Episode 19: MORE Nashville!

Nashville is a town just bubbling over with music, musicians, and musical instrument companies. In Episode 18, I talked about Rock Block guitars and other guitar related endeavors. Well, what I didn't know is that Pearl Drums were also located in Nashville and that a friend of mine who lives in the area happened to just purchase a custom Pearl Drum set based on Pearl's Reference series. As you can imagine, I jumped at a chance to see it, play it and talk about it, so in Episode 19 I sat down with Chris of the band Saturn Rising to discuss his new kit. The kit itself is just stunning to look at. The shells are a beautifully customized Blue fading to natural wood grain color and each shell is quite heavy (for Hi-Res pictures click Here). When my friend Chris handed me the snare drum, I was quite surprised at the weight. I don't think that I had even picked up a marching snare that was as heavy as this drum. Then he turned it over to reveal the twenty ply (yes, twenty!) shell. It looked as if some on had taken a tree that was a decent diameter and hollowed out the center. Being the guitar enthusiast that I am, I appreciate the tonal differences that fine wood choices and workman ship can make, and I was pleased to hear (with my own two ears) that wood and craftsmanship make a huge difference, a even on an instrument that built to be hit. I really enjoy the tone of a well tuned drum kit, and this kit is very musical. As I listened to Chris demoing the kit, I was reminded of the huge drum sounds of some of my favorite drummers like John Bonham and Keith Moon thundering around their kits and using dynamics to make subtle statements in the songs they drove. This episode was once again produced with Bossjock Studio and the iRig mic. I know I have been talking about it a lot, but I really like the freedom that both products have allotted me. To record the episode, Chris and I sat on a couch in his drum room with the mic positioned between us. We did a couple checks to select the right volume setting on the iRig mic and then we just hit record and started going. Monitoring the levels during recording I am sure I had some clipping (which I will discover when I listen back to the show) and in hindsight, I should have probably back the mic off of us by another six inches or so, but hey....it was spontaneous and creative, and that is the joy of podcasting in general. I also captured the sound bites of the kit in this similar fashion. For a better representation on how this kit sounds, see the YouTube video below. As I keep using these new tools, I plan to refine my techniques. For theses early episodes however, I wanted to keep the "Pirate Radio" spirit very much in the forefront and just focus on doing a show live. I almost did not bring my iRig mic with me to Nashville. When I fly anywhere, I really try to keep my carryon light and only carry things that I would need immediately if I got stuck in the airport. After this trip I can confidently say that the iRig mic was a good choice to bring with me and could possibly be considered in the "need" category. Again, I know I have talked a lot about about Bossjock and the iRig mic since Episode 14 and I can promise you that I am not receiving any kind of compensation for talking about them. I truly like these products. Anytime I get new a tool that speeds up or improves how I work, I get excited and quite vocal about said product. That said, I am going to do my best to keep quiet about it ( at least for a few episodes), but maybe in the future I will do a segment on every show about how that particular show was put together.