Established in the mining town of Witbank, Mpumalanga, South Africa’s most celebrated rock band, Prime Circle, signed its first independent local label in 2002 with their successful debut album “Hello Crazy World” topping the national charts for 28 weeks. To date, they have not disappointed their fans and have grown musically and technically over the past seventeen years. In October, for the second year running, the band hosted the Primefest Music Festival where they performed along with an awesome-line up including The Parlotones, Just Jinjer, Wonderboom and Freshlyground to mention a few.
Dale Schnettler, Prime Circle’s drummer and a professional musician, took ownership of an Audix Microphone drum set, comprising of the D2, D4, D6 and the i5, from local distributor DWR Distribution earlier the year.
“Audix has changed my life as a drummer and a recording engineer as I use the microphones on a daily basis in the studio and for live performances,” said Dale. “For me Audix mics capture the drums as they are supposed to sound. I’ve never come across a microphone like the D6 in recording, and in live, one that makes a kick drum sound as huge as what the D6 delivers. Every now and then I use two on the kick, one in and one out. I also love the D6 on floor tom, for that extra oomph.”
Dale Schnettler, Prime Circle’s drummer
Dale says the D2 and D4 are the best sounding tom mics. “I’ve recorded drums for many years and while I have a collection of microphones, I still tend to use the D-Series for my recordings. The i5 top and bottom snare just give warmth to the sound that I haven’t captured from any other mic – I really love them. My Audix ADX overheads have such a true sound and really capture the cymbals naturally, which is a big, big thing for me.”
Since Dale has taken ownership of the Audix microphones he has used then on many events – in fact he only uses Audix for live performances. “The highlight for me was our Primefest which we host annually to a massive crowd. The microphones are so dynamic and I couldn’t see myself using anything else.”
