M A D E B Y M U S I C I A N S F O R M U S I C I A N S
MAY 2015 #253
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CONTENTS
FORE WORD
GIVEAWAY
6
NEWS & TOURS
8
THE INDUSTRIALIST
10
PRODUCT NEWS
12
GANG OF YOUTHS
20
MÖTLEY CRÜE
22
YNGWIE MALMSTEEN KARNIVOOL
24
THE SHRINE COURTNEY BARNETT
25
MARLON WILLIAMS
26
YNGWIE MALMSTEEN PAGE 22
THE GROVE STUDIOS UNLEASH YOUR INNER ROCK GOD
27
WHAT’S MY RANGE AGAIN? BANGIN THE TUBS
28
THE SHRINE PAGE 24
ON THE DOWNLOW
MARLON WILLIAMS PAGE 26
(D)IGITAL (J)OCKEY
29
FOR BREAKING NEWS, NEW CONTENT AND MORE GIVEAWAYS VISIT
ROAD TESTS
30
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It’s been a huge month in Australian music with countless new albums, national tours and festival dates having been announced. This issue, it’s clearly evident with newcomers Gang Of Youths fronting the cover in celebration of their debut full length The Positions. It’s not unwarranted either with a swell of local support, rave reviews nation-wide and already making it into the Aria Top 5. We go behind the scenes with front man David Leaupepe to get insight into the blood, sweat and tears that literally went into the song writing of this album. It’s deep and it’s insightful. Following this we catch up with Tommy “freaking” Lee from Motley Crue, one of the most infamous hair metal bands of the 80’s on their last ever World tour. Guitar slayer Yngwie Malmsteen chats to us about his “arpeggios from hell” and his upcoming full band tour. Local kings of heavy riffage Karnivool join us too with psych-scuzz lords The Shrine set to play all around the country this month. The rising star that is Courtney Barnett tells the truth on being in the spot light and Marlon Williams brings his voice like no other…seriously, you have to hear this guy! We also get insight into the very cool Grove Studios, home to many infamous Australia awardwinning records. And their new partnership with Hunter TAFE - RMI (Regional Music Institute) for their new audio engineering course, literally like no other! More product and industry news, columns and killer new road tests that feature innovative new product also make a splash on our pages. Be sure to get involved with our website mixdownmag.com.au too, as we have a stack of unique content and giveaways going up daily! ALEKSEI PLINTE EDITOR IN CHIEF
@MIXDOWNMAGAZINE
MADE BY MUSICIANS, FOR MUSICIANS JUNE ISSUE #254 DEADLINE AND STREET DATES:
STREET AND ONLINE DATE: WEDNESDAY JUNE 3 AD BOOKING DEADLINE: MONDAY MAY 25 EDITORIAL DEADLINE: TUESDAY MAY 26 ARTWORK DEADLINE: WEDNESDAY MAY 27 For more information on Mixdown Magazine contact: Aleksei on (03) 9428 3600 or email mixdown@beat.com.au
PUBLISHER Furst Media EDITOR IN CHIEF Aleksei Plinte mixdown@beat.com.au
CONTRIBUTORS Michael Edney, Adrian Violi, Rob Gee, Peter Hodgson, Christie Elizer, Augustus Welby, Nick Brown. COVER PHOTO: Ashley Mar www.pixbyash.tumblr.com
EDITORIAL COORDINATOR Keats Mulligan
COVER ART Michael Cusack GRAPHIC DESIGN Michael Cusack
MIXDOWN OFFICE Level 1, No. 3 Newton Street, Richmond VIC 3121. Phone: (03) 9428 3600
ADVERTISING Aleksei Plinte E: mixdown@beat.com.au Phone: (03) 8414 9704
PRODUCTION MANAGER Michael Cusack
PG.4 // MIXDOWN #253 // MAY 2015
www.mixdownmag.com.au
GIVEAWAYS Sony MDR-7510 -7510 Headphone Giveaway Once again it is giveaway time, and this month we’re giving away a pair of Sony MDR-7510 Sound Monitor Headphones. Weighing only 261 grams with a 3 meter long cord, these monitor headphones are designed for prolonged use in a variety of applications. These headphones can handle high powered inputs of up to 2,000mW while a large 55mm driver unit is designed with a breadth of frequency range in mind. These headphone monitors are well built and versatile, and for your chance to take them home all you need to do is visit our giveaways page at www.mixdownmag.com.au/ giveaways and follow the instructions. For full terms and conditions visit www.mixdownmag.com.au/ terms-and-conditions.
Last Month’s Giveaway Winner Ernie Ball M-Steel Strings Giveaway We’re thrilled to be able to give away some of these awesome Ernie Ball M-Steel strings to one of our Mixdown readers this month. We wish we had more to give, but unfortunately there can only be one winner, and this month that lucky winner is: Kristian McKenna of Gympie, Queensland.
We’ll be sending a box of these awesome strings your way, we hope you enjoy them. Thanks again to everyone who entered, the good news for all of you is that with another issue comes another opportunity to win awesome gear as featured in the mag. Keep entering, eventually you’re sure to win something right?
*This giveaway is for Australian residents only and one entry per person. For more awesome monthly Mixdown Giveaways, be sure to LIKE our Mixdown Magazine facebook page at www.facebook.com/mixdownmagazine and regularly check our Giveaways page on www.mixdownmag.com.au/giveaways for your chance to win.
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THE GROVE STUDIOS RMI (REGIONAL MUSIC INSTITUTE)
OPEN DAY SATURDAY 16TH MAY 10am-2pm Join us on the 16th of May to discover The Grove Studios, one of Australia’s leading recording studios.
The Grove Studios and RMI (Regional Music Institute), powered by Hunter TAFE, will take you through the amazing facilities that will be at your ngertips as a student of the Sound Production Diploma. Tour the four different studios, meet teachers, attend a recording session, use equipment, get your own music critiqued, ask questions and enjoy the amazing atmosphere this boutique campus has to offer.
Places are limited, so register your interest and check out The Grove Studios at rmi.edu.au
286 Mangrove Rd, Somersby (just off Dog Trap Rd) Ph. (02) 4362 3299 rmi.edu.au and thegrovestudios.com
NEWS & TOURS Raised By Eagles
Circa Survive
Bad//Dreems
Miles Away
Raised By Eagles have been steadily growing in stature since they released their self-titled debut in 2013. Now, as they release their second album Diamonds In The Bloodstream and gear up for a co-headline tour with Americana band Ruby Boots, the alt country outfit is on the verge of becoming a staple in contemporary Australian music. In the short time since their initial release, the band has earned themselves a nomination at The Age Music Victoria Awards for ‘Best Country Album’ and played with Justin Townes Earle at the inaugural ‘Out On The Weekend’ festival. Diamonds In The Bloodstream is due for release on April 20.
Philadelphia Prog/Post-Hardcore giants Circa Survive are coming to Australia. The band have will be down later in the year to perform music from their most recent album Descensus, a record proves that even though the band has been operating for a decade now, their best certainly isn’t behind them. Joining Circa Survive on tour will be post-punk up and comers PVRIS. Their debut LP White Noise was only released in November last year, but already the band has attracted a lot of attention from all corners of the posthardcore/prog community. Tickets to all shows are on sale now. Tickets are likely to sell out quickly, so make sure you get in early to secure your opportunity to see this awesome show.
Adelaide band Bad//Dreems have announced that they’ll be heading out on tour. The band was set to support The Black Keys throughout their national tour, but unfortunately due to Patrick Carney’s shoulder injury that tour has been cancelled. However, in the wake of the cancelled shows, the band has announced a string of East Coast dates to appease fans. The band has also released the first single from their upcoming debut album. ‘Cuffed & Collared’ has been warmly received by critics, both at home and abroad, and since it’s release two weeks ago has found itself added to triple J rotation.
Five years after the release of their last album, Endless Roads, Miles Away are back with a new album and a national tour to celebrate. Tide, the band’s latest release is out on Friday May 8. To mark the release, the band, who are now in their 13th year, will embark on a national tour, taking in Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. Coming along for the ride for all shows will be The Blacklisted, who have just released a brand new LP titled When People Grow, People Go.
TOUR DATES MAY 21 - NEWTOWN SOCIAL CLUB, SYDNEY NSW MAY 22 – HOWLER, MELBOURNE VIC MAY 29 - BLACK BEAR LODGE, BRISBANE QLD
TOUR DATES
TOUR DATES
TOUR DATES
SEPTEMBER 18 – THE MET, BRISBANE QLD SEPTEMBER 19 – THE METRO, SYDNEY NSW SEPTEMBER 20 – 170 RUSSELL, MELBOURNE VIC SEPTEMBER 21 – 170 RUSSELL, MELBOURNE VIC
JUNE 12 - JIVE BAR, ADELAIDE SA JUNE 19 - THE TOTE, MELBOURNE VIC JUNE 20 - GOODGOD SMALL CLUB, SYDNEY NSW JUNE 27 – CROWBAR, BRISBANE QLD
MAY 8 - MARGARET RIVER FOOTY CLUB WA MAY 9 - ROSEMOUNT, PERTH WA MAY 10 - HQ, LEEDERVILLE WA MAY 13 - ENIGMA, ADELAIDE SA MAY 14 - NORTHCOTE SOCIAL, MELBOURNE VIC MAY 15 - RED RATTLER, SYDNEY NSW MAY 16 - SMALL BALLROOM, NEWCASTLE NSW MAY 17 - UPSTAIRS 199, BRISBANE QLD MAY 17 - BRIGHTSIDE, BRISBANE QLD
Birds of Tokyo
My Disco
Infinity Broke
Rob Taylor Masterclass
After a long stint in the USA, Birds of Tokyo are back in 2015 with a new direction and a brand new EP. Titled Anchor, the EP is a reflection of Birds of Tokyo’s time away from home, exploring perspectives gained from distance and trying to find connection in a strange new world. Written and recorded in the USA, Anchor is available now. In support of the new EP, Birds of Tokyo will also be touring around the country this May/June.
Unpredictable, unique and captivating. One of the most interesting bands to emerge from Australia in the last decade, My Disco, are touring again this June. Known for their eclectic mix of tones and influences as well as their knack for mastering and skipping between a variety of time signatures, the band have created a special place for themselves in the Australian music landscape. The band hasn’t been touring extensively lately, and this short string of headline shows coincides with the bands scheduled performance at Dark Mofo in Tasmania.
Sydney’s Infinity Broke have just released their new single ‘Only the Desert Grows’ from their forthcoming second album Before Before. The track examines the disintegration of a couple’s relationship as they wander throughout a nameless desert. Fittingly, the music on Before Before was recorded in a former shearing shed in rural New South Wales in January 2013 at the same time they recorded their debut release River Mirrors. To celebrate the release of Before Before, Infinity Broke are heading out on tour throughout May.
World Class engineer Rob Taylor will be hosting a series of master classes at the 90º Studio Training Academy aimed at giving students an insight into the mind and production process of the esteemed producer. In Rob’s career he has worked as Chief Engineer at both Alberts Studio and The Grove, received three ARIA nominations for engineer and producer of the year, produced a tiple j Hottest 100 winning track in ‘No Aphrodisiac’ by The Whitlams and produced countless pieces of music for Hollywood films, television and advertising. The master class is broken up into four separate courses: A Mix Journey, Masterclass EQ, Masterclass Compression and From Mix to Master pt 1 & 2.
TOUR DATES MAY 23 - BASS IN THE GRASS, DARWIN NT MAY 30 - STATE OF THE ART, PERTH WA JUNE 3 - 170 RUSSELL, MELBOURNE VIC JUNE 4 - THE GOV, ADELAIDE SA JUNE 6 - THE TRIFFID, BRISBANE QLD JUNE 7 - THE METRO, SYDNEY NSW
TOUR DATES JUNE 7 – THE TOFF IN TOWN, MELBOURNE VIC JUNE 12 – ANCIENT WORLD, ADELAIDE SA JUNE 19 – DARK MOFO, HOBART TAS JUNE 26 – GOODGOD SMALL CLUB, SYDNEY NSW
PG.8 // MIXDOWN #253 // MAY 2015
TOUR DATES MAY 14 – THE PHOENIX, CANBERRA ACT MAY 15 – THE TOTE, MELBOURNE VIC MAY 16 – THE METRO, ADELAIDE SA MAY 22 – THE BEARDED LADY, BRISBANE QLD MAY 30 – THE FACTORY FLOOR, SYDNEY NSW
CLASS DATES FOR DATES AND FURTHER INFORMATION ABOUT THE MASTER CLASS VISIT WWW.90DEG.COM.AU/ MASTERCLASS.
www.mixdownmag.com.au
ARIA TOP 5 ALBUM FEATURE ALBUM - TRIPLE J ALBUM OF THE WEEK - FBI RADIO HOMEGROWN ALBUM OF THE WEEK - TRIPLE M ALBUM OF THE WEEK - BEAT/BRAG/XPRESS ALBUM OF THE WEEK - THE MUSIC “THE POSITIONS CONFIRMS THE BAND AS ONE OF AUSTRALIA’S MOST EXCITING & TALENTED ACTS” (BEAT/BRAG/XPRESS) “THE POSITIONS WILL GRAB YOUR FULL ATTENTION AND HOLD IT LONG AFTER THE FINAL SONG IS UP.” SPEAKER TV “THE POSITIONS IS MAGIC TO THE EARS AND UNDOUBTEDLY WILL RANK AS ONE OF THE YEAR’S FINEST RELEASES AUSTRALIAN OR OTHERWISE.” 9/10 AU REVIEW “THE POSITIONS’ IS A WORK OF ART THAT DESERVES NOTHING LESS THAN ADMIRATION – TAKE A BOW GANG OF YOUTHS, TAKE A BOW.” 8.5/10 BEST BEFORE “‘THE POSITIONS’ IS ASTONISHING IN ITS HONESTY. BUT MORE THAN THAT, IT’S ASTONISHING IN ITS ABILITY TO CONNECT SO EASILY” SOUNDLY SOUNDS 9/10 “A MASTERPIECE” SOUNDWAV MUSIC “ITS FILLED WITH SONGS WHICH WILL ONE DAY, NO DOUBT, FILL STADIUMS” MUSIC FEEDS “THEIR SOUND IS FULL OF VITALITY AND SERIOUS OOMPH, NOT TO MENTION DAZZLING VOCALS AND SOARING GUITARS” HOWL & ECHOS “SOME OF THE MOST EMPOWERING SENTIMENTS TO BE FOUND IN MODERN ROCK MUSIC” THE MUSIC
“THE POSITIONS IS AN IMMERSIVE JOURNEY LED BY BROODING TONES, SHARP THEMES AND EQUALLY WELL-DEFINED UTTERINGS THAT WILL TEAR YOU APART AS QUICK AS IT WILL PIECE YOU BACK TOGETHER.” 4.5/5 RIP IT UP “THE BAND UNLEASHES YEARS OF PENT UP FRUSTRATION, HURT, SADNESS AND REGRET IN A BLAST OF CATHARTIC INDIE ROCK, CALLING TO MIND SOME OF THE GENRE’S GREATS.” FBI RADIO “ASTONISHING LP, A RECORD SO EMOTIONALLY BRUISED & HONEST” 4.5/5 ROLLING STONE “GANG OF YOUTHS HAVE DELIVERED NOT ONLY ONE OF THE BEST ALBUMS OF THE YEAR, BUT ONE OF THE BEST DEBUTS IN RECENT MEMORY” APHRA MAG “THE POSITIONS FEELS ODDLY FAMILIAR, INSTANTLY RELATABLE AND POWERFUL JUST THE WAY SPRINGSTEEN WOULD HAVE DONE IF HE WERE WRITING HIS FIRST RECORD TODAY” HHHHAPPY “THE POSITIONS IS A TRIUMPH, AN EXCEPTIONALLY ASSURED RELEASE FROM A BAND DESTINED FOR SOME VERY GOOD THINGS” REKNOWNED FOR SOUND “THE POSITIONS A SORT OF ‘NIGHT OUT IN YOUR OWN HEAD’ FEEL” TONE DEAF “STRAIGHT-AHEAD ROCKERS THAT IN THEIR DYNAMICS WOULD INSPIRE ARM-WAVING IN A STADIUM” 4/5 THE AUSTRALIAN
“REMARKABLE FOR A BAND SO EARLY IN THEIR CAREER” FASTERLOUDER
“THE POSITIONS” IS THE MOST ELEGANT AND MATURE DEBUT LP FROM A BAND THAT IS BOUND FOR GREAT THINGS. THEY ARE DEFINITELY ONE TO WATCH AND NOT TAKE YOUR EYES OFF!” WIKEDD CHILD
“THEIR BROODING, ANTHEM-DRIVEN MELODIES ARE IRRESISTIBLY CAPTIVATING” BEST NEW BANDS
“AS FAR AS DEBUT ALBUMS GO, THEY DON’T COME MUCH BETTER THAN THIS” TUNE UP
www.gangofyouths.com
INDUSTRIALIST Australia Remains 6th Largest Music Market …
Despite the fact that many newer music markets are rising, Australia has retained its position as sixth biggest market in the world. According to the International Federation of Phonographic Industries’ Recording Industry In Numbers study, the U.S. remained the most powerful with a trade value of US$4.9 billion. It’s almost double the size of the second, Japan, which is $2.6 billion. Germany is third ($1.4 billion), then the UK ($1.3 billion), France ($843 million), Australia ($376 million), Canada ($342 million) and South Korea ($266 million, which overtook Brazil ($247 million) in 2014 to take tenth place.
