Tag: GEWA

Gear, Industry

Chinese industry on show

Almost a quarter of a million visitors flocked to Asia’s biggest music show, Music China, held in October in Shanghai. According to organisers, the show drew 122,000 visitors, equalling its all-time visitor record reached in 2019. The event attracted more than 1,800 exhibitors, including some of Asia’s biggest percussion brands. Medeli gave its first public demonstration of the new MZ928 drum kit, its first full-sized kit released under its own branding. HXW Technology Co had a range of e-drum products on show including the flagship acoustic-style Avatar A81. Spokesperson Lucy She says the professional e-drum A21 and A31, the high-speed e-drum A51 and SD201-3SH, and the popular SD61-6, SD61-5 and SD51-2 lines were also on show. “We also took the MIDI pad EMP16, the sampler pad PD705, the percussion pad PD405 and the DM50 and DM30 drum amplifiers,” she adds. […]

Gear, Industry

Becoming more e-xpensive

For e-drum buyers, inflation is not a theoretical concept – they are seeing it in action each time they shop for new gear. Retailers like US-based Sweetwater have been experiencing price increases over the past 12 months and expect more to come. Kenric Knecht, senior director, drums & percussion/merchandising development, tells digitalDrummer: “We’re seeing price increases across pretty much all brands, in all categories, including, of course, electronic drums. The increases vary, depending on a wide range of individual factors and situations the manufacturers may face.” Manufacturer Efnote recently took to Facebook to flag increases of 5% to 15% for its kits in the North American market. Spokesman Michael Bedard said Efnote had “held out as long as we could […]

Gear

GEWA releases G5 pad kit

GEWA has released a pad-based version of its G5 kit. Instead of full-size shells, the new G5 Studio 5 is available as a five-piece kit with a 12” dual-zone snare, two 10” tom pads, a 12” tom and a 10” kick pad. The cymbal array consists of two 14” crashes, an 18” ride, and a 14” hi-hat. All cymbals, including the hi-hat, offer three playing zones, are 360° playable and can be choked. The kit is powered by the GEWA G5 module, boasting more than 900 sounds. The move away from full-size shells has allowed GEWA to price its entry-level kit more competitively, with a recommended price of €2,890, about €1,000 cheaper than the G5 Pro BS set.

Industry

E-drums year in review

Allan Leibowitz reflects on the e-drum highlights of the past year. 2021 was a hectic year for electronic percussion, with a large quantity of new product and strong demand fuelled by stay-at-home music under COVID-19 restrictions. But while demand increased, manufacturers struggled with supply chain challenges, from materials shortages to rising transport costs and freight delays. COVID-19 also impacted heavily on music industry trade shows, the traditional launching ground for new products. The annual NAMM Show in the USA was held virtually in January, with little new product buzz among e-drum manufacturers. The event is due back next year, but moving to Anaheim in June, meaning that Summer NAMM has been scrapped. Organisers cancelled Musikmesse 2021, the European equivalent of […]

Industry

digitalDrummer at Valley Percussion Festival

digitalDrummer editor Allan Leibowitz was a recent guest at the virtual Valley Percussion Festival. The annual percussion education event in South Texas this year took to the Internet for clinics and performances by world-class percussion artists and educators. Leibowitz was invited to share his insight into the explosion of electronic drumming and discussed some of the drivers for the accelerating uptake of digital percussion. In an hour-long interview with festival producer Gilbert Garcia Jr, the music journalist gave his perspective on product development and trends in electronic drumming, highlighted the need for all drummers to understand the technology and the advantages it brings, and also took a look into his crystal ball to predict some developments down the track. You […]

Gear

GEWA launches mid-range kit

German e-drum manufacturer GEWA has released details of its new mid-range kit, the G5 Pro BS. The biggest change from the G9 is the new G5 module which loses the large touch screen and gets a bunch of knobs and dials in its place. The G5 module also sacrifices some of the direct outs of the G9, sporting four direct and two stereo master outs. The new module, which looks like it has the same samples and kits and the flagship brain, is paired with an 18×14” acoustic-style kick drum, three toms (10”, 12” and 14”) and a 14×5” snare. The kit also includes the 14” hi-hat, 18” three-zone ride and two 14” crashes from the G9. The drums are […]