Sound Control - new London (UK) edrum store
2003-12-30 by Paul Bentley
eDrummers in London (UK) now have a new drum store to check out as the basement of the big Virgin record store in Oxford Street (London, UK) is now home to the London branch of the Birmingham based music store chain Sound Control. No big deal you might think except it also houses the first of the Roland Planet concept 'store within a store' stands with all the V-drum kits, a Handsonic, amps and Boss effects units, all set-up for hands-on exploration. And further to the back of the store is the Yamaha keyboard stand with a DTXpress II! In terms of marketing Roland have totally eclipsed Yamaha in this new store. You can't miss the Roland display, it's big, all the kits are there, and it's the first thing you see as you walk down the stairs into the basement. When I was there yesterday the V-drums were in constant use, whereas the poor old DTXpress went largely unnoticed and was just ignored. Part of the reason for this was that all over the Yamaha area there were signs saying "Please don't touch" and the set-up of the DTXpress was awful, there were no sticks, and the snare was the same height as the stool! And if that wasn't bad enough the hi-hat had been set up as another bass drum pedal. And frankly the DTXpress just stuck there on its own just couldn't compete with the eye candy of the Roland extravaganza. So on presentation and playability (by this I mean being able to just sit down and play the kit) Roland won hands down, although to be fair there were only two pairs of sticks on offer on their stand too. I hope Yamaha make more of an effort when the DTXpress III is launched next year. When I first heard of the Roland Planet concept back in the summer I understood that the Planet would be staffed by Roland. As far as I could see yesterday there were no staff at all dedicated to any specific area of the store, so while the Planet stand was very busy it was difficult to see how this enthusiasm was being translated into sales. To be fair they are advertising for staff so this situation might improve. Interestingly, there's nothing that I could see about this opening on the Roland UK web site. The question is whether this new store offers anything not already on offer at Footes (in Golden Square). Difficult to say as I have no experience of the existing Sound Control stores so don't know what they are like regarding service, stock and backup, but I would say based on what I experienced yesterday that Footes being a dedicated drum store still has the edge, as you'd be able to swop out pedals etc, but the set-up there is far from perfect too. Where the Planet might win out is if Roland throw the weight of their advertising budget behind it and stage demonstrations - Michael Schack is an awesome demonstrator - although it is difficult to imagine how they'd do demonstrations in the present space unless they clear the old stage area. Oh, and Sound Control do have the advantage of a 0% interest deal available, which might be of interest as the DTXpress III is just around the corner! So, if you're in London and want to get your hands on the latest eDrum gear then Sound Control is well worth checking out, and the bonus is that Footes is only 10 minutes away so you can check them out too. But don't forget your sticks! pb ----------------------- Sound Control (London), 14-16 Oxford Street, London W1B 1AR T_+44 (0207) 631 4200 F_+44 (0207) 361 4050 email: london@... Sound Control web page: <http://www.soundcontrol.co.uk/> Interest free credit details: <http://www.soundcontrol.co.uk/mod_1/pages/mod_1.19/pages/index.php>