Digital technology presented an electronic drumming future made more convenient, lighter weight, and cheaper; and that’s where the market went. But for a smaller group of e-drummers, analog was still what they wanted. The industry moved on, and it created opportunities for people like Bob Shepard, an electrical and radio frequency tech in the telecomm industry by day, and reverse engineering Synare circuitry in his free time. And he kept building them until retirement, when he started his company, Helensson.

Bob isn’t some luddite analog purist unwilling to look forward. Despite starting out emulating obsolete technology, he’s embraced digital percussion with quite possibly the most flexible, capable trigger on the market. And he’s become one of the most forward-looking music-product designers today with his latest product, Headcaster, which debuted at Summer NAMM. This brilliant reverse projector can display lyrics, sheet music, and more, in crisp detail on your rack tom’s batter head, and it’s powered by an Android device complete with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and all the latest digital consumer technology.

You can learn more about Bob and his company, Helensson, at helensson.com, and facebook.com/HelenssonLLC.

Drum Showroom is a production of Podcraft. Create a great podcast, faster and easier, at podcraft.us.

This week we're thrilled to turn the spotlight on one of our own, Nate Testa. An aspiring drum nerd from Kissimmee, FL, Nate runs social media for Drum Showroom and has built his new brand, Snare Geek to share his passion. Recently, Nate got the call he’d been praying for: the opportunity to participate on a national tour as a professional drum tech!

Nate is on tour with Blake Whiteley, teching for drummer Austin Ware and also running sound at Front of House. We talk foundations, lessons learned, Nate's love of the art of teardown, his favorite tools, stories from the road, the best thing he's eaten on tour, and more!

You can connect with and learn more about Nate Testa at testabeatdrums.com. His Instagrams are instagram.com/testabeatdrums and instagram.com/officialsnaregeek, and his Facebook pages are facebook.com/TestaBeatDrums and facebook.com/officialsnaregeek.

Drum Showroom is a production of Podcraft.

Have you ever considered starting a podcast? Because people connect to the human voice more deeply than the written word (or overproduced and expensive video), businesses that podcast have a competitive advantage in their marketplace.

Create a great podcast, faster and easier, at podcraft.us.

In Season One, one of your favorite episodes was the one with Josh Allen, founder of INDe Drum Lab. So we’ve decided to remix it and make it more digestible. Let us know what you think at drumshowroom.com.

Josh decided that staying at Ludwig was holding him back from creating something that was truly his due to the brand’s amazing history and lineage. He wanted more of a clean slate from which to create.

Despite his corporate management and design expertise, at his core, Josh is a builder. He thinks in solutions to problems that take form as physical products. And he’s not unwilling to be honest with himself about where needs to work the hardest.

There’s a section of the INDe site at INDedrum.com titled, “Tech, Design and Nerdery.” I couldn’t think of a more fitting headline for talking shop with Josh. It got very geeky. If you love the nuts and bolts of drums, you’re really going to enjoy Josh Allen’s design philosophy.

Josh’s comes from an industrial design background. Industrial designers focus on the physical embodiment of the design. What does it look like? What is it made out of? What does it feel like in the hand? By contrast, mechanical engineers think in terms of function. How does this thing work? I enjoyed talking to Josh because he can talk like both an industrial designer, which is is by education, but also as a mechanical designer.

One of the things many drum companies focus on in their marketing is their bearing edges. And Josh has a really succinct, clear way of talking about the function and variables that matter in bearing-edge design.

What I think impressed me the most in talking with Josh is how he is just a systems thinker. He’s not just thinking about the systems that make up a great drum, but he’s also engineering a great drum ownership experience through INDe’s business model.

Learn more about Josh and INDe Drum Lab at INDedrum.com.

Drum Showroom is a production of Podcraft. Create a great podcast, faster and easier, at podcraft.us.

Chances are, you’ve seen a recent influx of classic-looking waxed canvas and leather-trimmed stick bags, cymbal bags, and other thoughtful accessories in your drum shop or Instagram feed. Maybe you first noticed Carter MacLean or Mike Johnston using them. Or maybe you saw them in Steve Maxwell’s fine shops in New York and Chicago. In any case, it feels like everywhere you go, you see Tackle Instrument Supply Company’s wares.

You probably know the name, but you might not know that behind Tackle is a professional touring drummer named Scott McPherson. Scott came out of Portland, and now lives and operates Tackle from Minneapolis. Scott has built long-term playing relationships with Elliott Smith, Bright Eyes, She & Him, Beck and many others. And when Scott came through Asheville with the “Him” of She & Him, M. Ward, he sat down for breakfast and some conversation that I really enjoyed.

