got in touch with Ben Franz [bass] and Pete Fidler [dobro/mandolin] to book time in the studio. Between Jeff, Ben, Pete and myself, it was hard to find time where we could all get together for rehearsal/pre-production. We wound up finalising most of the arrangements and parts in the recording session.” Lang is an acclaimed musician in his own right, standing as one of the country’s most prolific blues artists. Having taken a shining to Bernasconi, Lang has played an important part in the shaping of both of his solo records. “One of the great things I’ve learnt from working with Jeff is that in order keep yourself relevant in the music industry you need to be true to what you do,” he says. “Find your own voice and style of expression. The music scene can be both dynamic and

fickle – don’t over think your music, or try to follow or conform to trends.” While Bernasconi does sing on a few tracks on the album, many of its key songs are entirely instrumental; with a full band enlisted to complete the arrangement. At the centre of it all is his guitar playing, which resonates clearly with its own identity regardless of what type of guitar he’s playing. “For this album I bought a 1960s Harmony Sovereign H1260 for only $550 from the US,” he says. “I did, however, have to spend $700 on having the neck re-set, so the guitar was playable. It sounds incredible for slide, and I used it for a few tracks on the record. I also bought a Martin HD28, and added a 7th string (an extra 3rd string) to create a drone. I worked this drone texture into a few ideas I was developing, which turned into songs. I also used a 1938 Gibson HG00. Being almost 80 years old, the wood has dried out. It feels like a box of leaves, and rings like a bell. “I’m drawn to acoustic guitars that immediately make me want to sit in a dark room on my own and write music,” says Bernasconi. “The guitars are usually lightweight, have thick V necks and have a resonant, open-sounding tone. Every guitar is different, and no guitar is perfect. They all have their quirks and their different tonal qualities – which is why I can’t stop myself from wanting more of them.” BY DAVID JAMES YOUNG

Barefoot Wonderland by Justin Bernasconi will be released on Friday May 19, and he will be touring nationally from May with details available at justinbernasconi.com. mixdownmag.com.au

Advice Columns GUITAR

BASS GUITAR

More And More Notes Per String

Improvising Further

Working on set ideas, scales and patterns are necessary to achieve technique and coordination, and it also gets your ear used to hearing different sounds. For many players the end goal might be the freedom to play however you like without being restricted by technique. Whether or not this is achievable, added technique and facility can definitely open up new options in your playing. Continuing on from last month with the idea of putting our legato and picking practice to work, let’s check out some more ideas.

Continuing on from last month and adding some more note choice and scale options to our arsenal, let’s have a look at the dorian mode. Figure A shows one octave of A dorian. Sounding minor-ish it has an F# (raised 6th) instead of the F natural found in A natural minor. It’s often used over minor 7 chords for a funky flavour, and the F# makes it a great choice for the classic II-V chord progression, eg. Am7 to D7. Try extending A dorian up and down the neck for more options and of course you can play this mode in a number of different positions on the fretboard with a number of different fingerings.

Figure A works on two note per string fingerings. With a G dorian sound it contains some interesting intervals and could work over Gm/7/6/9 etc. to begin with, but also C7/9 and the like too. Although it has some bigger stretches and may take a little work to build up speed, those familiar with the minor pentatonic scale shouldn’t find it too much extra work. Try alternate picking or hammer-ons and pull-offs for a smoother legato sound.

Try Figure B over Cmaj7 or maj9, D/C or G6/maj7/maj9. The F# creates some tension when hearing C as a root and, like the last example, there are a few interesting intervals which add some nice space. From a technique point of view it alternates three and two notes per string with an extra note on top at the end, the high E, so you can pick, hammer-on/pulloff or even sweep some sections.

Starting on F# Figure C could work over a B minor sounding chord, try A6, Amaj9 or even A7 resolving to D6. And a quick note - some of these ideas might sound a little different at first, as a lot of guitarists will be used to the minor pentatonic scale, and possibly the major pentatonic and major scale. There’s nothing wrong with this at all and it’s worked for tonnes of players for a long time. Often it’s the intervals rather than the actual notes that might sound foreign though. Guitar is obviously going to have guitar-centric sounds, that is - those that are easy/taught to us/commonplace. This might also be the reason many guitarists try to emulate other instruments such as piano and saxophone by trying to employ a different sound rather than the same old typical guitar fingerings and scales. Either way, don’t think you have to be limited to fingers, patterns and shapes you’ve always seen. Try stretches that you normally wouldn’t, work up and down strings, start on different fingers and aim for that not so common notes sometimes. Plenty of guitar greats have created interesting sounds and shapes that break the standard guitar mould, so try and create some of your own to really make it hit home. BY NICK BROWN

Figure B is a short lick using A dorian up the neck. It could work over an A Minor sound (m7, m6, m9) and also works well over the aforementioned II-V chord progression, in this case Am7 to D7. Try hearing Am7 for the start of the bar changing to D7 when you play the F# note. As an A Minor lick the F# creates a nice change to the sound and can be used beautifully for adding colour over extended jams.

Another lick idea in A dorian Figure C starts on an F# this time creating an interesting sound from the outset. Working its way up to an E above the stave, the lick then descends again returning to an F# for the last note. Like the previous example this could be heard/ used over Am7 to D7 or strictly Am as a starting point. Like always, create some of your own lines and licks using A dorian and then transpose to other keys.

Being able to solo as a bass player is a great asset. And you obviously can, and should, practice improvising in all styles. It’s a handy tool to be able to sound convincing and appropriate in many genres and will expand your palette and technique. Be aware that certain styles are more conducive to improvising as a bass player than others though. Jazz often involves solos from many different instruments and some rock gigs may have room to flex your improvising skills a little. Most classic rock gigs however would have you playing a supportive role and playing more lines than just soloing away. This then brings up a couple of good points; improvising doesn’t always mean doing so as a solo or feature. The ability to improvise on a groove or improvise fills adds colour and your own personality and lets you react to what the rest of the band is doing, adding dynamics and sounds accordingly. But if it is considered a ‘solo’ or feature spot again you don’t have to just play licks, scales and arpeggios – this can also be a groove or bass line that you develop and expand on. BY NICK BROWN .

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Advice Columns DRUMS

Rock Fills I thought I’d share some thoughts I’ve been having about playing rock fills. Some of us live in the rock world and some us only have to smash it out on occasion. Regardless of which category you’re in, it’s nice to have a few ideas that don’t just involve alternating single strokes or double pedal work. So, here’s a concept that’s simple in theory and yet effective at a variety of tempos. I often find that songs which sit in that not too fast but not too slow tempo range, for example ‘Summer of 69’, ‘Jessie’s Girl’, ‘Rain’, make eighth note triplets too slow and 16th note triplets or 32nd notes too fast if you’re playing loud. The good old reliable 16th notes are usually a solid choice but things get very predicable very quickly, so I’ve been mucking around with going back to the idea of playing groups of three notes over 16th note subdivisions. The concept is nothing new, and some of you may have already sussed this out, but I’ve found this to open up some more possibilities for options and expression, so here goes. Figure A shows a basic rock groove with two bars of a semiquaver (16th note) fill. The essential sticking here is RLF (Right hand, Left hand, Right Foot). This is a great place to start and all strokes with the hands are on the snare drum. The idea is to get used to playing the three-note sticking – which would normally be reserved for triplets – over groupings of four. As you can see, the sticking shifts and moves as you go through the bars. I’ve shown it over two bars rather than just one so that you end up in an easier position to end on a

crash, but you could practice one bar too, and you should as a variation. Once this initial sticking feels comfortable in hand and across a few different tempos – remember, you’ll be playing it rather briskly – you can start to orchestrate the hands around the drums. My examples are simply options for doing this and only utilise a rack tom and a floor tom. More toms = more options. The desired effect I’m going for here is a syncopated and choppy vibe. You can start to move around the kit with two hands per drum and you should definitely do this if you find the single note approach harder to feel. However, not keeping the hands together allows you to easily move from one side of the kit to the other, so I really like it. I’ve also taken the initial sticking (RLF) and reversed the hands for a different effect (LRF) within the same idea (RLF LRF). Again, my example of orchestration is just my thoughts, there are many options. As you can see in Figure B, I’ve taken the same idea but shifted the primary sticking to be FRL as well as the combination mix/

reverse idea we did with Figure A. Now we can approach the sticking in the same way and yet again, we can get that slightly unpredictable effect we’re after. I’ve always found starting on the right hand more natural, so changing anything always requires some practice. OTHER OPTIONS Now that you’re rocking away on these fills, where to now? The concept is really open to interpretation and experimentation. Try other stickings like RFF, FFR, RRF, LLF and so on. I also love substituting a closed hi-hat instead of a tom for a really broken vibe. Try experimenting with creating a fill

using a mixture of multiple stickings in one bar as I’ve done but with even more options. Oh, don’t forget you’re allowed to just add some simple single strokes in there or throw in your favourite rock licks around this idea. Go nuts and have fun. Remember to punch these out hard and make the hands the same velocity as the bass drum – it’s rock after all. BY ADRIAN VIOLI

KEYS

Twinkling The Future Ivories It’s that wonderful time of year where we are starting to see NAMM releases arrive in stores and there are plenty of announcements hitting the press with Musikmesse news coming through on additional products. For those of you who have a keyboard problem and are always looking for the next great synthesiser to add to your collection, there is plenty going on this year that will have your ears pricked up. It’s not just with the small or start-up builders creating exciting modular synths, but many of the fringe companies and even the bigger names are releasing great new toys this year in a battle of the keys that will surely result in us, the consumers, being the winners with so many options on offer. THE NOVATION PEAK This is something that I’ve been looking forward to for sometime, having never made my love of Novation synthesisers any great secret. It’s almost like the follow up to the Nova that I have been waiting on for well over a decade and now the Peak is here to get us all lining up to hear what it can do. The new flagship is an 8-voice polyphonic synth module, featuring a hybrid digital/ analogue sound engine. This unit just sang out to me, especially as it’s in module form and that was where I found my love for Novation synthesisers in the late 90’s. It has that classic black and blue fascia, but this time it also has a little bit of a retro feel with the chrome top knobs and the wooden end cheeks. But it’s in the sound engine that Novation are going to get a lot of excitement from the public, as this also harks back to their earlier designs with a part analogue, part digital setup, allowing amazing control and incredible sound to be brought together. Novation have gone all out with the Peak,

with some very interesting technology in the three digital ‘numerically controlled oscillators’ to ensure aliasing doesn’t occur in the signal generation. They are a new design that Novation have dubbed the Oxford oscillator and operate at ridiculously high sample rates. All this is powered by an ultra-powerful new processor called a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) chip which, in contrast to a more traditional DSP chip that often need to run in pairs or quads, runs at a far higher rate, having a direct impact on sound clarity. In layman’s terms, this gives us access to high quality and customisable traditional waveforms as well as wavetable waveforms and FM sounds. And for those of you who loved the Novation Bass Station II, as I certainly did, you will be glad to know that Peak shares the same analogue filter with some tweaks - increased resonance and adjustable keytracking.

THE NORD STAGE 3 There are essentially three styles of keyboard in the Nord range; piano, lead and electro. The piano does as the name suggests and works very well as a digital piano with plenty of options; the lead is the synthesiser-based keyboard; the electro is for the classic funk, soul and blues sound found in organs and electric pianos of the past. They all bring plenty to the plate within their areas of expertise, but now Nord are offering an all-in-one solution in the Stage models. These give you the best parts of all three Nord engines

in one, with effects and a serious amount of memory. The recently announced Nord Stage 3 has been announced, and it’s due to be released in three variations, with 73, 76 and 88 note models. The big addition to the Stage 3 is the inclusion of the Nord Lead A1 synthesis engine. The Lead A1 is Nord’s analogue modelling synth that takes the power and grunt of the Nord Lead and brings a more organic feel to the sound. BY ROB GEE

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PHOTO CREDIT: LUCAS ENGLUND

Advice Columns ELECTRONIC MUSIC PRODUCTION

The Art Of Collaboration With SHOUSE Collaboration is often touted by musicians and producers as a key to inspiration and creativity. But how exactly does that work when you’re primarily using a computer? Do you sit around a computer and fight over the mouse? I thought it best to ask someone who appears to have their shit together. Ed David is one half of SHOUSE, a Melbourne electronic duo doing great things at the moment. Collaboration in electronic music can be tricky - how do SHOUSE approach songwriting? It can be a real headache setting up your electronic production rig for collaborative jams but it’s so worth it. Once you’ve got it set up, it is both incredibly fun and such a quick, responsive way to make music. The first time we ever jammed, I set up a beat on Ableton, we picked Jack [the other half of SHOUSE] a weird flute synth VST, and I played live bass on the Korg MS20 synth. Jack had an idea for a vocal hook so [he] popped into the booth and smashed it out. Within a few hours we had the start of a strange but wonderful song that became our upcoming single, ‘Love Tonight’. We really limit ourselves to what equipment and gear we use and I feel it has an incredible effect on speeding up our processes and on the ‘SHOUSE sound’. Basically, all our sounds come from the MFB Tanzbar drum machine, Korg MS20m synth, Roland JU06 synth, Sequential Circuits Prophet 600 synth, Dave Smith

Instruments Mopho synth, Roland RE201 Space Echo and a touch of Roland TR909. I tend to focus on the beats, timbre, effects and production and Jack focuses on chord progressions, melody and words. However, we do swap from time to time. Being a more dancefloor/club music orientated act, how do you prepare a live-set? What equipment and software do you use live? We use Ableton Live Clip View controlled with a Push controller. All our songs are broken up into their separate stems for live remixing/reimagining. The MFB Tanzbar drum machine holds the whole set together and is always fun to jam on. It is kept in perfect sync with a recently acquired Sync Gen Pro - a $750 dollar box that does not make a sound but is oh, so worth it. I have had nightmares trying to sync via USB, Firewire and Ethernet MIDI over the years, the Sync Gen just makes it all work - especially for syncing two laptops.

