The Slapstik

Anyone who is interesting in innovative ways to create grooves and beats will be interested in a new product on the market called The Slapstik®. The Slapstik® is essentially a drumstick taken to the next level… with a completely original design for a drumstick tip.

The Slapstick® functions as any other drumstick would, but with the added benefit of a swivel tip that let’s you play 16th notes with ease on your hi-hat by enabling an “up” stroke in addition to the normal “down” stroke.

While it seems like a simple concept, it does require practice. It is not a typical movement that your hand would be accustom to playing. But, that said, once you practice it enough, I think it actually helps even out your stroke. I found putting a bit more arm movement helps in the beginning, then you gradually shift that technique to your wrist.

One thing I found really helpful here was the Slapstik® web site. It features drummer Yotam Rosenbaum taking you through the various techniques in mastering the Slapstik® groove. There is also a video of Paul Wertico taking you through some of the ways he is using the Slapstik®.

It’s a liberating experience to be able to play sambas and R&B grooves with ease, and letting your other limbs play around a bit more. Also, the fact that the Slapstik® tip also includes a ‘standard’ wooden tip, it let’s you use the Slapstik® as a normal stick as well. You can still move around the kit with this stick.

If you are someone who is always looking for new and exiting ways to play grooves, this may be the stick for you. What is great is you only need to buy one to try it out! While it does require some practice, I find it to be an excellent tool to keep next to your brushes, mallets, and blasticks.

Super Fi 5 Pro in Black

While on tour in the UK a few months ago, I decided to get some dual driver in-ear earphones. I have used dual driver in-ears before, and they really make a difference in the low end, with a driver for the mids and highs, and a driver for the low end in each ear.

So, after some Googling around, I decided to get the Ultimate Ear super.fi 5 Pro™. Ultimate Ears have a great reputation, and a huge client list which I think is a good indication that they weren’t a bad choice. Plus, they were inspired by Alex Van Halen, which is a big selling point for me!

I located a distributor in London, and on a day off I ventured in to the Tube for the hour long trip to Hand Held Audio in Northumberland Park. I can say that the trip was more than worth it. My kick drum has never sounded so huge in earphones before. The high end is just right, with a perfect balance of mid-range.

Super Fi 5 Pro

They come with a complete accessories/fitting kit which consists of small, medium, and large rubber ear tips, foam ear tips, 1/4 inch adapter, 1/8 inch line level attenuator, a cleaning tool, and a metal hard case to carry it all. You will need to try the different tips on to figure out which is the best fit for you, but since there are so many choices, you shouldn’t have trouble getting a good fit. One big selling point for me was the fact that they have a replaceable cord. How many times have you had a cord that died on you?

As for their customer service… after about two months of use, I had a problem with the right ear bud. I contacted UE’s customer support and they had new ones to me within a 1.5 weeks. Being in Australia, that is pretty quick. That is just a sign of a good company, doing great things for their customers.

Roland SPD-S

In the pursuit of finding a near-indestructable, non-skipping piece of gear that could be used for playing backing tracks in a live show, I have used MiniDisc, iPod, and 8-track digital recorders to get the job done. Each one of them have their pros and cons. But, I have had troubles with all of them at some point, usually in the middle of a show.

So, after a few frustrating gigs with a MiniDisc player that wouldn’t play nice, I decided to see if the Roland SPD-S Sampling Pad would be able to load and play entire songs. Billy Hyde Music’s drum department(*) here in Melbourne was gracious enough to lend me the SPD-S to demo it in a live situation.

The first thing I did with the SPD-S was max out it’s Compact Flash memory, which at the moment is only 512MB. It does not recognize anything larger, and according to Roland support, that is because the unit’s software was written before 1GB and 2GB CF cards were invented. I then loaded 20 full songs into the machine with no problems. Although it took a while for the machine to compress and store the files, once they were burned into the Compact Flash card, they would play flawlessly, and instantly. No delay.

UK Yamaha Tour Kit

I then setup one patch per track and assigned one song to a pad in the patch that I could start and stop by striking it with a stick. This way, I can use the patch UP and DOWN buttons to scroll through songs. The real beauty of the SPD-S though is that the tracks start immediately as you strike the pad. This worked brilliantly, especially for segues. If you are familiar enough with the tempo of a tune, you can setup a few pads to play a few songs in a row which really keeps the “live” feel.

