A whole lotta rock, that’s what.

Shure Europe set out to find the best amateur drummer in Europe and the Middle East. Several rounds of competition produced five finalists, each with his own style. They duked it out at the Gamli Gaukaurinn Club in Reykjavik, Iceland. The winner was determined by Tom Colman of Shure UK and a jury led by seasoned pro drummer Darren Ashford.

Congratulations to Antonio de Marianis of Italy, who carried the day, and to the other finalists. Their skill and enthusiasm wowed us to the end.

Enjoy the killer beats in the competition video!

Watch more videos at http://www.drum-mastery.eu/.

Nashville, TN

Soundland Nashville has taken over the town with great new upcoming bands.  I hope you got a chance to go out and hear some new music.

I started out my day on Thursday by visiting a panel discussion at the Belcourt Theatre on the success of the band The Civil Wars.  If you are not familiar with the group yet, please click on the link.  They are on tour in Europe with Adele, who was quoted saying this is her favorite group live. The speakers included people from their record label, distribution, marketing, and their producer.  It was very interesting to listen to the details of how this group came together, by chance, at a writing seminar and immediately hit it off.  So many great opportunities have come their way and their team has done a great job of handling them.  Their success at iTunes was amazing and now they are opening for one of the best selling artists. Go pick up their record, Barton Hallow, …. immediately after you finish reading this blog of course.

Following this panel was another regarding Grooveshark, the music streaming service. So many people are starting to enjoy having access to thousands of songs at their fingertips.

After that, I went over to Soundland’s temporary headquarters to catch an interview and performance with new Endorser Justin Townes Earle.  American Songwriter did the interview and Shure captured it all.  We supplied a couple of KSM42′s, a KSM353 ribbon mic, some Beta 27′s, and a few SM57′s to capture these moments, which will later be put up online.  The engineer’s were enjoying it all through a couple sets of SRH940 headphones.  The mixes sounded great!  (see pics below).  There will be many other artists interview up as well so visit Soundland’s website often to see them up there soon.

I then walked over to the 12th avenue concert are and waited for the evening’s show to begin.  Tonight featured a group that’s starting to take off – Cults.  Closing the show were endorsers Foster The People.  I watched Cults perform for a little bit and noticed that they were using a non-Shure vocal mic up front.  However, halfway through the set, I saw the monitor engineer change out to an SM58. Sounded like it may have helped a bit.  Festival situations are always difficult to walk in to as you may not get the soundcheck you are used to.

Foster took the stage and proceeded to rock the crowd. An energetic set and a great light show was just what the crowd needed.  While I was hanging out watching their set, I was back by one of the food trucks.  This was a BBQ food truck !  The owner called me over to take a look at what he had on the smoker.  Upon opening the lid, he revealed about 10 pulled pork roasts, completely caramelized over and smelling way too good.  He asks one of his assistants for a serving dish and proceeds to pull apart the meat to give me a sample.  Heavenly….is the word that comes to mind.  Then, if it couldn’t get any better, he offers me some of that caramelized bark!  DONE!  I’m falling deeper and deeper into BBQ bliss…”and I can’t get up.”

After a great set by Foster The People, I met with their sound engineer who proceeded to tell about how much they love the UR wireless mics and the PSM900′s.  Then I’m escorted to the buses where I’m introduced to both Mark Foster and Mark Pontius who thanked Shure for our support.  Foster is loving the freedom of his wireless UR2/KSM9 vocal mic, saying “it’s made me a new frontman.”

The next day (Friday, Sept 23), I went over to the Cannery Ballroom to grab a video interview with Justin Townes Earle. Justin has a rich, deep knowledge and appreciation of traditional country artists.  He loves to talk about them.  They have influenced the way he chooses to perform and connect with his audience.  Justin also loves his new Beta 57A vocal mic as well as his PSM900 ear system. I don’t want to spoil the surprise when you see the interview on our website so I will stop at saying that this was a great interview to be a part of and I have meet another wonderful, approachable artist in this exciting world that is our music industry.

Please take a gander at some of the photos and if you attended Soundland, please (pretty please) write back and let us know of your experiences.  We’d love to hear from you!

A special THANKS to the folks at American Songwriter magazine for inviting Shure to be a part of this event.

Ryan

I play drums and my drum kit of choice is Pearl.  I have a Reference series kit with a 22 inch kick drum and 4 toms – 10, 12, 14, 16 inches.  I switch between an all brass reference series snare and the Steve Ferrone signature snare.  For my mics selection, I would put both the Beta 52A and the Beta 91A in my kick drum.  This is a standard technique used both live and in the studio to capture the low end and the attack of a kick drum and to blend between the two sounds as appropriate.  For toms, I would use the new Beta 98AMP on my 10 and 12 toms because I like the clarity of tone they provide. The Beta 27 on the floor toms provides a nice, full low end and the super cardioid pattern give them great separation.  The SM57 on the snare is a must as it always naturally reproduces the acoustic sound of the snare drum. I use Remo drum heads – Clear Emperors on the top and Clear Ambassadors on the  bottom. The Reference snare has a coated Ambassador head on top.  I like to tune the toms so there is no tonal drop-off and the pitch is nice and long, not muted.  No gates please!

For cymbals, I choose Zildjian.  I would use a KSM137 on the Hi-hat as it is not to bright in the high end.  On Overheads, I would use the Beta 181/C.  My first experience with these was last Fall 2010 at the Percussive Artist Society International Convention in Indianapolis.  I was very pleased with the clarity and the tonality that came through these mics.  I heard various tones from the cymbals that I was only used to hearing when I listened to cymbals up close acoustically.  Like the SM57 on the snare, these seemed to truly represent what was in  front of me.

I am very comfortable with this set-up both live and in the studio.  Many drummers have used both similar and different set-up to track their drums.  You can find a some  examples from the Pro’s in our Microphone Techniques for Drums publication.

So there you have it!

Now it’s YOUR turn.  Please comment and tell everyone about your kit and what  Shure mics help you achieve YOUR sound.

Thanks !

Ryan