GEWA starts shipping long-awaited Drum Workstation G9

GEWA Drums has announced that its much-talked about Drum Workstation G9 will start hitting stores today after it was first unveiled as a concept at Frankfurt Musikmesse three years ago.

The kits, which feature specially designed DW hardware (DWe) and Remo True Rebound mesh heads, are available in three configurations - which we think could be future additions to our best electronic drum sets guide - each built around the GEWA Drum Workstation G9 module.

GEWA Pro C6   

The flagship kit in the range comes with real drum shells, offering 10” and 12” rack toms, plus 12” and 14” floor toms along with a 14” snare drum and 18” bass drum. The Pro C6 also comes with a pair of 14” crash cymbal pads, and 18” ride and 14” hi-hat (two physical pads), while a DWe Double Wing rack holds the kit in place.

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GEWA Pro C5

The Pro C5 comes with the same realistic shells as the C6, but offers a five-piece configuration of 10”, 12”, 14” toms, 14” snare and 18” bass drum. The cymbal pad setup is also the same, however the DWe rack is a simplified 3-sided frame.

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GEWA Studio 5

Unlike the other two configurations, the Studio C5 makes use of shallower tom pads rather than full shells. This time, you get two 10” rack tom pads, a 12” floor tom, a 12” full-shell snare and the same 18” bass drum as the more expensive versions. Once again, the cymbal configuration is 2x 14” crashes, 1x 18” ride and 14” hi-hats. Meanwhile, the stand resembles a more traditional electronic drum kit rack.

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GEWA Drum Workstation G9 Module

At the heart of each configuration is the same G9 module, which, similarly to the Pear MIMIC is built around a minimal control panel and touchscreen. 

Gewa has utilised multi-chip technology to make sure that the module performs quickly and smoothly, with independent processors for the touchscreen, trigger processing and sound generation.

Inside, there’s over 400 instruments, plus compression and EQ for every pad along with a compressor and four-band parametric EQ for each output. GEWA has also included 12 different reverb/ambience types - sampled from Berlin’s Funkhaus Studios -  plus a multi-fx processor with 9 different algorithms. 

These ingredients are arranged into 40 presets with unlimited user preset slots. While a 128gb memory, plus an extra 4gb of flash memory allows for importaing your own multi-zone samples.

Connectivity is also comprehensive, with 14 TRRS trigger inputs, monitor and master stereo outputs, a digital SPDIF output and 8x direct outputs. In addition to regualr 1/4” headphone and aux-inputs, the G9 is equipped with standard 5-pin MIDI, as well as a USB MIDI/audio interface over USB for connecting to a computer. Finally, the G9 also includes Bluetooth and WiFi wireless connectivity, allowing you to connect directly to GEWA Electronics Cloud to expand your module’s sound library.

A statement from GEWA CEO, Hans Peter Messner says, “We are extremely proud to debut the G9 after more than 6 years of development and the first presentation of the 'G9 concept study' in Frankfurt 3 years ago. 

It’s the beginning of a new chapter in GEWA’s more-than 95 years lasting history! I’d like to thank the outstanding drummers in Europe, North-America and Asia who have helped with their unique know-how to put the G9 on a different level. 

Especially I’d like to thank our Chief Development Officer - Mr. Dennis Pelz and his team who have accomplished something unbelievable, especially during the last couple of months. We truly believe that the G9 will change the way drummers interact with a digital drum. It’s a new digital drumming experience”.

The GEWA Drum Workstation G9 is available in Europe from today via Thomann, Drumladen and La Baguetterie from today, with wider retail availability coming shortly.