…And 9th In The Vinyl Market
Australia has become an important market for vinyl record sales. After a revenue growth of 127% last year to $6.4 million (the largest growth by any country last year), Australia now ranks at #9 for vinyl. In 2013, the local vinyl market was worth $2.4 million for sales of 137,658 units. Between January to December 2014, it had a rise of 101.7% to 277,767 units.
More Concerts For Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium?
Good news for Brisbane readers is that Suncorp Stadium could host more than four concerts in the future. This is Because the venue is in a residential suburb, and the law restricts it from having more than four a year. This year’s quota is already filled up. One Direction and Foo Fighters played in February – respectively to 332, 889 and 9,851 each – with Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran at the year’s end. Meantime, the Queensland government has a survey out asking if the public is ok with more shows there.
For content sub mi ssions to this colu mn p leas e e ma il to celizer@nets pa ce.net.a u
Australia’s Guvera Hits 10m Users
The Guvera streaming service, which began on the Gold Coast in 2010 before going international, has hit 10 million users. In October 2014, it had 1.5 million users. Over the past 22 weeks it has grown by 35,000 users a day (India came in with 3 million after launching there last November). CEO, Darren Herft attributes the fast 85% growth to its ad-funded brand channel model which matches brands to fans while the music is playing. This way, it says, advertising brands know they’re reaching the right consumers, and users don’t get unwanted ads. Guvera is available in 20 markets and intends to be in 100 by the end of 2015. It’s set to take on Spotify and Deezer in the UK and Europe as well as the Middle East and Africa.
Festivals Update: Sell-Outs, Newcomers ….
Splendour In The Grass in Byron Bay sold out in one hour, and despite the loss of headliners Lenny Kravitz and The Black Keys as well as heavy rains, the 26th Bluesfest Byron Bay drew a crowd of over 105,000. That’s the event’s second largest crowd, after the 115,000 in 2011 (over six days instead of five) when Bob Dylan headlined. Dylan thought the crowd was so awesome that when he came off stage, he announced that the next time he returned, he wanted to play every single night. There is a possibility that Easterfest in Toowoomba might not return in 2016 after attendances have dropped. Woodford Folk in Queensland did a survey of its crowd (it drew 126,122 this time injecting $17 million into the Queensland’s economy) and discovered that despite its hippie image, almost 60% had university qualifications and 32% listed their occupation as “professional.” The 49th
National Folk Festival in Canberra saw 50,000 brave rain over its five days to see 120 acts.
Run Through The Jingle
APRA AMCOS continues to try and make life easier for its members. For its jingle writers it has developed OPUS (Online Portal for Uploading Songs). Audio files are placed in the database of music recognition technology provider Soundmouse, which also offers APRA AMCOS with matching data to distribute royalty payments based on real-time airings. Ad-tracking company Ebiquity, will identify advertisements on television and radio in Australia and New Zealand.
Four Aussie Acts Up For Uk Awards
The Australian heavy rock scene got a boost when four acts were nominated for UK hard rock magazine Metal Hammer‘s Golden God Awards next month. The Amity Affliction are contenders in the Breakthrough category (same category they’re nominated for in the Alternative Press Music Awards or APMAs) Parkway Drive in Best Live Act, Northlane’s Riot for Video and King Parrot for Best New Band.
Young Aussies Move From TV To Online Videos
New research, commissioned by content producer Authentic Entertainment, found that free-to-air TV is becoming irrelevant to young Australians. 86% of 16 to 24 year-olds watch video online on demand, spending 30.3 hours a fortnight, compared to 21.5 hours of TV viewing. 48% of all ages admitted to watching pirated TV. Online video watching is expecting to rise from 30% of the population to 85% in two years time.
Live Nation, Europcar Partner In Oz
Tour promoter Live Nation Australasia has made Europcar its exclusive car rental partner in both countries in a three year partnership. It’s the latest of Live Nation’s local brand partners, alongside Qantas, Spark, Rdio and NSW Health with international partners American Express and Hilton Hotels and Resorts. In addition Europcar customers get Live Nation benefits as exclusive content, money-can’t-buy experiences and VIP ticketing at its shows.
Vale
Gary Nessel, co-founder of Strauss Sound Systems and Nova Sounds passed aged 68. In 1962 he and school friend John Woodhead set up Strauss Sound Systems which became an industry icon for ground breaking technology. It went bust in 1970, after which the pair began Nova Sounds. “Unrestrained, enigmatic, an original… a free thinker, not bogged down in industry protocol,” was how ACETA President Frank Hinton remembers him.
Megan Washington Joins Ppca Board
Megan Washington was elected onto the board of the PPCA (Phonographic Performance Company of Australia), which collects broadcast royalties on behalf of artists and record labels. She joins Lindy Morrison as an Artist Representative on the board, replacing country music’s Graeme Connor. “I am honoured to serve on the board of PPCA, a company which plays a vital role for recording rights holders and Australian artists,” Washington said.
Applications For Sidney Myer Fellowships
The Sidney Myer Creative Fellowships return for a fourth year, providing grants of $160,000 over two years to individual artists and arts managers with “outstanding talent and exceptional courage”, and “thought leaders in the humanities”. The grants are unrestricted, which means there is no need for an outcome in order to secure the funds. Your music career must be in its 7th to 15th year and you’re expected to remain in Australia during the two years. Nominations close on Sunday May 31.
Jands’ Eric Robinson Honoured
At the July 27 Helpmann Awards in Sydney, Live Performance Australia will honor Eric Robinson for services to the live performance industry. Robinson is CEO of equipment supplier JPJ Audio and Jands Production Services. LPA CEO Evelyn Richardson said, “His experience encompasses every aspect of sound reinforcement, lighting, rigging, large screen projection and special effects, and Mr. Robinson takes great personal pride in ensuring every production runs smoothly.”
PG.10 // MIXDOWN #253 // MAY 2015
THINGS WE HEAR • Django Django plan to be here in January 2016. They learned to surf on their last visit in the 2012/3 Summer and want to do that again. Meantime, Robbie Williams announced he’s coming here in spring. • Motley Crue’s Nikki Sixx is working with 5 Seconds of Summer writing some lyrics for them. He tweeted his congrats for their winning Best Fan Army at the iHeartRadio Music Awards in LA, and also the fact that one of them (Michael Clifford) was sporting a Crue T-shirt when he accepted the award. • AC/DC drummer Phil Rudd’s lawyer is trying to keep his client out of jail by arguing that the publicity he received before the court case meant he didn’t get a fair trial. The lawyer complained that Rudd’s legal woes (he returns to court for sentencing next month) got more publicity than Bon Scott’s death. • Speaking of AC/DC, their upcoming Australia tour could well match the attendance figures of their Black Ice visit in 2011 which shifted 700,000 tickets. On that tour, The band set a new record for Australia’s fastest selling tour. It also established a new attendance record at the ANZ Stadium, pulling 212,729 over three dates. • Still on AC/DC, Brian Johnson admits that when he played his first show with them (in Belgium on June 29, 1980) he was so nervous that he sang the same lyrics to two songs in a row. • Forbes reckons that Iggy Azalea could make it into its Top Earning Hip Hop Artists this year as she’s been selling heaps of records and commands US$75,000 a show in America. Earlier this year she bought herself a $6 million pad in Los Angeles. • The music community rallied around Fred Noonan, drummer of Brisbane’s SixFtHick, who was diagnosed with cancer. Fund raising concerts were held last month in Melbourne and Brisbane to help with medical bills. • Five Aussie acts join the Van Warped tour as it swings through 41 North American cities between June 19 to August 8. They are The Amity Affliction (just back from the US, UK and Europe), I Killed The Prom Queen (making an album to be released in time for the tour), Canberra’s Hands Like Houses, Newcastle’s Trophy Eyes and EDM producer M4SONIC whose ‘The Fox (What Does the Fox Say?)’ has had 485 million YouTube views. • The annual Reclink Community Cup between the music industry and community radio sector, which started in Melbourne and expanded to Sydney, looks like expanding to Perth and Adelaide next year. • Sold: the Artist Voice agency was bought out by US company William Morris Endeavour with co-founder Brett Murrihy and six agents retained to help spearhead the US company’s move into the Asia Pacific. Melbourne’s Addicted To Audio bought the Hi Fi Trade store in Newtown, Sydney, with plans to revamp the business and make it as buoyant as the Melbourne firm.
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PRODUCT NEWS GEAR
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Dynamic Music And Dixon Drum & Percussion Dynamic Music | (02) 9939 1299 | www.dynamicmusic.com.au
Dynamic Music has aquired Dixon Drums and Hardware, who are considered a rising star in the acoustic drum business. With over 35 years’ experience in quality drum and hardware manufacturing, Dixon embraces both sound and function in its effort to advance the art of drumming through the craft of drum making. Playability, reliability and sustainability are at the core of their philosophy, Dixon also continue to lure many big name players to their growing roster. Recent additions include the incredible Mel Gaynor and Grammy award winning drummer Gregg Bissonette. Gregg is a renowned L.A. session/ touring artist currently touring the world on Dixon drums alongside Ringo Starr with his All Starr Band. Dynamic Music will support the full range of Dixon products bringing an exciting and affordable new range of hardware, drums and accessories to Australian drummers.
Music Man 112 RD 50 Combo Amplifier CMC Music Australia | (02) 9905 2511 | www.cmcmusic.com.au
The Music Man name is something of a legend in the music industry, especially when referencing amplifiers. Originally launched in the 70s, the Music Man line of amplifiers had a reputation for delivering solid, reliable, warm and versatile tones. The line was discontinued in the 80s when Ernie Ball purchased the company from Leo Fender, but now Ernie’s son has reintroduced the range to the delight of guitar players everywhere. The 112 RD 50 combo delivers Music Man amp tone with sonic versatility. The amp delivers 50w of tube power through 2x6L6s and an ECC83 in one of the two independent channels. There’s plenty to be said about the power of this amp, another in the reinvigorated Music Man range that’s sure to turn some heads.
Eve Audio SC203 Studio Monitors Electric Factory | (03) 9474 1000 | www.elfa.com.au
Berlin-based monitor manufacturer EVE Audio has unveiled their latest monitors, the SC203. These active monitors are a departure from the rest of the SC range, with these targeting a wider audience, namely the education, consumer electronic markets that require a transportable and easy to use monitor. The SC203’s incorporate a mesh covered woofer and tweeter to guard the speakers from foreign objects they might encounter in education facilities or to keep them safe while in transit. They also feature a passive radiator for a bass response that belies their size and rich input/output offering which includes RCA, optical/digital in, USB and sub out. They also come with an angles wedge to allow you greater scope over how to position the monitors at your desk. An impressive addition to an already solid range of products.
PG.12 // MIXDOWN #253 // MAY 2015
Strauss Amplification SRT-15 Combo Amplifier Jade Australia | 1800 144 120 | www.jadeaustralia.com.au
The Strauss SRT-15 is back in the country, in more variation than before. A wooden finish this gorgeous is hard to come by in amps in this price bracket. With two Ruby Tube EL84 output valves, two Ruby Tube 12AX7 preamp valves and a 10” Eminence speaker these Strauss amps give you a great all tube sound at an affordable price. Dual inputs, volume, tone, speed intensity and reverb controls give you plenty of scope to mould the perfect sound.
• Mackie have announced the immediate availability of the new DL Dante Expansion Card, bringing high performance networked audio to the DL32R wirelessly controlled digital live sound mixer. The pioneering DL32R is controlled completely wirelessly, using the Mackie Master Fader control app for iPad, freeing sound engineers to mix from any location in a venue. The DL32R delivers 32-channels of powerful digital mixing with convenient direct-todrive multi-track recording/ playback, new Onyx+ recallable microphone preamps, in an ultra-compact 3U rackmount design.
• Modern, fully-patchable, modular synthesizers and accessories manufacturer Pittsburgh Modular is proud to launch its Patch Box line of modular effects pedals. Redefining both modular synthesis and the venerable stomp box by creating unique patchable effects units for guitarists and keyboardists, Pittsburgh Modular’s Patch Box redefines modular synthesis around the venerable stomp box by creating a monster performance device for guitarists and keyboardists alike. As a playground for unrestricted creativity, the Patch Box is a fullypatchable, customisable performance pedal enclosure. • Barefaced Audio, known as a manufacturer of unusually high accuracy and high output bass instrument loudspeakers, has finally launched their first PA specific models. The concept behind the Barefaced Audio FR800 opposes top+sub PA convention. By combining the 12XN550 12” driver and optimised ported enclosure with a true 800W RMS power module and neodymium compression driver, they can achieve high resolution full-range sound from two compact PA speakers without additional large subwoofers. • Klipsch have launched the Reference Premiere series in Australia. The ten new passive loudspeakers serve as the company’s flagship Reference speaker line and
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THIS MONTH’S
Alto Professional Live Series Mixers Pro Audio Group Australia | (02) 9521 4844 | www.proaudiogroup.com.au
Alto Live Series offers high-fidelity sound and high-quality DSP tools in a single package. Each microphone channel is outfitted with a high-headroom ultra-low-noise DNA microphone preamp for unprecedented sound quality and a robust audio signal path. Live Series’s high headroom results in cleaner mixes, a purer signal path, and loud, punchy audio. Onboard analog compression helps control dynamics and gel instruments together for a cohesive, defined mix. With high headroom, pristine sound, and built-in dynamic control, Live Series ensures that the full dynamic range of your mix comes across with striking clarity. Record your mix directly to a Mac or PC with a single USB connection. Live Series’s built-in USB port allows engineers, producers, and performers to convert two channels of 24-bit audio (Main Mix or Sub Mix 1/2) straight to a computer. The USB connection is bi-directional, enabling sound files stored on your computer to be streamed to and played through Live Series.
GIVEAWAY! See page 6 for details.
Sony MDR-7510 Studio Monitor Headphones Sony Australia | proaudio.au@ap.sony.com | pro.sony.com.au
Sony’s MDR-7500 Series professional headphones are engineered for superb audio quality, strength, and comfort. Sony’s high standards in engineering, research, design and development make the difference in pro headphones for field and studio sound recording and live sound applications. Expertly designed for a combination of strength, comfort, practicality and superb audio monitoring of the wide dynamic range and extended frequencies delivered by modern audio equipment, it’s no surprise they are in use every day in broadcast and recording studios all over the world. The MDR-7510 Studio Monitor Headphones are an excellent choice for both reference monitoring and audio mixing applications. With 50mm drivers utilising PET diaphragms plus high power handling capability, neodymium magnets and oxygenfree copper voice coils, these headphones provide a wide frequency response, broad dynamic range, and accurate sound reproduction. Noise isolation ear pads with pliable cushion material conform to the natural shape of the ear and provide comfort and acoustic isolation.
Sennheiser AVX Wireless Microphone Systems Sennheiser Australia | (02) 9910 6700 | www.sennheiser.com.au
Tycoon Percussion TP4455 32 Series DOHC Cajon Dynamic Music | (02) 9939 1299 | www.dynamicmusic.com.au
Another world first design, Tycoon continue to prove that they are an innovator in the percussion market. This unique Cajon features 2 separate chambers and sound holes providing a versatile combination of deep, traditional bass tones and crisp tight slap tones. With both body and front plate constructed from hand-selected environmentallyfriendly Siam Oak wood, this Cajon features improved durability and resonance. Featuring four rubber feet for added stability, the Double Overhead Chamber Cajon simply thunders out the bass tones. All TP4455 DOHC Cajon’s are all individually hand-made and tested to ensure superior sound quality.
PG.14 // MIXDOWN #253 // MAY 2015
Audio specialist Sennheiser has introduced its AVX wireless microphone systems for video cameras that ensure totally stress-free audio capture. The amazingly compact AVX receiver plugs directly into the XLR of a camera, where it automatically pairs with the microphone and switches on when the camera does. The system automatically adjusts the correct audio levels and transmits using a specially protected link in the license-free 1.9 GHz range. Setting up and recording high-quality audio for video has never been faster or more convenient. AVX comes in ready-to-use systems that contain everything required to immediately go live. Alternatively, tailormade systems can be put together from a wide choice of individual components. The AVX is all about convenience. The plug-on receiver automatically switches on with the phantom powering of the camera, and automatically pairs with the transmitter. The system immediately sets the correct audio level, perfectly matching it to the camera’s input sensitivity, selects a free frequency – and is ready for the job at hand. If a source of interference appears, AVX will inaudibly shift to a new frequency.
• UK postcore 4-piece, Enter Shikari, have just completed extensive tours across Europe and America to promote their latest studio album, carrying a GLD system to manage monitors. Chosen by monitor engineer, AJ Sutherland, and supplied by Patchwork London for the European leg, the system comprised a Danteenabled GLD-112 mixer with an AR2412 and two AR84 remote IO racks to manage five pairs of wedges and four stereo IEMs plus the engineer’s listen wedge and cue mix. • AKG by HARMAN is introducing the new K181 DJ UE reference class DJ headphones, developed based on input from professional DJs. The K181 DJ UE (Ultimate Edition) headphones are built for professional DJ use in any club environment. The K181 DJ UE headphones feature a closed back design and a sturdy 50 mm transducer, delivering enough power to withstand even the strongest PA speakers, especially for pre-fader listening. • Allen & Heath have launched the Xone:43, a classic 4 + 1 channel analogue DJ mixer with a host of enhanced features, including the legendary Xone filters, X:FX routing, 3 band EQ, VCA faders, and adjustable crossfader. At the heart of the mixer is the renowned analogue Voltage Control Filter (VCF) system offering HPF, BPF, LPF, frequency sweep and ‘mild to wild’ resonance control. • Radial Engineering Ltd. have announced two upgrades for the Radial 500 series power racks; alignment guides and knurled thumbscrews. Radial 500 series power racks are now outfitted with nylon guides that make it easy to push in and align a Radial module without fear of misalignment or damaging
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PRODUCT NEWS the card edge connectors. All Radial 500 series racks and modules will now be shipped with ThumbSet knurled thumbscrews and be available for resale individually.
