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#275 — MARCH 2017
Giveaways! The Hagstrom Ultra Swede +The sE Electronics Reflexion Filter Pro SEE PG 6 F O R D E TA I L S
+Booker T. Jones, Oolluu, The Allah-Las, The Living End Lewis Watson, Ormsby Guitars, The Sydney Drum and Percussion Show Reviewed – Fender American Pro Jazz Bass, Jackson Scott Ian KVXT X-Series Guitar, Maton 70th Anniversary 808 Nashville Acoustic, Ernie Ball Music Man St Vincent Guitar, Kawai ES110 Digital Piano, Se Electronics Reflexion Filter Pro + Loads More
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Contents 06
Giveaways
08
Industry News
09
Music News
10
Product News
16
Cover Story:
Booker T Jones
Hagstrom Guitars
- PG. 19
- PG. 31
Foreword
Body Count 18
Oolluu The Living End
19
Booker T. Jones
20
The Allah-Las Lewis Watson
22
Advice Columns
28
The Sydney Drum and Percussion Show
29
Underground Music
30
Jeff Lang
31
Hagstrom Guitars
32
Ormsby Guitars
34
Road Tests
48
Show and Tell
50
Directory
Get Social:
The Living End - PG. 18 for breaking news, new content and more giveaways visit
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@MIXDOWNMAGAZINE
As I’m writing this, the sun is setting on the final day of summer. Whenever I think of the end of summer it brings up the image of Ralph Wiggum in the middle of a broken pool singing a very sombre rendition of Frank Sinatra’s ‘Summer Wind’ as he stares off into the sunset – remembering his brief stint as the toast of Springfield. Thankfully my childhood was marginally better than his, and I wasn’t ever teased so cruelly by fleeting popularity. If I were, I might not have become so invested in playing my guitar – which brings me to the second thing that springs to mind when I think of summer – all that NAMM stock that’s on the ocean, finding its way to Australia! The end of summer brings the start of the real heavy gear review season for us here at Mixdown, as now we’re starting to see some of the new NAMM gear trickle into the Australian market. This month we were not only lucky enough to get our mits on some amazing bits of gear that were announced recently in Anaheim, we also got the opportunity to chat with Perry Ormsby about his experience over there being an independent Australian guitar manufacturer. On top of that we have some great interviews with some amazing artists including cover stars Body Count, which could very well mark the first time we’ve ever featured a television star on Mixdown’s cover. I have to say I was pretty chuffed at getting Ice T on the cover, and briefly entertained of redesigning the entire magazine to feature Law and Order typeface, but production told me that it was too great of an undertaking, and also that it was a pretty stupid idea. We’re also running stories with famed Aussie guitar legend Jeff Lang, Stax hero Booker T. Jones and 60s garage revivalists The Allah-Las just to name a few. Enjoy.
KEATS MULLIGAN - EDITOR
@MIXDOWNMAGAZINE
MADE BY MUSICIANS, FOR MUSICIANS APRILISSUE #276: STREET AND ONLINE DATE: WEDNESDAY APRIL 12 AD BOOKING DEADLINE: MONDAY APRIL 3 EDITORIAL DEADLINE: TUESDAY APRIL 4 ARTWORK DEADLINE: WEDNESDAY APRIL 5 For more information on Mixdown Magazine contact us at: (03) 9428 3600 or email mixdown@beat.com.au PUBLISHER Furst Media EDITOR Keats Mulligan mixdown@beat.com.au ONLINE EDITOR Alex Watts mixdownstaff@beat.com.au ART DIRECTOR Michael Cusack
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THE NEW ALBUM Featuring ‘Birthmarks’, ‘Fear Of Nothing’, ‘Mirrorland’ & ‘God Is In My Head’
PRE-ORDER YOUR COPY
Exclusive Limited Deluxe Edition includes 10 track ‘Mirrorland Live From Sydney’ DVD
OUT MAY 5
Featuring collaborations with Randy Blythe (Lamb Of God) Dave Mustaine (Megadeth) & Max Cavalera (Sepultura/Soulfly) Featuring the powerful single ‘No Lives Matter’ ‘bloodlust’ OUT MARCH 31 Preorder your Limited edition coloured vinyl now at “As deadly serious as it is entertaining - Bloodlust is legit.” - Lochlan Watt, triple j The Racket
“It’s 46 minutes of hate and anger to bang your head to, backed by some of the best guitar riffs in hardcore to date.” - Joshua Merriel, triple j Short.Fast.Loud
“Black or white; wrong or right -- Body Count are back; not dead yet. Power.” - HEAVY Mag
“Ice and the BC crew are tired, pissed off and an inch away from going postal on y’all. It’s exactly what makes Body Count an unstoppable force.”- Hysteria Magazine
“An amazing collection and Body Count at their very, very best. Thoroughly sensational.” - Silver Tiger Media centurymedia.com bodycountband.com
Industry News Camp Cope’s Camp Cope, D.D Dumbo’s Utopia Defeated, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard’s Nonagon Infinity, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds’ Skeleton Tree, Olympia’s Self Talk and The Peep Tempel‘s Joy. The $30,000 prize will be announced at the Toff in Town on Thursday March 9. Rat & Co will preview their August due Third Law album, Ali Barter will perform songs from her new album A Suitable Girl released on Friday March 24, and a third act will be announced.
Sydney Opera House Fined
Milk! And Bedroom Suck, Launch Vinyl Service Two Aussie indie labels, the Melbournebased Milk! Records and Brisbane’s Bedroom Suck Records, have launched a vinyl subscription service called The Split Singles Club. The first seven 7” tracks, coming as a package, include acts from both labels: Courtney Barnett, Cable Ties, Blank Realm, Jade Imagine, Primo!, Treehouse and The Maraby Band. “Split Singles Club was a fun and relatively cost-effective way to show off some of the bands we love that people may not have heard before.” Said Milk! co-owner Jen Cloher
AIR Awards Moves To Adelaide.
After ten years in Melbourne, the 11th AIR (Australian Independent Record Labels Association) music awards has been poached by Adelaide for the next three years. It’s part of the SA Government’s move to consolidate Adelaide’s status as a UNESCO Music City with a $1.3 million package to support new festivals and events. The awards will be held on Thursday July 13 at Queen’s Theatre. AIR will also hold a two-day conference with panels and workshops for young acts.
The Australian Music Prize Heads To Melbourne
After eleven years in Sydney, the Australian Music Prize is heading to Melbourne. It’s not surprising that given almost all of the shortlisted releases came from Victoria. They are A.B. Original’s Reclaim Australia, The Avalanches’ Wildflower, Big Scary’s Animal,
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Residents of the Toaster building, who’ve been campaigning since 2013 against concerts at the Sydney Opera House forecourt, have had a victory. The third of four concerts staged there in November 2015 by Florence and The Machine apparently went over the noise limit and copped the venue a $15,000 fine. Late last year, the blue chip residents tried to stop Crowded House from playing four shows. Neil Finn couldn’t resist getting his crowd to see if they could wake up radio presenter Alan Jones, one of the residents.
Need $15,000 Towards Your Recording?
The Phonographic Performance Company Of Australia (PPCA) and the Australia Council For The Arts are offering grants for these Applications close on Wednesday April 26 (go to the Australia Council website) and will be judged on artistic merit, diversity and viability.
New Program To Improve Wellbeing Of VIC’s Creative Types
The Arts Wellbeing Collective is an initiative of Arts Centre Melbourne to improve the mental health and wellbeing of Victorian arts workers. Last year Entertainment Assist and Victoria University released an alarming study which showed that performers and arts workers have a far higher rate than the general population when it came to suicide, anxiety, depression, sleep disorders, addictions and feelings of social alienation due to the financial uncertainty and working hours of their job. The Arts Wellbeing Collective was developed by Arts Centre Melbourne and Entertainment Assist, and supported by WorkSafe Victoria and VicHealth. Working with 70 organisations and drawing upon psychological tools and expert advice, the Arts Wellbeing Collective will deliver workshops, services and activities throughout Victoria with a focus on
prevention and early intervention of mental health problems. Membership of the free pilot program is open to individuals as well as organisations.
THINGS WE HEAR
Yamaha In A $100K School Search
Yamaha Australia has begun a $100,000 school search. The school chosen will get 42 new instruments valued at $90,000, three days’ training from Yamaha education outreach clinician Dr Rob McWilliams and a Guy Sebastian concert on its premises. Four runner-up schools share in $10,000 of prizes. Applications close March 13, go to greatstart.yamahabackstage.com.au.
Melbourne Launches Music For Mates
A new initiative in Melbourne aims to get music fans with new permanent migrants aged 18 to 30 to attend three or four gigs or festivals together. The idea is for them strike up longer-lasting friendships, and introduce the newcomers to the city’s music scene. Clare Bowditch, Josh Pyke, Bob Evans and The Waifs have donated tickets to the program, while ticketing agents will contribute their unsold tickets to gigs. To get involved, go to www.musicwithmates. com.
Hilltops $10K Grant Returns
Now in its 12th year, The Hilltop Hoods Initiative offers emerging hip hop and soul artists a $10,000 grant to cover costs for manufacturing, promoting and distributing an album or EP. The acts have to be APRA AMCOS members who have not released a commercial album on an industry recognised label. The winner also receives legal advice from David Vodicka and Media Arts Lawyers plus a Love Police ATM merch start-up kit. More info at apraamcos.com.au.
Lee Kernaghan Gets Inducted The 7th CMC Music Awards will honour best-selling country artist Lee Kernaghan with the Hall of Fame award. The awards take place for the first time at The Star Gold Coast and will be broadcast live on Thursday March 23 at 8.30pm AEDT on CMC. The awards were brought to the sunshine state for a third year through Tourism and Events Queensland – who also have CMC Rocks Qld on running from March 24 - March 26 at Willowbank near Ipswich.
Apparently Steve Adler was going to be part of the Guns N’Roses reunion which stormed through Australia last month. Unfortunately the drummer stuffed up his back during rehearsals. In the meantime, when the tour hit Brisbane, his replacement Frank Ferrer dropped by the Bearded Lady and got chatting to Ofa Fanaika, singer with Chocolate Strings who organises the gospel jam sessions. She had no idea who he was, especially as he mysteriously said “I’m passing through town with a band called the Gunners.” Anyway he got involved in a 10-minute jam session with some locals. Local drummer Nathan MacGregor who gave up his kit didn’t twig until a few days later. Talks have begun between fans and council members of Bon Scott’s birthplace, Kirriemuir, Scotland, and Fremantle, WA where he grew up, to have sister city links. Perth music identity Rob Snarski of Chad’s Tree and The Blackeyed Susans fame and occasional Triffids collaborator, is publishing his memoirs. Titled You’re Not Rob Snarski: Crumbs From The Cake, it’s out via UWA on March 1. Lucky break for Sunshine Coast folk-roots singer songwriter Dan Horne. His song ’This Town’ was picked up as the theme song for the tourist campaign behind Visit Sunshine Coast’s the 50th anniversary celebrations of the naming of the Sunshine Coast. A VSC staffer heard him sing the song by chance at a festival. The song was written about how he loved the region after moving from the UK seven years ago. Vale: Trish Shoesmith, booker for ten years at the Melbourne live music venue the Espy in St. Kilda, passed away after a long illness. She is remembered with great fondness for how she gave hundreds of unknowns their first gigs, including Dallas Crane and Monique Brumby.
mixdownmag.com.au
Music News Spoon To Tour Australia After teasing their Australian fans with hints of an imminent tour announcement, American indie rock act Spoon announced two headline shows for March. With their ninth studio album, Hot Thoughts, due for release on Friday March 17, these dates will be an opportunity to hear the new material along with songs from their acclaimed albums Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga and They Want My Soul. TOUR DATES MAR 23 – METRO THEATE, SYDNEY, NSW MAR 25 – CROXTON BANDROOM, MELBOURNE, VIC
Manu Delago Australian Tour Renowned Hang player Manu Delago has announced an Australian tour, which will see the celebrated percussionist, producer and composer undertake a run of festival and headline shows. Delago is a master of the Hang, which is a resonating percussive instrument that creates a sound reminiscent to a steel drum. The Austrian player has found acclaim through his manipulation and application of the rare instrument, which he pairs with electronic beats as well as acoustic instruments. Having recorded and toured with Björk, The Cinematic Orchestra and Anoushka Shankar, these shows will focus on Delago’s most recent release, Metromonk. The album is a departure from his previous work, which embraced synths and electronic production, instead placing his virtuosic Hang as the central focus. This will be an opportunity to see a master of a rare instrument explore soundscapes and textures along with his multiinstrumentalist band.
Gareth Liddiard Reveals East Coast Dates National treasure Gareth Liddiard has announced an east coast tour for March and April. These shows will be a rare chance to see The Drones frontman in solo mode, performing stripped back versions of songs from the band’s extensive back catalogue, as well as his acclaimed 2010 album, Strange Tourist. The tour adds stops in Byron Bay, Brisbane, Newcastle and Sydney to the already announced appearances at Tasmania’s A Festival Called Panama and Melbourne’s The Gasometer Hotel, the latter of which has now been given a second night. Liddiard’s show at The Newtown Social Club in Sydney will be the last to be held there, due to the venue’s recently announced closure. This is sure to be an event to remember so Sydney fans are encouraged to get tickets early and help see off one of the city’s most loved music venues in style.
TOUR DATES MAR 8 – CAMELOT LOUNGE, SYDNEY, NSW MAR 9 – NORTHCOTE SOCIAL CLUB, MELBOURNE, VIC MAR 11 – PORT FAIRY FOLK FESTIVAL, PORT FAIRY, VIC MAR 14 – THE GARDEN OF UNEARTHLY DELIGHTS, ADELAIDE, SA
TOUR DATES MAR 12 – A FESTIVAL CALLED PANAMA – LONE STAR, TAS MAR 16 – THE GASOMETER HOTEL, MELBOURNE, VIC MAR 17 – THE GASOMETER HOTEL, MELBOURNE, VIC APRIL 20 – BYRON THEATRE, BYRON BAY, NSW APRIL 21 – THE BRIGHTSIDE, BRISBANE, QLD APRIL 22 – GUMBALL, NEWCASTLE, NSW APRIL 23 – NEWTOWN SOCIAL CLUB, SYDNEY, NSW
Mick Thomas Announces Compilation & Tour King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard Melbourne Launch Shows With their latest album, Flying Microtonal Banana, out now, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard have announced three launch shows in their adopted hometown of Melbourne. Having let an uncharacteristic ten months go by since their last release, Nonagon Infinity, in April 2016, fans will be relieved to receive the new music, safe in the knowledge that it is the first of five albums scheduled for this year. King Gizz will perform two sets at each show at The Night Cat in Melbourne, including an all ages gig on Sunday March 19 before their 18+ show. Set up ‘in the round’, the band will first play the new album in full, followed by a career ranging set. These will be their last Australian shows before heading to the USA and Europe to play, amongst other shows, some major festivals such as Coachella and Primavera Sound. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard will play at The Night Cat in Melbourne on Saturday March 18 and Sunday March 19, with tickets available through Oztix. mixdownmag.com.au
Acclaimed singer-songwriter Mick Thomas, who has built a career over the past 33 years as both a solo artist and as the frontman for Wedding Parties Anything, has announced the release of his first retrospective collection. These Are The Songs collects material from throughout Thomas’ discography, and is the companion to a new book titled These Are The Days, which will be released in March. The book examines 31 songs – their origins, recordings and performances, as well as detailing the end of Weddings Parties Anything as a band. The album contains 23 of these titles, as well as four newly recorded songs, including a cover of Bob Dylan’s ‘Most Of The Time’, on which Thomas duets with Perth’s Ruby Boots. To celebrate the release Thomas will be undertaking an extensive national tour from March-June, with information available at mickthomas.com.
Sun Kil Moon To Tour Australia Mark Kozolek has never been one to pander to the expectations of others. Whether it be through his prolific and musically diverse output, or the way in which he refuses to operate within the traditional industry machinery, whatever he does it is sure to be unique. Consequently it was completely in character when Kozolek announced and released a new double album, Common as Light and Love Are Red Valleys of Blood, via his website this month. Kozolek has now announced he will be bringing his brand of ‘happy sadness’ for a short run of shows in May. Billed as ‘An Evening With Sun Kil Moon’, the tour will take place over three nights in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne, with tickets on sale now.
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Product News
The Fender PM-1 Standard Dreadnought NE, All-Mahogany Fender Music Australia | fender.com.au
As part of Fender’s Paramount series of acoustic guitars, the PM-1 Standard Dreadnought, NE, All-Mahogany guitar boasts a warm voice, well balanced tone and enhanced dynamic range. The responsive nature of the all-mahogany back, sides and top can react to the subtlety of any given performance and have a natural open-pore finish. The PM-1 also features a fast-playing ‘C’-shaped mahogany neck and rosewood fingerboard, as well as a deluxe hardshell case and humidifier.
Tc Helicon Duplicator Vocal Effects Stompbox Amber Technology | ambertech.com.au
The TC Helicon Duplicator is a vocal effects pedal and microphone preamp designed to aid your live performance. The stompbox comes equipped with a range or reverb presets from intimate rooms to concert halls, auto chromatic pitch correction that will keep your vocal signal in tune, as well as three doubling effects that will thicken and enhance your vocals. The tone button can be used to activate the inbuilt ‘Adaptive Tone’ settings, which generate automatic EQ, compression, de-essing and gating controls. The Duplicator is a compact and an easy addition to your live setup, connecting between the vocal microphone and the mixing console via XLR inputs and outputs.
Mooer Release The Ocean Machine Devin Townsend Signature Pedal Jade Australia | jadeaustralia.com.au
Mooer have released the Ocean Machine, a signature pedal made in direct collaboration with Devin Townsend. The unit is a high fidelity delay, reverb, and looper unit made with complex algorithms and the best available hardware, as per the guitarist’s specifications. The Ocean Machine has three different footswitches, which can be used to trigger an array of delay and reverb preset. The pedal offers incredible control and is highly programmable, with 24 spots available to program your own sounds. The Ocean Machine’s basic settings are likely to be more than enough to satisfy beginner guitarists, while the amount of options available through the various menus are made to also be useful to professional level musicians like Townsend.
The MXR Super Badass Variac Fuzz Pedal Australasian Music Supplies | austmusic.com.au
The Switchcraft Right Angle Tini Q-G Mini-XLR Connectors Clarke and Seven | clarke.com.au
Switchcraft have released a right angle version of their very popular Tini Q-G Mini XLR connectors. These convenient connectors come in male or female options with three, four, five and six poles and are able to be used with the company’s existing TA, TB, TRA and TY series Tini Q-G ranges. The standard model can fit cables of up to 3.8mm in diameter, with larger options being available that accept cables of up to 5.33mm in diameter. The right angle design eliminates strain on the cables, and the silver or gold plated BeCu contacts ensure excellent connectivity and longevity. The Tini Q-G Mini XLR connectors are suitable for use in audio, broadcast, communication devices, wireless body packs amongst many other applications.