SHOUSE has also collaborated with vocalists, can you tell us a bit about how that process works? We love working with vocalists. Usually when we invite them in the song will be in a half-finished production state but mostly finished ‘written’ state. We usually write all the words and melody and the singers come in and smash it out quickly and easily - an unusual process, but most of the singers we work with seem to love it. [It] takes some onus off them on the creative side and just allows their vocals to fly like a real pop star. You personally have a long history of collaborating with other musicians in your musical career, what do you think appeals to you about collaborating? Personally I alway feel super awkward about showing other people something I’m working on, is that something you’ve ever struggled with? I totally find it awkward showing people something I’m working on, but have been learning to get over it. Collaborating

has taught me so much about making music, mostly not to be precious with my tracks - be ready to kill your darlings! Be ready to change them completely and not to get bizarrely attached to a sample or bassline or whatever. It’s so easy to get attached to ideas and songs, which I feel can severely slow down and even fully incapacitate producers. Any further advice for producers trying to figure out how to collaborate? I’ve been amazed by all the incredible musicians willing to work with us. My advice would be just ask your musical crushes, just get in there and do it. But most of all make sure you’re working with someone you like as a person. Usually I find when that’s the case, with patience, the musical stuff works itself out. BY MICHAEL CUSACK SHOUSE’s latest single ‘Without You feat. Rachel’ is out now. facebook.com/ShouseShouseShouse

STUDIO

Downsizing For Signal Integrity I am the first to admit that I suffer from Gear Acquisition Syndrome, especially when it comes to recording equipment. Like many others I have an illness that sees me unable to live with spare spaces in a rack, or keyboard stands that just don’t have enough keyboards on them. For many years I was certainly one to chase that next great piece of equipment, only to find that having it made me want three further pieces of equipment to complement the last ones. You can see a pattern developing, it’s a problem. But, in the end, it’s not the great expanse of outboard gear, or how many channels your recording console has that determines how good your recording will turn out. More and more I found myself simply recording single channels, or perhaps a stereo pair, but rarely more, so a 32-input console along with racks and racks of outboard gear certainly seems like overkill. A little stocktake of my setup was needed and the result has been a better quality recording across the board. The fear of downsizing your rig is something that many musicians and engineers share. It seems that every piece of equipment was purchased for a certain need and has developed a certain attachment with the user over time, so separation anxiety can often take over at just the mere thought of reducing your setup. But this is where a little clear thinking can be so essential. Take a step back from your recording rig and consider what it is that you actually use when you track a vocal or instrument take, and then look at what is just getting in the way. You will be surprised at how much equipment in a home studio does not get used for essential tasks, and often this is just degrading your signal path. Identify the necessities and flag the marginal equipment that could be better used in a separate application. Running your signal through additional processors that are not actually necessary is only going to add noise and 28

take away from the tone of your recording. Yes, it looks great to have racks of cool gear glowing and flashing whilst you are at your desk, but if it only serves to disturb your signal’s integrity, it might as well be turned off and pulled from the setup. Most of the time when tracking you don’t want to overladen your signal with too much processing as it can be to the detriment of the recording and cannot be undone. As most of us are now recording straight into the computer, it is advisable to keep your signal path from the signal source to your DAW as short as possible. If you want to go to town with processing and effects, do it in the mixing stage, when it can be undone, but try to capture the signal in its purist form to begin with. That means stripping down the signal path to contain only bare necessities; turn off the gear you are not using and remove it from the signal path, or incorporate a patch bay

to allow for simple direct routing. This is a great trick as it allows you to add another piece of gear and plenty of additional cables to your rig, all in the guise of simplifying it. I know, I have a problem, but who doesn’t love a fully loaded patch bay with all the options right where you need them? In many applications you don’t need more than a microphone, a quality preamp and an A/D converter to get the signal recorded properly. Be careful with EQ and compression at this stage, as it cannot be undone later and often serves to add extra noise to your signal. If you had to add any processing before it went to tape, a very subtle compressor would be the most advisable idea to ensure that your signal

doesn’t end up clipping, but you don’t want to ride it too hard for fear of taking away any dynamic range that the performance might exhibit. When you strip it back, and remove most of the unnecessary evils along the signal path, you will find that the end result is far better, cleaner and more usable. Adding thousands of dollars’ worth of outboard gear into the signal path doesn’t make a voice or instrument sound better if it is not applied properly, and with dirty power and low quality cables it usually serves to degrade the signal more than it improves it. BY ROB GEE

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Features

SENSAPHONICS AU ER Series Musician Earplugs The relationship between the human ear and music is one often underappreciated by musicians and music listeners. So much time and effort is spent shaping tone and cultivating sound, attending gigs, and completing rehearsals, that the inherent nature of the ear in all of these experiences becomes an afterthought. The consequences of which can be dire – we only have to look at AC/DC’s Brian Johnson to see the long term health affects of being exposed to loud noise. It’s this very outcome that Sensaphonics AU – the Australian branch of renowned ear research and development company Sensaphonics – is endeavouring to combat with their range of handmade ER Series high-fidelity earplugs. In 2006 Access Economics found that one in six Australians were affected by hearing loss, a figure they predicted will rise to one in four by 2050. Besides an ageing population, the most common force driving this monumental surge is excessive exposure to loud sound; the very domain of musicians and music fans. It’s an issue that Sensaphonics has been countering since it was founded in 1985 by audiologist Michael Santucci, specifically focusing on music-related hearing loss. According to a University of Tasmania Live Music report, in 2014 there were more than 49 million attendances at live music events across Australia. It can be assumed that at many of these gigs the noise would have reached at least 105 decibels – 20 decibels above the most commonly acceptable maximum noise exposure level of 85dB. At this volume a gig goer can 30

listen to music safely, without protection, for all of about seven and a half minutes. Not exactly an ideal night out. With partners in Hearsmart, Music Victoria, The University of Melbourne and others, Sensaphonics AU are a manufacturer intent on shining a light on the very real consequences of excessively loud, music related noise. In manufacturing their earplugs, Sensaphonics AU undertake the same forensic attention to detail and hand made engineering that we have come to expect from guitar makers and amp producers. Like any skilled craft, it begins with quality materials, in this case Medical Soft Silicone gel. From your ear impression, taken by an audiologist, Sensaphoics AU produce a

smooth, beautifully contoured and refined earplug that fits perfectly. The Medical Soft Silicone gel combines cushion-like malleability, with an elastic durability that promotes comfort and regular use. There’s a perfect amount of give in it to allow for ease of fit and, in turn, enough spring as to ensure that it doesn’t go out of shape. It’s these properties that allow for delicate retouching and fine tuning of the product’s physical form. After a night of listening to bands I very nearly forgot that I had the earplugs in my ears. They required little to no adjustment, and there was no chance of losing the all-important ER Filters, which were and remained safely encased inside the Medical Soft Silicone Gel. As far as fit and comfort are concerned, it’s a big tick. Sensaphonics AU’s ER Series earplugs are designed to maintain sound quality while protecting your hearing with a safely reduced level of sound. This is achieved with three different ER Filters - one of which comes with your custom-made earplugs - the ER-9 for everyday use; the ER-15 which offers noise reduction for more intense concert environments; and the ER-25, fully stocked and loaded to counter prolonged exposure to high-noise conditions. From casual players, to giggoers, bands, and professional engineers, Sensaphonics AU cater to musos of all walks of life. The ER-9 is designed to provide -9dB of sound reduction through the mid-range and a decrease of -15dB in the highs. The immediate result of which is a lessening of sharper highs, and a more even, balanced response. It’s a subtle reduction that upholds the vibrancy and liveliness of higher frequencies, while taking off the edge that’s responsible for cumulative ear damage. These filters are perfectly suited to a controlled practice environment, for acoustic musicians, and smaller acts.

Going up a notch is the ER-15. This filter provides uniform -15dB sound reduction across frequencies. This is the filter with the most versatility when considering application, made to handle the harsher frequencies of live music, and the subtleties of acoustic instrumentation. With a house DJ, for example, the resoundingly deep, sonically pumping nature of the bass remains, merely heard at a lower volume; one that allows for continued listening minus the thudding of a dangerously loud low frequency. The intricacies of complex beats, the use of different time signatures, and instrumental interplay continue to be heard with clarity. In fact, the clarity is heightened without the smothering sensation of listening to the music at volume. And finally we have the ER-25, responsible for providing -25dB of flat sound reduction across frequencies. Like the ER-15 this filter thrives in the live environment, where highs are skyrocketing to piercing levels, distortion is applied in droves, and amps are burning hot. It’s an effective antidote to the most damaging and physically felt affects of noise; the pushing and popping of the ear drum; the pressure that builds on the ear; the ringing and jarring; the loss of hearing that feels, and in many cases becomes, permanent over time. For the touring musician, sound engineers, and any other music professional, it’s a no brainer. The fiery leads are still present, and so too the booming lows and rattling sensation of a chunky rhythm, just without the assault on the ears and long term hearing issues. Musicians no longer have to choose between hearing sustainably and hearing quality – they now come hand in hand. For more information about Sensaphonics, head to sensaphonics.com.au BY CHRIS SCOTT

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Features

INSIDE NS DESIGN Ned Steinberger’s place in music history was guaranteed when he collaborated with Stuart Spector on headless basses. From 1979 Steinberger went out on his own with Steinberger Sound to further refine his ideas for what headless guitars and basses could be. The benefits are many, including less tension in the neck, an absence of dead spots on the fretboard and increased portability. But like all great creators, Steinberger didn’t stop there. After selling his company to Gibson in 1987, he created NS Design, a place where he could yet further refine his vision for what a headless instrument could be. NS instruments are currently being used by artists such as Laurie Anderson, Les Claypool, David Darling, Tony Levin, Rob Wasserman, and many others. The primary focus of NS Design are bowed instruments such as violins, violas, cellos and double basses.

playable. Like his guitars and basses, they don’t look traditional and that’s exactly the point - Steinberger is fascinated by the idea of looking at how things have previously been done and thinking ‘why? And what can be done better?’

“Bowed electric instruments have been made since the mid-thirties,” says Steinberger. “Unfortunately, most of these instruments are the victims of the misplaced idea that an electric instrument should sound exactly like its acoustic predecessor. I want to take it a step further, I want to see what these instruments can do when they are set free.”

A case in point is the NS Radius Bass Guitar. It carries forward the heritage of the headless design that he pioneered with his 80’s guitars and basses, but kicks it up several notches. The instrument uses integrated magnetic and piezo pickup systems to expand the tonal palette, while the concave Diradial body design provides enhanced contact and stability against the torso. This ergonomic design, combined with the reduced and redistributed weight, reduces the constant burden on the player’s left shoulder, arm, and hand for greatly enhanced ease and comfort. And there’s a patented self-clamping tuning system for precise tuning and stability with conventional strings, eliminating the need for double-ball-end strings, while speeding up the process of changing strings.

Steinberger has new patents on his double bass and violin, state of the art takes on the instrument, and he uses a unique Polar pickup system for unparalleled response, control, and richness of tone for both bow and pizzicato technique. His instruments feature extensive on-board electronics and interchangeable support structures for the bass and cello, and they’re incredibly mixdownmag.com.au

The NS Radius line includes the two-pickup CR Series and the one-pickup WAV Series. At a recent NAMM Show, NS Design also showed off a prototype six-string guitar version of the Radius as well, featuring Seymour Duncan passive pickups and the NS piezo system for combined electric and acoustic sounds. There’s no word yet on whether this guitar will make it into production, but there’s no doubt that if it does, it’ll be just as groundbreaking as the rest of Steinberger’s creations. NS Designs are distributed throughout Australia by EGM Distribution. For more information visit egm.net.au BY PETER HODGSON

At PL+S, Electro-Voice introduced its first major salvo of products into the professional live microphone market for some years. John Dexter Jones talks to project leader Rick Belt about the timing of the laun Features P34 JUNE 2016

Live

E-V and the ND range: “We had to do it right”

All the ND mics are here!

ITHE EV ND-SERIES

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A Closer Look At

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Features

On the whole, drummers get something of a bad rap. Of all band members, there is no one more likely to have their intelligence questioned or be the butt of a joke – though cowbell players have found an odd credibility these days, thank you Christopher Walken. At a guess, I would say this is due to the perceived accessibility of drums. Unlike guitar or piano, trumpet or harp, why, anyone can play the drums, right? However, talk to any musician who is serious about drumming, they’ll tell you it’s an art. At the inaugural Sydney Drum and Percussion Show, not only can you put your money where your mouth is and actually play drums yourself, but you’ll be exposed to a whole new world of musicianship. The champion of the event, Rob Walker of the AMA, has long recognised the need to expand the drumming community to those who wouldn’t ordinarily be drawn to such festivals and activities. There is simply so much to see and experience across these two days at the Rosehill Gardens Grand Pavillion, even those with only a cursory interest in the mechanics of live music will find something to encourage their appetite for more. “It’s really important that everybody gets some hands-on opportunity,” Walker says. “We’re finalising a place now where people can go and have a good old hit, to have the experience and have people in the room to help show them what to do. And there are workshops on orchestral percussion, marimba and timpani. There will be a variety of activities for people who are in any way interested in music and percussion.” While the onus is certainly on established musicians and drum aficionados, the key to ensuring the festival’s success – not to mention the potential to return next year, following in the footsteps of its sibling event, the Melbourne Guitar Show – is encouraging members of the public to swing by and see what all of the ruckus is about. The Sydney Drum and Percussion Show is primed to do just that. Punters are invited to learn, play, and possibly purchase across a range of instruments and percussion technologies, as well as explore a variety of publishers’ lines and gain legitimate insight

into the kind of industry services that exist out there. For what is essentially a pop-up store, it’s a fairly comprehensive grab-bag of services. Yet, even for those who have little interest in pursuing drumming themselves – or who feel that gaining insight behind technique and style might somehow shatter the mystique – don’t worry, I feel the same way about photography, the event is more than an exaggerated drum supermarket. Some of Australia’s most celebrated drummers and percussion players will be performing. Gang of Brothers, led by drummer Buddy Siolo and representing Istanbul Mehmet cymbals will be taking to the Main Stage Forecourt on the Sunday afternoon, capping off an epic day of sounds. Also appearing are Belgian drum maestro Michael Schack fresh from his European arena tours, and who in February received the E-Drummer of the Year Award for the third time; the frenzy of musical energy that is Taikoz; and an early highlight in the shape of rockabilly drummer/vocalist Lozz Benson, who alongside Cam Kinsey and Josh Spoic will perform as That Redhead.

morning bass drum workshop. Shortly after their Main Stage performance – and likely still thrumming with adrenalin – Taikoz are leading a workshop into various drumming styles and instruments. You’ll also find dozens of exhibitors, a massive showcase of all things percussion that stretches across 34 different stands. While many of these are stand-alone features – such as those for the Drum Factory Parramatta, GH Music, Studio 19 Rentals, Drummers Dream, Aon and more – there are also stands that encompass a wide array of outfits and personalities. Optimum Percussion has enlisted Adams Percussion, Schlagwek Cajons, Boomwhackers, Grover Pro Percussion, Percussion Mallets and Pearl. Just Percussion has enlisted Korogi Percussion, Playwood, Saito, DJ Cajons Spain, Yamaha, Pearl, DW, Meinl Sonic Energy, Innovative Percussion, Kato Mallets and more. The festival has been a given a further local flavour by the programming of various Sydney-side talents. Award-winning percussionist Alex West will lead audiences through the DRUMBEAT Program, which is committed to engaging and transferring social learning. The Sydney Conservatorium Percussion Ensemble will be performing, with an emphasis on showcasing Australian performers. The Thomas Hassall Anglican College Drum Circle will demonstrate

Given the continued success of the Melbourne Guitar Show, it seems likely that the Sydney Drum and Percussion Show will find itself equally celebrated. It is a truly unique event, and will see some of the country’s most outstanding performers gather together in one of the most accessible festivals out there. For casual music fans to seasoned pros, every taste and level of skill has been catered for. If you’ve been looking for an excuse to unleash your inner Keith Moon, you’ve finally found your calling. The Sydney Drum and Percussion Show will be taking place on May 27 and 28 at Rosehill Gardens Grand Pavillion in Sydney. For more information visit australianmusician.com.au/sydney-drumpercussion-show-2017.

BY ADAM NORRIS

ENTRY

FLOOR PLAN

There are plenty of other live performances to be found across the weekend, with the added incentive that many artists will be stepping off the stage and into seminars and workshops. Stan Bicknell, who is being presented by Pearl, Zildjian and Remo will swing from his gig Saturday, to a Sunday Event sponsors

contemporary interpretations and arrangements of traditional North-West African rhythms, while Allans Watson, the Associate Principal Timpanist and Percussionist of the Opera Australia Orchestra, will also feature.

Media partners

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SYDNEY DRUM & PERCUSSION SHOW PROGRAM SATURDAY 2 TH MAY 10am- pm

Click to website: http://www.australianmusician.com.au/sydney-drum-percussion-show-2017/

INDOOR SESSIONS

MAIN STAGE FORECOURT

Entertainment and Education Timetable

11.00

BEN ELLINGWORTH

10.45

presented by Yamaha Drums Yamaha Drums endorsee Ben Ellingworth has enjoyed a heavy Touring schedule with bands such as MM9, Switchkicker, LO!, Kinetic Assassins, The Dead Love, Sub Atari Knives and most recently playing with Australian Rapper ILLY, covering Australia’s top festivals and Venues, and has appeared on numerous session recordings.

