PRESS RELEASE
Contact: Neilson/Clyne
Tel: (615) 662-1616
Fax: (615) 662-1636
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
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FOR TOP DRUMMERS, LEADING FOH MIXERS CHOOSE
AUDIO-TECHNICA ARTIST ELITE™ SERIES MICROPHONES
— Audio-Technica’s Artist Elite instrument microphones take
live drum miking to an entirely new level of performance quality —
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NAMM WINTER SESSION, ANAHEIM, CA, January 16, 2003 — The industry’s top front-of-house mixers are finding that the newest additions to Audio-Technica’s growing Artist Elite™ Series are just the ticket for getting great live drum sounds from the stage to the audience with acoustical accuracy and sonic superiority. All three Artist Elite instrument mics — the AE5100
End-fire Cardioid Condenser Microphone, AE3000 Side-address Cardioid Condenser Microphone, and AE2500 Dual-element Kick Drum Microphone — have been rapidly gaining favor on a number of high-profile tours.
Brad Divens has a far-reaching reputation mixing FOH for a wide range of artists, including
Linkin Park, Monster Magnet, Cyndi Lauper, Machine Head, (hed)pe, Fu Manchu, and others. He was given several prototypes of the new Artist Elite microphones last summer and in his own words, “they never went back.” Divens’ first experience with these remarkable new microphones was while working with Lauper and her band on tour in summer 2002. On drummer Sammy Merendino’s kit, Divens used the revolutionary new Artist Elite AE2500 microphone for the kick drum. The AE2500 features a unique technology design incorporating dual elements — both a dynamic and a condenser capsule — in a single unit, offering unparalleled possibilities for exciting drum sounds. “I love that microphone on the kick drum,” affirms Divens. “It has nice tone and tons of punch, as well as a great top end, which really helps define the sound. It lets the kick cut through, but sounds great doing it.”
Divens used the new AE3000 large-diaphragm side-address cardioid condenser mic on Merendino’s rack and floor toms, giving those drums a new level of fullness and definition. Divens was equally impressed with the application of the new AE5100, a large-diaphragm end-fire cardioid condenser mic, as the bottom half of a snare drum top-bottom miking combination, with the reliable and high-energy A-T ATM23HE dynamic microphone on top of the snare. “I wanted something different — I’d never used a condenser microphone on the bottom of a snare before,” Divens explains. “The result we got was a great, full sound that was snappy, but also with lots of bottom. I was introduced to A-T microphones using them on guitar amps years ago, which I still do. A-T’s are killer drum microphones, and these new Artist Elite models take that one step further.” Divens plans to use a similar arrangement of the new AE microphones on Linkin Park drummer Rob Bourdon’s kit when the band starts its next tour on March 1.
Brad Madix mixed FOH for Rush’s long summer tour, which wrapped last November. Just before the tour began in May, Madix was introduced to the A-T Artist Elite Series instrument microphones, and the new mics changed things considerably for the better. Referring to the AE3000, Madix notes that the microphone’s ability to get a large-diaphragm sound into a small package worked wonders on drummer Neil Peart’s kit. “Neil’s floor tom is surrounded by other electronic drums,” Madix remarks. “Normally, we’d have to use a clip-on microphone because of the limited amount of space in there. Thanks to the small size of the AE3000, we were able to get that in there and get a much larger, more real drum sound from the floor tom.” Similarly, on Peart’s four rack tom array, Madix was able to substitute the AE3000 for a clip-on on the largest of the four drums, giving it a much fuller, studio-level sound. “The AE3000 could accomplish that without being obtrusive, so the kit not only sounded great, it also looked great,” he adds. Madix also used the AE5100 on the bottom of Peart’s snare drum. “Neil tends to tune his drums super-tight, so getting a lot of snap out of the drum isn’t a problem,” Madix says. “What the AE5100 was able to do was to restore a lot of the fuller sound of the drum to the mix. That’s what I liked best about all of the
AE microphones: they let you get more of the real drum sound back into the live sound.”
The Artist Elite Series of microphones is designed to provide a higher level of audio quality and consistency to extend the performance capabilities of today's most sophisticated live sound systems. The AE5100, AE3000, and AE2500 instrument mics complement Audio-Technica's existing Artist Elite Series of live performance vocal microphones, which includes four handheld mics: the AE5400 large-diaphragm cardioid condenser microphone; AE3300 cardioid condenser microphone; AE6100 hypercardioid dynamic microphone; and AE4100 cardioid dynamic microphone.
Photo File: MERENDINO.TIF
Photo Caption: Show is Brad Divens (left) and Sammy Merendino of Cyndi Lauper's band. Sammy Merendino is using Audio-Technica's AE5100 large-diaphragm end-fire cardioid condenser, AE3000 large-diaphragm side-address cardioid condenser, and AE2500
dual-element cardioid kick drum microphone. Photo by George Bade. (This photo is the property of George Bade and may be used by the press only for purpose of one-time reproduction. Unauthorized use or alteration of this image is strictly prohibited.)
Photo File: PEART.TIF
Photo Caption: Shown is Neil Peart of Rush using Audio-Technica's AE5100 large-diaphragm end-fire cardioid condenser and AE3000 large-diaphragm side-address cardioid condenser microphones. Photo by Andrew MacNaughtan. (This photo is the property of Andrew MacNaughtan and may be used by the press only for purpose of one-time reproduction. Unauthorized use or alteration of this image is strictly prohibited.)
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Celebrating over 40 years of audio excellence worldwide, Audio-Technica is a leading innovator in transducer technology, renowned for the design and manufacture of microphones, wireless microphones, headphones, mixers and electronics for the audio industry.
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—For more information on the complete range of Audio-Technica products, contact
Karen Emerson, Audio-Technica U.S., Inc., 1221 Commerce Drive, Stow, Ohio 44224.
Tel: 330/686-2600; Fax: 330/688-3752.
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Audio-Technica is exhibiting at Booth #6740 during the 2003 NAMM Winter Session in
Anaheim, CA.
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