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The Charvel USA Select Series Fender Music Australia | fender.com.au
The Charvel USA Select Series is based on the original Charvel Guitars that were made in San Dimas California, an ‘old-school throwback’ for high-performance guitarists seeking 80s style body perimeters, finely shaped neck profiles, fast compound radius fingerboards with rolled edges, non-recessed Floyd Rose bridges, and more. This series was initially debuted at last year’s Summer NAMM trade show and continues to be a hit with Australian guitarists
The Super Badass Variac Fuzz guitar pedal by MXR delivers a tasty vintage fuzz tone that is designed to be both aggressive and biting. The pedal is based upon a rare vintage silicon circuit that the MXR team have added a Variac control to, so that the pedal’s voltage is anywhere from 5 to 15V. The pedal is also designed to replicate the saggy ‘dying battery’ sound much loved by many guitar players, which is achieved by winding back the Variac control. Alternatively, increasing the voltage raises vathe effect’s headroom, giving a more transparent sound at 15V. The Super Badass Variac Fuzz also comes equipped with tone, output and gain controls in a sturdy casing with true bypass switching.
mixdownmag.com.au
Guild guitars are back. Proudly built by American hands once more to create the lightest, loudest, best-sounding a c o u s t i c s y e t . Crafted with pride. Sanded with soul. S t r u n g w i t h l o v e . A n d w e’r e j u s t g e t t i n g s t a r t e d . Meet the New Guild USA line at GuildGuitars.com
Guild Guitars are distributed in Australia by . Zenithmusic.com.au.
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Product News
Nektar Impact GX 49 & 61 Note Keyboards Sound and Music | sound-music.com.au
Nektar have released the Impact GX49 and GX61 keyboards-two dynamic and expressive instruments that have complete DAW integration. Both of these models offer a simple, easy to use functionality, with a pitch-bend wheel, modulation wheel and a foot switch socket. The included octave button allows the user to shift the keyboard range up +4 octaves or down -3, with the LED display helping these variations. Similarly the GX models have transpose buttons, allowing you to move the range up to +/- 12 semitones. The keyboards are able to be integrated with all of the most common DAWs, giving you the freedom to compose, perform and record without needing to use a mouse. The Impact GX keyboards can also be used as MIDI controllers, with the modulation wheel, foot switch and controller knob all being able to be used to send out MIDI cc messages.
PRS Guitars Teams With John Mayer For Signature Amp Electric Factrory | elfa.com.au
The New Maton EBG808 Nashville Guitar Maton Guitars | maton.com.au
The Maton EBG808 Nashville Guitar is made with live country and bluegrass musicians in mind, so much so that this model has become the choice of country star Keith Urban. The design features a sound board made of ‘AA’ grade solid Sitka spruce, ‘A-grade’ solid Blackwood back and sides and a satin lacquer finish. The AP5-Pro pickups offer a natural plugged in tone and the guitar is also available as a left handed model.
PRS Guitars have announced a new signature amp for guitarist and songwriter John Mayer. The J-MOD 100 was developed through close collaboration between Paul Reed Smith, amp designer Doug Sewell, and Mayer himself. This latest addition to the PRS range is a 100-watt, single channel amp with a switchable gain stage and built-in effects loop. It was designed to be versatile enough to be used in for Mayer’s band and solo shows, as well as for recording, so consequently it has an evenly spread range that is described by the company as ‘huge and clear’. “I think amplifiers are such interesting, complex animals," said Mayer. "The J-MOD 100 is the result of a lot of searching. What is my sound? What are the elements of all these amps I own that should be chosen to go together in one amp and have this really distinct voice? What we ended up with is a really open and expressive amplifier that I feel is a real evolution and a step forward in guitar amps.” The J-MOD 100 has controls for volume, tone, treble, mid, bass, a ‘bright’ switch for adding high-end, and a ‘presence’ switch, which adds high-end to the power amp section. The amp also features four 6L6 power tubes and four 12AX7/ECC83S preamp tubes. With the amplifiers arriving in Australia in May, PRS will be releasing a matching 2x12 cab and 4x10 cab.
The New Apogee Control Software And Control Remote Hardware Sound Distribution | sounddistribution.com.au
Apogee have released a new software update for their Element Control app for Mac and iOS. The update gives Element users a new talkback feature that lets you use your Mac’s built-in microphone, or any core audio input device such as the Apogee MiC to communicate with your artist through their headphones. The update also provides compatibility between all Element audio interfaces and the Apogee Control hardware remote. Apogee Control gives immediate access to your input and output levels using the large control knob and three control knob focus buttons, plus immediate access to a wide range of functions using the eight user-configurable buttons. The Apogee Control Hardware Remote connects directly to your Mac via USB. Apogee Control is sold as a separate accessory and is now available from authorised Apogee dealers.
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The Laney LA30D Acoustic Guitar Amplifier Australasian Music Supplies | austmusic.com.au
The Laney LA30D is a 30-watt two-channel acoustic guitar amp combo designed with solo performers in mind. The custom designed, dual cone 6.5-inch speakers are made to reproduce a natural acoustic sound with plenty of high-end definition. Tailored to the needs of singer-songwriters, the amp is able to receive connections of both microphone and instrument simultaneously, for either voice and guitar or a blend of DI and miked instrument. There are two independent channels with balanced XLR or unbalanced jack inputs, with inbuilt reverb and chorus effects that can be assigned to both. The LA30D also has a DI output, an anti-feedback function and an additional auxiliary input, so that backing tracks may be played as well. Weighing only 7.4kg, this amplifier is ideal for the solo artist who likes to travel light. mixdownmag.com.au
Product News
Positive Grid’s BIAS Pedals Arrive In Australia Link Audio | linkaudio.com.au
Arriving this month from Positive Grid are the BIAS Distortion Pro and BIAS Delay Pro hardware pedals. Using the BIAS software for iPad, Mac or PC, you can easily design and modify your own custom pedal sound at the most detailed level – from the input volume, to the distortion stages and gain control, to pre and post EQ and much more. You can even change the pedal’s virtual guts as you would do with a real distortion pedal: modify your boost pedal’s germanium transistor or tweak your fuzz pedal’s silicon transistor. BIAS Pedal’s extremely intuitive operation uses the world’s most famous distortion pedal circuit layouts, so you can create your custom distortion pedal in a breeze.
Megadeath’s Kiko Loureiro Joins The DV Mark Family CMC Music Australia | cmcmusic.com.au
Kiko Loureiro needs no introduction. Even before being invited to join Megadeth, he was already renowned as the guitarist for Angra and enjoying a high profile solo career that featured breakout releases like ‘No Gravity’, ‘Fullblast’ and ‘Sounds of Innocence’, where his incredible technique, musicality and Brazilian roots were highlighted. Once he had an opportunity to try out the DV Mark Multiamp, Loureiro was floored by its tone, dynamic response, effects and 500w power stage. Of course, such a versatile guitarist needs a platform that can deliver amazing tone across a wide range of musical landscapes, and Loureiro’s opinion is that the Multiamp is actually unbeatable in that area. DV Mark are thrilled to welcome Kiko Loureiro to the family.
Deerling Unveil Steel String Version Of The Goodtime Banjo Zenith Music | zenithmusic.com.au
Deering have introduced a steel string version of their popular Goodtime 6-String Banjo. The Goodtime 6 is a new kind of six string banjo designed to bring out the creativity in the player and features all of the American craftsmanship and quality that owners of Goodtime banjos have come to expect. The new Goodtime 6 features a maple fingerboard with a 15” radius, a fast, sleek and comfortable neck profile with a 2-way adjustable truss rod. The rim of the Goodtime 6 is constructed of the same 3-ply violin grade maple that is at the heart of the entire Deering banjo line up, and it is strung with Elixir XL steel guitar strings. The Goodtime 6 is available in two variations – an 11” Rim model (G6S) and the Jumbo 12” rim model (G6SJ). Both models are available with or without pickups fitted and are available now from Deering Goodtime dealers.
The New RME ARC USB Remote Innovative Music | innovativemusic.com.au
RME have released an updated version of their popular Advanced Remote Control, which now comes with a USB connection. The new RME ARC USB maintains all of the features of the remote with added functionality, whether it be used to control your studio monitor level or assigned to drive a standalone recording setup. The ARC USB has total cross platform compatibility, working with any RME audio interface.
TC Helicon Perform VK Amber Technology | ambertech.com.au
The TC Helicon Perform VK is a vocal effect processor designed specifically for singing keyboard players. Like many of the other units in the company’s line of vocal pedals, the Perform VK can help add extra polish to your live performance, layering harmonies, real time pitch correction, and adding reverb and echo while you concentrate on your performance. The unit takes its information directly from the notes you are playing on the keyboard and applies this to your vocal signal, so the harmonies produced will always be true to what is being played. If you would like to get more complex than the two real time harmony voices that it outputs either via audio or MIDI, a MIDI note driven harmony is also available to output up to eight harmony voices simultaneously. The perform VK comes loaded with hundreds of presets that can be used to layer your tracks with a single button press, or you can easily program your own. It is also stand mountable for ease of access whilst playing live. mixdownmag.com.au
The Softube Console One MK II Sound and Music | sound-music.com.au
Just released is the Mk II version of Softube’s award-winning hardware/software mixing system, the Console One. Originally released in 2014, the Softube Console 1 offered tightly integrated hardware and software, and the included emulation of a Solid State Logic SL 4000 E console helped cements its reputation as offering the best of both the digital and analogue worlds. The new update offers support for select Universal Audio UAD powered plugins, as well as a significant price drop and some important bug fixes. Best of all this upgrade is free for all existing Console 1 owners. 13
Product News
Bitwig Release The New Studio 2 Software Innovative Music | innovativemusic.com.au
New Apogee Symphony Control Software for Symphony I/O Mk II Thunderbolt Audio Interface Sound Distribution | sounddistribution.com.au
Apogee Electronics have announced their new Symphony Control software for Mac, which is designed specifically to work with the Symphony I/O Mk II audio interfaces. Symphony Control is designed to replace the company’s previous Maestro software and delivers all of that program’s functionality in a new, highly customisable user interface. Some of the features include talkback functionality, a simplified ‘essentials’ control window, and an ‘FX send’ mixer feature.
Originally released in 2014, Bitwig Studio 1 was the first music production software to combine linear and non-linear sequencing on Windows, Mac OS and Linux. Combining cutting edge technologies like plugin crash protection and a highly flexible user interface, as well as a lightning fast workflow experience for keyboard, mouse and touch screens, Bitwig Studio has attracted a large and steadily growing user base all over the world. The new version of Bitwig Studio offers a refined and improved version of the software with several added features including a modulation system with 25 brand new modulators, new remote controls, spectrum analysers and 17 entirely new devices. Bitwig Studio 2 boasts better hardware integration; with improved MIDI handling and several dedicated MIDI and CV devices.
The Sydney Drum & Percussion Show The inaugural Sydney Drum and Percussion Show will be held on Saturday May 27 and Sunday May 28, taking over the Rosehill Gardens Pavilion as Australia’s biggest trade show for percussive instruments. Taking its cues from the Melbourne Guitar Show, the event is comprised of pop-up stalls, performances, clinics and demonstrations from the most talented drummers and percussionists in the country. The show is designed to be a hands on experience, with attendees encouraged to take an part in trying out many of the new and exciting products on display. Far from a formal industry event, the program is designed to be of interest to novices and professionals alike, with several major brands taking part, as well as the opportunity to see some instruments and names that might be less familiar. There will be special deals running throughout the weekend, so attendees will have some rare opportunities to purchase some new bits of gear and watch artists from a range of genres and backgrounds demonstrating the instruments on display. “We are excited to showcase our industry’s products and the wealth of local talent that Sydney and Australia has to offer,” said Rob Walker, the CEO of the Australian Music Association. “We seek to grow our drum and percussion community, educate and entertain.” The Sydney Drum & Percussion Show will take place on Saturday May27-Sunday May 28 at the Rosehill Garden Pavilion, Sydney. For more information head to australianmusic.asn.au. 14
Ernie Ball Introduces The FlexTune Clip-On Guitar Tuner CMC Music Australia | cmcmusic.com.au
The Ernie Ball FlexTune is a high quality, portable tuner suitable for guitar, bass and other stringed instruments. Featuring an oversized two-inch LCD screen, the FlexTune provides a large, vibrant display that’s easy to read from any angle. This large screen is complemented by the tuner’s dual-axis 360-degree pivot arm for complete flexibility to position the display to your liking. The FlexTune also features Chromatic, Guitar, Bass, Ukulele and Violin tuning modes as well as selectable clip and microphone sensors.
Elixir Optiweb Electric Guitar Strings Electric Factory | elfa.com.au
Elixir have released their latest innovation in electric guitar strings – the Electric Nickel Plated Steel Strings with OPTIWEB Coating. These new strings are designed to give your sound a natural, crisp tone and highly playable feel, while also providing the long lasting tone life that the brand are renowned for. These strings are constructed with nickel-plated wrap wire, while the coating technology protects them against corrosion and extends the tone longer than any other coated or uncoated strings. Thanks to this innovation, uncoated players can reap all of the benefits of coated strings, without sacrificing any sound or feel, and with less of the hassle of constant string changes. mixdownmag.com.au
BODY COUNT In 1992, Body Count released their self-titled debut album amid a wave of controversy, censorship and presidential hearings, thanks in no small part to their anthem, ‘Cop Killer’. 25 years on, Body Count are about to release their ninth studio album, Bloodlust – and you’d best believe they’re still mad as hell.
“On the 10th, it’ll be 25 years since Body Count; and then Bloodlust comes out on the 31st,” says Ernie Cunnigan, AKA Ernie C, the guitarist and one of three founding members still playing with the band today. “That’s a quarter of a century between those albums, and we’re still talking about the same stuff. Hell, you could put out ‘Cop Killer’ this week and it would still be as relevant, still elicit the same reaction. Maybe even more so,” he says. “There’s more of a divide now than there was then. 25 years ago - it was a shock when Rodney King was beaten and shot. Now that kind of violence is just accepted. Look at our president now – he’s going after everyone, even your president, or prime minister or whatever. It’s been 30 days. People have just gotten so complacent. That’s why we do this.” Bloodlust is the second album the band have released since their 2009 comeback, following 2014’s Manslaughter. With the six people in the band serving not only as musicians, but songwriters, one could easily suspect there to be a lot of clutter in order to get to the core of what works, but Cunnigan assures this is not the case. “There’s a few different writing styles in the band,” he says. “Our bass player [Vincent Price] tends to write as he goes along, but I just like writing in the moment. I play guitar every day, but that’s just playing to play. It’s only when we’ve got our sights set on making another record that I start putting ideas together. “That’s just how I work; I mess around with some riffs, and then when I’m in the room with Ice and all the other guys I just cycle through them until we land on one that excites everybody. We start playing it in a loop until something comes together,” says Cunnigam. “We’re all full of ideas at any given time – Ice, in particular, took a lot of time to write what I think are really, really good lyrics. We’re all standing with him on the subject matter, and we all agree entirely with what he’s saying. I think there’s a real power to this record – I’ve been making these Body Count records since the beginning, and this is easily one of the top ones for me.” In order to layer on the heaviness required, some big names from the world of metal were enlisted to make their presence felt on Bloodlust. This included former Metallica guitarist and Megadeth figurehead Dave Mustaine, as well as Sepultura and Soulfly screamer/ shredder Max Cavalera. “Ice and I have known Dave since back in 1988,” Cunnigan says. “He was gonna have Ice and me on a Megadeth record at some point, but it just never happened. Ice 16
“We’re all full of ideas at any given time – Ice, in particular, took a lot of time to write what I think are really, really good lyrics. We’re all standing with him on the subject matter, and we all agree entirely with what he’s saying. I think there’s a real power to this record”
and Dave were talking over Twitter, and Ice floated the idea of having Dave on one of the tracks on the new album. Dave was just like, ‘send the track over.’ It wasn’t long before we had the finished version back – Dave wrote that intro part all on his own, and we were just absolutely blown away by what he came up with. It was perfect. “As for Max, we toured with Sepultura back in the 90s, he’s an old friend of ours. When we were recording this album, we were out in Arizona and wanted to try and break the monotony of the studio sessions,” he says. “We ended up playing this club show, and Max came along to hang out – he even got on stage to do ‘Cop Killer’ with us. The next day, we invited him to the studio, and we’ve both got these ideas for a new track. It just made sense to bring them together, and that’s what the track ended up being.”
Lamb of God, who lends his roar to the track ‘Walk with Me’, a collaboration that particularly excited Cunnigan. “Randy’s a good friend of mine,” he says. “We both quit drinking a few years back, so we were able to talk through that with one another and we really became close. One day, we were talking and I asked if he wanted to get in on a track. It was the same as Dave. Real simple - ‘sure, just send me the track.’ That was it. We don’t deal with no lawyers, no label dudes. These are all just people that are friends of ours that we personally asked to contribute. We weren’t forcing anything – it wasn’t like we were writing a song and were then like, ‘oh, let’s go get so-and-so.’ These were our friends that we wanted to work with.” From the unforgiving ‘No Lives Matter’ to the frustration of ‘Black Hoodie’, Body Count take no prisoners across the course of Bloodlust. As a centrepiece to the record, however, the band decided to pay tribute to one of their key influences - Slayer, taking on the band’s most iconic single, ‘Raining Blood.’ “Everyone knows that intro,” says Cunnigan. “Everyone knows that song. We figured that if we were going to cover Slayer, we had to do something big – something instantly identifiable. We were already playing a Slayer song in our set – the song ‘Judgment Night’, which is the track they recorded with Ice. Once we started doing that, it was like ‘why not go one better?’ Once we’d picked the song, all we had to do was make sure that we didn’t butcher it. When we posted a teaser of us playing it on Twitter, people really seemed to love it – and we made sure that we got Tom and the guys’ blessing to record it.” A world tour is currently being planned in support of the album, and their local fans agree that it’s high-time for the band to return to Australia after a considerably lengthy time away from our shores. “Man, I can remember being out there back in the 90s,” says Cunnigan. “We did this big festival – I think it was literally called the Big Day Out. I really hope that we get to come back there some day. We’re doing the US all through this year and then hitting the UK after that, so we’ll definitely put a word in that we want to come and see you guys.” BY DAVID JAMES YOUNG Bloodlust is out March 31 through Century Media Records.
