Miscellaneous Gear Alert: March 2022

Bass guitar

Ibanez SR4FMDX, SR5FMDX and SR5CMDX—a trio of instruments from the SR Premium Collection, built to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the iconic SoundGear series. The four-string and five-string models FMDX in an impressive Emerald Green Low Gloss finish, share a body glued from ash, maple and bubinga, a maple top, a neck made up of slabs of panga panga and purpleheart woods, a fretboard made from birdseye maple, active electronics and a pair of pickups Nordstrand Big Breaks. The SR5CMDX variant, in transparent Black Ice Low Gloss, features a top made from strips of curly maple, walnut, bubinga and purpleheart, a panga panga fretboard fitted with abalone inlays and pickups Nordstrand Big Single with rosewood pickup covers. Prices range from about 1,500 to 1,800 dollars.

Sandberg Greenline Series—"Just like us humans, every tree is unique, has its own patterns and textures telling its own history. It takes years to grow a tree and every one has its own character. For the Greenline Series, we seek out those woods of character, with unique marks, grains and colouration to create a more responsible instrument; perfectly stable and functional with a celebration of a wood's natural aesthetic," says Sandberg about the new Greenline Instrument Series. At the moment, it includes model lines California TT, TM and VM, other collections should be added in the future. Each model in the current Greenline series can be ordered via the configurator on the company's website.

Phil Jones Bass X4 Nanobass—the smallest combo amp from the boutique brand's range fits in a backpack and weighs just over 5kg. Despite its truly compact dimensions, the unit, equipped with a 35W digital end unit, active crossover and a four-inch PJB N52 NeoPower speaker, can provide a surprisingly full, organic sound for guitar, violin, ukulele and other instruments. Controls consist of overall volume, input sensitivity, three-band corrections and a potentiometer for stereo Aux Input jack and Bluetooth connectivity. The X4 Nanobass also features a headphone jack and the frequency response is 72 Hz to 15 kHz. It will be offered in black, white and red leatherette design, with the price reaching as high as 360 dollars.

Origin Effects BASSRIG Super Vintage and ’64 Black Panel—a pair of pedals from the British brand based on Analogue Amp Recreation circuitry deliver some of the most iconic bass sounds from the late 1960s. The Super Vintage version provides the sound of the first generation Ampeg SVT, while the '64 Black Panel variant is inspired by vintage Fender bass amps. In addition to the standard functions and controls, there's an analogue DI output with box emulation, switchable mids and, depending on the pedal type, Ultra Hi/Lo-Cut and Horn Cut switches, an Amp Out EQ function, Bright/Fat (Showman / Bassman) and BLK/TWD (richer Tweed-sound) switches. The new products have the same price tag of 495 dollars.

Bass straps Warwick—a series of high-quality bass straps from the renowned German brand Richter Leder includes two models of Warwick Nylon Bass Strap Black Gold/Silver Embossing with a width of 7 cm and adjustable length from 100 to 170 cm. The price is around 33 euros. The Warwick Synthetic Leather Bass Strap edition also features the Black Gold/Silver Embossing with identical dimensions and a price of 50 euros. The latter straps are joined by two variants of the Warwick Synthetic Leather Bass Strap Neoprene Padding with a width of 10 cm, a length from 89 to 153 cm and a price of around 47 euros.

Keys

1010music Nanobox Lemondrop—a granular mini synthesiser in desktop format features four-voice polyphony, two granulator sections with an added oscillator, a pair of multimode filters, an equal number of envelopes and an LFO with modulation sequencer. The effects unit, divided into categories FX1 / FX2, includes flanger, distortion, chorus, phaser, delay and reverb.

In addition to the USB-C port, microSD card slot and line connector, there's also a clock in port and mini MIDI In/Out. Over a hundred presets and WAV files can be used, the two-inch display facilitates orientation. The 95 x 76 x 38 mm model is priced at around 450 euros, including USB-C / USB-A cable, MIDI adapter and microSD card.

Behringer Saturn—a compact analogue synthesiser based on the platform of the famous Roland Jupiter, boasts three VCOs, a multi-mode filter, an arpeggiator and a 16-step sequencer. The model with three-voice polyphony and paraphonic mode is equipped with 27 small keys and the VCO units have four selectable waveforms: sawtooth, triangle, square and pulse; pulse width modulation is also included. The LFO offers similar options. An ADSR envelope can control VCA and modulate the filter. It contains sync connectors and a micro USB port. The price is around 100 dollars.