Sennheiser X Apogee Clip Mic Digital and MKE 2 Digital Microphones Tycoon Percussion TP4260 Portable Cajon Practice Pad Dynamic Music | (02) 9939 1299 | www.dynamicmusic.com.au
The Tycoon TP4260 Portable Cajon Practice Pad is designed to be ultra–light weight and portable, making playing Cajon easy and fun for everyone. The body is made from solid Siam oak measuring 30cm x 40cm and the playing surface and is only 5cm thick. This results in a very light weight unit, weighing only 0.75kg. Featuring a premium beech Wood front plate for increased response, the TP4260 is also equipped with a specially treated non slip pad on the bottom that guarantees a controlled, comfortable plating experience. We can guarantee that you will want to pop this in your gig bag and take it everywhere you go to play.
Audio-Technica System 10 PRO Wireless System Technical Audio Group | (02) 9519 0900 | www.tag.com.au
System 10 PRO is the latest addition to the growing range of AudioTechnica System 10 wireless solutions. Like others in the range, System 10 PRO operates in the 2.4 GHz range, keeping it free not only from TV interference but also from an uncertain regulatory future. System 10 PRO has a durable rack-mount chassis which houses one or two receiver units that can be operated locally within the chassis or be removed and mounted remotely (up to 120 meters away) via a Ethernet cable. This ground-breaking approach increases the versatility of the system by adding the benefits of an antenna distribution system without the corresponding costs. Up to five System 10 PRO chassis (10 receivers) can be linked together using the included RJ12 cable to create a stable multichannel system for the simultaneous use of 10 channels. Each unit comes fully equipped with a dual receiver chassis, one or two transmitters, an RJ12 link cable, rack-mount brackets, joining plates and plug pack.
PG.16 // MIXDOWN #253 // MAY 2015
Sennheiser Australia | (02) 9910 6700 | www.sennheiser.com.au
Sennheiser and Apogee have announced the launch of digital clip-on mics. ClipMic digital and MKE 2 digital allow professional-quality sound recordings with iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. ClipMic digital and MKE 2 digital combine Apogee’s A/D conversion expertise with Sennheiser’s microphone design knowledge to give users optimum sound quality for their recordings. Especially designed for iOS devices, both microphones feature a Lightning connector to directly connect to iPhone, iPad or iPod touch, thus creating high-quality, ultraportable solutions for recording speech. Analog clip-on microphones require a mic pre-amp and audio interface to be able to record the signal. While all iOS devices are equipped with a built-in analog input and mic pre-amp, they are optimized for telephone calls and not for professional quality audio recording. Apogee’s award-winning mic pre-amp and A/D conversion circuitry are built into ClipMic digital and MKE 2 digital. This special circuitry gives you maximum gain with minimal noise.
Alto Professional TX Series Powered Speakers Pro Audio Group Australia | (02) 9521 4844 | www.proaudiogroup.com.au
Experience power, performance, and portability. Alto TX Series powered speakers come equipped with efficient, bi-amped Class D amplification that pumps out a generous amount of power. An exacting electronic crossover ensures smooth frequency response from the 8”, 10”, 12”, or 15” low-frequency driver and 1” high-frequency compression driver. Bass porting offers extended low-end response, while the steel grille adds extra protection. Built to travel, the roadready TX Series is both lightweight and portable. Trapezoid cabinet contouring makes either upright or wedge-monitor placement a snap. A pole-mount socket and a comfortable handle are conveniently built in. Create a custom setup using the Link output to chain multiple cabinets together. For the musician, DJ, or live-sound provider craving professional audio reproduction, The TX Series delivers impressive, dynamic sound night after night.
• Guitar gear manufacturer Rocktron has recently introduced a limited edition upgrade to their rack mount guitar power amplifier series with the Velocity 100 LTD. The Velocity 100 LTD is an updated version of one of the most popular rack mount guitar amps the company has produced. This single-rackspace amplifier provides 55 watts of power per channel into a 4 ohm load, or 40 watts per channel into an 8 ohm load. • The Framus Custom Shop developed, in cooperation with the new Framus endorser Phil X, a signature model that fulfills all Phil’s wishes. The Framus Phil XG will be available in two basic versions: Framus Phil XG Signature Model from the Framus Custom Shop and the Framus Phil XG German Artist Model. Both series will be available with one Arcane PX 8 Signature humbucker or one Arcane PX 90 Signature single-coil pickup. • Orange Amplification has launched the third generation of its British built Rockerverb Series guitar amplifiers. This latest incarnation, the Orange Rockerverb MKIII, sees the most significant changes to the series to date, and is available in 50W and 100W head formats or as a 50W 2x12” combo - in its original top loading design. Bringing together over a decade of user feedback with numerous improvements to the iconic design, the new models are some of the finest sounding and most feature-laden amps the company has ever produced. • Taylor Guitars have unveiled the redesign of its popular rosewood/spruce 900 series. Incorporating many of the tone-enhancing innovations found in Taylor’s 600 and 800 Series models, these rosewood guitars pack an updated voice and look. In a nod to the sophisticated aesthetic identity of the series, Powers selected premium materials for the appointments, including ebony and koa wood, along
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Black Cat Pedals Modern Deluxe Mona Wah Gladesville Guitar Factory | (02) 9817 2173 | www.guitarfactory.net
When DIY guru and wah master Joe Gagan is involved in the design of a new pedal, you know it’s going to be good. The Black Cat Modern Deluxe Mona Wah is just that, a revolutionary pedal that features a custom tunes Black Cat inductor as well as a newly engineered Black Cat wah pot. These gift the player the opportunity to sculpt their tone with more precision than ever before. The tone of the effect is dictated by you. You control the way the wah cries with three additional controls on the unit.
John Petrucci Music Man Partnership Milestone CMC Music Australia | (02) 9905 2511 | www.cmcmusic.com.au
John Petrucci and Ernie Ball Music Man’s partnership has lasted an astonishing 15 years, and in celebration of this impressive milestone John has put together a series of videos in which he discusses the instruments that he’s taken part in designing. The videos cover a host of his signature instruments including the JP6, the JP6BFR, the JP13, the Majesty and the JP15 as well as the range of Sterling instruments he’s helped put together. To view the videos head to the Ernie Ball Music Man or Sterling By Music Man facebook pages.
PG.18 // MIXDOWN #253 // MAY 2015
VOX Amplification Ac10c1 Guitar Amplifier Yamaha Music Australia | (03) 9693 5111 | www.voxamps.com
VOX Amplification has announced the introduction of the AC10C1 amplifier, the newest addition to the company’s flagship series of amps. Smaller and more portable than the AC15, but more powerful than the AC4, the AC10C1 produces a classic VOX tone with studio quality reverb and master volume. Though many of us wouldn’t have seen one of these before, they were actually one of the first amps produced by VOX, though they were only available for a short time in the early 1960s. Now the legendary amp has been resurrected from its place in the history books and reintroduced into the legendary manufacturer’s present range of products.
Tc-Electronic Clarity X Monitor Controller Amber Technology | 1800 251 367 | www.ambertech.com.au
The Clarity X is the latest innovation in TC Electronics Broadcast and Production Line. Announced at NAMM 2015, the multi-format monitor controller has been heralded as the final piece of the puzzle, connecting the DAW and the monitor speakers like never before. Within the Clarity X exists a host of professional features that further TC-Electronics credentials in the monitoring game. Loudness metering, eight channel surround sound, true peak meter, SPT meter all aid the producer in getting a clear sound and prevent them from being exposed to unsafe levels for long periods. A new class of monitor control and management.
• Orange Amplification have announced their return to the pedal market since the mid 70s with the introduction of the Orange Bax Bangeetar Guitar Pre-EQ. Handmade in the Orange Custom Shop in England, this latest offering functions as a traditional stompbox, a standalone preamp, and a direct recording tool. Beyond its unique and flexible gain structure, the Bax Bangeetar’s extensive tone tweaking capabilities really set it apart. Whether used at home, on stage or in the studio, with its enormous sonic versatility, precise EQ and all-round flexibility, the Bax Bangeetar is one of the most versatile pedals ever created. • PreSonus has unveiled the StudioLive CS18AI mix controller, a versatile, scalable, modular control surface for StudioLive RM-series rack-mount, Active Integration digital mixers and PreSonus’ Studio One DAW. Networking with StudioLive RM32AI and RM16AI mixers via AVB Ethernet and PreSonus UCNET technology, the StudioLive CS18AI offers touch-sensitive motorised faders and enables complete hardware control of all mixer features. The new controller also makes it even easier to do virtual soundcheck, live recording, and studio mixdown with PreSonus’ Studio One DAW and Capture recording software. • Warwick now offers the all new German Pro Series which consists of excellent instruments, at an affordable price. All of these instruments are produced in Germany from the finest materials and with the best possible production methods. Only the very best machines in the world are used to carve these extraordinaire bass guitars. The tone woods for the German Pro Series are naturally air dried, hand selected, and glued at Warwick in Markneukirchen, with the necks and fret work manufactured there also.
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C O V E R
S T O R Y
For frontman David Leaupepe, Gang of Youths is a deeply personal undertaking. When he started the band in early 2012, it was purely an outlet for “expelling the angst and terror” afflicting him. This insular impetus explains why the group’s debut LP The Positions was several years in the making. “I actually started writing the album in 2012,” Leaupepe says. “Then we recorded some stuff mid-2013. The bulk of pre-production was the end of 2013, in New Paltz New York with Kevin McMahon. That was pre-production and most of the beginning part of the recording. But I’ve been writing the fucking thing for so long that I was recording here and there before that. I like to say that we’ve been working on it for nearly three years.”
Gang of Youths is completed by a trio of Leaupepe’s old friends; guitarist Joji Malani, bass player Max Dunn and guitar/ keys man Jung Kim. Within a few months of the band’s formation, Sydney’s FBi Radio were spinning their early demos. Blog reviewers soon caught on, rattling off comparisons to The National and The Killers. Then in mid-2013 came Gang of Youths’ first official single ‘Evangelists’, which not only received triple j airtime, but also led to a record deal with Sony Music Australia. It’s an enviable trajectory, no doubt, but Leaupepe wasn’t searching for esteemboosting plaudits or commercial backing. “There wasn’t any intention to be a band or to tour or become famous or to make a record,” he says. “I just wanted to hang out with my buds. I’d quit playing music for so long to concentrate on this relationship and being a well-adjusted well-rounded adult. Then I realised that the healing component and the quality of music that makes us feel whole again was a big part of that. The record became more about my buddies propping me up, holding me together after stumbling drunk down the road, throwing up blood trying to figure out my shit.” You see, while it’s an outright contradiction to suggest that suffering can be enjoyed, The Positions is largely the product of Leaupepe’s misfortune. From inner turmoil comes bountiful creative energy; it’s an age-old scenario, and Leaupepe makes no secret of what instigated the record. “In short, it’s about this relationship I was in with someone who had a terminal illness,” he says. “We were together for four years before our relationship broke down. The whole record was about that for a long time. In a way that’s still the thematic foundation, but it extended more to how I was dealing with these things in my life and I had these three guys in my band propping me up.” Given the emotional density underpinning the record, Leaupepe wasn’t going to let music industry pressures tarnish his vision. “There was a very concerted effort to make the most cohesive record possible,” he says. “It would be a shame to squander three years worth of blood, sweat and tears to come out with this weightless tome of facile garbage. We really wanted to emphasise the cohesion of the record as a body of work.” Along with the lyrical focus, there’s two key factors that help to disguise the record’s drawn-out preparation. First of all, even if the rhythmic insistence of ‘Restraint & Release’ is far removed
PG.20 // MIXDOWN #253 // MAY 2015
I wanted to make something that was democratic, not fascist...You know how in Bull Durham, Kevin Costner’s like ‘Stop throwing fast balls, they’re fascist. Throw more curve balls, they’re more democratic’? I want to throw more curve balls with this one.
from the orchestral calm of ‘Kansas’, Leaupepe’s vocal gravitas holds the spotlight throughout. Secondly, in contrast to the idiosyncratic influence of Leaupepe’s vocals, production-wise The Positions is a very-polished modern rock record. “I didn’t want to make some fucking scungy-punk lo-fidelity cliché inner-Sydney-sounding thing,” Leaupepe says. “I talked to the guys, I’m like ‘I want to fucking reach for the stars with this thing. I want to create a record that sounds sonically beautiful and might have broad appeal. We’re already influenced by enough old music, so I wanted to create something that’s sonically beautiful, expensive and warm and can be received by middleAmerica as well as the gentrified suburbs of the inner city.” That said, it’s not utterly immaculate. “I’m a punk rocker and metalhead kid,” Leaupepe says. “In my adolescence I had a taste for Pavement and a taste for Wilco, so I put emphasis on leaving this punk rock energy about it. For example I used a Dictaphone for a lot of the vocal takes. It was really important that we maintained a sense of our garage roots.” “I wanted to make something that was democratic, not fascist,” he adds. “You know how in Bull Durham, Kevin Costner’s like ‘Stop throwing fast balls, they’re fascist. Throw more curve balls, they’re more democratic’? I want to throw more curve balls with this one.” On the subject of fascism, it’s obvious that Leaupepe is Gang of Youths’ unchallenged leader. The tragic personal circumstances that preceded the band’s inception would’ve impacted heavily on anyone, but his leadership seems borderline tyrannical. However, in Leaupepe’s defence, he’s not oblivious to this dictatorial streak. “For a time I became incredibly clichéd in that lead singer/ frontman archetype,” he says. “It does cause a lot of friction because I’m a perfectionist and a control freak. I think I have reasonable standards, but I was very pedantic about them being met. I don’t treat them like plebs as I probably did a couple of years ago, but I made no apologies in initially establishing the ground rules. I was like ‘This is a deeply personal project and I don’t intend for anything to happen with it other than being heard,’ and they still facilitate that. I set parameters initially and they respected them, which has helped me give them a lot more leeway as well. I’ve become more secure in letting them function in their prime responsibilities as best as they can. “For me, this process was so deeply personal,” he adds. “I was very reluctant to let anybody in. But they put up with me, they dealt with my moodiness towards my relationship and my selfdestructive, addictive behaviours.” BY AUGUSTUS WELBY
The Positions is out now via Sony Music Australia
TOUR DATES Visit www.gangofyouths.com for a full list of tour dates.
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I N T E R V I E W S
Mötley Crüe The rock world needed Mötley Crüe right when they came along. Led Zeppelin were gone. Van Halen were too fun. Black Sabbath were too dark. Punk didn’t have enough sex. So the Crüe stepped in to fill the void. They were loud. They were glitzy. They sang about the devil like Black Sabbath, and getting laid like Van Halen. It felt like Mötley Crüe would beat up all the dudes, bang all the chicks, then party til daylight. There were some hiccups along the way - a fatal car accident involving vocalist Vince Neil, a heroin overdose for bass player/primary songwriter Nikki Sixx, tabloid fame and jail time for drummer Tommy Lee, a debilitating spinal condition for guitarist Mick Mars. Not to mention a grunge-influenced album with a different singer, and a stint with Ozzy Osbourne and drummer Randy Castillo (which was cut short by cancer). Fights. Breakups. Reunions. Unprecedented mega-scale tours. Mötley Crüe has seen it all. Now, it’s coming to an end. Mötley Crüe is putting an end to the madness once and for all. The band is swinging by Australia one last time with Alice Cooper as main support. Then they’ll continue their victory lap of the world before playing a run of dates at Los Angeles’ Staples Center. And then that’s it. No more Crüe for you. Once upon
YNGWIE MALMSTEEN
Mention the words ‘Neoclassical guitar’ and the first name that pops up will inevitably be Yngwie J Malmsteen. Other players like Richie Blackmore and Uli Jon Roth were already blending elements of the classical and rock guitar vocabularies a decade before Yngwie came along, but the Swedish virtuoso managed to knock things up a notch further than even Blackmore’s renowned guitar-smashing energy. Yngwie is returning to Australia soon for his first actual concert tour since 2006 (although he was here for a clinic tour with Thump Music in 2013). Let’s start by talking about the Aussie tour! I haven’t seen you live since about 1998, and I remember reading a review of that show in this very magazine, years before I wrote for it. Oh my god. Well it’s going to be a high excitement, high energy show. A good example is seen through my new live album and live DVD. They were recorded two days apart and if you came to both of those shows or if you listen to the album and DVD, you’re going to get two totally different shows. I saw some video online of your recent touring and I like the stage setup. You have about three quarters of the stage to run around in and the rest of the guys are over in the corner. Let’s face it: this is a guitar show.
