Natalie & The Damn Shandys Join Forces With Black Lion Audio And Avantone Pro To Record Lay Eyes On You

Natalie & The Damn Shandys will deliver a sizzling, sultry summer single with Lay Eyes on You premiering this Friday, August 13 on all major online retailers. The New York-based Country/Americana trio teamed up with VuDu Studios’ producer Mike Watts to compose the single that portrays a budding workplace romance between two coworkers pining for a connection. Lay Eyes on You features Natalie Anne on vocals and guitar, Ben Gorham on vocals and piano, and Rob Wagner on lead guitar and backing vocals.

“Who hasn’t had even the slightest crush on someone in the workplace?” says Natalie. “Lay Eyes on You tells the story from both his and her point of view, revealing just how those subtle hints can unravel into an undeniable love.”

Natalie & The Damn Shandys newest single Lay Eyes on You showcases the group’s anecdotal style paired with their strong harmonic melodies. Listeners will be flushed with excitement for what could be with their current crush as they sway to the warm beat. The trio started working together back in 2016 and have since released their debut EP Overlook Trail and several singles including 48 Polaroid and Homebody. In the live performance arena, they have performed alongside Chely Wright, Trace Adkins, Joe Nichols, and more.

Most recently, Natalie & The Damn Shandys joined forces with Black Lion Audio and Avantone Pro when they went in the studio with Watts to record Lay Eyes on You. Watts captured all vocals and instruments on the Black Lion Audio Revolution 2×2 Portable Recording Interface and two Avantone Pro CV-12BLA microphones.

“Mike Watts and I decided to do a project together featuring the Black Lion Revolution and the Avantone Pro CV-12BLA. When I received back the initial track on Natalie & The Damn Shandys, the great sound quality was only overshadowed by how great the song was! I was floored. It’s a special song created by special people. I love it.” Jon Haber, President of Black Lion Audio

The latest single, Lay Eyes on You, will be available on all streaming platforms August 13, followed by the single’s forthcoming music video making a national debut across the broadcast community starting August 23.

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About Natalie & The Damn Shandys

Originating in New York, Natalie and The Damn Shandys features Natalie Anne (vocals/guitar), Rob Wagner (guitar/mandolin/vocals), and Ben Gorham (piano/vocals). The trio has opened for Chely Wright, Trace Adkins, Joe Nichols, Marshall Tucker Band, and Corey Smith. Natalie & The Damn Shandys first connected in 2016, after Natalie moved from San Diego to New York pursuing her music career. She met Rob Wagner, the multi-instrumentalist and vocalist, and the two decided to take their talents to Mike Watts at VuDu Studios as Rob had previously worked at the studio and knew the quality that could be captured there. It was at the studio that they were introduced to Ben Gorham, who initially fell into a keys and backing vocalist role. However, they quickly realized Ben’s talents and today he shares lead vocals with Natalie on their projects. The trio released their debut Overlook Trail on Esque Records & VuDu recordings in May 2019. Since that EP, Natalie & the Damn Shandys have released several singles including 48 Polaroid and Homebody. In a review of their show with Chely Wright, The Daily Times wrote, “Chely Wright took the stage shortly after inviting Grunnan (Natalie) up to sing with her. Wright couldn’t say enough nicethings. In fact, she proclaimed Natalie & The Damn Shandys are destined for great things.”

About Black Lion Audio

Founded in 2006, Black Lion Audio is a boutique audio company based in Chicago. Collectively, it takes pride in providing customers with outstanding quality gear for its recording studios at prices that are ridiculously affordable. As such, the company has built a reputation for supplying superior quality sound in a cost-effective manner within the space of a few short years. Yet, given the current economic climate, it is no wonder that major labels, project studios, software companies and high-profile tracking and mix engineers make up a significant portion of the company’s client base. Indeed, its work can be heard in award-winning major motion picture scores and soundtracks, major television shows and commercials, as well as being used by prestigious organizations and major label acts alike.

