Mixdown Magazine 294

FREE!

MADE BY MUSICIANS FOR MUSICIANS

#294 — OCTOBER 2018

Give

away MAR T !

ACO IN AUTH USTI ENTI C ST C RING NUX S B 2 WIRE LESS 2.4 GHZ SYST EM

INTERVIEWS — Dead Letter Circus, Parkway Drive, Cash Savage, Coheed and Cambria

REVIEWED — Ernie Ball Expression Tremolo Pedal, Yamaha MODX6 Synthesiser,

Jackson Chris Broderick Soloist HT7, NUX Cerberus Multi-Effects Pedal, Hammond SK-X Stage Keyboard

Designed for musicians on the go

J o e M a l a fu | A my S h a r k

EXPANDING DARKNESS 22˝dark crash / ride 8˝/ 10˝Dark Splashes 18˝/ 19˝/ 20˝extra thin crashes

Paiste Masters are the result of decades of experience and collaboration with leading international artists to create a range of exquisite, hand-made cymbals.

This year we expand the range with new dark sounds to compliment almost any musical performance.

P LAY TH EM TO D AY AT TH ES E P R EM I U M D R U M STO R ES STORE

SUBURB

STATE

WEB

PHONE

Better Music

Phillip

ACT

bettermusic.com.au

02 6282 3199

The Drum Shop Newcastle

Newcastle West

NSW

thedrumshopnewcastle.com.au

02 4925 3155

Drummers Dream

Belmore

NSW

drummersdream.com.au

02 9787 4177

The Drum Factory

Parramatta

NSW

guitarfactory.com.au

02 9635 5552

Just Percussion

Newstead

QLD

justpercussion.com.au

1300 576 874

Mooloolaba Music Centre

Minyama

QLD

mooloolabamusic.com.au

07 5444 8889

Drumtek

Northcote

VIC

drumtek.com.au

1300 735 784

Cranbourne Drums Superstore

Lynbrook

VIC

cranbournemusic.com.au

03 5995 5933

GH Music

Travancore

VIC

ghmusic.com.au

03 9372 6664

The Drum Shop Adelaide

Forestville

SA

derringers.com.au

1300 658 249

Mega Music

Myaree

WA

megamusiconline.com.au

08 9330 2777

Ya m a h a M u s i c A u s t r a li a p r o u d ly d i s t r i b u t es P a i s t e

paiste.com

SOUND

Using the same technology powering the flagship MONTAGE.

CONTROL

Bring the sophistication of music production automation to realtime live performance with motion control.

MOBILITY

Designed for musicians on the go, MODX is compact, lightweight and mobile.

MODX6 $1,999 RRP

MODX7 $2,399 RRP

MODX8 $2,999 RRP

61-note semi-weighted keyboard action. 6.6kg.

MODX6BAG premium soft case with backpack straps also available, $149.99 RRP.

76-note semi-weighted keyboard action. 7.4kg.

MODX7BAG premium soft case with backpack straps also available, $179.99 RRP.

88-note weighted keyboard action — Graded Hammer Standard. 13.8kg. MODX8BAG premium soft case with wheels also available, $249.99 RRP.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS: The prices set out in this advertisement are recommended retail prices (RRP) only and there is no obligation for Yamaha dealers to comply with this recommendation. *Errors and omissions excepted.

FIND A DEALER au.yamaha.com

EVENTS AND PROMOTIONS yamahabackstage.com.au

LIKE US ON FACEBOOK facebook.com/yamahabackstagepass

FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM instagram.com/yamahabackstage

WATCH VIDEOS

youtube.com/yamahaaustralia

CONTENTS 08 10 11 12 16 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 26 28 30 38 48 50

Giveaways Industry News Music News Product News Cover Story: Clutch Dead Letter Circus Parkway Drive Cash Savage The Living End Disturbed Coheed and Cambria Kink Guitar Pedals Three Phase Studios Opinion: Oasis Guitar Bass Percussion Electronic Music Production Pedal Special Product Reviews Directory Gear Rundown /MIXDOWNMAGAZINE

@MIXDOWNMAGAZINE @MIXDOWNMAGAZINE MIXDOWNMAG.COM.AU

Clutch PG. 16

Foreword

Coheed and Cambria

Disturbed

PG. 21

PG. 20

The first time I heard Clutch was about a decade ago. I had walked into the music shop I was working at back home in Christchurch and found my good friends Sherm and Kalem listening to ‘Electric Worry’ from the classic From Beale Street To Oblivion record. I was immediately taken with how much of a good time the band was and have been hooked since. Very stoked to have Clutch on the cover this month in support of their epic new record Book of Bad Decisions. This month is also our annual Pedal Special, and we’ve packed the review section full of nifty gadgets for you to drool over. Thanks for reading!

NICHOLAS SIMONSEN - EDITOR

PUBLISHER Furst Media Mycelium Studios Factory 1/10-12 Moreland Road East Brunswick, Vic, 3057 EDITOR Nicholas Simonsen nicholas@furstmedia.com.au

For breaking news, new content and more giveaways visit our website.

ONLINE EDITOR Jessica Over jess@furstmedia.com.au

MANAGING DIRECTOR Patrick Carr patrick@furstmedia.com.au

GRAPHIC DESIGNER Aaron Mackenzie

CONTRIBUTORS Rob Gee, Christie Elizer, Nick Brown, David James Young, Adrian Violi, Michael Cusack, Augustus Welby, Luke Shields, Alex Watts, Jessica Over,

EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS Alex Watts, Jacob Colliver, Will Brewster, Tex Miller

Aaron Streatfeild, James Di Fabrizio, Adam Norris, Alex Winter, Will Brewster, Eddy Lim, Lewis Noke-Edwards, Josh Martin

VINYLREVIVAL.COM.AU

MADE BY MUSICIANS, FOR MUSICIANS

NOVEMBER ISSUE #295: STREET AND ONLINE DATE: WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 7 AD BOOKING DEADLINE: MONDAY OCTOBER 29 EDITORIAL DEADLINE: TUESDAY OCTOBER 30 ARTWORK DEADLINE: WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 31 For more information on Mixdown Magazine contact us at: (03) 9428 3600 or email nicholas@furstmedia.com.au

6

info@vinylrevival.com.au 405 Brunswick St, FITZROY. ph 03.9419.5070 128 Sydney Rd, BRUNSWICK. ph 03.9448.8635

mixdownmag.com.au

NEW ALBUM

E V O L U T I O N F E AT A R E YO U R E A DY A ND A R E A S O N T O F I G H T

O U T 19 O C T A L S O AVA I L A B L E L I M I T E D D E L U X E E D I T I O N A N D V I N Y L

DISTURBED1.COM

GIVEAWAYS Martin Authentic Acoustic Strings Giveaway Martin Guitars’ Authentic Acoustic Strings are the esteemed company’s most advanced strings to date, offering incredible durability through their ability to stand up to even the most rigorous of practice and performance schedules. Thanks to our friends at Electric Factory, we have two sets to give away to one lucky reader.

Last Month’s Giveaway Winners Blue Microphones Yeti Pro Studio Giveaway Capture new levels of clarity with the Blue Microphones Yeti Pro Studio, an easy-to-use professional system for all your recording needs that offers advanced templates, effects and software for highresolution recordings every time. Thanks to our friends at Innovative Music, we had one to give away and the winner is: Chris from Sydney, NSW. Congratulations!

Mackie Onyx Producer 2.2 Giveaway

Nux B-2 2.4 GHz Wireless System Giveaway

The Mackie Onyx Producer 2.2 grants users the opportunity to experience creativity without limits, providing studio-quality sound with maximum headroom and ultra-low noise all in one compact interface. Thanks to our friends at Amber Technology, we had an Onyx Producer 2.2 to give away absolutely free and the winner is: Colin from Sydney, NSW. Congratulations!

Designed as an ideal audio solution for any home or studio rehearsals, the NUX B-2 is a digital wireless system that offers high-quality transmissions and unparalleled signal stability every time. Thanks to our friends at Pro Music Australia, we’re giving away one of these fantastic systems absolutely free.

For your chance to win any of these prizes, head to our giveaways page at mixdownmag.com.au/giveaway and follow the instructions. *These giveaways are for Australian residents only and one entry per person. For full terms and conditions visit mixdownmag.com.au/terms-and-conditions

A journey of 10,000 gigs begins with the very first one. Make it count.

CP SERIES POWERED LOUDSPEAKERS Distributed by

www.jands.com.au 8

qsc.com

mixdownmag.com.au

INDUSTRY NEWS Pollies Want A Cracker (Set) The music industry managed to capture the eyes and ears of 100 members, ministers, senators and Parliament House staff last month with live sets from Icehouse, KLP, William Barton, Leah Flanagan and William Crighton at NSW Parliament House. It was the second of the NSW Parliamentary Friends of Australian Music (PFOAM) events, and was organised by APRA AMCOS, ARIA, the PPCA, Australian Hotels Association NSW and Clubs NSW. In between performances, musos spoke about the importance of a strong live touring circuit (16 million attend gigs in NSW each year) and supporting venues, music export opportunities, Australian content on radio and streaming services, music education, and the value of copyright. Income from the NSW live music industry creates 65,000 full and part-time jobs.

“In Australia, we have the limitations of only a certain number of big cities, and so it’s great to go and work in regional Australia,” said Icehouse leader Iva Davies, who added that each regional gig by the band led to employment for 400 people in cafes, hotels, accommodation and travel. “You can have your recording and listen to it whenever you want, and you can listen to your radio, but there’s one thing you’ll never be able to put in a bottle, and that is a performance.”

Defqon.1 Rant Becomes Hardstyle Banger

Launching Pad #2: Alpha Agency For Females

The morning after news of the death of two people at Sydney EDM festival Defqon.1 (where a further 700 people required help for drug intake), NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian vowed to close down the festival (which draws 30,000 attendees) from ever being staged in any green acre of NSW. There was a U-turn on this a day later when the goal posts were moved and Berejiklian said, “Clearly the operators [of Defqon.1] need to step up and do something differently if it is going to continue.”

Australia has its first all-female, LGBTQI+ inclusive booking agency, Alpha. Founder Kailei Ginman, most recently a booker at Ministry of Sound Australia, will also use outsourced female talent for design, photography, artwork, website operation and publicity. The acts on the roster at launch are Feline, Stara, Ayebatonye, Stacie Fields, Rosie Kate and Sara T.

The original speech has now been turned into a hardstyle banger courtesy of Sydney duo Twisted Melodiez and Melbourne-based N3bula. Unsurprisingly, it went viral.

The premier also put together an expert panel made up of Police Commissioner Mick Fuller, NSW Chief Medical Officer Dr Kerry Chant, and Chair of the Independent Liquor & Gaming Authority Philip Crawford to provide advice on whether new penalties are needed, how festival promoters can lift their game, and if more drug education is needed.

However, the solution staring at everyone in the face – pill testing at these festivals – was quickly rejected.

Study: Heavy Metal Moshpits Are Inclusive Researchers from University College London found that heavy metal moshpits, far from being full of crazed longhairs, have their own strong etiquette, and are respectful of women and older headbangers. Younger fans are taught how to behave by older ones to make sure concerts have an environment of ‘controlled chaos’, the study discovered.

Launching Pad #1: Abc TV Show ‘The Set’ The ABC is launching a live music TV show on Wednesday October 31 called The Set, with a focus on Australian acts. Each episode will be filmed before 250 audience members in the “back garden” of the share house set. Hosted by triple j’s Linda Marigliano and Dylan Alcott, each episode will see a lineup curated by its headliners. They’ll finish the show with one-off collaborations with their guests. The first round of acts to be featured are Angus and Julia Stone, Vera Blue, Ball Park Music and The Presets.

10

Launching Pad #3: First Peoples Action Plan For Victoria The Victorian Government’s $2.15 million First Peoples Action Plan for the Creative Industries 2018–2020 is designed to boost employment opportunities for First Peoples in the creative industries and raise the profile and availability of local Aboriginal arts and creative products. The plan addresses ways to remove barriers to employment and training, and also finds a solution as to why First People are underrepresented on the boards and in senior management roles in creative organisations.

Screen Music Awards Set For Sydney The annual Screen Music Awards is confirmed to be held on Monday November 19 at the City Recital Hall in Sydney.

Organised by APRA AMCOS and the AGSC (Australian Guild of Screen Composers), it celebrates the achievements of screen composers across 12 categories. These cover documentaries, short films, miniseries, advertising, children’s television and feature film scores. Comedian Denise Scott is taking the host slot, while Jessica Wells is again Music Director for the night, helming the orchestra which performs some of the nominated works.

The APRA Board of Directors will determine the recipient of the Distinguished Services award. The honour encompasses outstanding contribution to the film and television industry including, but not limited to, producers/directors, philanthropists, educators, music supervisors and event producers that provide promotion, opportunities and education for Australian screen composers.

SA Budget Slashes Arts Funding, But Music Gets Boost South Australia’s arts sector is demanding talks with the State Government after it copped a $4.9 million reduction in the 2018/2019 budget, but the music industry has a reason to smile. The government has promised to spend $500,000 over 2019 and 2020 “supporting the growth of live music across the state and enhancing programs that connect with schools and universities to engage more young people through music programs.” Grants funding totalling $1 million will be provided to local musicians and artists to live and work in the state.

OpenLIVE Expands For Recording Rehearsals

use their voices properly. These are being conducted by Torb Pedersen, who’s spent the last two years working with major names around the world. He was lead voice coach in Gloria Estefan’s sold out Viva Broadway tour, with clients including Michael Franti and Spearhead, Fantine, Wes Carr and Troy Cassar-Daley.

Pedersen takes a scientific approach to his coaching, explaining the physical causes and the neurology behind the necessary skillsets to becoming a world renowned performer as well as potential vocal issues most famous recording artists ultimately face.

“Understanding the technical functioning of the voice not only protects a singer from falling victim to habits and errors that cause long term damage, but it will give the singer much greater control over the instrument that is their voice,” he says.

OpenLIVE, the Australian company which allows thousands of acts around the country to record their shows without hassle, is now expanding the service for their rehearsals.

Its cloud-patented based recording system has been installed in The Hen House in Perth and Kindred Studios in Yarraville, Melbourne. Immediately after their rehearsal is completed, bands receive a mixed and mastered recording ready for them to review in their secure OpenLIVE dashboard. The system also allows band members to share the recording rather than go through Dropbox links.

Report: Concerts For the Deaf

Tom Wilson, general manager at The Hen House, said, “The system is amazingly simple.

Booking in the recording is easy, with bands able to do this from their smartphone literally minutes before they begin rehearsing. It’s a great new service and we’re stoked to be the first OpenLIVE Certified rehearsal space in Perth.“

Australia to be Spotlighted in Germany’s Reeperbahn Festivals

Kindred Studios has evolved over the last few years and aims to stay ahead of the curve,” added its general manager Dhanesh Trimmer.

“Offering OpenLIVE recordings makes sense for Kindred Studios, enabling bands to get more out of their rehearsal than just a place to practice.”

Workshops at Black Pearl Studio

Billboard reports that Californian company Not Impossible is preparing to launch a new product that will allow deaf people to experience live music. The experience is possible through the wearing of a vibrotactile vest with additional bands of fabric, each concealing small motors and circuitry, which are strapped to the patron’s wrists and ankles. This allows the music to hit different parts of the body. The vest was developed through three years of experimentation.

Australia will be the focus country of next year’s Reeperbahn Festival, to be held in Hamburg from September 18-21. Australians have noted that Germany is now the third largest music market in the world (after the US and Japan) and has overtaken the UK as the biggest in Europe. Music export body Sounds Australia is working on a number of initiatives to highlight Australia’s profile. It is also teaming with APRA AMCOS’ SongHubs program, bringing together German songwriters, producers and creatives to collaborate with Australian songwriters to craft new music.

Melbourne’s Black Pearl Studios has started running a series of workshops to help singers

mixdownmag.com.au

MUSIC NEWS Royal Australian Mint to Celebrate AC/DC With Tribute Coins The Royal Australian Mint has announced plans to release limited edition 50 cent coins in honour of AC/DC’s 45th anniversary, some of which have reportedly been struck with 3,500,000 volts of artificial lightning. The collection sees AC/DC logos and album art taking centre stage on the face of each 50 cent piece. Ten lucky fans will find themselves with a Thunderstruck coin, which apparently bears a mark from the lightning only visible under magnification.

“The Mint thought that such an iconic band deserved high voltage coins and an electrifying launch to match,” said Royal Australian Mint CEO Ross MacDiarmid.

Also available is a unique $5 coin shaped like a guitar pick, limited to just 10,000 units. Visit the Royal Australian Mint’s website to order a limited edition AC/DC coin to add to your collection.

Hear Hysteria in Full During Def Leppard’s Australian Tour

Gang of Youths Prepare For Sold Out Australian Tour

Skid Row to Bring New Lineup to Aussie Shores

Def Leppard are set to return to Australia where they’ll be playing their seminal 1987 album Hysteria in full. The band will take their live show to venues in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide next month, with a setlist encompassing their biggest hits, deep cuts and of course, the entirety of Hysteria. Def Leppard are bringing German rockers Scorpions along for the ride, marking the first ever national tour of Australia for the band behind hits like ‘Rock You Like A Hurricane’.

Following a whirlwind year and the enormous success of 2017’s Go Farther In Lightness, Gang of Youths are coming home with a string of headline shows you’ll want to mark your calendars for. The ‘Say Yes To Life’ tour will see the band making stops in Fremantle, Melbourne, Hobart, Adelaide and Sydney. GOY had to add extra dates due to overwhelming demand, and will kick off the highly anticipated tour on Sunday October 28 with a sold out gig at the Forum in Melbourne.

Prepare to reminisce on your teenage glory day as Skid Row take off around the nation for the first time with their new lead singer. Former Dragonforce singer ZP Theart will feature in the tour lineup, joining Skid Row after having been a fan of the band for years. Expect five massive shows when Skid Row take over Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and Adelaide from Thursday October 18. Full dates and details via our website.

Don’t Miss The Bronx On Tour This Month

Triple J to Bring Live Music Back to Australian TV

Trophy Eyes Embark On Biggest National Headline Tour to Date

LA punks The Bronx will be slinging their anthemic tunes across the country this month, promising “sweat-filled” shows in intimate venues. They’ll tour off the back of their eighth studio album V and will be joined by Melbourne’s own High Tension and gritty garage rockers Private Function. The Bronx will stop by major cities and regional towns, including Ballarat, Geelong, Byron Bay and Newcastle. It all kicks off in Brisbane on Thursday October 18. Full dates and details available via our website.

The ABC is set to premiere a new live music TV show dubbed The Set, hosted by Triple J’s Linda Marigliano and Dylan Alcott. With musical direction from Triple J Unearthed’s Community and Digital Producer Max Quinn, the show will feature performances from Ball Park Music, Vera Blue, Angus and Julia Stone and The Presets, all filmed in front of a live audience. Tune in on Wednesday October 31 at 9.30pm to witness the new era of live music television.

Homegrown punk rock outfit Trophy Eyes are preparing to hit the road on what will be the band’s biggest Australian headline tour to date. Taking off around the country in support of latest album The American Dream, Trophy Eyes will stop in Brisbane, Sydney and Adelaide before finishing up the milestone tour in Melbourne. It all goes down at their first show on Thursday October 11 in Brisbane through to a final show in Melbourne on Saturday October 20.

mixdownmag.com.au

11

PRODUCT NEWS Faith Guitars Now Shipping Acoustic Nexus Series CMC MUSIC | CMCMUSIC.COM.AU Renowned luthier Patrick James Eggle has built a solid reputation for his work through the quality instruments designed under the name of Faith Guitars. Thankfully, a new shipment of acoustics from Faith’s Nexus Series is now arriving on Australian shores to bring further variety into our instrument market. The Nexus acoustics feature all-solid mahogany bodies and tops, ebony fingerboards, Fishman electronics, and stunning gloss finishes with hand-applied Cognac or Copper-Black stain.