PG.22 // MIXDOWN #253 // MAY 2015
a time, Lee says, the band considered it a huge, huge deal to book a trio of shows at the Whiskey A Go Go on the Sunset Strip; now those days seem a million years ago and a million venues ago. “It’s so weird, man. It’s weird to even explain. It’s the most bizarre, multi-emotional thing. Shit, man, we came, we saw, we kicked its ass and we’re gonna walk away from this thing with the legacy intact.” Lee is already planning his life away from Mötley Crüe. Although he has released his own music in the past (including with his band Methods of Mayhem) and has collaborated with other musicians before (including a track with bass virtuoso Stu Hamm), in a way his new creative freedom started last year when he recorded the drums for the latest Smashing Pumpkins album. “That was cool! Billy just said ‘Man, do your thing.’ He told a funny story where he was sitting there working on the demos and he said to the other guitar player, Jeff Schroeder, ‘I want it to sound like a Tommy Lee groove right here.’ And Jeff goes ‘Well, why don’t you just fuckin’ call him, dude?’ That’s when I got the call from Billy! It was so cool. I’m sitting there tracking the drums and I look into the studio at Bill and I see him jumping up and down, like, so excited. That for me was like ‘Okay, this is the shit now.’ It was good stuff, man.” Beyond drums and vocals, Lee is a multiinstrumentalist - heck, he even had a signature Schecter guitar for a while. “When I was about twelve years old I was taking piano lessons and I was playing marching drums in the marching band. I was getting frustrated, pissed off saying ‘This isn’t what I wanna do’. Basically I wanna rock shit,’ y’know? ‘I’m not feeling this piano business.’ I got my mom and dad to help me out and buy a little Epiphone or something, and a second-hand amp, and I just remember getting my hands on that thing and turning the distortion all the way up and going ‘fuck yeah!’ I remember opening my Yeah! With 52 Marshall amps! Do you have any hearing trouble from all that volume? WHAT?!? No, I’m cool, I’m good actually. I always felt that the Marshalls never really had that abrasive sound. It’s really warm, y’know? So it doesn’t come across as very loud to me. What gear are you using to achieve your live sound? It’s the same as in the studio. I have my Marshall YJM100 signature heads and I also have some Plexi Marshalls and they’re mixed up. The ones I have are big and fat in 200 watt Marshall Major boxes. Then I load my cabinets with 75 watt speakers. I like that more. It’s a punchy sound and I like that sometimes …so I like the Greenbacks, even though the cabinets are designed to look like they have the 35 watt speakers in them. I told my friends from Marshall to make them all in the grey grille because I like them better. But when I go to Australia I’m probably going to use whatever you guys have got there because I’m not going to bring all of my gear over. Do people flip out when they pick up your guitars? They’re set up so differently to what most players are used to. I think they’re the most finely-tuned guitars… they’re like a racing Ferrari. They’re just beautiful. The pickups I made with Seymour Duncan has every single aspect of the note that you need. It’s in those pickups. One thing I’ve always loved about your sound is that you can really hear every note, even when you’re playing a lot of them. And that reveals something about your playing which you mention in your book which is that you work hard to make every note sound ‘right.’ Yeah. Thank you! I think that’s probably one of the most focal points for as long as I can remember. One of the main reasons for that was that when I heard
window up and putting my amp on the window sill because I wanted all the neighbours to hear it. I just wanted the whole neighbourhood to hear me rockin’ shit. Then you start hearing guys like Eddie Van Halen with “Eruption” coming on the radio and you’re going ‘What the fuck was that?’ So I’ve always loved guitar and I’ve always taught myself how to play. I play the guitar like a drummer would. I don’t really play stuff with solos or any of that stuff. I’m a rhythm whore. I attack it like I would a drum. For the life of me I’d been trying to figure out how to play a guitar like a drum so I designed this momentary switch so I could hold a chord down on the fretboard, then hit the switch with my hand on the body of the guitar, so I could pound on it and it would open up the chord, y’know? And I remember a couple of guitar player friends of mine were like ‘Dude, that’s fucking genius.’ But it was just me trying to figure out a more percussive way to play the guitar.” I couldn’t let Lee go without asking about the 1994 Mötley Crüe album with John Corabi on vocals. That material is conspicuously absent from the ‘end of the Crüe’ celebrations. “It’s huge! Y’know what? Honestly dude, it’s one of my favourite Crüe records. Sonically, the songs, the playing on that record is gnarly. We worked our asses off on that record. We had so much to prove: Vince was gone, we had a new singer who also plays guitar and writes and he brought a whole new element to this. But once fans are used to a certain thing, they just didn’t want to know about any other version of Mötley Crüe. That’s understandable but when you break it down, that record still sounds rad today.” By Peter Hodgson
For tour dates visit www.motley.com/tour Paganini it freaked me out because every note is so …and he was a violinist, y’know? …and the way the bowing works, you really don’t play more than one string very often. It’s almost like a monophonic thing, almost, and that’s really difficult to do when you have a bunch of distortion. So you have to make sure each note has its place. Each note must mean something otherwise don’t fucking play it. While I’ve got you, one thing I’ve always wanted to ask you about is the album The Seventh Sign. There’s something raw and heavy about that one, and I feel like it’s kind of under-appreciated. It was a little different from the others in the sense that in the 80s everything was so cyclical. You wrote a record, you recorded the record, you toured the record, you came home and did it all again. At the time of that record it was still like that, but in a different way I suppose, because I go through some really weird shit at different times, and that was a really weird time with the whole grunge thing. So we had to record in a different studio and I recorded my guitars to a click track, then we put the drums on afterwards. But I think some of the songs are very strong there. ‘Never Die’ and ‘Seventh Sign’ are good… I think the way I look back at it is that every album I did was the best I could do at the time, and I was going through some crazy shit. I always like hearing you play the blues, which you do really nicely on that album on the song “Bad Blood.” Yeah and I did it on my last album, Spellbound, on a song called “Iron Blues.” I love to play the blues. In fact, I was just listening to some blues on the radio, some old Muddy Waters or something, and I really like that because it’s unfiltered blues. By Peter Hodgson For a full list of tour dates visit www.tombowler.com.au
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E L E V E N WO R D S T H AT S PA R K E D A R E VO LU T ION
“Wait a minute, wait a minute, “Wait ay ominute, u a i n ’t wait he a radminute, n oth i n ’ y e t.” y o u a i n ’ t h e a r d n o t h i n ’ y e t . ” “Wait a minute, wait a minute, y ou a i n ’t he a r d n oth i n ’ y e t.” E L E V E N WO R D S T H AT S PA R K E D A R E VO LU T ION
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I N T E R V I E W S
KARNIVOOL Perth prog-metal five-piece Karnivool have just kicked off the Themata Decade tour. It’s a massive run of dates around the country, which mark the ten-year anniversary of the band’s debut LP, Themata. By this point, it’s difficult to imagine Australian hard rock music without Karnivool, such was Themata’s indelible impact. In the subsequent ten years, the band have released just two further albums, but their popularity has continued to flourish. This prompts a touch of disbelief in Karnivool’s regularly boisterous frontman Ian Kenny. “I’m surprised of anybody who’s committed to Karnivool,” he says. “We put records out every three or four years. We don’t plan to do it that way, but for some reason it seems that’s how long it takes to get the records to where we want them to be and get them right, but people are still in love with this band and still finding new things about this band, so it’s fascinating.” Following Themata’s unexpected breakthrough, Karnivool spent the next couple of years touring Australia, as well as making inroads in the US and Europe. It wasn’t until 2009 that they returned with album number two, Sound Awake. Given the massive response to Themata, the band no doubt felt pressured to come up with a similarly impactful follow-up.
However, Kenny denies that such considerations interfered with their creative process. “Themata came about the way it did and there was a certain process to that,” he says. “Each time we make a record we find that if we allow ourselves enough time to change as people, songwriters and musicians, then we can approach each record as fresh as we can. That seems to get results for us. Sometimes I wish it wasn’t that way, but it’s part and parcel with us. “We have an understanding these days of what people can bring to the recording and writing process,” he continues. “We know our way around a record and how to approach it. But the creative process, actually getting material together that we consider is right and good enough, the band still doesn’t know how to do it, we just do it. It’s a language we speak to each other in, but no one knows what it means.” Accepting that patience is necessary for maintaining a high standard of output underlines Karnivool’s overall commitment to artistic integrity. See, although growing their following with each album release isn’t undesirable, it’s not the ultimate goal. “If getting bigger allows us to do this more and allows us to keep being the band we want to be, then hell yeah,” Kenny says. “But I think the conversation is more like ‘OK how do we keep this as interesting and as engaging as we can?’ and ‘How do we become a better band each time we commit to a record?’” As soon as tickets went on sale, several shows on the Themata Decade tour sold-out (including three consecutive nights in Melbourne). Considering the band’s third LP – 2013’s Asymmetry – debuted at number one in the ARIA charts, this is hardly surprising. Still, it’s worth noting that Karnivool have never had anything that quite resembles a hit single. “I’m sure that would do great things for the band if we do have that big hit,” Kenny says, “but nowadays Karnivool is established in a different way. We never had those hits but we had songs that struck people in a certain way. That’s always been what’s got us to (guitar/vocals), Courtland Murphy (bass) and Jeff Murray (drums) are here to remind us that it’s fun to break stuff, it’s fun to crank the amps up to “antisocial” and it’s fun to give yourself over to the power of the riff.
THE SHRINE Normally this is where we’d write an intro that lays out who The Shrine is for the uninitiated, but their official biography does such a good job of that - not just as an informational tool but as a work of art - that it deserves to be read on its own merits. “On the night of November 6th, 1979 Black Sabbath was at their most drug addled and explosive standing,” it reads. “They were on tour supporting their newly released Never Say Die album and had a night off in Los Angeles. After knocking back a few drinks at the infamous Rainbow Bar, they decided to check out the local rock scene at the Whiskey A-Go-Go. Arriving late, they caught the tail end of a set by The Circle Jerks. Feeling intimidated yet inspired, they rented a rehearsal space and spent the rest of the night jamming. For an unknown reason they exclusively played Thin Lizzy material and Keith Moon was sitting in… These events never took place. But if they did, the results may have sounded similar to Los Angeles’s The Shrine.” Which is to say that Venice Beach’s The Shrine, who formed in 2008, play the kind of psychedelic, beer-drenched, riff-blasting rock and roll that could have existed 35 or 40 years ago, but is instead happening right now. Josh Landau
PG.24 // MIXDOWN #253 // MAY 2015
The Cherry Rock Festival, which you will be playing this May almost seems custom-built for you guys and the style you play. Yeah! It’s gonna be so rad. We’ve toured a lot with Red Fang. We’ve done two European tours and an American tour with them so we’re always stoked to see those guys. We’re good buddies. We came down once to Australia in 2013 or 2014 and we played about eight shows. And we drove everywhere and we went out of our fucking minds doing overnight drive after overnight drive! But we had an awesome time. We played a last-minute gig in Fitzroy Park in Melbourne, at the skate park, and we set up all our stuff on the edge of the bowl and played. The cops walked up and they said “As long as this finishes in a couple of minutes this is cool.” Was it always a goal for your band to have that kind of direct, honest vintage sound, or was it more a matter of economics? It’s only as intentional as the music we like is, the records we listen to and the shit that inspires us, really. Things are a lot more complicated, a lot more unnecessarily complicated these days in terms of the way records sound. I mean sure, there were plenty of bad records being made throughout time… but we always try to capture the band as we play live. We want it to sound like Robin Trower sitting on Lemmy’s face. We met Lemmy once at a strip club in Hollywood and he was so awesome and friendly. He talked to us for a while. I talked to him about the MC5 for a minute. I told him I saw Wayne Kramer play an acoustic show and that it was awesome, and Lemmy said “Of course it was!” So tell me about your guitar gear. What are you using? I see you with a Les Paul-looking thing but it doesn’t quite look like a Les Paul.
where we are. “Thankfully in our beginnings we had a station like triple j, which would actually play something off [Themata],” he adds. “No other stations would touch it. Thankfully things like that were on our side and got us heard. Hit singles – it’s not that type of band. It’s a song-based band, it’s a record-based band and it’s been a bit of a movement more than just a couple of good strikes.” The retrospective tour doesn’t signal this movement will soon come to an end. In fact, Kenny says the current tour has inspired a wave of enthusiasm among the band members: “Since we put out that we were going to do this tour, all the talk around us and our peers and our friends and family – everything around us leading to this tour – has been an absolute trip down memory lane to what that record meant to the band and what it meant to people at the time and what the band was. “I don’t listen to the records a hell of a lot unless they’re brought up from someone else,” he continues, “but I adore them. I fucking love them to pieces just for what they are. When I listen to them, I very rarely listen to what my part is. I listen to the playing and the bits I love about whatever the rest of the guys have put into the record. [It reminds me] who we were back then. When I listen Themata, we were such a young band and it was just fucking all in, blind. We were bulldozing our way through. We didn’t understand what we were doing, but it’s all there on the record and I love it. I’m proud of it, I don’t really have any hang-ups about, ‘I wish I could’ve changed that’ or ‘I hate the way that sounds.’ I don’t have that relationship.” BY AUGUSTUS WELBY For a full list of May tour dates visit www.karnivool.com.au
Yeah! I’ve got the most unsuspecting setup I’ve ever had in my life. Right now I’ve got a 70s Univox fake Japan black Les Paul with a pickup in it that I spray-painted gold so the pickup would match the rest of the hardware. And I’m playing through an amp that used to belong to Greg Ginn from Black Flag. It’s a Peavey four-channel PA head that our friend Chuck Dukowski the bass player gave to me. And I’ve got an old Marshall that I tour with too, a 71 Super Lead, which I love also. But when I’m at home I only play the Peavey, the Greg Ginn amp. Are you much of a gear collector? Well if we’re flying out we just borrow whatever is there, whatever we can borrow from people. We’re so grateful to people letting us use their gear, coughing up their stuff, y’know? You know how that can be. But we’re going in kinda blind, we don’t know what gear we’ll be using at any of the shows until we show up, apart from our guitars and pedals. I have a Jen wah-wah. It belonged to my dad. It’s his old wah-wah and he doesn’t use it and I’m too stubborn to give it up. I keep getting new pots for it year after year because it sounds too awesome. So what’s your background as a guitarist? At about 14 years old somebody gave me a Black Flag CD and a Misfits CD and I didn’t listen to anything except punk and hardcore all through high school. Eventually I started listening to what those bands were listening to. I found out Black Flag were listening to Hendrix and Mahavishnu Orchestra and King Crimson so I checked that stuff out, and KISS, and I got way deep into Bob Dylan, Radio Birdman - probably my favourite Australian band - then Slayer and Metallica. We try and just funnel all that down the toilet and have the shit that comes out the other end be our sound. BY PETER HODGSON For a full list of May dates visit www.theshrinefuzz.tumblr.com
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I N T E R V I E W S pic by Ian Laidlaw
COURTNEY BARNETT Generally speaking, tall poppy syndrome is an outbreak of criticism directed at one of our own (i.e. an Aussie) for becoming more than moderately successful. With this in mind, Courtney Barnett is currently a prime candidate for such a mean-spirited attack. The Melbourne-based singersongwriter’s debut LP Sometimes I Sit and Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit came out in late March, whereupon it debuted at number four in the ARIA charts, as well entering the UK and US charts at 16 and 20 respectively. Yet, in spite of Barnett’s unheralded success, the predictable wave of tall poppy syndrome hasn’t transpired. When scrutinising this exemption, there are a few key factors that can’t be ignored. Namely, not only does Barnett’s songwriting relate playful observations of dayto-day experiences, but she also seems entirely lacking in pretensions. “I don’t like the idea of trying to make people like the music you are trying to sell,” Barnett says. “I prefer people to discover the music and want to buy it to support the artist and then want to share it with their friends. Maybe that’s a bit pie in the sky, but that’s how music should be. You shouldn’t buy a record because every newspaper is telling you to buy it. You should buy it if someone shows it to you and you like it.” Of course, anyone can feign surprise in the face of growing fame,
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but in Barnett’s case, this modesty appears to be a self-evident truth. For supporting evidence, the most telling indicator of Barnett’s commercial disregard is her idiosyncratic songwriting. While it’s unnecessary to declare her an outright original, it seems patently clear the record wasn’t tailored to meet the expectations of her growing stature. Courtney Barnett doesn’t approach her music with utter nonchalance. Take for instance her debut LP’s fourth track, Small Poppies. The seven-minute slow burner starts by questioning the point of the tall poppy impulse. In the opening chorus, Barnett guardedly sings “I don’t know quite who I am, but man I am trying/ I’ll make mistakes until I get it right.” However, as the song progresses, the lyrics shift from a two-way conversation into an internal mantra. By the final chorus, Barnett sounds empowered as she now screams those same lyrics. This development from uncertainty into decisive self-confidence mirrors the record’s creative process: “To be honest I kind of freaked out when I did look at it as an album,” Barnett says. “I thought ‘These songs aren’t going to fit together very well, I don’t know what I’m doing,’ which is how I live most of my life – not knowing what the hell I’m doing. But I just kept writing and it became clear that they’re not the same but they still fit together because they’re of the same kind of mentality.” When Barnett created Milk! Records, she simply wanted something to stamp on the back of her debut EP, 2012’s I’ve Got A Friend Called Emily Ferris. The label remains a homespun operation, and it’s fair to assume the majority of releases that surrounded her LP on the charts had considerably larger promotional budgets. Rather than a strategic marketing plan, Barnett’s rise to international renown has been assisted by glowing critical feedback from the likes of Pitchfork, Spin, NME and The Guardian.