Completing the guest list is Randall Blythe, the fearsome frontman of alt-metal heroes mixdownmag.com.au
©2016 Fender Musical Instruments Corporation.Fender® is a trademark of FMIC. All rights reserved. FENDER.COM.AU
Music Interviews
The Living End The music industry has changed. In some ways that sucks: bands don’t make money off recordings any more, audiences are fragmented, the album-as-art-form is under siege from the quick-hit single in a way we haven’t seen since the mid 60s. But in amongst the tumult are plenty of good things: bands are making themselves more accessible to fans than ever, they’re touring more, and they’re playing more unique and interesting venues. Case in point: the Twilight at Taronga and Melbourne Zoo Twilights concerts presented by ANZ. This year’s series has already featured the reunited george, Warpaint, Killing Heidi and Paul Dempsey, and next to take the stage are The Living End, with Dan Sultan and the String Sirens, supported by Gabriela Cohen. “It’s such a different thing,” The Living End drummer Andy Strachan says. “I’ve never been to one of these shows, but from all reports it’s amazing. Such a cool, chilled out vibe and a nice way
Oolluu Somewhere along the way the burgeoning romance between the synthesiser and rock music lost steam. Maybe toughened rock ancients couldn’t make room in their kingdom for the youthfulness that aimed the newcomer straight at the horizon. Maybe the synth grew tired of rocks rules and posturing. Either way, what could have been a marriage for the ages schismed somewhere around the 80s, with precious few daring to flirt with the idea of reuniting the two. Skip to 2017 and the chasm has never been wider, the world of synth music has splintered in any number of its own sub-genres and, to many, rock has become a bloated windbag, outdated as corduroy flares. There are a few daring wanderers who tread the line between the two though and the three minds that comprise Melbourne’s Oolluu are leading the charge into a bright and interesting future. Bass player Davarj Thomas met synth-smith Ehsan Gelsi while they were ‘putting out fires’ at an Earthcore Festival some years ago. Once the dust had settled they discovered they shared a deep love of not only modern keyboard-centric iterations like Acid House et al, but also some of the more esoteric ends of modern music. Almost immediately jamming began, as did some extended improvised 18
to see rock’n’roll. We’re going to set the tone to fit into the environment a little more as well. We did a little photo shoot with some little llama-lookin’ things that were quite amazing. They were jumping all over us and being all affectionate and adorable. The zookeepers have the best job in the world. They seem to really love what they do and the animals seem really happy.” So what kind of preparation goes into planning a show at a zoo? It’s gotta be different to a sweaty pub gig. “We’re gonna have elements of both, I think,” Strachan says. “The idea was to stretch ourselves a little bit and we’re going to a bunch of stripped-back versions of songs. We have a couple of special guests. Dan Sultan is going to join us in Melbourne and we’ll have Josh Pyke and Jimmy Barnes in Sydney to jam with us. We’ve got a string section that’s going to join us for a few songs. It’s very, very different for us and a bit of a challenge, to be honest, but we’re really looking forward to it.” From a logistical standpoint, Strachan will be playing a smaller kit: an 18” kick drum, a choked-up muffled snare drum with one cymbal and a pair of hot rods. “There’ll be acoustic guitars, and obviously Scotty’s bass is pretty much an acoustic instrument anyway, so we’ll be playing up that bluegrass kind of element. And I suppose that’s the challenge, at the end of the day: if it sounds good on an acoustic guitar and someone tapping along on their lap, when a song translates well in that way then it’s a good tune. But we really haven’t done this before. We’re just going to have as much fun as we can with it, and hopefully bring the house down.” After these shows are in the rear view mirror, The Living End are hitting the road for an extended Australian regional tour. “We’ve got a bunch of shows coming up,” Strachan says. “We go straight into a regional tour to places that we haven’t been in seven or eight years. We’re going to Cairns, Geelong, Woollongong, places like that which we don’t often get to. We’re playing some proper rock’n’roll pub shows,
sets for like-minded festival punters. It wasn’t until concocting a 40-minute set with drummer Ben Crook and successfully putting it on stage that they realised they were onto something special. And thus Oolluu was born. The power trio launched their eponymous debut in 2015 and from there have not looked back. “The material is wide enough to be interpreted in a number of different ways,” says Thomas when asked why and how the sound morphed into the future prog mélange we hear before us. Initially influences were notably more modern, with Chemical Brothers era dance floor masterpieces fueling the ship. However, over time the three came to realise that Oolluu was, and is, “a slow burn project, and we’re prepared to stand by it and nurture it with wisdom and patience, a lot like a parent encourages the growth of a child.” Essentially, all ELP and Trans Am references aside, Oolluu is purely and simply what happens when these three men and their impressive rigs get in a room and lose themselves. It’s as altruistic as that. Synth maestro Gelsi is a self-confessed sufferer of G.A.S., or gear acquisition syndrome. He and Thomas have an almost limitless access to toys via their day jobs and have found themselves in the thick of a healthy community of gear nerds, one in particular has “a cave, if you will, that gives us access to pretty much every synthesiser ever made that has taken his fancy so we have… to try stuff out.” Aside from his custom Warwick, Thomas and Crook keep their rigs pretty simple, the former has a checklist of bass essentials like ts808 and dd7 on the floor and the latter perches proudly atop his vintage Ludwig kit, as well he should. Gelsi on the other hand relies mostly on Novation’s midi capability for live performances, leaving his collection in the studio for when real inspiration strikes. They did however recently pick up an Oberheim OB6 that they’re itching to take out on the road, so keep an eye out for that at shows. When I spoke to them, they’d just received the final mixes for their second, as yet untitled album from producer Christian Scallan, and they couldn’t be more excited. Recorded and mixed at Scallan’s Soft Centre
“The idea was to stretch ourselves a little bit and we’re going to a bunch of stripped-back versions of songs... Dan Sultan is going to join us in Melbourne and we’ll have Josh Pyke and Jimmy Barnes in Sydney to jam with us.” and then a bunch of shows in Europe, a massive show in Hyde Park with Green Day, Rancid and a bunch of other bands and we’re very fortunate to be a part of that. Then we’re going to Spain, a festival in Canada and all sorts of places. And then I’m sure there’ll be another lap of Australia or maybe some festivals after that. There’s already talk of doing another record but when that happens, I’m not too sure. There’s still some fuel in the tank.” As for the Zoo Twilights, the series continues with Kurt Vile, Tegan and Sara, Martha Wainwright and The Specials. All proceeds from the summer concert series go towards the zoo’s conservation work: Zoos Victoria have been fighting the extinction of the Eastern Barred Bandicoot, playing a key role in the recovery of the species, increasing community awareness and building programs to reintroduce it to the wild. BY PETER HODGSON The Living End are touring nationally throughout March and April, for more information visit thelivingend.com. Shift is out now through Dew Process.
Studio in Hawthorn, the Oolluu sound “took (Scallan) a little bit of time to understand what we are doing, but now he totally understands it.” It’s every bit as energetic and adventurous as its predecessor, but with renewed focus and clarity brought about by a few extra years of maturity, and they’re hoping that this record will see them finally getting overseas. “The Australian market is not quite our kettle of fish. (The Music is) very synth heavy and Euro-centric, so we’re hoping to head over there and try and break into that scene.” Given that their totem is the conscientious and all seeing Owl, Oolluu is a band who approaches their music with a refreshing amount of wisdom and objectivity. “We’re less trying to jam the synthesiser into the rock genre and more trying to find out what kind of feels and timbres we can come up with” says Thomas, who’s measured and forthright answers to my questioning speak volumes about the way the collective mind of the band works. “It’s very much suck it and see, make it up as we go along. There’s not a lot we can go on. We’ve got ELP and a few others but we try to do it in a less corny context.” And that they do, clearly and cleanly avoiding the pretense and pitfalls of the more ponderous and self-observing of their contemporaries in both the prog and synth worlds with grace and aplomb, all the while never once resting on their laurels. Writing has already begun for album three even before album two is out in the world and it seems that Oolluu has an eye as well as a sound that knows something about the future that the rest of us do not. BY LUKE SHIELDS Oolluu’s self titled album is out now. oolluu.bandcamp. com
mixdownmag.com.au
Music Interviews
Booker T. Jones The impact that Booker T. Jones has had over modern popular music as musician, songwriter, arranger and producer would be hard to overstate. At 16 years old he played on the first hit for a nascent recording label called Satellite in Memphis, Tennessee, and would become the leader of the house band there as the label changed its name to Stax Records in 1961. During his tenure, Booker T. & the M.G’s played on hundreds of hit records for Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, and Sam & Dave, as well as their own. How important is where you come from in informing your music? I can’t imagine being born anyplace else, I feel very fortunate to have been born and grown up in Memphis. ‘Course the biggest reason was the music I was exposed to as a young boy, the gospel was irreplaceable, the classical that I got at home from my mum, and the Hammond organs that were all over town in the churches and the clubs. Especially the clubs influenced me, they made me who I am. I was too young to get in, but I could hear it from the street and I started to take Hammond organ lessons. Maybe that would have happened in Kansas City or Chicago, but I don’t think they would have had the white musicians that were studying r’n’b and blues like Memphis did. And I don’t think the neighborhoods would have converged in Chicago and New York like they did in Memphis. So, it was a great place to come from at that time. Organ wasn’t your first instrument though. I had a ukulele and an old tin drum but the first instrument that I played with other musicians was in fourth grade was the clarinet. All
the clarinet places were taken and (so) I played oboe my first fourth and fifth grade, and then I got a guitar. But you’ll always be associated with the B3 Organ, what drew you towards that sound particularly? Ray Charles. Heard him on the radio playing a Quincy Jones arrangement of ‘One Mint Julep’. And that was my moment. I thought ‘if I could do that with my life, I would be a happy man’. And that’s what happened. Is it still one of your favourite types of organs to play? It is. I have, let’s see, three Hammonds in my possession and I’ve had more. It’s just my go-to and I’ve had most training on that one than any other instrument. My piano teacher had a Hammond organ in her den, so she’s the first one that introduced to this, the first time I touched it was at her house. And she had me playing Bach on the Hammond B3. How would you say your classical training early on influenced your playing? I might have been stuck in a rut without it. Although I love the 12-bar blues, the classical and jazz, I think that’s what really enabled me to explore my horizons, express myself within the r’n’b format. I think there’s a lot of my classical influence in some of the arrangements that I did at Stax. The sound of those arrangements and specifically Booker T. and the MG’s was quite a remarkable balance between four guys who were obviously highly skilled at their instruments, but there wasn’t any flashiness to it, the arrangements were all quite contained. Did that balance come about naturally, or was it a planned decision? It was natural, but it was intentional. A lot of it came from Al Jackson, who was always (advising) us to keep it simple - it was a daily mantra almost, not to become too complicated and too sophisticated. You’re touring now as part of a Stax revue. What made you want to celebrate that legacy at this time? I may be the last one standing who can do that, one of the last of the original ones. We do songs that I
participated on that thrilled me at the time, songs that I didn’t participate on that thrilled me, for instance ‘Knock On Wood’, ‘In the Midnight Hour’, ‘Sitting On Dock of the Bay’. And my songs – ‘Green Onions’; ‘Time is Tight’; ‘Hip Hug Her’. People tell me how the music makes them feel and what they get out of it, and it just means a lot to me to be able to bring that to them. It’s a nice exchange. Speaking of live, what was it like being onstage with Otis Redding at Monterey Pop Festival [1967]? That was a first, that was an original experience. Otis was nervous - you know, the world was changing then, and that was one of the crucial moments I think in the history of the world. Otis kept talking about being accepted by this group of people. He wasn’t sure about it at first, and the acceptance was so huge and so warm. I mean we were there in [laughs] tailored suits from Memphis and everyone else was in long hair. It was a white audience, that was part of it, and there should’ve been a big cultural difference but it just didn’t seem to matter. Are you working on anything at the moment? That’s the challenge, is to tour and to write and record and to write a book. The book has taken priority because I’ve got so old now and I’ve done so much. To look back on my life is really an experience I never expected like this. So I’m trying to get it all down on paper. I’m making that more important than making music right now ‘cos it’s that time when I have to make priorities and that’s really hard. But I need to do it. BY ALEX WATTS Booker T. Jones will perform at Byron Bay Bluesfest 2017, which runs from Thursday April 13 – Monday April 17, more info at bluesfest.com.au, as well as two sideshows in Melbourne and Sydney. Sound The Alarm by Booker T. Jones is out now on Stax Records.
THE NEW ALBUM
OUT MARCH 31 A LSO AVA I L A BL E 2 L P V I N Y L mixdownmag.com.au
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Music Interviews
The Allah-Las Moody tunes and SoCal blues, it’s apparent that the AllahLas’ music is informed by the 60s in both production and arrangement. Hailing from Los Angeles, the band embodies its background – a laid-back surf culture and a love for the tonality and subtlety of retro garage rock. The band even had to kick out drummer Matt Correia just before their debut record, as he was more interested in the beach than the rehearsal space. Thankfully, after a jam with a potential replacement, Correia was back in the saddle. Formed in 2008, three quarters of the band found friendship in a love for music while working at a well-known record store on Sunset Boulevard. “I think Los Angeles influenced the way we listened to music,” says bassist Spencer Dunham. “Learning to drive is one of the most formative experiences any Angeleno has in their life. Once you get a car your life changes, commuting becomes a way of life, and your car becomes your second home. Growing up in the era of tapes and portable CD players, the radio was always a guiding
Lewis Watson With an attentive global fanbase in place, UK songwriter Lewis Watson is eager to release Midnight, the follow-up to his 2014 debut, The Morning, later this month. “We recorded [Midnight] in June 2015, so we’ve had these songs for a very long time,” says Watson. “I’m itching to get it out. I thought maybe I’d be sick of it by now, but I’m not. I think that’s a good sign. I’ll hopefully be singing these songs for the rest of my life, so I’d better like it.” Watson and his band recorded the album with producer Anthony West, one half of the London-based duo Oh Wonder. Although they hadn’t previously worked together, Watson and West have been in contact for a number of years. “His previous band, We the Wild, supported me on tour and I’d been a massive fan of all of his bands,” says Watson. “He’s been in some incredible bands that kind of shaped my teenage years, and when we met we just hit it off.” Watson’s now in his mid-20s, but he remains a fan of West’s output. 20
light of new inspiration. We were lucky to have radio stations with DJs that pushed the envelope of new artists like Ariel Pink, and others that curated weekly shows with older artists and obscure selections. “During our college years three of us worked part time at Amoeba Music - a giant music store in Hollywood and were able to discover a wide range of new styles of music,” says Dunham. “Los Angeles has been a magnet for music since the 50s, whether it’s bands that have formed here, performed here, or drawn inspiration from it. LA seems to produce and cultivate some of the most interesting music and musicians. We consider ourselves lucky to have grown up here and hope we’re in some way contributing to its legacy.” The Allah-Las’ lineup was completed when the trio met vocalist and guitarist Miles Michaud. Despite Correia and Dunham still being fresh on their respective instruments, the band chose to develop their technical prowess by jumping immediately into playing live. “Our first bunch of live shows together were generally at house parties and small bars,” says Dunham. “Luckily the raucous crowd was usually too busy dancing or drinking to notice some of the hiccups in our sets.” Fast-forward nine years and three studio albums, and the band are demoing songs at The Pump House Studios in Topanga Canyon, the same studio where their last record, the critically acclaimed 2016 release Calico Review, was developed. “We’re here now, recording a few covers for a release to come out sometime before our next record,” Dunham says. Calico Review in particular is reminiscent of its influences, trading in a sort of gloomy nostalgia, but it is the album’s production that stands out. Following pre-production at The Pump House, with musician/ engineer/producer and owner Kyle Mullarky, the band then utilised Valentine Studios, a well-known LA studio with classic analogue equipment. Furnished with an MCI JH114 and Stephens 811C tape machines,
Specifically, it was Oh Wonder’s 2015 self-titled LP that nominated West as a suitable candidate to produce Midnight. “[There was] a lot of production stuff that I thought was a great fit for my music, and something slightly different that would add to the guitar band sound,” says Watson. “We just got in a room with him and my band for two and a half weeks and recorded the album. I’m so glad we did it that way – I feel like not only did it enhance the creation process but it’s definitely enhanced the songs too.” Several major things have occurred for Watson since writing and recording The Morning. He’s now 24 years old, an age where one’s identity and self-understanding begin to coalesce. He’s also spent a handful of years on tour, meeting loads of musicians and fans and gaining recognition within the contemporary music world. “This album’s quite the evolution from the first and there are a lot of reasons for that,” Watson says. “I think I’ve definitely matured as a songwriter and as a musician as well. I feel like being able to go into the studio on my own terms – self-funded album with no exterior input to the creation process – I think that certainly helped.” Production-wise, Midnight has a bigger sound than The Morning. The backing of Watson’s live band helps to beef things up, as does the inclusion of a string section on certain tracks. Along with the additional instrumentation, Midnight has more of a spacious sonic character than Watson’s debut effort. “I’d written just over half of the songs on the album with Ant and Jose [Josephine Vander Gucht] from Oh Wonder, so we had an idea of how we wanted them to sound when we were in that room producing the songs,” says Watson. “It was a really natural process to take these song demos into the studio – with just an acoustic guitar, a piano and three voices – and be able to build around that sound. “The guys in the band I take on the road are excellent. We were all friends and we could tell them when their take was shit or we could tell them when their take was
“LA seems to produce and cultivate some of the most interesting music and musicians. We consider ourselves lucky to have grown up here and hope we’re in some way contributing to its legacy.” the band were able to take full advantage of these in creating vintage sounds. “One piece of equipment we always seem to use was a Fender Twin amp. We usually just use guitars through them but we sometimes experiment running other things,” says Dunham. “I also just love playing my 60s German-made Klira bass. It’s light and has a great tone for live shows too.” The Allah-Las are set to tour Australia for the first time this May. “We will be checking off some rock’n’roll bingo squares this year,” Dunham says. “It’s our first tours in Australia and Asia; we’re playing Coachella, Puerto Rico & possibly Costa Rica. Hopefully we’ll be able to save up enough frequent flier miles to get free flights out of the country by the time Donald Trump officially begins to burn the US to the ground, too.” BY AARON STREATFEILD The Allah-Lahs will tour Australia in May. Calico Review is out now via Mexican Summer
spot on. It really made the whole process very enjoyable and it improved the sound of the record as well.” It’s obviously Watson’s project, and therefore the ultimate direction of his music, closely corresponds with his overarching vision. But he’s long been engaged in co-writing sessions with other songwriters – for better or worse. “It’s something I was forced to do a bit too much on the first album, the co-write thing,” says Watson. “I started out writing my own songs, just me in my room. Of course it’s a slower process and the songs have less chance to become timeless classics because there’s no formula behind them, but I think there’s a lot of charm in that. “Signing to Warner Bros, a major label, I think their initial idea was just to get me into a room with loads of different writers. It obviously helped my process and my ability to write, and I’ve never come out of a session and been completely upset. But I think it completely crushed my creative juices and it made me loathe writing. I was writing everyday and it was just a tough thing. I don’t think it was right for me at the time.” Having been released from the Warner Bros. contract and opting to work independently, Watson took a rather different tact with preparing the material for Midnight. “I’d had the songs for a long time and then I just went into the room with Ant and Jose. We’d said that we’d write, but it wasn’t like a writing session and we came out with six songs. It was just so good because we were already friends and I felt comfortable sharing these personal experiences of mine with them. It was more than just a writing session; it was collaboration. It really improved the writing experience and made the songs a lot more special to me.” BY AUGUSTUS WELBY Midnight by Lewis Watson is out on March 24 through Cooking Vinyl Australia. mixdownmag.com.au
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Advice Columns GUITAR
BASS GUITAR
Get Those Hands Working
Heavy Groovin’
Following on from last month, we’ve got some more ideas to build technique and facility this issue. Everyone’s different in their capabilities, strengths and weaknesses, so it’s totally normal that one exercise might seem easier than another for different people. When approaching a particular exercise, remember to start slow and build from there. I’ve rarely seen examples of people playing exercises fast when they can’t play them slowly as a starting point.
This month we look at more riff based ideas utilising displacement, rhythms, open strings and syncopation. Remember that a good bass line can rely on a number of factors and be as simple or complex as you like – it really depends on context as long as it sounds good and feels good to play.