Ernie Ball Now Shipping Expression Tremolo Pedal

FL Studio Launches First Dedicated Hardware Controller

RockBoard Flat Patch Sapphire Cable Now Available

CMC MUSIC | CMCMUSIC.COM.AU

ELECTRIC FACTORY | ELFA.COM.AU

AMBER TECHNOLOGY | AMBERTECH.COM.AU

The Ernie Ball Expression Tremolo is a fully-featured tremolo pedal with instant foot-controlled expressive capabilities to rival any tremolo pedal on the market. Its advanced features offer performance options you’d be hard pressed to find on your average stompbox, plus versatile controls, smooth DSP spring reverb, and complete signal transparency in the zero position. There’s no doubt the Expression Tremolo is a worthy addition to Ernie Ball’s hands-free FX pedal family.

Desperate for a production stocking stuffer? Akai have you covered, finally sharing the first ever hardware controller for FL Studio – the Akai Fire – set to arrive in time for Christmas. The Fire will have you speeding through channel racks, browser, toolbar and playlist windows with unprecedented workflow, allowing quick input of patterns into the step sequencer. The Fire’s chassis is a no-nonsense bank of four touch knobs and sleek full-colour velocity sensitive pads.

For those on the perpetual quest to find the perfect tone, Rockboard is here to help you take a step in the right direction.

The new flat patch Sapphire cable arrives with enhanced shields, gold-plated contacts, and a unique appearance that’s sure to catch the eye of any tone chaser. The Sapphire cables also retain the high-quality features of the original Rockboard flat patch cables, such as compact connector housings, with the addition of significantly improved audio quality.

Step Up Your Sound with the PreSonus Quantum 4848 LINK AUDIO | LINKAUDIO.COM.AU If you’re looking to take your analogue gear into the digital domain, look no further than the PreSonus Quantum 4848. Designed to meet the needs of the recording professional, Quantum delivers low-latency/ high-speed audio, with the added inclusion of Studio One Professional further enhancing the technology on offer. Quantum also boasts 32 channels of line-level I/O at sample rates up to 192 kHz, ensuring you can route audio from vintage equipment through to your DAW and back without any signal degradation.

12

mixdownmag.com.au

PRODUCT NEWS Mackie Debuts MC Series of Professional Headphones AMBER TECHNOLOGY | AMBERTECH.COM.AU Mackie have introduced two stellar additions to their unparalleled range of studio headphones, bolstering the collection with the MC-150 and MC-250. The latest arrivals uphold Mackie’s reputation for clarity and accuracy, offering professional, close-backed designs that are ideal for all your mixing needs. Features include a 50mm driver for crisp audio, a detachable cable, and a ¼” adapter, plus headbands and ear pads designed to offer optimal comfort for every listener.

Line 6 Drops New Helix HX Stomp Processor

Huge 2.0 Firmware Update for Fender Mustang GT Amplifier Arrives

Hartke Shares Monster New TX300 Bass Amplifier

YAMAHA MUSIC AUSTRALIA | AU.YAMAHA.COM

FENDER AUSTRALIA | FENDER.COM.AU

ELECTRIC FACTORY | ELFA.COM.AU

Line 6 have added another processor to their Helix range with the HX Stomp, soon to be the most powerful stompbox multi-effects processor on shelves this month. The HX condenses iconic sounds from the 300-strong Helix range of amps, cabs, and effects into a compact stompbox. The unit’s power is derived from Helix’s signature modeling technology, allowing it to run six processing blocks simultaneously. At home as a backup rig, tone expander or even audio interface, it’s nothing short of a revolutionary new offering.

The world’s first Bluetooth and Wi-Fi equipped amplifier, the Fender Mustang GT, has received its first major firmware update, offering a swathe of new digital effects. Effects inspired by prized historical pedals have been added, including a Mythic Drive, Memory Delay and Sustain. Ten new amp models broaden the GT’s enviable range, boasting several iterations of classic Mesa Boogie and Bassbreaker amplifiers. Plenty of digital streamlining has also ensured the GT remains at the forefront of usability and innovation for digital amplifiers.

Bass players often suffer from a poor range of compact gear, but thankfully, Hartke is aiming to remedy this with their new light and adaptable TX300 bass amplifier. Inexplicably packing 300 watts into a 2.3kg aluminum chassis, the portable powerhouse boasts a flexible preamp with threeband EQ and Hartke’s Shape circuit for dialling up any tone. The TX300 offers an impressive variety of sounds via separate drive circuitry, while an onboard compressor neatly flattens your tone.

Martin Guitar Introduces Authentic Acoustic Strings ELECTRIC FACTORY | ELFA.COM.AU Martin Guitar have been inspiring musicians for almost two centuries, and continue to stay ahead of the game in the world of guitar innovation. Their latest contribution to the market is their new acoustic strings – Martin’s most advanced strings to date. Players can choose from Authentic Acoustic Strings, Authentic Acoustic Silked, or Authentic Acoustic Lifespan 2.0 to gift their guitar with a set of strings sure to stand up to anything you could possibly throw at them.

14

mixdownmag.com.au

CLUTCH LET THE MUSIC FLOW After 27 years touring, hard rock four-piece Clutch feel quite comfortable onstage. Taking to the studio to bottle that lightning is the biggest challenge the band faces these days, says drummer Jean-Paul Gaster.

“It’s important, when you’re recording, to be cognisant that it’s a recording and not a live show,” says Gaster. “That’s something I think we’re still getting better at… When you get into the studio and start playing, it’s about trying to let the music flow through you in a way that will help those songs translate to the recorded medium.”

The band spent a year stealing time between tours to write the 15 tracks that make up their 12th studio album, the sublimely titled Book Of Bad Decisions.

Clutch took off for Sputnik Studios in Nashville, where they set to recording with Grammy-awarded engineer Vance Powell, whose previous credits include Arctic Monkeys, Wolfmother and various Jack White bands.

Powell and his fastidious approach to recording imbued the album with a slightly different feel than previous Clutch releases, says Gaster.

“We make an effort not to repeat ourselves, which can be a difficult thing to do, especially when you have the same four members playing the same instruments,” he says. “Inevitably, there’s going to be some songs that sound like other songs. But because of that, we’ve really challenged ourselves to come up with concepts that are fresh in some way, and I think all of the songs on this record encapsulate a different mindset. They each have their own identity, and that was not the easiest thing to accomplish.”

Gaster, a lifelong connoisseur of the drums, used Book of Bad Decisions to tinker with new techniques. ‘Good Fire’ and album opener ‘Gimme the Keys’ feature the drummer playing a shuffle rhythm, a technique he’s been working to master for years. Album closer ‘Lorelei’ begins with a dreamy, Nick Cave-esque intro, building to a climax reinforced by Gaster’s brushes.

“When you’re playing with sticks, it’s a fast sound,” explains Gaster.

“With brushes, we’re able to make long tones. So it’s not really about the impact of the sound – it’s about how you spread the sound throughout the song.”

Though some of the pieces in Gaster’s kit are vintage, he’s unsentimental about replacing and refurbishing. Gaster doesn’t put

16

"IF YOU’RE LOOKING FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE GOING TO BE JUMPING AROUND AND HAVE A LOT OF PYRO, YOU’RE AT THE WRONG SHOW.” muffling on his drums, preferring a highvolume, wide-open sound.

“I like to have a cymbal I can crash on, a cymbal I can ride on, a cymbal that has a bell – a lot of colours,” says Gaster. “The same holds true for drums. If you muffle the drums down, you’re cutting out some of the sound that could otherwise be projected into the room. You make that sound smaller and smaller and smaller until, after a while, it just sounds like a cardboard box.”

As a teenager, Gaster played along to records by Jimi Hendrix and Black Sabbath, artists who would go on to influence his own rollicking and hard-hitting style. He still looks to the great artists of past eras for inspiration.

“Inevitably, for me, learning new things means studying old drummers,” says Gaster.

“I think it’s important for a musician to understand where the music came from.

The drums are a relatively new instrument.

Although drumming has been around since the beginning of time, the drum kit just happened 100 years ago. It’s a new thing. So

you look back at the folks who came before you, the ones who made the path to what drums are today. By looking back, it gives you a picture of who you are and where you can take the instrument.”

Perhaps first in Gaster’s pantheon of drummers is Elvin Jones, whose flawless command of the kit is displayed on John Coltrane’s 1965 album A Love Supreme. Throughout the ‘50s and ‘60s, Jones played and recorded with Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Bud Powell and other monumental jazz figures. Gaster, however, views Jones more as a virtuoso of the drums than as a jazz musician per se.

Gaster saw Jones in concert many times before Jones’ death in 2004, and vividly recalls how the septuagenarian could energise a room by playing rimshot – a dynamism Gaster has spent his career working to channel.

“I can’t think of one time when I’ve sat at the drums and not thought: ‘How would Elvin do this?’” he says. “He really transformed the way people looked at drums. There are some people who really transcend genre and make an impact on the instrument as a whole – people like Jimi Hendrix or John Coltrane. For me, Elvin redefined what it meant to be a drummer.”

Clutch are taking Book of Bad Decisions on the road, touring the American Midwest and Great Lakes regions before playing across Europe, from Scandinavia to the Balkans. The band take turns writing setlists, making sure each concert is, in a sense, a one-time event.

“The showbiz aspect is not what we’re about,” says Gaster. “We’re about the music. If you’re looking for people who are going to be jumping around and have a lot of pyro, you’re at the wrong show.

If you want to come to the show and bring your family and your friends and your wife and maybe even your kids and listen to some honest music, that’s a good place for you to be.”

BY ZACHARY SNOWDON SMITH

Book of Bad Decisions is out now via Weathermaker Music.

mixdownmag.com.au

MUSIC INTERVIEWS “I think the themes between that EP and this album are connected, in a way,” says Kim Benzie, the band’s lead vocalist and one of its two founding members alongside bassist Stewart Hill. “About halfway through writing the lyrics for this album, I think I was really struck by how much more personal the things I was writing were. I wanted to see if that would follow through to the rest of the album – and, as it turned out, it did.” Benzie continues to explain that Dead Letter Circus serves as an equal and opposite reaction to the albums that preceded it – from its face value right down to its innermost workings.

Dead Letter Circus Get Personal In 2007, a young Brisbane band dropped their debut EP that contained mammoth vocal hooks, the density of modern prog-rock and a precisely-struck balance between accessibility and heaviness that found appeal with daytime triple j listeners and metalheads alike. That band was Dead Letter Circus – and the EP, coincidentally enough, was called Dead Letter Circus. A decade removed from that first step out into the world, Dead Letter Circus have just released their fourth studio album – which, coincidentally enough, is also called Dead Letter Circus. So, what’s in a name?

“Anyone who’s followed us in the past knows we’ve always gone for quite grand album titles – This is the Warning, The Catalyst Fire, Aesthesis,” he says. “I was talking to a friend when I mentioned that the new album didn’t have a title yet, and they suggested just making it self-titled because it felt like how the band started. I’ve always liked when bands do that, and it was a realisation that maybe it was time.”

Of course, the band has undergone several internal changes since the 2007 EP, with most of the key transitions taking place between This is the Warning in 2010 and The Catalyst Fire in 2013.

With founding guitarist Rob Maric out of the picture, the band turned to live replacements and fill-ins. One was their friend Luke Palmer, who ended up playing a lot of the guitar on The Catalyst Fire. When asked to join the band on a permanent basis, Palmer was initially reluctant. “He’s got a couple of young kids,” Benzie explains, “and he was pretty convinced that there was no way he could go out on the road and live the life that we were living.” Eventually, Benzie and co. convinced him to play one show, and Palmer was immediately hooked. “He wanted in as soon as we got off the stage,” says Benzie.

Dead Letter Circus is the second album to feature Palmer as an official member of the band, as well as the second in a row to be produced by the team of Forrester Savell and Matt Bartlem. Benzie considers the duo to be as close to family as you can get, and was overjoyed to have them on board yet again. “The whole operation feels very Ocean’s 11,” he

Fast forward 12 years and next month I’ll be seeing the band take the stage at Margaret Court Arena in front of thousands of adoring fans. In the words of Parkway Drive’s frontman Winston McCall, the comparison between then and now is “really, really, crazy.”

But it’s not just the sheer step up in venue size that warrants this reaction from the singer; it’s also what goes on up there on stage. “It’s pretty mental,” says McCall.

So mental, in fact, that Parkway Drive’s latest stage show can only be contained in venues of a certain calibre. Use a venue too small and you’ll find pyrotechnics engulfing the roof and an upside down, spinning drum kit destroying everything in its path.

“You have to have a very certain stage to fit all of this gear,” McCall says. “That’s why the Australian tour got pushed back, because we wanted to play venues where we could have this setup and give the fans that show.

We’re working with a stage that’s been designed by literal engineers. There’s four times as many people running the show than there are guys on stage.”

Parkway Drive Take It Up a Notch I vividly remember the day my brother headed off to his first live concert. He was off to see none other than Parkway Drive in Bendigo on the band’s famous All Ages Assault Tour. I was far too little to go along and mosh my heart away in some sweaty basketball court and as such, my mum didn’t let me go. I’ve never forgiven her.

18

If you aren’t impressed by that description, just know that Parkway Drive are putting themselves in harm’s way to deliver this arena spectacular.

says with a laugh. “Everybody has their part, you know? We get together, we make this music, we get the job done. It’s perfect. Honestly, we could have the biggest producer in the world hit us up to make an album, and we’d still go with Forrester and Matt.”

The band is set to tour Dead Letter Circus this coming December with headlining dates around the country. It will be their first chance to play many of the new songs live, and Benzie is curious to see which ones will take insofar as crowd response goes.

“You never know which songs people will get into until you’re out there playing them,” he says. “On the second EP [2008’s Next in Line], there was a song called ‘Reaction.’ I won’t say who, but one of us in the band at the time was so off that song – they didn’t think it had any legs. Naturally, triple j started playing it and we went out and toured it.

Some people thought ‘While You Wait’ was us selling out, and now it’s one of the biggest moments of the whole set.”

Benzie laughs.

“I guess everything changes when you’re four beers deep.”

BY DAVID JAMES YOUNG

Dead Letter Circus is out now via BMG. The band will tour throughout the country in November/December.

hearts. “I know that this band means a lot to people,” McCall says, not with ego or entitlement but with earnest and sincerity.

As I share the story of being a rosy cheeked kid wanting nothing more than to go see Parkway Drive in Bendigo, McCall tells me how much these stories resonate with him.

“There’s a generation of kids who have that experience of what Parkway was and they hold that dear to them. I still walk down the street and get people coming up to me and telling me that they were at this certain show all these years ago and it was their first gig and it ended up defining things for them.

“To now have that perspective on what we’ve been able to create, I can say that they’re the fans who have pushed this band to be what it is. What we’ve been able to accomplish is mental. It’s come from a small show in Bendigo to having a rotating drum kit on stage. It’s a strange reality.”

As strange as it is for McCall and the rest of the band, it’s a reality fans are all too happy to be a part of.

BY MATT SIEVERS

“This is the first time we’ve used stuff that is legitimately terrifying,” says McCall. “We’ve had big setups before where I know what heat feels like, but at our production meeting for this tour when we set some of this stuff up, I couldn’t feel the hairs on my arm and we all had flash burns. We all knew that we couldn’t fuck this up. It comes down to the crew being good and us being on point. You don’t want to pull a 5 Seconds of Summer and burn your face off.”

As big as the crowds and the venues have gotten over the years, and as intense and intricate as the stage show has become, Parkway Drive remain a band that is deeply and personally embedded in the lives of their fans and Australia itself. This isn’t something McCall and his bandmates have forgotten, and a reputation they still hold dear to their

Catch Parkway Drive on tour around the nation this November. Reverence is out now via Resist Records.

mixdownmag.com.au

MUSIC INTERVIEWS ‘Better Than That’ is the second number on Good Citizens, the fourth studio album by Melbourne band Cash Savage and The Last Drinks, and it explicitly details the frustration and crushing disappointment felt by the band’s eponymous leader in the wake of the plebiscite on marriage equality in 2017.

“It’s definitely a protest song,” says Savage. “Absolutely.

When people hear that song, I hope that it stings. I know it’s a very pretty song – it’s melodic and it’s mournful – but I truly hope that when people really take the time to listen to the lyrics, I want it to sting them. I truly did think Australia was better than that, although it’s not necessarily about the country as a whole. It’s more to do with the many, many conversations that I had to have with people. I hope the people that have put their friends and family through this horrible, awkward thing hear this song, and I hope that it hurts to hear.”

Cash Savage and The Last Drinks Make It Sting If you pay any attention to the music media in this country, you would have seen a certain dinosaur wheezing about a perceived lack of protest songs in the current Australian climate.

Needless to say, said dinosaur was quickly shut down by a plethora of examples – the most recent of which came out a matter of weeks ago.

There’s plenty more where that came from on Good Citizens.

What awaits beyond is a defiant, snarling, sprawling record that lurches back and forth between rattling pub rock and dust-kicking alt-country, expanding the sound of The Last Drinks to a wider musical spectrum and taking no prisoners in their approach. It comes just over two years after the release of album number three, One of Us, and the band has spent more or less that entire time out on the road in support of it. Good Citizens was not born out of any grand plan – as a matter of fact, Savage is the first to admit she had no idea what to expect when the band came together to record this past January.

“There were a fair few songs I’d written in that time that I had no real expectations for,” she says. “I didn’t even know if we’d be able to turn them into songs. There’s a track on the album called ‘Kings’, which started out with just the chords and most of the words. It wasn’t really formed at all. I brought it to the studio with the band, and by the end of the day we’d finished it. That actually ended up being one of my favourite songs on the entire album.”

Savage credits her trusty band – as well as their producer, Nick Finch – as being instrumental to how a song will

typically transform from her bedroom sketches into something fully realised. “When we’re in the studio, we’re always thinking of different ways to do the songs,” she says.

“Nick is all over it. Whatever direction we want to take, he’s ready to record it. The Last Drinks, being who they are, can handle pretty much anything I throw at them. I can ask Kat [Mear] to play the violin like she’s being attacked, or I can ask her to make it really pretty. She can go either way very easily – sometimes in the same song.”

What started out as a ragtag collective of whoever might be available on any given night has long since evolved into a core group of musicians that have made light work of more or less every venue in Melbourne you can think of, from the dingiest of pubs to the grandest of theatre stages.

As Savage prepares for a headlining tour this November with the inimitable Cable Ties in tow, she couldn’t be prouder to have her name associated with The Last Drinks.

“Playing music with them is such a joy,” she says. “They know that if I’ve written a song, it means a lot to me. They take care with it. They’re respectful, and they want to get the best out of it as well. It’s truly such a pleasure.”

BY DAVID JAMES YOUNG

Cash Savage and The Last Drinks will tour around Australia in November/ December. Good Citizens is out now via Mistletone/Inertia Music.

THE NEW ALBUM feat THE DARK SENTENCER and OLD FLAMES

mixdownmag.com.au

OUT NOW

19 coheedandcambria.com

MUSIC INTERVIEWS “We didn’t sacrifice quality – it just meant that we got the job done without procrastinating,” says frontman Chris Cheney. “It almost made me worried that everything was going horribly right. You’re waiting for it. When’s the hurdle coming? When are we going to get stuck? But it ended up as the most fun record we’ve ever done – the easiest experience I’ve ever had in the studio.”

To record their new album, the band didn’t book time at Abbey Road or the Capitol Records tower in LA. Instead, they sequestered themselves in the quaint and tourist-free central German town of Rotenburg an der Fulda. In Rotenburg, the band started each day with a ten-minute stroll to Toolhouse Studios, where they met with Tobias Kuhn, a producer known for his frenetic energy during recording sessions.