Bicí

Gretsch Ash Soan GAS0712-ASH—the signature snare of the British drummer, one of the most in-demand players of our time, features less traditional dimensions of 7 x 12 inches and a shell made of exotic purpleheart, glued in nine layers. The top and bottom bearing edges are sanded at a 45-degree angle, and the drum is fitted with 4mm Die-Cast hoops and the proven Lightning throw-off. Each piece has an inside identification label with the year of production and Soan's signature. A signed snare sprayed with a glossy transparent lacquer costs around 1100 euros.

Tama Club-JAM Pancake Kit—the smallest kit in the Club-JAM family combines the advantages of a compact and easily portable drum kit with professional sound quality and superior durability. The four-piece poplar kit with a minimalist design includes an 18" x 4" bass drum equipped with wooden hoops, a 10" x 3.5" tom, a 13" x 3.5" floor tom (both without bottom resonant head), a 12" x 4" snare and one tom holder.  You can purchase versions Hairline Black or Champagne Mist, priced around 350 euros.

Millenium NonaPad—a budget-friendly model with nine velocity-sensitive pads, thirty factory kits, over six hundred sounds, 17 loops and memory for 512 MB of WAV samples. The A/B technology allows two sounds to be assigned to a pad, the sounds can also be paired. In addition to classic connectivity, including two trigger inputs (two or four-zone external pads), there is also MIDI In/Out and two footswitch jacks for hi-hat pedal and function control. Measuring 36 x 30.5 x 7.5 cm and weighing 2.4 kg, the Nona PAd can be purchased for just under 200 euros, along with a power supply and 3.5mm headphone adapter.

Winds

Roland Aerophone AE-20—the latest version of the brass synth uses the company's SuperNATURAL technology, which enables this model to deliver a wide range of realistic sounds for wind, brass and other instruments. The more modern sound of classic synths is provided by the ZEN-Core processor, taken from the Roland Fantom and Jupiter-X. The AE-20 offers saxophone fingering as well as clarinet, recorder and flute modes and also a custom mode. The bite and breath sensors have been improved, and it is fitted with USB MIDI, Bluetooth, battery operation or an integrated speaker. The price is around 1000 euros.

Studio

Steinberg Cubase 12—Steinberg's new flagship features a MIDI Remote system for mapping hardware controllers for Cubase functions, a new section FX Modulator, an improved AudioWarp algorithm, Audio To MIDI function that extracts chord information from polyphonic audio and Scale Assistant for automatic pitch correction. It includes a dynamic processor Raiser, tools for importing rhythms from other Cubase projects and Windows users can activate Bluetooth MIDI. The developers have also optimised the editing process and there is a built-in piano Verve. Among other things, the "Twelve" can handle native architecture support Apple Silicon. You can purchase the Elements (approx. 100 euros), Artist (approx. 330 euros) or Pro (approx. 580 euros) variants.

Positive Grid RIFF—compact USB sound card compatible with Windows, Mac or iOS platforms is suitable for recording guitars, basses and other instruments. The connectivity consists of a jack input, stereo output and headphone mini-jack, the model works with 24-bit/96 kHz audio resolution and the dynamic range is set at 114 dB. The audio options can be expanded with the software BIAS FX 2 and it features emulations of three preamps. The price is 99 dollars.

Rupert Neve Designs 5025 Dual Shelford Mic Pre—a luxury two-channel microphone preamplifier based on the famous Shelford Channels is fitted with transformers Silk Texture Red / Blue and offers superior dynamics, control of harmonic signal components, extremely low noise, balanced frequency response 10 Hz to 60 kHz and two output levels for integration into the audio chain. The rack 1U version is available for approximately 4000 dollars.

Solid State Logic X-Delay—a delay plug-in inspired by classic digital delays from the 1980s. It features four independent units, each with its own gain, panning control and delay time. The aforementioned sections can be synchronised to the rhythm of the song or set in milliseconds, a stereo ping-pong mode is also integrated. Controls include modulation, reverb, sound saturation, de-esser, high and low pass filters, etc. The software in VST, VST3, AU and AAX formats is priced at 199 dollars and works with macOS and Windows.