Between the Buried and Me- Colors

Between the Buried and Me's Colors is an incredible progressive metal album, where each song flows directly into the next, making the album appear to be one very long song. The music is stunning, and is performed flawlessly. This album has a large multitude of different influences that are apparent in different parts of the album. Really worth a full listen. I've attached a video with the entire album, but unfortunately the beginning skips. Other than that the video is flawless, and you should really check it out.

Mesa Boogie Mark V Amplifier

http://www.mesaboogie.com/Product_Info/Mark_Series/mark5/mark5.html
The Mesa Boogie Mark V amplifier is an incredible amp head with tons of options. It has 9 different amp models, and has a tone for almost any type of music. While it does have a hefty price tag, it is entirely worth the price to have this incredible amp.

Metropolis Pt. 2

Metropolis Pt. 2 is an incredible concept album by the band Dream Theater. All the songs flow together to tell a story of a man who's having visions of a girl whose soul is now his. Incredible musicianship. Incredible writing. Definitely an album to recommend to others.

Marimba Mallets

Choosing marimba mallets can be quite difficult, but I'm going to point out the mallets I use, and why I prefer them over any others. First, I'm going to start with soft mallets. For extremely soft, chorale mallets, I use the Malletech SO2 Soloist series mallets. They have birch handles, which feel great, and get incredible tone out of the marimba, especially in the lower register. I most recently used them on the second movement of Caritas by Michael Burritt, and they worked extremely well for the part. Also, the bass marimba part on David Maslanka's Crown of Thorns sounds extremely great with these mallets as well. Next, medium-soft mallets. I use the Encore 43YB orange wrapped mallets for softer passages that require the full range of the marimba, such as the introduction of Leander Kaiser's Black Sphinx. They have a full sound and tone across the entire instrument, and are some of the most comfortable mallets I've ever played with. For medium mallets I use the Encore 42AYB light blue wrapped mallets. They are the same design as the Encore 43YB mallets, but are a slightly harder mallet. For medium-hard mallets I have a couple of different options. I prefer either the Innovative Percussion Mark Ford 803s, the Innovative Percussion Janis Potter 404s, or the Innovative Percussion She-e Wu WU4s. They are all fantastic mallets, and I have used them for multiple pieces. The Mark Ford 803s are perfect for his piece entitled Polaris, and I used these mallets on this solo last year. I used the Janis Potter 404s on the first and third movements of Michael Burritt's Caritas, and the She-e Wu WU4s on the section of Leander Kaiser's Black Sphinx which calls for hard mallets. They are all fantastic mallets, all with comfortable birch handles, and all producing great tones throughout the marimba, even in the bass register. For hard mallets, I use the Innovative Percussion IP400s, but I sand off the handle coating. I prefer unfinished mallets because of their improved grip, so if I get any mallets that have any coating on the handles I sand it off. These are the mallets I use everyday, whether it be for a solo, or a part I'm given to play with the band, they always deliver.

Snare Sticks

Good snare drum sticks are a vital thing to have as a percussionist. I tend to prefer either Innovative Percussion, or Cooperman for my snare sticks. More specifically I prefer the Chris Lamb CL-1 or CL-2L sticks from Innovative Percussion, and the Nick Petrella series from Cooperman. http://innovativepercussion.com/pages/products/product_detail.asp?id=87
http://innovativepercussion.com/pages/products/product_detail.asp?id=184
The Chris Lamb series from Innovative Percussion are very high quality sticks, and produce great tones with every model. The CL-1 sticks are maple snare sticks that have a great comfortable feel to them, and provide very quick response. The CL-2L sticks are laminate birch sticks, which provide very even weight and tone between each stick. The bead on the CL-2L sticks are more elongated than the CL-1 sticks, and provide a darker, more legato tone. The Nick Petrella series from Cooperman have a elongated oval shaped bead, and provide a full dark sound. All the sticks that I mentioned are of exceptional quality and have a great tone and feel to them.

Topics

The main topic I'm going to discuss on this page is music. Whether it be various percussion things I'm interested in, or guitar, or even just regular music, I'm going to include it on this page.