there is this incredibly big drumstore in ittervoort, holland called adams drumworld. as far as the size of the store, i haven't seen any other drumstore in the world which can keep up with drumworld. it really is an amazing place for drummers. if you get a chance to go then go. you won't regret it.

last friday i drove to düsseldorf to pick up jason bittner of shadows fall from the airport. he flew in from new york jfk to do the clinic at drumworld on saturday. we spent a nice off-day in holland together and we had a chance to finally catch up again. jason and i go back a long way. i have signed him in 1999 when he was nowhere near as popular as he is now, but i've always supported and serviced him. in the meantime, jason has become one of the most popular and best metal drummers on the planet touring the world with his band shadows fall. as jason's career has grown over the years, so has our company. we kind of grew together to where we are now and that makes our relationship very special. thanks jason for all the years of support and believing in our company.

saturday he presented an awesome 2 1/2 hrs clinic for nearly 200 visitors. check out the pictures i took. the mb10 bell blast ride on which jason has played during the clinic is on for a give-away on drumworld.nl. just answer the three questions asked there and maybe you'll win. it's in dutch language, but use your imagination and you'll be able to understand the questions :-)

i have also video-taped the clinic and we'll put it online very soon.

my sincere thanks go to john and fon of adams drumworld for putting together this great clinic. you guys are the best.

more to come.........thanks for reading, stay tuned and be safe.....

Howdy,

Just wanted to share a pretty cool video with you all. The always active Meinl cymbal artist Jon Wilkes, of The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, has a cool video posted online. Check it out here. The video is of Jon recording the band's re-mix of "low," by Flo Rida, featuring rappers T-pain and Bigga Rankin.

Jon's been doing some club dates lately, just him playing drums accompanying dj's. Pretty cool Jon!

Jon's meinlcymbals.com artist page.

right on, back in my office again - finally. i caught a terrible flu right after messe and had to stay in bed all last week. i felt really miserable and wasn't able to get anything done. once more i realized that at the end it is my body who sets the pace, not just me. well, what doesn't kill me makes me stronger i guess.

messe has been great! i think our booth looked awesome and we had some great drumming going on everyday. please make sure to check out all the pictures i posted here, and also please view the performance videos we recorded during messe. i would like to thank everybody who stopped by our booth to spend some time there with us and sharing your thoughts. ultimately, messe is about getting in touch with your customers and getting instant and un-filtered feedback. we appreciate everyone's time.

and now what's next? catching up with a million emails and other things that need attention. also, i will drive to duesseldorf on thursday to meet with jason bittner, who will present an exclusive clinic at the adams drumworld in holland this saturday. more than anything though, we are working on the preparations for our this years drum festival. as soon as i am back from holland i will dedicate most of my time to the meinl drum festival 2008.

pictures say more than thousand words - enjoy viewing them.

more to come.........thanks for reading, stay tuned and be safe.....

Howdy,

I want to fill you in on some more cool cats that are now slamming MEINL cymbals. Smartest move they ever made...   :-)

Ethan Luck - The first time I saw Ethan, he was onstage at The End in Nashville, Tennessee playing rhythm guitar for one of the best singer-songwriters out there, John Davis. The next time I saw Ethan, he was onstage at Rocket Town in Nashville, Tennessee playing bass guitar for the extremely bada** metal band from Seattle, Demon Hunter (whose drummer Tim 'Yogi' Watts is a MEINL Cymbal artist by the way...). The next time I saw Ethan, he was drum-teching for the power-pop rock maestros Relient K. Now, Ethan IS in Relient K! So now Ethan is gearing up to head out on the road with the band to get down to some serious business. You can catch him all over the US this summer on the entire length of the VANS Warped Tour, where he'll never get a shower, he'll eat bad catering and he'll wait 23 hours a day to play one hour. However, there's a happy ending to all of this, and that is that Ethan will be playing to thousands of people every day and will be loving it! Not bad...

Click here to see Ethan's artist page.

Scott Batiste = Scott slams the cymbals for the Oakland, California metal outfit, Saviours...and these guys are as cool as it comes. MEINL Cymbal artist, Trivett Wingo of The Sword, hipped me to Scott and Saviours and boy!...am I glad that he did. When you throw Saviours' CD into the stereo, a shower of killer metal infused by the honest vibe of rock and roll from the early 70's hits you hard. Scott's drumming shows shades of Ian Paice, Bonzo and Bill Ward. He plays with a tight yet swinging feel that makes you absolutely want to nod your head in rhythmic agreement. These guys are always on tour and are really happening. I recommend giving them a real listen.

Click here to see Scott's artist page.