Recording Wunderbar, Cheney found that Germany fulfills the Australian reputation for laid-back amicability better than Australia does.

The Living End Get It Horribly Right Any uni student knows that spending hours dawdling over an essay doesn’t necessarily make the finished product any better. Punk trio The Living End found the same to be true when they emerged from the studio with their quickest record ever, Wunderbar, which was produced in just four weeks.

“I find [Berlin] a lot more chilled to walk around,” says Cheney.

“You don’t see anywhere near the aggression or the violence that I see on a daily basis in Melbourne. I mean, God forbid you were to walk down the street with an open beer. You can’t do that.

“It’s a funny kind of arrangement. The laws over there are looser. It’s almost like with teenagers: if you give them a little bit of responsibility, they tend to grow up and appreciate it and not abuse it. Whereas, in Australia, there’s this police state: ‘You can’t do this, you can’t do that.’ That tends to make people rebel against it. It’s a funny thing; even though Berlin’s a pretty crazy town, you feel very safe walking around there. I hate to say it, but I don’t feel like that when I’m walking around Melbourne sometimes.”

Even as Spotify continues to reduce albums to modular collections of tracks, Cheney takes pride in Wunderbar’s completeness, which he hopes will prompt a few people to listen to it all the way through before cannibalising it for playlists.

“As an album, it flows really well,” he says. “I know that’s a little bit defunct these days, but for us, that’s important. There were certain songs we really liked that didn’t end up on the record,

“I’ll tell you something for nothing, brother: Every night, it’s the most important part of the show,” says David Draiman, the band’s lead vocalist. “It’s the one thing that brings every single person in that room together. The same people that were just tearing into one another in the moshpit five minutes earlier are standing there, still as a statue, either close to tears or openly weeping. There’s this massive release of emotion as a group, and it’s something we all so desperately need. The world’s gotten even worse since we started playing it, so we need it now more than ever.”

This unexpected success and stylistic departure has informed a good portion of Evolution, Disturbed’s seventh studio album. While there are still a selection of songs that are more traditional alt-metal fare for the Chicago natives, the album also offers acoustic detours and hitherto-unseen balladry that offers a side of Disturbed you never thought existed. According to Draiman, the acoustic songs on the record were originally intended to be a standalone EP. “It felt natural to go into that kind of stuff,” he explains.

Disturbed: Still Evolving Pop quiz, hotshot: What do Disturbed, Green Day, Extreme, Faith No More and Mr. Big have in common?

If you guessed “a huge hit single that sounds nothing like the rest of their catalogue,” you’re bang on. 2015 saw the surreal curiosity of Disturbed, one of the true survivors of the nu-metal boom at the turn of the century, turn their attention to a bombastic and orchestral rendition of Simon & Garfunkel’s classic single ‘The Sound of Silence’. Three years on, the band still play it every single night – and rather than serve as a schism between different schools of fans, they see it as a unifying moment.

20

“We wanted to take that opportunity, as it was something we’d never had the chance to do before. It was this amazing creative experience – it was just falling out of us as we were working in the studio.” The plans for the EP were subsequently dropped when newer, heavier material began emerging in the creative process. Taken by the disparity between the two sides, Draiman and co. were inspired to merge them together.

because they didn’t fit… We’re not aiming to reinvent the wheel.

We’ve dabbled a bit, but with this record, the strength lies in the fact that it’s a straight-up rock ‘n’ roll record.”

One standout track is the cochlea-pummelling ‘Death Of The American Dream’, which sounds a bit like the Living End’s take on Highway 61 Revisited. The mortifying spectacle of the Trump presidency has sparked a minor renaissance of anti-American political music. However, Cheney, who spent seven years living in the US, says that ‘Death Of The American Dream’ was written as a diagnosis, not an attack.

“As a kid, for me, America was Mickey Mouse and Disneyland and Elvis and Graceland and Cadillacs, this larger-than-life country,” says Cheney. “At the moment, it’s down on its luck.

This song isn’t a piss-take on America at all. It’s saying, ‘I would defend the States forever’, and I love the place. I think you’ve got to go through a rough patch sometimes. They’ll find their feet again. It’s just going to take some time.”

Ultimately, Wunderbar may be most remarkable for its solidity – for the absence of the self-conscious reinventions commonly employed by bands who have spent 20 years on the road.

“You’re not supposed to get better as you get older,” says Cheney. “The shows aren’t supposed to be more intense, but I feel like they are with us. I look at some of the old footage and hear live recordings and it’s just terrible. But now, I feel like we can really play our arses off.

“Every single night, I go off on these different tangents and improvise, and the whole thing feels like it could run off the rails at any minute, but that’s the beauty of it. That’s the magic of a Living End show. We’re not just going through the motions.

Maybe we have in the past at certain times, but I take more risks now. That’s what live music is.”

BY ZACHARY SNOWDON SMITH The Living End will tour Australia this November. Wunderbar is out now from BMG.

was the backstage playlist that would run before the band would take to the stage each night. “For years, all we listened to was old-school heavy metal – Maiden, Priest, Metallica,” says Draiman. “On the last cycle, the playlist had completely changed. It was all heritage classic rock.

Zeppelin, the Eagles, Fleetwood Mac... hell, even Styx. They all made such diverse records, and went in so many different directions across their careers. I think – as a band – that was something that we were yearning for.”

With Evolution’s release imminent, Disturbed will inevitably circumnavigate the globe once again in support of it. Just as their cycle is beginning, another is ending: Paul Simon, the man behind ‘The Sound of Silence’ who famously emailed his approval of the Disturbed cover to Draiman himself, is currently on his farewell tour. It begs the question as to whether Draiman has ever considered the end. To be blunt: Not yet.

“I’m 45 years old,” he says. “The way I see it, I’ve still got a good ten to 15 years left in me, at the very least. The one thing you’ve got to be careful of, particularly in hard rock and metal, is the challenge of performing. You don’t want it to ever get to the point of not doing your songs justice. You gotta figure out when is the right time to say when.”

BY DAVID JAMES YOUNG

“Every song we’d put together, whether it was acoustic or heavy, felt very distinct,” says Draiman. “As we started to toy with an album tracklist, it made more and more sense for them to be intertwined. We wanted people to go on a bit of a journey when they listened to this album, and I think that’s something we’ve achieved.”

Draiman notes that the near two years that Disturbed spent on the road in support of 2015’s Immortalized had a huge part in the direction they chose to take on Evolution. This was not so much apparent in the shows themselves as it

Evolution is out Friday October 19 via Reprise Records/Warner Music.

mixdownmag.com.au

MUSIC INTERVIEWS Having stepped away from the concept on 2015’s The Color Before The Sun to focus on a more personal record, the band has returned to The Amory Wars with a new chapter on ninth record The Unheavenly Creatures. Frontman Claudio Sanchez admits that some time away from the concept made it all the more exciting to come back to it.

“I knew that after The Color Before the Sun we were gonna return. Even while doing The Color Before the Sun, I knew that the next record would be inside The Amory Wars, I just wasn’t exactly sure what story to tell. It wasn’t until I started to get a few songs under my belt that the comic started to reveal itself to me.”

Rather than rushing into writing another release the moment the band finished touring for The Color Before The Sun, Sanchez took some time to focus on home life before getting the Coheed train moving again. The time off ultimately led to the songs coming together very naturally.

Coheed and Cambria Return to The Amory Wars To call Coheed and Cambria a unique band would be one hell of an understatement. With over 15 years and nine full length albums under their belt, the band has created an enormous science fiction, concept -driven, progressive rock opera that has only gotten bigger with every record. The Amory Wars has been the backbone of the band’s legacy from the very beginning and has played a huge part in the community and culture that surrounds them.

“I put the brakes on,” he says. “I didn’t want to just rush into the studio because The Color Before the Sun’s cycle was over. I wanted to spend time with my family. I just really wanted to find myself. I was writing songs and I was like, ‘I don’t know if these are gonna work.’ There’s some scraps that we didn’t end up using because they just weren’t right, but sometimes they would speak to me in a way that really helped paint pictures in my mind about what the story looked like.”

Coheed and Cambria have had their fair share of ups and downs throughout the years, with members coming and going for various reasons. The Unheavenly Creatures is the fourth record with bassist Zachary Cooper in the fold and the fourth record with original drummer Josh Eppard back behind the kit. Sanchez is happy to say that despite all of the trials they’ve been through, things have never been better in the Coheed camp. This was one of the key reasons the band decided to self-produce The Unheavenly Creatures.

“I think it was a big contributing factor to the decision of us going into the studio and self-producing this record –

allowing all of our creating energies to really be the driving force behind the production. We’ve been doing this a long time, whether it’s together or in different situations. We’ve come to a place where I don’t think Coheed has ever been this comfortable.”

Coming in at just shy of 80 minutes long, The Unheavenly Creatures is quite the journey. Crazily enough, this is only the very beginning of this chapter of The Amory Wars, with four other parts coming in the not too distant future.

While that might seem like a daunting task ahead to some, Sanchez sounds excited and eager to dive further than ever before into the story.

“With Coheed records, some are long, some are short. This one needed to be longer. We’re really introducing listeners to a new set of rules, a new set of characters that ultimately will find out what their connection is to the pre-existing ones. I just wanted this to feel like, for Coheed fans, that we’re coming home to The Amory Wars. We’re coming home to the concept in every way it could be.

“At the end of the day, as much as I end up doing it for myself, I’m doing it for them. This is something we all enjoy. I enjoy creating it, they enjoy listening to it. I just want to make it as much of an enjoyable experience as possible for everybody.“

BY NICHOLAS SIMONSEN

The Unheavenly Creatures is out now via Roadrunner Records/ Warner Music

KINK GUITAR PEDALS IS OUT TO DEFY ALL EXPECTATIONS Remember the very first time you stepped on a pedal? That same sense of wonder and awe is encapsulated into each and every painstakingly handcrafted stompbox from Kink Guitar Pedals, inside and out. Since February 2017, Mark Quarrell – the sole proprietor and mastermind behind Kink – has been steadily carving out his own niche in the oversaturated boutique pedal market with quality components and one-of-a-kind artwork.

Before Kink’s launch, Quarrell slaved away at theory and DIY pedal kits, learning as much as he could about the ins-and-outs of what made a guitar pedal tick. “I’m not an electronics engineer. I’m mostly selftaught,” he says.

“Over the years I did a lot of theory on electronics, but mainly learned through completing basic kits and buying components and boards from other manufacturers. I dove in head-first with designing my own boards, getting around schematics and understanding how each component affects the effect. I spent a lot of time researching, reading and understanding the ‘why’ and ‘how’ behind everything.”

It’s no secret that many of us guitar players appraise a pedal by its artwork first and foremost, and Kink Guitar Pedals has undoubtedly some of the most unique and interesting artwork in the pedal scene today. “I’ve always wanted to do something that was more along the lines of artwork, and being able to express that creative part of you as well,” he says.

22

“Being able to put my own ideas to an artist and having those ideas put across onto a pedal, and to have that sitting on your board was the main vision behind Kink Guitar Pedals. To have fantastic sounding pedals that look awesome and distinguishable on a pedalboard, not just having the same old pedals with just a name and logo on it, with the controls on it and whatnot. I went the opposite way with that – leaving out the controls and instead mainly featuring this really cool art. My artist Pascal is awesome. I can pitch to him what I want and to have him bounce back with some really good ideas is phenomenal.”

Quarrell’s distinctive artwork can sometimes be a double-edged sword, which he is fully aware of. One of his best-selling pedals, the Charlie Fuzz, features a silhouette of serial killer Charles Manson with a pair of glowing red LEDs for eyes. It was the backlash over this particular artwork that led Quarrell to create two more pedals – the High Horse fuzz/octave, and the PC boost.

“The High Horse came from copping a lot of flak, particularly over the Charles Manson pedal,” says Quarrell.

“It’s a dig to all the people getting upset over the Charlie Fuzz, and the PC boost is another dig at the whole “politically correct” culture. It slightly annoys me that we’ve lost all artistic license to do whatever you want to do without someone getting offended.

Melbourne’s an extremely artistic city. There’s amazing artists out there doing amazing things, and we’re shutting them down because we don’t like some of their content.”

But not all of Quarrell’s pedals feature artwork of an ‘edgy’ nature. His latest release, the Straya, is a hilarious expression of Australia’s many wonders, including

servo sunnies, Victoria Bitter, and most importantly, drop bears. “I had some ideas pertaining to Australia, and I drafted something with my pretty ordinary artistic talent,” he laughs.

“We’re kind of a piss-taking country and I wanted to tap into that market. So I told Pascal I wanted a guy holding a can vaguely resembling a VB with the Kink logo on it in AC/DC font, and little Easter eggs around the pedal – the drop bear, the footy, the Southern Cross tattoo and all this other stuff. It was just a really fun pedal to make. The whole idea was to get a tube screamer going into a Marshall-type sound, so you can cover sounds all the way from blues-rock to metal, even. It doesn’t necessarily produce Australian sounds all the time, but it’s incredibly fun to play.”

The worldwide support for Kink Guitar Pedals since its conception has been Quarrell’s main source of inspiration, and his quest to develop and build more quality pedals isn’t ending anytime soon.

“I’ve received awesome feedback from my customers across the globe. One of them even owns all five iterations of my Charlie fuzz in every single colour.

“I suppose if I didn’t have all this great feedback I’d just stop doing it. I like building pedals for myself, but giving pedals to my mates and people around the world is what really does it for me.”

BY EDWARD LIM

While basing his pedals off tried and true circuits from the past, Quarrell performs modifications that further improve tonal range and flexibility, invariably making them his own creations. “A lot of the circuit modifications out there have already been done. I usually do some of them myself to see if I like it and if I’d have it on my own board,” he says.

“My goal was to take a simple circuit and “Frankenstein” it, adding upgrades and extra functionality to make it sound my own. For example, wherever I can, I add different clipping options to get a wider range of tones, like on the Straya. The Charlie fuzz uses a 30-40-year old circuit that’s still awesome till this day. I’ve made a few little changes to its bias and its components, upgrading the quality of the parts and making it a lot quieter. I try to add flexibility to my pedals to accommodate as many people as possible.”

For more information visit shop.kinkguitarpedals.com

mixdownmag.com.au

MUSIC INTERVIEWS The story of Three Phase Rehearsal Studios’ development is one of DIY passion. Back in 2003, future owners Ben Hovey and Scott Taylor were musical regulars of Shanty Town Studios who leapt at the chance to buy it out when offered.

The entrepreneurial pair made many improvements to the original Brunswick Road space before deciding a clean slate new rehearsal complex was required, culminating with the opening of a new slot on Tinning Street, tucked off Sydney Road, in 2013. The space was revered by watchful eyes in the Melbourne scene, including future manager Liz Thomas.

“Before I started as the manager at Three Phase, I’d been a customer, and the studio was always a favourite because of the flat-load, the great rooms and the clean toilets,” she says.

“There was always this little bit more attention to detail, I felt, that made it a much more comfortable place to rehearse.”

Three Phase Rehearsal Studios Rock n’ roll mythology fetishizes an artful sloppiness to the practice of music that doesn’t care for cleanliness, ease of access or comfort. Brunswick’s renovated rehearsal space Three Phase is an antidote to this, adding a defiantly modern cafe/bar, one-stop gear shop and stunning new front to its state of the art facility.

Initially, Hovey and Taylor thought this was the final word on the studio, retaining what Hovey labels a “no nonsense, down to Earth vibe” with “sheer ease of use”. Restless minds in the music industry, however, are a given, and a pressing desire to provide something beyond mere rehearsal space gave birth to 2018’s stunning new renovations: a cafe, bar and reinvigorated reception/accessory shop.

“It’s really stepped things up a notch,” says Thomas. “You can come in for rehearsal, grab a coffee or a beer and a snack and get to work. We’ve also put a lot of effort into stocking our music accessories, so if you need strings, skins, or a sharpie, we’ve got it. It’s a bit of a one-stop-shop, really. It’s a space where you feel comfortable to create, and don’t want to rush in and rush out.”

The refurbishments have also opened Three Phase to a myriad of new event possibilities that go beyond rehearsals, including listening parties, small gigs, exhibitions and launch parties.

“While our focus will remain firmly on rehearsals, we’re looking to utilise the downtime that is Saturday night,” says Hovey.

“No one wants to rehearse on Saturday nights, so we’ve never opened. Now we’re a licensed venue, we’re going to explore different avenues for events.”

“There’s so much scope here; the large, spacious main hallway lends itself so well to exhibitions,” adds Thomas.

“We also have a great mezzanine which can accommodate acoustic showcases, film clip previews, etcetera. People have approached us about hosting workshops in the rooms and recently the entire studio was hired out to shoot a video clip.”

With its now dizzying multipurpose setup, it’s easy to forget Three Phase is still an immaculately modern acoustic space, offering 11 unique rooms, sized and furnished individually.

“Some rooms have timber floors, some carpet, and various combinations of reflective and deadening materials were used throughout to give each room its own individual character,” Hovey says.

Hovey has also fitted every room with a Yamaha MG166CX 16 input mixer and DSR115 PA for a reliable and strikingly clear mix, while also offering affordable gear hire of anything from a Mesa Boogie Triple Rectifier to an extra cymbal stand, all per session.

Surprisingly, the ubiquity of home recording has bolstered the success of Three Phase, according to Hovey. The way he and Thomas describe the daily clientele evokes the democratising powers of the digital revolution so often touted as destructive.

“There’s always a great mix of musicians coming through the doors, from those who are working professionally to those who are just starting out,” says Thomas. “The thing I love about the studio is that it’s an incredibly welcoming space.

There’s no one genre or pocket of musicians that dominate, no attitude and just no bullshit.”

BY JOSHUA MARTIN

Three Phase Rehearsal Studios is open seven days a week at 8 Tinning Street, Brunswick. Book a room or make an inquiry at threephasemusic.com.

ALWAYS IN TOUCH NEW! Big Knob Series ™

Monitor Controllers | Interfaces

Keeping your hands on the mix is just part of the job. Precision level control, swapping between monitors and routing sources all make your mix better.

That’s why the Big Knob has been the go-to studio command center for more than a decade. But, studios are different now. More nimble. More flexible.

It’s time for a new tool.

The all-new Big Knob Series expands functionality big time, with built-in high-resolution recording and playback up to 192kHz. There are three models so you always get the features you need and maybe a couple that allow you to grow. The all-new Big Knob Series is here.

©2017 LOUD Technologies Inc. All Rights Reserved. “Mackie.”, the “Running Man” figure, “Sound Like You Mean It”, and “Big Knob” are trademarks or registered trademarks of LOUD Technologies Inc. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

Distributed in Australia by Amber Technology ambertech.com.au | 1800 251 367 | sales@ambertech.com.au

ADVICE COLUMNS OPINION

Why an Oasis Reunion is a Media-Fuelled Fantasy On Thursday July 9, Liam Gallagher threw kerosene on the constantly crackling fire of the Oasis reunion rumour mill, flames that have been fanned by the world’s media ever since the UK rock band called it quits nine years ago. He did this with a seemingly out-of-the-blue tweet addressed to his brother and former bandmate Noel asking to get “the big O” back together. The ‘could-it-really-be’ gasps of fans could be heard worldwide as music writers pounced on the story, seamlessly tying it into the established narrative of the feuding siblings who would eventually, it was presumed, put their differences behind them and return to the business of being the biggest band in the world.

There’s a lot going on within that presumption, and it has more to do with giving the media something to write about than it does the reality of the situation.

