The Claustrophobic EZX

In collaboration with Sontronics Microphones and Evans drumheads Toontrack Music announces the Claustrophobic EZX.

The Claustrophobic EZX marks a new step for Toontrack in driving the development of percussive samples. The audio team at Toontrack has utilized drumhead selection, room and microphone configurations to fuse the qualities of a high end drum recording and the cutting edge of the radical beats of today’s top RnB, Hip Hop and Pop producers.

Add to that samples run through the best outboard effects and made accessible in the Ezmixer to build your own mixer presets for on the fly sound design and you’ve got all the ingredients to produce, write and play music that takes you and your beats one step further, C for Claustrophobic, C for Contemporary, C for Cutting edge. Oh, and did we mention that the Claustrophobic EZX was recorded in a very small room?
The Claustrophobic EZX was sampled through the very best of outboard with distortion, reverb, compression and attack effects included in the internal mixer. This enables you to access a large number of mixer presets by STS 9, Richard Devine, DJ Amplive, sub-ID and Count Bass D. And you can save your own custom mixer presets (with EZdrummer 1.1).


Twisted Kit EZX by Michael Blair

In collaboration with Michael Blair and Sontronics Microphones, Toontrack Music announces the "Twisted Kit EZX by Michael Blair".

In October of 1985 Tom Waits released the album Rain Dogs. The album was an instant classic and marked a new sound for him. A rough, dirty neo-blues style with awkward rhythms and hard edges. Part of the band that contributed to that sound was drummer and percussionist Michael Blair. His highly personal instrument set-up which included a mix of regular drums and odd bits and pieces like trashcans, bedroom furniture and rusty bicycle frames fit perfectly with the sound that Waits was looking for. The combination of Michaels timing, expression, and junkyard sounds created a rich and useful range of musical textures to accent Waits intricate storytelling.

Michael Blair also played and toured with Waits on Franks Wild Years, the follow up to Rain Dogs, and later became an integral part of the recordings for Elvis Costello’s Spike (1989) and Lou Reeds Magic and Loss (1992). Spike became Costello’s most commercially successful and sonically adventurous album to date.

Two rototom frames form a tonal hi-hat, a duck call suggests an alternative cowbell, tack drums from China become rack toms and putting the hubcap of your very first car on top of your snare seems like the right thing to do. Michael Blair crosses over boundaries of industrial, blues, ethnic, orchestral, and replacement percussion to form a unique sound. The Twisted Kit EZX brings you that sound both in the recordings and the MIDI recorded by Michael.

The Twisted Kit EZX by Michael Blair was sampled through the very best of outboard with distortion, reverb, compression and attack effects included in the internal mixer. This enables you to access a large number of mixer presets by STS 9, Richard Devine, DJ Amplive, sub-ID and Count Bass D. And you can save your own custom mixer presets (with EZdrummer 1.1).

For more info, images and demos go to: www.toontrack.com/ezx.asp