AMEB ROCKSCHOOL Drum Kit Workshop with DARREN MULLER presented by AMEB and Yamaha Drums

11.45

ELECTRONIC DRUMS PANEL

Hosted by Allan Leibowitz, Editor, digitaldrummermag.com and featuring Michael Schack, Tim Powles and more

12.00

JAKE TAYLOR SPROULE

SLIM JIM PHANTOM MEET & GREET

Courtesy of Pro Music Australia, DW & Grestch come and meet rockabilly drum legend Slim Jim Phantom (Stray Cats) at the Pro Music Australia stand 17

presented by Los Cabos Drumsticks Jake Taylor Sproule is one of Australia’s most respected hard rock and metal drummers, who has played with numerous bands including ecrospyre, Whoretopsy, and Cyaneye. Don’t miss this energetic session with the Los Cabos drumsticks endorsee. Accompanied by Matt William & Andrew LIlley

1.30

Renowned percussionist, Alex West takes patrons through a demonstration of the DR MBEAT Program which is an evidence based social development program using music to engage and transfer social learning. In this session he will demonstrate how good Group Drumming is for Team Building and Stress Relief. This session will provide an insight how quickly and easily you can rhythmically entrain people into a group using drums...regardless of prior experience! Another hands on opportunity at the SDPS patrons will be invited to take part in the workshop. Bring your beats!

presented by Pearl, Zildjian & Remo ew Zealand born Stan Bicknell has toured and recorded with artists such as Kimbra, Miami Horror, Ecca Vandal and his own band. A keen educator, Stan will be breaking down and explaining his unique and now revered approach to his single kick pedal technique. As well as touching on some new concepts he’s been developing

1.00

HEARTBEATS, THE RHYTHM OF LIFE - ALE WEST

2.15

ASK THE PROS PANEL

Australian Musician’s Greg Phillips hosts an informative and entertaining panel featuring many of the Sydney Drum & Percussion Show headliners including Thomas Lang, Virgil Donati, Slim Jim Phantom and more.

3.15

SYDNEY CONSERVATORIUM PERCUSSION ENSEMBLE Conducted by Daryl Pratt, Percussion Coordinator Modern Music Ensemble Director Sydney Conservatorium of Music The Sydney Conservatorium of Music Percussion Ensemble was founded in 1991 by Daryl Pratt. Members of the ensemble, all percussion students at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, perform a variety of works for percussion ranging from transcriptions to contemporary classical and jazz with an emphasis on works by Australian composers. The SCM Percussion Ensemble program at the 2017 Sydney Drum and Percussion Show will feature works by Westlake, Bryars, Lloyd, Zivkovic and Alfieri for mallet keyboards, drums and percussion.

STAN BICKNELL

2.00

LUCIUS BORICH

presented by DW Drums. Catch Lucius Borich in a performance based session, playing COG tracks and running through ideas and concepts, integrating electronics with the organic.

3.00

MICHAEL SCHACK

presented by Roland V Drums Belgian drum great Michael Schack will be performing his mash up of genres and beats combining the DJ and drum worlds, as well as showcasing the Roland V Drums including the TD-50

4.00

THOMAS LANG & VIRGIL DONATI

presented by DW Drums. The SDPS is proud to present the Sydney leg of the national TV SHOW tour featuring Thomas Lang and Virgil Donati. Thomas has headlined almost every major international drum festival in the world and has toured the globe many times as a solo artist. However, this will mark the first time he’s performed a dual performance with arguably our country’s most successful drumming export EVER -- Virgil Donati.

BETTING RING TARMAC 12.30

TOCA Drum Circle

Experience the magic of the DR M CIRCLE Facilitated by Gary France, The Groove Warehouse and presented by TOCA Percussion Gary France is a passionate advocate for music education throughout the world. He presents workshops, motivational speeches and concerts in the widest range of musical genres including jazz, commercial, world and classical music.

1.30

DRUMFILL Percussion Ensemble

Drumfill is a combined school ensemble of more than 20 performers aged 5 to 15 years - It is an amalgamation of the primary-aged drumfill junior (Kindergarten/Prep to year 6), and the junior high school drumfill intermediate group (years 7 to 10).

2.30

THOMAS HASSALL ANGLICAN COLLEGE DRUM CIRCLE with BYRON MARK

Senior School students from Thomas Hassall Anglican College in Sydney’s south-west (Middleton Grange) come together once a week to learn modern arrangements of traditional rhythms from orth-West Africa. Mr Byron Mark, their teacher, has spent some time in Guinea and brings a fresh edge and authenticity to the drum-circle sound. The students are looking forward to their performance at the Sydney Drum & Percussion Show and they will definitely impress you with their solid breaks and African grooves.

CAJON ENSEMBLE

It’s not often you see a group of Cajons being played at the same time ... however the Cajon Cats are here to show you how it’s done! Hailing from different areas all over Sydney, the group meets weekly in Rockdale to jam some funky grooves on their Cajon box drums! Led by Byron Mark, the cajoneros perform unique arrangements that fuse flamenco and African beats together to create a large wall of percussive sounds for you all to enjoy. Don’t miss this one!

3.30

HAND PERCUSSION WORKSHOP

Hand Percussion Workshop Come and Try Cajons and Djembes and other percussion instruments is a hands on opportunity to feel the magic of group drumming. Hosted by educator, Byron Mark, you can learn in a hands on way how drums. All weekend you’ve heard percussion and drums to die for now it’s your turn. Come Jam will us and blow out any cobwebs.

The SD&PS acknowledges its sponsors for their support in staging the event

SYDNEY DRUM & PERCUSSION SHOW PROGRAM SUNDAY 28TH MAY Click to website: http://www.australianmusician.com.au/sydney-drum-percussion-show-2017/

INDOOR SESSIONS

Entertainment and Education Timetable 10.30

DAVE GOODMAN presents STICK CONTROL

Dave Goodman presents Stick Control featuring the Moeller technique and what he learned from lessons with Jim Chapin and Joe Morello, plus techniques for developing the ability to play accents amongst different sticking patterns as well as methods for creatively developing one’s own vocabulary for improvisation Presented by Pro Music Australia and Bosphorous Cymbals

11.45

STAN BICKNELL BASS DRUM WORKSHOP

Stan Bicknell will be breaking down and explaining his unique and now revered approach to his single kick pedal technique. As well as touching on some new concepts he’s been developing. presented by Pearl, Zildjian & Remo

12.45

Synergy Percussion Ensemble Performance - Masterclass

Synergy Percussion is an amazing 3 piece sonic art collective. It is percussion at its core but if you dig deeper, you’ll find it is human, stone, wood, steel, air, and skin, all coming together, all being reassembled, re-appropriated, reinterpreted, re-contextualised. Don’t miss this amazing masterclass opportunity

2.00

PERCUSSION CLINIC

Orchestral Percussion workshop presented by Optimum Percussion and Allan Watson, Percussionist and Associate Principal Timpanist Opera Australia Orchestra. An intensive 30 min workshop designed for teachers and students of any level. Allan will discuss and workshop techniques of orchestral percussion instruments including tambourine, triangle, hand cymbals and bass drum.

3.00

PETE DRUMMOND CLINIC What and how to practice In an age where information is readily and abundantly available, it can be overwhelming to know how to improve, or even where to begin. Pete Drummond will address What and How to practice, in order to get to the next step in your drumming evolution

The SD&PS acknowledges its sponsors for their support in staging the event

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MAIN STAGE FORECOURT 11.00

LOZZ BENSON (THAT REDHEAD) Featuirng Cam Kinsey (guitar) and Josh Spolc (double bass) That Red Head is an extension of Lozz Benson and her love for Rockabilly and Blues music. She drives the band from behind her drum kit with groove and attitude, and has a soulful voice that evokes Patsy Cline and Etta James, yet flies freely in its own unique style. Throw in a red hot string section of double bass and blazing country guitar, and together they bring rockabilly rhythms and endless energy to the dance floor!

12.15

TAIKOZ

Since 1997 Taikoz has developed an international reputation for vibrant performances that couple explosive energy and extreme dynamism with refinement and grace. From the most delicate melodies of the shakuhachi to the thunderous impact of the odaiko, Taikoz is at once meditative and freespirited, primal and dramatic.

Features

*Program subject to change

10am-5pm

BETTING RING TARMAC 10.30

DRUMFILL PERCUSSION ENSEMBLE

11.30

DYNASTY DRUM LINE PERFORMANCE WORKSHOP Come and experience the Drum Line set up and have a go yourself The Sydney Stick’s Dynasty Drumline believes in the power of music. Having the Sydney Sticks at an event brings people together and takes the atmosphere to a new level. This is a one-of-a-kind experience! Steeped in the American Drumline tradition, with a unique Australian flavour added, The Sydney Stick’s Dynasty Drumline want to make you move.

1.15

MICHAEL SCHACK

presented by Roland V Drums Fresh from European arena gigs, Belgian drum great Michael Schack will be performing his mash up of genres and beats combining the DJ and drum worlds, as well as showcasing the Roland V Drums including the TD-50 Over the years, Michael has won several awards, has been nominated for “best clinician/ demonstrator” in international drummer magazine polls and just recently (Feb 2017) received the E-drummer Of The Year award for the third time. He’s also an affiliate instructor on drumeo.com and has contributed to the development of Roland’s V-Drums and E-pads since the early 2000’s.

12.45

REMO & OPTIMUM PERCUSSION DRUM CIRCLE with Facilitators Bek Wermut and Alex West Alex and Bek will host and facilitate a Drum Circle where everyone is welcome to participate. Alex West is known for his wonderful work in Aged Care with his “HEARTBEATS” program. He knows how to tap into emotions and get people involved. Come down and experience the pure joy of being part of a drum circle.

2.45

GANG OF BROTHERS

2.00

Presented by Istanbul Mehmut Cymbals and Los Cabos Drumsticks

TAIKOZ WORKSHOP

We’re delighted to present the highly acclaimed Gang of Brothers. Led by vibrant drummer, vocalist Buddy Siolo (representing Istanbul Mehmet cymbals ) and featuring the amazingly talented brothers Andro, Dauno, Fenix and Banel Martinez, Sydney’s Gang of Brothers offer a cross-genre, musical assault you’re not going to want to miss.

*Program subject to change

Product Reviews drums and the depths from the floor tom. It matched the bass drum really well. I love a kit that entices you to play from the way it responds to you, and I got that with this socalled ‘budget’ kit. The snare drum was a real surprise too. Great fittings overall, and as mentioned, a natural depth and fatness to the sound with the ability to leave it a little lower tuned if necessary. A great match to the kit for very little outlay.

PEARL Decade Maple Drum Kit Australasian Music Supplies | Expect To Pay: 20x16 / 10x7 / 12x8 / 14x14 / 14x5.5” Snare, with hardware - $1899.00, without hardware -1299.00

Every time I try a new product from Pearl, it’s usually a step forward, so when I had the chance to have a crack at the new Decade Maple (DMP), my expectations were high. It replaces the outgoing Vision model but it offers so much in its place and for a price point that is really hard to beat. I got to try two main configurations. First up was a 22x18 bass drum 10x7 and 12x8 toms, 16x16 floor tom with an added 8x7” tom and a matching 14x5.5” snare drum. The other combination I got to try was a full rock 24x14 bass drum, 13x9 tom and 16x16 floor tom. The new Decade Maple features all-maple 6ply/5.4mm shells made with Pearl’s SST tech, wood bass drum hoops with a matching finish, 1.6mm steel triple flanged hoops, new designed NDL mini lugs that look great, Opti-Lock Mounting system for toms, 900 series Uni-Lock tom holders plus Remo UT Clear Ambassador Tom heads with UT Powerstroke3 Remo bass drum heads front and back with the front already ported. The drums can also be purchased with and without a full 900 Series Hardware pack in any configuration and even come with a pillow for the bass drum and pre-drilled hole as well as a lifetime warranty and five killer finishes – Solid Yellow, White Satin Pearl,

ZILDJIAN Avedis Cymbals Australasian Music Supplies | Expect to Pay: Various Prices

Zildjian are in fine form at the moment, giving nods back to their rich history and taking cues from eras of sound that drummers are constantly striving to find in their own cymbal set ups. When Zildjian released the Kerope range they paid homage to the old K sound - that Jazz sound. Now, they’ve released the new Avedis line in honour of Avedis Zildjian III. Not to be confused with the newly designed A Zildian series – a force in their own right – the new Avedis range is a tip of the hat to the rockers and show bands of old, Zildjian have really created something special. Using the every secret alloy blend, Zildjian describe these cymbals as: “…a vintage recreation of the timeless sound and feel heard and played on thousands of top hits from the 30’s through the 60’s, from swing to bebop to the explosion of rock & roll.” This sums up the brief perfectly because as mentioned, the Vintage sound is so in at the moment but for a lot of players, the K and Kerope cymbals may be a little too dark so the Avedis range aims to fill the gap, offering vintage, but the other spectrum. The range is rather simplistic in a lot of ways. There are three hi-hat sizes to choose from – 14”, 15” and 16” and all other 36

Drummers or all levels would be into this Decade Maple. I don’t know how Pearl can produce these drums at this price point but it’s awesome.

Satin Brown Burst, Gloss Deep Red Burst and Satin Black Burst.

and understanding that players crave these options.

The drums look really great and have all the usual quality fittings you’d expect from Pearl. The price really does buy you a solid piece of kit and the additional functionality of the mounting hardware will not go unnoticed at a gig.

The drums are actually fairly thin at six plies of 5.4mm so this equates to a really open and wide sound. There’s real depth in the sound across all the drums – snare included. The fact that you’re dealing with an all maple shell just means you’re in business from the get go, and I found the shells gave that projection and clarity that you associate with this type of wood. Clear single ply heads as standard with no dampening tuned well and produced a focussed sound. The drums perhaps don’t have the ultimate complexity and depth of flavour of the Masters, but in the mix or under mics, you wouldn’t really care. With some 2ply heads, they’d be mighty.

Let’s start with the bass drums. I got to hear the 22” bass drum from behind the kit and out front and to be honest, out front was massive, which is good to know. There’s just a fundamentally low natural note from this drum so even with the heads slacked off, there’s still heaps of balls. The 24” was also massive but the 14” depth gives real punch – think old school rock vibe. I love that manufacturers are thinking about things

The configurations they’re offering too are killer, as the big rock 24/13/16 is super affordable and will cater to players who just want that type of kit as an option but don’t want to spend $10k. You can also spec or order any individual drum you want, so really, there’s something for everyone. An 8” drum starts at $169.00, and the additional snare drum is great value at $259.00, so basically you can’t go wrong. BY ADRIAN VIOLI HITS • Unreal value with good configuration options • All-maple thinner shells • Great hardware and fittings

I loved the roundness from the smaller

MISSES • A Masters will still show it up • Stock heads won’t last long

an obvious choice of ride for me. The bell was really cutting, the body of the cymbal yielded a super light wash with light stick definition, a lot of nice sustain and a bright tone. I could hear instantly that this cymbal could cut the jazz thing in the Buddy Rich era or the rock thing for Ginger Baker. It’s a familiar sound and still one to love.

Overall, I just love this range of cymbals. I’m a big dark cymbal fan but sometimes a little brightness helps carry your sound, particularly for hi-hats or rides and these Avedis cymbals are a great blend of old and bright. There’s a place for these in my set up and I’m sure other drummers will feel the same.

The smaller I went, the characteristics remained the same, the pitch just changed. Great bells and a shimmering tone overall – bright, yes but also warm and useable thanks to the lathing and that patina. They’re very loud cymbals that project well, but they’re not harsh at all, which is contrary to what I was actually expecting. Some vintage cymbals can be harsh on the ears but these aren’t. The only downside is that perhaps there’s a little too much wash on the rides for every situation but I’m really nit-picking there.