Sure, Liam’s tweet is backed up by numerous interviews where he states that he would love to be in Oasis again, but this has been a consistent headline-making issue for the entire almost-decade that the band have been broken up. Prior to that, many of the same publications were printing stories with a similar regularity declaring that Oasis were on the verge of imploding. The drama between the two frontmen is part of what made them seem dangerous and interesting, in both a musical and public relations sense, and their constantly goading-yet-approachable attitude to the media has always made for killer content.

“I forgive you now let’s get the BIG O back together and stop fucking about the drinks are on me,” read Liam’s tweet. After waiting a day, he added, “I’ll take that as a no then.”

Understandably, this gave the papers something to write about, particularly in the UK where the band is still largely revered as modern gods. NME, the formerly print-based and now solely online pop/rock focused publication, published 41 articles on their website the month of the tweet tagged with ‘Oasis’. The site brings up 345 articles mentioning Oasis when you search the term. Alhough NME is certainly the most Brit-pop-focused outlet around, in 2015 The Guardian described “a continuing, insatiable public appetite for all things Gallagher.” Closer to home, a quick look at Tone Deaf, which is probably the Australian NME equivalent in terms of style and content, has posted 19 Gallagher-related articles so far this year.

So why does the music media continue to follow so closely the story of a band that have not played a note together since Justin Bieber was 15 years old?

A video of Liam making tea backstage went viral as, in typically dry form, he complained about having to make his own beverage, when back in the ‘90s there would have been a team on hand for the task. Through the lens of nostalgia it is easy to view the Gallaghers as the last of a breed of traditional rockstars who didn’t need social media to connect with their fans and benefited from massive major label budgets. The somewhat aloof and untouchable image that was possible when

24

Oasis were at their peak no longer exists within the marketing plan of any major pop or rock artist, and in that way no one has really filled the gap they left.

Furthermore, Liam won’t leave the issue alone. On August 5 via Twitter, he again reached out to Noel by sharing a picture of his family on holiday and saying, “Had the best family holiday ever cmon [sic] Noel Sara Anais Donovan [S]onny you know you want to get involved.”

The biggest flaw in the reunion idea, other than the fact the two frontmen won’t speak to each other, is that it probably wouldn’t be very good. The constant stream of news pieces and updates based around anything the pair do in public is used to tap into a nostalgic and baseless notion that if they were to miraculously reform, it would be as they were in the mid-‘90s when they were amongst the most loved acts on the planet.

The fact that the quality of their output dipped noticeably by the turn of the century and reviews of their shows focused more on antics and bad tempers rather than the music has somehow been happily ignored by this media campaign, as if the nine years apart will revert them to the brilliance with which they first appeared at the ages of 20 (Liam) and 26 (Noel) when Definitely Maybe was released 25 years ago. Stereogum described the second half of Oasis’ career from 2000’s onwards as “a series of middling releases only existent for a core (yet still rabid and quite large) fanbase.”

Add to that the fact that after the first two albums – the only ones remembered fondly by the general public – the lineup changed completely, and the next question is, who would be part of this reunion? The blokes who made Definitely Maybe, or Dig Out Your Soul?

Liam again made NME headlines recently when he stated that Noel was “begging” to play Glastonbury, after an interview where the senior brother was asked if he was interested in performing at the UK’s biggest festival and he responded positively.

This followed a tweet where Liam all but confirmed that he had been booked to headline the event next year. For now, it seems that seeing the two Oasis stars on the same festival bill will have to satiate fans, but their legacy is destined to live on in the era of clickbait.

BY ALEX WATTS

mixdownmag.com.au

FEATURES

ADVICE COLUMNS GUITAR

BASS GUITAR

Mixolydian Flavour

More of the II – V - I

Stretching the interval/pattern concepts we covered last month with the Dorian mode, let’s apply some similar ideas to Mixolydian. Taking the Major scale and flattening the 7th degree gives us Mixolydian, which is most commonly used to improvise over Dominant 7th chords. C Mixolydian would be spelt C-D-E-F-G-A-Bb, with the normal B natural from C major flattened to B flat.

Some more II – V – I ideas for you this month. To reiterate the prevalence of this chord progression, it is literally in thousands of songs and therefore an important sequence to have a handle on. For both, playing bass lines and improvising arpeggios can be a great starting point (as mentioned last issue).

Figure A is in the key of D Major and uses the chords Em7-A7-D. Get used to the sound of the arpeggios and listen to the V chord (A7) wanting to resolve to the I chord (D). There are many options for fingerings and positions when playing arpeggios, so feel free to work out others (and move them to other octaves and keys too). This kind of line could be used in jazz as a walking bass line or funk/Latin/reggae (perhaps played as crotchets instead of quavers). You could also use this line when improvising. Try playing it over the chords and you’ll hear how the notes fit and relate to each change. It’s a good start, but obviously does sound quite literal.

We can make it sound a little more hip just by changing the note order and rhythm a little.

Figure A is C Mixolydian over two octaves. This version has a couple of position shifts to help with moving and covering the fretboard. Start with your second finger and play the first octave (the first bar), then move to your first finger in bar two and then jump to use your first finger on the high C in the 8th fret on the high E string (the second last note in bar two). This allows you to descend in a typical box type pattern based from C in the eighth fret. Remember, Mixolydian is like a Major scale with a flattened 7th, so if you’ve played a Major scale shape up the neck before, this pattern should be familiar.

Adding some intervallic jumps such as Figure B breaks up the consecutive sound. This is taken from a three-per-string shape and skipping some of the intervals. You can try picking or hammer ons – either way, aim for a legato-type flowing sound.

Figure C moves in a descending fashion again, skipping some notes for a different flavour.

Work on getting each note clean and precise at a slower tempo before pushing up the BPM. Picking can work, but you might prefer a combination of picking and hammer ons/pull offs.

All of these examples so far will work over a C7 chord. You could also try them over the I chord in a C Blues or the V chord (C7) in an F Blues (amongst other options).

Although Figure B uses the same chords as Figure A, try it at a slower tempo to start with to allow for the semi quavers. It could be played over a straight funk groove or a half time funk shuffle if you’d like to try and swing it.

Extending the arpeggios out to include the 7th note offers extra scope. Check out Figure C to hear the chords extended to m7, dom7 and Major 7 (this time in the key of Bb Major).

Like before we can then add some more rhythmic ideas and intervallic ideas to come up with something a little more interesting such as Figure D.

Again, there are a number of fingerings for Figure D, and of course you could play it in different positions (and octaves). Try recording/looping the chords (or using YouTube backing tracks) to hear the line against the harmony. You can also try it played both straight and swung.

Lastly, let’s add in some chromatic ideas. All of these examples so far have been diatonic (using notes just from the key and, in turn, each arpeggio). Chromaticism involves the use of other notes not necessarily in the key and often utilises notes in between diatonic notes (and often semitones apart consecutively). It can definitely add colour and tension, especially when approaching a diatonic note or chord tone.

Lastly, let’s try Figure D. This example uses E Mixolydian and involves a number of position shifts to work from low G# up to high E in the 12th fret on the 1st string. Start with your first finger on G# and the rest of the first bar should unfold nicely. The second bar follows much the same position before a run for B-F#-D on adjacent strings. I’d play all three notes with my little finger, allowing me to then use my first finger for the E note in the 5th fret on the second string. By making this move to my first finger, I can then stretch up to the G# with my little finger and then B on the first string again with my first finger. Jump up to your little finger for the high E in the 12th fret at the start of bar 4 and end on your 3rd finger for the D note in the 12th fret on the 4th string. This allows you to use your little finger and second finger to complete the lick.

Figure E is again in the key of Bb Major, but adds some chromatic notes for extra flavour and movement. This example is still quite melodic and outlines the chord progression. Try stretching your ear a little and add more chromatic choices to really push the sound of the II-V-I. There are then many substitutes, theories and approaches for superimposing other chords/notes over these chords to add more complex sounds. More next month.

BY NICK BROWN

BY NICK BROWN

26

mixdownmag.com.au

It doesn’t matter if you’re setting up your first remote live stream session, DJing your hundredth party, or mastering your twelfth studio album—the

Studio 24: 2x2 USB-C audio interface

Studio-series has got you covered. All of these interfaces boast as much I/O as we could squeeze into their sturdy chassis.

Studio 26: 2x4 USB 2.0 audio interface

But robust hardware is only half the package. The included Studio One® Artist DAW lets you record and mix with unlimited tracks and effects in an intuitive UI that stays out of your way. And the Studio Magic Plug-in Suite expands your

Meet the family.

Studio 68: 6x6 USB 2.0 audio interface

sonic palette with powerful VSTs from the best developers in the business.

Regardless of what your musical passion is or where you make it happen—

Studio 1810: 18x8 USB 2.0 audio interface

we’ve got the right interface for both your workflow and workspace. Learn more at www.presonus.com.

Studio 1824: 18x18 USB 2.0 audio interface

Studio 192: 26x32 USB 3.0 audio interface and command center

STUDIO-SERIES RECORDING SYSTEMS 192 kHz, USB 2.0 Recording Systems

ALL STUDIO-SERIES USB INTERFACES INCLUDE

OVER $400 VALUE INCLUDED FREE PreSonus products are proudly distributed in Australia by

©2018 All Rights Reserved, PreSonus Audio Electronics. PreSonus is a registered trademark of PreSonus Audio Electronics, Inc. Studio One is a registered trademark of PreSonus Software Ltd. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

03 8373 4817 . www.linkaudio.com.au

ADVICE COLUMNS PERCUSSION

Crossing/Stretching Concepts I’ve used this little concept before, but I’ve mostly focused on the hands and the idea that two little combinations can be the key to cool improvisation ideas. The key now, however, is to take the concept a little further. I want to show you what just a couple of simple additions or variations can do to increase vocabulary and the challenge factor.

THE PRIMARY The original concept is still worth recapping, particularly if you haven’t read my previous articles. The idea is to focus on two simple stickings: RL and RLL. In both cases, the right hand (or leading hand) is accented and the left hand is ghosted (very soft). You can mix and match these two stickings in any random order or across subdivisions (16th notes, triplets, etc.) to create some cool phrases. They are simple but effective, particularly when you pay close attention to the dynamics between the hands. Contrast is the key to making it interesting.

ADD A BASS DRUM The next step is to stretch the idea a little further. You can apply this to any of the primary stickings you want, but my base to begin with will be RLL – the second of the primary stickings. Figure A shows this sticking with the addition of a bass drum (RLLF). This allows the sticking to fall perfectly over 16th notes (semiquavers), and leading with the right hand accent allows you to easily feel where the beat is.

Experiment moving the right hand accent around the kit and combine this sticking with the original ‘just hands’ idea.

ADD TWO BASS DRUMS Next up (Figure B), I’ve remained in 16th notes, but added another bass drum to the first idea. This gives us a five-note sticking, but we’re going to keep the tempo and the subdivision ‘feel’ the same. To get this feeling nice, you need to be aware of a) where the beat falls and b) how 16th notes feel regardless of which limb is on the beat. The sticking will ‘cross’ the bar. For the purposes of this article, I’ve stopped the sticking/lick after two bars, but you could most certainly play it for longer and see what that sounds like.

STRETCH FURTHER What about we go another way? Figure C has the original sticking, but I’ve added a RL to the start. Now we have one of each of the primary stickings (RL, RLL) and a bass drum – six notes total. This is cool for a few reasons. Firstly, there’s some really nice dynamic contrast across the lick itself.

Secondly, you can play it as 16th note

triplets (sextuplets) and thirdly, you can do the crossing method, keep it as 16th notes, and let it move across the bars. This feels awesome if you can get it happening.

The final idea today is to then add another bass drum (foot) to our six-note sticking to make it seven. Now we have RL RLL FF. You get the idea. Play it across 16th notes to see how it crosses and feels. Don’t forget to move the right hand across the drum kit to get some other colours/flavours.

This is an especially interesting one as the

addition of a double bass drum, particularly at speed, can be quite effective in solos. As with before, all my examples are only two bars long. You can really experiment to see how long you can keep it going.

BY ADRIAN VIOLI

ELECTRONIC MUSIC PRODUCTION

The All Important Cans Not everyone’s lucky enough to have a space in their home where they can work on music without pissing someone off. In fact, I’d say it’s a rarity. Fair enough, really – listening to a drum loop five million times while a hi-hat is slightly tweaked is not going to be fun for your housemates, or your neighbours if you’re making bass-heavy music.

Unless you’re living alone without a neighbour in sight, a good quality pair of headphones is an essential tool in your home studio. Different headphones suit different applications, so here’s a few types and market terms explained.

MONITOR HEADPHONES Standard headphones from department stores will often have an inaccurate frequency response, but market it like it’s a good thing, e.g. ‘OMG HUGE BASS!’ If you’re making music, you don’t want this. You want your sound to be as accurate as possible because you want to use them to monitor your mix. Basically, for making music, you want monitor headphones.

CLOSED BACK This refers to the ear cups being closed over your ear. This style of headphones blocks out a fair bit of environmental noise, and also blocks your music’s noise from being heard by others. Closed back sets get tricky when mixing, because everything can be heard so very clearly. That’s not necessarily a problem in itself, but you might find when listening out loud that some of your parts aren’t punching through like they were in the headphones, or some of the percussion is getting lost. A good tip, that can seem

28

counterintuitive, is to turn your headphone volume down a bit when mixing.

OPEN BACK This means the ear cups are not sealed over by a solid cover. Think of a spoked bicycle wheel covered with foam and a speaker in the middle – that’d look pretty close to a huge open back ear cup. The idea of this style of headphones is to provide a more natural soundstage, more akin to listening to music through speakers. They don’t really block any environmental noise, so people can still talk to you and they’ll be able to hear the music coming from your headphones too. If you’re recording into a microphone these are a no-no – bleed from the backing track in your headphones will end up on the recording. But the general consensus is that open back sets are preferable when mixing. Listening fatigue is also lessened by the airy open back. They tend to be lighter, and can get incredibly expensive for high-end mastering gear.

SEMI-OPEN BACK As you might expect, these aren’t fully open or closed. You still probably wouldn’t want to use them somewhere busy where the noise will irritate others, but if you make intricate music, you might find that a degree of environmental noise blocking while in your home studio is ideal.

HEADPHONE IMPEDANCE (OHMS) Without getting technical about it, the higher the impedance rating of your headphones, the hotter the signal it will take. If you plugged consumer grade earbuds (20 ohm-ish) into a DJ mixer and cranked the volume, it would likely blow

out the speakers in the ear buds. But on a higher rated pair of headphones (say 80 ohm), you’d likely come out unscathed. Flip the script and plug the high-rated into a phone and you might struggle to get to a decent volume.

80 ohm is a pretty safe all-rounder resistance for most gear. Some headphones, like Beyerdynamic gear, come in varying resistances so you can choose the most suitable for your application.

BY MICHAEL CUSACK

mixdownmag.com.au

ULTIM ATE

SPECIAL

Here at Mixdown, we wholeheartedly believe there’s a pedal out there for every guitarist. A stompbox soulmate, if you will. That’s why we have fought tooth and nail – day in and day out – to put together the most comprehensive, toe-tingling and tone rich pedal effects special for this month’s issue. From pummelling distortion that leaves you gasping for air, to the purest of sweet delays, our writers have sourced the cream of the crop. So go forth, find your perfect match, and head down to your local music store. You can thank us later.

Ampeg Liquifier Chorus

Ampeg Opto Comp

EFFECT: CHORUS | EXPECT TO PAY: $209 | DISTRIBUTOR: AMBER TECHNOLOGY

EFFECT: COMPRESSOR | EXPECT TO PAY: $209 | DISTRIBUTOR: AMBER TECHNOLOGY

RECOMMENDED FOR: Players looking for an affordable gigging analogue chorus, matching anything from dream-pop to grunge.

RECOMMENDED FOR: Players fine-tuning their studio setup, particularly home studios.

VERSATILITY: The Opto Comp would squeeze a killer tone out of just about any electric instrument, even with limited controls. Played on a Gretsch G5435 pro jet guitar, Fender Jazz bass and Microkorg synthesiser, there didn’t seem to be any tonal walls it couldn’t squash.

VERSATILITY: Ampeg’s Liquifier analogue chorus pedal is a worthy new iteration in the chorus effect canon, albeit simple, offering a unique dual chorus by way of a clean signal through two modulated signals, instead of the typical one. The neat dual chorus produces a stunning array of tones few other options offer. You’d have to scour the market to find another chorus with true through zero phase cancellation. Although designed primarily for bass guitar, its lush trim of the low end makes this just as applicable to guitar or even synthesisers.

USABILITY: The pedal is fit with a typical three dial setup for rate, depth, and effect, providing an uncomplicated channel to a cosmic variety of malleable timbres. The caveat is their fiddly sensitivity, making it hard to return to tones you stumble upon. Classic chorus tones can be found balancing the dials, but it’s also worth eliciting the wacky reverberations caused by rate and depth manipulation.

CONSTRUCTION: The Liquifier is a sleek and highly compact operation, packing its circuitry into a

30

USABILITY: This unit is a triple dial compressor pedal, offering creamy tones that flow instantly when engaged, with searing high fidelity thanks to an excellent signal to noise ratio. Gain, release and output level dials, however, do not account for tonal control or signal blending, something you’re better off turning to a heftier competitor for. high gloss purple die cast metal enclosure measuring 66mm x 114mm and weighing 0.27kg, ensuring it won’t crowd your board.

OVERALL: The Liquifier is enviably affordable for the range of tones spiralling out of the unique dual chorus and is highly suited for live settings, but beware of considerable hiss for studio use.

BY JOSHUA MARTIN

CONSTRUCTION: Ampeg, in keeping with its staunchly utilitarian functionality, has given the Opto Comp a plain white exterior with austere black labels. Much the same as the rest of their 2018 pedal line, the tech is housed within a very cosy 66mm x 114mm die cast metal enclosure, weighing just 0.27kg.

Though brands like MXR and Joyo offer smaller compression pedals, the Opto Comp strikes a better size-functionality balance.

OVERALL: The Opto Comp Compressor is strictly business. As a compact augmentation to your pedalboard, it’s worth a look if you have a little money to spare in helping you attain a piercingly clean sound.

BY JOSHUA MARTIN

mixdownmag.com.au

PEDAL SPECIAL

Ampeg Scrambler

Ernie Ball Expression Ambient Delay

EFFECT: BASS OVERDRIVE | EXPECT TO PAY: $209 | DISTRIBUTOR: AMBER TECHNOLOGY

EFFECT: DELAY | EXPECT TO PAY: $479 | DISTRIBUTOR: CMC MUSIC

RECOMMENDED FOR: Players looking for a measured and reliable bass overdrive.

RECOMMENDED FOR: Rock, blues and funk players.

VERSATILITY: The Ambient Delay is incredibly versatile and offers a useful, real world set of colours. The delay time and feedback rate offer everything from tape-style slapback to long, digital tails that are reminiscent of the MXR Carbon Copy without the low end roll off. This works well enough on its own, but take the time to dial in some lush, almost dusty reverb and you’ll find yourself adrift in a sea of warm textures.

VERSATILITY: The Scrambler’s vintage stompbox reputation precedes it. Thankfully, this delivers a characteristically wide tonal range for an extremely affordable price.

Though this bass-tuned pedal is suited to any electric instrument, there is little point in trying this with a guitar or synthesiser if you have any form of overdrive already.

USABILITY: The simple four dial setup gives you an impressive span of tonal options, and allows easy engagement of that classic Ampeg grime when you balance the knobs. Impressively, when pushing the Scrambler to full drive, the signal remained steady without any desperate need for compression. Its range is workmanlike and you’d be hard pressed to fault its functionality unless you’re trying to elicit any particularly unusual sounds – blending your dry signal is your best bet in that regard.

CONSTRUCTION: The sleek black die cast chassis keeps it clean, simple and compact. The chicken head knobs are highly functional and feel sturdy enough, while a simple

battery compartment gives you another power option.

