The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee - Rob Holinaty

Rob Holinaty’s setup for The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at the Drury Lane Theatre in Burlington, Ontario, Canada.

Rob's write-up and gear list below photos.

Rob:

"Playing The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee has taught me organization and preparation far beyond anything I ever thought would be needed. The show incorporates audience participation, and a specific song in the show relies on an audience member setting up the song. Putting this much power in the hands of an audience member who is unaware of this can be nerve racking.

This is by far the most expensive set up I’ve ever needed for a show. There is a fair amount of mallet percussion (vibraphone, glock, and xylophone) and timpani that occur constantly throughout the show. The orchestration does not always give the performer enough time to switch from acoustic timpani to an acoustic drum kit. That, in addition to space issues, caused me to incorporate a heavily reliance on electronics. In the setup, I run all mallet sounds through Apples MainStage and and all timpani and tabla sounds through the Yamaha DTX Multi-12 Percussion Pad. Incorporating the electronics has saved me a lot of space without sacrificing parts of the score. The incorporation of the Korg microKORG has shown me how valuable skills on a piano are.

The Miller Machine came as a massive relief for this show. There are lots of switches between sticks, brushes, mallets and the triangle beater, and there is often not enough time to make a proper switch. Know I don’t have to sacrifice sounds and I have more time to make proper switches without having to feel rushed."

Drums:

• Pearl 22” VX Vision Bass Drum
• Pearl 16" VX Vision 16” Floor Tom
• Pearl 14” Sensitone Snare Drum

Cymbals:

• Sabian AAX 13” Hi-Hats
• Sabian B8 10” Splash
• Sabian 20” Ride
• Zildjian A 18” Medium Thin Crash

Percussion:

• Pearl Yellow Clave Block
• Sonor Bongos
• Miller Machine with Grover Super-Overtone 6” Triangle
• Rhythm Tech DST Mounted Tambourine
• Guiro

Electronics:

• KORG microKORG Synthesizer
• Yamaha DTX Multi-12 Pad
• Apple 13” MacBook Pro
• Apple Mainstage 3 Software
• iPad Mini as a copy of the “Audience Goodbyes” that stays in a line of sight until all audience members are eliminated.

Sticks:

• Vic Firth Steve Jordan Signature Drum Stick
• Vic Firth SD12 Swizzle General
• Vic Firth 5A Dual-Tone
• Brushes

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee - International - Rob Holinaty
May 2017