A top drummer, an engineer, & a CloseUp® breakthrough walk into a studio . . . 

Impressing someone with PJ’s background was a tall order. His resume is exceptional. Well-seasoned in West African drumming traditions, he has also done stints as a sound engineer, and scoring percussion for live dance.  Beyond his training exists a more inherent, familial instinct for rhythm: PJ is part of a rich line of Filipino-American rhythmic musicians, including a father who played rhythm guitar and a grandfather who was an upright bass player in Hawaii.  The reverence and excitement PJ has for tradition was mirrored throughout his experience using the CloseUp® Drum System:

“What you guys are doing is so exciting. I say that knowing a lot about… the slog of dealing with [live] music.” 

We need to step back to paint a rather grim picture of the current state of mic-ing drums.

Mic’ing Drums: go old school, or go CloseUp®

Mic-ing drum kits has long been known as one of the most time-intensive, gear-laden components of live sound, requiring the coordinated efforts of a well-trained audio engineer and patient drummer as well as an array of heavy, tangle-prone cables, mics, and stands. Either that, or sacrificing real-time sound for a handful of pre-recorded trigger-activated samples (or as some call it digital drum death). 

Even if you look past the physical tedium of the set up, the tech limitations, and acoustic challenges, current technology greatly limits the repeatability and reliability of the amplified sound you’ve just spent eons setting up to capture. Drum amplification is so notoriously finicky and intensive, it’s a wonder better solutions for so common an instrument haven’t appeared, until now.

With The CloseUp® Drum System, what was only possible in a sound-proofed recording studio is now available in a user-friendly platform, in any environment.  As PJ puts it: “If you can get a clean sound right away, any engineer will tell you: that’s the goal.” 

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Turn Up. Tune In. Get CloseUp®. Don’t Trigger.

Each drum kit is a canvas of different microtones and sounds. Because tuning and amplifying drums is so sensitive, some sound engineers use triggers to play pre-recorded samples when different drums are played. The number of samples available is more limited than what can actually come out of a drum kit. There is so much personal identity and style embedded in a drummer’s playing that gets immediately lost when you switch to samples. PJ on digital ‘solutions’ for live drums: “I’ve tried it and I can’t do it—I’ve had drum pads and drum triggers. I play the acoustic instrument; I want those nuances.”  Because the CloseUp® isn’t sample based, he can get them. He was happily shocked by just how transparent the CloseUp® digital interface is: 

It sounds really good. And it doesn’t kill the feeling . . . I was trying to trick it to see if it could detect something super soft after a huge cymbal crash—and it did! It does! 

Where other technology can sound sterile or robotic, he noted the CloseUp® Drum System had a “rich and warm” tone that reflected his drum kit and his playing. 

How does the CloseUp® Drum System do it?

The answer lies in our user-friendly tuning process.

It walks the drummer through recording short samples of their drumming while connected to a computer. These samples are only used to train the CloseUp® system. After which, microphones and live EQ are used to generate sound. Once the samples are recorded, the drummer can EQ these samples using simple, guided software.

These samples are then processed by the patented EzQ® software and used to create a custom algorithm that EQs your personal drum system live through our microphones.

Once it’s done, you’re ready to perform again and again, in different environments.

Drummers can rest assured knowing that each kick hit and snare roll will be amplified in real time, not replaced with a pre-recorded sound. We give drummers this solid, authentic base, and from there they can amplify or alter the sound however they please.

PJ speaks to using the CloseUp® interface:  Anybody who works in sound engineering or audio editing knows… it can be hard to understand, [even for great musicians.] But a total beginner using Your Heaven[’s CloseUp®] will start to understand EQ-ing experientially; it’s bottom up versus top down.

Next Steps for CloseUp® 

This is changing the whole game. It’s exciting and it also feels like: ‘Can it be true?! Is there actually this much convenience at our fingertips?’ To have this convenience in this compact package…it’s almost unreal, like: ‘How is this possible?! …It has so many advantages that I have not seen on the market. 

PJ’s enthusiasm is what makes our work at Your Heaven® deeply satisfying. As fellow musicians, we want to enhance each musician’s unique relationship to their instrument. We’ve dedicated decades to researching and painstakingly testing our algorithms and gear. PJ thinks our formula and commitment are working: 

I look forward to it being sold! I will happily tell people: ‘You’ve got to try this. I did it; I used it; I see how easy it is, even if you’re not great at this [EQing / tech].’ …to have all that research already done for you, that’s the magic of this…the sound quality and the ease and convenience. 

We are currently in exciting talks with different audio companies regarding our innovative technology and how to bring it to a wider audience of musicians and sound artists. 

If you are interested in our system, don’t be a stranger! You can reach us at support@yourheaven.net. We also encourage you to check out our website which features more information about our CloseUp® Systems: microphone + EzQ® amplification systems for a range of acoustic string instruments. 

Thank You PJ!

Thanks go to PJ Roduta for his contributions to the music and dance communities in Pittsburgh and beyond and for taking the time to try our CloseUp® Drum System and talk all things drumming and sound. It was a pleasure working with him and we look forward to continuing to collaborate with musicians and audio techs the world over, to spread our message of accessible, achievable, authentic, acoustic sound.

We’ll leave you with a final nod from PJ and our promise to remain committed to bringing high fidelity sound to acoustic players—because plugging in should amplify your sound, not compromise it. 

Your company has a lot to be excited for; this sounds fantastic! I was in the studio recently —it’s got a lot of new fangled equipment…and what you’re doing—it’s exactly what [the studio engineer] was trying to do: get true, authentic sound. Simple. Clean. Clear. And without getting rid of the warmth, the je ne sais quoi, that really beautiful atmosphere.

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