OVERALL: Ampeg doesn’t want to reinvent the ballgame with the Scrambler bass overdrive; instead, they’ve tinkered and condensed their classic Scrambler sound into a reliable and affordable package.

USABILITY: The Expression Series seeks to do the job of two or three pedals at a time with an eye on spatial economy, which is increasingly at a premium for a lot of players. Herein lies the crowning glory of the design. While they might not lay every possible option at your feet, they are doing enough heavy lifting to earn their place on the board.

OVERALL: Smooth, unbridled sweeping, clever application of a clever idea, all housed in a snazzy looking casing.

BY LUKE SHIELDS

CONSTRUCTION: The metallic chassis of the pedal is very impressive and sturdy. The reduced size compared to Ernie Ball’s regular volume pedals is also a welcome addition, ensuring the pedal doesn’t take up a lot of real estate on your board.

BY JOSHUA MARTIN

Fender Engager Boost

Fender Full Moon Distortion

EFFECT: CLEAN BOOST | EXPECT TO PAY: $169 | DISTRIBUTOR: FENDER AUSTRALIA

EFFECT: DISTORTION | EXPECT TO PAY: $299 | DISTRIBUTOR: FENDER AUSTRALIA

RECOMMENDED FOR: Almost any guitarist out there, for almost any genre imaginable.

RECOMMENDED FOR: All types of metal, rock and punk players.

VERSATILITY: The Full Moon Distortion is Fender’s first take on a high-gain distortion pedal, and is chock-full of powerful sound-shaping options. Complementing the standard threeband EQ is a high-treble control, which allows players to add or remove top-end sizzle as desired. Texture and bite switches enable players to choose between different clipping modes and level of attack gain respectively, while a second footswitch offers up to 12dB of post-gain boost for harmonically rich overtones.

VERSATILITY: The Engager is Fender’s take on a clean boost, providing up to 20dB of extra volume and handy EQ manipulation. The frequency toggle switch allows players to target either 800Hz or 400Hz, while the middle knob enables you to either boost or cut the selected frequency.

USABILITY: The controls are extremely straightforward.

The pedal includes a bypass toggle switch located on the rear, allowing players to choose between true or buffered bypass for appropriate placement anywhere in your signal chain.

CONSTRUCTION: The Engager Boost has a form fitting to its function – a clean, blank slate of brushed silver makes for the perfect canvas upon which to sculpt your tone. Complete with a durable anodized aluminium body and white Fender amp jewel light, this pedal was built ready to withstand the stress of rigorous gigging and relentless touring.

OVERALL: The Engager works brilliantly with all types of setups. You can use it in a variety of

mixdownmag.com.au

ways, including as a method of increasing gain from an already overdriven amp, an EQ sculpting pedal or simply as a classic volume boost. There’s beauty in simplicity, and the Engager fits that description perfectly.

BY EDWARD LIM

USABILITY: Fender’s new line of pedals adds extra functionality without overcomplicating things, and the same applies to the Full Moon Distortion. The controls are intuitive enough for players to get stuck into almost instantly, with a variety of means to experiment with the metric ton of gain available on tap. Unfortunately, the included boost is not independent and can’t be used when the pedal is bypassed.

CONSTRUCTION: Out of all of Fender’s colourful new offerings, this ranks near the top of the list in terms of aesthetics. The deep blue anodized aluminium body is topped off with a sapphire Fender amp jewel light, and has

matching blue LEDs for both the control knobs and boost indicator switch. This pedal is solidly built and looks absolutely stunning.

OVERALL: The Full Moon Distortion is the jacked up older brother of Fender’s Pugilist Distortion pedal. Aggressive in both sound and demeanour, this no-nonsense distortion pedal should be on every shred-head’s radar.

BY EDWARD LIM

31

PEDAL SPECIAL

Fender Marine Layer Reverb

Fender The Pelt

EFFECT: REVERB | EXPECT TO PAY: $299 | DISTRIBUTOR: FENDER AUSTRALIA

EFFECT: FUZZ | EXPECT TO PAY: $269 | DISTRIBUTOR: FENDER AUSTRALIA

RECOMMENDED FOR: Any guitarist looking to explore murky depths, shimmering highs, and everything in between.

RECOMMENDED FOR: Rock, metal, and punk players.

VERSATILITY: This silicon transistor-based fuzz is able to produce a surprisingly wide range of heavy, woolly tones thanks to its supplementary voicing controls. The ingenious midrange contour switch allows players to cut or boost their midrange EQ, while the thickness switch adds additional low end girth if so desired. The bloom and fuzz controls both add creative outlets for the player looking to truly stand out in the mix.

VERSATILITY: This reverb unit has six high quality digital reverb algorithms, based on three main modes with two variations each. Combined with a pre-delay control and a filter toggle to choose between brighter or darker reflections, the Marine Layer can cover some serious sonic ground. A dry kill on/off switch located on the back can even be used for muting the dry signal path in your amp’s effects loop if desired.

USABILITY: The controls are simple to use and fairly self-explanatory. The LED-backlit knobs are both sensitive and responsive, and make for easy tweaking even on a dark stage.

CONSTRUCTION: Off the bat, the Marine Layer is an absolute stunner with build quality to match. The sea-green anodized aluminium housing is durable yet lightweight, with a gorgeous emerald jewel light in the centre. The easily accessible magnetic battery door allows for hassle-free battery swaps when necessary.

pedal in their effects arsenal, and Fender has absolutely hit the nail on the head with the Marine Layer Reverb. With a plethora of extremely usable reverb options at your fingertips, it’s hard to say no to its dashing good looks and versatile capabilities.

USABILITY: After completely understanding the nuances of the controls, dialling in a variety of tones becomes a walk in the park. The Pelt works wonders as a dirty rhythm tone when rolling back the volume knob, and absolutely melts faces when used as a capstone pedal at the end of a drive chain.

OVERALL: With more tone-shaping tools than your average fuzz pedal, The Pelt is geared towards players looking for a fuzz like no other. From creamy, saturated warmth to sputtering distortion, this pedal is definitely one to check out if you’re a fuzz fan.

OVERALL: Almost every guitarist needs a solid reverb

CONSTRUCTION: As with Fender’s entire range of new pedals, The Pelt is built like a tank with a beautiful purple anodized aluminium exterior and an eye-catching amethyst Fender amp jewel light. Fender’s exclusive magnetic battery door is another welcome addition to all battery purists out there, and provides unrivalled ease and accessibility when swapping batteries out.

Mooer Black Truck

Mooer Micro Preamp 017

EFFECT: MULTI EFFECT | EXPECT TO PAY: $599 | DISTRIBUTOR: JADE AUSTRALIA

EFFECT: PREAMP | EXPECT TO PAY: $169 | DISTRIBUTOR: JADE AUSTRALIA

RECOMMENDED FOR: Hard rock and metal players looking for a compact and affordable do-it-all solution to their pedalboard woes, particularly those who are a little genre agnostic.

RECOMMENDED FOR: Shredders looking to get a wide variety of high-octane tones without spending $2000 + on a boutique high-gain amp.

VERSATILITY: A one word review would be simply that – versatile. Featuring a ridiculously large amount of effects – compressor, overdrive, distortion (with noise gate), EQ, modulation and delay/reverb, chromatic tuner, FX loop and looper switcher – The Black Truck is an exponential expansion on last year’s Red Truck. The reverb-delay and phaser effects are uniformly excellent.

USABILITY: The Black Truck is all about immediate functionality. All effects are simply engaged with straightforward volume, tone, level feedback, etc. knob caveats. All effects could be combined infinitely, with plenty of fun to be had playing with tap tempo and a long delay period. The inclusion of EQ, although gratuitous, makes sense in order to bolster the control Mooer is offering.

CONSTRUCTION: The Black Truck trumps the hulking size of the floor pod ten times over, and certainly that of a mess of patch cables on a pedalboard, packed tightly into a fairly compact black casing and coming with a simple zip-up carry case.

32

BY EDWARD LIM

OVERALL: Man, this thing is a riot. It’s hard to fault the dizzying functionality of the Black Truck, though it also inevitably heightens the perennial conundrum haunting multieffects pedals – is the analogue sacrifice worth it? Mooer might have offered the most compelling tug to the former yet.

BY JOSHUA MARTIN

VERSATILITY: Modelled on the circuitry of the infamous Californian combo amps, which rose to prominence with the popularisation of heavy metal, the Mooer Micro Preamp 017 faithfully recreates the searing thrash tones favoured by the likes of Metallica and Suicidal Tendencies in the ‘80s. You want face-melting gain? The Mooer Micro Preamp 017 has it on tap.

USABILITY: If you’re familiar with Mooer, you’ll know how much the company loves to simplify their stompboxes by stripping things back to the bare necessities. The Micro Preamp 017 sticks true to this ideology. In addition to your traditional three-band EQ and volume and gain controls, there’s a nifty little channel/cab simulator switch, offering a wild cocktail of tonal possibilities.

BY EDWARD LIM

the old ‘set and forget’ method, it won’t be an issue for you.

OVERALL: While I’m certainly not heavily invested in the realm of heavy music nowadays, I definitely had a brief thrash phase as a teenager, and I really wish the Micro Preamp 017 existed back then because I would have snapped it up in a heartbeat. It’s the perfect solution to nailing those feverish high-gain tones without having to drop racks on a boutique Cali combo, with Mooer once again proving themselves as the frontrunner in the micro pedal market.

BY WILL BREWSTER

CONSTRUCTION: I honestly can’t think of anything better than having the tone of a Mesa-Boogie in a pedal small enough to slip into your pocket, and the Micro Preamp 017’s aluminium chassis and pretty blue finish is certainly appealing to the eye. If anything, the tiny control knobs felt a bit flimsy, but if you use

mixdownmag.com.au

PEDAL SPECIAL

Mooer Groove Loop

Kink Charlie Fuzz

EFFECT: LOOPER | EXPECT TO PAY: $199 | DISTRIBUTOR: JADE AUSTRALIA

EFFECT: FUZZ | EXPECT TO PAY: $110 | DISTRIBUTOR: KINK GUITAR PEDALS

RECOMMENDED FOR: Any and all players.

RECOMMENDED FOR: Rock/indie/punk/blues and players who want fuzz, but haven’t got lots of pedalboard space.

VERSATILITY: The Groove Loop operates as both a looper and a drum machine, making it incredibly versatile. With eight different drum grooves built into the drum machine, you can jam anything from rock and metal through to reggae and blues.

USABILITY: The pedal has three different modes: looper only, drum machine only, or the two together. The Groove Loop also has dedicated playback level controls for the looper and drum machine, which is invaluable when layering loops and ideas.

The looper itself is simple to use and makes it easy to overdub layers.

CONSTRUCTION: Like all of Mooer’s micro pedals, the Groove Loop’s chassis is sturdy and takes up a tiny footprint on your pedalboard.

OVERALL: At the end of the day, the Groove Loop is a hell of a lot of bang for your buck. It’s perfect for building on ideas at home, and it’s the ideal pedal for buskers wanting to do the whole one-man-band thing.

VERSATILITY: Can fit into a range of genres, but offers fairly straightforward silicon fuzz tone-wise.

An internal bias trimpot lets you tweak to taste, but otherwise it’s plug in and play fuzzy goodness.

USABILITY: So easy. One big control knob and that’s it.

That big knob lets you make adjustments quite easily on the fly by hand (or even by foot).

CONSTRUCTION: Neat and tidy on the inside, the Charlie looks the goods. Bonus points for the lightup eye LEDs. OVERALL: A great mini fuzz that pulls some beefy classic tones. Good for fat riffs, splatty chords and fuzzy lead lines, the Charlie can save space and add to your sonic palette.

BY NICK BROWN

BY NICHOLAS SIMONSEN

Kink Straya Drive

Positive Grid Bias Delay Twin

EFFECT: OVERDRIVE | EXPECT TO PAY: $250 | DISTRIBUTOR: KINK GUITAR PEDALS

EFFECT: MODULATION | EXPECT TO PAY: $399 | DISTRIBUTOR: LINK AUDIO

RECOMMENDED FOR: Rock/blues/pop, and players wanting two independent drive tones in a single pedal.

RECOMMENDED FOR: Players who want an endless soundscape of delay at their feet.

VERSATILITY: Both sides of the pedal (808 style on the right and Guv’nor on the left) have independent controls, giving you the ability to tweak and then switch either on or off (or run the 808 into the Guv).

VERSATILITY: I’m pretty damn picky when it comes to delay pedals, so much so that I currently have three different delay pedals on my board. I can happily say that I could replace all three of them with the Bias Delay Twin.

The pedal has every delay sound that I need in one, and they’ve managed to recreate a myriad of classic delay sounds wonderfully.

USABILITY: Easy enough to stomp, tweak and get some tones going, but also has some extra features for further shaping (hard/soft clipping).

CONSTRUCTION: Kink look like they’ve put some time and work into the Straya Drive, and the bogan Aussie graphics definitely set it apart from most drive pedals.

OVERALL: Can open up possibilities on a single channel amp and presents a lot of tonal options when combined with other pedals and/or your existing rig. Boosty, slightly broken TS-style sounds through to bigger ballsy drive.

BY NICK BROWN

34

USABILITY: It’s really as simple or as complicated as you want it to be. If you just wanted to stick with the nine presets on the pedal, there is already a heap to play around with and tweak. From there, you can deep dive into the Bias Pedal app and Positive Grid’s ToneCloud to explore any number of tonal possibilities.

in total control and can ensure that the Bias Delay Twin does exactly what you need it to.

BY NICHOLAS SIMONSEN

CONSTRUCTION: Compact, heavy, and ready to take a beating on the road.

OVERALL: I’m so impressed by all of the pedals in the Bias Twin series, but the delay is the one that has really blown me away. It’s so much more than just another modeller. Thanks to the Bias Pedal app and ToneCloud, you are

mixdownmag.com.au

PEDAL SPECIAL

Positive Grid BIAS Distortion Twin Positive Grid BIAS Modulation Twin EFFECT: DISTORTION | EXPECT TO PAY: $399 | DISTRIBUTOR: LINK AUDIO

EFFECT: MODULATION | EXPECT TO PAY: $399 | DISTRIBUTOR: LINK AUDIO

RECOMMENDED FOR: Players looking for a wide range of overdrive/distortion/fuzz effects.

RECOMMENDED FOR: Players who want a one-stop shop when it comes to modulation.

VERSATILITY: The Distortion Twin has ten presets built into the pedal itself. However, with the use of Positive Grid’s BIAS Pedal software, you can make as many different presets as your heart desires and mod them down to the finest of detail.

VERSATILITY: It doesn’t get more versatile than this.

The BIAS Modulation Twin has everything you could possibly need for vibrant and dreamy effects – chorus, vibrato, tremolo, ring modulation and much more. With nine factory presets, you have a plethora of effects to play with out of the gate. I was particularly blown away by the ring modulation and rotary presets.

USABILITY: The pedal itself is very easy to use. Simply choose the preset you wish to use and from there you can adjust the gain, level, tone and blend to find your sweet spot. There is also a handy boost switch and control for situations where you need a little bit more grunt for solos and leads. The BIAS Pedal software is very easy to get around, and given that the pedal itself has Bluetooth capability, you can easily send presets straight from your iPad to the pedal instantly.

pedal that gives you access to endless different tonal possibilities, then you should look no further.

BY NICHOLAS SIMONSEN

USABILITY: It’s almost stupid how easy they’ve made it to tweak sounds on the BIAS Modulation Twin. Aside from the preset control, you also have controls for depth, intensity, rate, tweak and a three-way toggle for LFO waveforms. All of that, coupled with the ability to edit your patches with the Bias Pedal app means you literally have endless options when it comes to building effects.

on independent chorus, trem, vibrato, ring modulation and rotary pedals when you can have them all in one for a fraction of the price? Talk about bang for your buck.

BY NICHOLAS SIMONSEN

CONSTRUCTION: Honestly, this pedal feels like it would survive a nuclear explosion. The hefty metal casing is built to take a beating and the switches are incredibly robust.

CONSTRUCTION: Weighing in at just under a kilogram, the pedal has a bit of weight to it. The benefit of this is that it feels incredibly tough, which is exactly what you want.

OVERALL: If you’re looking for a distortion/overdrive

OVERALL: Why would you spend thousands of dollars

NUX Lacerate FET Boost

NUX Loop Core Deluxe

EFFECT: BOOST | EXPECT TO PAY: $69 | DISTRIBUTOR: PRO MUSIC AUSTRALIA

EFFECT: LOOPER | EXPECT TO PAY: $199 | DISTRIBUTOR: PRO MUSIC AUSTRALIA

RECOMMENDED FOR: Guitarists looking to get the most out of their amp’s natural tone.

RECOMMENDED FOR: Solo performers and musicians looking for a viable songwriting sketchpad and performance tool.

VERSATILITY: Tonally, NUX’s Lacerate FET Boost really doesn’t muck about, offering a faithful signal boost to push your amp into spanky valve grit and crunchy tones for cutting through the mix. With two separate boost modes – the ever-reliable Clean and the slightly more gnarly Crank – you’ll be able to nail all your favourite guitarists’ boost tones. From Johnny Marr to John Mayer, the Lacerate FET Boost will do it all.

USABILITY: As much as I adore deep-diving into complex stompboxes loaded with knobs and dip-switches, the simplicity of NUX’s Lacerate is incredibly refreshing. Stomping on the footswitch will activate the Lacerate’s first Clean boost, while holding your foot down for a second will activate the Crank function, with both modes being controlled by the ubiquitous level knob.

Can’t beat that for simplicity.

CONSTRUCTION: The Lacerate FET Boost sees NUX rolling on with their current focus on micro pedals, bearing a minimal, no frills design reminiscent of MXR’s famous Micro Amp boost. Although the plain white paintjob is

mixdownmag.com.au

VERSATILITY: Loopers have become an essential asset to the creative process of a wide assortment of musicians today, and with the Loop Core Deluxe, NUX aims to appease them all.

Offering 99 banks of storage, eight hours of recording time, unlimited overdubs and 40 drum machine patterns, whether you’re aimlessly noodling in your bedroom or setting up an intricately layered live loop, you’ll be in good hands with the Loop Core Deluxe.

a bit harsh on the eyes, the Lacerate is by all means a rugged unit, perfectly suited for heavy use onstage.

OVERALL: Too often these days, pedals are loaded with unnecessary bells and whistles to appeal within a heavily competitive stompbox market. NUX have totally eschewed this ethos with the Lacerate FET Boost, providing players with a simple yet effective signal boost to highlight the sonic nuances of your beloved valve amplifier.

BY WILL BREWSTER

USABILITY: The NUX Loop Core Deluxe takes a relatively simple approach to looping, with three coloured LEDS and a bright LCD display helping you find your way around the pedal with absolute ease. The inclusion of NUX’s dual footswitch is an extremely welcome addition to the looping experience, and with a bit of practice (and study of the instruction manual), mastering the device will be a breeze.

CONSTRUCTION: Despite its slight size, the Loop Core Deluxe is built like a brick – even the dual footswitch is almost as hefty as the pedal itself, which should give you peace of mind when lugging

it about to gigs. While I wasn’t too fond of the stacked design of the rhythm and loop volume knobs, the other buttons onboard the Loop Core Deluxe feel pretty sturdy, and the sparkling gold and silver finish will add a touch of finesse to your rig.

OVERALL: If you’re on the hunt for a simple yet versatile tool to take your creative ideas to the next level, look no further than the NUX Loop Core Deluxe. Although there’s something for everyone with this one, I’d highly recommend it for budding guitarists looking to make an entry into the exciting world of looping.

