Ever wonder what it sounds and feels like to hit a Mandala Drum?  Well, LA’s ‘Massive New Music Compound’ called Bedrock, located in Echo Park, has a room of Mandalas set up for you to try, rent and buy.

The site, a former jewelry manufacturer at 1623 Alessandro Street, is called Bedrock Rehearsal Studios (bedrockla.com).  It’s a multipurpose complex offering professional rehearsal spaces, recording studios, equipment rental and repair.  Future plans call for an onsite brewpub featuring live acoustic performances, a walk-up café and three guest suites.  The Bedrock slogan is “rehearse, record, and relax” and that is exactly what they will help you do.

Bedrock is now the exclusive showroom dealer of Mandala Drums.  There is a room devoted to percussion with Mandala Drum hardware and software set up all the time.  The Mandala rig can be moved to your rehearsal room for rental, and Bedrock has Mandalas in stock for purchase at $349.

“Bedrock is a great fit for us,” says Vince De Franco of Synesthesia Corporation. “ It is a tough time to be a small business in California.  Capital is hard to come by and customers are tough to win.  This space attracts the music talent LA is known for.  These are the musicians we want exposed to our equipment.”

Rehearse – Fully equipped rooms acoustically treated with the proper mix of hard and soft surfaces to get a great sound.  Repairs and rentals from a dizzying array of classic and cutting edge equipment, including Mandala Drums and software.

Record – Let our team of producers and engineers create a world-class recording for a reasonable budget.

Relax – (coming soon) a coffee shop, a brewery, a rooftop garden and hotel suites.

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Links:  http://bedrockla.com

The great success of NAMM (National Association of Music Manufacturers) this year was due in large part to its stated purpose coinciding with a great economic need. In a time when companies across all industries are hoarding cash, cutting back and shedding employees the music instrument industry is no different. However as bleak as that sounds it brought out the best in the industry at the NAMM trade show. 

For those of you who don’t know, NAMM is the music instrument industry’s premier trade show. It is an annual gathering where all musical instrument manufacturers show the world what they have been working hard on all year. The official NAMM site summed it up this way:

Despite Unpredictable Economy, Exhibitors and Buyers Report Good Business in Anaheim

Themed ‘Come Together’, the show offered attendees the opportunity to reunite with industry peers, learn the latest business and marketing tactics and trends at daily NAMM University sessions, and ultimately make their biggest business deals for the year ahead.

‘The 2009 NAMM Show was perhaps one of the most important industry gatherings in memory’, said NAMM President and CEO Joe Lamond. ‘Our Members once again demonstrated their determination and persistence as the best and brightest from around the world gathered to experience four days of new products, NAMM University courses, networking and great live music.’

NAMM members showed up in the true spirit of business. The focus was not as directly on money, sales and investments, but rather on affiliations. This year’s show focused on handshakes agreeing to do business together.

The Mandala was well represented at the show. Danny Carey was there to promote his endorsements and Sonor was kind enough to include three Mandalas in their recreation of Danny’s full kit. Our good friend John Emrich, at FXpansion software, spent all weekend demonstrating a Mandala teamed impressively with their BFD package. Some high profile drummers approached us about joining the Mandala family (we’ll be announcing who soon).

We went to NAMM to raise awareness of our product and were proud to find that everyone had heard of us and wanted to talk. So as we have done before we must thank our loyal and talented customers. The word is out and the Mandala you have is going to become an even more capable and more amazing tool in the months ahead. USB, software driven, and position sensitive is the drum of the future. Clearer now than ever, the Mandala will do even more for drums than what the pickup did for guitars.

Now I have only alluded to our developing affiliations here. While I cannot yet reveal these affiliations I want to make it clear that the Mandala 2.0 is the future and anything we develop in the future will be compatible and expandable. We are growing and we are dedicated to maintaining excellent service and quality matched only by our commitment to drum technology.

Many thanks to our friends, customers, endorsees and affiliates who made this NAMM a success for us.

LUKE

Lieutenant Major Scott Carpenter (USN) wished “Godspeed” to friend and colleague Lieutenant Colonel John Glenn (USMC) as Friendship 7 launched from Cape Canaveral on February 20, 1962. It was the first U.S. manned orbital mission flight. Ever since, “Godspeed” has been the salutation to astronauts on the launch pad. And so today we wish Godspeed to our fellow Mandala Drum player, Captain Christopher Ferguson (USN), and his crew. Captain Ferguson will command the space shuttle Endeavour mission STS-126 targeted for launch on November 14, 2008.

Endeavour will carry a reusable logistics module that will hold supplies and equipment essential to sustain a crew of six on the International Space Station, including additional crew quarters, a regenerative life support system and a Resistive Exercise Device (RED). In Ferguson’s words, “It’s moving day.” The module is in essence a new kitchen, bathroom and bunk room so that the International Space Station can support a larger crew. We here on earth can only speculate as to whether the new digs will have a recreation room complete with a Mandala setup. It’s possible!

Captain Ferguson is the drummer for the all astronaut rock band, Max Q. In recent correspondence with Captain Ferguson, he had great things to say about his Mandala and added that his son is learning to play the drums using it. We’ll do our best to get everybody a sound clip and a playing schedule for Max Q sometime after the Captain’s return. Until then let’s ALL focus on pushing the boundaries of what is possible.

