Changing Modes CD release show – Arlene’s Grocery Friday April 13th 8:30p
I’m very excited about this special CD release show! I’ve been working with Changing Modes since 2004 and this will be my last performance with the band before moving out to California. I’m reluctantly giving up the drum chair after this show, but am hoping to keep connected to the band in other musical ways!

Arlenes Grocery
95 Stanton Street
New York, NY
Cover: $10

Here’s a short video of Cell to Cell from the last show we did at Arlene’s Grocery, NYC.

If your looking to learn Reason basics you might like to check out my beginner lessons on Youtube. Reason is a great music software program that emulates a “real” rack of electronic music devices. The first lesson covers the basic Reason 3.0 interface, adding devices to the rack, and customizing Redrum track connections. Lesson 2 covers basic beat programming and lesson 3 covers adding a keyboard bass and putting it all together.

I needed to add some low end to my 20 inch kick drum so I decided to give the KickPort a try. For those of you not familiar with the KickPort, it’s a small plastic tube that gets inserted into the kick drum’s resonant head. Attached to the tube is a rubber flap that is used to seal the KickPort once it’s inserted. It’s claim to fame is that it boosts the kick drum in the same manner as a bass reflex speaker cabinet boosts low frequencies.

I decided to go to Guitar Center to pick one up. It comes with a 5 and 1/4 reinforcement ring; however, I was told that it works better if you cut a 5″ diameter hole instead.

My resonant head had no port, so I decided to make the 5″ hole for the kickport. I have to admit, it made the process a little challenging since the kickport itself is almost 5″ in diameter. I had to remove the resonant head from the drum and place heavy duty rubber bands around the cumbersome rubber flap of the KickPort in order to nudge it into place.

The 5″ hole creates a really tight fit for the Kickport, which gives it solid stability.

Using my iPhone, I did a lofi recording with and without the Kickport using the same resonant head.

Here is the audio using a REMO Emperor coated resonant head with a 5 and 1/4″ hole without the KickPort :

Without Kickport by orodrummer

And here is the audio using REMO Emperor resonant head with a 5″ hole and KickPort:

With Kickport by orodrummer

You can hear the KickPort takes away some boom and adds punch and low end.

The only downside is that I don’t hear as much tone as before. KickPort’s documentation states that it increases tone, while other websites are stating that different resonant heads yield different results. If you want to know more, check out the blog post from recordinghacks.com  http://recordinghacks.com/2009/03/16/kickport-review/

I think the KickPort has a solid look. Artist and fellow Changing Modes bandmate Grace Pulliam did a fine job painting the 20″ head shown below -I have to admit, the KickPort fits right in:).

Last summer I trekked up to the Connecticut woods with Changing Modes for the Cell to Cell video shoot. The band had a ball making the video and everyone was really happy with the final product. Special thanks to Paul Rondeau for the concept, location, and the direction of the video. I have to admit, robot-drumming was more challenging than I anticipated. I got together with Grace from Changing Modes, and her boyfriend TJ and we put together a short behind the scenes video from the separate footage that TJ shot.

Here is the behind the scenes:

And here is the final rendition of the video:

Twelve years ago, I bought a pair of custom molded musician earplugs with Etymotic Research filters. I remember liking them a lot because they were comfortable and evenly reduced low, mid, and high frequencies. As luck would have it, I only wore them for a few years because I carelessly lost them after playing a show in upstate New York.

Since then I have tried every non-custom type of earplug. The foam plugs turned sound into mush. Hearos were a little better, but were not comfortable to wear for long periods of time. I’ve used in-ear monitors, which helped manage the sound. However, without that technology, I constantly found myself playing without ear protection during rehearsals and gigs.

A few months ago, I decided it was time to purchase another pair of custom musician earplugs. Since I was happy with my first pair of ER filters, I didn’t have to spend time researching what I wanted. However, I did have to decide between ordering a do-it-yourself “impression kit” for the ear molds or having professional audiologist do it.

I decided to go to an audiologist because I was also way overdue for a hearing test. It’s more expensive to go this route but Etymotic Research claims to get more accurate molds from the pros.

Musicians Earplugs have interchangeable attenuator buttons that come in three levels–9db, 15db, and 25db. I went with the 9db and the 15db–both seem to cut down enough of the dangerous levels. If I’m singing and playing drums I need the 9db so I can hear myself better. For everything else I’ve been using the 15db. The molds plus the filters cost about $180 for the pair. Add another $40 if you want to get more than one pair of filters. If you’ve never wore them but are interested in getting a pair, then I recommend the 15db as a good baseline.

Here’s the link to their site: http://www.etymotic.com/ephp/erme.aspx