BY WILL BREWSTER

35

PEDAL SPECIAL

NUX Masamune

NUX Solid Studio

EFFECT: BOOST AND COMPRESSION | EXPECT TO PAY: $159 DISTRIBUTOR: PRO MUSIC AUSTRALIA

EFFECT: AMP SIMULATOR | EXPECT TO PAY: $269 | DISTRIBUTOR: PRO MUSIC AUSTRALIA

RECOMMENDED FOR: Studio boffins, amp nerds, apartment dwellers with limited space.

RECOMMENDED FOR: Tone fiends who need a bit more than just a standard boost function.

VERSATILITY: To describe the NUX Solid Studio as versatile would almost be insulting – this pedal redefines just how flexible a simulator pedal should be. With eight classic cabinet and microphone models as well as three tube and microphone placement types to choose from, if you can’t manage to find a desired tone out of this pedal, maybe you should just give up.

VERSATILITY: If you’re looking for an extremely tweakable pedal to buffer up your tone, the NUX Masamune Booster & Kompressor is one to keep your eye out for. With its name originating from one of Japan’s most famous medieval swordsmiths, it comes as no surprise that the Masamune bears razor sharp tones and dynamic range, offering everything from squashed compression to snarling gritty overdrive at the flick of a switch.

USABILITY: It’s fair to say that compression is a pretty confusing effect to wrap your head around – you can hear what it does, but it’s hard to explain exactly what it sounds like. However, when coupled with the boost function, the NUX Masamune opens a whole world of sonic possibilities, offering a wide assortment of controls such as blend, hi-cut and clip to totally juice up your guitar signal. You can even choose to run both effects in parallel or independently, which is a nice little trick to have up your sleeve.

CONSTRUCTION: With five knobs, four rocker switches and two footswitches in total, the NUX

Masamune is a tone tweaker’s dream, and it’s built like a tank. Although I feel NUX could have spiced the Masamune up with a gnarly graphic to suit its incredibly cool name, I’m sure most players aren’t as picky as I am and should be satisfied with its killer tone alone.

OVERALL: The NUX Masamune Booster & Kompressor definitely gets a tick from me. Both sides of the pedal faithfully complement the characteristics of your clean signal, and the wide assortment of tonal possibilities provided by the myriad of controls onboard should prove to be a hit.

BY WILL BREWSTER

USABILITY: If you’re pining for an oddly specific tone – say, the cabinet of a Roland JC120 closemic’d with a Neumann U87 through a power amp loaded with EL34 valves – buy the NUX Solid Studio. This pedal is near limitless with its possibilities, and the inclusion of a DI Output on the side means you can leave your amp at home and gig straight through a PA. CONSTRUCTION: For such a tonally diverse pedal, the NUX Solid Studio is surprisingly compact, and far lighter than expected. All of the knobs and switches feel extremely rugged, and the inclusion of the DI Output on the left side of the unit means you’ll be less likely to trip on excessive cables when using the

unit onstage. It’s the simple things that win me over.

OVERALL: The only other pedal I’ve encountered with a similar amount of microphone, valve and cabinet options to the NUX Studio was three times the size and more than double the price – and to be honest, I think I got a lot more out of this one. If you’re also tempted to explore the world of an amp-free live rig, I’d heavily recommend the NUX Solid Studio – it’s got bang, it’s got buck, and it’s built like a truck. Not bad at all.

BY WILL BREWSTER

Meris Ottobit Jr

Meris Enzo

EFFECT: BIT CRUSHER | EXPECT TO PAY: $475 | DISTRIBUTOR: STUDIO CONNECTIONS

EFFECT: MULTI VOICE SYNTH | EXPECT TO PAY: $475 | DISTRIBUTOR: STUDIO CONNECTIONS

RECOMMENDED FOR: Players who want their guitar to sound like a video game arcade.

RECOMMENDED FOR: Alt-rock, avant-garde and experimental performers.

VERSATILITY: With so many brands in the current market striving for higher sample rates and crystal clean effects, it seems that Meris are taking it in the opposite direction and trying to reduce sample rates down to almost nothing.

VERSATILITY: There are a million and one ways to use the Enzo and then some. From mind-bending ring modulation to sprawling frequency sweeps, this pedal’s capabilities are only limited by your creativity. Completely bypassing the synth functions even turns the Enzo into a vintage pitch-shifter.

USABILITY: The different knobs give you a heap of control on the level of crushing/decimation to your signal. From more subtle effects through to absolute bit crushing chaos, the Ottobit Jr is a ridiculously fun pedal for emulating the sounds of your favourite Atari games.

CONSTRUCTION: The glossy black chassis with an ever so subtle flake makes for a tasteful looking pedal. Coupled with extremely well built parts and a not so overbearing size, the pedal is a welcome addition to your board without taking up too much space.

OVERALL: Look, it’s not the kind of pedal that is applicable for everything, and it’s certainly not for every player. That said, the Ottobit Jr is well crafted and bucketloads of fun.

36

BY NICHOLAS SIMONSEN

USABILITY: The Enzo’s controls may take some time to get used to. Each knob governs a specific perimeter, enabling the player to tweak bandwidth filters, modulation depth, sustain, and much more. The magic happens when these settings are tweaked in conjunction with each other, producing a truly mind-boggling amount of tonal combinations. Plug an expression pedal into the Enzo, and you’ve got hours and hours of sonic experimentation ahead of you.

CONSTRUCTION: The pedal is finished in a durable coat of vibrant gold over a brushed aluminium housing, making for an extremely classy look with its polished black knob controls and text. Contrary to its immense sonic library, the Enzo is of an extremely manageable size, which means it can easily fit onto your board without any issues.

OVERALL: While this pedal isn’t for everyone, synthenthusiasts and lovers of quirky sounds will definitely find something usable in the Meris Enzo. Ever wanted to turn the sound of your guitar into something else entirely? This might just be up your alley.

BY EDWARD LIM

mixdownmag.com.au

SINGLE CHANNEL. SINGLE SPEAKER. SINGLE PURPOSE.

MORE INFO voxamps.com

WATCH US ON YOUTUBE youtube.com/voxaustralia

LIKE US ON FACEBOOK facebook.com/voxampsaustralia

FIND A DEALER yamahabackstage.com.au

PRODUCT REVIEWS JACKSON GUITARS

Pro Series Chris Broderick Soloist HT7 JACKSON GUITARS AUSTRALIA JACKSONGUITARS.COM.AU EXPECT TO PAY: $2199 The seven-string electric has become quite commonplace in heavier styles of music, with the extended range typically adding extra low-end girth. While it can be used in many contexts, the humble seven-string is often synonymous with more shred-style players. Jackson have long catered for many rock/metal shredders, so it makes sense that they have a player such as Chris Broderick in their enclave and offer a number of sevenstring guitars right across their range.

Falling under the ‘Pro’ series banner, the Brockderick HT7 features a mahogany body, one-piece maple neck, and a rosewood fingerboard. Jackson have used their own design for a single-string guitar bridge (a hardtail design) and their own branded locking tuners. In the pickup department you’ll find a pair of DiMarzio CB7 humbuckers with master volume and tone controls. The three-way toggle switch offers standard pickup settings, with the added ability of single coil tones thanks to the push/pull volume pot (which adds coil splitting). Last but not least, there is a ‘kill’ switch at the bottom of the control

set. I really like the body shape of this Soloist, with a flowing asymmetrical design that looks sleek and modern without being overly spiky and aggressive.

The up-facing recessed input jack (which seems to the be the rage with many brands/models these days) keeps your lead out of the way, the double cutaways are smooth, and the one-piece neck-through design feels and looks great. No huge heel, easy access right up to the 24th fret, and a thin, slightly D-shaped neck means you’ll have no worries whipping around this guitar (even as a seven-string). The absence of fretboard markers adds to the stealthy look, and the black metallic finish on this particular model looks great – something you’d typically see on more

expensive guitars. A metallic blue finish is also an option if that’s more your thing.

Plugged in, the CB HT7 provides a range of sounds from pristine, chirpy and modern clean tones through to more aggressive punch when played with distortion. The ability to split coils allows for modulated bright clean tones and focused dirty sounds if needed. Broderick obviously likes the pickup selector close, which allows for quick changes when playing. I like the neck profile being wide enough to accommodate the seven strings without feeling like hard work, and the slender profile has enough shoulders to still give it some body. It’s great for quick lines up the neck or syncopated low-end chords and riffs. Jackson have managed to keep the

price down somewhat on the Pro Series yet still offer playability, tone and many of the features of the fully fledged models. A cool guitar if you’re looking for a hardtail sevenstring that won’t break the bank.

BY NICK BROWN HITS ∙ Neck feels great ∙ Comfortable seven-string MISSES ∙ Kill switch might not be useful for some

NUX

Cerberus Multi-Effects Pedal PRO MUSIC AUSTRALIA | PROMUSICAUSTRALIA.COM | EXPECT TO PAY: $449 Have you heard the news? Multi-effects pedals are back, and with the everdeveloping power of modern digital processing technology and cross-platform integration, they’re better than ever.

Whether you’re a beginner looking to develop a taste for different tones on a shoestring budget or you’re chasing a nofrills touring solution to easily slot into overhead storage or under the car seat, you can’t beat a solid multi-effects unit to supply the goods in a pinch.

If you’re familiar with Greek mythology, you’d be well aware of the fearsome beast Cerberus, the three-headed hellhound who guards the dead from leaving the gates of the Underworld – an extremely apt name for NUX’s new feature-packed multi-effects pedal. Billing itself as an Integrated Effects and Controller unit, the sturdy Cerberus offers all of your classic effects options, including analogue overdrive and distortion circuits, a plethora of modulation options, and delay/reverb. There’s also a built-in tuner, tap tempo switch, patch editing software, and full MIDI implementation – what more could you possibly want?

While the concept of the Cerberus may seem pretty simple out of the box, upon closer inspection, it’s apparent there’s a little more than meets the eye with this unit. Given that the delay/modulation sections and overdrive/distortion sections of the pedal

38

have different outputs, you’ll need to run another cable to patch both sections into one another, which might be a bit confusing for beginners looking to simply plug in and access a whole range of effects on the fly.

However, for more advanced operators, you can use these separate outputs to split your signal into both your amp’s effects loop and traditional input, allowing you to juice the characteristics of your amp when using the Cerberus’ analogue overdrive section.

With the off-putting dual output situation aside, there’s no doubt that NUX’s Cerberus Integrated Effects and Controller is aiming to be a hot contender within the modern multi-effects market. Faced with a smattering of controls, switches and intuitive effects models, the Cerberus makes it easy for players to access, modify and save a plethora of classic tones, with each effect section boasting its own unique quality to allure the individual tastes of the player.

Undeniably the highlight of the pedal, the Cerberus’ analogue distortion and overdrive effects are an absolute delight to experience.

Based on the characteristics of classic US amplifiers used in the realms of hard rock, metal and blues, the true analogue construction of the overdrive and distortion sections result in an extremely faithful recreation of classic ‘70s and ‘80s tones, with the distortion in particular oozing a

harmonically rich, thick saturated tone with an extremely dynamic response. There’s also a nifty little option to modify the routing of the distortion and overdrive effects, allowing you to either toggle each individual effect or blend them for glorious saturation.

While the sound of the digital effects section certainly isn’t as jaw dropping as the overdrive or distortion circuits, the modulation section is definitely a quiet achiever, boasting three different chorus voicings as well as a tremolo, phaser and uni-vibe effect. You’re also spoilt for choice in the delay/reverb section of the Cerberus, which offers similar routing options to the distortion circuit for enhanced tone tweaking, and the option for tap-tempo control definitely gets a tick from me.

With its small quirks aside, the NUX Cerberus Integrated Effects and Controller is a viable solution for those looking to

get into the multi-effects market without breaking the bank. Featuring a rugged construction, easily manoeuvrable interface and a particularly appealing analogue gain section, the Cerberus is certainly aiming to make a splash with this unit as NUX seeks to redefine the multi-effects pedal for the modern age.

BY WILL BREWSTER HITS ∙ Tasty analogue gain ∙ Easy to navigate and edit through effects ∙ Sophisticated MIDI integration MISSES ∙ Confusing dual output

mixdownmag.com.au

PRODUCT REVIEWS ERNIE BALL

Expression Tremolo Pedal CMC MUSIC | CMCMUSIC.COM.AU | EXPECT TO PAY: $395 Here’s to the unsung hero of the effects world. If distortion is the squawking, loudmouthed first born and reverb the sullen middle child, then surely the undulating subtlety of tremolo is the oft overlooked youngest who, while not wanting to make too much of a fuss about itself, rounds out the family in a way that would be sorely missed in its absence. When Link Wray let the tubes of his hotter than hell Fender amp shudder on his trailblazing track ‘Rumble’, he allowed it to come into its own as a sought after texture for tone tourists the world over. Since then, tremolo has taken on many shapes and forms and has spawned any number of equally fascinating time-based modulations in its wake. However, the fact remains that no bag of tricks is complete without that glistening, steady warble. Enter the next logical amendment to the gold standard, Ernie Ball’s Expression Tremolo.

Ernie Ball have always positioned themselves as absolute innovators where unsung heroes are concerned. Their strings are the preferred choice for more discerning players and when their volume and expression pedals hit the market a mere forty years ago, they changed the way we express ourselves from the pedalboard up. About a year and a half ago they shimmied further into the effects world with two treadle units each dedicated to a different sonic texture. The Ambient Delay

and Overdrive offered real time control over the amount of effect at play without having to lift a finger off the fretboard, and while they may be slowly finding real estate on pedalboards, the third in the family is sure to prove itself indespensable much quicker than its predecessors.

Simply put, the Expression Tremolo gives your feet the job that Link’s hands had to do. Five different waveforms populate the faceplate – sine, square, harmonic, slow rise and slow fall – and the footboard has the ability to ride those in a number of different ways. Push button Depth and Rate knobs allow you to assign either or both to the treadle. If you want to speed up the tremolo waveform over a phrase, light up the rate knob only. At this end of the bargain there is a whole world of bird noises and enginespeeding-up texture that heretofore only DAW-bound automation could conjure. If you want to have the tremolo gradually deepen over a different phrase, the Depth button is your guy. Using either knob to set the maximum level of either operation and/ or a combination of both offers a tonne of versatility. With a classic sounding spring reverb in the chain, this pedal expands the tremolo world with as much cleverness and trickery as other effects without sacrificing the subtlety that makes it irreplaceable in the first place. My favourite field to wander

in was the harmonic setting, plunging headlong into the spring reverb at full tilt.

It offered a sense of vintage warmth not unlike a tube amp at its hottest: chewy, autumnal, familiar and ripe with newness all at once.

Necessity may be the mother of invention, but without intuition it would be way behind the eight ball most of the time. Ernie Ball are impeccable at answering questions that many players hadn’t yet thought to ask, but having heard the answer, can’t deny the need. The Expression Tremolo is a uniquely clever augmentation to a rich tradition and

shines a light down an often neglected, but nonetheless scintillating tonal pathway.

BY LUKE SHIELDS HITS ∙ Clever functionality ∙ Tasty textural and harmonic capacity ∙ A snappy purple chassis MISSES ∙ None

Just because your budget is smaller than that of a mega-studio doesn’t mean you don’t deserve a great set of monitors. For years, KRK ROKIT monitors have provided accurate sound for small bedroom projects as well as pro studios.

Visit: jands.com.au to find a dealer near you.

Distributed by mixdownmag.com.au

www.jands.com.au

39

PRODUCT REVIEWS HAMMOND

SK-X Stage Keyboard BERNIES MUSICLAND | MUSICLAND.COM.AU | EXPECT TO PAY: $4995 There are certain names in the keyboard industry that have carved an immortal place in history due to their unique and innovative products. It’s easy to see just how Hammond have achieved such recognition over time with their continually adapting range of organs and keyboards that truly offer a uniqueness in both sound and feel unlike any other. Of course, just about every keyboard and synthesiser manufacturer has tried to copy the Hammond look and sound over the years, but none do it quite like the original.

With the release of the SK-X Dual Manual Stage Keyboard, portability and functionality are keys to having that true Hammond sound on any stage and in any studio.

The SK range of keyboards from Hammond has been proving its worth for a number of years now, offering unprecedented portability with true Hammond sound.

Having seen and played the earlier models in the range already, I was rather excited to be offered a personal introduction to the SK-X this month thanks to the team at Bernies Musicland. This new keyboard is going to change the way many musicians view a Dual Manual keyboard and certainly removes the myth that a Hammond has to be big, heavy and awkward. Available with a range of stand options to make it a cumbersome beast, the SK-X is designed to be taken in a compact form and used on a regular keyboard stand. With a cleverly recessed rear

handle that allows for easy lifting and ‘under the arm’ carrying, there has never been a more transportable dual Hammond keyboard.

Lightweight, compact and easy to move, it still offers loads of features and arrives complete with manual drawbars.

For those of you who are familiar with the SK range of portable Hammonds, the SK-X will feel right at home. Most of the controls you’d know from previous models are there, but with some essential upgrades to improve workflow and sound. For those of you who go for the authentic speaker and keyboard combination, you’ll be pleased to know that the Leslie speaker connection on the rear has seen an upgrade to a sturdier coupling point. Leslie control is available on the top panel, but can also be controlled with an optional mechanical switch that mounts to the bottom left of the casing. This then overrides the button controls and engages their LEDs as appropriate.

On the top panel, it’s a fairly familiar offering, with some notable improvements. Firstly, on the top right of the panel you’ll find the Extra Voices section. Here, you can assign the chosen extra voices to either the upper or lower keyboard and mix the balance between the main sound and extra voice. The Vibrato section, found across to the left, has had an overhaul too, with a far more subtle vibrato effect found in this model, making it infinitely more usable than the previous model’s effect.

The small LCD screen doesn’t offer fancy graphics or coloured imagery, but it does display essential information to help you navigate through menus and see what’s going on with presets. Drawbar positions are shown on the screen when a new preset is engaged to enable you to see how it differs from the physical drawbar position as it was left previously. Moving the physical drawbar snaps the effect into place and overrides the preset position, with the visual moving to show this change. This is very handy as it allows you to then replicate the physical drawbar position on a preset as a starting point to work from. The SK-X is a keyboard that encourages tonal exploration and between the great range of sounds in there and the added effects on offer, you can certainly cover all bases.

You don’t need a Leslie speaker to get that great vibrato sound either. Running from

the line outputs direct into a PA system or recording setup delivers an amazing sound that really cuts through the mix.

You only need to listen to one of these with headphones alone to understand how powerful the sound is. Of course, if you couple it with a genuine Leslie speaker system, you are really in for a treat.

BY ROB GEE HITS ∙ Super portable, dual manual keyboard ∙ Classic Hammond sound ∙ Extensive improvement on functionality MISSES ∙ Nope

AUDIO-TECHNICA

AE5400 Cardioid Condenser Handheld Microphone AUDIO-TECHNICA AUSTRALIA | AUDIO-TECHNICA.COM.AU | EXPECT TO PAY: $595 Audio-Technica is a company whose name brings to mind style and quality, having produced reliable, professional audio equipment since its birth in 1962.

Headphones and microphones are two mainstays of the Audio-Technica line, with a massive range of top-tier professional audio equipment and budget bedroom gear behind them. To me, the AE5400 condenser is another product destined for greatness.

Admittedly, the AE5400 visually and sonically reminds me of a Shure Beta 57, seemingly the blue-embroidered successor of the SM57, but with the AE5400’s additional dials to sculpt a usable, true-to-source sound. Don’t be fooled though: the AE5400 is a directional condenser with a few little additions to get a better sound at the source before any post-processing.