About Avantone Pro

It is our belief that great audio products can be created without charging thousands of dollars for them. Our microphones and speakers are used in studios around the world — from home project studios to world-renowned multi-million-dollar facilities. We are very sensitive to the real-world operating budgets of studios as well as the struggling artists/songwriters who are very passionate about creating great music but have budget limitations based on common sense spending. Now, even those on a budget can get world-class sound in their studios. We strive to offer products that anyone would be proud to own and have long-term use of in the quest for creating great music. We believe in our products’ value and know the power of “word-of-mouth” advertising. When you see how good our products are, we know you will tell others! 

Planar new Reference-Grade Headphones

Avantone Pro is proud to announce the availability of Planar (red Model here) — absolutely following up its acclaimed MP-1 Mixphones multi-mode headphones. With unique Vari-Voice technology to allow users to move between a normal neutrally-voiced stereo field, monaural, and a specially contoured ‘mix’ mode. This time taking open-back reference-grade headphones with planar drivers design route to bring extreme detail and supreme comfort to long sessions as an ideal solution for mix engineers, musicians, podcasters, live-streamers, and hi-fi enthusiasts alike.

Planar is the culmination of Avantone Pro’s experience in creating reference-grade monitoring products to meet the demands of modern-day professional end-users by putting planar drivers in the driving seat for extreme detail, and supreme comfort for long sessions — surely an ideal solution for mix engineers, musicians, podcasters, live-streamers, and hi-fi enthusiasts alike — as audiophile sound meets portability.

Planar Features

• High definition planar driver technology outperforms typical dynamic headphone designs, providing an uncompromised, natural sound
• Low distortion, fast response, and flat frequency response for more precision and accuracy when monitoring and mixing
• Over the ear, open back headphones with a lightweight design for greater comfort when wearing for longer periods of time
• Low impedance and amplifier requirements for better use with recording interfaces, hi-fi systems, or mobile devices.
• Extremely wide frequency response from 30Hz to 30KHz.
• High-grade, removable 3.5mm cable that can be plugged into either side
• Includes a lightweight eco-friendly carrying bag.
• Optional replacement cable and earpads available.

Amazing accuracy, high-end detail, clarity, natural bass, and response time are just some of the advantages that planar drivers offer over traditional moving coil drivers. After all, traditional moving coil drivers use a magnetic field to push/pull the driver in one direction and really rely on the surround’s elasticity to return the driver to the neutral position. Planar drivers utilize a technology that mixes principles between dynamic and electrostatic drivers since they are constructed from a precise array of magnets that are evenly spaced across both sides of a thin, electrically-active diaphragm. Due to the nature of this magnetic field’s precision, force applied to the membrane is distributed in a symmetric fashion that produces a signal with very little harmonic distortion and incredibly fast response times. There is also far less weight applied to the driver material since planar drivers use front- and rear-mounted magnets — Neodymium N50SH, in the case of Avantone Pro’s Planar — to apply equal forces in both directions, resulting in a much more natural sound with less distortion, and allowing for hours of fatigue-less listening.

Avantone Pro’s Planar headphones also apply an open-back design with a perfectly-tuned chamber that results in a very flat-frequency environment — all without the typical pressure build-up, acoustic resonance, and frequency curve of closed-back headphones. Happily, the result is an audiophile listening experience that can even be enjoyed portably!

Planar may well be a little larger than typical headphones, but that need not detract from the need for comfort! Comfortably positioned, Planar is perfectly weighted for long-listening sessions, providing additional comfort with soft and spacious ear pads, so sessions that last for hours will only feel like minutes when wearing them! Technical specs make for equally comforting reading, with an extremely wide frequency response spanning 30Hz to 30kHz while low (32 Ω) impedance and amplifier requirements make for better use with audio interfaces, hi-fi systems, or mobile devices.

Dutifully, Avantone Pro’s Planar package comes complete with a high-grade 3.5mm cable that can be plugged into either side of the headphones, so the affordable high-quality studio monitors, reference headphones, microphones, and accessories producer has got that awkward left-side-cable-output-only situation comfortably covered! Coming full circle, Planar also ships in an eco-friendly shoulder bag with room for accessories — and a pouch for its included cable, even!