Godspeed, Endeavour STS-126

Chances are good that even if you have never heard of the Mandala Drum, you have heard it played. The Mandala’s presence across the media production industries is so vast that film composers, recording engineers, game developers, sound designers and other content creators are changing the world with it. The position sensor in the Mandala Drum has empowered the imaginations and creativity of artists in every media at every level.

It is well documented on our site mandaladrum.com that the Mandala was invented by Vince De Franco for Danny Carey of the rock band TOOL. Carey needed an electronic drum pad that could be durable and accurate in live and studio settings. It would have to translate each strike of his sticks into high definition sound and effects within milliseconds. For more than six years now Carey has incorporated 7 Mandala Drums into his kit on stage and in the studio. The Mandala played prominently in many songs on TOOL’s recent multi platinum CD 10,000 Days, and Mandalas performed flawlessly on the road during TOOL’s two year world tour to promote 10,000 Days.

Synesthesia Corporation is lucky to have another important endorsee in friend Ryeland Allison. Allison is a composer at Hans Zimmer’s Remote Control Productions. “My musical roots are in percussion. Before the Mandala I needed more than the limited resolution electronic drums were offering, and when it came to drum programming, keyboards could only take me so far. The Mandala represents a progressive instrument that has broadened my creative reach,” says Allison. Allison’s music credits include such mega hits as The Dark Knight, Iron Man and Madagascar to name only a few. Even Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard jumped on the Mandala bandwagon performing with the Mandala on stage at the Dark Knight movie premiere in New York. Here are some great photos from that event.

Those are just a couple of examples of the pros at work. What about you? You are the content creator of your world. Are you creating? The latest think tank research on content creators holds that 62% of content viewed online is created by someone the viewer knows. More and more videos are constantly showing up on sites like YouTube and MySpace. We call the Mandala the “smartest thing you’ll ever hit with a stick” but its turning out that the smartest thing about Mandalas is the people who use them. In the coming days and weeks we will tell you about where else you can hear the Mandala and who is playing it. For now think about how the Mandala can change your life and the way you create.

Here’s a great email we got from Pat yesterday. Read on to learn what he is up to!…

Vince,

Exciting times for me and my Mandala – I have three gigs, on three continents, improvising with three different outfits, so it’s a perfect time to go nuts with your drums!

First up: A week in Sweden with the IB Expo. It’s a great experience. The Swedish band “Isilders Bane” imports guests and we spend about a week learning each others’ tunes, then play a couple shows in the local Arts Building. It’s a wonderful chance to improvise and experiment with great players. IB regularly works with two great drummers, Kjell Severinsson and Klas Assarsson, so I am really free to chase color more than beat.

Here’s this year’s guest list:

Mick Karn (from Japan, Polytown, Rain Tree Crow, wow!)

Pamelia Kurstin (Pamelia is a killer Theremin player and her and I have a new duet CD called “Tunisia” (link)

Jan Schaffer (Swedish session guitarist, living legend in his country, played with ABBA, Bob Marley and Zappa briefly to name a few)

Valgeir Sigurdsson (Icelandic producer who worked with Björk, Kimmo & The Kronos Quartet, etc.)

Luca Calabrese (wonderful Italian trumpet player that I have had the pleasure to work with before)

Christian Saggese (Nostradamos of classical guitar)

Isilders Bane (link)

Then I go to Mexico to do two shows with TU, my duet with Trey Gunn. I expect lots of room for Mandala since we will be improvising in a huge outdoor space and as always we invite other duos to join us for some spontaneous composition.

Then off to Japan for a week with Terry Bozzio. Tony Levin joins us for all the shows and Alan Holdsworth will join us for the last three. I’m having fun building Mandala patches since these are total improv shows. (link)

…May the bootlegs be full of the Mandala!

p@

Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard Perform At “The Dark Knight” World Premiere

NEW YORK, New York — Award winning composers Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard performed live together for the first time on stage prior to the world premiere of “The Dark Knight” at New York’s Lincoln Square IMAX theatre…and the Mandala Drum was there! The Mandala was part of the state of the art and vintage collection of instruments played that night by Hans and James along with fellow composers Lorne Balfe and Martin Tillman. Take a look below!

“The Dark Knight” soundtrack is available on Warner Bros. Records.

Welcome to the official Synesthesia blog. In the coming weeks Vince and Luke will fill you in on the challenges that face Synesthesia in the worlds of technology, the musical instrument market and the music industry. The goal of this blog is to introduce ourselves and our company in an effort to build a brand with our customers. Ultimately building a brand requires customer loyalty and it is our goal to earn that loyalty. We will do so by being open and honest with you about the decisions we make and the reasons we make them.

In this section we will discuss our company vision and goals one subject at a time. One week we will present the genesis for the Mandala drum technology. Sit in on the conversation between Danny Carey and Vince as they first conceived of the position sensitive drum. The following week we may tell you about the decision to go USB, or why we chose purple for version 2.0.

In the coming weeks we will post this blog on our site www.mandaladrum.com along with a news feed from sites to which we often refer to gather information on music, entertainment, science and business. It is the most dynamic aspect of this page, updating every day with new stories you can read further into.

Also, we will provide stories that are of special interest to us at Synesthesia. Periodically we will identify subjects we find especially forward thinking or thought provoking.

Overall, the design of our new page will be in keeping with our stated goal, to keep you coming back. Perhaps you will buy your third Mandala, but at least you will be reminded of the value of having your first one. Over time you will come to understand how we think and how we operate. In the end this page is not about us, it is about our relationship with everyone who is supporting us along the way.