Product News

PreSonus Introduce The Eris E7 XT Monitors

LINK AUDIO | LINKAUDIO.COM.AU

New from PreSonus, the Eris E7 XT 2-way studio monitors look set to make quite a splash in the prosumer market. Their 6.5” woven composite drivers and 1.25” silk-dome tweeters offer up to 104 dB of crystal-clear studio quality sound, while a new Elliptical Boundary Modeled waveguide ensures a wider high-frequency dispersion for optimised group listening and collaboration. These ones are expected to land in stores mid-March – get onto your local PreSonus dealer to get your order in today.

KRK Rokit V Series Monitors Out Now

JANDS | JANDS.COM.AU

In the world of sound design and post-production, good monitoring is an absolute must. Thankfully, KRK Rokit offers a hot of near eld options that bring professional quality reproduction into the home studio. The V series come in 4”, 6.5” and 8” variants, all featuring bi-amped class-D circuitry and Kevlar woofers and tweeters, meaning a smooth, detailed midrange free of additional colourisation and a tight, controlled perfect for crafting subterranean depth charges and proton blasts. The onboard DSP also allows for super easy room integration, which is sure to be of primary importance to anyone working in a critical  eld. Pop into your local KRK dealer today and hear for yourself!

Get Your Room Pod Ready With Primacoustic

AMBER TECHNOLOGY | AMBERTECH.COM.AU

In any audio  eld that relies primarily on dialogue (podcasts included) - ambience is de nitely not your friend. Re ections can cause harshness, phase issues and  utter echo, sabotaging your audio before it even hits the mic. Luckily Primacoustic are onto it with a range of acoustic panel options for the home studio and more. Room kits like the London 8 and London 12 go a particularly long way towards taming any sonic nasties, meaning professional sounding recordings for you and yours. Contact your local Primacoustic dealer today to  nd out how best way to treat your space.

Kyser Celebrate 40 Years With The Limited Edition Milton Capo CMC MUSIC | CMCMUSIC.COM.AU Kyser Musical Products are turning 40 this year, and to celebrate this milestone, they’ve released a Limited Edition Quick-Change Capo as a tribute to company founder Milton Kyser. Featuring a special power-coated chrome  nish and insignia, the Milton Capo is limited to an exclusive run of 2000 units, and also comes in a nifty keepsake box with a hand-numbered certi cate of authenticity. Check in with your local Kyser dealer to see if they’ve got one in stock.

ReAmp And Repeat With Radial AMBER TECHNOLOGY | AMBERTECH.COM.AU Take our word for it, ReAmping is fun as all hell and nobody does it better than the good folks over at Radial. The JCR Studio ReAmper is Radial’s premium ReAmp box and features the highly lauded John Cuniberti circuit found on the original ReAmp units of yesteryear, guaranteed to keep additional noise to a minimum on your way back through the signal chain. With the addition of an all important gain pot for level control and with switchable High Pass and low pass  lters, the JCR ReAmper is ideal for heady production types and sound design enthusiast alike. Check in with your Radial dealer today and get creative.

Ernie Ball Adds 14 New Strap Designs CMC MUSIC | CMCMUSIC.COM.AU Any musician can attest to the importance of a good guitar strap. Ernie Ball’s Jacquard Strap collection is a popular choice for many a guitarist, and they’ve recently expanded the range for 2020 with 14 new designs, ranging from subtle tones to vibrant, psychedelic swirls. All new additions feature embroidered leather ends with durable polypropylene webbing, and boast an extra-long design for ease of application – whether you’re a low-riding riff lord or a high-strung strummer, you’re in safe hands with Ernie Ball.

Zoom Debut New G11 Multi-Effects Pedal DYNAMIC MUSIC | DYNAMICMUSIC.COM.AU Ever the kings of the multi-effects world, the legends at Zoom have come through with the goods yet again, this time unveiling their new G11 Multi-Effects unit at the recent NAMM showcase. Boasting a dizzying array of features and tweakable parameters and more effects and amp options than you can poke a stick at. The new G11 is without doubt Zoom’s most powerful multi effects unit to date and should be reaching our shores very shortly. Contact your local Zoom stockist today to call  rst dibs.

EVE Audio Debut New SC3070 Studio Monitors

Phil Jones Bass Introduce The Cub II Bass Amplifier

ELECTRIC FACTORY| ELFA.COM.AU

German Monitor specialists, EVE Audio, recently unveiled the newest member to their already steller product range, the conveniently sized SC3070 3-way near eld montor. Incorporating Eve’s patented RS3 Air Motion Transformer and 100% designed and assembled in Germany, rest-assured these are high-quality speakers for any situation where detail is of the utmost concern. Get to your local Eve dealer and check ’em out. EGM DISTRIBUTION | EGM.NET.AU

Phil Jones Bass are looking to follow on from the success of the original Cub ampli er with the launch of the new Cub II, adding in extra tweaks to make it even more versatile for players.The Cub II features a new ampli er design to offer a superior transient attack, greater dynamic range and a reduction in harmonic distortion, with the loudspeaker cone acceleration also being improved to highlight a wider and smoother frequency response. To sweeten the deal, the PJB Cub II weighs a measly seven kilograms, and even includes a soft cover for whenever you hit the road.

IK Multimedia Announces Z-Tone Buffer Boost DI + Axe I/O Solo

SOUND & MUSIC | SOUND-MUSIC.COM.AU

Italian audio giants IK Multimedia have detailed a new trio of products set to hit the market this year, including a new take on the AXE I/O interface and two Z-TONE products. Drawing from their coveted Z-TONE technology, the Z-TONE Buffer Boost provides guitarists and bassists with a quality tone shaping solution for guitarists and bassists alike, functioning as a pretty nifty preamp/DI pedal, while a DI box is also available for those who need it. They’ve also made a downsized version of their popular Axe I/O interface – head online for details.

