Beat the World

The guy who builds those soon-to be-reviewed and revolutionary Richmo drums up in Stoke on Trent has come up with a new(ish) angle on bass drum beaters. He's made them with what he calls a transverse business end. It's simply a piece of wood or thermoplastic which is 1½" in diameter, cylindrical in shape and set at right angles to the stainless steel shaft. So, the curve of the cylinder will always strike the face of the drum head sweetly all along its 2" length. A conventionally shaped beater will always hit the head with a leading edge (unless it's spherical), and this reduces the impact of the stroke. Anyway 'World Beaters' come in two varieties and have slightly different sounds. (Funnily enough the synthetic one, though heavier had a more 'wooden' sound. The actual wood one had more edge and more click than normal.) I can't really subscribe to the maker's claim for 50% more volume but, there's certainly an increase in audibility. The mallet ends of the beaters are self-aligning so you're not likely to break your drum head by mistake. These 'World Beaters' will be in the shops soon at something like £4.50 and I'd say if you want to change your sound for the better it would be a worthwhile investment. You may also buy direct from: Richmo Drums, (Contact Details)

Simmons Mix it

Hot off the press is news of a further two additions to Simmons' born-again range of electronic percussion units. The MTX-9 is a 3-channel drum and percussion voice expander module rather in the style of their existing SDE expander, sporting a variety of voices including Toms, Bells, Woodblocks, Conga and Timbales, and triggerable by pad or — and this is what makes the difference — by MIDI. Special features on the rack-mounting unit allow its three sound channels to be mixed in with the SDS9 EDK's output, but apparently the MTX is equally happy working with any standard pad or MIDI-triggering hardware you've got. In a more surprising departure from the companys output to date, Simmons have followed their first entry into the sound reinforcement market (the SDC 200 percussion combo) with an 8 into 2 mixer, featuring hf and lf cut and boost, pan, fade, and two external effects sends! So what, I hear you cry.

Well, in addition to these facilities, the SPM 8:2 also sports two independent on-board DDLs capable of the full range of echo, chorus, and flanging effects, and full programmability, with 30 user patches for eq, fading, cross-fading and autopanning addressable manually or from MIDI. One of the most exciting features of this very interesting product is its dynamic pan capability — ie the harder you hit your drum kit (the obvious partner for this very special rackmounting mixer), the more your sound pans across the stereo field. Weird.

Prices have yet to be finalised, but both products will already have seen action at the BMF. Expect reviews soon...

Auction Action

Friday the 29th of August is a red letter day for musicians and collectors who, are getting together to buy and sell at the Rock Memorabilia/Musical Instruments auction at Christies. The auction brings together items dating from 1930 to 1966, and includes a very large collection of guitars — and there are some real goodies to be found. Amongst the vintage guitars on show will be a 1965 Stratocaster that belonged to the legendary Brian Jones, Eddie Cockran's guitarist's guitar! and a Jethro Tull keyboard (wow).

Prices are expected to be extortionately expensive with things like Brian Jones' Strat going for between £3000-£6000. There are also some weirdies about, like the pushbutton-covered Vox organ guitar and a Vox mandolin guitar both of which again will probably be snapped up at very high prices. So, if you have a pocket full of loot and bought this mag sharpish, you've still got time to buy yourself another piece of Rock'n'Roll-history.

Christies (Contact Details)