BY ADRIAN VIOLI

cymbals are simply referred to as crash/rides available in sizes from 18” - 22” of which, this naming convention is very correctly matched to their nature. The cymbals feature a matte lathed finish with minimal hammerings and even scorings. They are manufactured with a process that effectively ages the cymbals and finishes them with a nice patina that also looks a little purple in some lightings. They certainly look vintage and very cool. Each cymbal has a moderate profile and larger, pronounced bells. They’re also very well designed from the typography perspective. The label is actually Avedis’s signature, scanned from his 1939 passport and the Zildjian stamp/serial is rolled in the old way rather than laser etched as is usually the way these days. Each cymbal also has its own individual weight printed under the bell so players can choose appropriately and the Zildjian logo on the underside is hollow, as was the way back in the day. The cymbals feel wonderful. Yes, I know it’s slightly cliché, but they do feel aged and used. I don’t know how Zildjian do that but it’s nice. The Hats are just great. They’re clean, bright and crisp, yet thin and responsive, and very musical too. The bigger you go, the lower the pitch and the broader the sound. They’re thin, so open and slushy is really great. The 15”s were my pick – the best of both worlds. The crash/rides are all similar in their makeup and vibe. Not one stood out as heavier or with a dramatically different character to the next. The big 22” was

HITS • Musicality in spades • Beautiful shimmering vintage Sound • Versatile across so many styles MISSES • Good Zildjians aren’t always cheap • Might be too light and washy for some players

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Product Reviews ISTANBUL Turk Cymbal Set Dynamic Music | dynamicmusic.com.au | Expect To Pay: Various prices

There are a number of names that come to mind when you think of traditional Turkish cymbals, and you can’t help but think of Istanbul when it comes to handmade cymbals from Turkey. The name itself gives you an idea of the heritage behind this great brand and today it offers not only traditional, but modern cymbals for all types of sound. The Turk cymbals are by no means a glossy, shiny looking showpiece. These are cymbals that are built for a purpose and created to achieve a certain sound. The raw look to them comes from being hand hammered to achieve a certain thickness and sound, which lathing or polishing would only take away. What this results in is a very dry sound that is quite unique to this style of cymbal, yet they offer plenty of richness and strength in the lower frequencies.

DIXON Gregg Bissonette Brass Snare Drum Dynamic Music | dynamicmusic.com.au | Expect To Pay: $899.00

Dixon have certainly come a long way with their premium and signature series drum kits in recent years. Most noteworthy of them all would have to be the range of Gregg Bissonette signature drums that include a couple of kits and two different snares. This month I got to unbox Dixon’s 14” by 6.5” signature brass snare drum. This is one of the two Gregg Bissonette signature snares available now from Dixon, the other being a steel shell of the same size, but after hearing this one, I am pretty certain I got to play the better of the two. The first thing that struck me about this was that it didn’t have the weight to it that I was expecting. When you think of a brass snare, you usually consider it to be a

WINCENT Sticks and Dampeners Pro Music Australia | promusicaustralia.com | Expect To Pay: Various Prices

Drumsticks seem to have been dominated by a small number of brands for years and years. As with other instruments, there are a couple of big players and then a number of smaller companies hanging below. With the changing landscape of the music industry and business in general, we have seen many of the smaller or lesser known operations pump out high quality product all around the globe. The Swedish drumstick brand Wincent have been increasing their profile thanks to a solid range of sticks, rods, brushes and accessories as well as a growing list of notable users, such as Meshuggah’s Tomas Haake and Mike Mangini of Dream Theater. Both the 5A Selected Maple and the Selected Hickory Round Tip sticks, which have almost mixdownmag.com.au

The cymbals are a 20” medium ride, 16” crash and 14” medium hats. I especially loved the latter, which have plenty of body to them and a great low end rattle. The crash is very punchy, very dry, whilst the ride is also tight sounding, dry, maybe even too much for some people’s liking, especially the bell, which is quite low when balanced against the edge sound. As a jazz, funk or rock alternative, you are going to find a great deal of use for these cymbals. Put simply, you need to hear these to understand how dry they are whilst still having some great overtones. BY ROB GEE HITS • Great dry sound from the entire set • Includes cymbal bag • Very well priced for hand hammered Turkish cymbals MISSES • Not as wet or full as some people may want in a cymbal

very thick shell that carries a lot of weight and so delivers a very specific sound. This was quite different in that it has been constructed of a thinner sheet of hammered brass that has a mottled look to it from the hammering patterns, and results in a lighter drum due to the reduced amount of brass in the shell. The ten lug design features tube lugs for a nice clean look in a chrome finish and the triple flanged hoops serve as a great balance for the overall construction. I really love the feel of the snare release lever, it has a great handle and a smooth action that was combined with the ability to adjust the snare wire’s tension from both sides on the adjustable butt plate, so either hand can change the tension. The lighter weight of this drum made me want to think it was going to be lacking in tone somewhat, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. This drum is a monster and has every bit of thump and punch to it when tuned low. There is plenty of body to the sound and a good amount of sustain from the shell without ringing out uncontrollably.

When tuned higher it gets a great snap to it that really cuts through the mix, and it goes even further when you tune it right up. This snare ends up sounding like a cross between a timbale and a piccolo snare, especially when the snare wire is disengaged. It has a ripping snap to its tone that allows it to be used as a second snare for great effects should you wish, or tuned lower for a real meaty sounding thump that would be right at home in any rock outfit. You’ve got to hand it to the team at Dixon, they have gotten this one right and it’s now easy to

a barrel shape, feel great with a nice weight and balance to them. Although Hickory is often heavier than Maple, the feeling between the two models seems negligible making for an easy change up between the two pairs. For some added length, the 5A XL are a hickory stick with an acorn shaped tip. Tough and durable, they are quite a big sounding stick and great for harder hitting. The 5A XXL then steps it up another notch adding over a centimetre in length and a slightly sharper acorn shaped tip.

On the dampening front, and what drummer isn’t on this constant highway of tuning, dampening, tuning and so on, Wincent offer a couple of different packs of dampening solutions. The ToneGel Standard is a 5pc set of gels in two different sizes whilst the Mike Mangini MaxPack comes with seven pieces across three sizes. Reusable, washable and easily stored in the handy included case, they really are an invaluable tool for any drummer wanting to adjust to different sounding rooms, setups and situations.

In terms of brushes the ProBrush Light model utilises quite a thin wire, making them nice for quieter volumes and relaxed playing whilst the medium model adds some thickness. Both pairs feel comfortable for playing and the angled handle end make them easy to identify and manage. It’s great to see Wincent offering a range of rods too, with variations in material and design. The 19RB Bamboo model offers plenty of dynamics and volume with a solid yet responsive feel.

Stick-wise I love the flat butt ends and extra points for the markings, which make it easy to find and grab the right stick/sticks out of your stick bag on the fly. A nice cross section of sticks in this little sample they all seem balanced, well crafted and matched. This holds true for the brushes and rods too adding another player to the drum stick market worth checking out. Consistency, durability and feel are an important part of a good pair of sticks and with serious drum demons like Tomas Haake backing them in,

see why a drummer of Bissonette’s calibre is happy to put his name to it. BY ROB GEE HITS • Lighter than expected build • Great range of tonal variety • Solid construction MISSES • None

seems like Wincent are on the right track. I think you’ll be seeing/hearing more of this Swedish brand in the future. BY NICK BROWN HITS • Great for rock and funk (amongst other styles) • Great affordable price range MISSES • None 37

Product Reviews SAKAE Almighty Maple

you’d expect of maple drums. I could focus the note but found the standard clear heads would fluff a bit under lower tuning. There’s an increased resonance due to those tom mounts not being physically drilled in the shell. Again, with the short time I had with the kit, I was able to get a good sound and started to imagine the broad range of abilities it could potentially have across a number of situations. The volume is welcoming and the toms speak with little effort.

Hot Apple Distribution | hotapple.com.au | Expect to Pay: $5295

By now, everyone will probably know the Sakae story. The drum makers from Osaka, Japan are famous for being the backbone behind Yamaha shells for over 50 years and in the last few years have moved out on their own. These new kits under the name Sakae have a familiar sound and vibe. I wonder why? The Almighty Maple sits next to its Birch brother in the Sakae range, between the Celestial line and the vintage-style Trilogy. It’s intended to be a professional kit for gigging musicians needing a reliable, strong and serious drum kit. I got to try a smaller configuration shell pack with an 18” Bass drum, 12” rack tom and 14” floor tom but who says good things don’t come in small packages?

mounts attach to the lugs and this is no bad thing. The bass drum comes with a drilled mount for the double tom holder but can be spec’d with nothing if you prefer to mount your toms off cymbal stands

The Almighty features triple flanged hoops on toms, wood hoops on the bass drum, super heavy duty hardware lugs and legs including dual function feet on floor toms and bass drum so you can use a rubber stopper or a spike – these things aren’t going anywhere, even if you try. The excellent cradle system for mounting toms attaches to the bottom lugs of the drum rather than the top and feature 360-degree adjustment. This is very cool and is less intrusive in many ways. You also have the same system for the legs of the floor tom to avoid drilling the shell for leg mounts. The

The shells themselves are 6ply North American Maple all round. The bass drum plies are slightly thicker at 7.8mm than the toms at 5.4mm. The shells also have a standard, sharp 45-degree bearing edge and a minimal seam/join and loads of air vents. Sakae have a swag of options for finishes for these tubs – too many to mention but there’s something for everyone and with the quality and look you’d expect from a high-end kit. An interesting thing to note is the weight of the drums – heavy is reliable right? Most manufactures go for a lightweight lug on toms but the Transmit

lugs on the Almighty are deliberately big and heavy because Sakae believe they increase low-end frequencies, resonance and transmit vibration better. Rebadged Remo heads come as standard and the bass drum had Powerstroke 3 heads front and back. So far so good. Remember I mentioned the heavier lugs for increased resonance and low end? Well, something worked. The bass drum especially, was actually surprising with how much thump it had. For a small drum, it was extremely impressive and felt/sounded more like a 20” to be honest. I would have liked to spend more time with the toms but with minimal tuning and messing about in the low to mid tuning ranges with no dampening, there was plenty of volume and projection with the clarity and punch

MURAT DIRIL Superior Velvet Cymbals

So you’re after some top end cymbals. You have taste and you have a certain sound in your head. You’ve always gravitated towards the typical choices for brands but haven’t quite found what you’re looking for. Murat Diril is one of those boutique choices of cymbal maker that may just have the answer for your discerning ears.

22” RIDE What a wonderful instrument. The Ride 38

BY ADRIAN VIOLI HITS • Killer punch from smaller 18” Kick • Warmth and clarity of maple • Quality build, finish/make MISSES • Little heavy to lug around • Factory heads don’t tell the full story

14” HATS Controlled with a good blend, the hi-hats are somehow pronounced and crisp but light at the same time, particularly when opened slightly. With either foot or hand, there’s a good ‘chick’ but the slushy sound when opened sits well in the mix. There’s also that element of dryness that the other cymbals have too that adds to the control. They’re not overly loud and have a wonderful ‘shurp’ sound when doing quick open/close accents.

Hot Apple Distribution Australia | hotapple.com.au | Expect To Pay: 22” Ride: $885.00 18” Crash: $565.00 14” Hats: $735.00

The new Superior Velvet cymbals are stunning looking instruments. You instantly start looking for a stick to try them because they’re inviting in a rustic and interesting way. The bottoms of the cymbals are a fairly standard matte lathed affair – clean and clear. The tops of the cymbals however, are a different story. Each feature a traditional lathed finish but also feature some unique and dramatic hammerings and scorings. It’s almost as if the cymbals have been worked on in a raw state before lathing so that all markings look burnt and raw. They have an incredible amount of presence and look fantastic – let’s face it, we drummers all hear things with our eyes at first right? Otherwise the cymbals are fairly standard in shape and profile but have pronounced bells, more so on the ride, which is always nice when you’re looking for an all-rounder cymbal that can cut a few different roles as I do.

As you’d expect from a kit in this price range the recipe is a good one. There’s simply a sense of quality that oozes from these drums from the shells to the hardware. These drums would stand up to whatever you threw at them. I’d probably mess around with heads a little more to get my sound but I’d leave the bass drum as is. Super cool. The only potential downside of the super reliable nature and feel of these drums is the weight. It won’t bother some players but others would prefer something lighter. Good thing the kit backs itself with good tone and enough punch/volume to take out those pesky distortion pedals.

features a moderate sustain with a little vintage dryness – not too much to be singled out as a dry ride but there’s an element of control that comes with a dry cymbal and this ride has a great blend of control and spread. It’s light enough to crash beautifully but heavy enough to be loud enough in the mix. The lower pitch just blended fantastically with the rest of the drums and instantly worked. There’s also a really nice bell that cuts when you get into it, which is rarer to see on a lighter cymbal these days. It felt nice to play and is a truly awesome cymbal that’s very musical with a great deal of character.

18” CRASH Perhaps the driest of all the cymbals I tried, the crash speaks quickly and has a reasonably fast decay. The bell is smaller which contributed to the way it responds. This particular crash was a little heavier than I expected too, which meant that it didn’t respond quite as quickly to lower volumes but had a loud enough crash when you got into it. It was a good match for the ride but didn’t have quite the same light qualities that the ride manages to possess. However, it is a good crash with a heap of character and presence. Bigger is definitely better for this type of crash though and you wouldn’t want to be too tentative with it.

I’m not going to lie; I desperately wanted to take home these cymbals, in particular the ride, which had the perfect blend of everything for me. I could just hear fitting into my set up. Besides the incredible tone and breadth of ability, they just felt nice to hit. Boutique cymbals that are awesome tend come with a price though, and these cymbals can tend to make your eyes water a little when you go to pay for them, but it’s hard to go wrong with cymbal choices this right. Murat Diril are right up there with the best at the moment. BY ADRIAN VIOLI HITS • Incredibly musical and characterful • Perfect blend of dry and washy – great all-rounder cymbals • Pronounced bell on the ride MISSES • The price might scare some people • The crash is perhaps not as versatile as some others

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Product Reviews REMO Crown Percussion

hanging chimes or vibraslap, there’s quality to be had at a great price. This makes these instruments perfect for students and beginners, but also professional players that need to have the whole lot but don’t want to take out a personal loan for a tambourine. It’s pleasing to see that lower prices don’t have to mean a compromise in tone and durability.

Australasian Music Supplies | Expect To Pay: Various prices.

Remo is well known as a great manufacturer of drumheads for so many drummers and percussionists worldwide but they’ve often also delved into producing other types of products, and now have decided to throw some super affordable and handy percussion instruments into the mix of offerings. There’s a stack of instruments and effects to choose from so we’re going to hone in on a few of the real highlights. CAJON First up is the Crown Cajon, which is super affordable, simplistic, but seriously cool and for a number of reasons. It’s all birch construction with a fixed face playing plate gives a natural resonance. The Cajon features a slick black exterior with a smooth finish that feels great to play with a large sound hole on the back. It’s lightweight and comes with two rows of pre-tensioned snare wires that run vertically down both sides of the box instead of horizontally or in the middle. This is crucial because you can easily achieve a great bass note further up the Cajon instead of having to reach. It’s a strikingly easy box to play, and the most awesome feature is the ability to remove the wires. Remo calls it QuickWedge and removing it transforms the drum from a Flamenco style instrument to a tradition Peruvian Cajon. Then, simply chuck them back in if you like the extra slap sound.