Phil Jones Bass Introduce The Cub II Bass Amplifier

EGM DISTRIBUTION | EGM.NET.AU

Phil Jones Bass are looking to follow on from the success of the original Cub ampli er with the launch of the new Cub II, adding in extra tweaks to make it even more versatile for players.The Cub II features a new ampli er design to offer a superior transient attack, greater dynamic range and a reduction in harmonic distortion, with the loudspeaker cone acceleration also being improved to highlight a wider and smoother frequency response. To sweeten the deal, the PJB Cub II weighs a measly seven kilograms, and even includes a soft cover for whenever you hit the road.

Audio-Technica Debut Their First Beer Collaboration AUDIO-TECHNICA AUSTRALIA | AUDIOTECHNICA.COM.AU Turntables, microphones, headphones... lager? Audio-Technica are adding yet another notch to their belt with the announcement that they’re commissioning a special run of lager with Yulli’s Brews. Brewed as a means of celebrating the art of karaoke - a popular past time in AudioTechnica’s homebase in Japan - the Karaoke Kingu Rice Lager is a limited-edition release for the company, and although we’re not sure about sound quality, we can attest to the fact it’s a pretty decent brew. They’re launching it at Yulli’s Brews HQ in Alexandria next month with a sweet party – head to our website for details.

DEFTONES GALLOP ONWARDS

25 years ago, a group of teenagers barely out of high school took their love of bouncy, angsty alt-rock and metal to forge into a sound that was exciting and new – or should that be nu? – at the time. The name of the band was Deftones, and the album was fittingly titled Adrenaline.

Although he teases incredulity at the fact (“25 years ago? But I’m only 28!”), drummer and founding member Abe Cunningham recalls the band circa their debut album as hungry and ambitious, but ultimately clueless. “We had no idea what we were doing,” he says.

“We were handsome, innocent little babies – some might argue we’re still little babies, but that’s another story. It’s funny... a lot of how we operated back then is not that different to the way things are now. We’ve never really thought too much about what we’re writing, for better or worse. We just kind of take the ideas that we have and we go for it.

"WE GET IN THE ROOM, WE ARGUE, WE FIGHT, WE LAUGH, WE TALK A LOT OF SHIT AND WE SEE WHAT WE CAN COME UP WITH.”

legacy – and it’s safe to say that there would be next to no legacy for the band to stake its name on were it not for their third album, White Pony.

“25 years is a long time, but we still get together in the same place that we’ve had for ages and it falls back into place. We get in the room, we argue, we  ght, we laugh, we talk a lot of shit and we see what we can come up with.” Getting in the room is exactly what Cunningham and co. have been focusing in on of late, as they recently  nished tracking what will be their ninth studio album. Currently in the mixing process, the album is slated for a potential release in the second half of 2020, if everything goes to plan.

It’s an exciting time in the Deftones camp, which is something Cunningham is the  rst to attest to. “It’s cool, man,” he reports – as only a southern Californian can. “We did things a little bit differently this time. We stretched everything out over the course of a couple of years, rather than blasting through in one go. The process has been mixed with about a year-long break, that we all agreed upon. Being rested and taking that time off really made us appreciate what we’re doing even more. When we’re all laughing and smiling and coming up with stuff together, just like when we were 17... it’s a beautiful thing.”

With no new album to sell to a captive audience (yet, at least), Deftones will spend this year playing shows as a celebration of their Celebrated upon release, White Pony is a ferocious melding of all that makes Deftones great, boasting anthems such as ‘Back To School’, ‘Digital Bath’ and the Maynard James Keenan-featuring ‘Passenger’. It’s still considered the band’s magnum opus, and its in uence lingers in the fabric of many of today’s alternative metal acts. In May, the album will celebrate its 20th anniversary, and while Deftones albums have come and gone the impact of White Pony is still felt among both fans and the band itself to this very day. “We change the set-list every night, but White Pony is always at the core of it,” says Cunningham. “I remember everything about making that album. I’m so amazed it’s had the legs that it’s had.

“A  rst record is one thing... they say you have your whole life to write your  rst, and that’s absolutely true. We were so excited about making a second album, we rushed into Around the Fur. When it came time to make White Pony, we were burnt out from all the touring – but we knew what we wanted.” Although White Pony – and Deftones themselves, by extension – were associated with the movement of nu-metal around the turn of the century, there was always something decidedly different about how both operated. There’s plenty of downtuned, goatee’d rage to be found on Around the Fur, certainly. White Pony, however, was the  rst album in which the band really began to assert their place within the musical spectrum – one so idiosyncratic that they’ve been near impossible to draw parallels with.

“There was a lot going on at the time in heavy music,” says Cunningham. “We made the very conscious effort to go the exact opposite way that everyone else was. “At the time, what we were trying to do seemed impossible – it was like trying to carve our name in granite using a plastic fork. Still, if we hadn’t done that, I don’t think that we would be the band that we are now, in the position that we are now. I truly believe that, man.”

Next month will see the band return to Australia as one of the marquee acts of the 2020 Download Festival alongside My Chemical Romance, Clutch and Jimmy Eat World. Cunningham says that you can expect to hear a healthy blend of songs from across Deftones’ entire career – truly, depending on when you see them, you may end up with something completely different. “People like our albums – and don’t like our albums – for lots of different reasons,” muses Cunningham. “We try to always make the shows be a ride. We have mellow songs, we have bangers, we have songs that are a journey to listen to... to get all of it out is exhausting, but we love it so much.”

BY DAVID JAMES YOUNG

Deftones are touring Australia for Download Festival this month, and are performing sideshows in Brisbane and Adelaide. Head to Live Nation for tickets and further details.