NAMM 2010 DAY 2

On with the gear... second day and more people. Apparently 80,000 people are expected over the four days and the show is the biggest at the Anaheim Convention Centre. We can well believe it.

Meinl VIDEO Cymbals Percussion

Meinl had us press in before the doors opened to show us their new products. As we have come to expect, there was quite a bit (although less than previous years as the current economic trend seems to dictate at the moment). Firstly we had a look at their cymbals and then their percussion.

The M-Series is a complete new range which is made in germany from B20. They have a newly developed manufacturing process that would appear to be completely automated. The range is very small at the moment (14 hats, 16 and 18 medium crashes, 20 and 22 medium rides). No word of prices yet but the hats sounded good.

The Mike Terrana Attack Stacks are pairs of cymbals, one a splash and one a bell, that stack on top of each other and give a very short sharp accent. The bell which sits on top is 6” whereas the splashes are 8” or 10”.

Inspired by Wolfgang Haffner, the 16 and 18” Byzance Flat Chinas are a very low profile cymbal which give a rather quiet, trashy burst, much less aggressive than a conventional china. Almost soft sounding, they should blend very well.

Also in Byzance Dark, the 20” Raw Bell Ride and the 18” Dark China are so dark they look almost black. They are both low pitched and dark sounding (not surprisingly). The Byzance Extra Dry range gets a 10” splash, 18 and 20” Extra Dry Chinas and a 20” Extra Dry Thin Crash which are also very dark looking.

The Soundcaster Fusion range has been extended with 12 new models but worthy of a mention are the 16 and 18” Trash Crashes which are crashes with 8 holes drilled around the outer edge. They are very dry and dark and would make great alternative crashes.

The candela 10” Percussion Hi hats are very light and are designed to be played with the hands or light sticks. Not one for the metaller. The sounds great – just like old thin Turkish hi hats and can be mounted on another new Meinl product – the Low Hat which is a hi hat stand that goes down to 27” for cajon players and other low sitting percussionists.

On the accessories front there are two new cymbal cases (one with handl and wheels), a new cymbal bag, two practice pads and a camouflage drum rug.

On the percussion front there are 98 new or improved products so please dont epect me to go through all of them. These are the ones that caught my eyes.

The Hand-Bale is a timbale that can be played with stick or hands. The rim has one raised half and one low half (imagine half standard timbale rim and half conga rim) so that no damage is done to the hand.

The Frame Drum Holder will attach any frame drum to a stand which would allow you to create a great percussion rig with a selection of drums. You could even use the frame drums as toms on a kit.

The Attack Timbales are 8x9 and 8x11” and were designed with help from Dave Mackintosh of Dragonforce. They are finished in black nickel and are almost like metal octobans.

Meinl now do a Kalimba with a build in Shadow pickup.

The Ergo table is a percussion table that is curved to fit around the player. They are shaped so that you could put six or so in a complete circle around yourself and are height adjustable.

TRX

TRX had a few new products including the Grilles which are crashes with the letters T, R and X stamped out of them. They are along the same lines as other companies effect cymbals with holes in but TRX have gone further so that the audience can read what make of cymbals you use just by reading the hole in your cymbals! They come in 16,18 and 20”.

The 24” DRK ride looks like it ought to be good for metal, but even though its heavy, it would make a great jazz ride. The LTD range gets 15” hi hats (very nice and Gerry''s favourite so far) and there are 21” Big Bell rides in ALT and BRT. Even though TRX are openly going for the young market, there cymbals should be considered for any genre.

Ford

Ford make drums which require a bit more of an outlay than most other drums companies. However, just as you know when (if?) you buy a Rolls Royce or Bentley, that you are getting superb attention to detail and absolutely top notch materials, the same applies to Ford (the drums, not the cars). The other thing that you cant help noticing is that the guys (and girls) at Ford are more passionate about their gear then anyone else I can remember in a long while. In fact I think I said exactly the same thing last year. On the stand they had a Maverick kit which is 10ply maple shells, but there the similarities with other makes ends. Each size drum has its own bearing edge pattern to aid the tuning and pitch range of each individual drum, and the inside of each drum is heavily lacquered with nitro-cellulose to make it more reflective.. The hardware is all aluminium but what makes it extra-different (if such a phrase exists) is the finish.

The drums are finished in an exclusive material which contains Kevlar and which makes the drums stupidly tough. I was told that if they are dirty you can literally hose them down and the wood of the shell wont be affected. You can hit the finish with a stick and it wont mark and the shells will survive even the toughest touring schedule (which is what they were designed for). The finish isn''t the most attractive as it has a rough matte sheen and only comes in yellow, black white, red and blue (at the moment) but if your touring schedule regularly sees your kit being dropped out of helicopters, you probably wont mind.

You probably think that the finish would affect the sound of the drums, but for the record, they sound fantastic. In fact they are (at the moment) Gerry''s favourite sounding kit and he''s trying to work out how to buy one. They have, as he said ''got the sound that you can hear in your head that you are always looking for''.

On the snare front, Ford also had a fine collection with shells of carbon steel, horizontal birch stave, maple and Corian which is a man made stone usually used for expensive work surfaces. The Corian drums not only look very different, but they sound great and are available in a load of colours (not all look like stone either)

Soultone

Soultone is a relatively new name to the UK and this was our first chance to get a good look at these Turkish made cymbals The company make a few different ranges, all based on the traditional Turkish pattern, such as Extreme (for the heavier players), Moffet (signature cymbals of Jackson drummer Jonathon Moffet), Gospel (for the Gospel community), FXO (effects cymbals), Custom (which covers all other bases and one offs) and finally Vintage which has a sub-section called Vintage Old School.