However, the songwriter’s influential admirers can’t take all the credit. In fact, for the most part, her journey has been conducted on foot. Over the last 18 months, Barnett and her band – featuring bass player Bones Sloane, drummer Dave Mudie and guitarist/ producer Dan Luscombe of The Drones – have conducted multiple tours of the US, UK and Europe. With each return visit, larger and more rapt audiences have greeted them. “I’m just grateful that people are connecting with my music and coming to shows,” Barnett says. “I don’t know where they’ve come from or where they’ve heard the music, but it’s nice that they’re there. How ever they found out about it, they’ve obviously connected in some way.” Barnett and co. are currently running through the entirely sold-out Australian leg of their global album tour. The band’s appearances on the Laneway Festival earlier this year proved how adept they’ve become at commanding a mass audience. But it certainly hasn’t gone to her head. “Big festivals are really surreal to play and you feel like a bit of an imposter,” she says, “but it’s fun. It’s fun to dick around with the boys and act like an idiot in our own little space, but it’s funny being back stage and walking past some famous person and we just look at each other and giggle, because we’re there as well. It’s this really funny moment of being like ‘Wow, we’re back stage with all these famous people,’ and it’s because we’re playing as well. It’s still funny and I don’t think it’s something I’ll get used to.” BY AUGUSTUS WELBY
Visit www.courtneybarnett.com.au for full tour dates.
MIXDOWN #253 // MAY 2015 // PG.25
I N T E R V I E W S
“I really didn’t want to have any pre-conceived ideas in my head about what to do for this album,” Williams says. “I wanted to push out as much as I could in all directions, just so it gives me more room to move later on. I wanted to make it as widely spread as possible – I definitely do, just in my mind, genre-hop quite a lot – but the other key idea behind the album is that it’s all hopefully tied together by the voice. The singing doesn’t really change that much, that’s the common thread.” Williams has come good on his intentions and delivered an exceptionally varied journey through a host of venerable music styles. By virtue of his heady vocal register, he ties together the travelling country rock of ‘After All’ with the Scott Walker-like chamber pop of ‘Lost Without You’ and the jaunty Greenwich Village folk of ‘Lonely Side’. When adopting the various stylistic modes, Williams was careful not to commit artistic blasphemy.
“You’ve got to strike a balance,” he says. “I really do love the classic form and structure of country music and other similar genres, where you don’t have that room to move really. You’ve got the smallest possible space in which to create something new and I think you can turn that into a positive thing and use that to your advantage. It makes every little push that much more effective, every little wayward quirk that much more noticeable.” Speaking of quirks, at first listen the LP’s lead single ‘Dark Child’ is an innocuous mid-tempo country-folk song, but a closer look reveals a backdrop flecked with tension-raising squalls of noise. Likewise, album opener ‘Hello Miss Lonesome’ is essentially a conventional bluegrass song, though the token banjo solo is replaced by fluent Spanish guitar playing. “For ‘Dark Child’, it’s got an obvious way in which it should go and then you draw upon the underlying despair of the lyrics,” Williams explains. “Because the way I sing that song is very understated, you need to bring that sense of unease back into it somehow and usually a guy riffing out on some weird noise stuff on guitar will do that.” Marlon Williams was recorded at The Sitting Room Studios in Williams’ former hometown of Lyttelton, New Zealand. The Sitting Room belongs to his longtime studio collaborator Ben Edwards. To convincingly present the aforementioned stylistic escapades, Williams and Edwards put a lot of thought into the appropriate recording techniques. “We always do the same thing going into the recording process of picking tracks that roughly resemble what we’re trying to do and then try to investigate the method that went into it,” Williams says. “So every song on the album had a reference track in terms of production and we’d research recording techniques that went into those specific recordings. “I’ve been working with Ben Edwards since I was 16 years old, so we’re very familiar with each other and what sounds we like,” he adds. “He’s the only engineer
I’ve ever worked with, so we know each other’s habits, both good and bad. My technical knowledge is pretty slim. I can’t talk in shapes and sounds, but when it comes to the actual nuts and bolts I leave that up to him.” As mentioned above, the most captivating element of the album – and that which provides unity – is Williams’ voice. Despite what some people may think, the human voice is not an easy instrument to record, especially one with a dynamic range as vast as Williams’. “We had a lot of false stars with that kind of thing,” Williams says, “where we thought a certain reverb or whatever seemed self-evidently the right way to go and it just turned out to be completely weird and wrong. It’s funny, without a bit of trial and error, you never really know what’s going to work. Really, you’re always going to lose something somewhere, so you have to try to make it up in other areas to cover that, because it’s not live.” In addition to Edwards, a lengthy list of guest musicians helped to flesh out Williams’ vision for the album. It’s no surprise to find the likes of Delaney Davidson and Williams’ girlfriend Aldous Harding in the album credits. But the inclusion of noise rock band Asian Tang is somewhat unexpected. However, Williams knew all of the invited guests could contribute just what the album needed. “They’re all really close friends of mine,” he says. “The whole idea with going back to Lyttelton to record was that I’d have access to people I know. I flirted with the idea of recording in Melbourne but I wanted to minimise those risks. It’s just easier working with people you know. A lot of those friendships have been formed through making music together, so it’s a chicken and the egg kind of thing.”
THE GROVE STUDIOS & RMI (REGIONAL MUSIC INSTITUTE)
home in the past include The Whitlams, Troy CassarDaly, Human Nature and, of course, INXS. After taking over The Grove Studios just over 12 months ago, we‘ve had a productive time expanding the studios and now have 4 studios as well as a dedicated world class studio for our new education program. We’ve built an incredible team of producers and engineers including Burke Reid, Matt Lovell and Andy Mac who have been working with cutting edge musicians and artists in Australia including Courtney Barnett, Alison Wonderland, DMA’s, Sarah Blasko, Oh Mercy, Tkay Maidza and Birds of Tokyo.
Tell us about the course itself. The course held at The Grove Studios is 3 days a week for approximately 9 months. This qualification is for students who want to work in the creative arts – music, performing and entertainment industries as sound engineers or sound designers. The details of the course can be obtained from the RMI website. Successful students may be selected to extend their learning after the course as part of The Groves’ intern program where students can work further with the producers and engineers and gain further knowledge about the operation of the studio to help them better position themselves to gain employment in the music industry.
MARLON WILLIAMS You might recognise Marlon Williams as the solo troubadour who’s spent the last few years charting the breadth of this country armed with an acoustic guitar and a powerfully seductive voice. Or perhaps you’re familiar with him as Delaney Davidson’s counterpart on the Sad But True album series, which sees the pair reinterpreting classic country numbers. Either way, Williams has just released his selftitled debut solo LP, which asks that you leave behind any established notions of his artistic identity.
SOUND PRODUCTION DIPLOMA
Situated about 80kms north of Sydney’s CBD, The Grove Studios provide a unique recording facility in picturesque surroundings complete with accommodation, pools and spas. Some of Australia’s most revered artists have called The Grove home while recording or mixing their records. Now the studio with everything, is adding yet another string to it’s bow with the announcement of their partnership with Hunter TAFE - RMI (Regional Music Institute) to deliver one of Australia’s premier audio learning experiences. We spoke with The Grove Studio’s director and head producer Scott Horscroft. Tell us about the history and recent happenings of The Grove Studios? The Grove was once known as Mangrove Music Studios, originally built by INXS’ bassist Garry Gary Beers. Its idyllic, world-class facilities are nestled away on an elevated 25 acres of secluded bushland, only a five-minute drive out of the major rural centre of Gosford. A lot of important Australian releases have been recorded here. Silverchair recorded Neon Ballroom and Diorama; Eskimo Joe made Black Fingernails Red Wine and Something For Kate moulded Echolalia. Other ARIA Award-winning artists who’ve made The Grove their creative
PG.26 // MIXDOWN #253 // MAY 2015
You’ve recently partnered with Hunter TAFE – RMI (Regional Music Institute) to bring a state of the art Sound Production Diploma, how did this partnership come about? The Hunter TAFE RMI partnership came about through a desire to provide the next generation of music industry talent a unique program that’s focused on hands-on learning in a real world environment. Grant Walmsley, an RMI teacher and Screaming Jets founder recorded an album at the studios some years ago. The partnership began through this initial experience. Grant understood the level of quality and professionalism our facilities offered and knew it would be a perfect location to offer a unique learning model for students, reflecting the same high standard of teaching that Hunter TAFE RMI is so well known for. RMI is focused on delivering real world job outcomes, and through this partnership we’re able to deliver a unique Sound Production Diploma on a boutique campus. It’s enabled us to offer budding music professionals an opportunity to be taught by and work alongside seasoned industry professionals, and the chance to study in a studio where the likes of Daniel Johns and Birds of Tokyo have recorded. We believe is something that will help students grow and flourish.
By Augustus Welby For a full list of tour dates visit www.marlonwilliams.co.nz
The Grove Studios is hosting an Open Day on Saturday May 16, tell us about it. The Open Day will take guests and prospective students through the amazing facilities that will be at your fingertips as a student of the Sound Production Diploma. They’ll be able to meet teachers, ask questions and enjoy the amazing atmosphere this boutique campus has to offer. What sets this sound production course apart from the rest? The course itself has the same syllabus across all teaching facilities. The students will be learning within an operational sound recording studio with access to all of our facilities. They will have the opportunity to discuss their work with actual producers, engineers and artists and gain a special experience not normally available.
Location: The Grove Studios – 286 Mangrove Rd, Somersby (just off Dog Trap Rd) Telephone: (02) 4362 3299 Website: www.rmi.edu.au and www.thegrovestudios.com
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C O L U M N S
Unleash Your Inner Rock God The Hirajoshi Scale
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Sometimes it’s the notes you leave out of a scale that make it memorable. You can try this with the Major Scale: choose any random note from the scale and make a decision to simply not play it; not in a melody, not in a chord. You’ll find that depending on which note you leave out, you’ll get a very different feel. Skip the third degree of the scale and you’ve removed the ‘major or minor’-defining quality of the scale. Take out the fifth and you’ll find that the leap between the fourth and sixth feels more exotic and abrupt. This is one of the reasons I love the Hirajoshi scale. Hirajoshi started as a tuning devised by Yatsuhashi Kengy (1614-1685) for the Koto. It has a tranquil peacefulness blended with a more exotic, almost bittersweet or melancholy feel and has been explored by players like Jason Becker and Marty Friedman, both in their duo Cacophony and their respective solo careers. It’s related to the Phrygian mode (the third degree of the major scale) but it’s missing a few notes. Another way to think of it is that it’s simply a five-note scale, which is what the good old Pentatonic is. While the Pentatonic scales work on familiar box patterns and are pretty easy to flail away in with generally good-sounding results (and that’s what makes it fun), Hirajoshi can be a little more tricky to navigate. Depending on how you approach it, you can use it to create licks and riffs that follow a more standard ‘riffy’ outline or you can go all mercurial and stream-ofconsciousness with it. The easiest way to approach this scale is to imagine it as a pair of patterns repeating across each new pair of strings. Let’s get a little technical; Figure 1A is the Hirajoshi scale in the key of A, starting on the 5th fret of the low E string. It goes Root, 2nd, minor 3rd on the bottom string, then 5th, minor 6th on the next one. Now all you have to do is leap to the next octave of the root (in this case, the A note at the 7th fret of the D string) and start that pattern again (Figure 1B). Finally, hit that A at the 10th fret of the B string and you’re in place to repeat the pattern again an even higher octave (Figure 1C). And there you go: an exotic-sounding scale, but easy to play and remember (Figure 2). One easy device to use with this scale is to pick a pattern on two adjacent strings then move it up an octave on the next string pair and then the next one. This is a good
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WHAT’S MY RANGE AGAIN?
way to build tension to then release it with a big sustained root note or chord. Figure 4 is the same scale, bit this time it’s laid out in a two-note-per-string manner that totally, utterly breaks us out of the temptation to fall into repetitive box patterns. You’ll go from playing two frets apart to four frets apart to one fret apart, with no particularly identifiable pattern to latch onto. It also leads you towards some of the more unusual, drastic intervallic leaps that are somewhat Page 1/1 masked when you play the scale in the way outlined in Figure 2. A great way to practice this scale is to set up some kind of droning root note loop. Then you can compare each note of the scale against the root and see which ones build tension, which ones release it and which ones are neutral. This will also give you a new chord vocabulary. Here’s a hint: this scale sounds really great when you build chords that are spread out with a low root note then a couple of much higher notes on top, instead of clustering all of your chord tones close to the root. BY PETER HODGSON
While there is a host of wonderful and exciting gadgets available to help improve every step of the vocal recording process, there is often a simple solution that’s been available to us all along. It doesn’t matter how good your vocal technique is, if your audio capture of it is letting you down; it’s likely to result in a poor recording. So, there are a number of quick fixes and helpful hints for recording your vocals at home that should improve your overall results.
The Tea Break
Possibly one of the most important things you can do when recording vocals at home is to stop and take a break before you even get started. Yes, I know that sounds a little odd, but you’ll find that the results speak for themselves. So, even before you start setting up the microphone, put the kettle on and make yourself a cup of black tea. Now, you can put that cup down and let it cool a little while you set up the rest of the equipment. Once it has that scolding edge takenoff, the warm tea will help you vocal chords work to their best when it comes to opening your lungs in front of the microphone. Cold drinks can make your vocal chords go into shock and milk can create phlegm that restricts your voice. But a warm, black tea will relax the vocal chords and get you ready to perform. So, take the time to step away from what you are doing even before you are doing it. Singing with vocal chords that are warmed up will not only improve your sound, but will protect them for further prolonged use.
Stop The Pop
When it does come time to record, you do need to consider technique as you sing into the microphone and listen to how it is translated onto the recording. What we will be listening for is popping and sibilance. These two unwanted effects are the pain in any singer’s side when it comes to getting a great recording, but they can be dealt with simply and without much more than a pencil and a few inches of gaffer tape. So, it’s time to get your MacGyver on in the vocal booth to clean up the unwanted sounds.
avoid. So, by rotating the microphone about 10 degrees so it isn’t pointing directly at the voice source, can allow for some slight deflection of the initial transient across the capsule and reduce the pop. But, this is not always enough and more drastic measures need to be employed. Time to get out the gaffer tape and get to work. It’s quite simple really. Take a pencil and with the aforementioned tape or elastic band as pictured, affix it to the front of the microphone so that the pencil is running up the centre of the capsule. This will not be enough to muffle or reduce the sound in any way, but it will aid the airflow as it hits the capsule and deflect it from the very centre, stopping the capsule from recoiling so violently. It’s a simple trick, but it works extremely well and often produces better results than a lot of expensive pop filters can deliver. Unfortunately, when trying to eliminate sibilance, it is a harder task and can often result in muffling the recording to remove the ‘s’ sound from the voice in certain words. Short of re-writing all your lyrics to try and avoid the use of the letter S and any soft sounding letter Cs, you really need to work hard on your annunciation when it comes to “de-essing” your vocals without heavily processing the sound. Clear annunciation after a cup of black tea will help in this area too! BY rob gee
The first thing I always do to reduce popping is to deal with the angle between the mouth and the microphone capsule. If the voice is coming directly out of the mouth and hitting the capsule at ninety degrees, you can get an initial slap on the capsule creating that dreaded popping sound we are so desperately trying to
MIXDOWN #253 // may 2015 // PG.27
C O L U M N S
BANGING THE TUBS
ON THE DOWNLOW
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Multiple Strokes
Flam rudiments are well known for the way they work the wrists and hands and for the ‘multiple strokes’ they can produce in each hand during the one execution. For example, a paradiddle has a maximum number of multiple strokes in a row in one hand of two – RLRR LRLL. If we turn this into a flam paradiddle we get the following - LRLRR RLRLL. It’s a little hard to see from the text but if you examine the right hand, you’ll see that from the first double stroke, including the flam grace note and the next right hand, you’ll end up playing four strokes in a row with that hand. The best way to hear this is to play the flam paradiddle on a practice pad and move one hand to your leg. You’ll hear what I mean. It’s a work out!
Flatten It Out
The concept of Flat Flams simply changes the way the flam is executed. Instead of deliberately playing the flam as a separated stroke, here you bring both hands down exactly at the same time. On one playing surface this will feel interesting and not desirably so. So, flat flams are usually reserved for two different playing surfaces and are much more applicable in this way. Our exercises are related to two groupings (Four notes and Three notes), based on the second part of a Reverse Paradiddle (RRLR LLRL) and will be performed with the ride cymbal (bass drum played also) and the snare drum.
Running In Reverse
Figure A show us the second half of the reverse paradiddle with flams. You can see this is heavily biased to the left hand. This is because the right hand will be moving to the ride cymbal for the accents. You can also see the same idea but in groupings of three (triplets – Figure B). Turning the flams into ‘flat flams’ can be seen in Figures C and D. For these examples I’ve moved the right hand
accent to the floor tom for visual purposes and you can clearly see how the two hands play together at these points. From here comes the fun part. Figure E shows the fill in its basic form as intended with all left hand strokes on the snare drum and the right hand accent on the ride cymbal with a bass drum. Figure F starts to utilise the rhythmic figure in different parts of the bar. Here already, you can hear a cool idea starting to form. Play some grooves and use this as a fill to start with! Figure G shows how you can start to expand the idea – particularly the second bar, which doesn’t allow for any gaps or breaks. It’s a real work out to get this happening accurately in the left hand. But this really gets the creative juices going because from here, you can already start to conceptualise other rhythmic phrases and ideas.