It’s a really great Cajon for the coin that sounds great too. BONGOS / CONGAS Another total winner are the Bongos and the Congas. Made with Toon hardwood and finished in a natural gloss, they certainly look the part from the offset. Remo made sure these drums could handle the high tension tuning that players crave and as such, fitted great chrome radius counter hoops and hardware, adjustable the traditional way with a spanner of course. The Congas also feature crown shaped mountings on the shell for the hoop arms – a little tick to the Remo logo and a nice touch. The drums come as standard with Remo’s super cool synthetic Fyberskin 3 heads and this is perhaps a real selling point because a) they’re ultra durable - you could even use sticks, which is a real win for drummers who want to add some percussion

to their kits and b) they just sound great. Super sensitive, warm and rich with a nice amount of depth – not to mention crack and projection. The heads really make these drums sound professional. Available sizes for the Bongos are 7”/8.50” and the Congas come in sizes 10”, 11”, 11.75” and 12.50” diameter. ACCESSORIES Remo haven’t just stopped at the Congas, Bongos and a Cajon either, rather offering a range of accessories to cater for a variety of situations and applications. The smaller percussion instruments are super affordable, and for some players, will do the job perfectly well. The Maracas feature durable plastic and are loud but musical. The tambourines have 16 chrome jingles in dual rows with a bright, cutting tone. From the excellent hammered cowbells, the great feeling Cabasa or Agogo bells to the

Overall, the Crown percussion range succeeds where other cut priced options have failed. The perception is that cheaper priced instruments are only for beginners but I’m telling you now, there are professional musicians that would love these offerings – in particular the Cajon, Bongos and Congas, which really tick all the boxes. BY ADRIAN VIOLI HITS • Great value for money • Quality fittings on Latin percussion • The durable Fyberskin 3 Heads on Congas and Bongos sound killer MISSES • Purists may lament the lack of natural skins on drums

PEARL Eliminator Redline Drum Pedals Australasian Music Supplies | Expect To Pay: Various Prices

The original PowerShifter Eliminator was a game changer in the pedal world because it gave the drummer great possibilities when it came to adjustability and being able to tweak/tune to get that perfect feel. One major factor in controlling the feel of the pedal was the interchangeable cam that could give more speed or more power. Building on the massive success of the Eliminator comes the new Redline, and there’s a lot to be happy about when looking at this mid-range pedal that sits right between the base Demonator and the flagship DemonDrive. In essence, the fundamental concept of options and adjustability remains. Pearl have created a classic looking pedal that’s more understated in many ways than it’s bigger brother the DemonDrive, but still has some of it’s charm and features. Actually, there are quite a lot of features. The new Redline features the very same NiNja Bearings from the DemonDrive that provide super fast performance with no noise and a buttery feel. You also get the nifty rotor tension cradle that locks the spring tensioner in place, so there’s no slippage when you’re playing hard. Other cool standard features include a reversible grip plate on the pedal board to cater for 40

players who like to slide, and for those who don’t there’s a full base plate, a uni-lock beater angle cam that allows for exact and precise adjustments to the starting position of the beater by gripping the axle at 360 degrees, zero play hinges and a roller hoop clamp with a handy side adjustment for easy attachment and detachment on and off the bass drum. It gets better. The Redline has a Powershifter function where you can actually adjust the footboard by moving it forwards or backward to match your style. You can choose from three positions: light, regular or strong. The beater is worth mentioning too. It’s called a control core beater and it takes the foursided beater from the original Eliminator and continues the trend of two plastic and two felt playing surfaces depending on your taste. Pearl has however, worked on the centre of the beater to minimise vibration on impact making for a nicer feeling stroke. Finally, for the grand finale are the interchangeable cams. Again, as a progression from the original Eliminator,

you can swap the cams out but there are now four distinct options available for your choice as standard with two as optional extras. Each cam offers a different feel in the stroke – some offer more power with more throw or perhaps you prefer a more linear stroke being the same on the way down as the way up. It’ll depend on your style, genre and approach. It’s a beautiful thing to be able to experiment with when changing a cam is as easy as the push of a button. The Redline feels fantastic. It’s ultra quick and so, so smooth. I felt instantly comfortable with the standard linear cam and tried both chain and belt drives. The belt drive felt really direct and responded as quickly as I could. The chain drive had slightly more give in the stroke and felt relaxed. Seriously though, where does Pearl go from here? How much faster or smoother can pedals get? Some players are going to freak out with how much you can play with here and for

that reason some may not buy a pedal like this. Don’t forget though, that the people at Pearl are pretty cluey and the pedal will feel awesome straight out of the box. A mess around with a couple of cams might be an easy way to suss out different feels. As your tastes change, so can the pedal. For me, the new Redline is a cracker. Great feel, an awesome sense of durability, quality mixed with a tonne of options and the ability to tailor it to my every need. You can get a left-footed set too, and if you buy the single and decide later you want a double, you can buy a conversion kit. Total winner, nice work Pearl. BY ADRIAN VIOLI HITS • Arguably all the pedal you’d ever need • Amazing features and adjustability overall • Fantastic feel and speed MISSES • How much is too much adjustability? mixdownmag.com.au

Product Reviews SLAM Drum Heads Jade Australia | jadeaustralia.com.au | Expect to Pay: Various prices

SLAM drum heads have been out for a few years now, offering drummers budget priced options for skins. They still use the same materials and construction methods from the major brands, secured to the rim using a collar lock system. I got to try some full fat, 2ply variants – Clear Hydra (0.188mm & 0.188mm) and Double Clear Singlet (0.175mm & 0.188mm) as a 22” Fusion Pack (10”, 12”, 14”, 22” and 14” snare). CLEAR HYDRA The SLAM Clear Hydra is a take on the tradition Hydraulic heads of old going with a 2 ply head with oil filling between the two films. Doing the usual tap off the drum yielded a strong resonant note and on the drum I was really pleased with the response and tone of this head. I actually found that the heads sat well at a variety of tensions but I really liked them a little lower. The 10” made my drum sound larger than it was. The heads didn’t flap too much when slacked off so this was unexpected for such a thick head, but welcomed. If you’re not into double ply heads, you’ll think ‘this is too much but for me’, but I like fat sounding drums so I was into them. I did find the bass drum head was the only one that needed higher tension to start working but then it sounded too thin for me. Overall though, a great formula. DOUBLE CLEAR SINGLET The Double Clear Singlet is a similar approach to the Hydraulic but is more traditional in that there are 2 plies of film but no oil and the plies aren’t stuck together. As with the Hydra, I gave these heads a tap off the drum and there was

really no note at all. The fact that there’s 2 plys next to each other almost dampen one other. The smaller drums responded well as they tend to like slightly higher tensions and the heads responded well with a very focused note and tone without the need for dampening. I couldn’t get the floor tom to ‘wake up’ as such unless I upped the tension but not all players like tighter floor toms. The bass drum had real attack at low tension but not a stack of body. Under a mic, the bass drum would be great but acoustically, it just lacked the real balls-out tone a little. It’s a really short sound though, so some players will really like that. WHITE PIMPLE SNARE HEAD It’s worth mentioning the snare head that comes with every drum pack that follows the tradition of a single ply coated head with a reverse under centre dot. I tried this head straight up on my 14x5” 70s Aluminium Ludwig Acrolite and was really happy with the results. There’s a massive tuning range that delivered super wide, fat tones down low and a great crack up

top. There’s a nice, manageable amount of ring and even though I played around with dampening, I actually felt the head operated better without it. I also tried the head on a bigger 14x7” Yamaha Oak Custom and discovered another great range of sounds. The head performed in the same manner as on the Ludwig with great low-end and bite. The variation of sound was really just the tone of the drum. It was really good. I preferred to leave the head a little lower actually as it could just handle it. I’m planning on leaving it on there. OVERALL SLAM drum heads offer some great sounds and follow the formula of the major brands with all the standard options you’d ever want. I did have some slight hit and miss stuff with these heads at times as mentioned and something I had to be mindful of was to be sure the head was centred and seated properly on the shell before tensioning because it could easily pull to one side. This is slightly old-school in some ways – it’s not a massive issue but something to remember. Really though,

for the price, drummers should check them out because everyone’s drums respond differently to drum heads and you can easily explore tone options without having to really break the bank and that’s always a great thing. Besides, just because it’s not a Ferarri, doesn’t mean it can’t be great. BY ADRIAN VIOLI HITS • Value for money with great tone and feel • Included snare head rocks • Mylar construction MISSES • Bass drum heads sounded a little thin • Some care needed to seat the heads properly • Higher tension needed for double clear singlet

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Product Reviews BOSPHORUS 20th Anniversary Series Cymbals Pro Music Australia | promusicaustralia.com | Expect To Pay: Various Prices

Cymbal making is a serious job; when made by master cymbal-smiths it is an involved process, with smelting, casting, tempering, hammering, lathing and more contributing to the design, finish, feel and sound of the cymbal. This company have been following 100% handmade Turkish cymbal traditions now for 20 years under the Bosphorus name, having worked and studied with masters working through the 60’s and 70’s. Whilst not completely raw and distressedlooking like some of their other lines the 20th anniversary series definitely has an old school vibe to it. They work with an alloy formula from the 1900s to create that warm vintage sound with handmade processes covering both aesthetic and tonal properties. Starting with the biggest cymbal of the range, the 22” ride has a rich tone that is warm-ish but also has some nice chime. Crashing the edge of the cymbal you can get a great wash and the bell is super versatile. Perfect for funk and rock, it cuts through but isn’t offensive or ‘pingy’. Jazz gigs would also be a goer thanks to its rich overtones that sit in the mix without overpowering other instruments. The 20” features the same natural finish

with minimal hammering. It’s brighter with a lovely wash when crashing/riding on the edge of the cymbal, it’s also a handy medium-level model for quieter gigs when you want to really work the nuances. Bosphorus also offer a 21” ride in this series if you want to check out something in between. For hats the 14” offer a classic warm sound that are still crisp and focused. With the tip of the stick they are defined and clear, whilst the shoulder creates a clear and thick tone. It could sit in with a fat R&B kit or a washy rootsy soul and blues band, and can be dynamic and articulate if the studio situation calls for it too. Top and tailing the crash cymbal range, the 16”

is thinner and has a pleasing crisp decay. It would be at home with an old school open tuned funk kit, but it’ll also suit precise chopping out. The 18” offers a little more meat, whilst still retaining the vintage tones that Bosphorus are wanting to recreate. Versatile and dynamic, the 20th Anniversary line contains plenty of vintage tonal characteristics with some refined sounds that will suit plenty of musical settings. Funk, jazz, rock, fusion and whatever else you deem suitable. They look great, feature some warm yet crisp overtones and offer straight up usable sizes that are all gig worthy, rather than a truckload of options and sizes that don’t work.

BY NICK BROWN HITS • Simple yet versatile enough to be useful in a variety of musical styles and kits MISSES • No complaints here

CORDOBA GUITARS Leona L9-E Zenith Music | zenithmusic.com.au | Expect to pay: $1449 with polyfoam case

Modern guitar makers, with their fanned frets, all aluminium everything and built-in lights and whistles, have come a long way from their noble origins. The centuries old tradition of guitar building survives, certainly within Spain as much as without, but it has for the most part shied away from the rampant advancement rife among its descendants. California’s Cordoba Guitars, named for a particular southern region in the mother country of the humble axe, has the full breadth of traditional guitar making in its sails, but there is uncharted territory on the map. Cordoba’s master builders have been plying their trade under that moniker for a relatively short 20 years, several decades shy of many of the company’s peers. However, in that time they have made a strong case for themselves not only among classical and flamenco aficionados but, thanks to mutually beneficial associations with the likes of freak-folk troubadour Jose Gonzales, have turned new sets of eyes onto one of the world’s oldest traditional instruments. With a whole new audience in tow, the company has taken the liberty of expanding their horizon ever so slightly. Open the case of your brand new Leona L9-E model and there’s nothing to indicate to you that you’re looking at anything other than an impeccably crafted, yet innately traditional guitar. Closer inspection reveals that this 42

is the answer to one of the more off kilter questions asked by almost every intrepid young player; what would happen if I put steel strings on my favourite nylon string? The result is easily one of the most unique and nuanced sounding instruments I’ve ever picked up. For all intents and purposes this is a classical guitar; the fanned bracing inside the mahogany resonating chamber produces a warm, elegant and romantic sonic texture. The body itself is feather light with pinpoint balance across the length evidencing none of the ropey tension normally associated with steel string designs. The velvety darkness of the ebony fretboard accentuates the body’s poetic mood and the simplicity of the rosette and inlays in the fretboard and headstock finish off Leona’s visage with timelessness and grace. While it may have the majority of its stylistic features plucked from the heart of tradition, its playability is where you start to notice the flickering modernity of the design. The neck shape is like a slimmed down version of the traditional plank many of us learned to play on, meaning that it feels exactly half way between the old and the new. It’s faster than its older cousins in much the same way as a Hummingbird or Jumbo is but it retains that stern, unforgiving, old-world grip that makes you climb across the fretboard the way the

masters did and do. The added convenience of ever-trustworthy Grover Sta-Tite tuners coupled with a Fishman-designed Sonitone pre-amp make it as ready for Barcelona street corner as any stage or studio. The combination of rounded, cello-like tonality and crisp, steely brightness makes the Leona L9-E as astoundingly unique to listen to, as it is to play. I must admit I was blindsided by the assumption that it was ‘just another classical guitar’ when I pulled it out of the case. Cordoba, a young company handcrafting instruments with antique flair, have blown that lazy misconception out of the water with one of the most unique, interesting and satisfying guitars I’ve played in a while. BY LUKE SHIELDS HITS • Unique, romantic voicing and impeccable and reliable craftsmanship. MISSES • Pick-up could have more control over the phase.

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Product Reviews JET CITY Custom 5 Amplifier Head

response is. With the mid boost switch engaged I couldn’t help but do my best Nile Rodgers impression; interesting given the fact that the job of a mid-boosts is usually to send solos searing through the cheap seats. It was most at home with itself however when I gave everything a nudge towards 10. With everything dimed you have just about every heavy characteristic you could ever need at your fingertips. From Josh Homme style, squelchy fuzz to searing, brazen thrash tones, the Custom 5 is certainly at its most versatile with the pedal to the floor.

Amber Technology | ambertech.com.au | Expect to Pay: $699

America is not a nation famous for downsizing. From the luxury sedans of the 50’s and 60’s to the serving sizes of today it seems that everything is bigger not only in Texas but across the whole country. On the flip side, bucking the trend is in their blood, so it stands to reason that several American manufacturers are leading the charge in the lower wattage amplifier game. Several issues ago I reviewed Peavey’s range of 20watt versions of their most notable builds and was suitably impressed, so I was wringing my hands with glee when the Jet City Custom 5 came waltzing my way. Philadelphia’s Jet City is one of a crop of US designers whose design focus is on the glory days of classic rock. Alongside contemporaries like Bogner, Peavey et al, they have made a name for themselves crafting affordable and well-built units that have the indelible imprint of HiWatt and Soldano as their tonal ancestry. In the Custom 5 the challenge seems to me to be pouring all that might and muscle into smaller quarters without neutering it. The only other build of Jet City’s that I have had the pleasure of exploring is their Custom 22, essentially the bigger, burlier brother of the Custom 5. The main functional difference here is the number

COLLINGS CJ-35SB Acoustic Guitar Gladesville Guitar Factory | guitaryfactory.net | Price: $7695.00

Collings’ fascination with the ‘Golden’ era of fretted instruments again comes into play with the CJ35 acoustic guitar. The pre-war era flattop guitars between 1930-1942 saw innovations in bracing and changes in body sizes, adjustments to the then status quo that justify their standings in the guitar history books. Throw that influence in the mix with Collings’ high regard for quality instruments at either end of the price scale, and you’ve got one dynamic, well-crafted piece of gear made by one of the most meticulous brands in the business. The resonance on this guitar needs to be experienced first hand – a rich and full-bodied tonality; words you’d expect from a sommelier over a guitar review, but the wine comparisons aren’t a far stretch. There is great depth in the sound produced from this guitar. The replicated pre-war x-brace configuration with three tone bars in the body can be high-fived for its punchy bottom end, balanced highs and warm, evenly spread output. The description offered on both the Gladesville Guitar Factory and Collings site compares these lush tones to ‘piano-like bass and powerful full-bodied highs’; there’s no better way to put it, it’s a tonal characteristic that is a standout and an ode to its historical influences. Honduran mahogany lines the neck, the back and sides of the body, with its top capped off with a Sitka spruce. Nitrocellulose lacquer finish on the body aids in its acoustical 44

All in all, I continue to be impressed by this new breed of smaller stature, lower volume amplification. Jet City have managed to maintain the rage made famous by their bigger, flagship builds in this diminished incarnation and if anything have brought a sense of manageability to the wild side of rock and roll. of tubes driving the preamp stage and the front end of the head. Where the Custom 22 has a whopping five 12AX7 tubes, the Custom 5 has a modest two and only one 6L6 in the power stage as opposed to the twin EL84s inside the former. Aside from the more technical wiring and transformer differences, this is the key ingredient that the engineers have used to narrow down proceedings without straying too far from the blueprint. And it’s quite a successful experiment too. You certainly notice the physical difference between the two models but taken out of the context of comparison the Custom 5 certainly holds its own as a

gnarly little rock box, even when stepped down even further to run in 2watt mode.