Specifications

• Style: Over-ear, open-back
• Transducer Type: Planar Magnetic
• Magnet Type: Neodymium N50SH
• Diaphragm Type: 21 Micron PET
• Transducer size: 70 x 95 mm
• Maximum power handling: 5W RMS
• Frequency response: 30Hz – 30kHz
• THD: <0.1% @ 100dB Impedance: 32 Ω Sensitivity: 104 dB/1mW (at Drum Reference Point) Minimum power: >100mW
• Recommended power: >250mW
• Weight: .48kg; 1 Lbs
• Color: Red or Black
• Included Accessories: 1.5m; 5ft 3.5mm audio cable
• 3.5mm to 1/4” adapter
• Eco-friendly carrying bag

Pricing and Availability

Planar is available — in both black and red versions — at Avantone Pro’s US Dealers with a MAP (Minimum Advertised Price) of $399.00 USD. European SSP — Suggested Selling Price — is €399.00 EUR, including VAT, through their worldwide Distributor.

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Avantone Kick Sub-Frequency Kick Drum Microphone

Avantone Pro brings back bygone classic as aptly-named sub-frequency kick drum microphone. It is an aptly-named sub-frequency kick drum microphone that effectively brings back to life a well-known extinct example by utilizing the affordable high-quality audio products producer’s own reproduction ‘white cone’ low-frequency driver to capture lower frequencies than a standard dynamic microphone, giving kick drum sounds that still-sought-after subsonic signature.

While using a speaker as a low-frequency capture microphone is nothing new — after all, The Beatles used this technique on their chart-topping ‘Paperback Writer’ way back in May 1966, watching people dangling a speaker from a makeshift stand, rewiring a monitor driver, or hot-wiring a combo amp to try and capture those lows is far from a pretty experience with results not necessarily assured.

Kick ably addresses this by bringing the boom from appropriate instruments out to the forefront, making large-sounding sources sound massive. Moreover, it neatly does so with a sub-frequency microphone that utilizes its well-known reproduction ‘white cone’ low-frequency driver — not just any driver, though… the driver!

Kick Sub-Frequency Kick Drum Microphone Specs

• Type: Moving Coil Dynamic
• Frequency Response: 50Hz-2,000Hz
• Output Impedance: 6.3 Ω
• Pattern: Figure 8
• Element: AV10-MLF 18cm cone
• Connector: Male XLR
• Shell: Birch Ply
• Drum Head: Mesh 10”
• Size: 11.375” W; 11.375” H; 5.5” D (without stand)
• Weight: 3.1kg; 6.8Lbs (without stand) / 4.6kg;10.1 lbs (with stand)

Avantone Pro’s AV-10 MLF low-frequency replacement driver used in its CLA-10 recreation of an iconic studio reference monitoring mainstay — and compatible with the Japanese original — is also at the beating heart of Kick.

It has a single continuous press-formed cone to match that classic sound and allows a much higher level of quality control and consistency during the manufacturing process as well as delivering strong bass reproduction. In Kick’s case, the AV-10 MLF’s distinctive 18cm cone acts as a microphone element. The microphone itself is of a moving coil dynamic type, with a 50Hz to 2kHz frequency response, 6.3 Ω output impedance, and figure-eight pattern, plus a male XLR connector. All are housed in a birch plywood drum shell with a 10-inch mesh drum head.

Having said all that, to then mount Kick on a standard mic stand simply would not do the job justice — which is exactly why Avantone Pro provides a stage- ready, double-braced drum stand. Studio-bound or on the road, the comprehensive Kick package is really ready to deliver!

Pricing and Availability

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Kick is available at Avantone Pro’s US Dealers with a MAP (Minimum Advertised Price) of $349.00 USD. European SSP (Suggested Selling Price) is €399.00 EUR, including VAT, with worldwide Distributors listed by country here.