Anytime you use electronic gear, you are bound to run into some glitches, like a power surge or better still, a deadly power outage! But, I find that the Roland SPD-S minimizes those glitches because it uses Compact Flash memory, so there are no moving parts which means that it won’t skip. Eureka!

* Special thanks to Adam Wickel from Drum Power and Tony at Billy Hyde Music.

Aura Bass Shaker

One of the drawbacks of using in-ear monitors is that you lose the feel, vibration, and air displacement of 15” wedges pointed at your body. So, when you hit the kick drum, you hear it, but don’t feel the thump. This can effect your playing a bit, especially if you like to dig into the kick drum and feel it through your body.

Enter the Aura Bass Shaker…

The Aura DSK-50 Bass Shaker is a sub speaker magnet that you can mount onto your drum throne, and when properly amplified, reproduces the low-end vibrations of the drum set. It doesn’t feel as great as a big fat wedge, but it does come in at a close second, I use two of them when doing large gigs. I power them with a little Behringer XENYX 802 mixer and an Alesis RA150 Reference Amplifier, all in a rack. All you need is a feed from the live stage mix, and away you go. This system works well, especially if you are trying to save your hearing by using an in-ear system.

Etymotic ER6

“What? Say that again please?” This is what I am sometimes forced to say, much to the dismay of whoever I am talking to, because I have a slight hearing loss from doing too many shows and rehearsals without protecting my ears. I have a constant, low volume, high-pitched ringing in my ears which actually gets louder if I am tired. In addition to the lovely ringing, I am sometimes unable to clearly differentiate T’s and D’s when listening to someone in a crowded environment. It’s not fun, for me, or anyone I talk to.

If you think you may have some hearing loss from prolonged exposure to loud music, it’s a good idea to get a hearing test from an audiologist. Another thing you may want to look into are in-ear monitors or professional musician ear plugs. I use the Etymotic ER-25 for gigs. They are earplugs that cut dB instead of muffling the sound like foam earplugs do.

If you use an iPod, ditch those Apple ear buds and check out the Etymotic ER-6i, which are in-ear buds that cut out nearly 30dB of external noise, so you can listen to music clearly, at a lower volume. Any of the Shure in-ears work well too. Then there are the high-end Sensaphonics, which can be custom moulded to your ears. In-ears in general take a bit of getting used to, but they sound amazing without killing your ears.

I scooped up 8 of these IKEA BORRIS door mats, brought them home, lined them up in two groups of four mats each, and applied good old black duct/gaffer tape to them. I wrapped the tape around the top and bottom to make sure it would hold securely, leaving about .5cm in between so you could fold it with ease. When you need to use them, you just line the both of them up together and set up your kit. Works a treat. See figure A.

So, for $16 and a little duct tape, you can have a rug that folds up into one of your cases for those gigs where you show up and find the drummer’s worst nightmare… the slippery, hard wood floor!

Audix D6

A few months back I picked up an AUDIX D6 bass drum mic after using one at a gig. I have been using my trusty AKG D-112 for about 15 years now, but when the engineer plugged in the D6 my ears lit up with delight! So much so that I had to whip out the AKG mic to A/B the difference. What I found is, with the EQ flat, the D6 is sub-beast from hell. Great top-end attack with this fat bottom-end punch. It’s the perfect kick mic for live situations. I still use the AKG because some studio engineers still prefer its natural sound, but the D6 is my mic of choice. The price is an added bonus.

Audix D6 Spec Sheet

DW Mini Pro

Although I mostly use and endorse Yamaha Drums and Grover Pro Drums, I recently picked up a silver sparkle Drum Workshop Mini Pro kit. I think it was intended to be a kid’s drum set, but when I heard it in the shop I was blown away. Out of the box… 16″ kick, 12″ snare, 10″ tom, 13″ floor tom, dw4000 bass drum pedal, dw4000 hi-hat stand, snare stand. throne, and a retro ‘off the bass drum’ cymbal arm!

It has an amazing sound, great for RnB gigs. The hardware is a bit too light. But, load-in and out can be done in one trip! The kick drum needs a proper bass drum mic which needs to go through a PA system. That adds the fat bottom to a really punchy sounding kick. Take one for a spin if you catch em’ in the stores.