Apex Renaissance
We know the Halo is one of those objects many of you use every day—multiple times a day, perhaps. Of course, we want the Halo to be aesthetically pleasing, but more so... our serious work has to do with designing sound.
In 2012, I along with Lino Schraudolph who was visiting at the time, decided to invert the apex to an inpex, that is, to make the center note dented inward instead of outward. It may have been perceived as a cosmetic change but it had mostly to do with sound. I wanted Halo players to make the best possible sound, right out of the box. In my opinion, that's
the
concept of the whole art form. Because, let's state the obvious: Most humans don't like doing things they think they may fail at. So I decided to invert the apex to an inpex so people would not have to change their playing technique to play that note. With all inpex notes, the player could just run over the whole instrument and not change their technique (and I discovered that inverting the apex made it easier to tune rim tones on the extremely thick steel in those days).
But
the Halo has advanced enough that I feel comfortable bringing the apex back! The new apex center note feels familiar, yet it's new at the same time. I feel one can play our new apex with any technique—whether on the dome with a single fingertip or a flat finger on the flat of the diaphragm—and achieve a great sound effortlessly (and it of course further activates the Helmholtz of our Halos).