Other Subdivisions
Figure H shows the flat flam idea over triplets, which is basically designed to replicate the sound of a flam accent rudiment. In a way, this is easier than the original lick because the most you’ll play is a double stroke in each of your hands. So, you may find you can get this happening faster than the other ideas to begin with. If you play groupings of three over groupings of four (i.e. moving the triplets into 16th notes) you get Figure I. This is a familiar sound to many drummers and a very, very useable one. Lastly (Figure J, I’ve done one application of the two core stickings over four bars and randomly experimented with where I placed the accents. You’ll find that once you have the stickings happening, you’ll be able to improvise new phrases on the spot. There are many combinations. I hope you get something out of this concept. I certainly did when I finally worked on it! BY ADRIAN VIOLI
PG.28 // MIXDOWN #253 // may 2015
What You Can Learn From Van Halen
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With the recent release of Van Halen’s Tokyo Dome: Live In Concert I got to thinking about Van Halen’s best bass moments. While the band’s classic line-up included Michael Anthony on bass, Eddie Van Halen’s son Wolfgang has been on bass since 2007. Although many were sceptical at first, it turns out the dude can really, really freaking play. I guess that shouldn’t be a surprise since his last name is Van Halen and he’s had a really great teacher by the name of Edward, but one of the best things about the Tokyo Dome live album is that you can really zero in on what Wolfgang is doing, both instrumentally and vocally. Van Halen bass playing is unpredictable; much of it might be based on steady quarter notes or eighth notes but punctuated by a syncopated, odd-time, modal tag or fill. Let’s have a look at a few interesting Van Halen bass lines you can learn stuff from. Most of these are by Mike but still, go check out what Wolf is doing.
Runnin’ With The Devil
It’s ironic that the first instrument you hear on one of the most important guitar albums of all time is a bass playing straight quarter notes on an open E string, but there you have it. This isn’t a tricky part but it involves a little creative muting to cut off the note duration at exactly the right time. If Mike played the exact same notes but just let each one ring until the next, it wouldn’t have sounded as iconic or attention-grabbing.
You’re No Good
For their second album, Van Halen chose to kick things off with… another unaccompanied bass moment! In this instance it was a heavily flanged, ambience-soaked sliding lick which was probably inspired by a live solo spot; it certainly fits within the style of what Anthony was doing during his live solos. The way that this little intro lick is faded instead of kicking off at full volume makes is another great attentiongrabbing device; the combination of an unusual effect and the ‘wait, something’s happening’ vibe can really draw the listener in, and can be applied to all sorts of musical situations and instruments.
Spanked
This song from 1991’s For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge is unique because Eddie plays a Danelectro 6-string bass tuned E to E, an octave below a regular guitar, while Mike plays a 5-string bass. For much of the song both guys are occupying the same range, so Mike plays more syncopated lines that are almost like something you’d hear in hip hop while Eddie plays a busier line. It’s a great lesson in what to do when you’re working within a reduced
range like in a band with 7-string or 8-string guitarists who are stepping into the territory covered by your bass.
Without You
1998’s Van Halen III probably isn’t topping anybody’s list of favourite Van Halen albums, but it does feature a particularly cool unison guitar/bass section right before the guitar solo. It’s rare for Eddie and Mike to play the exact same part, so when they do sync up like this it’s especially attention-grabbing. By the way, Mike only played on three tracks on this album and Eddie played bass on the rest.
China Town
Damn. When he’s playing bass, Wolfgang usually plays like a true bass player. But on this track he pulls out some guitar licks with some insane two-handed tapping. He matches Eddie’s fast tapping in the intro (an octave down on fatter strings - ouch), keeps up during the fast verses, then doubles up on another of Eddie’s tapping licks at the end of the guitar solo. Then be sure to listen to whatever weird crazy tapping stuff Wolfgang is doing during Eddie’s closing guitar freak-out from 3:00 to 3:12. For this part Wolfgang is playing tapping licks that are more like super-fast trills rather than actual arpeggios, which is a cool approach for atonal sections like this because it essentially frees you from the tyranny of playing in key - which makes it all the more satisfying when you all come crashing in on the root note to finish the song. BY PETER HODGSON
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C O L U M N S
[D]IGITAL [J]OCKEY Put Your Finger On It
The demand for pad style controllers is growing exponentially as the wave of EDM producers and musicians implementing these devices into their live set surges in popularity. M-Audio are one of the many companies and brands in the marketplace that are making a decent offering. However, M-Audio seem to have their finger truly on the pulse with their relatively new product the Trigger Finger Pro. A pad style controller that will work as a stand-alone sequencer as well as a software controller and that can be integrated into a wider range of applications. Lets take a look...
Step Through It
Not just a USB MIDI controller, the Trigger Finger Pro also acts as a step sequencer either in conjunction with software or as a stand-alone device. You can then send MIDI information to another drum machine or hardware synthesizer to be driven by the 64-step sequencer within the Trigger Finger Pro. This is especially handy for those performers who are operating a range of compact synths and drum machines within a live set and need editable sequencing in a hardware format. As a hardware controller it can become the central hub for your production both in the studio and live on stage. The 16 pressure sensitive pads are multiplied by four quickly recalled banks and the fader and rotary encoders allow for a wide range of effects and functions to be controlled from the work surface. Incorporating a transport control section as well, you have the tools on the top panel to allow you to work and perform from a central platform without relying on the mouse to do much of the work.
The Wrap-Up
Many users will agree that it is in the bundled software that the unit really comes to life. By this, I am talking about Arsenal. A sort of bridging software that allows you to use your computer almost as the engine for a sound library that is completely controlled by the Trigger Finger Pro. With Arsenal, it becomes a wrapper for any VSTi’s you like when running it in standalone mode. You do not need to launch your DAW, but instead just access all the sounds and parameters of your VSTi’s as Arsenal acts as the host for them. Essentially, this makes the Trigger Finger Pro a synthesizer that encompasses the power of your computer’s CPU for its sound bank. This makes it ideal for DJs who want to integrate live production into their sets without having to run a DAW on their laptop.
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When working on the Trigger Finger Pro, the LCD screens relay information back from Arsenal and the VSTi’s being hosted within it so you can use it as a browser for the sounds you want to incorporate in your set. When recording, this also enables you to really disconnect yourself from the computer and treat it more like a hardware groove production centre. That said, if you do want to work within the confines of a DAW you are able to run Arsenal within that DAW for a ridiculous amount of sonic combinations. Take the addition of Hybrid, the software synthesizer and the included Air Drums software too, and you have a total production package. These are all great features that make the Trigger Finger Pro a worthy addition to any existing setup, or as the base of a new production and performance rig. With the Australian dollar struggling against the US dollar at the moment, it comes as some comforting news to find out that the Trigger Finger Pro has gone against the grain and has actually come down in price in recent months with a new RRP of $499, around half the price of similar devices on offer from other manufacturers. M-Audio has delivered big time with the Trigger Finger Pro and done it at an exceptional price too. What’s more, it comes with around 8Gb of sounds, many chosen from top DJs to be included with the Trigger Finger Pro package. Couple this with the additional expansion packs that are available through the M-Audio website and you have one powerful, versatile and comprehensive studio and live controller to explore when considering your options. BY ROB GEE
For more information on the Trigger Finger Pro visit Pro Audio Group Australia via www.proaudiogroup.com.au
MIXDOWN #253 // MAY 2015 // PG.29
ROAD TESTS Tycoon Percussion 29 Series Supremo Select ‘Dark Iris’ Cajon Dynamic Music | (02) 9939 1299 | www.dynamicmusic.com.au | RRP: $269
Tycoon is a percussion company that has been making instruments for 30 years, specialising in hand percussion such as congas, bongos, djembes, timbales, world percussion and plenty more, covering most percussion needs across a range of specs and prices. With pros and amateurs alike enjoying the sounds and usability of the Cajon, it has seen a spike in popularity over the last few years.
BANG THE DRUM
The Cajon’s roots can be traced back to West and Central African slaves throughout South America in the late 18th century. Essentially a wooden box, the player sits on the Cajon with the thinner surface at the front (the head) allowing for a range of tones when manipulated with the fingers and palms. It’s common in traditional African and South American music, but has also been a strong fixture in Latin and Spanish music for some time. Today it’s still a mainstay in traditional latin and afro styles but also folk,
pop, indie, world, jazz and more thanks to its rootsy tones, portability and ease of use when a full drum kit isn’t suited.
CAJON AUSSIE CAJON
From the ‘29’ series, this Supremo Select model looks super hip at first glance. Dark timbered with a colourful haze to it, this ‘Dark Iris’ model definitely has a modern edge. Tough rubber feet mean it won’t slip or make extra noise from sitting directly on the floor. Playing open handed in the middle of this Cajon produces a deep, resonant thud whilst finger tips and slaps towards the top of the instrument have a higher, shorter slap to them. Adding an adjustable snare wire to the inside, this drum is capable of delivering the pseudo drum kit vibe on the go. Kick drum type sounds in the middle of the head and funky snare sounds round the edge give you the ability to play kit type grooves. Furthermore with 3 sizes available you can move through sizes for comfort and varying tonal ranges if you want to investigate a little more.
MONEY OR THE BOX?
The Supremo Select ‘Dark Iris’ sounds good and is well
priced. Along with product quality, they also seem to value employee satisfaction and upstanding business practices. Environmental awareness is employed with processes in place that utilise plantation farmed wood, reusable products and local recycling (plus they support of several charities). A musical and usable Cajon, the Dark Iris is instantly accessible for those that just want to bash away but also a tasty instrument for the seasoned percussionist or kit player that wants to open up some extra sounds and styles. BY NICK BROWN
SPECS • Siam Oak • Snare wires adjustable • The sizes: 9.5” x 16.5”, 11.5” x 20” or 13.75” x 20.5”
HITS • Solid range of tones • Looks hip • Nice price
MISSES • Dark Iris finish may not be for everyone
SPECS
Alesis Sample Rack Drum Module Electric Factory | (03) 9474 1000 | www.elfa.com.au | RRP: $399
Many of you may be familiar with the Alesis Sample Pad, I have road-tested it before in the past and had a great deal of fun with it. Well, Alesis have now released the Sample Rack, essentially a rack mounted version of the Sample Pad, but without the pads. What you get in place of the four pads found on the Sample Pad is eight trigger inputs for use with any electronic drum kit or an acoustic kit fitted with drum triggers.
OPTIONS APLENTY
Alesis have designed the Sample Rack to be a system that can grow with your needs as a drummer. It comes with ten kits preloaded onto the unit, but allows for more to be loaded from the SD card slot on the
front panel. This I find a little annoying, as so many other devices are moving towards USB stick options, having to keep SD cards for this purpose seems a little antiquated, but, you can at least dump samples via USB to the SD cards so a separate
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card reading device isn’t needed. From the USB connection, you can run the Sample Rack as a drum interface for your DAW.
RACK AND ROLL
As a studio tool, the Sample Rack will integrate nicely with most existing setups. I’m not entirely sold on the 1RU rack format for a live performance purpose though. It could be better used if housed in a more compact sized case that could be mounted to your drum hardware. It’s this rack case format that makes it a little cumbersome and limited in how it can be set up. Getting into the sounds, there isn’t any real limit to the unit.
The included drum kits give you plenty of space to play around with as a starting point. With the ability to drag and drop samples via the USB connection, you can get pretty much any sound you want on your drum kit. The Sample Rack allows up to eight triggers to be connected with two pedal inputs for the Hats and Kick as well. At the same time, a pad controller can be run into the device via MIDI, so no kit is actually required to trigger the sounds, so in this respect it works just as strongly as not just studio tool, but as a live performance unit as well. BY ROB GEE
• 8 dual-zone 1/4” trigger inputs • 1/4” Kick pedal input; selectable switch or trigger mode • 1/4” Hi-Hat pedal input; selectable switch or variable mode • 200+ built-in drum, cymbal, and percussion sounds • 10 ready-to-play drum kits • Add new sounds via SD Card (SD Card not included) • Save up to 512 sounds and 89 kits per 32GB SD card • LCD display and software utility for complete control • 5-PIN MIDI DIN In and Out ports • USB port for MIDI and to load samples to your SD card • 1/4” stereo outputs (L, R) • 1/4” headphone output with volume control • 1/8” stereo aux input with level control • 1/4” dual footswitch input for system function
HITS • Wide range of drum sounds • Separate control inputs for kick and hats pedal • USB connectivity
MISSES • Screen can be hard to read with all the information jammed into it • The choice of SD card over USB inputs means more mixed media
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ROAD TESTS M-Audio M3-6 Active Studio Monitors Pro Audio Group Australia | (02) 9521 4844 | proaudiogroup.com.au | RRP $1149.99 (pair)
With so many manufacturers pushing to create small and lighter studio monitors for the bedrrom environment, it’s nice to see M-Audio bucking the trend and delivering a new range of monitor speakers that are all about the sound and not the versatility of the cabinet. So, with the new M3-6 studio monitors you don’t get a compact housing, you don’t get lightweight cabinets and you don’t get ‘go anywhere’ portability. But you don’t get speakers that sound like that either. They are a solid build and a solid sound and should be heard to be understood.
THREE LEVELS OF SOUND
As the name suggests, the M3-6 is a three way speaker design with a 6 inch low frequency driver. The upper section of the cabinet houses a concentric high frequency and mid frequency driver that work together with the larger 6 inch driver to produce a remarkable sound. There is a crisp clarity to the mid-range that has vocals just leaping out of the mix in an astonishing way. This is due to the fact that the mid-frequencies have their own dedicated driver and they are not held back by the sloppy movement of the larger low frequency driver trying to work fast than it can. This is in no means a new concept, but one that simply isn’t utilised often enough in modern
speakers. The result is a clearer, hi-fidelity like sound that doesn’t allow anything to hide.
SOUNDS AS STRONG AS IT LOOKS With the three-way speaker design, the M3-6 delivers a full range sound and of course, this can need some controlling for each room that they might be used in. The rear port design sees a slotted style of port running across the top of the cabinet to reduce chuffing as air is expelled. This doesn’t allow for the M3-6 to be placed right up against a wall, but requires a little space in order to control the lower frequencies naturally. With the room dictating how these might sound, a three band EQ is included on the rear of the speakers allowing you to sculpt the sound to suit the environment. This can
be completely bypassed if not necessary and a low cut filter can also be engaged at 80Hz or 100Hz should you wish to use it in smaller confines. Overall, these are a great sounding monitor speaker. They look fantastic, somewhat akin to some speakers produced by Tannoy a number of years ago, but with woodgrain finish to compliment the overall effect.
HITS
SPECS
• Full range sound • Great EQ control • Beautiful looking speaker cabinets
• Frequency response: 40Hz 22kHz • Input impedance: 20k O balanced, 10k O unbalanced • Cabinet: Wood veneer front baffle with vinyl-laminated cabinet • Size: 9.25 (w) x 15 (H) x 9.06 (D) inches • Weight: 10.5 kg
MISSES • Large, heavy cabinet
BY ROB GEE
Sony MDR-7510 Studio Monitor Headphones Sony Australia | proaudio.au@ap.sony.com | pro.sony.com | RRP: $209
For years, Sony has led the way in the audio game, proving to be pivotal pioneers in the headphone market. Recently we’ve seen a huge increase in demand and production of quality studio monitor headphones, which has lead to new companies entering the competition. The Sony MDR-7500 series were designed with one particular goal in mind – creating headphones that were the only option for both studio and broadcast monitoring; capable of working with for a range of audio mixing applications. As a videographer and editor, I was pleased to have a pair of Sony MDR-7510 Headphones appear at my desk this morning, and couldn’t wait to put the hype to test!
BUSINESS UP FRONT
Upon taking the MDR-7510 out of the box, I first noticed how incredibly light they were. Weighing only 261g, these headphones are designed for long, continuous use. The lightweight build is due to the plastic exterior of these headphones. They’re lightweight but feel anything but flimsy. Instead, Sony has created a sturdy and durable casing that will survive well beyond the usual wear and tear, designed with the consumers priorities in mind. The headphones have a closedback ear cup design with thick around-ear cushions to block out environmental noise while providing lasting comfort. The padded headband is adjustable to provide a snug fit for virtually any head size. There is also a
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great deal of slack provided by the extra long 3m cable, which facilitates clear signal transfer. Included with the headphones is a gold-plated 3.5mm plug and 1/4” adapter, which offers compatibility with a wide variety of studio applications.
SPECS • • • • • • •
CLEAR CUT
The real magic in these headphones shines through in their performance. To ensure that these headphones deliver accurate sound, Sony has incorporated 50mm drivers with PET diaphragms and neodymium magnets, which give an extended frequency response that brings out the deepest bass and crisp treble. As the MDR-7500 series were designed as a monitoring set, I had to try these out on my recent editing
PG.32 // MIXDOWN #253 // MAY 2015
work for the soon to be released Mixdown TV. When playing back unedited footage, the first thing I noticed is the wide range of frequencies that these headphones picked up. I had a lot of unwanted noise in my playback that I hadn’t noticed when first filming, and these headphones were able to identify all of the blemishes that could have been
avoided during production. Adding to their dynamic range, the sound quality was immaculately clear. As far as an industry standard pair of monitor headphones go, it’s difficult to go past the Sony MDR-7510. BY MICHAEL EDNEY
Magnet Type: Neodymium Frequency Response: 5-40kHz Impedance: 24 Ohms Sensitivity: 108 dB/mW Power Handling: 2,000mW Weight: 261g Cord Length: 3m
HITS • Lightweight • Ear cups are extremely comfortable • Clear and crisp sound.