The Audio-Technica AE5400 is a weighty and robust microphone shaped somewhere between a Shure SM57 and SM58. The tapered handle of the AE5400 features a little -10dB pad switch and a high pass filter at 80Hz (at 12dB per octave for those playing at home), perfect for the kinds of sources it would typically be used for. The mic can withstand sound pressure levels of 147dB, so it can take pretty much any signal you’d want to record, while also boasting a frequency response of 20Hz - 20kHz. Inbuilt anti-shock technology keeps the capsule 40

and everything else inside quiet and steady, even with a loud signal, and a signal-tonoise ratio of 80dB keeps things clear. The included frequency response graph shows a little bump at about 10kHz with a dip either side, and a gradual roll-off after 10kHz. Features aside, the mic really shines when recording a drum or vocal. Under a snare, the AE5400 captures enough of the body of the wood without swallowing the brittle, snappy sound of the snare itself. The sound captured is more sculpted and clinical when compared to a Beta 57, as it feels richer and more true to the sound source, and the HPF comes in handy for this kind of source. Similar results were achieved on a hi-hat, capturing the dynamics and delivering a treated, clean sound. On a vocal, the voice sounds present and forward without being overbearing. The cardioid pattern is very directional, and very little (if any) room sound can be heard. The voice becomes particularly forward when the filter is engaged, and I received similar results when recording an acoustic guitar.

The guitar was present and forward, albeit a little dry. I’d expect similar results in a live setting, and the pad and filter could be especially helpful; however, leave a microphone with changeable settings with a live band at your own risk, or permanently

fix the dials. Regardless, the mic is very directional, present and clear, delivering a rich sound that is transparent and true of the source.

The AE5400 hits any expectations out of the park. In appearance, it’s another live vocal mic, but in action it’s a feature-filled, easyto-use condenser with a myriad of functions.

It’s a somewhat dry mic, but for drums or acoustic instruments this can be preferable, whereas for a vocal it would function well live, but might not be the first choice for studio recording depending on your source.

Like all of Audio-Technica’s products, the AE5400 is robust, practical and classy. Their

products are really built with the professional in mind, regardless of their target market.

BY LEWIS NOKE EDWARDS HITS ∙ Robust ∙ 80Hz HPF ∙ -10dB pad for louder sources MISSES ∙ N/A

mixdownmag.com.au

©2018 FMIC. FENDER®; are the registered trademarks of FENDER MUSIC AUSTRALIA PTY LTD [ABN 34 613 081 191]. Only Fender Music Australia can authorise these trade marks for Australia.

O R I G I N A L D E S I G N S . F E N D E R TO N E .

O R I G I N A L D E S I G N S . F E N D E R TO N E .

E F F E C TS P E DA L S INTRODUCING 3 NEW PEDALS IN A FAMILY OF ORIGINAL EFFECTS PACKED WITH EPIC TONES, UNIQUE FEATURES AND SPECIAL TWISTS DESIGNED FROM SCRATCH IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.

PRODUCT REVIEWS YAMAHA

MODX6 Synthesiser YAMAHA MUSIC AUSTRALIA | AU.YAMAHA.COM | EXPECT TO PAY: $1999 I’ve seen a lot of great keyboard releases from Yamaha in my time and owned my fair share of them too, going back to the mighty DX7, which still gets used in my arsenal, right up to the modern day workstations. One constant with Yamaha synthesisers is that they continually grow to meet the user’s needs.

The ever-changing musical landscape dictates what musicians are looking for, and Yamaha strives to take the latest advancements in technology to deliver that. Of course, once a flagship engine has been offered, it isn’t long before we see a range of slightly featurereduced models at a far more affordable price.

That is, in part, what the new MODX range of keyboards from Yamaha is, but don’t be fooled into thinking these are just a budget offering.

They have a huge range of sounds, effects and clever features in a more portable casing that will appeal to a far wider demographic of keyboard players.

The new MODX6 is not the only model available from Yamaha in this new synthesiser engine, with three models in the range to suit most keyboard players’ needs.

The MODX6, which I had the chance to test out this month, is the smallest of the three, with 61 touch sensitive semi-weighted keys and a housing that is just wider than the key bed itself to keep it as compact as possible. Then there is a 76-note version in the MODX7. Finally, the big boy with 88 notes, featuring Yamaha’s Grand Hammer

Standard action, is ideal for those wanting a piano feel. But best of all, the MODX8 doesn’t jump up in weight too dramatically as many hammer action keyboards can do, making it a very realistic option for gigging with. Of course, the name certainly suggests something about what is going on under the hood of these synthesisers, with the engine being a combination of the Advanced Wave Memory engine found in the Montage range, the ‘MO’ in the title, and FM-X synthesis, explaining the ‘DX’ in the title. It’s a bit of a ‘best of both worlds’ engine that leaves the user with a lot of great options in sound and control.

It’s hard to describe all that is on offer within the engine of the MODX6 without keeping you all here for weeks. There is so much happening in the preset sounds alone. They’re built from layers of certain sounds taken from the AWM2 and FMX engines, combined to create the overall patch. On top of this, Yamaha have introduced a feature called Motion Sequences, which allows you to record the movement of all manner of controllers into a sequence pattern and apply these to notes automatically when they are played. The large full-colour LCD screen on the MODX6 makes it easy to get into the guts of this feature and really see what is going on when you build your own sequences. Right out of the box, there are pre-built Motion Sequences on the patches ready to go, so all the hard work is taken out of your hands.

When you engage these Motion Sequences while playing a note or chord, you get to make use of the glowing rotary controller on the top panel known as the Super Knob. This is where it gets really exciting as seemingly simple patches come to life when you move the knob and engage all manner of filters, effects, sequences and additional sounds as part of the overall patch. Best of all, the Super Knob can be left untouched if you need to play with both hands, as this feature can be controlled with an expression pedal for dynamic and creative hands-free modulation.

All three models offer the same feature set, with the identical top panel controls. The difference is found in the size of the casing and the number, and the type of keys on offer. If you need to move from one sized MODX to another for different projects, you’ll be right at home on any of the three.

Furthermore, Yamaha offer a range of sturdy gig bags with roller wheels to suit each of these keyboards. Now, you can have a travel option for your MODX that actually fits the unit, rather than some oversized generic bag that doesn’t offer any protection. It’s clear to see that Yamaha have thought through every element of the MODX range with, as always, the musician in mind.

BY ROB GEE HITS ∙ Two words – Super Knob ∙ Huge tonal palette ∙ All models are relatively lightweight MISSES ∙ None

MARTIN STRINGS

Authentic Acoustic Strings ELECTRIC FACTORY | ELFA.COM.AU | EXPECT TO PAY: SP – FROM $14.95, MARQUIS – FROM $16.95, LIFESPAN – FROM $24.95 Martin already make some of the best acoustic guitars on Earth, but with their newly updated line of Authentic Acoustic strings, they’ve now crafted the perfect strings to pair with their instruments.

Strings are often the most overlooked and underrated aspect of a guitar. Sure, you can spend a small fortune on having the best gear possible, but even a newly minted OM-42 or a vintage Gibson can’t live up to its full potential with a cheap, corrosive set of strings. To really bring out the tonal nuances of both your instrument and your playing, you need a set of high quality strings that are made to go the distance.

That’s where Martin comes in. The historic acoustic brand have already been making strings for quite some time now, but their newly updated range pairs the latest technology with Martin’s renowned craftsmanship and attention to detail.

Undoubtedly, these are player-grade strings. They’re ready to handle every sweat-drenched gig you throw at them and still intonate perfectly for the next three weeks of rigorous use. They feel better, sound better, and tune better than any string Martin have used before.

What’s more, they come in three distinct varieties to cover every base your creativity takes you to. First up comes the Authentic Acoustic SP Strings. Think of these as your 42

workhorse string that you’ll want to buy in bulk and load your guitar cases with. The strings are braced with Martin’s highest ever tensile-strength core wire, so you don’t need to fret about breaking a string during heavier moments of playing. These are built to withstand the demands of today’s modern musician, capped off with tin-plating for added corrosion resistance. Once summer rolls around, I’m turning my strings to rust within 45 minutes of playing. Thankfully, the SP Strings manage to retain their brilliance without sacrificing any tone.

Moving further through the range, you’ll find Martin’s Acoustic Marquis Silked. These are the Cadillac of guitar strings. If you’re looking for some extra protection for your fine guitar, these are the strings for you.

Perfectly suited for vintage instruments, Martin have added a soft silk wrap to the ball ends of these strings to prevent wear and tear on the bridge and bridge plate as you play. What’s more, the tone is to die for. While this might not be apparent in a live mix, these are well worth stringing up for a recording session where their tonal subtleties really come to life.

A common criticism of ‘rust-proof’ strings is a clinical, dry tone. Often you’ll find that’s a sacrifice you’ll need to make for longer lasting, long-life strings. However, Martin has developed a solution to this

problem: their Authentic Acoustic Lifespan 2.0 Strings. Using a brand new technology exclusively developed by Martin, these strings protect the core wire and the wrap wire to prevent corrosion and rust— all without compromising tone. At the end of the day, if you’re compromising tone, your strings are becoming more of a hindrance than they need to be. These make a wonderful addition to any gigging guitarist’s arsenal, able to withstand a series of long, sweaty stage situations without giving out. As an aside, the slightly duller tone garnered by playing them in for a few hours is just as stunning as a fresh set.

If you’re compromising on your strings, then you’re compromising your guitar — simple as that. Martin have been making the world’s finest guitars for decades, so it

comes as no surprise that their new range of strings fall into the same category.

At the end of the day, what do you have to lose? A new set of strings is probably the cheapest, most cost-effective way to upgrade your tone. And that’s something we can all get behind.

BY JAMES DI FABRIZIO HITS ∙ Cost effective ∙ Great feel ∙ Excellent intonation ∙ Corrosion resistant MISSES ∙ None

mixdownmag.com.au

PRODUCT REVIEWS NUX

B-2 2.4 GHz Wireless System PRO MUSIC AUSTRALIA | PROMUSICAUSTRALIA.COM | EXPECT TO PAY: $199 If there’s one thing I fear more than anything else in life, it’s the ever-looming terror of tripping up over copious lengths of instrument cable while onstage. It’s a thought that plagues me in my darkest dreams – even going to other people’s gigs and spotting excessive leads poking out from instruments or pedalboards makes me anxious. Hell, the slightest kink or knot in a lead is enough to trigger me. It’s no secret that much of the music world despises instrument cables, yet we all seem to stick with them due to the oft-outrageous pricing of wireless transmitter rigs.

Enter the NUX B-2 2.4 GHz Wireless System, a pocket-sized, wallet-friendly, cable-free solution to ensure both peace of mind and enhanced signal stability for the live performer. Offering pristine digital 32bit audio quality and a 48 kHz frequency response across four channels, the NUX B-2 allows you to hear your guitar or bass signal exactly as it would sound with a high-quality instrument cable, with the added benefit of strutting your stuff around stage like the rock god you are.

As opposed to cumbersome battery packs, the NUX B-2 Wireless System adopts a hyper convenient method of charging via micro USB, so even if you leave yours at home, it shouldn’t be hard to charge your transmitter or receiver in a zip via

a standard USB cable if need be. Battery life lasts for over six hours of continuous playing, and when you’re not playing, the B-2 automatically enters Sleep Mode, extending its battery life by up to 20 hours – although if you want to get the most out of the unit, it’s probably a good idea to turn it off when you’re not playing.

Admittedly, I’ve never had much experience with wireless guitar systems. I remember my older brother owning a relatively cheap model throughout high school, which emitted weird high frequencies on regular occasions and was far too bulky to be considered useful. With this in mind, it was extremely satisfying plugging the NUX B-2 into my rig and being met with a pure guitar signal – no hiss, no hum, no shrill buzz. Operating in the frequency range of 2.4 GHz, the NUX B-2 extends far beyond the reaches of the range of any radio and TV signals. Whether you’re walking around the house aimlessly strumming chords or setting up onstage at a large scale festival, there’s absolutely no chance of signal interference from external sources when using the transmitter. With a full dynamic range of more than 110dB, none of the nuances of my pickups or amp voicing were lost by the wireless transmitter, even when I was testing the unit from the other side of the house (shout-out to my housemates for helping with that one).

One of the features I enjoyed the most about the NUX B-2 was the ergonomic design of the transmitter, with the jack boasting a swivel adjustment to ensure it doesn’t interfere with your picking technique. It even fits under Stratocasterstyle tremolos, which is a big relief.

Despite the convenience of the B-2’s clip-together storage function and minute size, I can’t help but worry that the plastic construction of the unit mightn’t be enough to withstand the tough treatment of many gigging musicians, and would highly recommend looking into a pouch or little case if you plan on bringing the B-2 to gigs. Overall though, I can’t find much to whinge about with the NUX B-2 Wireless

System. If you’re looking for a compact wireless unit with pristine audio quality to use with all your instruments without selling off a limb, this one is a go.

After I’d recovered from the awe of pulling this thing out of its gig bag, I tentatively chanced a strum across such a beautiful visage. The sonic architecture here is every bit as impressive as the aesthetic.

The voicing is clear and precise without sacrificing any of the tonal richness this particular wood variety is famous for. Often with fresh mahogany there is a period of teasing while a player waits for the fibres to blossom, but not in this instance. The modern sense of clarity is balanced perfectly by a sense of played-in confidence that few new guitars, let alone instruments at this modest price point, can profess. All in all, dancing with King Neptune was a much more deluxe experience than I was expecting.

surprised. Neptune sounded as good acoustically as it did when amplified, which is a must for such a sleek design. Moreover, the experience as a whole surprised me.

Don’t be fooled by the price tag; I went into the dealership expecting a Hyundai Excel and came away with a pamphlet for a Maserati.

BY WILL BREWSTER HITS ∙ Affordable alternative to the dreaded mess of tangled cables ∙ Ergonomic, pocket sized design MISSES ∙ Feels a bit flimsy

FAITH GUITARS

Nexus Neptune Electro CMC MUSIC | CMCMUSIC.COM EXPECT TO PAY: $1095 Guitars of all shapes and sizes attract a pretty diverse swarm of admirers. From the wide-eyed newly initiated seeking an upgrade from the shoebox they wandered out of Aldi with, through to the drooling, simian troglodyte ham-fistedly bashing away at the three riffs he’s stubbornly clung to since somebody let him loose on their baby at a backyard barbeque, all the way up to the sock, sandal and backpack donned septuagenarian getting all dewy and nostalgic about the Strat he sold when the kids showed up in the ‘70s on his weekly stroll down memory lane. From the casual observer to the well-versed chin-scratcher, no corner of the guitar globe is more suited to the discerning than the subtle variations of tonewood in the acoustic room.

Self proclaimed obsessive Patrick James Eggle is a prime example of a dichotomy reasonably familiar to those of us with an eye on guitar history. He is simultaneously a new kid on the block and an old hand.

Having spent most of his adult life making his name as one of the more eagle eyed builders in the world, he founded Faith Guitars in 2002 after stepping away from his eponymous first institute. Faith, it seems, maintains Eggle’s keen sense of class and taste where design is concerned, as well as

44

providing him with an excuse to travel the world expanding on an ever-growing list of plantations from which to source his original and highly regarded tonewood collection.

Speaking of which, the Neptune baby jumbo I see before me speaks volumes about Eggle’s deep-seated affection for a good-looking bit of wood. The solid slices of mahogany that form the top, back and sides of this Neptune Electro seem plucked straight from the pages of National Geographic. A rich, almost purple hue ripples vertically beneath the surface of a thin layer of poly that makes the Saluda-designed body look like a dark chocolate lake. A pier of Macassan figured ebony reaches toward the sound hole that hides a Fishman Sonitone pickup and Sonicore preamp combo that is so inconspicuous I almost missed it entirely.

BY LUKE SHIELDS HITS ∙ The exquisite colour and rare resonant quality of mahogany at its best MISSES ∙ The logo and inlays look a little kooky

I’d not played one of Eggle’s Faith builds before and I must admit I was pleasantly

mixdownmag.com.au

PRODUCT REVIEWS VOX AMPLIFICATION

Vox Continental YAMAHA MUSIC AUSTRALIA AU.YAMAHA.COM EXPECT TO PAY: 61 KEY - $2499 73 KEY - $2699 Unlike so many other keyboards that use the same controls to handle all functions, the Vox Continental is designed with separate control sections for each of its four modes. As a musician this is something that really helps you get into the right headspace for each musical situation you’ll find yourself in. It’s like having four separate keyboards for four totally different purposes.

The Continental is available in 61- and 73key versions, each of which has the same brain loaded with about 10.5GB of sounds.

There are four main sound options: Organ (with CX-3, VOX and Compact modes), E.Piano (Tine, Reed and FM modes), Piano (Grand, Upright and E.Grand) and Key/ Layer (Key, Brass, Strings, Lead, Synth, Other). The mode you select determines which control bank is active – for instance, in Organ mode you have access to touchsensitive illuminated drawbar controls.

Switch to E.Piano or Piano mode and these lights go off because you don’t need them, while in Key/Layer mode they become various sound controls. The bend lever also does something different depending on which mode you select: in Organ mode, it’s a Rotary slow/fast control, in E.Piano mode

mixdownmag.com.au

it’s Tremolo on/off, and in Key/Layer mode it’s your pitch bend. Since pianos don’t have bend levers, it’s not active at all in piano mode.

There are various master delay and reverb effects, an insert-effects bank with chorus, phaser, flanger, compressor, drive and wah, a nine-band EQ, a dynamics knob, and perhaps most exciting of all, a Nutube 6P1 vacuum tube. This new technology is a vacuum tube that looks like some kind of a chip, but functions just like a real preamp tube. It’s been employed to great effect in various Vox amps, and in the case of the Continental you can use it to add warmth and to sprinkle harmonic fairy dust over your sounds.

In their marketing, Vox says, “The Vox

Continental uses a simple and intuitive interface that allows quick accessibility of every function. The high-quality sound engine section is centred on organ, electric piano, and acoustic piano, and provides a wealth of stage-ready sounds.” What they should say is, “Dude, you know how an iPad ‘becomes’ whichever app you’re using at the time? Well, depending on which button you push, the Continental is either your grandma’s church organ, an electric piano with a glass of whiskey and an ashtray sitting on the top while a mysterious middle-aged guy in a suit plays Steely Dan songs in a dark club til 3am, a beautiful acoustic piano in an auditorium, or a rad synth.” It’s geared towards great sounds that are easily accessible, and the Nutube really helps to sell the illusion that

you’re playing a real organ, electric piano or analogue synth.

BY PETER HODGSON

HITS ∙ Genius user interface design ∙ Incredible organ sounds ∙ Nutube adds a whole new layer of mojo MISSES ∙ None. It’s perfect and this reviewer misses it already

45

PRODUCT REVIEWS JACKSON GUITARS

SL2Q and SLX Soloist FENDER MUSIC AUSTRALIA | FENDER.COM.AU | EXPECT TO PAY: SL2Q - $2299, SLX - $1299

Jackson have been a staple of metal and rock guitars and basses since Grover Jackson acquired Charvel guitars in the ‘70s. Synonymous with a seemingly endless list of big rock and metal acts, Jackson have continued to produce high quality instruments with a contemporary edge, and the SL2Q Pro Series Soloist and SLX Soloist both pay tribute to the timeless ‘Super Strat’ shape made famous by Jackson and Ibanez. The SLX Soloist is a budget-priced solid body electric with Duncan designed humbuckers, a Floyd Rose Special locking tremolo system and a red sparkle finish.

The SL2Q, meanwhile, is a 24 jumbo-fretted solid body electric with dual Seymour Duncan Distortion humbuckers, a Floyd Rose 1000 Series double-locking tremolo system and eye-catching ‘Purple Phaze’ finish.

The SL2Q feels fast, and even unplugged the tone feels quite controlled. The contoured mahogany body is just resonant enough. Noodling away at the higher frets is easy, and fast, thrashy riffs come easily – in fact, the guitar almost inspires them, and the lightweight, streamlined mahogany body resonates comfortably against your torso. Amplified, the Duncan Distortion pickups (special mention to the actual Seymour Duncan’s and not ‘Duncan Designed’ stock pickups) really suit this guitar and open up a little when played clean. The cleans are even, balanced and clear. Even when switched to the neck pickup, the guitar’s voice remains crystal where other guitars and pickups can

46

become muddy or overbearing, whether with some gain or on cleaner settings.