BY LUKE SHIELDS

For a brand name normally associated with a more high-gain-addicted clientele, members of Job For A Cowboy and Avenged Sevenfold number among their alumni, I was suitably impressed by how this mini mean machine cleaned up. With the pre-amp dialed down I was able to bring to life some tastefully crunchy, bristling, telecaster friendly jangle not far removed from that of an AC30 pushed just barely into bluesy break-up. Even more surprising was how funky and pressed the mid-range

HITS • Unforgiving and versatile dirt tones that clean up in a unique and attractive way. MISSES • Definitely for the heavy rock set.

response, and a high gloss polyester resin allows smooth sailing up and down the neck straight out of the box. The 24 7/8 inch short scale neck limits safe passage past the 15th fret, but is of little worry or inconvenience. It handles lead playing with the same gusto and clarity as with open chord strum-along playing. In either mode, each string is voiced evenly, reiterating the ‘balanced’ aspect this guitar preaches all over. Its response to picking in particular has plenty of attack and sustain. The Nickel Waverly with Ivoroid button tuners are as aesthetically pleasing as they are to operate – they’re smooth and precise in their movements and, as expected from a high end instrument, holds its tune. The CJ35B could find home in practically any genre it’s thrown into, and shine bright with colour. Collings boast a fastidious approach to its selection of tonewoods and components, stating that its luthiers hand pick them with tonality in mind. It’s safe to say that this is a big factor in why the CJ35 sounds as good as it does, and Collings’ claim of it being their most versatile large-bodied guitar is right on the money. BY AARON STREATFEILD HITS • Evenly distributed tone, but it’s the bottom end that sells. MISSES • The tigerstripe pickguard is a little cheesy. mixdownmag.com.au

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Product Reviews FENDER American Professional Jazzmaster Electric Guitar, Sonic Gray Fender Music Australia | fender.com.au | Expect To Pay: $3,699.00

Following the discontinuation of the American Standard Series, Fender’s new American Professional series of guitars are a stab at some of the brand’s classic models, but with some notable advances like the ‘Deep C’ neck profile, narrow-tall frets and a brand, spanking new range of pickups dubbed V-mod. One of these revamped classics is the American Pro Jazzmaster in Sonic Gray. Though it is a stunning looking guitar, aesthetics are not the be all and end all. Of course so we took it for a test run to see if it lives up to the American Pro series tag line: ‘these instruments were made to explore the creative space between today and tomorrow’. The modern ‘Deep C’ shaped neck at first did not seem as welcoming as I was expecting. Its shape is in between the ‘Modern C’ and ‘U’ shaped necks and took a little time to get used to. However, once underway, its benefits became clear. Along with the narrow-tall frets, the maple neck responds well to both bend-heavy lead playing and indie chord bashing, particularly at the high end of the neck.

Despite some getting used to, it’s a worthy addition to the Fender range and only adds to the rustic tone of the Jazzmaster. The V-Mod pickups are the work of the Eric Johnson Signature Stratocaster Pickups developer, Michael Frank. Made to capture a ‘vintage-inspired’ tone, these single-coils are hot, gritty and pack a heap of punch. Clean or saturated in gain, they’re super dynamic and responsive. With the bridge pickup selected there was a multitude of tones achieved; and pick placement an inch from the bridge caused sparkling highs and peaking treble, while digging deep directly above the pickup delivered plenty of pop and punch. The neck pickup in turn gave a pure unadulterated creamy tone, which the maple neck had a helping hand in. If there were one reason alone to sway a hesitant buyer, it would be these guys. Fender and Frank have

produced a vintage sounding pickup with bite, grunt and a wide dynamic range. The Jazzmaster-style ergonomic offsetwaist body is a classic for a reason – it’s comfortable for players that ride it high or low, so there are no surprises there. What is unexpected is how comfortable resting on the 9.5-inch radius Jazzmaster/ Jaguar Bridge is for a right (or left) hand. The stock Jazzmaster bridge is notorious for letting strings slip; a problem heavy pickers and string gauges suffer alike. Even when subjected to battery, the Jazzmaster/ Jaguar Bridge held fast. Not exclusive to the American Professional Series, the volume and tone pots are in an awkward position, and often get in the way when getting a little too tenacious on the strumming front. Wired with a treble bleed

FENDER Mustang GT40 & GT100 Guitar Amplifiers Fender Music Australia | fender.com.au | Expect To Pay: GT40 $499.00 GT100 $799.00

Redesigned and revamped, the new Mustang range of solid state amps come to the table with tech-savy amplifiers produced for the modern age. As with its predecessors, the Mustang GT series is loaded with a wide selection of amp models, effects and tone presets. The major difference this time round is the addition of Bluetooth and WiFi capabilities. MUSTANG GT40 From white goods to home audio – you’ll struggle to find any technology today lacking in connectivity, whether it’s for remote access, updates or cooking a steak from the comfort of a lounge with the tap of a screen. So it’s no surprise that Fender has applied this technology to its latest amplifier range. Is this a marketing ploy or a handy innovation? In the case of the Mustang GT40 it’s contextual. Due to its quaint size, it would be safe to assume that the target demographic are bedroom players; an allin-one gadget for both home recording and rehearsal. But with Bluetooth streaming capabilities, it’s also a wireless speaker. The GT40 handles streamed music to an acceptable standard, but a lack of EQ and setting customisation renders it a mere consolation prize. Even the volume is limited to adjustment via your connected device – whether it’s a smart phone or computer – making the amp’s volume knobs moot in this case. The WiFi aspect however, is a better attribute, providing product updates, 46

additional presets and access to an online community. With the exceptions of Fractal Audio Systems’ Axe-FX and other high-end simulators, the road of amp simulation is a rocky one. Granted, the years have been kind to more entry-level tech, with more realistic sims and better products on offer. As an amp simulator, the GT40 is versatile and its arsenal plentiful. Classic Fender amp models like the ’65 Twin, Princeton and Deluxe are characteristically acute, and resemble the warmth, sparkle and shine of the originals. The GT40 doesn’t fall into the trap of ‘jack of all trades; master of none’ and most, if not all amp models are detailed and realistic replications. Justice would be served if utilised for home recording. The long list of effects are of great resource, however some of the overdrive and distortion stomboxes take away from the great sound of the amp models, often muddying their clarity and tone. You can’t win them all, and most of the time the presets save the day – offering a happy medium and customisation. With all of its bells and whistles jampacked into such a small amp, operating the GT40 is easy and self-evident. A minute after switching on the amp I was able to dial in a tone, spread on some effects, and the riffs were wailing in no time. It’s a

simple and easily maneuvered interface. With a sleek build and cosmetically appealing appearance, the GT40 is an ideal home studio amp. The two 20-watt speakers pack more than enough punch for home use and maintain a clear, articulate tone at low volumes. Even apartment dwellers will get a kick out of the headphone jack’s clarity and response; little is lost from the amp models characteristics when switching over to headphones. MUSTANG GT100 Bigger, stronger and able to get into clubs, the GT100 is Fender’s shot at a solid state, designed with the stage in mind. It will likely still gauge the interest of the bedroom user demographic, those particularly after more watts and headroom, but its functionality is intent on the stage. Unlike the GT40, it includes all the regular amp dials: gain, volume, standard EQ pots as well as reverb. It’s clearly designed with the live player in mind. Clean, round tones shine bright and with noticeable characteristics of either of the 27 amp models. All compliments go to the ‘special designed’ Celestion 12-inch speaker for these attributes, it does its best to serve – the classic Fender amps in particular – justice. However, not even the

tone circuit, with the purpose of retaining high end clarity when rolling back the volume definitely has its positives in highvolume environments, but it’s a feature that will go unnoticed by bedroom bandits. BY AARON STREATFEILD HITS • Once familiar with the ‘Deep C’ neck, life’s a breeze. Tonality, playability and comfort are all there and it sounds incredible. • It comes with sturdy pro road case. MISSES • The tone and volume knobs aren’t the best.

Celestion can save the unpleasant breakup of some of the overdrive and distortion stompboxes, particularly at higher gain; it muddles the crisp jangle of the detailed amp models. A saving grace is its response to real life stompboxes, which compliments and blends well with clean amp models. If low gain saturation is your thing, then the GT100 will be your amp and pedal board in one. Light, even for its size, and with sturdy Soft-Touch Flip Handle, it’ll save your back the trouble and your boot the space. The GT100 has plenty of punch, but lacks tight bass response. This may be because of its open-back design, or lone speaker. Rhythm players reliant on a strong bottom-end or seeking punchy palm-muted chug tone will be disappointed by this shortcoming, but courtesy of outputs - both 1/4inch and XLR – a solid front-of-house could be a solution. Lead players, however, will revel in its smooth mids, transparent highs and sturdy selection of onboard effects. The reverbs in particular are far from imitation, and the on-board customisation allows for quick and easy tweaks. Sadly it doesn’t come with a footswitch, which makes cycling through presets and effects a breeze, especially onstage. BY AARON STREATFEILD HITS • A great and affordable amp simulator • Covers enough bases that this could easily be a sole home amp and for a great price. MISSES • Stompbox presets aren’t great for hi gain. • The lack of functionality with music streaming is disappointing.

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Product Reviews MARKBASS Nano Mark 300 Bass Amplifier CMC Music Australia | cmcmusic.com.au | Expect to Pay: $950

This isn’t the 70s, and we’re not all getting around with panel vans or Kombis capable of stashing an 8X10 cabinet and a massive tube head. But Markbass understands that we still want big, loud, powerful bass tones, even if we don’t want to put up with the backbreaking impracticalities. To that end they offer the Nano Mark 300, their smallest ever bass amp. The Nano Mark 300 is a professional-grade amp weighing only 3.20 pounds /1.45kg, which doesn’t hint at all as to the hefty 300 watts of power lurking in its teeny tiny frame. This amp gets bonus points for those concerned about portability: I’m sure you could pop it in the pocket of your cargo pants if you had enough confidence

in your belt. Markbass says it’s seen a lot of small bass amps developed by other manufacturers, most of which fall down in a crucial area: “About all the bass amps on the market use the same power amp from different manufacturers, which are not specifically designed for bass,” they state on their website. “At Markbass, Marco De Virgiliis invested a lot of resources in R&D to develop a proprietary power amp technology, specifically designed to respect and glorify the tone of your instrument.” You get controls for Gain, Master Volume, Ground Lift, Pre/Post EQ, Low (40Hz with +/-16dB), Low Mid (360Hz with +/-16dB), High Mid (800Hz with +/-16dB) and High (10kHz with +/-16dB). There’s a balanced

XLR line out, effect send and return, tuner out, and quarter inch/Speakon speaker output. By the way, the look of the Nano Mark 300 is a little bit more zany than previous Markbass models, with a sort of bubbly, arching font used for the control labels. It’s just a small touch but it helps to give the amp some visual personality. This is a great amp for those who need a lot of tone-shaping on the go. It’s not the most bells-and-whistles-loaded amp out there but it does give you a lot of range of control. One thing it doesn’t do is emulate an old-school tube amp, so if you’re after those big grunty SVT sounds you might need to use a pedal to get you there. And the Nano 300 is great with pedals, working

HARTKE Bass Attack 2 Bass Pre With Overdrive Electric Factory | elfa.com.au | Expect To Pay: $289

Being a bass player is a hell of a lot harder than most people would have you believe. The rigs are heavier, people unfairly write your parts off as easy or disposable, and you have to deal with your band mates’ wide variety of egos. On top of all that your particular frequency set is partially inaudible and what you can hear is ‘supposed to sit behind everything else’, at least in the context of a standard rock band. Dialing in the narrowest of sweet spots under that set of circumstances is a mission, even if you can get the drummer to stop making sawdust for two seconds between songs. The sweetest relief for sub-focused sound-smiths comes in the form of a humble stomp-box pre-amp like the Bass Attack 2 from Hartke. Plain and simple, 9V DC powers all the right tools for tonal tinkering. From right to left, the signal passes through an austere set of bass, treble and level knobs allowing

you to control >30hz and above 20kHz, all at the flick of a footswitch. The contour switch adds an extra dollop of thickness and restraint thanks to Hartke’s signature mid curve that acts almost like a healthy touch of compression around the dead center of your spectrum. The middle footswitch affords you access to a mid boost and/or cut between 200-800hz, which is great for zeroing in on the hole in any mix and any room. On the left you have a pretty hefty overdrive section that swings all the way from tasteful, tube-like heat to gnashing, burly distortion. Dial in a certain amount of clean tone on top for definition and there you have it, a simple yet effective recipe for just about any taste. There is a balanced

XLR out for sending either pre/post-effected signal to the desk and a parallel TRS out if there’s room for you to run stereo on stage. In all honesty the only thing this unit lacks is any glaring bells and whistles but that’s pretty much the point. It is designed to be the meat and potatoes of your tone, the bedrock upon which you build your empire of rumble and this is precisely the success of the design. With everything at noon and the mid and drive switches disengaged, the pedal is 100 per cent transparent. All it takes is the tiniest pinch of salt on any of the EQ knobs to improve, if not simply refine what you already have going. From there

AUDIO-TECHNICA ATM350A Condenser Instrument Microphone Audio-Technica Australia | audio-technica.com.au | Expect to Pay: $599

I do enjoy coming across a new microphones that offer better solutions to previous applications that haven’t been addressed properly before. There are plenty of microphones on the market all trying to achieve the same purpose, but it is great when a manufacturer takes a step outside the box and considers how a microphone needs to be used in practical placement when designing not only the capsule but also the housing. This is exactly what Audio-Technica have done with the ATM350a and its associated attachments. If you’re looking for a quality condenser microphone for drums, percussion and other instruments that requires precise placement and far from standard mounting, this is going to be worth a look. This is a very simple design, with a very compact microphone cartridge holding an interchangeable condenser capsule that mixdownmag.com.au

is little more than an inch in total. The cardioid capsule is ideal for a wide range of applications, although not perfectly suited for very direct work, but this doesn’t matter so much as it can be placed right where you need it to be so as not to capture any other sound sources. The extend cable terminates in a connector that snaps on to an male XLY port, with a high-pass filter attached, so it can be directly sent into any stage box, multicore, mixer or recording interface that supplies phantom power. It’s a great sounding little capsule, capable of very high sound pressure levels, with a surprisingly

full sound for such a small unit. It gives you a crisp and concise transient response with plenty of high frequency sizzle and a load of punch in the lower mid-range. But it is in the mounting possibilities that this microphone really comes into its own. This ultra-compact microphone allows for placement in some of the tightest of situations, making it ideal for a range of instrument applications. There are two gooseneck options, one is around four inches long, the other eight inches, both with a built in wind shield and cable clips to keep everything nice and neat. The

particularly nicely with a TC Electronic chorus and a Seymour Duncan overdrive during testing. But really, what this amp is about is giving you a clear, loud, sculptable version of the sound coming out of your bass and outboard gear. It gives you lots of clean volume, and you’re able to dial in just the right input gain level, but it’s not going to unnecessarily colour your tone. BY PETER HODGSON HITS • Versatile tone stack • Light • Loud MISSES • Not much gain for those who like grunt.

everything is designed to help you carve out a niche for yourself, not only in a mix or in the context of your band, but as a whole. The delicate combination of choices within those unassuming dials is so varied that your sound can be uniquely yours every time it’s engaged. As with everything that makes it out of the Hartke smelter, the Bass Attack 2 is nothing if not reliable. Sturdy as a packhorse, reliable as an old friend and packed with only the choicest, most useful ingredients. It takes what other preamp pedals do and trims the fat, all the while offering you everything you need to get the job done. And, it won’t tell anyone you’ve just been playing root notes the whole time. BY LUKE SHIELDS HITS • Simple, effective and essential tonal control. MISSES • Nothing new or innovative as bass preamps go, just the essentials. mounting attachments available for these goosenecks make this just so versatile. A small magnetic base, an adjustable clamp and a Velcro strap allow for a range of instruments to be used as a mounting source for this microphone. The real beauty is in the drum mounting option with a clever design than clips over the tension lug on just about any drum with a spring mounting hold that allows for the microphone to be placed over any section of the drum head and at a distance of anywhere from one to eight inches away from the surface. AudioTechnica have thought of everything with this device as you can still adjust and tune the drum tension with the clamp over the lug with a drum key on the protruding lug from the top of the mount. BY ROB GEE HITS • Great sounding, compact instrument microphone • Plenty of mounting options MISSES • None 47

Product Reviews SPL Tonehunter Reducer Power Attenuator

troublesome heat and channels it into the output stage, meaning that not only is your signal untouched, but it is also unmitigated with no noticeable degradation occurring between head and cab. This function is really what separates this design from the pack in so much as a simple set of resistors will not only tarnish your aural gold ever so slightly, but will do so more and more with time. A simple yet extremely effective improvement to say the least.

