03.25
Wernick is delighted to have signed an endorsement deal with Jubal Drum and Bugle Corps, winners of the DCE 2009. The Jong Jubal will be using two 2-octave and two 3-octave Xylosynths in the DCE 2010. Shown in the picture are (left to right) Ronald Wassink (Brass Arranger), William Wernick, Julie-Ellen John (from Wernick), Matthias Smouter (Percussion Arranger) and Trinet Trotta (Jong Jubal Coordinator).
From JUBALS website- English Translation
Jong Jubal has world premiere! Early this week the feeder corps from Dordrecht sent out the order for four brandnew ‘Xylosynths’. These are electronic xylophones that produce real sound, but are driven by soundmodules. The instruments look, play and feel just like a real instrument should and, thanks to intuitive hands-on control of note length and sensitivity, can gracefully adapt to your playing style.
This brings an end to the long search for replacement of the current, but outdated pit-instruments. The Jong Jubal staff and management are very pleased with this new addition for the feeder corps. We can clearly state we’re looking at a world première here: Jong Jubal is the first drum & bugle corps to use fully electronic keyboards.
The last six years the corps has looked into buying good and affordable second-hand instruments, and even into buying new instruments. In most cases the price, size, weight, firmness or the general state the (second-hand) equipment were in.
Some time ago our attention was drawn to a new type of electronic instrument, the Xylosynth, that might be a good option for the Jong Jubal pit percussion.
Trinet Trotta of Jong Jubal: “After some thorough research it didn’t take us long to become really enthusiastic: The Xylosynth is compact, lightweight, and is very reasonably priced if compared to the regular mallet-instruments. In addition to this it’s a versatile instrument that will give us lots of opportunities for the future.”
Jong Jubal contacted Will Wernick, manufacturer of the Xylosynth. Together an interesting agreement was made, which was sealed last Monday during a meeting at Schiphol airport.
A Xylosynth is an electronic instrument, which looks like a two- or three-octave “xylophone”, played with mallets. The Xylosynth doesn’t produce a sound itself. A soundmodule is used similar to the ones in synthesizers and keyboards. To project this sound to the audiences at events and contests, Jong Jubal will also be the First junior division (feeder) corps to use amplification!
The Xylosynth is not an acoustic keyboard, but not a 100% synthesizer either. It’s an instrument which will provide numerous possibilities for Jong Jubal as far as pit-sounds are concerned. The corps will be discussing with DCE how to implement this in the coming years.
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