The Distortions, as the name suggests, take gain very well, instantly becoming a controlled yet bitey beast. Solos on the SL2Q are inspired and vibrato is easy, while noodling on the Floyd is also comfortable and retains tuning. The volume and tone knobs on both guitars are comfortable and within reach while remaining out of the way. The SL2Q is an unapologetic speed machine, whereas the Soloist SLX takes a more raw approach to heavy riffs. Despite coming with the aforementioned ‘Duncan Designed’ stock pickups, the Jackson SLX Soloist sounds and feels chunkier than the SL2Q. It works well for rhythm playing while still feeling like a speed machine, a feeling somewhat synonymous with Jackson. The fretwork and construction isn’t quite as high spec’d as the SL2Q, but you couldn’t expect any different from a guitar at a lower price. In addition to the great craftsmanship and construction, both guitars pack some features that set them apart from the pack.

The first thing that struck me about the Jacksons was the real Floyd Rose 1000 Series double-locking bridge that comes as standard on the SL2Q and the Floyd Rose Special on the SLX Soloist. A Floyd Rose would usually be an aftermarket addition to a guitar of any level, but Jackson have you covered. Straight out of the box the guitar was tuned and well intonated thanks to the locking tuners and the stable,

double-locking floating bridge. This ensures that the Seymour Duncan TB-6 and SH-6N Distortion Humbuckers are free to sing, bite and snarl at every nuance of your playing. On the other hand, the SLX Soloist sounds chunkier amplified and might be more suited to riffier, heavier metal, while the SL2Q can handle your lead needs. The SLX retains the fast, controlled feeling of a Jackson, but would be better suited for rhythms, and at their price would be a great introduction to the feeling of a Jackson. The Duncan Designed HB-102B pickups sound great, and while they don’t have the clarity and character of the Duncan Distortions, they hold their own in the SLX Soloist. Amplified through a Marshall or similar amp, the Soloist can easily get crunchy and rocky, all the while retaining the feel of a Jackson.

While the Distortions in the SL2Q are responsive, they’re thin and thrashy, which is what the guitar is made for, but pigeonholes it a little. They do sound full in their own way, because there’s a lack of bottom end that keeps it controlled.

Depending on how you play, this could be a deal maker or breaker, as I don’t think different pickups would add much bottom end to the streamlined, lightweight mahogany body. Both guitars tune incredibly accurately thanks to the Floyd Rose fine tuners, and they hold that tuning once you’re locked down.

Soloists, Dinkys and the Randy Rhoads V. Expert craftsmanship, killer looks, and these Jacksons are workhorses. They do what they do and won’t try to be anything else, but really hone in on what they do best. Both guitars feature Floyd Rose double locking bridges that secure six strings at the opposite ends of the iconic Jackson six-in-line headstock. The SL2Q is a mahogany shred machine and the SLX is a basswood riff monster. Seymour Duncan pickups complete both axes and tie the whole bundle together. Either of these would be a welcome addition to any guitar collection – hell, even just to hang on the wall and admire.

BY LEWIS NOKE EDWARDS HITS ∙ They know what they do, and do it well ∙ Seymour Duncan Distortions on the SL2Q ∙ Varied sounds for different uses ∙ Great looks MISSES ∙ Pigeonholed sound and feel

These guitars bear the Jackson name with pride and sit side-by-side with other

mixdownmag.com.au

PRODUCT REVIEWS HARTKE

Bass Attack 2 Preamp with Overdrive ELECTRIC FACTORY | ELFA.COM.AU | EXPECT TO PAY: $289 Being a bass player is a hell of a lot harder than most people would have you believe.

The rigs are heavier, people unfairly write your parts off as easy or disposable, and you have to deal with your band mates’ wide variety of egos. On top of all that, your particular frequency set is partially inaudible and what you can hear is “supposed to sit behind everything else”, at least in the context of a standard rock band. Dialling in the narrowest of sweet spots under that set of circumstances is a mission, even if you can get the drummer to stop making sawdust for two seconds between songs. The sweetest relief for sub-focused sound-smiths comes in the form of a humble stompbox preamp like the Bass Attack 2 from Hartke.

Plain and simple, 9V DC powers all the right tools for tonal tinkering. From right to left, the signal passes through an austere set of bass, treble and level knobs allowing you to control >30Hz and above 20kHz, all at the flick of a footswitch. The contour switch adds an extra dollop of thickness and restraint thanks to Hartke’s signature mid curve that acts almost like a healthy touch of compression around the dead centre of your spectrum. The middle footswitch affords you access to a mid boost and/or cut between 200-800Hz, which is great for

zeroing in on the hole in any mix and any room. On the left you have a pretty hefty overdrive section that swings all the way from tasteful, tube-like heat to gnashing, burly distortion. Dial in a certain amount of clean tone on top for definition and there you have it, a simple yet effective recipe for just about any taste. There is a balanced XLR out for sending either pre/post-effected signal to the desk and a parallel TRS out if there’s room for you to run stereo on stage.

The only thing this unit lacks is any glaring bells and whistles, but that’s pretty much the point. It’s designed to be the meat and potatoes of your tone, the bedrock upon which you build your empire of rumble, and this is precisely the success of the design.

With everything at noon and the mid and drive switches disengaged, the pedal is 100 percent transparent. All it takes is the tiniest pinch of salt on any of the EQ knobs to improve, if not simply refine, what you already have going. From there everything is designed to help you carve out a niche for yourself, not only in a mix or in the context of your band, but as a whole. The delicate combination of choices within those unassuming dials is so varied that your sound can be uniquely yours every time it’s engaged.

As with everything that makes it out of the Hartke smelter, the Bass Attack 2 is nothing if not reliable. Sturdy as a packhorse, reliable as an old friend and packed with only the choicest, most useful ingredients, it takes what other preamp pedals do and trims the fat, all the while offering you everything you need to get the job done.

And it won’t tell anyone you’ve just been playing root notes the whole time.

HITS ∙ Simple, effective and essential tonal control MISSES ∙ Nothing new or innovative as bass preamps go, just the essentials

BY LUKE SHIELDS

PAISTE CYMBALS

PST X Effects Cymbals YAMAHA MUSIC AUSTRALIA | AU.YAMAHA.COM EXPECT TO PAY: 8/10” SPLASH STACK $229.99, 12/10” SPLASH STACK $249.99, 20” SWISS MEDIUM CRASH $349.99, 12” CAJON HATS $279.99, 16” CAJON CRASH $219.99 Paiste cymbals are synonymous with quality and consistency across all their cymbal lines. From the legendary rock sounds of the 2002 range to the incredible clarity of their Signature line, Paiste continue to occupy a unique spot in the cymbal landscape. The Swiss qualities of precision manufacturing and attention to detail are apparent across all of their products. The PST X line of cymbals is at an entry level price point yet uses the same alloy as Paiste’s 2002 cymbal line, which gives them the warmth and complexity of much more expensive cymbals.

The line contains two stack combinations, which are gaining popularity in a range of drummers’ set-ups. These two stack set-ups each have a unique sound when played separately, but combine nicely together. Get one, get both – it’s a winner either way.

8/10” SPLASH STACK This combination of a Splash and a Mini China cuts through clearly and quickly, and was a great way to punctuate accents when tight together. When loosened, the cymbals create a nice “white noise” electronic hi-hat sound, airy and with a longer sustained note.

12/10” SPLASH STACK This stack is lower pitched than the 8/10, and I enjoyed them more than the smaller

mixdownmag.com.au

stack as they felt and sounded meatier with less high end attack. With the wingnut tighter, they’re great for accents and their tone complements nicely. With the wingnut looser, you get more white noise effect, which cuts through better. Out of the two, this set was my favourite as I found it was versatile and responsive to everything I threw at it (which was only drumsticks, I promise).

20” SWISS MEDIUM CRASH This crash was surprisingly full sounding to my ear in a pleasant way. The multiple holes in the cymbal didn’t have the effect I was expecting, and the cymbal produced plenty of cut and volume as well as complex, trashy sounds. Lots of fun to ride on, this crash is more versatile than you might expect and could be used as both an effects cymbal as well as a main crash in a high volume context.

12“CAJON HI-HATS These hi-hats are very bright and high pitched, with great stick definition and a classic defined “chick” sound, similar to the 2002 series or new beat hi-hats. They offer a very bright and thin tone when played open, not as pleasant to my ear as the closed crisp sound. They also feature a clear

“chick” sound when played with foot, which would be very useful in a percussion set-up, an acoustic low volume kit set-up or as an auxiliary set of hi-hats.

16“ CAJON CRASH The small cluster of holes near the bell of the cymbal creates a shorter decay, but maintains plenty of tone and volume. These hi-hats are very responsive, open up quickly and speak clearly with minimal effort yet cut through easily. They offer a pleasant, warm, full tone when played at softer volumes, which fits the intended contexts of percussionist set-ups or acoustic performances perfectly.

The PST X range of cymbals serve as a great way to explore some new sounds and effects without breaking your budget or needing to resort to crack cymbals to create cymbal stacks. If you want to add some bright yet

different sounds to your set-up or some cymbals to your percussion rig, you might find what you’re looking for in this range.

BY TAYLOR DOUGLAS HITS ∙ Affordable, professional sounding cymbals ∙ A variety of sounds to add to a standard cymbal set-up ∙ Versatile to suit a variety of contexts and needs MISSES ∙ The Swiss crash is a bit overpowering at times ∙ Very bright sounds may not complement every set-up

47

DIRECTORY

EVOLUTION MUSIC

SKY MUSIC

DANGERFORK PRINT CO

A | 8/2 Northey Rd, Lynbrook VIC P | (03) 8787 8599 E | info@evolutionmusic.com.au W | evolutionmusic.com.au /evolutionmusicaus

A | 4/2181 Princes Hwy, Clayton VIC P | (03) 9546 0188 E | info@skymusic.com.au W | skymusic.com.au /skymusiconline

A | 1-5 Perry Street, Collingwood, VIC P | (03) 9417 5185 E | info@dangerfork.com W | dangerfork.com / dangerfork

(Recording Studios) A | 230 Crown St, Darlinghurst NSW P | (02) 9331 0666 E | bookings@damiengerard.net W | damiengerard.com.au /damiengerardstudios

AA DUPLICATION

FIVE STAR MUSIC

THE AUDIO EXPERTS

MAKE MERCHANDISE

A | 84 Nicholson St, Abbotsford VIC P | (03) 9416 2133 E | sales@aaduplication.com.au W | aaduplication.com.au /AADuplicationServices

A | 102 Maroondah Hwy, Ringwood VIC P | (03) 9870 4143 E | websales@fivestarmusic.com.au W | fivestarmusic.com.au /fivestarmusicoz

A | 2065 Dandenong Road, Clayton VIC P | (03) 9545 5152 E | sales@theaudioexperts.com.au W | theaudioexperts.com.au /TheAudioExpertsAus

(Screenprinting, Embroidery & Promotional Products) A | Unit 22/7 Lyn Parade, Prestons, NSW P | 0423 740 733 E | sales@makemerchandise.com.au W | makemerchandise.com.au /MakeMerchandise

EASTGATE MUSIC

NEWMARKET STUDIOS

LEARN MUSIC

SOUNDS EASY PTY LTD

A | 1131 Burke Rd, Kew VIC P | (03) 9817 7000 E | sales@eastgatemusic.com W | eastgatemusic.com.au /Eastgatemusic

A | 87-91 Arden Street, Melbourne VIC P | (03) 9329 2877 E | callum@newmarketstudios.com.au W | newmarketstudios.com.au /newmarketstudios

A | 311 High Street, Kew VIC P | (03) 9853 8318 E | learnmusic@bigpond.com W | learnmusic.com.au /kewlearnmusic

(Music Technology & Instruments Retailer) A | Suite G05, 15 Atchison St, St Leonards NSW P | (02) 8213 0202 W | soundseasy.com.au /dsoundseasy

JABEN AUDIO

VINYL REVIVAL

BINARY MUSIC

SOUNDS ESPRESSO

HYDRA REHEARSAL STUDIOS

MELBOURNE MUSIC CENTRE

CONWAY CUSTOM GUITARS

GLADESVILLE GUITAR FACTORY

EASTERN SUBURBS SCHOOL OF MUSIC

DEX AUDIO

MONA VALE MUSIC

TURRAMURRA MUSIC

(Music Instruments Retailer)

(Printing/CD & DVD Duplication)

(Music Instruments Retailer)

(Headphone Specialist Retailer) A | Shop 2 398 Lonsdale St, Melbourne VIC P | (03) 9670 8231 E | info@jaben.com.au W | jaben.com.au /jabenau

(Rehearsal Rooms) A | 18 Duffy Street, Burwood VIC P | (03) 9038 8101 E | hydrastudios@bigpond.com W | hydrastudios.com.au /hydra.rehearsal.studios

(Music Lessons) A | 10 Floriston Road, Boronia VIC 7 Sahra Grove, Carrum Downs VIC P | 0421 705 150 E | essm@essm.net.au W | essm.net.au /easternsuburbsschoolofmusic

(Music Instruments Retailer)

(Music Instruments Retailer)

(Music Production Studio)

(Vinyl and Record Specialist) A | 405 Brunswick St, Fitzroy VIC P | (03) 9419 5070 A | 128 Sydney Rd, Brunswick VIC P | (03) 9448 8635 E | info@vinylrevival.com.au W | vinylrevival.com.au /vinylrevivalmelbourne

(Music Instruments Retailer) A | 525 North Rd, Ormond, VIC P | (03) 9578 2426 E | info@melbournemusiccentre. com.au W | melbournemusiccentre.com.au /melbournemusic.centre

(Audio Visual Retailer)

(Screenprinting & Design Service)

(Audio Visual Retailer)

(Music Education)

(Music Instruments Retailer & Education) A | 48 Bloomfield St, Cleveland QLD P | (07) 3488 2230 E | sales@binarydesigns.com.au W | binarydesigns.com.au /binarymusic

(Luthier) A | Wynnum, QLD P | 0408 338 181 E | info@conwaycustom.com.au W | conwaycustom.com.au /conwaycustomguitars

(Music Instruments Retailer)

A | 393-399 Macaulay Rd, Melbourne VIC P | (03) 8378 2266 E | mail@dexaudio.com.au W | dexaudio.com.au /dexaudioaustralia

A | 55 Bassett Street, Mona Vale NSW P | (02) 9986 0589 E | info@mvmwarehouse.com W | www.monavalemusic.com / monavalemusic

DAMIEN GERARD STUDIOS

(Record Store & Café) A | 268 Victoria Road, Marrickville, NSW P | (02) 9572 6959 E | soundsespresso@hotmail.com W | soundsespresso.com.au /soundsespresso

(Music Instruments Retailer) A | 280 Victoria Rd, Gladesville NSW P | (02) 9817 2173 E | mail@guitarfactory.net W | guitarfactory.net / GladesvilleGuitarFactory

(Music Instruments Retailer)

A | 1267 Pacific Hwy, Turramurra NSW P | (02) 9449 8487 E | general_sales@turramusic.com.au W | turramusic.com.au / TurramurraMusic

Not In The Directory?

C O N TA C T

48

J E S S @ F U R S T M E D I A . C O M . A U

T O

S E C U R E

Y O U R

P L A C E

mixdownmag.com.au

GEAR RUNDOWN

Joe Satriani

When it comes to electric guitar virtuosity, very few come close to the technical skill of Joe Satriani – a stalwart of instrumental rock for more than 40 years. Although he’s well known for his solo work and collaborations with the likes of Mick Jagger, Deep Purple and Chickenfoot, Satriani is also acclaimed as one of the finest guitar teachers of the modern era, boasting an impressive list of alumni including Steve Vai, Kirk Hammett, Alexander Skolnick and Larry LaLonde. With a heavily anticipated Australian tour set to kick off in Perth on Saturday 24 November, we’ve examined the diverse assortment of signature guitars, amps and effects favoured by the world’s favourite face melter, the inimitable Joe Satriani.

Guitars

IBANEZ JS SERIES For more than 30 years, Satriani has enjoyed an extremely successful ongoing relationship with Ibanez, with his acclaimed JS series spanning dozens of different electric and acoustic designs.

Introduced in 1990, Satriani’s first signature model with the Japanese manufacturers was the Ibanez JS1, a modified basswood version of Ibanez’s own 540 Radius model, which was first endorsed

by Satriani in 1987. Loaded with DiMarzio pickups, a double locking tremolo and a

50

unique push-pull high-pass filter built into the master volume knob of the guitar, the JS1 laid down the blueprint for all subsequent entries into the JS series, with many OG shredders considering early JS1’s to be the crème de la crème of Super Strats.

As the longest running model in the JS series, the Ibanez JS1000 builds on the legacy of the original JS1, remaining faithful to the design of the original while offering consumers a wider range of finishes.

In recent years, Satch has been favouring the re-contoured design of the JS2400, which adds two frets to the guitar as well as a DiMarzio single coil in the neck and a Mo’ Joe humbucker in the bridge position.

On tour, Satriani can also be seen rocking a slightly modified variant of the JS2400 called the Ibanez JS2410, which features a unique Muscle Car Orange finish based on a 1973 Camaro. Satriani tends to use this one prominently when playing with Chickenfoot, his supergroup with ex-Van Halen members Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith.

Even the heaviest of shredders needs to mellow out on acoustics now and then, and when that occasion arises, Satch is ready.

Since 2013, he’s had a signature run of cutaway JSA10 and JSA20 acoustics with Ibanez, which feature engelmann spruce tops, solid rosewood back and sides, and Fishman electronics with an inbuilt tuner.

GIBSON LES PAUL GOLDTOP Although it’s rare to see Satch not rocking guitars from Ibanez, the ‘Surfing With

The Alien’ shredder owns an incredible collection of vintage instruments, with a highlight being his 1955 Les Paul Goldtop.

Satriani also owns multiple other pristine Gibson hollow bodies and double cut Les Pauls, as well as various vintage acoustics and Fender instruments.

As well as his signature Vox pedals, Satch has been known to use the likes of ZVex, Fulltone, EHX, Boss, Xotic and DigiTech on his board, and has recently been dabbling with Fractal’s Axe-FX II with an expression pedal to add further character to his live performances.

Amplifiers

Accessories

For years, Satriani was a prominent endorsee of Peavey Amplification, with his 120 watt Peavey JSX Signature head being a mainstay in his rig for many years before he made the switch to Marshall in 2010.

As a Marshall artist, Satriani now records and tours with three versions of his signature Marshall JVM410HJS head, all of which have been modified by Marshall’s head engineer Santiago Alvarez to include a custom noise gate instead of a reverb channel. This results in an incredibly responsive and dynamic sound, forming the crux of Satriani’s onstage tone, particularly when fed through a wall of Marshall 1960B cabinets.

For years, Satriani has endorsed D’Addario strings and Planet Waves picks, and favours EXL110 Nickel Wound Regular Light strings and Planet Waves Chrome picks.

BY WILL BREWSTER

Effects Pedals In addition to his partnerships with Ibanez and Marshall, Satriani is also a highly regarded Vox artist. You’ll find his name adorned on several signature pedals with the company, including the Vox JS Satchurator Distortion, Vox JS Ice 9 Overdrive, Vox JS Time Machine Delay, and the acclaimed Vox Big Bad Wah pedal, which features two custom-voiced inductors to emulate wah-wah tones from famous UK and US artists.

Joe Satriani will tour Australia next month thanks to Live Nation. What Happens Next is out now via Sony/Epic Records.

mixdownmag.com.au