Link Audio | linkaudio.com.au | Expect to Pay: $599.99

When asked how his band Jawbreaker achieved the distinctly huge guitar sound on their recordings, singer and guitarist Blake Schwartzenbach replied that the answer was simple, miking up tiny, low wattage practice amps. As opposed to the behemoth, plexi stacks of old, these progenitors of the mid-western, emotional rock archetype of the mid 90’s starved their tone of might in order to make it work harder. The ‘small amp; big sound’ approach has since become the ace in the hole of many an expert tonechaser in search of ear bleeding tonal magnitude without shaking the studio to its foundations. Following that particular train of thought has dragged engineers and builders alike in and out of many and varied sonic stations. The idea of sucking power, and in most cases headroom, out of bigger amps has seen attenuators; power soak units and the like become unusual but inarguably useful items on the gear list. I myself have had a simple attenuator built into my amp for over a year now and the little extra heat it gives my tone is something I personally couldn’t do without. Simultaneous experts in the twin fields of home and

studio equipment, Sound Performance Lab, in conjunction with amplification wizards Tonehunter, have taken the relatively simple concept of attenuation and resistance and applied a generous helping of reliable, German precision in their collaborative effort, the Reducer attenuation unit. Hand wired point-to-point in Cologne and capable of soak up a whopping 200 watts of power, the Reducer’s three simple pots can knock off the edges in just about any way imaginable without even laying a hair on your tone. On the left you have the coarser of the two controls. Simply switch between zero, -3db and -5db attenuation before moving over to the variable pot to sweep up between -7db and infinite

reduction via the center dial. Choose the rate of resistance relative to the impedance of your cab and you’re away. The signal path is completely passive meaning that the only thing influencing the sound of your head is the ferocity with which the electricity hits your speakers. The biggest thing that designers have to worry about with a unit like this is heat exchange, and more specifically build up. We are, after all, attempting to hold back electrical current from its intended destination so features like perforated top and bottom plates and the fact that it is a free standing unit are imperative and negate the use of noisy fans. The beauty of the engineering here is that SPL have come up with a design that harnesses said

It’s the kind of thing you don’t know you need until you have it. Sat between your favourite head and its faithful cab SPL and Tonehunter’s Reducer will turn any dynamic duo into a power trio, all the while saving your ears and the ears of everyone around you. It’ll make your speakers work just that little bit harder so you and your head don’t have to. BY LUKE SHIELDS HITS • Absolute transparency. • Durable and effective build quality. • Thorough attention to problematic heat. transference. MISSES • A little bulky. No option to mount in a rack case.

BADCAT Unleash V2 Attenuator and Reamp Unit EGM Distribution | egm.net.au | Expect to Pay: Contact For Pricing

channels are muted but signal still flows to either a desk or headphone amp) operation sound and feel as realistic as it does. Matching output resistance at the flick of a switch and the fact that the input dial will never allow you to choke back too hard and ruin any of your favourite pieces of equipment are details that are all too often overlooked with expensive and catastrophic consequences. Never fear though, Bad Cat has absolutely thought of that!

As we delve deeper and deeper into the mammoth stockpile of weapons of mass tonal destruction, we uncover new and unusual combinations of need and want that deserve resolution, no matter how small the target market. Things like fuzz pedals with phase circuits built in, permanently cocked wahs, buffers, noise suppressors and any number of other left of center ideas litter the fringes of Tone Town like marauders at the castle walls. Some have proven themselves worthy of board space, others not so much, but occasionally an idea comes to life that is handy in ways that none of us necessarily expected to need. Enter the Unleash V2, a re-amp unit come attenuator come speaker simulation unit so useful it’ll just about play the song for you. Now, before I go on I must quantify somewhat, there are specific situations where the Unleash V2 is at its most purposeful. I don’t mean to sound like it’s going to replace everything you own, but it might. Recording engineers will love this thing thanks to its lossless signal splitting and ability to push an amp to the gates of hell without bursting mic pres like popcorn. The bedroom Bonamassa will too, thanks to the deceptively lifelike silent recording mode. The idea is that it’s a powered signal splitter with the capacity to push and/ or pull signal sent between head and cab, 48

For a company known for their refined yet rambunctious amp builds, I have to tip my hat to the care and attention to real world application that Bad Cat have paid here. The Unleash V2 shines a light on every option possible in the mysterious world between head and cab. It’s a sturdy and trustworthy addition to any rig. BY LUKE SHIELDS almost like a middleman in a real estate deal with a few extra tricks of his own. Plug your head into the back and then pass through via Speakon connection into your cab (or cabs) and you now have the ability to boost the amount of grunt coming from small wattage amps or throttle back your 100watt behemoth. There is an isolated effects loop perfect for boutique amps that don’t come so equipped or, as for using extension cabs to imitate a ‘wet/dry’ style set up. Across the front you have two dials controlling the output level of the two footswitchable channels and the all-important

rooster-head that controls the amount of juice coming in in the first place. While there may be a fair amount of competition in both the re-amp and attenuation fields, few come as close to pairing the two quite as successfully as Bad Cat has with the Unleash V2. The crowning glory here is the focus on the details inside the housing and its ability to make or break sound quality, and as follows usability of the design. There is a patent pending on the Reactive Load Input, which is what makes ‘silent mode’ (where the output

HITS • Attention to detail both sonically and engineering wise. MISSES • Bulky

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Product Reviews LINE 6 Spider V 240HC Head and V412 Cabinet Yamaha Music Australia | au.yamaha.com | Expect To Pay: Cab - $599.99, Head - $949.99

Love them or hate them, Line 6 made the first strides towards breaking digital ground in the effects world. Stompbox modelers like the DL4 opened up worlds of opportunities for guitarists across the spectrum and brought the limitlessness of DAW bound plug-in capabilities out of the box, arguably for the first time. Other companies swiftly followed suit and the modeling amplifier age came to pass. As we all know, this is one of the most spirited arguments at the tonal round table, but there is no denying the leaps and bounds that either side has made in the years since this fledgling idea took flight. Today the race to sound as real as possible is as hotly contested as ever and Line 6 take it to the stage with the Spider V 240HC and its partner in crime, the V412 cabinet. There are two concepts that are unflinchingly important when marrying cab and head. 1) The quality and quantity of the speakers and 2) whether or not it’ll survive falling down venue stairs. The benchmark for cab design was set very early on by Marshall with their 4x12”, slanted boxes and Line 6 takes those two key points and build a brick shithouse out of them in the V412. Not only is it sturdy enough to stand on, it also manages to

maintain a calm, articulate and adaptable sense of purpose. Given that it is designed to voice one of the most chameleonic amps on the market, the Celestion speakers inside have to stand attentively at the right hand of their leader, ready to change characteristic on a dime. And they do so with the greatest of ease.

or simply the order in which they appear in the preset bay, every time I plug into one of their models I feel as if I know the menu at a familiar restaurant. You can shy away from it if that’s not what you’re looking for but there is something intrinsic about the characteristics at play that reminds you of the field you’re playing on.

The Spider series is Line 6’s attempt at building the everyman’s amp. Stocked high with every amp model in their library, from the tiniest blues combo to the heftiest triple rectifier, you the player are able to flick through as comprehensive a sonic catalogue as has ever been put together. Imitation is, after all the sincerest form of flattery. The thing that sets the Line 6 oeuvre apart from its competition is that there is a hint of a sound almost unique to the company’s builds. Whether its because of the type of amps they choose to include, which for the most part lean towards stadium sized, high gain models,

As far as functionality goes, scroll through the backlit menu on the front and dial in as you would with any amp. However, the Spider V240 is more of a play-in-thelive-realm than a push for innovation and this is where it shines. 240-watts of power is ready to steamroll your audience in either mono or stereo. However if you’re one of those insomniacs who needs to shred themselves to sleep there is a cabinet simulator switch that livens up the venue inside your headphones. Stereo XLR direct outs offer as much control to the desk as you have on stage, just plug your favourite Line 6 pedal board in and

on the older Sennheiser XSW systems that greatly limited the number of channels for operation. As a true diversity transmitter and receiver, you know that you can lock the two together in range of other systems and be sure they stay uninterrupted and clear for your performance.

and time again over the years on all sorts of stages and the XS Wireless 2 does not let it down. The transmission is faultless resulting in a microphone that sounds just like the wired model, but without the restraints of a microphone lead. Sennheiser have stepped it up in sound quality and toughness of build with these systems. They are going to be very popular and will no doubt deliver great quality audio for many years to come.

you’re good to go. Lastly, the choice of USB, firewire or headphone jack aux inputs make playback a breeze. Essentially, if you need it on stage either sound wise or connectivity wise, the Spider V has you covered. For those of us who are digitally adept, the Spider V 240HC is a simple and effective way to bring your sonic landscape to life on stage. With all the feel of a leviathan tube amp, the subtlety of a vintage combo and the limitless imagination you’ve come to expect from Line 6. BY LUKE SHIELDS HITS • Versatile and loaded with stage friendly essentials MISSES • Both units are heavy enough on their own without being paired up. • It has an inescapable digital signal fingerprint.

SENNHEISER XS Wireless 2 – 835 Wireless Microphone Set Sennheiser Australia | en-au.sennheiser.com | Expect To Pay: $865

When Sennheiser first brought out their XSW wireless system to replace the very popular Freeport system, the response from users was immediately great. The upgrade in transmission, ease of use and improvement to build quality did not go unnoticed. Now, after its release at this year’s NAMM show, Sennheiser’s new XS Wireless 2 systems are set to take users to a new level of quality, simplicity and reliability. With a range of options available for both microphone and instrument applications, it’s safe to say that the 835 set couldvery well be the most popular and in demand of the range. Sennheiser are not new to the wireless game by any means. They have been producing professional wireless systems for small and large stages for decades now and know a thing or two about quality transmission. They also know how a system needs to operate to work within a rig and are well aware that the XS Wireless 2 is going to be used by individual musicians, small groups and even larger ensembles alike. So they have ensured it is easy to use and simple to integrate with other systems. It offers 12 channels of UHF transmission, so you need not worry about running out of airspace on a crowded stage too quickly. This is a great advancement on many lower priced systems and even 50

The driving force behind the XS Wireless 2-835 is the microphone’s capsule, taken directly from Sennheiser’s e835 vocal microphone. This is a beautiful all-rounder for live vocal performance with a solid bottom end and a nice high frequency rolloff that leaves similar microphones wishing they had more air. The wired version of this microphone is one I have used time

HITS • Solid construction, ready for the rigours of stage use • Crystal clear audio transmission without dropouts • True diversity wireless • So easy to set up and operate MISSES • The microphone cable

BY ROB GEE

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Raise your voice. XS Wireless 1 & 2 microphone systems. As a singer, speaker or instrumentalist, you want to connect with your audience. Focus on your message – not on the equipment. Be confident. To meet those demands, Sennheiser created the XS Wireless microphone system. Thanks to its intuitive, one-touch scanning and synchronization, XS Wireless 1 combines exceptional ease of use with great sound quality. If you’re ready to take the next step, XS Wireless 2 offers additional control, flexibility and ruggedness to withstand the toughest live conditions. It’s time to raise your voice. For all microphone options visit sennheiser.com/xs-wireless

Product Reviews RME Fireface UFX II Audio Interface Innovative Music Australia | innovativemusic.com.au | Expect to Pay: $3699

RME have set out once again to prove that they are the masters of multichannel audio recording with their new premier audio interface the Fireface UFX II. This is the newest, upgraded version of their flagship Fireface UFX and really sees them needing to change the name with this now being a USB 3 compatible device and no longer requiring FireWire connections for any computer or task. It’s the latest in RME’s futureproofing designs to ensure that when you invest in a quality audio interface you will be able to grow with it rather than having it left behind as your needs and computer system change. With up to 30 input/output channels to your your DAW via a range of analogue and digital connections, this is a beast that will be able to handle just about any workload you can offer it and do so in stunning RME audio quality. The front panel proudly boasts four XLR/TRS combination jacks for microphone or line level inputs. These run straight into RME’s famous microphone preamps for amazing audio with any microphone without the need for external preamps down the signal path. There are also two stereo outputs on the front for use as headphone outputs for ease of monitoring. On the rear panel,

a further eight balanced line level inputs are offered on TRS connections. On the output side at the read, you get a pair of outputs on XLR plus a further six on TRS connections. This gives you 12 analogue ins and outs on the hardware itself, but there are plenty of additional connections with digital interfacing. Two MIDI inputs and two outputs, offering 32 channels of MIDI data both ways are supplied. There are also two pairs of ADAT inputs and outputs, offering up to 16 digital channels both ways. Then for additional audio inputs, an AES/EBU input and output on XLR round out the set. All this is fed through RME’s brilliant bridging software, TotalMix FX for direct monitoring and connectivity to your DAW. Inbuilt DSP allow you to take advantage of EQ and dynamic processing in TotalMix to give

further power to your system. In addition to this, the Fireface UFX II offers direct USB recording from the front panel USB port with all channels capable of being recorded simultaneously to a USB flash drive. Of course, like all RME interfaces, you get nothing but stunning analogue to digital conversion with the UFX II and a master clock that controls your external digital devices on ADAT for the best clocking on the market. The results are in the recordings, with a noticeable improvement from most other audio interfaces on the market. But with the UFX II, you get that across more channels than you will know what to do with. This is a serious piece of kit and a superb basis for a larger recording setup.

HITS • Amazing RME A/D conversion • Includes TotalMix FX software • Futureproof USB 3 design MISSES • You don’t own one… yet

BY ROB GEE

RME ARC USB Controller Innovative Music | innovativemusic.com.au | Expect to Pay: $299

There have been plenty of RME users waiting for this one and now, it is finally here, the much anticipated update to their ARC controller has arrived in the ARC USB. This encompasses the same concept as the previous ARC, or Advanced Remote Control unit, but it has seen an upgrade in the features and a downgrade in the overall size. What results is a very useable device that doesn’t clutter up your benchtop and allows a faster and more streamlined workflow with RME audio interfaces and the combined TotalMix FX bridging software. What’s ideal about this unit is that its basis is to control the TotalMix FX software that bridges any RME interface with the DAW. As it is designed to integrate with the software and not the hardware as such, you can use it with any RME audio interface that has been released in the last 16 years. You don’t have to keep using an inferior controller just because you prefer to stick with an older interface; the updated software platform allows you to use the ACR USB right away without a hardware upgrade, so long as you have a free USB port. There is no power required as it busses from the USB and it even offers additional footswitch control with the 6.5mm jack connection for an optional remote footswitch. When it comes to RME interfaces, this sleek little unit does it all. It’s a lot slimmer than the older model and 52

doesn’t have any compatibility issues, plus it offers far more assignable buttons. The design isn’t really anything to rave on about, but it is very simple and that is how you want a device like this to be. A range of options are included for easy access, like the talkback feature for laying notes to track, or getting through to the live room. There is a quick jump to monitoring from a second pair of speakers and a dim feature to pull the volume down for critical listening and tracking. Best of all, in the most critical position of all the buttons (at least for a right handed operator) is the

mono button, allowing you to check the stereo spread with the tap of a fingertip. With eight additional programmable buttons and a series of labels included to make them easier to navigate, the ARC USB means there is a lot less need to handle the mouse when recording with an RME interface and almost brings it back to that feel of having a monitor section on a mixing console at your fingertips. Simple, compact and clever, this is one device that all RME owners should invest in to improve their workflow and creative process.

