Auralex HoverDeck Gets Under Drummer Dane Clark's Kit on the Ghost Brothers of Darkland County Tour

	All-star drummer Dane Clark with his setup for the Ghost Brothers of Darkland County tour, which includes an Auralex HoverMat and HoverDeck Isolation Riser.

Technology from Auralex Acoustics, Inc., a manufacturer of acoustical treatments, is making sure that Dane Clark gets the sound he needs from his drum kit for the critically acclaimed Ghost Brothers of Darkland County, the staged musical collaboration between author Stephen King, singer/songwriter John Mellencamp, and composer and producer T Bone Burnett. For the touring version of the show, which debuted at the Alliance Theater in Atlanta in 2012, Clark is using the Auralex HoverMat along with Auralex's popular HoverDeck Isolation Riser, which the company says is specifically engineered to reduce coloration from floor resonance by decoupling the drum kit from the structure, resulting in a tighter, purer sound.

Ghost Brothers of Darkland County is a Southern Gothic tale of two brothers who hate one another and are forced by their father to spend time in a haunted cabin, where they are visited by the ghosts of another, deceased set of brothers who also hated one another. "This show needs the drums to be tuned low and sound very dark, so I'm using a hybrid kit made up of various drums and playing with a lot of mallets and brushes on them," explains Clark, who has recorded and toured with artists including Mellencamp, Ian Hunter of Mott the Hoople, Steve Earle, Donovan, and Moby Grape. "It's a real tribal type of drum sound, and I want the low end to speak as much as possible. The drums sounded very good when we performed the show in Atlanta, but I wanted to see if I could make them even better. I talked with the Auralex guys, and they told me about the HoverDeck. I tried it out and I'm very impressed with it. You can really tell the difference -- the drums now have an even clearer, more articulate low end to them. It really works well for the show, and my drum tech loves the HoverDeck because it's so easy to set up. I've gotten tons of compliments on the drum sound." Clark says he'll be using the HoverDeck in the studio he's building in his home in Anderson, Indiana. "It's just an amazing tool for drums," he says.

The Auralex HoverDeck solves an age-old problem for drummers. Stages and traditional drum risers sympathetically vibrate (resonate) with the drums and/or PA system. These resonances feed back to the drums and are then picked up by the mics. The Auralex HoverDeck is specifically engineered to reduce coloration from floor resonance by decoupling the drum kit from the structure, resulting in a tighter, more pure sound for both live and studio work. Thanks to the HoverDeck, no longer will hollow stages resonate with a muddy rumble, or will concrete floors suck the tone out of the kit. In the studio, on stage or in the practice room, HoverDeck's rugged MDF laminate core and web-like ISO-Puck modular risers minimize structure-borne sound transmission and sympathetic vibrations between drums and hardware.

The HoverDeck is available in two models; the HD-64Gig, designed for typical four- and five-piece drum kits, and the HD-88Concert, configured for larger drum kits and touring applications. Both configurations utilize a set of low-profile isolating boards that assemble quickly via strategically placed hook and loop fasteners. Either model is offered with an optional rugged road case.