MISSES • Not as versatile as other headphones in the market • Really only suitable as a monitoring tool.
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ROAD TESTS
Diamond Guitars Hailfire SM Electric Guitar Dynamic Music | (02) 9939 1299 | www.dynamicmusic.com.au | RRP: $1599
Just to clear up the confusion, this company was initially known as DBZ (after Dean B Zelinsky), then Diamond DBZ, and are now simply Diamond Guitars. If you’re familiar with Jeff Diamant’s Diamond amps, this is the same company. I’ve been following this line since their inception and I can honestly say they’ve made some of the most rapid progress of any guitar brand I’ve seen - in playability, overall quality and most definitely in the uniqueness and technical perfection of their finishes. Some of the stuff that was on show at NAMM was flatout amazing.
HUMBUCK THE SYSTEM
The HailFire SM has some vague similarities to a Gibson Firebird, but only in subtle passing ways. This is very much its own guitar, from the curvier cutaways to the sweeping bevels to the pointy 6-a-side headstock. The body is made of mahogany with a spalted maple top. The raised centre section gives the impression of a neck-thru, although it’s a set-neck guitar. The neck is mahogany too, with a rosewood fingerboard, 22 frets and block inlay markers. The pickups are a pair of Seymour Duncan humbuckers: a JB model in the bridge position and a Whole Lotta Humbucker in the neck. The JB is a hot Alnico V humbucker with high output and strong harmonics, while the Whole Lotta Humbucker was
developed for a famous British guitarist in the early 70s who is well known for his Les Paul tones. The controls are a 3-way pickup selector, a master volume, and a master tone with a pushpull coil split which works across both pickups simultaneously.
TRY TO SET THE NIGHT ON FIRE
The Hailfire has the signature ‘chirp’ often associated with mahogany-body guitars, and the JB and WLH both do a great job of translating the guitar’s natural tone while also imparting a little of their own vibe. The JB has a hint of natural compression which helps to give it a really bold clean tone and a rich, singing distorted lead voice. The overdriven chord tones are exactly what the term ‘chunky’ was invented to describe. The neck pickup has a satisfying
roundness to it with plenty of pick attack and sustain, and although both pickups sound quite nice when split into single coil mode, the Whole Lotta Humbucker in particular seems to really sing in this mode. It’s more ‘Tele’ than ‘Strat,’ and the middle position in single coil mode will satisfy all your jangly chordal needs.
modern, and you’ll find fingers effortlessly dancing across the fretboard. The only downside is the master coil split. It would be great to have individual control over each pickup’s mode. But that’s an easy enough mod to do yourself if you’re confident with a soldering iron and have a couple of bucks for an extra push-pull pot.
OH HAIL YES
BY PETER HODGSON
This is a pretty unique guitar: elements of vintage and modern work in perfect harmony, both in sonics and in visuals. The playability definitely feels more
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HITS • Perfect finish • Great high-output tones • Smooth playability
SPECS • Recording media: SD/SDHC/SDXC cards (up to 128GB) • Image sensor: 1/3-inch 3-megapixel CMOS sensor • Lens:Fixed focus (36cm - ∞) F2.0, focal distance approx. 16.6 mm (35mm equivalent) • Video format: MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 (MOV) • Video resolutions: 3M HD (2304 x 1296 pixels) 30fps, HD (1080 pixels) 30fps, HD (720 pixels) 60fps, HD (720 pixels) 30fps, WVGA 60fps, WVGA 30fps • Audio formats:WAV (16/24-bit quantization, 44.1/48/96kHz sampling frequency) • AAC (64-320kbps bit rate, 48kHz sampling • Audio functions: Low-cut filter, Auto Gain (Concert/Solo/Meeting), compressor, limiter • Image functions: Digital zoom (1.0x-4.0x) • Display: 2.7” full-color LCD touchscreen • Built-in speaker: 400mW 8 Ω mono speaker • L/R inputs: X/Y mic (XYQ-8): 120° X/Y stereo format • Maximum sound pressure input: 140 dB SPL • Phantom power: +12/+24/+48V • Output connectors: Combined line/ headphones stereo mini-jack • Connector: USB Mini B type • AC adapter: 2 hours, 45 minutes (approximate) • Battery operation time: More than 2 hours (when recording 720p/30fps) • Weight: Recorder: 260g
Zoom have come a long way since they first amazed us all with the original H4 Handy Recorder many years ago. The introduction of video recorders to their range a few years back took them even further in terms of what they can offer. Now, the Zoom Q8 brings both these worlds together and draws upon elements of both to deliver the ultimate portable recorder. It’s compact, lightweight and offers not only HD video recording, but also 4-track audio recording too. with the use of the touch screen. You do not need to spend hours flipping pages of a manual to get it going, just power it up and you’ll have it worked out in no time.
BEYOND HD
What the Q8 offers on the video side of things is a ‘beyond HD’ video recording ability with 3M HD video capture delivering stunning results. It works especially well in low light situation, which is perfect for bands wanting to capture gigs and live performances. There are two HD options as well, which allow for more recording time on you SD card should you wish. My only issue was with the wide angle lens. As useful as this
Body: Spalted Maple/ Mahogany Neck: Mahogany Fretboard: Rosewood Pickups: Seymour Duncan Humbucker / Jb • Frets: 22
• Master coil split isn’t as useful as individual splits.
Dynamic Music | (02) 9939 1299 | www.dynamicmusic.com.au | RRP: $779
What Zoom has very cleverly done with the Q8 is take the most valuable features from the H5 and added them to an HD camera. This makes it a very clever little combination for musicians who want both high quality audio and video in one. The interchangeable microphone capsule allows you to take other capsules used with the H5 or H6 and swap them out. The Q8 comes standard with the all too familiar XY condenser microphone pair that Zoom has become well known for, but you can change this around for a shotgun style or even an omnidirectional microphone if you wanted to. Controlling the audio recording is really simple
• • • •
MISSES
Zoom Q8 HD Video & Audio Recorder
OPTIONS APLENTY
SPECS
HITS is, allowing you to capture the entire band within the shot, it did tend to bow the image slightly, as is the case with any lens of this nature. That aside, it does give you the ability to fit an entire stage within the shot even at close range. In all, this is a standout product
from Zoom and one that has set new levels in the world of portable recording. We have come a long way since the Dictaphone and zoom have taken us a lot further than we could have imagined. BY ROB GEE
• Lightweight and extremely portable • High quality video and audio capture • XLR inputs for additional microphones • Interchangeable microphone capsules
MISSES • Wide angle lens does bow the image slightly
MIXDOWN #253 // MAY 2015 // PG.33
ROAD TESTS Sennheiser Hd Blue Stage Headphones Sennheiser Australia (02) 9910 6700 www.sennheiser.com.au RRP: $369.95 (HD6 MIX), $429.95 (HD7 DJ), $499.95 (HD8 DJ)
HD6 MIX Sennheiser have been responsible for some of the best studio and DJ headphones over the years, so I was excited to take three of the new HD series of Blue Stage headphones for a test drive. This flagship range of studio and DJ headphones draws from the legendary HD25 headphones and shares their attributes across three models in the HD6 MIX, HD7 DJ and HD8 DJ. to help you hear every aspect of your mix. With the ear pads HD6 MIX completely enveloping your ears As far as the build goes, these and cutting out any background are the simplest of the three noise, you are left with just models with very little adjust the music, even in louder available in the support arm, but environments. they don’t really need it. They fit snuggly over the ears and hold tight, yet comfortably in HD7 DJ place. At first, I thought the fit Moving on to the HD7 DJ of these headphones would not headphone you notice a lighter lend themselves to long listening weight construction from the periods, but they seem to mould HD6 MIX model. There is also to your head and almost become a lesser bass response in these unnoticeable after a short headphones. A crisper higher while. With a big low frequency frequency range brings the snare response, these headphones and hi-hat sounds right to the deliver a full powerful full forefront to aid in mixing in a range sound that is designed loud DJ booth. It seems that
HD7 DJ vocals jump out just a little more with these headphones too, as a slightly pronounce midrange has them accentuated. The ear pads can be adjusted with three separate points each to find the best fit for your needs when monitoring with one or two ears at a time.
HD8 DJ
The HD8 DJ headphones feel even lighter and again more comfortable when I put them on. They too have the same amount of adjustment as the HD7 DJs do, but with an improved mechanism. This makes it very easy to switch from one to two ear monitoring without adjusting the position of the headphones on your head, you simply swivel one ear pad back and forth as needed. As far as the sound, they seem to have a little something
HD8 DJ extra going on in them that the other two models just don’t. The stereo spread seems to widen and a more lively delivery of the music is presented. All three models come with a really well appointed carry case that has space for the included spare ear pads and cable. They all come with a straight and curly cable to suit your needs and fold up for storage and portability. The cable can be connected to either side of the headphones, depending on which orientation you prefer and stereo balance is still maintained. With a great build across all the models and great sound to, these headphones from Sennheiser all have something great to offer. Highly recommended. BY ROB GEE
SPECS HD6 MIX • Frequency Response: 8–30,000 Hz • Transducer principle: Dynamic • Impedance: 150 O HD7 DJ • Frequency Response: 8–30,000 Hz • Transducer principle: Dynamic • Impedance: 95 O HD8 DJ • Frequency Response: 8–30.000 Hz • Transducer principle: Dynamic • Impedance: 95 O
HITS • Very solidly constructed • Firmly grips head and stays in place with movement • Comfortable, replaceable ear pads • Sturdy carry case included with all models
MISSES • Aesthetically, they all look too similar in design.
M-Audio M-Track MK2 USB Audio Interface Pro Audio Group Australia | (02) 9521 4844 | www.proaudiogroup.com.au | RRP: $189.99
SPECS M-Audio is a name that’s well known in audio interfaces and MIDI controller keyboards. Over the years they’ve brought us a wide range of products and never cease to improve what they have on offer. The M-Track series of USB audio interfaces has always represented great value for money in compact audio recording. This new M-Track MK2 USB audio interface continues to do just that, but sports a major facelift and a full redesign of how looks, feels and operates.
FACE FORWARD
For those of you who own or have seen the last versions of the M-track interfaces, you’ll no doubt be aware that they were a table-top design. They had all inputs and controls on the top surface of the unit, much like a compact mixer would be laid out. With this latest incarnation of the M-Track, M-Audio have done away with this idea and trended back to more of a rack style layout. Except, the unit is
not rack mountable. So, with the use of a rack tray, it could find a home with other equipment, otherwise, it will remain as a desktop unit, but with all the controls and inputs found on the front panel instead of the top. This I found a little annoying at desk level as I was repeatedly tilting it back off its feet to see what was what when I wanted to adjust something. Place it higher on a shelf and the problem will be solved.
PG.34 // MIXDOWN #253 // MAY 2015
SIMPLE SOLUTION
The M-Track MK2 offers two inputs, both on combination XLR/TRS connecters. Both microphone preamps have phantom power as an option and Input 2 can be switched between Line and Instrument level when using the jack connection. As far as outputs go, you have a headphone out on the front and a pair of balanced TRS outputs on the rear. It’s all kept pretty simple, but does the job as far as getting you two separate inputs for recording and the necessary monitoring outputs to record overdubs and mix your tracks. There aren’t any other frills or fancy tricks to push the price up. But it is housed in a really tough metal case and all the pots feel really smooth and firm.
As is to be expected with an interface like this, you get a bundled DAW software program in Ableton Live Lite, which will get you started recording right away. The nice addition of three Waves plugins as well really makes it a worthwhile software addition. The Eddie Kramer Effects Channel is pretty cool and the TrueVerb reverb is a must for any mixing situation when you want to really bring your recordings to life. For the price, it is definitely worth checking out. BY ROB GEE
• Inputs: 1–2 (balanced XLR), Line; 1–2 balanced 1/4” TRS Line, Inst; 2 unbalanced 1/4” TS • Main Outputs: L and R impedance-balanced 1/4” TRS Frequency Response: 20 Hz – 20 kHz (+/-0.1 dB) • Dynamic Range: 104 dB (A-weighted) • Sensitivity: -53 dBu • Gain Range: 55 dB • Power: USB-bus-powered • Size: 2.07 (H) x 9.4 (W) x 4.85 (D) inches • Weight: 1.04 kg
HITS • Simple, straight up design • Solid metal casing • Great selection of software included
MISSES • Less options than previous models
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ROAD TESTS
Solid State Logic - SSL 500 Series Stereo Bus Compressor Amber Technology | 1800 251 367 | www.ambertech.com.au | RRP: $3149
There are very few mixing consoles that over the years have gained the notoriety and the acclaim that the Solid State Logic G-Series console achieved. The G-Series seemed to be behind just about every hit song in the 80s and continued to deliver results as the demands of music changed over the decades. Today they are a sought after prize and those studios that feature a G-Series do so proudly in knowing what each element of that console can bring to a mix. One such element was the Stereo Bus Compressor found in the centre section of the console and one that to today has never had its legendary sound truly replicated. Until now.
500 REASONS TO LISTEN
For most of us, owning a G-Series console is all but a pipe dream. Considering the limited availability, the outrageous price tag and the amount of space they require, it isn’t a sensible idea to be bumping one of these into your home recording setup. Still, you can get the best parts of this great console in a 500 Series module and make the most of the sections you need. For those of your who don’t know of the API 500 format rack system, it is essentially a module console that is made up of modules from all number of manufacturers, bussed through a summing board and power supply to allow you to build your own unique signal paths. SSL have now released the Stereo Bus Compressor from the mighty G-Series console in a 500 series module so it can be harnessed in the simplest of setups.
WARMING UP
For this exercise, I had a Radial Cube Workhorse 500 Rack with a Radial Power Tube preamp loaded into it before the SSL Compressor. This in itself is a nice starting point for a high end signal chain, but the addition of the G-Comp module just brought the unit to life. It is easy to see why this console gained so much fame with the way this module behaved. As a subtle compression setting, it just brings the mix to life. I ran the master inserts from my console though the compressor to hear a new life breathed into my old studio behemoth. It thickened up the tone and made the dynamic feel of the mix punchier and more vibrant. When I went hard on the compression and brought in the high pass filter a little, it allowed me to really squeeze the sound and make it even more powerful. It almost felt like you can’t push it too far, even though I knew I had on a few occasions. Bypassing
the compressor simply left the mix sounding dull and lifeless. When it comes to the G-Series Stereo Bus Compressor, this is about as close as you can get to the real thing, basically because it is the real thing. The only difference is you don’t have the rest of the console built around the unit. So, with the ability to fit it into a desktop 500 Series rack and integrate it into any recording setup, this great little module is one device that should make a lot of engineers and producers very happy indeed. Now you can harness the power of the G-Series in your own home. BY ROB GEE
SPECS • Controls: Threshold, Makeup, Attack-mS, Release-S, Ratio, APF-Hz • Six ratio settings ranging from 1.5:1 to 20:1 • Five release settings and Auto Release function • Now includes a High Pass Filter that ranges from ‘off’ to 185Hz
HITS • True representation of the original design • Added High Pass Filter for extra control • Works with any 500 Series console or rack
MISSES • The price may prove prohibitive for some buyers
Sennheiser Md 441-U Dynamic Studio Microphone Sennheiser Australia | (02) 9910 6700 | www.sennheiser.com.au | RRP: $1232
Sennheiser have produced some classic microphones over the years, and continue to produce them today. Case in point, the MD 441-U dynamic studio microphone is coming up to 50 years since its original release, so I thought it fitting that I give one of these great microphones a good once over. I have never been shy about my love of Sennheiser microphones, and models like the MD 441-U exemplify why I love I love it when i get my hands on one to test.
CLASSIC DESIGN
Like the similarly styled MD 421, this microphone has the look of a tool that has come right out of the 60s, and that’s because it has. Sennheiser have not seen the need to update the outer casing and change the look of these microphones over the years, and why should they? The microphone is praised for its audio quality, and the retro look it sports is part of its charm. The
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housing might be a little large and so can be difficult to work with in some applications, but that aside, there is very little to fault with the design of this microphone.
BOLD SOUND
What the MD-441 delivers is a sound that’s quite unlike what might be expected of a dynamic microphone. It sounds more like a large diaphragm condenser
microphone than a dynamic. The hum bucking coil design means it has a very low self-noise and so can be run at high gain levels if needed. When challenged with extremely high SPLs, the MD-441 stands up and takes all that can be thrown at it too. It excels in high volume situations, even with very close proximity mic positions. As a super cardioid microphone, you get a very direct pickup pattern from this microphone so it makes an ideal tool when recording multiple voices or instruments in one space. There is excellent side rejection offered from the MD-441, basically, what you point it at is what you hear. Whether that be a vocal or an instrument, it’s going to deliver a detailed reproduction
of that sound. I know a lot of people tend to stray away from dynamic microphones in the studio, thinking they just can’t get the articulate audio capture from them that they may want, but the MD-441 is an absolute exception and should be able to stand proud next to any condenser microphone.