An alternate picking idea across two strings kicks off Figure A. At first look this may seem easy. And whilst, yes, it’s not harmonically complex, or even mechanically awkward, it can be quite tricky to play fast without some work. 150–160bpm should be a test for a lot of players, but try to go for endurance too, not just a quick five second burst. Movement across two strings really seems to be the toughest part of the exercise so you’ll have to pay particular attention to your alternate picking to make it clean.
For hammer-ons and pull offs Figure B takes groups of quaver triplets in a kind of G major sound. In the first bar only pick the first note of each triplet group - D, G, D, G - and hammer on the remaining two notes in each group, making sure everything is sounding even. Then the reverse occurs in the second bar where you pick the first note of each group, and pull off the last two notes. Again, you should be aiming for a consistent and even sound in both tempo and dynamics.
Lastly, Figure C incorporates alternate picking and sweep/economy picking. Written as two quavers, a quaver triplet and a crotchet, you should alternate picking the first two notes and then sweep the first note of the triplet (F#) across the second string to the first string (G). You then alternate pick the rest of the triplet (A) along with the last crotchet (B). As this grouping feels like three beats, it then moves across the bars sounding like it starts on the four of bar one, the three of bar two, the two of bar three and so on. Together with the combination of picking, it then makes for a cool lick that moves across the bars and pushes your right hand.
Figure A works nicely over an 80 BPM straight funk or R&B groove. Get those fingers working on the semi quavers, aiming for an even and consistent tone. Pay attention to note length too, keeping the semi quavers tight.
With a descending minor pentatonic motif at the start of each bar, Figure B uses a repetitive rhythmic phrase, and then a variation each time to create some interest. You can try incorporating hammer-ons and pull-offs for different articulations or faster tempos, but also try playing them fingerstyle to work your strumming hand. Over a straight rock or metal groove it might also sound cool to add some distortion or gain for an edgier sound.
Figure C works as a B minor sound over a slow funk, R&B or reggae drum groove. Playing either quavers or semi quavers on the start of each bar creates a strong rhythmic foundation, which then leaves the rest of the bar for some variation and extra colour. Bar 1 extends the B minor sound with a higher descending line of D, C#, A and F# which creates a minor 9th sound. The descending phrase in the second half of the second bar utilises the open G note for a nice variation to playing both the F# and G as fretted notes. Although they are played as semi quavers, and obviously individual notes, the F# and G almost create a clashy sound when played this way, as there’s a split second where you can hear the two notes together. Alternatively try deliberately letting the open G note ring to hear some cool overtones. Bar four finishes the line with a typical reggae styled phrase. BY NICK BROWN
As always, these are just examples; all of them can be extended up and down the fretboard, moved across positons and changed to suit your needs. Exercises don’t have to necessarily be boring, but they should be challenging enough to push your playing and technique. You’re only limited by your imagination and often the best exercises come from you wanting/needing to conquer a certain lick/phrase/part of a song. BY NICK BROWN 22
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Advice Columns PERCUSSION
Other Instruments “I don’t play any other instruments, I’m just into drums.” It’s a common sentiment, and whilst it’s not the wrong approach, there are significant benefits for the drummer that is able to play another instrument. I’ve been playing drums since before the age of five years. It was actually in my fifth year that my beloved parents took the chance and got me that noisy first kit. I learned by ear, watching and copying a guy playing at my local church. My drum kit journey had begun and I was hooked. My family is a musical one, but I’m the only drummer. Everybody else – my Dad, uncles, and cousins - would all play the guitar. Curiously, at the age of eight years, one of my uncles showed me a D and an A chord on the guitar, and sang the simple song ‘How Much Is That Doggy In The Window?’. He challenged me to be able to play the two
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chords, and subsequently the song, before the next time we had a family birthday party and saw each other again. I accepted the challenge and won. My mother secretly signed me up for guitar lessons and so I had formal training with a well-respected guitar teacher, Tony Calabro, for the next 10 years until I finished high school. The drums were always there though, and whilst I had lessons from time to time, my formal musical training before university was on the guitar. I learned to read music, understand chord progressions, riffs, finger picking, playing by ear, improvising, jazz voicings and even sing. I only chose to focus on the drums at a VCE level because of my group/band experience, and the opening for a position in the class. If I had have done Solo Performance, I would have played guitar, because my reading was better. This decision was ultimately the reason I then
pursued drums in tertiary studies and it subsequently became the instrument of my career. Interestingly, however, I owe so much of the way I play drums nowadays to the guitar. When I play in a band I can understand the different chord progressions, I can play them and I can hear when the guys hit certain chords or play the turn around. It’s my understanding of these things that allow me to be a better member of the rhythm section, because I’m conscious of the parts. It works the other way too; my feel on the guitar when playing riffs or accompanying a singer is better and more settled because of my drumming.
Latin and so on. I learned, from an early age, to appreciate a beautiful chord progression or melody, and why composers use certain chords where. So many great musicians I know play multiple instruments and it makes them even more proficient on their primary one. If you’re reading this, and you’re a drummer with no knowledge of any other instrument, you’re not doing anything wrong, but you could be missing out on a wonderful thing. Knowledge of chord progressions is a great thing for a drummer. Regardless of the instrument, I’d encourage you to check out the rest of the family, it’ll help your playing. BY ADRIAN VIOLI
Above all though, I think the best thing about learning the guitar was the exposure I had to different styles of music. I had to play jazz, rock, ballads, country, classical,
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Advice Columns KEYS
So Many Synths, So Little Time Carrying on from last month’s look at NAMM 2017, we never got to discuss some of the things going on in the keyboard and synth world, so this month I thought it prudent that we have a bit of a retrospective glance at what was turning heads at this year’s trade show. There were all sorts of interesting things unveiled, and some reminders of classics and recent models that just won’t go away. THE BIG UNVEIL The teaser campaign for Behringer’s DeepMind 12 synthesiser last year was perhaps one of the longest and most drawn out we’ve ever seen; it was almost revealed one knob and fader at a time. I can remember Behringer catalogues from 15 years back that had the suggestion that a real entry into the keyboard and synth market was on the cards and now it has finally come to light. Those who visited the Music Group’s booth at NAMM will notice how most of the floor space was dedicated to the DeepMind 12, with plenty of them set up for all to try. That said, it was still tough to get a few minutes alone with one, as everyone passing by had to see what it was all about. And what it’s all about is everything we loved about synths back in the day, brought forward into a modern shell. It does look a lot like a modernised Roland Juno, and in many ways it sounds like that too, but there’s a lot more going on with it. Take into account the growing repertoire of brands that the Music Group has under its wings and you’ll see how designs like TC Electronic delays and Klark
Teknik EQs are included for an even bigger sound with Midas engineering behind the scenes. ODDITIES There were, of course, all manner of weird and wonderful synthesisers on show. One that caught my attention was the prototype Vox Continental keyboard, alongside some prototype AC amps made in the UK. Not readily known for their work in the keyboard market, it will be interesting to see if anything comes of this big red keyboard. There were untold numbers of modular synth companies showing new devices, modules, cases and complete systems. These were a tweaker’s dream with patch cable and control knobs all over the place. With the Eurorack system becoming more popular, it was great to see the release of new modules from companies like Intellijel and Pittsburgh Audio. But for lovers of Eurorack systems, I think Waldorf had the best release of the year with their new KB37 Eurorack keyboard. It brings a Eurorack system into a keyboard housing, allowing you to mix and match to build the synth that suits you with the ease of
a keyboard, mod wheel, bend and other functions. This unit is going to make Eurorack systems far more manageable for a greater user group and is really one to watch out for over the next few years. TAKING BACK ANALOGUE With their continued push into reinventing analogue synths all over again, there were a number of delights on show from Korg. Notably, the full sized ARP Odyssey looked and felt so much tougher than their previously released compact edition. But it wasn’t all about upscaling, as the Monologue seemed to be less popular than the newly released Minilogue analogue synth. It’s now available in a range of colours and has much of what’s under the hood of its bigger counterpart, but in a more compact casing and with a simplified
workflow. Whilst some brands are pushing further with digital and iOS systems, Korg is proving that analogue still has a very important place in today’s synth market. What started with a pocket sized ribbon synth in the Monotron a number of years back has seen a full blown analogue revival from the designers at Korg and has had many other manufacturers follow suit. So there was little surprise that the Moog booth was getting plenty of attention too. But at Moog this year it was more about remembering the pioneers and looking to future inspiration that saw them attracting attention with queues of people lining up to try their luck at winning a prize and sharing in synthesiser history. BY ROB GEE
HOME STUDIO HINTS
Big Guitar In A Small Room You would have to have been living under a rock for the past ten years to not have realised that the small valve amp movement has made its mark. The boom in home recording has pushed amplifier manufacturers to develop amps that can deliver a full sound at lower volumes. After all, not many of us have neighbours that appreciate a JCM800 blasting all day, let alone all night. While it is not always an option to play large amps in a home environment, with all the options for smaller sized and lower powered valve guitar amps available, I think we need to look at what can be done in the home studio to make them sound as big as possible. WORKING THE VALVES The main reason why most guitarists are not popular with their neighbours comes down to the fact that a valve amplifier needs to be run at a certain level in order to get the most out of its tone. The preamp handles the gain stages at the start of the signal and doesn’t really affect volume too greatly, but it’s in the power amp tubes that all the real tone is created. Cranking the gain for maximum breakup and keeping the volume down just doesn’t work, as the signal will sound weak and lack top end definition. The solution is to turn up the power amp tubes and get them working, although this is not always possible with larger amps. However, if you employ a smaller valve guitar amp and run it hard, you can get a great tone at a much lower volume. Like bigger stage amps, if you just go for a higher preamp gain setting and pull back on the power amp tubes, these smaller amps will sound very lacklustre due to the smaller wattage and often smaller speakers. To get those power amps working hard and really improve the tone of your low wattage 24
amp, I find it can often be better to pull back on the gain and run the power amp stage flat out instead, you will get some breakup from the power tubes too. The resulting overall tone will be much thicker and sound like a bigger amp than what you are actually using. KEEPING IT SECLUDED It’s been an old trick that’s been used for years, in fact many stage rigs that involve towers of amp stacks often employ a small combo amp backstage in an isolation booth with a microphone on it. The sound the audience hears at some gigs is in fact just coming from a small combo through the PA system and not from the towering array of speaker boxes that look so impressive on stage. You too can employ this idea in your home studio to get a big sound whilst keeping the noise down. There have been a few isolation cabinets available over the years, but they are often hard to find. The simpler way is to work with what you have. Often a couple of chairs and a queen sized quilt will allow you to cover up your
amp and microphone to reduce the noise. Placing the amp in a cupboard will take this one step further in reducing the noise your neighbours have to hear, just be aware that running too long a guitar cable to your amp is going to cause noise and affect your tone, so try to keep it localised. A better way to deal with a room’s reflections is to work with a reflection filter around your microphone when setting it up in front of the amp. This will not really help in the overall volume, but it will improve the sound you get in your recording. sE Electronics make a nifty device designed to place two microphones in front of an amp. It allows for a side
address microphone to be mounted within the curve of the reflection filter and also an end-fire microphone, like an SM57, to be mounted through the filter without the need for any other stands. This then isolates the microphones from the room, allowing them to pick up just the sound of the amp itself. BY ROB GEE
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Advice Columns SOUND ADVICE
How To Select Guitar Pickups If you’re a guitarist, you’ll know that the choice of pickup is one of the most important designators of your sound. But how much do you really know about them? What is the difference between a single coil and a humbucker, how are they made and what sound do they make?
SOUND IS VIBRATION Put basically, a pickup uses a magnet and coils of wound copper wire to create a magnetic field surrounding the guitar strings. The movement of the strings then disturbs the magnetic field, fluctuating the current that runs through the wire coils to the guitar’s output. ACTIVE AND PASSIVE Passive pickups work as described above, wheras an active pickup is powered by a battery attached to the guitar. This is designed to provide a higher output and help maintain a generally balanced frequency spectrum. For this reason, active pickups are often preferred by metal guitarists who require high gain as well as a consistent tone, as you are able to really push your amp without losing clarity. However, this also means that the dynamics of your playing will be less emphasised, so many guitarists prefer the more natural sound of passive pickups. THE HISTORY The single coil pickup was first developed in the 1930s by George D. Beauchamp, one of the founders of the National Stringed Instrument Corporation. He did this using a coil of wire, two horseshoe magnets and the motor from his own washing machine. The latter component was soon swapped for one from a sewing machine. This was then placed in a new guitar he dubbed ‘The Frying Pan’, effectively becoming the first electric guitar, and tapped his friend Adolph Rickenbacker to help produce these new instruments. Single coils were widely popularised in 1950 when Fender released their Esquire guitar, which was followed by the more popular two-pickup Telecaster and three pickup Stratocaster in 1952 and ‘54 respectively.
One of the main problems with single coil pickups are that they can transmit a fairly audible amount of electrical hum and buzz, which lead to the creation of the humbucker pickup. Invented in 1955 by an engineer at Gibson named Seth Lover, the humbucker uses two coils that are wired out of phase with one another to ‘buck the hum’. They are still largely associated with Gibson, and are used widely in the company’s range, including the iconic Les Paul model.
THE SOUND Single coil pickups have a bright and cutting sound, while Telecaster style pickups are characterised by their punchy mids, the combination resulting in a ‘twangy’ sound. Consequently they are very popular for use in country music. The pickups used in Stratocaster style guitars have a broader range than the Teles, resulting a comparatively warmer, more rounded tone that still maintains quite bright and punchy high to high-mid frequencies. The overall thin sound of single coil pickups mean that they are less favoured for heavy music, although the ‘bite’ that is easily achievable with these pickups has often been exploited by punk bands, and Kurt Cobain’s use of a Fender Jaguar helped to ensure that single coils were embraced by the grunge movement. The thin ‘chimey’ sound commonly associated with 60s pop music is also a result of single coil pickups. Humbuckers have generally a thicker, heavier sound and tend to accentuate both midrange and sustain. This has meant that they are popular with jazz and blues players seeking warm, round tones, as well as metal and heavy rock guitarists who prefer heft and darkness over brightness. THE NAME YOU CAN TRUST Besides Fender and Gibson, the most widely used and respected producer’s of electric guitar pickups are Seymour Duncan, DiMarzio, Bill Lawrence, EMG, TV Jones and Lace Sensor.
However Gibson also produce single coils, with the P-90 being the most ubiquitous. The P-90 was developed in 1946 but lost favour once the humbucker was released and remained relegated to their budget lines. However, several of these were later embraced for their distinctive, harsher sound, in particular by several key members of the punk movement in the late 1970s, such The New York Doll’s Johnny Thunders, The Sex Pistols’ Steve Jones and Mick Jones from The Clash. Although humbuckers and single coils are by far the two most popular types, the two are occasionally used together, such as the H-S-S configuration sometimes found in Stratocasters, which uses a humbucker in the bridge position. BY ALEX WATTS For more Sound Advice visit www.mixdownmag.com.au
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Advice Columns ELECTRONIC MUSIC PRODUCTION
Free Stuff (That’s Actually Good) The colossal amount of free VST plugins on the web is both awesome and frustrating. There’s some really good stuff out there, but it can be difficult to sift through the not-sogood. So I thought I’d help you all out and mention a few that have becomes staples of my productions.
TAL DUB-2 DELAY TAL are extraordinarily generous with their free plugins. I could fill a page just talking about their freebies, but I’ll just talk about the one I love the most – the Dub-2. I’ve been using this for years on just about everything I do. The detuned delay preset is instant tape-saturated-warbly-goodness. If you’re into that warm Boards Of Canadaesque, lo-fi atmosphere, give this a whirl. It features an LFO that can modulate delay time and low pass filter cutoff, an analogue sounding 6dB low pass filter with resonance, a 3dB high cut filter, a gorgeous drive distortion and full MIDI mapping capabilities. Download it for yourself at tal-software.com
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IZOPTOPE VINYL You’d be forgiven for thinking this is a bit of a novelty plugin, but it’s surprisingly useful. It does exactly what it says on the tin in simulating your track being played on vinyl, but gives you a whole heap of flexibility. The warp, dust, year, wear, mechanical noise and spin down parameters enable you to recreate a record in any condition with mastering technology from decades ranging from the 1930s to 2000s. If you’re wanting to make a Beatlesstyle track, pop this plugin on your master, roll the decade back to the 60s and see what you get. Download it at izotope.com
MARTIN LÜDERS’ PG-8X 2.0 SYNTH Lüders is an independent programmer with no affiliation to any particular company, but has released an absolutely stellar synth VST based on the sound and functionality of the vintage 1984 Roland JX-8P for free on his website. There’s a ton of synths out there that emulate vintage synths, but this is certainly the best sounding free one I’ve come across. You can even download factory JX-8P factory presets in Sys-Ex MIDI data and load them into this plugin. As is pretty standard for emulation plugins, he’s modernised a few details - extended the polyphony out to 12 voices rather than six, and added some extra LFO and aftertouch functionality, but for the most part it remains true to the original JX-8P. If you want those classic ‘80s sounds, give it a crack. Check it out for yourself at sites. google.com/site/mlvst0
AUDIO ASSAULT FILTER CRUSHER This is a really nice and CPU friendly resonant low-pass and hi-pass filter designed to add a bit of tube-flavoured grit to your track. With default input settings and resonances set to zero, it’s actually very transparent, and so can be useful to clean up the top or bottom end of your track. Where it really shines, though, is making things dirty. Pop it on a kick drum track that’s lacking, enable the ‘crush’ button on the middle of the user interface, push the resonance up and lo-pass down to taste, and you should end up with something a fair bit angrier. Being fully MIDI mappable means it can be automated or LFO controlled, so it’s just a good sounding and simple asset to your VST collection. Download at bedroomproducersblog.com BY MICHAEL CUSACK
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Features
The Sydney Drum & Percussion Show Talk to enough drummers, and you start to notice a bit of a pattern emerge. It doesn’t matter the tempo or genre; they all seem to be the most relaxed folk on the planet. Clearly there’s something to the myth of venting all of your frustrations on stage. Of course, there are also great nuances to percussion, and despite being one of the most accessible groups of instruments, the learning curve to become adept can be steep. With the Sydney Drum & Percussion Show, Rob Walker of the Australian Music Association hopes to not only showcase some of the best and brightest drummers out there but welcome the wider public into a crucial facet of Australia’s music industry. “We want to promote music making and the products you make music with,” says Walker. “The musical community is a very welcoming and loyal one, and these sort of shows really bring lots of people together. Everybody learns from each other and it gives a lift to percussion enthusiasts. If we have an ethos, it’s that we want to bring the community together and share it with new people.” While this is the inaugural drum show, Walker and the AMA have enjoyed success with their annual Melbourne Guitar Show, in which seasoned musicians, emerging acts and the general music-loving public converge for a weekend of entertainment and insight. The plan is to replicate that success with an instrument that is often hidden in plain sight; though drums may form the backbone of a band there is much about them that remains unfamiliar to the general public. It is Walker’s hope to bridge that divide by making percussion as accessible as possible. “It’s really important that everybody gets some hands-on opportunities,” he says. “We’re finalising a place now where people can go and have a good old hit (and) have the experience, and have people in the room to help show them what to do. And there are workshops on orchestral percussion, marimba and timpani. There will be a variety of activities for people who are in any way interested in music and percussion. “But I think the question is a good one - how do we attract people who might not already be a part of that space, or who don’t already have that interest? Drumming is used in nursing homes, in music therapy; all sorts of applications, which (are) much broader than your usual drum-kit in a band. We’ll be presenting information sessions on that as well. So I feel there will be wide interest there and, without being disparaging to drumming, it is one of the few instruments you can just get right into play(ing) straight away.”
