Tag Archives: Review

NAMM Show 2015 – Highlights

Posted on by

I got to experience my first California NAMM show at the Anaheim convention center this past weekend and boy did it live up to the hype. It’s fitting that the convention center is right next door to Disneyland because NAMM is a disney experience for musicians and gearheads alike.

I was advised to download the NAMM app and the have a plan of attack so right after getting my badge I headed directly to the Sabian booth (more like a fortress) to check out their new big and ugly collection of cymbals. These cymbals are all 22 inches and above and they are some mean looking cymbal machines! These dark and dry cymbals are perfect for jazz drummers. They have the look and feel of the Meinl sand rides but are bigger and uglier! Some of them even have burn marks! I really loved the feel of the HH King ride! Sabian’s booth looked amazing and I think they hit a home run by bringing their hand hammer master Charlie Brown out with them to demonstrate that entire hand hammering process! Check out Sabian’s A&R Chris Stankee giving the low down on these:

Paiste’s new line PSTX line of cymbals also caught my attention. These special effects cymbals actually sounded good with just hitting them with my hands. These cymbals would make a good fit with a hybrid acoustic\electric kit as they are more metallic sounding than most effects cymbals I’ve played. They also added hi-hats to this line which were kinda weird to play but sounded very cool-especially when closing the hats together with the pedal. Check out Paiste’s Andrew Shreve’s demo.

Another product that caught attention was the Overtone Labs Tune-Bot. This product has been around for a at least a few years but what was interesting is that Pearl is now selling it as one of their products. It’s a pretty cool product that I think has great value in the studio especially when you want each lug tone to be matched. Check out the demo given by Glen Caruba:

Another highlight was Rotodrum. This Italian based company makes an extremely versatile and innovative line of drums. Inventor Riccardo Martinazzi engineered a drumming system that enables the drummer to change the drum tones very quickly by adjusting the position of the top and bottom heads. This means you can change sounds of any drum on the fly.  Pretty cool. Perhaps the best innovation about these drums is that you can place the mic directly between the batter and resonate head. They also make a three headed snare drum which gives you endless sonic capabilities.

You can find out more info at rotodrum.com

Rounding out some of the other highlights for me in the custom drum category was getting a chance to play a birch Sakae kit, the beauty of the new maple Craviotto timbales, and the great tone of the Brazilian based Odery drums.

KickPort Bass Drum Support

Posted on by

KickPortI needed to add some low end to my 20 inch kick drum so I decided to give the Kickport KP1GO Bass Drum Enhancer 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.

rubber_band_kickportMy 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 :

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

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.

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:).

Artwork with Kickport

Musician Earplugs

Posted on by

Musician Earplugs with Etymotic Research Attenuators

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.

Ear Mold for Custom Fit Earplugs

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/hp/erme.html