HITS • Smooth, staggered jog wheel • Quick access to talkback, alternative monitors and dimming functions • It includes a mono button, so very handy MISSES • Buttons are a little bit noisy in execution

BY ROB GEE mixdownmag.com.au

Product Reviews STERLING BY MUSIC MAN Cutlass CT50 Guitar CMC Music Australia | cmcmusic.com.au | Expect To Pay: $1495

The ‘Music Man’ portion of the Ernie Ball Music Man name was a company founded by Leo Fender in 1974, and the earliest bass and guitar models were new instruments that showed an evolution from what Leo had designed before. Since then - and especially under the guidance of Ernie Ball - the company has taken things pretty far from those original design styles, but they bring it right on back with the Cutlass. Available in EBMM and the more affordable Sterling By Music Man models, the Cutlass is a bolt-on, three-single-coil guitar that feels a little more ‘Leo’ than anything EBMM has released in years. The Sterling Cutlass is made of basswood with the standard EBMM 5-bolt neck joint leading to a hard maple neck with rosewood fingerboard on the Three-Tone Sunburst and Fiesta Red models (maple is available on the Black, Seafoam Green and Olympic White versions). There are 22 frets and a flattish 12” fretboard radius, giving this guitar a little more modern feel. There are locking tuners (four on the bass side, two on the treble) and a twopoint fulcrum vintage-style tremolo, and a five-way pickup selector switch with a master volume and a master tone control. The pickups are a trio of vintage-voiced single coils with a reverse wound/reverse

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polarity middle pickup for hum-cancelling operation in positions two and four. The first thing you’ll notice when you pick up the Cutlass is its super-comfortable neck profile. It forms a soft V shape at the headstock end which orients your hand very comfortably for extended periods of first-position chording, but flattens out to a softer curve as you progress towards the higher notes. Along the whole way it’s a little thinner than you might expect from a guitar that looks like this. In fact, it almost reminds me of the necks on EBMM’s John Petrucci models. Sonically, this is certainly a vintage-voiced guitar: the three single coils have plenty of spank and quack, leaning more towards the 1950s ideal of clarity and definition rather than the darker, fatter 60’s style. This gives you

plenty of edge and bite when you’re playing with medium or high gain, and an acousticlike zing when playing clean. All five pickup selections are quite usable but the neck pickup setting sounds particularly bell-like; many players might find themselves using this one most of all.

HITS • Comfortable ‘soft V’ neck carve • Clear-sounding pickups MISSES • Two tone controls would be nice.

This is an extremely playable, greatsounding guitar with just enough of its own personality to set it aside from the legion of similar-looking SSS guitars out there. EBMM and Sterling By Music Man have been able to put their own spin on a classic design without alienating their own fans, or fans of guitar history. BY PETER HODGSON

Product Reviews ADK Studio Series Microphones

HAMBURG EDITION MK8 The Hamburg Edition is a cardioid FET condenser microphone that is designed to replicate the tones and characteristics of certain German microphones from the 1950’s. It doesn’t take a genius to realise that this is then going to be a popular microphone as ADK don’t do things by halves and will be able to capture a specific tone in a certain microphone when they set out to do so. This mic features a low-pass filter and a 14dB pad for certain high SPL applications. It is, when all is said and done, a reall great microphone for vocals, capturing the essence of valve microphones from the past. Those of you seeking a more modest, vintage tone in your vocals, especially for blues, jazz and classic opera, this microphone is going to leave you wanting to hear more. But it isn’t limited to just that, it will deliver the goods on instruments as well. I just wish I had a piano here to try it out as I am sure the results would have been stunning.

Studio Connections | studioconnections.com.au | Expect to Pay: A6 - $380, Hamburg MK8 - $455, Thor - $615

I think it is safe to say that ADK Microphones certainly gained its popularity and worldwide fame from the A-51 valve microphone that ended up in so many home and professional studios. This was a microphone that not only met the needs of many musicians’ budgets, but also delivered exceptional quality that had many people at a loss to how good they sounded. The A-51 has come out on top on numerous microphone shootouts and blind listening tests, because it was so good for what it offered. I recently had access to a pair of them that were serviced and loaded with select valves, and they were hard to give back. But, moving on from the A-51, ADK has set out to deliver a range of microphones that captures the soul and warmth of so many classic European microphones from over the last century. They were not interested in creating a budget range of microphones that just grabbed a quick sale, instead they have focused on creating the ideal capsules and electronics to faithfully emulate certain microphone characteristics and improve on previous tone. Best of all, I got to play with three models this month that all stood up on their own. THOR The team at ADK refer to this microphone as a ‘true Swiss Army knife’ and that is pretty spot on when you get it in action. It has plenty to offer for not only a range of vocal applications, but also plenty of instrument uses as well. This is a multi-

pattern, dual capsule design that has a range of tricks available to handle any situation. It works great on medium to loud SPL signals, so you can use it for big rock vocals, guitar amps and even drums if you like. It offers Cardioid, Figure-of-8 and Omni polar patterns with a range of extras. A three-stage high-pass filter allows you to take control of low frequency rumble and an 8dB and 18dB pad allows you to tame even to most aggressive of audio signals. There is also a high frequency switch that gives you control over the top end, allowing you to create a more mellow signal right at the microphone’s capsule should you wish. A6 This is a microphone for the audio purist

BLUE Encore 200 Vocal Microphone Amber Technology | ambertech.com.au | Expect to Pay: $249

Blue Microphones’ somewhat ostentatious designs can be spotted a mile away, but whilst shocking on visual appeal, they deliver on sound quality too. It’s unsurprising that a handheld vocal microphone from Blue is going to be far form the conventional and almost certainly is going to offer more than the norm when it comes to sound. Which leads us to the enCORE 200 active dynamic microphone, the first of its kind and a classic Blue concept that will change the way live stage vocals are captured. We all know what a dynamic microphone is, and should understand how it is selfpowering, therefore not requiring phantom power to be supplied to it. Well, the team at Blue decided to create a dynamic microphone that requires phantom power, just to be different. But it’s not without merit. With the added power supplied to this microphone, it’s able to achieve far higher gain levels than a standard dynamic microphone, so it delivers a richer and fuller sound without the fear of stepping into the realms of feedback as easily as 54

who wants to remove any unnecessary impedance in the signal as it travels from the capsule to the preamp. There are not switches, polar pattern changes or pads on this unit, just a beautiful sound with upgraded electronics and long-life components. The result is a microphone that not only oozes rich warmth, but also has a little bit of brilliance in its sound too, giving it a more neutral tone to others in the range, so it sounds a little like a few familiar capsules from around Europe. As a vocal microphone, this is a real joy to listen to, but it isn’t out of place when used for instrument applications either. With both male and female vocals, this is one microphone that just sound sweet before you even consider tweaking the EQ in your console.

you can when trying to drive a traditional dynamic microphone. The way that this microphone then responds is quite unique, in that it has the gain and top end sparkle of a condenser microphone, but still has the lower mid-range push that you expect from a dynamic microphone. It really is a great sounding tool that is going to make small, loud stages much easier to work on and still get a clear sound without the chance of the microphone screaming off into feedback.

BY ROB GEE HITS • Great selection of classic microphone tones • Excellent construction with quality parts • Amazing sound quality across the range MISSES • Not in everyone’s price range

HITS • Solid built with a comfortable feel and balance • Extra bling comes included • Clear, brilliant sound with plenty of headroom MISSES • It might be a bit much for some people’s taste

Naturally Blue can’t make a microphone that is conventional in looks either, so they have mixed it up a bit with this once by retaining a classic shape but tweaking the grip a little to give it a non-slip feel in the hand. Not that it would be a problem as it is built pretty ruggedly, so it will take a beating. But more so to perhaps protect the cage which can be black or can be swapped out to the totally outrageous copper coloured cage that is also supplied. This is a real performers’ microphone with all the bling and show in the looks that it has in the delivery of the sound too. BY ROB GEE

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Show & Tell Jesse Coulter of

Lucius Borich of

What piece of equipment do you have to show us today? My Gibson Les Paul - my favourite tool, my partner in crime, my constant road companion, my Rolls Royce.

What piece of equipment do you have to show us today? Ascension Drumsticks, 100% Australian made and owned.

Grenadiers

How did you come across this particular item? My dad was a guitarist in bands when he was a kid and a young adult, and always wanted a Les Paul but could never afford it. When I was about 20 I’d been playing in touring bands for a few years, bought a couple of my own guitars and other bits of gear. One day I came home and Dad had come into some money and decided to get this. I guess he wanted to live his guitar fantasy vicariously through me - on the condition that he could play the beast whenever he wanted. Seemed like a pretty good deal. What is it that you like about it so much? It’s heavy as a dump truck, sounds like a tonne of silk and basically plays itself. It’s everything I like in a guitar - black, classic, and elegant. It also carries a fair bit of sentimental attachment now - it’s been around the country with me many, many times. Bits have fallen off and been replaced, the bridge is about an inch away from death and it has been through some rough moments but has always lived to tell the tale.

Cog

How do you use it and how has it shaped the way you write music? It’s been featured heavily on every Grenadiers record, not to mention countless others. It lives at our drummer Jimmy’s studio in Adelaide, Capitalsound, and is used as a studio tool there all the time. Different guitars affect how you play for sure, and I guess a lot of Grenadiers songs have taken shape the way they have in no small part due to how I play this particular guitar. To get a great sound of a Les Paul playing rock music, you need to dig in, play hard and really wrangle the thing, so that’s what I do. It’s a part of Grenadiers’ sound. Tell us a little about what you have coming up? We’ve just dropped a new single and video called ‘Suburban Life’ and are hitting the road for a few dates in Brisbane, The Gold Coast, Sydney, Wollongong, Melbourne and Adelaide. Grenadiers are touring the East Coast throughout May. ‘Suburban Life’ is out now.

How did you come across this particular item? With Ascension my business partner Mat Love approached me about putting together an Australian drum stick brand, so we did! What is it that you like about it so much? With Ascension, my role within the company is a creative one among other managerial tasks. The brand is much more than just an endorsement to me. This is a new business venture and I’m excited about the future of this brand of drumstick for Australian drums and drummers across our vast oceans. How do you use it and how has it shaped the way you write music? My sticks are an extension of my musicality when writing and playing drum parts. If the sticks don’t feel right then I’m not inspired to create. I trust Ascension for the job at hand.

performance at 2pm on Sat May 27 at the Rosehill Gardens Grand Pavilion. I’ll be launching Ascension drums sticks on stage at the show! I haven’t got too long a set so I’ll squeeze in as much in as I can.

Tell us a little about what you have coming up? I’ll be playing and chatting at the Sydney Drum & Percussion Show with a mainstage

For more information about the Sydney Drum and Percussion show visit australianmusician.com.au/sydney-drumpercussion-show-2017

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Directory EVOLUTION MUSIC

(Music Instruments Retailer) A | P | E | W|

8/2 Northey Rd, Lynbrook VIC (03) 8787 8599 info@evolutionmusic.com.au evolutionmusic.com.au facebook.com/evolutionmusicaus

AA DUPLICATION

(Printing/CD & DVD Duplication) A | P | E | W|

84 Nicholson St, Abbotsford VIC (03) 9416 2133 sales@aaduplication.com.au aaduplication.com.au facebook.com/AADuplicationServices

EASTGATE MUSIC

(Music Instruments Retailer) A | P | E | W|

1131 Burke Rd, Kew VIC (03) 9817 7000 sales@eastgatemusic.com eastgatemusic.com.au facebook.com/Eastgatemusic

JABEN AUDIO

(Headphone Specialist Retailer) A | P | E | W|

Shop 2 398 Lonsdale St, Melbourne VIC (03) 9670 8231 info@jaben.com.au jaben.com.au facebook.com/jabenau

HYDRA REHEARSAL STUDIOS

(Rehearsal Rooms) A | 18 Duffy Street, Burwood VIC P | (03) 9038 8101 E | hydrastudios@bigpond.com W | hydrastudios.com.au facebook.com/hydra.rehearsal.studios

MELBOURNE MUSIC CENTRE

MUSIC 440

(Music Instruments Retailer)

(Music Instruments Retailer) A | 525 North Rd, Ormond, VIC P | (03) 9578 2426 E | info@melbournemusiccentre.com.au W | melbournemusiccentre.com.au facebook.com/melbournemusic.centre

A | P | E | W|

SKY MUSIC

BINARY MUSIC

(Music Instruments Retailer) A | P | E | W|

4/2181 Princes Hwy, Clayton VIC (03) 9546 0188 info@skymusic.com.au skymusic.com.au facebook.com/skymusiconline

FIVE STAR MUSIC

(Music Instruments Retailer & Education) A | 48 Bloomfield St, Cleveland QLD P | (07) 3488 2230 E | sales@binarydesigns.com.au W | binarydesigns.com.au @binarymusic

WILD HORSE GUITARS

(Music Instruments Retailer) A | P | E | W|

1/30 Station Rd, Indooroopilly QLD (07) 3878 4566 info@music440.com.au music440.com.au facebook.com/music440

(Music Instruments Retailer)

102 Maroondah Hwy, Ringwood VIC (03) 9870 4143 websales@fivestarmusic.com.au fivestarmusic.com.au facebook.com/fivestarmusicoz

REVOLVER DRUMS

A | P | E | W|

Brumby Street Surry Hills NSW (02) 9690 0800 info@wildhorseguitars.com.au wildhorseguitars.com.au facebook.com/wildhorseguitars

MONA VALE MUSIC

(Drums Specialist Retailer)

(Music Instruments Retailer)

A | 4a Izett St, Prahran 3181 P | (03) 9521 4644 E | sales@revolverdrums.com.au W | revolverdrums.com.au @revolverdrums

A | 55 Bassett Street, Mona Vale NSW P | (02) 9986 0589 E | info@mvmwarehouse.com W | www.monavalemusic.com facebook.com/monavalemusic

HIGH ST MUSIC

DAMIEN GERARD STUDIOS

(Music Instruments Retailer) A | 442 High Street, Preston VIC P | (03) 9077 8343 E | highstreetmusic@optusnet.com.au W | highstreetmusic.net.au facebook.com/High-Street-Music

(Screenprinting & Design Service) A | 15/17 Hutchinson St, St Peters NSW P | (02) 9550 6965 E | info@arcadescreenprinting.com.au W | arcadescreenprinting.com.au facebook.com/arcadescreenprinting

GLADESVILLE GUITAR FACTORY

(Music Instruments Retailer) A | 280 Victoria Rd, Gladesville NSW P | (02) 9817 2173 E | mail@guitarfactory.net W | guitarfactory.net facebook.com/GladesvilleGuitarFactory

TURRAMURRA MUSIC (Music Instruments Retailer) A | P | E | W|

1267 Pacific Hwy, Turramurra NSW (02) 9449 8487 general_sales@turramusic.com.au turramusic.com.au facebook.com/TurramurraMusic

COASTAL MUSIC

(Music Instruments Retailer & Repairs) A | 5/148 Lake Road, Port Macquarie NSW P | (02) 6581 3016 E | sales@coastalmusic.com.au W | coastalmusic.com.au facebook.com/coastalmusic

BIG MUSIC

(Music Instruments Retailer & Recording Studio) A | 85 Alexander Street, Crows Nest NSW P | 1300 55 24 20 W | bigmusicshop.com.au facebook.com/bigmusicshop

SUNBURST MUSIC

MODERN MUSICIAN

(Music Instruments Retailer) A | P | E | W|

(Recording Studios) A | 230 Crown St, Darlinghurst NSW P | (02) 9331 0666 E | bookings@damiengerard.net W | damiengerard.com.au facebook.com/damiengerardstudios

ARCADE SCREENPRINTING

106 Murray Street, Hobart TAS (03) 6234 5537 nick@modernmusician.com.au modernmusician.com.au facebook.com/modernmusician

(Music Instruments Retailer & Recording Studio) A | 122–124 Coogee Bay Road, Coogee NSW P | (02) 9665 9088 E | sales@sunburstmusic.com.au W | sunburstmusic.com.au facebook.com/SUNBURSTMUSIC. CoogeeAustralia

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P A T R I C K @ F U R S T M E D I A . C O M . A U

T O

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P L A C E

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