In addition to live performances from the likes of Gang of Youths and the industrycelebrated Loz Benson, there are workshops and panels and drumming circles that members of the public are encouraged to join and experience first hand. “You don’t need formal lessons to hit something, so we’ve organised a couple of drum circles for people to come along and sit in,” he says. “I’ve seen a lot of them before, and I tell you, everyone who’s sitting in that circle has a smile on their face. It’s fun to watch. There’s also drumming for health and well-being (and) drumming for exercise in that recreational drumming movement. Most importantly, Walker’s intention is to help firm the foundation of the music industry at large; to bring the community together in a time when live music is taking blows from all sides. “As always, the challenge is just to keep the live music scene strong, so there’s plenty of work for everybody, so there’s plenty of opportunities for people to get out there and play,” he says. “Making sure
there are enough places to play, that’s a challenge. That’s key to our whole industry. Keeping music healthy, and keeping it alive. (Musicians) need to keep the faith, and play because you love to play. There are great organisations out there – like Music Victoria, which has done a lot of lobbying with the government. And there are lots of issues up in Sydney, but there are also lots of people out there trying to fight that. As long as people are demanding live music, there will be places where they can go and see it. That’s what we’re trying to do with this show. Boost our industry and work together as a group of musicians and associations to present it in a really positive light.” BY ADAM NORRIS The Sydney Drum and Percussion Show will be taking place on May 27 and 28 at Rose Hill Gardens. For more information visit australianmusician.com.au
THE ANALOGUE PROJECT by Audio-Technica
Rocking Horse Records As iconic in Brisbane as the Gabba, Rocking Horse Records opened around since 1975 and has been an integral part of the community ever since. Ric Trevaskes has been around the store since 1982 in different roles, returning in the last 18 months as a partner. “Rocking Horse has been an import shop since 1975,” says Trevaskes. “It’s a very iconic shop in Brisbane, because it’s been one of the only shops – well, it’s been the only survivor. But it’s also been one of the only shops that’s been able to import records from all around the world and get anything that’s available. “[We mainly source records] from Europe and America. We also do a lot of travel these days and buy a lot of second hand, so a few times a year we go travelling in different parts of the world - Japan, the States, and we have been to Europe.” It’s no secret that record stores went through a rough patch in recent decades, but Trevaskes is staying optimistic about the future with the recent upswing in vinyl sales. “It went through a difficult time there’s no doubt about it. I mean all record shops did when people were downloading music, and that’s all they were doing, they weren’t buying physical product,” he says. “With the turnaround of people now interested in buying records again – but also CDs again – that has been a big shot in the arm for record shops, there’s now a future to it. Shops like ours are stocking and talking our customers into buying decent turntables. So they can get a good reproduction from those records, which will ensure they come back because they’re going to hear something different to what they’re hearing on their phone.” The decent quality turntables that he is talking about are Audio-Technica products, and Rocking Horse are one of the many record stores stocking them. “They’re quality, well made and good value,” says Trevaskes. “If you’ve got a budget of say, $1000, and you’re going to spend half of it on a turntable and half of it on an amp and speakers, you’re going to get good quality.” The store’s position in the Brisbane music scene has made it an important way in which local artists can get their music out to the public. “We absolutely stock all the local records. A lot of the local records that come from Brisbane are self-released and that’s the only place that people can sell them is in Rocking Horse, because local artists don’t particularly sell very well online unless they’ve got a good profile. People come [here] to be able to see a whole selection of what’s available in Brisbane. “Rocking Horse has always had such a great range and has always covered all bases as 28
well, so it’s been strong for jazz and blues, but also gets all of the new releases and covers classic rock and mainstream music very well. But certainly focusing foremost on independent music and punk and post punk and so forth. “We bought a collection of a Brisbane label called the Able Label recently and had every single on that label, which was the first Go-Betweens singles, the first Apartments single [amongst others],” says Trevaskes. “Some other brilliant things came out on Able Label, the first Riptide single, the first Numbers single, and those were very exciting to see. We’ve also sold some really good punk records recently, and some fetching $1500 to $2000 just for 45s. Brisbane punk seems to be something that is becoming world renowned [with] a very, very snotty sound. Brisbane had its own sound in the punk times. These are just some of the recent things we’ve had too.” The great relationship the store has formed with the buying public in Brisbane is key to their business. “That’s the only
way that Rocking Horse has survived - or any record shop survives - when customers choose to shop and take the advice of the people behind the counter as recommendations of what they should be buying,” says Trevaskes. “Quite often when you walk into a record shop you’re listening to something that you’ve never heard before, or you never would have the opportunity to hear before, and listening to it on good gear; through a good turntable and speakers. “Its always gone hand in hand with Triple Z, the community radio station that has served everybody for 40 years. I think Rocking Horse is 12 months older than Triple Z, so it’s been hand in hand for that time,” he says. “Certainly my early days when I started here in 1982, Triple Z got nearly all of its new music through Rocking Horse. So [we’ve] played a huge part of the musical landscape in Brissie.” BY ELIJAH HAWKINS
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Features Building The Perfect Studio For The Independent Artist’s Budget: A Peek Inside Brisbane’s Underground Audio It’s a tough gig being an independent musician – a fun one, but also a tough one. Nursing an idea from its genesis to the polished final product is a gruelling journey littered with obstacles and plagued by indecision. In order to get that idea from where it is to where it needs to be, a lot of choices need to be made, most of them tough and some of them are impossible to come back from. When you add to that the obvious limitations that come with being an independent artist – limited access to resources and the like – producing your own music starts to feel like an insurmountable feat. It is with these people in mind that head engineer Chris Brownbill cut the ribbon on Brisbane’s Underground Audio. Smack bang in the middle of Brisbane’s West End, Underground Audio stands to serve the independent artists of the city by providing a studio that’s capable of capturing amazing sound, while making every effort to keep it’s running costs down. After all, a budget price shouldn’t necessarily mean budget results. There are ways, albeit very creative ones, to get the results you desire, without breaking the bank. As Brownbill explains, taking care in developing each and every aspect of the studio – and employing a can-do attitude – is the most important thing you can do. “The facility is located in the basement of a 1930’s building that was originally constructed as an oyster factory. It was routinely empty as the actual premises weren’t that much to look at.” Brownbill says, thinking back to when he first put the rooms together. “I started off by getting people to hit drums and various other instruments in the room and then calibrated the acoustical design to flatter those instruments. “Most contemporary facilities are treated by an acoustician, and for the most part end up much too dead, whereas with Underground I wanted to keep it as live as possible. Budget was patently a concern, but I didn’t want any corners to be cut in the build. I routinely visited different tip shops to obtain bricks, wood, insulation and lighting. Certain friends of mine work in construction so I was able to obtain silicon, nails and other minor contrivance. Powering the place was a matter of raiding abandoned buildings for breakers, conduit and cabling amongst other electrical items.” This resourceful approach is what’s required to get a project like Underground Audio off the ground, and it’s the type of attitude that institutions like this inspire in the artists that inhabit them. When Brownbill first took hold of the space, he critically assessed what he had and worked toward maximising its strengths, rather than piecing together a studio in
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the image of someone else’s. “Underground has the largest live rooms in Brisbane, to my knowledge” says Brownbill. “One thing I’ve noticed is some studios have rooms designed that have a million dollars put into them, but they’re a shoebox and ultimately dead sounding. This made freelancing as an engineer around Brisbane quite arduous for me and Underground manifested from this difficulty.” The difficulties that come with working within someone else’s space not only spawned Underground Audio as an idea, but have informed its construction and equipment inventory along the way. Chris has acquired each bit of gear piece by piece, in order to familiarise himself entirely with the technical behaviour before moving onto the next. “There is a 2” 24 track ampex MM1200 here that is used in some measure on essentially every record” says Brownbill. “Bands will often not have the funds to archive their recordings, in which case a computer is imperative. Additionally, many bands don’t wish to record to tape at all due to the aesthetics of their music. I give musicians all the options and let them make a choice
as it is their record. “The console here is a 32/64 channel Amek Einstein, regularly serviced and maintained. There are a few pieces of outboard here, a distressor and some mic preamplifiers. I find that freelance engineers bring their own pieces to sessions so there are tails left out here. I myself don’t use much compression, I mainly record instruments properly at the source and occasionally touch things slightly afterwards. I’m not a huge fan of utilising different microphone preamplifiers in the process of a record, I prefer to record sources cleaner with consistent sonics across the board.” Though Brownbill has built this studio in a way that’s cohesive with his recording style, it sits ready and able to be commandeered by other engineers, which is something he welcomes. After all, that’s where Underground Audio’s roots lie. “I would say that about 90% of the work here is executed by me, but the space is of course open to freelance engineers. It’s always great to meet other engineers around the place.” BY KEATS MULLIGAN
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Features
JEFF LANG If you haven’t seen Jeff Lang play his rootsy, low-down blues live, then you’ve almost certainly passed through a town that has. Across over 20 years in the game, Lang is one of the country’s most celebrated bluesmen, as well as one of its most prolific. 2017 sees Lang arrive at solo album number 12, entitled Alone in Bad Company. On the line from his home in Melbourne, Lang begins his conversation with Mixdown detailing what drives the album cycle from his own creative perspective. “For me, it starts with this antsy feeling,” he says. “It’s this sense of restlessness that I get when I want to hear a certain type of record that I’m not hearing anywhere. It dawns on me that I should be the one making that record, and that usually coincides with an accumulation of material I’ve been writing that fits the bill. When I look at everything that I’ve written since the last record came out, whenever that might have been, there’s almost always an album’s worth of material on there. Sometimes, there’s even more. It’s a matter of looking at what groups together well. I come from an era of listening to full albums, so I tend to think of how it works 30
as a start-to-finish piece. I know there’s more focus on a song-by-song thing now, with downloading and all, but that’s just not the kind of music I make.” Alone in Bad Company, as the title suggests, is a Jeff Lang solo record in its truest sense. Recorded in part in Lang’s own outback shed, the album is written, performed, arranged, produced, recorded and mixed by the man himself. “I wanted to kind of give off the idea of me being in a bunker on this record,” he says. “Usually, what I’ll do is assemble a band together, we’d go in and track everything live and then have a block of time after that to mix everything.
This time around, I decided it would be fun to record and then mix that song on the day it was recorded. I’d record until I felt a song had reached a conclusive arrangement, and then finish the mixing once I was in the headspace of that particular song. My focus was to play everything on this record. I bent and broke that rule for only one song, which was ‘Palmera Lad’. The song had reached a certain point, and I knew that its missing piece was drums. I had to admit to myself that I wasn’t good enough on drums to lay down what was required, so I bit the bullet and called up my mate Danny McKenna to help me out.” It also wouldn’t be a Jeff Lang record without an impressive collection of guitars. Lang is a well-experienced and noted player of many different styles, all of which are incorporated into his music. For Alone in Bad Company, Lang was adamant in making sure that his selected instrument fit the bill for the kind of song that he was going for. “There’s all sorts of guitars on this thing,” he says. “There are a few songs on the record that were entirely recorded on an acoustic lapsteel that David Churchill made for me. There’s also the old Airline Resonator, that’s on the front cover of the album. I played the song ‘Burnside’ on that one. There’s a fretless acoustic guitar solo on ‘Drive All Night’, which is played on a guitar that was built by a guy in Melbourne
called Tim Cahill. It’s got an aluminium neck, so it’s got a really different timbre to it and adds a lot to the sound. “‘Half My Luck’ is done on an old Harmony Mandolin. I picked up a Fender Coronado hollow-body for one of the songs too. That’s a lovely instrument from the 60s – really clean and warm sounding. There’s also a solid-body electric Gretsch, with a couple of old Fender wide-range humbucking pickups in it. “It gets a really good biting sort of sound, which is interesting. You don’t always want the same sound – in fact, what might technically sound the best might not be the kind of tone that the song requires.”Now that Alone in Bad Company is in the can, Lang is intending to celebrate the only way he knows how - touring. Not content with the capital cities alone, Lang tends to tour for months at a time; visiting plenty of remote and regional stops along the way. “It feels like I’ve done almost every other stretch of road in this country, but I’m sure there’s more out there,” he says. BY DAVID JAMES YOUNG
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Hagstrom
Features
A History Like No Other
The Hagstrom story is a testament to invention and discovery. Founded with the unlikeliest of beginnings as an accordion manufacturer, Hagstrom came to be a viable alternative to the likes of Fender and Gibson with guitar and bass designs characterised by the use of unique materials and the application of newly imagined ideas. Their first electric guitar models were accordion-inspired, covered in pearloid celluloid rather than your standard lacquering; they developed the Speed-O-Matic fingerboard made of plexiglass for speed and precision; their original H-bar truss rod was responsible for producing stronger, thinner necks that in many countries came with a 10-year guarantee; and with the H8 they developed the world’s first mass-produced eight-string bass in 1967. In the 25 years leading up to 1983, when Hagstrom ceased manufacturing electric guitars and basses, the company produced close to 130,000 units, making their way to all corners of the globe. And while 22 years passed without the beloved manufacturer selling a single guitar or bass, its imprint on the industry – one of ingenuity and craftsmanship – clearly never faded, leading to a 2005 relaunch. Now in full effect, Hagstrom are expanding their presence in Australia – the perfect opportunity to explore the models and design principles that once elevated, and continue to define the Hagstrom brand.
THE HOME OF HAGSTROM In Alvdalen, Sweden, 1925, Hagstrom was established as a manufacturer of accordions. Through perseverance and a willingness to venture beyond the manufacturing norm, the company grew in leaps and bounds – peaking in 1952 with the manufacturing of 15,000 accordions, sold at branches in the US, England, Finland and Denmark. It was from this point onwards that Hagstrom were to experience a period of transition compelled by a falling demand for accordions, and the imminent rise of the electric guitar. In 1958 this change in direction was set in stone with the release of the Hagstrom Deluxe and Standard electric guitar models. These were guitars influenced heavily by the manufacturer’s fist life as a maker of accordions – an odd foundation that informed their initial success and fostered future endeavours. Hagstrom had already experienced international expansion and recognition as a quality maker of instruments. Additionally, the manufacturer was accustomed to dealing with the issues accompanied with operating in a smaller European market, relating to: the sourcing of materials and machinery, the development of technique and process, and the availability of qualified craftsman. Beyond these challenges, Hagstrom were approaching the manufacturing of guitars and basses from a unique operational background, one that had to be repurposed to meet these new production demands. With the very same perseverance and mixdownmag.com.au
creative guile that brought recognition to their line of accordions, Hagstrom used these challenges to fuel and shape the personality and qualities of the many guitar and bass models to come. ONE OF A KIND As one of the first manufacturers to produce electric guitars outside of the US, Hagstrom entered the fray armed with a refreshing outlook on materials and technique. From day dot, the Deluxe and Standard models were striking in appearance – finished in a ‘mother-of-pearl’ shine, with a Les Paul-inspired double cutaway and stamped metal logos – and loaded with exciting features including the Speed-O-Matic plexiglass fingerboard, and a super low action thanks to the H-bar truss rod. Later came the introduction of the Viking in 1965, Hagstrom’s first semihollow electric guitar, famously played by Elvis in 1968 at the Elvis Presley Comeback Television Special. And then the Hagstrom Swede, based on the Les Paul, yet smaller in stature, more compact, and further refined with a contoured back that followed the shape of your body. New humbucking pickups were specifically designed for this guitar, which was used most prominently by ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus. In 1961 Hagstrom began a brimming relationship with the bass guitar, releasing the Deluxe electric bass, equipped with a Speed-O-Matic fingerboard, a pearloid celluloid finish and a double cutaway. However the height of their bass guitar manufacturing was to come in 1967 with
the unveiling of the world’s first massproduced eight-string bass, the Hagstrom 8. Based on a regular four-string Hagstron bass, each string on the H8 was doubled with a similar technique employed to that of a 12-string guitar. The lighter string was situated above the standard string and tuned one octave higher, providing a myriad of technical and tonal options for soloing. As such, it found its way into the hands of the Jimi Hendrix Experience’s Noel Redding, The Blues Project’s Andy Kulberg, and the Allman Bros/Sea Level’s bass player Lamarr Williams. A TIMELY RESURGENCE With Hagstrom once again in operation, the ingenuity and creativity that defined the company throughout the 20th century is alive and kicking, this time accompanied by a nuanced understanding of the modern player. It’s a resurgence that honours the successes of past guitars and basses through the reimagining of the very traits that made these one-of-a-kind instruments so unique. The H-bar truss rod is now the H-expander truss rod, providing tension at both ends and running the entire length of the neck. This delivers that enticing extra low action and thin neck for heightened playability, enhanced sustain, and a rounder attack for a more dynamic response. In line with their history of using alternative woods, Hagstrom today utilise Resonator wood for their fingerboards – a composite material characterised by its consistent and uniform density. While the string-isolating Sustain Block Tailpiece,
which made its first appearance on the Swede and Super Swede guitars produced in 1978, is another notable feature to make a comeback. At the forefront of Hagstrom’s rebirth is the Northern Series line of guitars. The Northern Super Swede is a prime exponent of the classic Hagstrom tone, armed with a No.2 set of Johan Lundgren custom made humbuckers that deliver tonal girth and warmth, plus all the twang one could desire thanks to the individual coil tap for each pickup. The Retrostar Series, on the other hand, brings back the eye-catching shapes and retro features of past guitars into the here and now – the Impala reviving the ‘Vintage Tremar’ vibrato unit with a funky body shape and two Alnico-5 Retro-S pickups to recreate the sounds of 60s mania. And lets not forget the HB-8; the eight-string bass equipped with Hagstrom’s own humbucking Dyna-Rails and a sixway rotary pickup switch for a plethora of mind-blowing tones and textures. As if they never stopped manufacturing, Hagstrom are once again altering and redefining what we look for in a guitar and a bass – a welcomed alternative to the unchanging norm. CHRIS SCOTT Hagstrom Guitars are distributed throughout Australia by Pro Music. For more information about the guitars, and where you can find them, visit promusicaustralia.com. 31
Features
ORMSBY GUITARS 2016 was a big year for Perth’s Ormsby Guitars. That was the year Ormsby made the leap from custom shop to full production via the highly respected World Musical Instruments in South Korea - the same factory known for their high-quality instruments made for brands such as LTD, PRS SE, Dean and many more. The GTR range consists of a number of different and very distinctive models, and they’ve led the charge in the sudden popularity of multiscale guitars - luthier Perry Ormsby has long been a pioneer in the multiscale field. A strong showing at the 2016 Winter NAMM Show and again at NAMM this past January helped to put the company on the map.