And in case you’re not aware, Tackle produces some things you’re probably familiar with, like stick bags and cymbal bags; accessories like bass drum hoop protectors, impact patches, and cymbal sizzlers; and also a third category of unique problem solvers that only could come from the mind of somebody who has dedicated themself to the craft of performance at the drums. Tackle’s Gig Pouch, Gig Pocket, Shop Rag, leather cymbal washers, and other items all help drummers with the problems they face performing, setting up, and moving their drums.

Thanks to Green Sage Cafe for letting us sit and record… and thanks to this week’s audio producer, Ben Etter, for cleaning and processing the background noise! Here’s Scott McPherson of Tackle Instrument, and this is Drum Showroom.

I want to thank Scott McPherson for being so generous with his time. Not only did we talk for literally a couple of hours, but we also hung out for lunch and checked out some antiques, and then he invited my wife and me to see him perform that night at Asheville’s famous Orange Peel rock club with M Ward. Scott’s a no-nonsense player with superb musicality, selflessness, and tone for days. He sounded great.

You can learn more about Tackle Instrument at tackleinstrument.com and tackle_instrument on Instagram.

This episode was produced by Ben Etter with social media by Nate Testa. Drum Showroom is a production of Podcraft. Create a great podcast, faster and easier, at podcraft.us.

Hey everybody, Dan here with a quick message from family vacation in Connecticut. 

On behalf of the entire team, we're excited to share that Drum Showroom has been nominated for a 2018 Podcast Award! Please vote for Drum Showroom in the Music category at podcastawards.com. Voting closes July 31. 

Thank you so much for making Drum Showroom so much fun for us. #PCA18

P.S. And don't forget to go listen to the first two episodes of the new Season! We kicked things off with Jared Falk of Drumeo, and followed it up with Garrett Hawkins' reportage from Summer NAMM.

P.P.S. And if you're still reading, if we could ask one more favor of you: please leave a rating and review of Drum Showroom. It really helps other drum gear fans discover the show. Thanks!

Welcome to the special Summer NAMM 2018 edition of Drum Showroom. Twice a year, NAMM, the musical instrument industry trade organization, holds trade shows at which manufacturers display their latest instruments.

And as the only drum gear-specific podcast among the more-than half-a-million shows, we HAD to be there! So we sent Drum Showroom reporter, Garrett Hawkins, to get the scoop.

In this episode: new gear from Alesis, Yamaha, Ergosonic, Fat Hoops, Cooper Grooves, Pearl, Sonor, British Drum Co., Impression, Samsung, JBC, Drum Dots, Nice Company Japan, Beatbox, and Headcaster.

A word of full disclosure: I worked for Alesis as product manager several years ago, but didn’t give Garrett any direction on what to include in his report, and none of the companies featured in this coverage compensated us in any way.

You might not have heard his company, Musora, but it’s pretty likely you have heard of Drumeo, the education platform he runs, along with its sister sites Guitareo, Recordeo, and Pianote. That’s right, we’re kicking off Season Three with Drumeo founder, Jared Falk.

As you’ve hopefully seen in your social media and blog feeds, Jared and team Drumeo have partnered with us in the Drum Showroom Season Three Launch Giveaway. All you need to do to enter for a chance to win a Drumeo and Drum Showroom swag pack is like the contest post, comment with a question – that’s your entry, so make it good – and tag two of your friends. We’ll select our favorite questions as finalists, and answer them on an Instagram Live Story this week, where we’ll randomly select the winner!

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And by the way, with the new season comes new technology. If you’re listening on an Android device, go get the brand-new Google Podcasts app so you can listen on your smartphone or tablet, and continue listening when you get home on your Google Home speaker. We’re in there. And if you have an Amazon Alexa smart speaker, you can now add Drum Showroom to your Flash Briefing so you’ll hear new episodes in your feed as soon as they come out.

Welcome to Drum Showroom. I’m Dan Radin, checking in from our summer break. Well, technically summer starts tomorrow, but you get the idea.

Drum Showroom season three is just around the corner, and we’re opening up with three big episodes: Jared Falk of Drumeo, reporting from the Summer NAMM Show in Nashville, and Scott McPherson of Tackle Instrument Supply Company.

And with the new season comes new technology. If you’re listening on an Android device, go get the brand-new Google Podcasts app so you can listen on your smartphone or tablet, and continue listening when you get home on your Google Home speaker. We’re in there. And if you have an Amazon Alexa smart speaker, you can now add Drum Showroom to your Flash Breifing so you’ll hear new episodes in your feed as soon as they come out.

Drum Showroom season three starts this Sunday night. Stay tuned and tell your friends!

Oh, and one more thing. If you don’t currently follow Drum Showroom on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and our show page, drumshowroom.com, now is a great time to subscribe and follow because we’ll be announcing a Drumeo and Drum Showroom swag pack giveaway in the next couple of days. See you soon!