I posted a little flyover from my 3/3 show but wanted to share a bit more about the gear I’m playing around with for 2018.
First off, great news that Impression Cymbals has a US presence again. I’ve been with them for 3 years now and have a wide selection of their Turkish made masterpieces. So far the very limited run I-Con series 15″ hihats and 20″ ride paired with a 19″ Traditional Crash/Ride are all perfect choices but I may add some efx cymbals or another washy crash soon.
The new music needs a different sound than my Taye Studio Birch so I’m giving the Yamaha Absolute Maple Hybrid kit a spin. I’ve never been a Maple drums fan but the Wenge in the middle of this shell does something magical and somehow the kit sounds like Maple and Birch at the same time? Sorcery. I’m using a Big Fat Snarebourine for a little extra snare chunk and an LP micro snare and click hihat tambourine for some spice.
Stickwise, Vic Firth has come out with this Modern Jazz collection and I’m loving the MJC3. It’s like an 8D but with an oval bead instead of an acorn and it feels perfect in my hands. I’d been an SD4 guy forever but for some reason I move to it for drums and away from it for sticks?
My new electronics rig is a work in progress but so far I’ve got all of the atmospheric vocal effects and additional keys/strings/blips and boops running from Ableton Live out of an iConnectAudi02+ to the house and also with a headphone mix to me via the amazing FutureSonics G10 in ear monitors. The iConnect has a software mixer that allows me a lot of control to route of out Ableton and even though were only using two right now we could easily push 4 and I’d still be able to have a separate stereo headphone mix. I love that lil robot! I’M also using a Keith McMillen Instruments Bop Pad as the start/stop controller and since it has 4 zones I can trigger a sound or two per song if needed. And it all fits in one case! wooo!
It’s been fun to jump back into music with an electronic component and our new set of songs definitely have alot of new colors and textures to make them come to life.
More experiments to come…..
LLRLRR 