“It was fantastic,” says Ormsby. “We went last year and it was really positive. It cost a lot of money but we felt that we got value from it, although we didn’t necessarily pay ourselves back. But it did lead to other things throughout the year that made it absolutely worthwhile. “This year we took the entire crew and had more product there. All of that kind of thing adds to the costs so it was substantially more expensive, but the returns from going to NAMM have been amazing this time. We’ve signed on three new distributors, new stores, we’re in talks with a bunch more people at the moment about bringing our 32
guitars into other countries. “Last year it was just myself and my friend Jon, from Sully Guitars, helping me out, and there were periods where we couldn’t talk to everyone because there were so many people in the stand,” says Ormsby. “That’s why we took all the staff this year, it was also a bit of a bonus for a good year. And I wanted to be able to stand back a little bit this time, go and talk to some of our vendors, negotiate deals and that sort of thing. There were times where we had five of us minimum on the stand, sometimes seven, even then we couldn’t talk to everyone.
“Normally before we leave for a show I can pick which ones will get people’s attention,” he says of the products they took to NAMM. “This year though, we had our little selection of guitars we thought were the peak three or four and they’re the ones nobody looked at. We had one that had a 24-carat gold top and it kinda got passed over. Maybe it was because of where we’d placed them - on the back we had all our copper-top guitars, our new headless models and a new design we call the Futura. “I thought that would be a model that would just sort of supplement the range and might not really be a huge part of our business, just one more model to add to the mix, but almost constantly there was one of those plugged into an amp throughout the whole four days,” says Ormsby. “That was something I’d spent time working on and designing, and to see the response was really cool. Usually it takes a bit of time for a new model to catch on, but people went nuts for the Futura and the new Goliath headless model. Those were the first ones to sell - as soon as we announced that we were selling our NAMM guitars, those ones went straight away. “I have so many models I thought about and put in the memory bank to do some day,” says Ormsby of what’s next for the GTR models. “We have a lot of custom clients and they all want their own thing,
so we don’t always necessarily get to do what we want to do. The good thing about the GTR series is it allows us to do things we want to do for ourselves. We’ve always wanted to do an SX Shark edition and that’s what we’re currently offering, and that’s been received really, really well. “When it comes to colours we’ve got so many more that we still want to release. We’ve got another four shapes at least that we want to release in the GTR series, but you can’t come out with everything all at once. We’ve got to drip-feed it and we have a plan for the next year or 18 months,” says Ormsby. “Being community driven, we allow the clients to have a say in what goes to production. If we like what the results are, we run with them and we add in a colour or two that we really like as well, then put it into production. And over the next six months we’ll start re-releasing popular colours. We’ve got stores around the world signing on and they want to have what everybody else has, so for every second production run we do, we’ll repeat some previous runs to make them more of a standard thing.” BY PETER HODGSON For more information on Ormsby Guitars visit ormsbyguitars.com
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Road Tests LANEY Nexus SLS112 Bass Combo Australasian Music Supplies | austmusic.com.au | Expect to Pay: $1999
Essentially the idea here is that you pitch the entire picture of your EQ either towards the low or high end of the frequency spectrum in order to finish off what you have going on like a coat of varnish. With this I was able to dial in an incredible amount of rumble underneath what was already a mighty sounding tone.
Bass players really do get a tough run in the grand scheme of band things. Their rig is almost always the heaviest, their parts the least showy and they get the least attention from the audience, Geddy Lee notwithstanding. Truly, the keepers of the rumble deserve more affection, surely those responsible for making the lower half of the frequency spectrum full and rich deserve to have some of the heavy lifting replaced by sheer tonal satisfaction. Laney Amplification sure think so, and in response offer up one of the simplest yet most effective 500-watt combos available, the Nexus SLS112. There are a few things that have become essential tools of the bass trade over time. Things like DI outs, EQ shaping and compression are vital to keeping the wild, wooly underworld in check. Suffice to say Laney has ticked off just about every box on this list and then some; the back plate alone houses enough exemplary items without even venturing into the extras bag. The inbuilt DI can be switched between pre, post and right at the output end of the amplification stage depending on application. There is a ground lift, Speakon connection for optional external speaker, aux in, tuner out, headphone out with attenuation dial, effects send/ return with dedicated level, 5-pin remote
Laney Amplification has a reputation for battle ready builds. Where other companies load up their designs with standard features they have a habit of cutting out a fair amount of fat in favour of absolutely essential ingredients necessary to define your voice. The Nexus SLS112 is packed to the gills with options; every one of them lifting their own corner of the payload and the result is a surprisingly great sounding rig in an unassuming yet powerful package. footswitch and the pièce de résistance, the option of using your amp as an interface via USB compatibility. On the top side are all the usual suspects, three band EQ with sweepable mids, input gain that pulls up to control the compression rate, master volume and hi and lo impedance inputs. Add to this a handy sampling of effects like reverb, chorus and octave down/5th interval up and they truly have just about every base covered, pun intended. Two things particularly impressed me about
the tone shaping stage of the ECC83 tube driven preamp. First, the switch controlling four mid-range humps, incredibly handy for tempering some of the So Cal plonk in your Stingray or boosting the warmth and natural feel of active pick-ups. Centered around 100-600hz, these presets played right into the hands of the midrange dials allowing me to contour even the cheapest, knock off bass I had into a refined and charismatic sonic fingerprint. The second was the ‘Tilt’ control, a totally unique feature to Laney’s newest design.
LANEY Richter R500H Bass Head And R410 Cab
When people refer to things as ‘workingman’s’ versions of other things, nine times out of 10 they mean it as an insult. I didn’t figure this out until way later than you’d think, and for ages I couldn’t understand why people were using that term to refer to things they didn’t actually like. Sheer snobbery I say. The workingman is the salt of the earth, the guy who leaves home the pretense, trickery and flab that comes with his opposition and gets the job done efficiently and properly. Now, this credo should by no means apply only to the coarser trades; it’s also true so often in the music world that it should be written on the cover of the guidebook. Workingman musicians need supremely reliable tools and few are more trustworthy and forthright than Laney’s new R500H Bass head.
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HITS • Almost endless tonal potential via absolutely essential controls and functions. MISSES • None
though is Laney’s unique ‘enhance’ knob mounted between the compressor and the start of the tone stack. The low-end cousin of the guitar amp stalwart, the ‘presence’ knob, here you are afforded extra contour around the 30-100hz region which is a great way to find your place in any weird sounding room or just punch in some rumble in even the densest of mixes. This portion of the frequency spectrum is bizarrely often neglected, so it makes for a handy change to be able to wrangle a little extra special should the mood arise.
Australasian Music Supplies | austmusic.com.au | Expect to Pay: Head - $669 Cab - $669
Perched atop its brother in arms the R410 cab, The R500H is reasonably unassuming to look at. Its low profile facade is replete with the usual amount of controls, and to a point, the most fancy thing about it is its lush, royal blue paint job. It is lightweight, coming in at just over 4kg, slim and road-ready where construction is concerned. If anything, you’d be forgiven for looking past it in a line up, but once fired up it is well and truly worth spending some time with. High and low gain inputs
BY LUKE SHIELDS
Overall, the Laney R500H, and its apprentice the R410 cab, is the right man for any and every job. The best kinds of amps are the ones you don’t have to wrestle and argue with in order to get the job done. Sturdy and reliable as a Clydesdale and with power as well as sensitivity and responsiveness in spades, there are few jobs that it couldn’t handle, leaving you to concentrate on more important things like dodging guitar player’s headstocks or singer’s flailing limbs. BY LUKE SHIELDS match with passive and active pickups respectively, sending signal into the gain stage, which neatly works in tandem with the compression threshold to ensure you and your amp gets off on the right foot. From there you’ve only a few sidesteps past simple bass, treble and master volume dials out to the finished product. Simple, elegant, solid-state signal path is more often than not exactly what the doctor ordered.
That’s not to say it’s without refinements however. There are a few tricks of the trade in the toolbox that make the R500H undeniably useful. Essentials like an XLR DI out on the front panel and effects loop and tuner out on the back boost confidence in the live setting and the option of plugging in the 10-band EQ via a remote footswitch only lengthens the list of tonal opportunities. The real ace in the hole
HITS • Plenty of power and headroom, tonally adaptable and easy to dial in. MISSES • Separate gain and compression controls would be a bonus.
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Road Tests KAWAI ES110 Digital Piano Kawai Australia | kawai.com.au | Expect to pay $995
There are few of us that would dispute the fact that Kawai certainly know how to put together a beautiful playing and sounding piano. This also translates to their digital piano range where they implement sounds and engineering techniques recreate the tone and feel of their acoustic works of art. It is little wonder that so many people turn to a Kawai ES series digital piano when looking to learn and play piano at home. It doesn’t take up anywhere near the space of the real thing, and costs a considerably lower amount than an upright or a grand, yet still offers the playability and sound that you would expect from Kawai. The new ES110 is no exception, and being able to test drive it this month left me wondering why I haven’t touched a Kawai in so many years. There are two main elements to a Kawai digital piano that stand out to not only seasoned players but beginners alike. It is easy to see how the transition from acoustic piano to digital piano and back can be so smooth when you feel the way the keys behave. Sure, they don’t have the wooden keys and long pivot motion of the MP11, but it doesn’t come with the weight or the price tag of said model either. This model offers a very realistic hammer action that is going to suit any beginner and would only come under scrutiny from the fussiest of players searching for a
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ES110. The speakers are well matched to the cabinet, to carry the tone at a decent operating level for home use, and without any unwarranted vibrations or audible distortion. You want your digital piano to sound just like an actual piano and the ES110 does a very good job of just that, utilising Kawai’s harmonic imaging technology to create a very realistic tone across the entire 88-note range. Add to this the 5-pin DIN MIDI connectivity, Bluetooth MIDI options as well as line and headphone outputs and you have a neat, compact digital piano. BY ROB GEE
specific feel. It responds well, has a good balance from one end of the key bed to the other. Most importantly, it feels like it has weighted hammer action. The other key characteristic of any Kawai
digital piano is undoubtedly the piano tone it replicates. If you are looking for a wide range of synth and organ sounds, then this isn’t the right instrument for you. But if you want a very realistic piano sound, then you can’t go wrong with the
HITS • Classic Kawai grand piano tone • Great feeling action • Surprisingly lightweight for the key bed MISSES • Limited sound options
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Road Tests
POSITIVE GRID BIAS 600W Modeling Amp Link Audio | linkaudio.com.au | Expect to Pay: $1999
We may not eat food in pill form or hoon around in hover-cars just yet, but we are well and truly living on the cusp of, if not smack bang in the belly of the future. There are people making music on computers that sounds like blips and bloops just like The Jetsons guessed, and we’re video calling each other on a regular basis just to tell each other that we’re minutes away on the tram. Fred and Wilma would be quaking in their loincloths if they knew half the things we can do these days. The advent of the internet and its expansion to the seemingly limitless world of hands-free technology has made it so that just about anything and everything you could possibly wish for is a swipe, click or tap away. Positive Grid is a company that has been at the coalface of this technological tin mine for years now. Famous for creating some of the most user friendly and sonically advanced music apps on the market, their new BIAS Head sees them take one almighty leap into the physical realm and apply the entirety of their tone-tech prowess in the real world. The BIAS Head is, at its genesis, a modeling amp, just not like you’ve known before. As opposed to being an engorged menu of presets and optional extras, this unit seeks to put the power in your hands. You choose just about everything except the printed circuit board it is built on and the unit itself quietly ensures that a) 36
you have easy access to all your choices and b) every last one of them sounds as natural as the real thing. Despite being loaded with features, the unit itself is simple enough to navigate. The traditional controls are there along the bottom row; input gain, bass, mid, treble, presence and master volume can all be used to chip away at what it is you’re looking for. There’s an output volume for your neighbors’ sake and a vintage/ modern switch that changes the era your tone mimics. Along the top row is where it gets interesting. Essentially you have five banks with five presets per bank, each loaded straight out of the factory to represent a broad sweep of desirable heavy hitters in the amplification hall of fame. Anything from Fender Blackface or JC120 clean to Marshall Plexi and 5150 high-gain are on offer straight out of the box and make for a great place to start. From there the tube stack selection, circuit design type and power-amp dials offer you a simplified version of the options you can tune in once you hit the digital realm, but more on that later. The back panel is a studio or live engineer’s dream. The speaker out reads and matches impedance to just about any cabinet you can put it in front of. There are balanced and unbalanced XLR and TRS outs in stereo pairs for sending signal to various different destinations. Effects loop, headphone out and pre and post switch for the cabinet simulator mean that the person behind the faders has just as much control over what comes in as the person doing the shredding. Dual footswitch ports offer yet another hall
of possibility and the whole unit is MIDI compatible via the in, out and thru five pin ports. Whether you’re just playing the thing live, recording it patched straight into a desk or using the machine to trigger lighting rig changes, there is absolutely no limit to what you can do with this sleek, black and silver capsule. Here’s where it gets really incredible. All of what I’ve written above is merely a conduit for the infinite, awe-inspiring possibility you get once you hook your BIAS Head up to your Mac, PC or tablet. The companion apps offer you not only the opportunity to render your tone from the library of options available, but you can also render an exact replica of your favourite rock box simply by using a recording into the interface to map it’s tonal fingerprint. It’s the kind of thing that there are X-Files episodes about – upload the consciousness of even the shitty, ancient practice amp that you’ve become accustomed to into the machine and the BIAS Head lets you take it anywhere. This means it will never die on you, never conk out at the crucial moment and always be there when you need it. Kinda spooky really, especially when you actually do it and see just how startlingly accurate it is.
once in the few hours that I played with this amp did I think to myself ‘yeah, but…’, and that’s all down to how much care has been given to make the amp feel like a real, humming and whirring machine in its own right. BY LUKE SHIELDS HITS • Incredibly realistic tone and literally infinite tone shaping options in a totally portable yet durable package. MISSES • None, reverb would have been nice but you can get that elsewhere.
One of the fatal flaws of even the frontrunners of the digital modeling amp race is suspension of disbelief. All of the examples I’ve played so far are good but I’ve always been deathly aware that I am not playing the real thing but shredding inside a simulation. This is where Positive Grid has made a huge leap forward. Not mixdownmag.com.au
Road Tests RME ADI-2 PRO Ultra-Fidelity AD/DA Converter Innovative Music Australia| innovativemusic.com.au | Expect to pay $2999
When it comes to quality analogue to digital conversion, it really is hard to look past the masters of the clock at RME. Over the past 20 years I have seen them produce one quality product after another, always outdoing their already high standards with every new release. The ADI-2 Pro is no exception, as this takes the user into the world of sample rates beyond expectation. With this ‘ultrafidelity’ 768 kHz AD/DA converter there is little left unheard, so you had better hope the rest of your signal path is up to scratch, otherwise the RME will leave you hearing all the faults. The team at RME have not left anything to chance with the design and build of this unit. Aiming for the absolute best in reference quality audio capture, they have carefully designed the components so that they produce the best results possible. Even the main PCB inside the housing has a ten layer design. Every element on the board has been balanced and laid out in symmetry to ensure the lowest possibility of interference. When you want the best AD/DA conversion and clocking, you need to start with a solid foundation and ensure that every component behaves the way it should, so it doesn’t let down its role in the preservation of the audio signal. The results speak for themselves in a unit that
delivers flawless quality and ‘ultra-fidelity’ audio conversion. With a host of connections you’ll be able to set this up in a number of ways. Two XLR/TRS combination jacks offer analogue inputs along with ADAT or SP/DIF on optical and AES/EBU and SP/DIF on coaxial connections. For outputs you get the optical pair as well as two XLR connectors. These are coupled with an extra two TS unbalanced and two TRS headphone outputs as well. Worth mentioning is the high-powered headphone amplifiers built in, ready to operate with any impedance
of headphones and deliver crystal clear audio at unparalleled levels. The full colour display on the front panel makes setup and recording options simple to navigate, with only a few controls needed to perform all tasks. The 20th anniversary converters in this unit are the leaders in their class. You simply cannot imagine better quality analogue-to-digital conversion, nor sample rates of this kind in other systems. RME have pulled out a winner on this unit, and it might just make a few of you reconsider what you thought was quality audio up until now. Hearing is believing.
BY ROB GEE
understand its architecture, you’ll soon appreciate the program for all that it can bring to your mix. Consider the ability to bring bus mixing and effects to every input channel before it even hits your DAW for greater control of your signals levels and tone. Imagine this control over 32 inputs, with recallable settings for quick setup of big sessions and you’ll understand why the Digiface combined with TotalMix and your choice of preamps and converters makes a very serious audio recording solution. Got a big band or an orchestra that your need to record? The Digiface will help you get the job done fast.
BY ROB GEE
HITS • Unbelievable audio conversion • Sample rates beyond necessary • Quality build MISSES • Over the top for many users, but hey, why not
RME Digiface USB Audio Interface Innovative Music Australia | innovativemusic.com.au | Expect to pay $799
Once again RME have gone out and shown us that they are not just purveyors of quality, but absolute innovators too. For those of you who need to regularly record with high track counts, it can be difficult coming up with an interface solution to meet your needs. Often when seeking more than 16 inputs, external preamps are utilised to bump up track counts, but an interface is still required to bring them all together. RME saw the need for keeping everything uniformed, and have presented a logical solution that allows you to bring up to 32 microphone preamps to the party and get them all into your DAW with one device. The Digiface USB is the solution for high track counts with external preamps; it’s just one little box, but can handle a lot. Many of you may have bumped up your track count by introducing an ADAT microphone preamp input to get another eight microphones into your compact interface in the past. This is the idea behind the Digiface USB, except it doesn’t bother with any of the common attributes of most interfaces; it just offers raw power and the ability to send 32 channels into your machine via the four ADAT connections. You can reduce the total inputs and achieve up to 192 kHz sample rates with this device if you want additional quality over track count, along mixdownmag.com.au
with using each input for either ADAT or stereo SP/DIF. Like many multi-channel preamps with ADAT outputs, these offer you eight channels of A/D conversion that can be slaved off of the Digiface’s stunning clock and can be brought back to life as the front end to a very powerful DAW recording setup. As with all RME interfaces, the Digiface USB comes with their TotalMix software to allow you to fully take control of your signal routing once it gets into the box. As a bridging software between your interface and DAW, TotalMix is second to none. It may seem complex at first, but once you
HITS • Compact and lightweight housing • No external power supply needed • It all runs on USB MISSES • Requires external preamps and converters
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Road Tests
MATON 70th Anniversary 808 Nashville Acoustic Maton Guitars | maton.com.au | Expect to Pay: $3199 for non cutaway and $3299 with cutaway.