Allen Blickle - Allen is with the Brooklyn, New York-based Baroness. Another very, very cool band. These guys must be doing something right, because their Red Album just won the 2007 Album of the Year award in Revolver Magazine, and rightfully so. Allen plays with a creativity that elevates Baroness' blend of metal and punk rock ethics, making it an absolutely genuine experience. One minute they have you in a trance with hypnotic passages and the next minute they're crushing your skull with piledriving riffs and beats that rule.

Click here to see Allen's artist page.

So check these drummers and their bands out. Great stuff!

By the way, my colleague Norbert Saemnan is out of the office while feeling a bit under the weather. He'll be able to respond to all comments on his blogs next week when he returns.

Thanks for reading and take care!

frankfurt musikmesse :-) everyone who has ever had the pleasure of attending the world's largest music convention, knows what i am talking about. as far as exhibit space, it is the biggest one in the world. for us drummers, hall three is where it all happens. all our industry gathers there to display their latest products and host performances. for some it's heaven, for other's it's hell (depending on the way you look at it). but for sure it's loud in there, especially on saturday (public day).

for me it's the 17th messe i am attending as part of the meinl team. on one side, it's routine. on the other side, i am still excited and full of anticipation for what is coming up. this sunday we are taking off to frankfurt to start setting up our booth. the actual convention begins on wednesday. everything looks very promising for us this year. we're gonna have a slightly different booth layout which i am going to be curious how this is gonna look and feel like. four of our artists (oli rubow, jost nickel, felix lehrmann and benny greb) will be performing in our "fishbowl" throughout the whole show. there is also gonna be another YAMAHA GROOVE NIGHT happening on thursday night where they have great players perform. thats gonna be one highlight for me.

right now i am trying to get all these little things together (badge, documents, camera, and a million other things). however, my biggest problem right now is that the car i am supposed to be getting for the next week broke down two hours about and is at the repair-shop getting fixed. i have no idea if it's gonna get ready in time, i can just hope it will. all those last minute disasters can really throw you off the track a little bit. but at the end, it all will turn out ok.

our booth number is 3.0.b25 and i am hoping to see some of guys there stopping by to say hello. i will try and report from the show if time allows.

more to come.........thanks for reading, stay tuned and be safe.....

PS: i have been working a lot on the line-up for the 2008 meinl drum festival lately which i will announce next week. more about that next wednesday on our brandnew website, www.meinldrumfestival.com :-)

hello everyone,

a few days ago we received a phone call from a drummer who had a couple questions about some of our cymbals. during that conversation it turned out that this customer didn't know the meaning of  "thin", "medium" and "powerful" (or heavy) in combination with cymbals? in the beginning we were surprised that he didn't know these things, because in almost any of our previous catalogs and on our website we are trying to explain these meanings.

after we had thought about that incident over and over again we now think about it competely differently. what we realized is that even though for us those descriptions are the most obvious and common terms in the world because we deal with them every other hour basically, we can not take it for granted that everybody else out there understands them or even cares about them as much as we do.

so, for all who don't know the meaning of thin medium and powerful, here is the explanation (i am trying to keep i simple):

thin, medium and powerful (or heavy) describe the thickness or weight of a cymbal. those descriptions are used for crash- and ride cymbals. sometimes also for hihats.

now what does that mean for their sound?

a thin crash is relatively light and thin. The sound is dark and low in pitch, because less mass is vibrating when the cymbal is hit. the volume is lower and the overall sound is less aggressive and cuts less. those cymbals are often used in quiter musical environments, like jazz bands or smaller club gigs. most of the time, thin crashes are the preferred choice in recording studios.

a powerful crash is relatively heavy and thick. The sound of a heavy cymbal is higher in pitch, because more mass is vibrating when the cymbal is hit. logically, the cymbal is louder and more aggressive in its overall sound. it cuts through the sound of other instrument's (like guitars) more easily. that is why powerful cymbals are sometimes also called "rock" cymbals - like a rock crash or rock ride. that of course relates to rock music because this style needs more power and projection.

consequently, a medium crash is inbetween thin and powerful in terms of weight, volume and projection.

some drummers think that thin cymbals break faster than thicker cymbals. IMHO, i think it is just the other way around. thick cymbals are stiffer and less flexible that thin cymbals. so when you hit a thin cymbal, it bends away from the impact coming from the stick and gets out of the way quickly. a thick cymbal however does not bend so much, can't escape and is less flexible and will consequently break faster (or at least, your stick is likely to break).

now don't get me wrong with this. i am not saying that every thick crash cymbal will automatically break. there is more to say about that, for example the way you hit it with your stick, the angle in which the cymbal is being placed on the stand, or how tight or loose it is mounted. i could write a book about cymbal breakage issues. it's a science on it's own.

i hope you got a better understanding now what this is all about. please, if you have any kind of questions about this or other cymbal talk, let me know. i am happy to respond. always remember: there are no dumb questions, there are only dumb answers :-)

more to come.........thanks for reading.............stay tuned and be safe!