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 Ned
Smith (aka Ned Zeppelin) is an innovative drummer who also loves
to teach. In Spring
2006, Ned left his
San Diego
hip-hop, jazz, and funk
projects, to move to
Seattle
.
Ned landed the drum chair in Seattle’s, Fred Radke Big
Band, home to many of
Seattles
finest jazz players.
Fred Radke is the brilliant trumpeter and band leader for
the Harry James Orchestra.
As a
teenager, Ned made his first label recording on Vanguard.
He’s played on the road with Vegas shows, landed a BMG
ZOO record deal in Hollywood with heavy metal band Calamity
Jane, played indy punk, alt-rock, and blues during the 90’s in
Boston where he recorded with: Alt/art-rock/theater artist Chris
Mascara, Folk-rock-country artist and producer Darrell Scott,
Classical-jazz-blues composer John Putnam (Used Blues),
Composer-guitarist-producer-effects inventor Scott Dakota (The
Moors), and 20th century classical composer
thrash-jazz-punk-guitarist Dan Stearns’ Blue & Spangled
Dangling.
DC
California, Ned’s unfair advantage.
“I
wanted to stop focusing mainly on execution and start getting a
consistently great sound. I
needed an unfair advantage that would really bring out what I do
on the drums. I
really wanted audiences and studio tape to feel and hear my
unique way of playing better.
I’d played all the finest high production drums, and
never got a real thrill from them.
To me, there is a hole in their sound and dynamics.
At the Hollywood Custom & Classic Drum show, I met
the owner of DC California, Iki Levy. He’d
tested, and developed a method of drum building that takes as
much from the world of fine violin making as it does from the
world of drum building’s best practices.
His results produce the sound I'd been fantasizing about
all my life. Suddenly
my playing was coming across how I meant it to.
“DC
California toms are as loud as a snare drum, an anomaly among
drum manufacturers. You no longer have to hit the toms
harder than the snare to get the same volume level. I was
looking for this specifically.
It means all the uneven physicality drummers exerted to
create even sound levels between snares and toms is over.
High
fidelity drums. “DC
California drums have incredible sustain and fully present
timbres through the entire EQ spectrum.
Iki Levy, an LA session drummer and producer, and founder
of DC California, experimented for years to develop drums with
balanced high, mid-range and low timbers.
Even my tiniest DC California tom-tom projects an even
balance of bass, mids and treble.
When played loudly, it seems impossible that so much
sound is coming from such a little drum.
That drum will not choke.
Sounding
good in bad rooms.
Iki Levy recognized and solved a modern problem:
Small, dry recording facilities make drums sound ringy
and flat.’ Not
only do DC Californias sound great in big, perfectly
reverberating rooms, they record very well in tiny, dry,
modern-day drum machine oriented studios. They
retain their high fidelity on the live gigs, too.
One day & night I went from a light jazz gig in a
small clangy room full of loud customers, to a big band
rehearsal in a huge multi-purpose room, to an outdoor gig
backing up funk, rock, and punk players all night.
These drums were like character actors.
Changing with my touch and pounding for each situation.
Beautiful pianissimos.
Raging fortissimos. It’s like they live to
amplify my moods.
Compliments.
My DC Californias make sound guys into sound gods.
But true to my unfair advantage wishes, the sound guys
usually attribute it to my talent.
Before I showed up playing DC Californias, no one ever
nodded in reverent awe as they complimented my tuning.
Now it happens all the time.
That’s a big difference.
At every gig, people introduce themselves and tell me how
beautiful my drums look and how great I sound.
Before DC California, I’d get complements on my
playing, but rarely on my sound.
If you’re looking for an unfair advantage, too, it’s
definitely available thanks to Iki Levy’s painstaking
attention to sound production.
Try hitting them once.
I’d like to know if you hear what I’m talking
about.” --Ned
www.nedzeppelin.com
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