Famously, there are a few notable inventions in Australian history that put this country on the map. We all know how popular Vegemite is overseas and Hills Hoists make laundry day and Goon of Fortune possible for countless households around the world. Maton Guitars’ rich history has left an indelible impression on some of the most prestigious guitarists around including but not limited to Josh Homme, Eric Johnson and Paul Kelly. You’d be hard pressed to find a player who hasn’t at least picked up one of their builds and it’s nigh on impossible to say you’ve not heard one recorded thanks to their absolute trustworthiness and everyman tonality. It seems fitting then that the upper echelons of their design team should meld minds and come up with such a glorious
instrument as the 70th Anniversary 808 Nashville acoustic. Being that it celebrates such a landmark for the company, Maton has afforded this design little bit more finesse than most others. AAA grade Sitka makes up the topside of the body and its bright, descriptive nature is tempered by the concentrated, natural temper of Blackwood rounded out with Indian Rosewood trim. Intricate, zipper style binding around the edges and sound hole marries perfectly with the delicious, caramel burst and gold Grover Rotomatic tuners to make it a hell of a sight to behold. Not only is it a looker, it’s a really interesting sounding guitar too. The tone-woods mentioned above are almost a checklist of healthy acoustic voicing, however it’s the consideration given to patina that is the cherry on the tonal cake. For the first time ever Maton has mixed up the balance between satin on the face and gloss finish on the back and sides to garnish the overall flavour of the
guitar and does so to great effect. With the foundation of Sitka on Blackwood as the base note, the glossiness adds luster to the note while the satin sections ensure everything cooperates nicely, all in all leading to a vivacious, crisp sound that is brimming with personality. Strum through some classic, country chord runs and you’d almost be forgiven for wanting to replace a J45 or Hummingbird with it in a recording as it has a similar body with a little more definition across the chord. As far as lead lines and picking goes the mid to high-mid range is so balanced and considerate that it almost matches the dynamic of your playing as if you’re being expertly mixed on the fly. 70 years is a longer tenure at the top than most companies can possibly hope for, especially in so fickle a game as instrument manufacture and design. Some of their kookier designs from the 60s may be little more than collector’s items now, but a guitar like the 808 I see before me is definitely one for the ages. Balanced yet lively, considered yet brimming with
personality, it is as much a larrikin as it is a statesman which rings true of the company as a whole. It is testament to Maton’s undimmed sense of quality as well as its universal appeal that they have not only lasted this long, but increased exponentially in popularity, especially in the last two decades. Built for discerning players by discerning players, just as they always have been. BY LUKE SHIELDS HITS • Caramel burst looks great • Rich mid range focused tonality and personality in spades MISSES • That this isn’t one of their flagship models. It should be.
MATON The Maton Case Maton Guitars | maton.com.au | Expect to Pay: $449
One of the most terrifying ordeals faced by modern guitarists is the abject anxiety of flying with gear on a budget. Too many musicians at all levels have fallen foul of a grunting, simian, hi-vis-clad lummox hurling a precious artifact onto a conveyor belt like an angry bouncer only to find their pride and joy pulverized at the other end of their journey. No player should outlive their best friend in that way, and it is with this as their chief concern that Maton introduce The Maton Case. Conjured in conjunction with worldrenowned industrial design firm Cobalt Design, the list of features, improvements and components is so long that I’m certain this thing is just about indestructible. The shell is made of toughened, high-density polyethylene and is the same size across the range of guitars it is built to house. The foam inner is higher density than industry standard to ensure as much buffer between your guitar and the outside world as possible. Three oversized latches are recessed to reduce wear and flush with 38
the edges of the shell for stack-ability and there are countless other nuances listed on the website, all of which corresponding directly to an instance we’ve all encountered where an old case has grossly let us down. Most importantly, it is balanced and easy to carry. It’s all well and good to put your guitar in it, but the pinnacle of the usability of a guitar case is the experience of lugging it around. In spite of the impressive density and durability of
materials, it is light-weight enough that my arm didn’t go numb and the handle is at a slightly higher point on the crest of the hip, so that it balances on its pivot point like no other. The Maton Case looks like something Batman would house one of his gadgets in, is heavy duty enough to withstand even the most careless cartage and is purpose built to answer every design flaw you could think of. Short of actually hitting it with my car, I’m confident that this is a case
worthy of the cream of Maton’s crop of guitars and a trustworthy partner in the battle for safe travel. BY LUKE SHIELDS HITS • Unbreakable construction and no-stoneunturned design. MISSES • None mixdownmag.com.au
Road Tests APOGEE Element 46 Thunderbolt Audio Interface Sound Distribution | sounddistribution.com.au | Expect to pay $1449
I think it is safe to say that you’ve all either used or heard of Apogee interfaces at some point. These guys have been delivering quality audio interfacing for some time now, and with their current Mac and Thunderbolt focus, Apogee are releasing some very flavoursome pieces of kit indeed. Whether it is a fully fledged user interface, or a simple design with no bells or whistles that you are after, Apogee is sure to have something that suits your needs. For those looking for a little more than the standard two-in and two-out configuration, the Element 46 is going to be of interest. It has plenty going on, and at the same time, there is seemingly very little happening on the surface. Intrigued? Then read on. What I just loved about this unit was just how simple it appeared when I took it out of the box for the first time. There is a great feeling of negative space going on in the design, which moves away from the almost uncontrollable urge for many manufacturers to lather the surface of their units with buttons, knobs and dials. The Element 46 features none of this on the front panel, just four combination XLR/TRS inputs and two TRS headphone outputs. That’s it - no gain controls, no volume pots, nothing else. Around the back of the
unit a stereo pair of XLR outputs is met by a pair of optical digital connections, a Word Clock in and out and a Thunderbolt connection. There is nothing more than is needed and the whole thing offers no external parts that can be damaged when travelling. The four microphone preamps are of exceptional quality, as is the analogueto-digital conversion. All the control over levels and signal routing is done via the software interface. Some of you will prefer to have a physical control for setting gain levels and adjusting headphone and output levels to suit. Others will realise that these
don’t need to be adjusted regularly, and will love the benefits of recalling pre-stored settings in a flash. Importantly, what is undeniable is that the quality of sound and the ease of use is just brilliant. You don’t need to touch the box once everything is plugged in; just control it all from your computer, which you will be interacting with anyway. It’s a solid audio workhorse that offers studio quality A/D conversion and microphone preamps, yet it can go anywhere.
HITS • Solid housing • Simple design with no unnecessary frills • Perfect for travel without any protruding knobs MISSES • Thunderbolt connectivity limits user base
BY ROB GEE
SE ELECTRONICS Reflexion Filter Pro Sound and Music | sound-music.com | Expect to pay $369.99
I have spoken at length about isolating your microphone when recording at home to reduce unwanted frequencies and standing waves within your room. This can be especially difficult when working in a home recording environment when the room isn’t ideal for recording to begin with. It is essential that you give your microphone the chance to properly capture the direct signal and not all the noise that bounces around the room. That is why the sE Electronics Reflexion Filter Pro is such an important tool in the home as well as in professional recording setups. When your room is not acoustically ideal for recording, the smart option is to just treat the area around the microphone, rather than changing the entire room. Before I even got this Reflexion Filter Pro properly set up, I was able to give it a test at a number of positions and angles relative to my monitors and noisy laptop computer to hear how it works. The easy test with these units is to place your head within the confines of the frame where the microphone would rest and listen to what cannot be heard. Then move your head back and listen to the added high frequency interference and low end noise that occurs. You never really know how loud your room is until you take away a lot of the reflections and hear the difference. Now consider what might happen as you sing in that same room. If just my 40
frequency response. Other lower priced filters might take away a lot of noise, but they can really be detrimental to your recording as they just strip away the high frequencies that can’t be added back in again. What you get with the Reflexion Filter Pro is a natural sound absorption that creates the perfect environment for a microphone to operate in. Plus, right now these systems are being bundled with a free microphone boom stand and a dual layer pop filter to complete your setup. I had these all set up with a nice condenser microphone in the mix and could instantly hear the results in my cans even before I recorded anything. It’s a great system and one that will improve the results of any home studio recording environment without needing to change the room at all. BY ROB GEE
computer’s operating noise was enough to create unwanted reflections in the space, imagine what a loud voice is going to do. The problem is you often can’t hear the reflections when singing, as the voice itself overpowers them, that said, it is still affected by them. Take them away and you get a sharper, clearer recording that isn’t awash with room noise and standing waves. You’ll really only hear it when it is
taken away, but then you’ll realise just how important a good quality filter can be. The design of the Reflexion Filter Pro takes into account the entire frequency range, from the very lowest rumble right up to the highest and most subtle hiss. To achieve this it is made up of numerous layers of different materials specially designed to quash unwanted noise across the full
HITS • Compact frame, perfect for the home studio • Greatly isolates your microphone from unwanted reflections • Includes stand and dual pop filter for a limited time MISSES • Just the noise but you won’t miss that mixdownmag.com.au
Road Tests SAMSON Concert 88 Camera Wireless System Electric Factory | elfa.com.au | Expect to pay $699
I often come across people who are looking for a simple wireless microphone system to integrate with their DSLR so that they can achieve better quality audio while filming. It shouldn’t be that hard, but the choices are limited when you remove the option of mains power from the equation. It gets even tougher when you want to keep it compact and preferably camera mounted for ease of use. There are professional systems available for broadcast purposes, but what if you want to film YouTube videos, interview an artist or record your band rehearsal or performance? The first place you should look is at the Samson Concert 88 Camera wireless system. This setup addresses a lot of those demands - it mounts atop of most DSLR cameras, slotting into the flash mounting and doesn’t add too much extra weight or imbalance to the camera’s operation. Two short aerials can be extended up from either side of the receiver to ensure a range of up to 300 feet is obtainable with a line of sight. The system comes with two recharchable lithium ion batteries for the receiver, along with the charge to suit, so you can always have a backup battery ready to go on long shoots. The receiver is powered by two AA batteries, which are not included, but are easy enough to get your hands on.
in use in one area without conflict. This makes it an ideal system for multiple cameras at gigs and festivals when they might be operating in close proximity. The whole bundle comes in a neat carry case so nothing gets lost and a host of cables ensures connectivity isn’t an issue. Overall, it’s a very affordable solution to an audio issue that many of us haven’t yet overcome. BY ROB GEE
The biggest letdown of many digital cameras when shooting video is undoubtedly the audio quality. They often have a miniature microphone mounted in the housing that doesn’t really do much more than capture the full room sound. With the Concert 88 Camera system you can not only incorporate a larger
diaphragm, but also a targeted area of audio capture. The handheld transmitter is a decent dynamic vocal microphone that offers good environmental noise rejection so it can be used for interview purposes both indoors and outdoors. With up to 16 channels available, you can be comfortable in knowing that multiple systems can be
anything you need. You are getting a complete package as the preamp and audio converters are built into the housing and besides the required USB cable, you also get a copy of PreSonus’ Studio One Artist software. The large diaphragm capsule sounds great with very little room noise captured when using the cardioid and pad option. This makes it ideal for those working in less than ideal
acoustics. If you want a simple solution for recording acoustic guitar and vocals - as well as a host of other instruments - this can do the job. It also makes your voice recordings for video and podcasts sound unbelievably good. Why let the world listen to you with poor audio quality? If you want to be heard, be heard well.
HITS • Plenty of channels • Good sounding handheld transmitter • Mounts on the camera without upsetting the weight balance MISSES • It a little delicate, the battery clasp is stiff to open.
BLUE MICROPHONES Snowball Studio USB Microphone Amber Technology | ambertech.com.au | Expect to $199
Blue Microphones have grown a reputation for delivering recording tools that look a little unusual. They have shocked us so many times with their inspiring designs, that most of their new releases don’t seem that unusual at all. The Snowball Studio has the team at Blue trying to get our attention once again, but carries that Blue promise of also sounding great. Designed with podcasting, webcam, vocal and instrumental use in mind, the Snowball Studio is ready to be used on your desktop without the need of additional cables or stands. It comes with a nifty little tripod stand that looks just as cool as the microphone itself, and is set up in a matter of moments with just a USB cable needed to power the device and send audio to your computer. The ‘ball’ itself can be easily rotated on the tripod stand. It can be angled up and down with about a 90 degree coverage, which is more than ample for any use on a desktop. This means you can sit back with a guitar and capture the instrument’s full body, or you can angle it up for vocals when sitting closer with the microphone in front of you. A switch on the rear of the unit allows three choices, combining polar pattern and input level, allowing you to choose between cardioid, omni, or cardioid pattern with a 10dB pad applied. For vocals, instrument and interview use, this just about covers mixdownmag.com.au
HITS • It looks cool • Easy setup and positioning • Great sound with little effort MISSES • I wasn’t a fan of the plastic housing
BY ROB GEE 41
Road Tests GUILD S100 Polara Guitar Zenith Music | zenithmusic.com.au | Expect to Pay: $1699
1992 was twenty-five years ago this year. Janine Garofalo was the funniest person in America; MTV ruled the airwaves and those were truly halcyon days for guitar bands, as we all know. Now, with kids in their late teens aping almost every fashion miss-step, it seems enough time has past for that whole thing to be cool again. Aside from having to pretend we like the PVC hibiscus on our friends’ tube-tops this means the welcome return of some of the vehement, angst-addled rock music that so tempered the decade that broke punk. One of the more notable players of the era was Soundgarden’s Kim Thayil; whose collection of vintage Guild axes became almost as iconic as his wah drenched wailing. Skip forward to today and Soundgarden are back on the road and Guild has teamed up with one of the company’s biggest champions to reintroduce the S100 Polara to the world. Modeled faithfully on the original designs from the mid 70s, the Polara’s solid mahogany body has that familiar, slightly offset swagger with the devilish, SG-style horns that Thayil fell in love with in the first place. The neck is heavy duty with its almost tree trunk thick ‘C’ profile and luxurious 24-¾ scale length. The balance of weight across the body is much more even here than in most SG’s I’ve played, i.e. it
doesn’t collapse towards the headstock every time your hands come clear, and it’s light enough that you can throw it around at will without losing it like a child’s balloon. The Art Deco appeal of the stop-bar tailpiece, 10-gallon hat style knobs, ivoroid binding and glossy, jet-black finish combine to make it as classy an affair to look at as it is to hold. Basically it’s everything that kept the originals competing with Gibson’s iconic design for so long reignited for a new generation of riff-lords.
seem to have headroom of their own. One rail of pole pieces atop an Alnico II magnet in each pick up catches all the attack and heft of your playing but also allows you to pull back a long way to squeeze out some delicate, chiming tonality. Few other guitars can handle as broad a sweep in voicing as the Polara meaning you can switch between the muscularity of SRV sweating through and hacking away at 13 gauge strings and Jeff Buckley swooning a lullaby simply by rolling off the volume knob a touch.
The thing that really sets the S100 apart from other dual humbucker, dual cutaway guitars is the extraordinary sensitivity and versatility in the Guild designed HB1 pickups. They’ve always been an interesting angle on the P90 style pick-up in that they
I’m not going to lie, the first thing I did when I pulled the S100 Polara out of its case was drop the low E down a step, slop on some dirt tone and play as many sludgy 90s riffs as I could remember. As satisfying as that was though I got the distinct
this would result in a lack of sustain. After moving through some legato phrases across the fretboard on the St Vincent – even through a clean amp – I found that myth to be well and truly busted. This guitar has got sustain for days.
instrument are the plastic volume and tone knobs that feel a bit cheap in comparison to the rest of the guitar. Of course, it’s what’s under the hood that really counts. One of the stand-out aspects of the St. Vincent are its three mini humbuckers. Personally, I’d not played a guitar with mini humbuckers before – and these are worth the price of admission alone. Far from sounding like a standard humbucker or a P90, these have their own sound going on entirely. At times, they conjure tones you’d associate with a single coil: snappy, responsive, and even quacky when in the right position. However, there’s a warmth and roundness here that you’re not going to get with a Strat or Tele. Ultimately, that makes this an extremely versatile all-rounder that could slot into many different styles of music. In the same way St. Vincent’s music defies genre and easy categorisation, so too does her signature guitar.
feeling like the guitar wanted more from me, like it had more than just sheer riffage that it needed to say. Sure, it is every bit the rock machine but for every bit of might it dishes out there is an equal portion of tenderness. After all, a tonne of bricks weight the same as a tonne of feathers; just one is harder to carry. BY LUKE SHIELDS HITS • Incredibly versatile tone • Classic look • Unquestionably playable • Not a one trick pony MISSES • Chunky neck profile
ERNIE BALL MUSIC MAN St. Vincent Signature Model CMC Music Australia | cmcmusic.com.au | Expect to Pay: $4295
To be frank, signature guitars can often be more trouble than they’re worth. All too often guitar manufacturers are tempted into drafting up a slightly redesigned version of an already in-production model, slapping the artist’s name on the headstock, jacking up the price and calling it a day. Thankfully, Ernie Ball’s St. Vincent signature model strays far away from this notion. With handson production ideas contributed from Annie Clarke at every step of the way, the result is a guitar that is unlike any other on the market today - a unique beast reimagined from the ground up. First thing’s first, the finish is utterly striking. While great aesthetics are just the tip of the iceberg here, it’s clear that a very specific mission statement has been embedded and implemented into this guitar at all stages of the design process. That being, why play by the rules of convention when you can re-write the rulebook altogether? Case in point; the body shape was designed by St. Vincent specifically with this in mind. The closest comparison would be something akin to a Gibson Explorer or Moderne – an angular offset, essentially. Regardless, it’s entirely refreshing to see a guitar that’s actively seeking to reinvent ideas in a way that isn’t derivative of a classic design. Strapping it on, the first thing you’ll notice is how light this thing is. At 3.31kgs, it’s more than manageable for longer sessions of playing. Traditionally, you might think 42
While it is light, and the body relatively small, it doesn’t result in playing like a small guitar. With a scale length of 64.8cm (25.5”) and a 25.4cm (10”) neck radius, there’s more than ample room across the fretboard to play without feeling clustered. In fact, the neck of this guitar is one of its greatest assets. While it’s by no means chunky, the St. Vincent is a fast and dexterous shape that accommodates bends, complex chords that involve stretching your pinky that one extra fret, and fast playing with ease. All the hardware is up to scratch, with a sturdy bridge and tremolo system. The tuning pegs are firm and exact, and the intonation was pretty much bang-on out of the box. The only thing that belies the quality of this
So why would you buy this? Why stray towards an Ernie Ball Music Man guitar when
there are perhaps ‘safer’ choices out there to make? As far as I’m concerned, you can distil it down to two things. Firstly, this is really a first-class instrument. The quality is right up there – if not surpassing – more popular manufacturers at the same price point. It sounds great, it plays even better and looks fantastic. Secondly, why repeat what’s been done? Why stick to the norm? Just like St Vincent herself, this guitar pushes the boundaries of convention and expectation. Ultimately, that’s a hell of a lot more exciting than sticking to the status-quo. BY JAMES DI FABRIZIO HITS • Inventive Design • Fast fretboard • Comfortable neck shape MISSES • Plastic tone and volume knobs could use an upgrade mixdownmag.com.au
Smorgasbord Of Tones
NEW
The Dynamic Duo The new series of affordable stomp boxes covers all essential guitar effects, with a sound quality to satisfy both the aficionado on a budget and the new kid on the tonal block. On a quest for warm vintage compression? With its all-analog circuitry Forcefield Compressor has got you covered. Need some 20dBs of super transparent clean boost? Rush Booster to the rescue!
