Day three at Summer NAMM 2018 was video day. We shot, then edited, videos of some of the products that caught our eye at the annual Nashville music convention. Here are some videos of new products from Pearl, Solomon Designs, Impression Cymbals and Evans that will were recently released or are coming soon.
1. Pearl e/MERGE
We’ve reported on this new electronic drum set at length, but had to get the details straight from lead designer Bob Sabellico after the kit won a Best In Show award at Summer NAMM 2018. In the video above, Sabellico gives us details on the kit and its features, and we get a demo from the fantastic Juan “Carlito” Mendoza. Carlito goes through some of the kits in the module and shows off some breakbeat skills with Pearl and Korg’s new sound library.
2. Solomon Designs Puck Cajon Pickup And Daru Jones Signature LoFreq Mike
Cajon players often they get whatever mikes are left over after the rest of the band gets theirs. Henry French at Solomon Designs has made a solution that all cajon players can carry in their pocket. The Puck Cajon Pickup is specifically designed for cajons and clasps onto the sound hole for easy installation. A 1/4″ plug is perfect for DI or effects pedals, and gives a direct sound of the whole instrument — not just the faceplate — without stage bleed. Check out this demo with dynamic Nate Keezer playing with hands and heels. Solomon Designs also showed off its new Daru Jones Signature LoFreq subkick-style mic. It’s tailored to bass drums, and is also made to compliment to standard bass drum mics for live and studio applications.
3. Evans-Dixon Bass Drum Lift
Artie Dixon Invented a bass drum lift a few years ago, and it got popular. Like, really popular. Evans took notice, and he and Evans have now started working together to bring it to a wider audience. The Evans-Dixon Bass Drum Lift raises the bass drum on the batter head side without attaching to the hoop. It fits bass drums 16”–24”, and can be used with or without Velco. It allows for a double pedal’s beaters to strike on either side of the center of the drums, and it’s lightweight enough to carry in a stickbag. Check it out in this video.
4. Impression Cymbals Mixed Series
If Impression cymbals remind you of Crescent, it might be because Impression is the current project of the former lead cymbalsmith at Crescent, which is now owned by Sabian. Impression now has a new distributor, and half of Rhythmic Distributor’s husband-wife duo, working drummer and educator Whitney Kessling, describes in this video why she’s passionate about these cymbals with a pricepoint made for working drummers, and gives a demo of the dual-lathed Mixed series ride and crash.