My hope for this line of mallets is that it will appeal to a very broad range of players regardless of their school of playing, technique, or geographical location.  These sticks should not necessarily replace what players already have in their stick collections. Rather, it should help them to fill a void by offering a particular sound and design that has not existed until now. While, from a construction perspective, these mallets can be thought of as somewhere between ball mallets and flannel mallets, this is only true from a ‘structural’ standpoint.  The line-up covers a full spectrum, from extremely soft and delicate, to extremely hard and impactful, so it actually is a complete line of mallets in and of itself.

For players who generally use “ball” mallets, this line offers a bit more clarity and pitch than one would get from “cartwheel” mallets, while simultaneously retaining a deep, warm tone and “European” feel. For players who generally use “cartwheel” mallets, this line offers a similar degree of pitch and clarity, but with a more “European” construction and, of course, no seam!

Michael Israelievitch

Insound MI 1 “Like Butter”

“Like Butter” is a popular English expression to signify smoothness.  This is the most lyrical, fluid mallet of the series with very soft felt that can play smooth rolls.

Insound MI 2 “Carts to the Wall”

“Carts to the Wall” is a ‘play-on-words’ based on the famous expression “Balls to the Wall”, which means full intensity.  For example, “That performance of Shostakovich 11 was completely ‘balls to the wall’!”

Insound MI 3 “mit Absicht”

“mit Absicht” is a German expression meaning ‘with intention’ and is a good description for the smaller of our two big/powerful mallets.

Insound MI 4 “Just Make Music”

“Just Make Music” is something my teacher at Juilliard, Roland Kohloff, used to say to students who were over-thinking too much.  It seems like a good description for our ‘general purpose’ mallet of the series.

Insound MI 5 “Schön und Sauber”

“Schön und Sauber” simply means ‘nice and clean’ in German — a good description for our “hard-general” mallet.

Insound MI 6 “On the Brink”

“On the brink” implies very hard, on the edge, almost overboard, but not quite.

Insound MI 7 “wie Holz”

“Extrem” is simply the German word for ‘extreme’ and refers to the hardest mallet in the line.  Alternative names could be “Pedal to the Metal” or “Like-Wood”.