SPECS
BY ROB GEE
HITS
• Connector: XLR-3 • Frequency response: 30 - 20000 Hz • Nominal impedance: 200 Ω • Transducer principle: Dynamic • Pick-up pattern: Super Cardiod • Weight: 450g • Dimensions: 270 (L) x 33 (D) x 36 (W) mm
• Astonishing sound from a dynamic microphone • Able to withstand very high SPLs • Clear, precise and crisp audio capture
MISSES • It’s quite a large and cumbersome unit
MIXDOWN #253 // MAY 2015 // PG.35
ROAD TESTS Audio-Technica Ath-R70x Openback Reference Headphones Technical Audio Group | www.tag.com.au | (02) 9519 0900 | RRP: $499
Audio-Technica have gone all out with this year’s new releases of headphones with a number of well-deserved upgrades to classic models. Further to this, the presentation of the ATH-R70x sees their return to the world of openback reference headphones. This is one area of headphones that a lot of manufacturers tend to steer away from as it generally has a limited range of uses. After all, the open-back design not only allows environmental noise to enter your listening space, it also allows the music you are listening to escape into the environment. Not ideal when you are sitting on a crowded train listing to One Direction at loud volume. Expect a few odd looks when you take these out into the real world.
A BREATH OF FRESH AIR
The concept behind the ATHR70X headphones is to provide a reference quality studio headphone that can be used for mixing and mastering applications. Of course, Audio-Technica are not saying you should do away with your studio monitors, but you should have a great pair of headphones to work together with them as a point of reference. As a closed-back headphone can allow for certain frequencies to get trapped and build up within the housing, the open-backed design allows for a more natural reproduction of your music. Air pressure can naturally escape from the cans with the changes in dynamics and allow for the drivers to work more freely. You don’t get any low
frequency build-ups and the result is a smooth audio reproduction that allows for extended listening sessions without fatigue.
DESIGN DRIVEN
The lightweight design of these headphones is driven by the desire to deliver a comfortable listening platform for the user even after long periods of use. Everything has been though through with these, even the packaging is an engineering marvel, if only slightly difficult to get open to begin with. Two free-floating spring mounted pads rest atop of the head to offer comfort and support, with the ear pads themselves happily resting over the ears without any discomfort. I am not a fan of lack of labelling for stereo orientation,
a big L and R on the cans is always helpful I find, but beggars can’t be choosers and the design team clearly don’t share my passion for signage. As a reference headphone, Audio-Technica have delivered a great product in the ATH-R70X. They may not be the most popular headphones for general listening purposes, but that is not what they were designed for. That said, I couldn’t see any problems with using these at home for some quality listening in a quiet room alone. BY ROB GEE
SPECS • Type: Open-back reference • Driver Diameter: 45mm • Frequency Response: 5 - 40,000 Hz • Maximum Input Power: 1,000 mW at 1 kHz • Sensitivity: 99 dB • Impedance: 470 ohms • Weight: 210 g (7.4 oz), without cable and connector • Accessories Included: Protective carrying pouch
HITS • Extremely comfortable and lightweight • Very open and natural sounding • Perfect for long listening sessions
MISSES • Unclear Left/Right orientation for stereo listening
Markbass Amplification CMD 121H Bass Amplifier CMC Music Australia | (02) 9905 2511 | www.cmcmusic.com.au | RRP: $1995
Italy’s Markbass makes all sorts of bass amps in all sorts of price ranges, from tiny combos to impressive stacks. The CMD 121H combo is resigned to be a great multi-purpose, ultra-flexible amp for those who need the crispness of an all-solid-state design along with plenty of volume.
COMBO ATTACK
The CMD 121H has a single 12” speaker with a 1” compression driver (with custom horn) and a rear bass reflex port. The power section is sitting on 500 watts at 4 ohms or 300 watts at 8 ohms; if you use the internal speaker you’re rocking 300 watts, but you an beef it up to 500 watts with an 8 ohm extension cabinet like the New York 121 or Traveller 121H cab. The preamp offers plenty of control. There’s a balanced XLR input plus a regular 1/4” input (the latter with a gain control); a clip LED to let you know when you’re putting a little too much hurt on the circuit; an EQ section with Low, Mid Low, Mid High and High controls; the VLE (Vintage Loudspeaker Emulator) knob, which governs the 250Hz-20Hz range; the VPF (Variable Pre-shape Filter) knob which gives you a cut at 380Hz; then a line out knob for sending just the right amount of awesome bass power to a mixing
PG.36 // MIXDOWN #253 // MAY 2015
desk. There’s also a master volume control, of course. The EQ section’s specific frequencies are centered on 40 Hz, 360 Hz, 800 Hz and 10 kHz with 16dB boost or cut. Around the back you’ll find the speaker out, a tuner out, balanced XLR line out with a PreEQ/Post-EQ switch and a Ground Lift switch, and the effect send and return jacks.
TOP MARKS
This isn’t the amp to turn to if you want ratty, filthy, distorted bass tones (unless you want to throw a pedal in front of it). This is where you should look if you want clean, powerful, loud tones that really show off your bass’s natural qualities. That’s not to say that you can’t get extremely tweakable - the multitude of EQ controls, the VLE and the VPF make sure of that - but the preamp is definitely able to maintain rather than mask the things that made you love your bass in the first place. If
you have an active bass you’ll appreciate just how ‘hi-fi’ your sound can be, while if you use passive pickups you’ll love the amount of articulation and dynamic range you’ll be able to coax.
THE BOLD AND THE BASSIFUL
This combo is great for those who need really crisp, punchy, bold tones without a hint of unwanted distortion. It’s not going to satisfy the rockpigs but it’s great for blues, jazz and cover bands, and it can even do a fine line in vintagestyle tone minus the tube growl. BY PETER HODGSON
SPECS • Speaker: 1x12” • Impedance: 8 Ohms • Amp Output Power: 500W at 4 Ohm / 300W at 8 Ohm • Preamp: Solid State • Size: 59.9 (H) x 38.3 (D) x 46.4 (W) cm • Weight: 17.9 Kg
HITS • Highly customizable tone. • Transparent when you want it to be. • Handy DI output level.
MISSES • Not the amp to go for if you’re after rock tones.
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ROAD TESTS
Peterson Tuners Strobo-Stomp Classic & Strobo-Clip Tuners Gladesville Guitar Factory | (02) 9817 2173 www.guitarfactory.net | RRP:$350 (Stobo-stomp), $125 (strobo-clip)
Look, nobody wants to be out of tune. It makes your music suck, it makes your bandmates angry. But unfortunately tuners aren’t quite as glamorous as a vintage fuzz pedal or a custom Ormsby or something. Some players cut corners with their tuners because they figure they figure “Eh, it’s not gonna affect my sound.” Well yes it is, if it causes you to tune or intonate your guitar out of whack. Peterson has been in the tuner game for a long, long time, so let’s take a look at two of their more compact solutions.
STROBO-STOMP CLASSIC
The Stomp Classic’s look is inspired by the iconic ST-11 Strobotuner, and it’s plenty roadworthy both in terms of physical hardiness and ease of viewing from across the stage. It features true bypass circuitry, a host of new Sweetened Tunings that include support for 7-string guitars, electric violin and mandolin-family instruments, and a built-in, fully adjustable, active DI with 3 levels of padding and a ground lift. Of course, all the accuracy in the world would be useless if you couldn’t see it, and the Stomp Classic gives you an extremely bright high-contrast LCD display that you can see in all sorts of lighting conditions. That makes it a great stage tuner of course, but it’s so accurate and so reliable that it’ll also suit techs
when intonating instruments.
STROBO-CLIP TUNER
This little gadget is enclosed in a classy and robust stainlesssteel shell which clips onto your headstock with plenty of swivel-and-pivot capability to ensure the best viewing angle. It also comes in a cushioned metal carrying case for storage, while soft, rubber pads in the jaws of the StroboClip protect your instrument’s finish while providing a firm grip, which is important not just so the dang thing doesn’t fall off but because it ensures maximum signal conductivity from the headstock into the tuner’s sensing guts. Speaking of those guts, the StroboClip has 1/10 cent accuracy, a bright high definition display and 28 Sweetened Tunings optimised for Buzz Feiten Tuning System,
dobro and resonator, banjo, ukulele, violin, sitar and much more; and alternate temperaments (400Hz to 490Hz) for a wide variety of string and wind instruments. There’s even a Drop/ Capo/Key Setting, and it also has an exclusive ‘SUStain Mode’ which gives you prolonged note viewing time when tuning short-voiced instruments. The battery fits into a slide-out compartment and it’s all very futuristic and cool-lookin’. The tuning accuracy is great. You’re probably more likely to use this one on stage rather than to intonate your instrument but it’s great either way.
DECISIONS, DECISIONS
but not the super-widest you’ll find out there, so it turned out to be a good all-purpose tester for both capos. I was definitely able to comfortably get further up the neck with the wideneck version, but both gave me good intonation and clarity pretty much anywhere on the neck. And true to purpose, it was easy to unscrew each and place it behind the nut when not in use. Perhaps not quite as one of those rolling capos you see sometimes but it’s
certainly easier on your guitar’s finish than a big clip-on capo, and much more accurate than the ‘folky’ kind of capo that everyone gets when they first start playing.
So which should you choose? That depends on how you’re gonna use it. The clip-on tuner is great for acoustic guitars or for those who don’t want to be chained to a pedalboard. The Stomp Classic is ideal for those who like their pedalboards or who want even more accuracy for hardcore tech work. Either way you’re getting a world class tuner with many decades’ worth of great reputation. BY PETER HODGSON
HITS STROBOCLIP CLIP-ON TUNER • Convenient • Accurate • Long battery life PETERSON STOMP CLASSIC • Very accurate • Roadworthy • True bypass
MISSES • None!
Paige Capos ‘The Clik’ 6-String Capos Electric Factory | (03) 9474 1000 | www.elfa.com.au | RRP: $39.95
Paige Capos have been used by musicians all over the world for around two decades now, finding their way onto the necks of the guitars of players like Vince Gill, Keith Urban, James Taylor, Grand Ole Opry staff guitarist Kerry Marx, Lady Antebellum’s Clint Chandler - even actor Jeff Daniels is a fan. Founder Bryan Paige put his tool-and-die experience to work in designing a capo that would be super-thin so it wouldn’t get in the way when he was using it, and that would be stored behind the nut unobtrusively when he wasn’t. Most importantly of all, he wanted something that wouldn’t put too much pressure on his strings and whack them out of tune. Now these capos are available in Australia thanks to Electric Factory. “I am glad that Paige products will be available nationwide within the Australian market through the extensive and committed dealer base that Elfa has cultivated over the last 40 years,” Bryan Paige says.
TURN THE PAIGE
On review here are two related models: The Clik for 6-string Guitar, W/Radius PC-6-2.062-R and The Clik for 6-String Guitar, Wide Profile, W/Radius PC-62.250-R. The former has a width of 2 1/16, an open depth of 1 1/8 and a closed depth of 11/16 and it’s designed to fit up to the 10th fret on a standard 1 11/16 neck. It can be used on wider profile necks too, but not up quite as far as the latter model, which has a width of 2 1/4, open depth of 1 1/8 and a closed depth 11/16. It’s
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for wider profile necks and is particularly suited to 1 3/4, 1 13/16, and 1 7/8 necks. There are also models for 12-string guitar, banjo/mandolin, classical guitar and even a model designed to compensate for extreme string bending.
TIME FOR A KEYCHANGE
I tried both capos on my Ibanez Charleston acoustic, a model from the mid 90s with jazzstyle F-holes despite being a conventional flat-top acoustic. It’s kinda weird and kinda cool. It has a relatively wide neck
CLIK-CLIK
Although each of these capos works well with my guitar, it’s important to select the model that suits your guitar perfectly, which is why it’s great that Paige makes so many very specialised models. It’s worth taking the
time to cruise their website and/ or talk with your local Paige dealer to figure out which capo is the best fit for your guitar. Your music deserves it. BY PETER HODGSON
HITS • Solid intonation • Low-profile stealthiness
MISSES • None, they’ve ‘nailed’ it, so to speak
MIXDOWN #253 // MAY 2015 // PG.37
ROAD TESTS Markbass Amplification LM Tube 800 CMC Music Australia | (02) 9905 2511 | www.cmcmusic.com.au | RRP: $1850
Some bass players need the crisp and detailed sound of a solid state preamp to give them the most high-fidelity sound possible. Others need the warmth and fatness of a tube preamp to give them those growly, slightly smeared vintage textures. while others need it all wrapped up in a nice little bundle. That’s where the Markbass LM Tube 800 comes in. It’s a tiny little amp head designed to handle all of these sounds and to do it with grace and style.
SPEC CHECK
There are two inputs - a Balanced XLR input (great for acoustic instruments and signals processed via effects rigs) with a 100 Kohm impedance and a regular 1/4” jack input with an impedance of 500Kohm. Each input has its own gain control, and there’s a Phantom on/ off switch for the XLR. The EQ section gives you 16 dB of boost and cut at specially selected frequencies; 40 Hz, 360 Hz, 800 Hz and 10 kHz. There are two additional tone controls which add an even greater range of flexibility. There is the VPF switch (Variable Pre-shape Filter) which gives you as much or as little cut as you need at 380Hz and the VLE (Vintage Loudspeaker Emulator) which lives in the 250Hz-20Hz range and is designed to remove ‘modern’ sounding frequencies
that may be perfect for some styles but not for others. There’s also a Mix knob for varying between solid state (all the way to the left) and tube (all the way to the right) preamps. Also, the master volume control has a ‘pull to mute’ function. There’s a dedicated Line Out knob level on the front of the amp, while around the back you’ll find the Line out XLR jack with ground lift and pre/post EQ switch, the effect loop send and return and the speaker outs. The power section gives you 500W RMS at 8 ohm or 800W RMS at 4 ohm.
MIX IT UP
The first thing I did with this amp was crank the Mix control all the way to ‘tube’ to investigate Markbass’s take on vintage tube tone. I also used the VLE control to enhance the
effect. Argh, heaven. I got the kind of deep, rounded, slightly fuzzy tones I was looking for pretty much instantly, perfect for vintage rock. Then I dialled back the Mix control a little to introduce some of the solid state sound into the mix for more of a modern rock attack. I found that there was a magic zone here where with careful dialling of the high mid control I could summon a whole bunch of Geddy Lee tone. Nudging the Mix control all the way to the solid state side brought out a much clearer hi-fi crisp tone
that was great for modern pop and jazz voices.
DO YOU THINK I’M FLEXY
SPECS • Weight: 2.86 kg • Size: 25.6 cm x 27.6 cm x 7.1 cm • Output power: 500W RMS @ 8 ohm, 800W RMS @ 4 ohm • Controls: Gain, Mix, Master, Ground Lift, Pre/Post EQ, Mute
This is a really flexible amp that can do it all, whether you just want one really great, finelycustomized set-and-forget sound for a whole set or whether you need to continually adjust your tone between songs for a covers gig. It’s also capable of getting plenty loud, which is great news if you play big stages or hate your neighbours.
HITS
BY PETER HODGSON
• Footswitchable tube/solid state would be good.
• Handy tube/solid state mix. • Fine EQ control.
MISSES
Martinez Guitars MDC-15C Acoustic Guitar JADE AUSTRALIA | 1800 144 120 | www.jadeaustralia.com.au | RRP: $349
Designed in Australia and built overseas, Martinez Guitars have proven to be good value guitar makers that offer solid playing instruments at reasonable prices. The lower to mid range guitar market seems to have been growing increasingly busy over the last few years and Martinez have continued to add to their lines with extra models at a range of prices giving Aussie buyers plenty to choose from. We’ve had a few through the doors here at Mixdown and we’ve always been pleasantly surprised.
IT’S ONLY NATURAL
Martinez’s Natural Series features a beautiful range of guitars. The MDC-15C is a dreadnaught styled acoustic with a cutaway and Martinez’s own ME-305 electronics. Overall the guitar looks dark and clean (with the black soft feel tuners adding to this further) and comes without a scratch plate, although one is included if you want to whack it on. The construction seems solid and well put together with no rough edges or loose parts to be seen. It’s Medium weight which means the MDC-15C would suit a range of age groups and player levels as an easy playing acoustic.
SKINNY LOVE
Upon first playing this number you’ll notice the neck profile is
super slim. Open chords and flat picking through to chromatic lines and bigger barre chords up the neck are all pretty easy. It would definitely be of benefit to those with smaller hands as well as the younger brigade and less advanced players. Often you see players get put off or frustrated when unable to get clear chord voicings or notes on their fretting hand which is where the MDC-15C could be a big help. Tone wise I found the guitar clear and reasonably loud. Whilst not super bassy, it definitely has some nice lower end response and isn’t too bright. Big chord bashing worked a treat and you won’t be afraid to get around the fretboard thanks to the aforementioned skinny neck size. Tuning and intonation were also great.
PG.38 // MIXDOWN #253 // MAY 2015
SPECS IT’S THE LITTLE THINGS
Onboard tuners are almost a staple of most lower to mid priced acoustic guitar ranges these days. Whilst they’re a great inclusion, they often vary in functionality and quality. I’ve used a couple that have been questionable at best. There’s no need to worry about the onboard tuner, as it has a super clear display and is as easy to use as any other I’ve seen. A segmented
display that is bright and responsive (not so touchy you can’t even get it to settle in one spot!) makes tuning quick and easy. I know this might sound trivial but seriously the LCD type display is so much clearer than a couple of coloured dots! BY NICK BROWN
• • • • •
Top: Spruce Back: Mahogany Sides: Mahogany Fretboard: Rosewood Electronics: Martinez ME-305 Pickup/Tuner
HITS • Slim neck • Stock onboard electronics and tuner are an improvement • Balanced tone
MISSES • Tone might not suit all playing styles
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