RRP $109 Available Through All Good MI Retailers! Distributed in Australia by Amber Technology www.ambertech.com.au | 1800 251 367 | sales@ambertech.com.au
Road Tests FENDER American Professional Jazz Bass Fender Music Australia | fender.com.au | Expect to pay $3699
Tried and trusted, Fender’s Jazz Bass is a living classic. From the outset its brighter tone, richer midrange and more prominent treble made it a much-loved point of difference to the Precision Bass, and an embraced constant in the ever-changing Fender range. It’s a bass guitar with style, with pizzazz, with oomph and versatility thanks to a couple of well-refined single coil pickups, added controls and a sleek offset body. Like any proven formula, it’s something that you don’t want to mess with too drastically, otherwise risk muddying the sonic personality and the aesthetic appeal of the instrument. With every new iteration of the bass model, it always begs the question: what can Fender do that hasn’t been done before? And after that, what is the impact of these changes and/or additions? With the release of the new American Professional Jazz Bass accompanied by a bunch of new features, it’s time to once again answer these pertinent questions. The American Pro Jazz Bass is an instrument to be admired. A curved, slightly offset double cutaway alder body – streamlined with a glancing pocket on the back – meets a lush, rosewood fingerboard that’s just as slender. The deep shades of the 3-colour sunburst finish exude confidence and sophistication. Like any of the household Fender models, the Jazz Bass is steeped in a rich history of
craftsmanship and manufacturing excellence. So when you do get your hands on the latest model, and of American make, it’s important to savour the moment. As expected, the Pro Jazz Bass offers exceptional playability with the longstanding Modern ‘C’ neck profile. Unlike the rest of the Professional Series range, which moved to a Deep ‘C’ neck profile, the Jazz Bass thankfully stays true to what has held it in good stead in the past. What has changed though is the fret shape, which was previously medium jumbo, and is now tall narrow. This acts to sharpen and tighten the precision of each note ever so slightly with increased intonation accuracy. The playing experience is one characterised by smooth and uninhibited runs, great traction and total control. While my hands are on the small side, I can comfortably reach around the entire neck with ease – a source of confidence for all bassists. Construction-wise, the neck is reinforced with a set of Posiflex graphite rods to ensure it stays straight, with greater strength and stability – a nice addition, and one we have seen from Fender in the past.
The Pro Jazz Bass has a HiMass vintagestyle bridge, which works in conjunction with the bone nut to enhance sustain and deliver pronounced articulation. This is then complemented by the newly introduced fluted tuner design, made to provide greater string tension with a prime break angle over the nut; all of which act to provide tuning accuracy and stability. This bass is fitted with a pair of V-Mod single-coil Jazz Bass pickups. With the use of various alnico magnets it leans fairly close to its tonal roots, with versatility provided by your standard two-volume, one-tone knob setup. In order to dial in on a mean growl that is circular, booming and resonant, lean on the neck pick up while rolling back on both the bridge pickup and on the tone knob. With both volume knobs at three quarters full, and the tone at half full, you are met with a tight response well suited to indie rock basslines that require a sharp, clear and direct tone. Then with less neck pickup, and increased treble and bridge volume, the bass dials on a lively, dynamic, funk-like tone that pops and sizzles with hammer
ons and pull offs – perfect for groovy runs and pronounced solos. It’s a stretch to say that this is a new Jazz Bass model. In truth, it’s an upgrade of sorts, a subtly refined instrument that was already the complete package. What’s undeniable, however, is the quality of this bass guitar – uncompromising and utterly rewarding. BY CHRIS SCOTT HITS • V-Mod single-coil pickups uphold the tonal quality and versatility of previous models • The slim neck profile and narrow tall frets are a joy to play • Quality construction and hardware, through and through MISSES • Shares many similarities with the previous Standard model.
JACKSON Scott Ian KVXT X-Series Fender Music Australia | fender.com.au | Expect to pay $1899
Jackson Guitars have never been one to shy away from the spotlight. They deal in heavy metal and everything that comes with it: the pulverising tone, pulsating riffs, even hotter leads and audacious looking weapons. All of which was founded upon a 1980 collaboration between Jackson and Randy Rhoads, from which the Flying V-inspired Concorde was born. From that very moment the ‘V’ body shape became synonymous with Jackson, and so too the typical pointed headstock, as well as a penchant for producing guitars that play unbelievably fast. Touching upon all of these traits is the X Series Scott Ian King V KVXT. A signature guitar made in the name of thrash metal legend and Anthrax founding member Scott Ian, the KVXT is an axe pulled straight from the heyday of 80s metal. For all you V-shaped guitar lovers out there, this is going to be a doozy. The mahogany body is beautifully refined; the subtle curves of the V and the Ivory gloss polyester finish match menace with class. Glossy pearloid block inlays offset the earthy mahogany neck, while Jackson’s signature pointed six-in-line headstock is still a sight in itself. It’s tremendously light when in hand, and once you have adjusted your strap to adhere for the V-shaped body, it’s quite comfortable. Essential to the build of this guitar is 44
important, however, that there still remains texture and articulation, which is the case here. The liveliness and high-end emphasis will reward player’s technique, while the versatility of the tone knob can also land a more balanced response. The neck pickup is thunderous and crunching. When rolling back on the tone knob the sound is deep and guttural, perfect for breakdowns and palm-muted chugs. As expected the tonal layout of this axe is heavily entrenched in the use of OD and distortion.
the neck-through-body construction – a hallmark of Jackson guitars since 1980. This ensures greater stability and sturdiness and, in turn, longevity. It further provides easier access to the upper frets for enhanced playability, and an added dose of sustain. As Jackson mention on their site, this is a construction technique often reserved to high-end models as a result of the extra labour and craftsmanship required to manufacture a neck-through. Which makes it a great inclusion for a guitar at this price range. Add to that the graphite support rods flanking the truss rod and you’ve got a hardened instrument primed for regular use.
get optimum traction for riffage at the nut, and more accessibility and accuracy shredding lead and performing bends as you move higher up the neck.
The 24.75” scale, 22 jumbo frets and 12”-16” compound-radius fingerboard make this guitar a breeze to navigate. The fact that its compound-radius means that the fingerboard gradually flattens toward the heel, while remaining fuller, and more rounded at the nut. This is just common sense manufacturing, allowing players to
On board the KVXY are two Duncandesigned humbucking pickups – a fiery HB-103B humbucking bridge pickup and a booming HB-103N humbucking neck pickup – controlled by a tone knob, a pickup switch, and a volume knob. On the bridge pickup there’s a ton of heat, designed to flourish with immense OD saturation. It’s
As a cool-looking guitar with some highend features, and at a modest price, this is a viable option for any metal or hard rock guitarist. It looks the part and plays to its intended audience. BY CHRIS SCOTT HITS • Compound-radius fingerboard is perfectly tailored to the guitar’s purpose • Quality neck-through-body construction • Looks the part MISSES • The fresh polyester gloss finish on the neck is a little too sticky for my liking • Doesn’t come with a case mixdownmag.com.au
Road Tests RADIAL Switchbone V2 600 Amber Technology | ambertech.com.au | Expect to pay: $589
When I look at the length and breadth of Radial Engineering’s extensive catalogue, one thing comes to mind – here is a broad spectrum of what are essentially life hacks for the professional musician. Their most widely proliferated product by far is their ever-reliable series of DI boxes, the little green things on the floor that sound engineers covet, and they have ventured far into the realm of effects with some of the creamiest distortions and drives on the market. But their real mastery lies in their ceaseless exploration of the stuff you wouldn’t necessarily ever hear. The ace in the hole of so many players, their ABY switchers, buffers, drag boxes and other tricks of the trade are some of the most unsung heroes of the stage and studio world. Never ones to rest on their laurels, once in a while Radial’s engineers like to combine a bunch of their ideas and level up the trickery as they have with the Switchbone V2. ABY switching is by no means a new concept for the signal path savvy. For as long as amps have been annoying neighbours, guitarists have wanted to use as many of them at once as is financially possible. Look to J. Mascis and Neil Young’s touring rigs for prime examples of how to master unfathomable combinations of tone. The Switchbone V2 seeks to afford the player tidy access to as many amp options as you can fit on a stage. All outputs have dedicated buffers, the supplementary two have their own dedicated ground lifts and
phase switches. In one mode, Channel A is your heavy hitter, the basis of all your tone to which you add Channel B at the tap of a switch with your tuner out isolated off to one side. In another you can switch between two secondary rigs and in another, more perfect world you can have all three amps on at once to achieve total sonic nirvana, or devastation, depending on proximity. And that’s only one set of functions. You also have total control over the amount and colour of buffering in the input stage to ensure that your tone is absolutely your own and not the Switchbone’s. Drag control contours to fit the load your circuit heaps on your pickups and the Slingshot options
at the output stage mean that you can turf the footswitch that came with your amp and harness pulse controlled effects like amp reverb from the same unit. There’s a boost with options for 500hz mid boost to lift your solos out of the soil and every other option under the sun via various dipswitches, set and forget controls inside the unit itself and combinations thereof.
practice, as are most things in electronic engineering, splitting one signal into multiple destinations has never been more viable and once you wrap your head around all the things it can do it’s one smooth step to firing on all engines.
To talk about the sound of a pedal like this is, to a point, counterintuitive. It’s not designed to have a sound so much as to allow you infinite control over the way you interact with the rest of your equipment, and it does so with an effective and extensive array of capabilities. Simple enough in theory but complicated in
HITS • Heavy-duty construction housing just about every channel path option you could ever need.
BY LUKE SHIELDS
MISSES • Complicated instructions for the uninitiated.
INTRODUCING
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Road Tests MOOER Tender Octaver Pro Pedal Jade Australia | jadeaustralia.com.au | Expect to pay $229
Mooer have certainly made a name for themselves in the world of miniature effects pedals, but what happens when they want to deliver a larger version? In this instance, just a bigger housing was required essentially to fit more stuff in there, yet the team at Mooer still managed to deliver a unit that is not much bigger than most single effects pedals on the market. Mooer can offer more, but just because it needs to be bigger doesn’t mean it needs to be big. The Tender Octaver Pro is the result of the developers at Mooer building on the popular Tender Octaver pedal, but with so much more control and added sweetness, you’d swear it needed to be bigger to fit it all in there. In an era where everyone seems to be trying to cram more effects onto their pedal boards, any unit that comes undersized is always a blessing. Of course there has to be some sacrifices made to achieve this, and with the Tender Octaver Pro you get that in the micro knobs for controlling certain elements of the pedal. However, they will generally only need to be set once and left alone, so it is no great drama. The fact that the two soft touch switches are adequately spaced apart to allow separate engagement without hitting the wrong button is great. On such a small pedal, they have still managed to space it out so that you can work in a practical
manner. With all the inputs and outputs at the top of the pedal, you can squeeze this into most busy pedal boards quite easily. This pedal gives the user a lot more than the first version, with engagement switches for the effect as a whole and a toggle motion through the presets. Yes, presets. You are able to store four user defined settings in the unit that can be easily recalled and scrolled through, making this a far more versatile unit that any before. You also get independent level and tone controls for both octaves too, allowing you to really thicken the signal and achieve more of a harmonising effect. A smooth
control knob allows you to set the intensity of automatic volume swells, giving this that real ambient vibe that is all the rage at the moment in guitar effects. If you want a lot of variety in very little space, this pedal is going to achieve that. Octaves up and down as well as some wacky detuning and harmony effects when set at very close intervals. This is one pedal that needs to be heard to be understood. It won’t work in every song, but it will make your sound stand out, that’s for sure.
HITS • Separate Sub and Upper engagement • Easy storage of pre-sets • Able to accept an expression pedal for greater control MISSES • I didn’t like the colour, although you might say otherwise
BY ROB GEE
ERNIE BALL FlexTune Clip-On Tuner CMC Music Australia | cmcmusic.com.au | Expect to Pay: $38.95
Clip-on tuners are become staples of the gigging guitarist, particularly those with simple stage setups or who prefer playing acoustic. But in an increasingly crowded market and rapid developments in technology, what’s on offer has never been more competitive. Does Ernie Ball’s latest offering stack up to the rest? Thankfully, yes, but more than that, it also makes some impressive strides forward of its own. So, what’s in a name then? Ernie Ball has dubbed this little beauty the FlexTune because it offers more flexibility and options than other tuners in the clip-on category. Multi-instrumentalists are in luck here. The FlexTune works on guitar, bass, ukulele, banjo, violins and more. To be honest, if you’re playing all those instruments during the same gig you either need to reassess the direction your band is heading in or hope there’s a big market for Arcade Fire tribute bands in the future. Regardless, this makes for a very handy addition to your home studio. Keep it lying around and you’ll be set for almost any occasion. Its dual-axis 360-degree arm swivels around all the way behind the headstock. This makes it easy to keep track of your tuning throughout the gig, without having a little black device protruding from the top of your headstock the entire time. It’s 46
a small difference, but once you get used to how discreet the FlexTune is, it’s hard to turn back. With both the arm and the display able to rotate, it’s also able to accommodate different playing positions. Whether you’re standing or sitting, you’ll be able to find the right angle that works for the situation every time. Other tuners can get confused when moving away from standard, but the FlexTune was also able to handle moving from EADGBE to open C# with ease. The 2” LCD display is large enough to properly see what you’re doing without being too cumbersome. Being a clip-on, it’s sometimes even easier
to see than a floor tuner as you’re able to maneuverer it to suit. Whether you want to tune at 440hz or 450hz and everything between, the FlexTune will get you there and get you there precisely. Even in noisy situations even on stage with a bass and kick coming through the monitors - this worked a charm. In a nice touch, you can also select between ‘mic’ mode or ‘clip-on’. I found no difference in tuning precision between the two, but for home environments I tended to stick to ‘mic’. Whatever your preference, it’s good to have the option to switch between the two at will.
Here’s the thing. No one’s pining after the latest tuner. They’re not the most exciting things to go out and buy. But the truth is, they’re absolutely essential. The first thing that separates pro players from amateurs – from someone wincing at your music to enjoying it – is whether you’re playing in tune. It’s a simple thing to get right, and the FlexTune aims to make it simple as possible. If a no-fuss, quality clip-on tuner is what you’re after, they don’t come much better than this. BY JAMES DI FABRIZIO HITS • Dual-rotating arm and display • Precise tuning to the cent • Alternative mic and clip-on mode MISSES • None mixdownmag.com.au
Show & Tell Luke Dux of The Floors What piece of equipment do you have to show us today? 1973 Gibson SG Custom. How did you come across this particular item? I bought it off a crazy scientist who lived in the Perth hills and worked between here and Texas. He let me pay it off in instalments. He trusted me as we both had affection for Cowboy Boots. What is that you like so much about it? You need to fight it to make it work. I like how unstable SG’s feel, you can bend the neck and shake notes out of them. The original Gibson Bigsby is fun and helps me when I’m lost. How do you use it, and how has it shaped the way you write music? It forces me to play less. It’s not a smooth playing guitar,so I need to choose my notes wisely. I think the sound is in your hands, no matter what instrument you pick up. You just have to find the one that makes you sound like you. Any other interesting points/stories about it? It has a Firebird pickup in the neck and some weird cheap toaster grill looking pickup in the middle. The pickup is too big for the surround and kept popping out so I had to gaffer tape it in halfway through a gig and it’s stayed that way for years. Tell us a little bit about what you have coming up? The Floors are just about to release a second studio album through BEAST Records on March 10 and we’ll be touring France in May. Also, a bunch of records I played on should be released soon including releases from Lucy Peach, Davey Craddock, Dom Mariani and the Majestic Kelp and Timothy Nelson. You can hear this chunk of wood on all of them.
Band Of Frequencies What piece of equipment do you have to show us today? Well I hope this isn’t cheating, but it’s actually a combo of two pieces that form one of my favourite character recording signal chains I’ve found to date. First up in the chain is my circa 1950’60s Toshiba Ribbon Mic - a Japanese made clone of the RCA 74 Jnr - plugged directly into my Tube-Tech RM8 all valve Mic Pre / Opto Compressor / Pultec style EQ chain. How did you come across this particular item? The Toshiba Ribbon was an eBay find. I bought it from a TV station in Japan. The mic had been immaculately kept and has worked perfectly ever since I got it years ago. I know there’s always a risk buying vintage mics on eBay, but when you can get them serviced or repaired locally for a couple hundred bucks I think it’s always worth that risk for the curiosity and character they can bring into your workflow. My Tube Tech RM8 was also purchased on eBay as four separate pieces from one seller in the USA. The timing was perfect as the Aussie dollar had surpassed the greenback in value so the savings were incredible. I’d first heard about the units on a “aptone Studio Tour video and as I’m a huge fan of that classic sound, I knew if it was good enough for Gabe Roth it was definitely good enough for me. What is that you like so much about it? ‘Toshie’ has such a nostalgic tone and unbelievably creamy sound that breaks up just right when you hit it with a bit of volume. On vocals it provides me that special saturated tone and grit that we hear on so many old school recordings that newer mics, even ribbons, just don’t create. On guitar amps it gives me a richness and a midrange quality that rarely requires any further EQ. And it just sounds perfectly old. Also paired with the all valve input path on the tubetech and its variable impedance on the pre, the variety of sounds I can get from this one chain truly amazes me and kicks tone goals daily. How do you use it, and how has it shaped the way you write music? Toshie is my go-to old school sounding mic. Whatever I want to sound vintage, be it vocals, drum rooms, upright bass, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, horns or percussion, the 1950’s Toshiba Ribbon hits the spot. Its got more croak than the frog in your dunny. Of course, it has a noise floor, but seriously, would you choose pristine cleanliness over all-time vibe? The TubeTech RM8 is my favourite pre to pair with Toshie and I think the variable impedance has a lot to do with this. At 2.4K, the vintage ribbon is much brighter and cleaner sounding with more
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ÊÊÊÊÊPlugsÊ dynamics. Then dialled down to 600hz, its like adding a limiter and glorious vintage saturation to the mic. If you want that vintage dirt, this is the way. The RM8 is also the best bass DI signal path you could ever ask for, and it sounds completely amazing on vocals, whichever mic I use. The opto compressor does it all from subtle peak controls to smashed out room mics and the EQ is pure delight. Toshie was used during the creation of the soundtrack for Men of Wood & Foam, which we recently did on Sol-R’s guitar amp. It was then also used to record the vocals for the theme song and all the guitar overdubs we did on the ‘surf guitars’ section of the soundtrack. Our brief was to emulate the sounds of the 50s, 60s and 70s for the soundtrack, and so we used a simple oldschool live recording setup with all vintage mics and outboard spring reverb. Toshie basically had this in the bag for us before we even started. Any other interesting points/stories about it? I’ve searched for info about this mic, and furthermore
the chance to buy another one, for years now, and the only picture I can find of this model is the orginal eBay photo the Japanese seller put up. I have a feeling it’s extremely rare. If any readers know anything more about Toshiba Ribbon mics from the 50s and 60s please get in touch.
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Directory EVOLUTION MUSIC
(Music Instruments Retailer) A | P | E | W|
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MELBOURNE MUSIC CENTRE
MUSIC 440
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MONA VALE MUSIC
(Drums Specialist Retailer)
(Music Instruments Retailer)
A | 4a Izett St, Prahran 3181 P | (03) 9521 4644 E | sales@revolverdrums.com.au W | revolverdrums.com.au @revolverdrums
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DAMIEN GERARD STUDIOS
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MODERN MUSICIAN
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ARCADE SCREENPRINTING
106 Murray Street, Hobart TAS (03) 6234 5537 nick@modernmusician.com.au modernmusician.com.au facebook.com/modernmusician
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