If you haven’t heard of Grand Pianoramax, you may have to clear your head a bit before listening, but it has some of the tastiest playing in a groove, fusion, hip hop sort of way. The album is “The Biggest Piano in Town” and it features Adam Deitch and Deantoni Parks on the kit. I find it really entertaining. The songs are simple in the instrumentation, but sophisticated in melodies and grooves. There’s a bit of rappin’ and storytelling. The playing is spot on, and the recording is one of the most interesting I have heard in a while. Whoever recorded these sessions was masterful in their detail. And, who doesn’t love the sound of a Moog synth?

One person who definately loves that sound is Leo Tardin. He is the mastermind behind Grand Pianoramax, and he really shines on this album. His piano and Moog soar on the entire recording. It was also produced by Michele Locatelli, who has done other work on the Obliqsound label. From start to finish, it is really inspiring music.

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.

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.

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.

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.

iTunes for Drummers

iTunes is king for organizing your .mp3 and .mov files which makes it a great tool for musicians as well. When I need to learn a few sets worth of music, I rip the tunes to .mp3 files usually at a minimum of 192kbps, and then label them according to the band/artist I am working with, even if it’s cover music. I then label the “Album” category with something generic like “Live” or “Live at [insert venue name]“.

Now that I can easily locate their song list in my iTunes library, I create a playlist for every set that I am doing with the band or artist, and label them “Set 1… Set 2… Set 3…” and so on. Then it is just a matter of going through their song list and dumping each tune, in set order, into the newly created iTunes playlists.

Once I have the sets sorted, I’ll dump the playlists onto my iPod so I can walk around town and learn the tunes by ear. I find that this is a great way to familiarize yourself with the music because organizing the band’s sets into playlists really gives you a good feel for how the set will flow. It also helps you learn the intros and endings for the songs. I find that to be a big challenge when you are playing with someone for the first time. iTunes definately helps.

If you are lucky, they will supply you with their own live versions of the songs so you can learn their arrangements and segues. If not, it’s probably a good idea to organize a rehearsal with the band if the music requires it. That is where jotting down some notes about each song comes in handy…

Manuscript for Drummers

I have used a few different types of manuscript notebooks to jot down some ideas, grooves, and songs, but I found that most of them didn’t accommodate the space needed to write down a quick “cheat sheet” for a set that I needed to perform. So, I sat down and came up with a PDF file of blank manuscript that can be printed out and used to write out the music and key notes of each song.

Download Drum Manuscript PDF (A4)
Download Drum Manuscript PDF (US Letter)

In the PDF file I included enough space for the song title, a text box to write the tempo(bpm), space for the time signature, and a “ride key” that I use to quickly figure out the ride pattern of the song. It’s just four 1/4 notes that you can turn into 1/8 notes or 1/16 notes by tying them together with a pen or pencil. See Figure 1 below for an example. I found this to be an easy way to quickly get a summary of the tune. I usually grab the iPod and go through each song, writing down intros, grooves, major drum fills, and the endings of the songs. I enter the bpm in the tempo text box, and tie the notes together in the “ride key” to form the basic ride pattern of each tune.

After learning the songs by ear, and also going through this process of writing out my notes on manuscript paper, I find that I get familiar with the songs quickly. Then, it’s just a matter of practicing a bit on your own and/or with the band as well.

At the gig I bring along my notes and a metronome so I can quickly set myself up for each song in the set. I have been doing this for a while now, and it seems to be work quite well. I would love to hear any other tips you may have. So feel free to comment. Cheers!

I have the day off, so I am planning to write some blogs to fill in the gaps. Big gaps. It’s the musician’s creed of “hurry up… and wait!” There is A LOT of waiting around when you are on tour.

Look forward to the rest of the shows. 16 more to go!

Lasse Gjertsen “Amatuer”

This video is one of the most original pieces I have seen, although it reminds me of an old Art of Noise video from the 80’s. The groove is great and the fills are funky. I can’t imagine how long it would have taken to put together. Have a look see…

I’m not just saying this because I was in the Amityville H.S. marching band either!

Ivan Pacheco on Snare Drum

John Bonham / Led Zeppelin Sessions

Do yourself a favor and have a listen. The only drawback is that you will need to download the ‘non-standard’ RealOne Player if you don’t have it already. It’s not the most user-friendly music player to use, and the install can be a bit tricky if you don’t follow the instructions.

A very special thanks to Andrew Elledge for the Zep link!

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.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbReYWXSyjA

It’s a video of bassist Alvin Mills and an un-named drummer playing what looks like an old Alesis HR-16. They are doing a burning version of “Actual Proof” from Herbie Hancock’s Thrust record. Pretty cool. I am sure some DJs would love to work with this guy. Judging from his finger chops, he would be able to play some nasty break beats.

Special thanks to my good friend MAZ for the link! Maz also came up with the MySpace goods. The drummer’s name is D. Haynes:

http://www.myspace.com/dhaynesakafingerrs