The Vintage are based on old cymbals from the ''50''s but the Old School versions are treated with an acid wash which leaves a green patina on the surface and makes them look and sound like they have been buried for 50 years. They also feel very different to the touch. The Old School cymbals have no model designations as cymbals were just cymbals back then and they sound suitably played out and old.

Soultone also do models in ½” sizes on request, so if you want a 16.5” crash you can have it. Its almost like having an amp the goes up to 11...

Pearl VIDEO

Pearl were looking suitably pleased with themselves as they had managed to bring out a product which pretty much every drummer had talked about and wanted to see. In fact, judging by their stand, you would of thought that they had only bought out this product and no others. Yes we are talking Pearls return to the electronic market, the ePro.

The ePro is a kit of poplar based drums in 10, 12, 14 and 20” which look like real drums but in fact have Tru Trac trigger heads on them. These are replaceable drum pads which fit over the bearing edges and are held on by the rims in the normal way. The shell come in black or Quilted Maple Fade (both wraps, the second using Pearls Digital Grain Transfer Technology which scans wood and makes photo realistic wraps from them) and brass or plastic cymbal pads. The module is called the RED Box (Real Electronic Drums) and it has 1000 preset 16 bit sounds in it. There are 100 kits, 12 trigger ins, USB (for MIDI or transferring sound data), 64 note polyphony, 128 meg memory, sequencer, Aux Inputs, effects etc etc. However, if you want something more detailed than the internal sounds, you can perform a Memory Switch and you can replace them all with one more detailed kit from BFD2, Toontrack, Ocean Way and others. The swap takes about 20 minutes and the new kits can be bought off a special website. You cant load you own samples but the internal sound are pretty good.

The whole system looks good, especially on its own new special mini Icon rack, and does look like an acoustic kit as long as you don''t get too close. Its easy to swap from the TruTrac heads to real ones but to be honest I''m not sure how many will. The module seems fairly instinctive but I would have liked to be able to tweak the trigger settings as they were a little erratic, but a piece of clear plastic stopped anyones fingers getting to the right buttons.

Prices for the ePro are around the $3000 mark, depending on cymbal pads.

Elsewhere on the Pearl stand, the Digital Grain Transfer wraps made an appearance on a load of snares and a Visions VSX kit. I have a feeling we''ll be seeing a lot of these photo wraps in the future.

There were three new cajons, one of which featured a sub port, similar to a Kickport which sounded good, and some EZ Tune Djembes which featured a weird but very clever hybrid, rope/drum key tensioning system. The Elite congas make a return and there are some New Yorker cowbells which are extra thick to stop percussionist breaking them under heavy playing.

Remo are getting REALLY good at recreating traditional instruments now

Remo

Remo are always very proud (and rightly so) of their percussion products and today the European press corps (ooh, that sound so formal) were treated to Pete Lockett demonstrating quite how ridiculously talented he is as he demonstrated the new Bohdran and Daf instruments. However, as this area is getting more and more specialized, we''ll skip this for the moment and look at the more drum kit based products. However, I would like to point out that Remo are getting REALLY good at recreating traditional instruments now and if you listened to any of the percussion this morning you could have sworn that you were listing to wood and hide not plastic and Acousticon. Seriously good percussion.

Along the same lines, there is a almost a running joke that every year Remo say they have got a new head out and it is ''closer to calf than anything ever before''. I''ve now heard this five or six times but I''ve got to say that with the new Skyntone heads, they really might have done it... until next year that is! However, the new heads have a totally new feel to them – soft and supple and just like... calf skin really – with a great warm sound. Available in 10,12,13,14,16”.

Tattoo Skyns are graphics heads which come in two versions and aim to give the look of tattoos on a head. The graphics are done by Corey Miller (who did the tattooed Ludwig kit last year) and they come in 13 and 14” snare sizes and 22” bass drum sizes. 

The Ambassador X is a single ply head that is 20% thicker than a standard Ambassador. They are aimed at players who want the sound of single ply heads but with more durability. They have a more middley sound than a standard Ambassador but can take much more abuse.

Zildjian VIDEO

Zildjian had a selection of new stuff which included a trio of ride cymbals, any of which I would be happy to own. Firstly, the K Light Flat ride is very ''sticky'' with a slight roar whilst being rather delicate at the same time. Next up is the K Constantinople Bounce Ride which was made in conjunction with Kenny Washington. Apparently its a copy of an old K that Kenny had which had developed a crack around the bell, which has been duplicated and slightly improved. Its a beautiful sounding cymbal and it just sounds ''old''. The last ride is the K Constantinople Thin Ride-Overhammered which reminds me of the Complex Ride but is somewhat tamer. Apparently the extra hammering stops it from getting washy when played fast and hard, and I''ve got to say it works.

There are four more EFX cymbals out (the ones with the big slots and holes in them) starting with the 16 and 18” K EFX and going onto the 14 and 20” A Custom EFX. The A Custom versions complete the range from 14-20 (though the 17” is missing) and the K versions were a request from us European drummers who wanted something even darker.

There are two new Trashformers in the ZXT range. The 8 and 10” cymbals are a blue-y colour and work well as stacked cymbals.

Lastly, the Pitch Black range has left a legacy in the form of two new (not black but normal) cymbals in the ZHT range. The 22” Ride is a Pitch Black without the black finish as is the 15” Mastersound Hi Hats. Both sounded rather good, in particular the hats.

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