Mandala 2.0 is the new version of Synesthesia’s patented high-def drum and synthesizer, co-developed with professional drummer Danny Carey of the progressive rock band Tool. The company announced the new product in October, and will begin shipping in early December.

Mandala Drums also links directly to her Google Group for Mandala Drums, a site where professional and amateur drummers connect with each other, pose and answer questions about using the Mandala and share electronic drumming insights. Mandala website visitors also will find customer support, audio and video snippets of the Mandala in action and the latest updates about professional drummers using Mandalas. Future plans for the site include social networking tools that will allow Mandala enthusiasts to trade homemade presets, drum pad configurations and sound samples.

Vince De Franco, Synesthesia founder and CEO, and inventor of the Mandala.

\"We’ve been working around the clock to get the Mandala 2.0 into the hands of those who’ve been anxiously awaiting its arrival. We’re on track to start shipping December 1. We appreciate all the enthusiasm directed our way after unveiling the new Mandala 2.0. We think it’s a huge leap forward in harnessing technology to enable virtually unlimited potential for creating music.\"

The Mandala 2.0 retails for $349, and is available online at https://mandaladrum.com. Each Mandala is hand-crafted and thoroughly tested before it is shipped. Expect two-week delivery. Synesthesia is offering eligible 1.0 customers $50 off any Mandala 2.0 drum they buy before May 31, 2008.

Now a computer peripheral - its USB cable plugs into PC or Mac - the Mandala 2.0 is the only electronic drum that emulates an acoustic drum, as the company claims. It offers drummers and musical explorers the only drum pad that knows exactly where it’s hit and how hard, across seven assignable zones – with an immediate trigger delivering the fastest-traveling sound possible.

The Mandala 2.0 packages a musical ranges wide. The company says it simultaneously offers players the top of the line, most accurate model of a physical drum (via 3,000 professionally created, proprietary samples of the Black Beauty Snare Drum) – along with a library of sounds derived from more than 100 other instruments. In all, the Mandala 2.0 features four gigabytes of sound samples.

The Mandala artist roster include

• Will Calhoun - Living Colour
  
• Pat Mastelotto - King Crimson
  
• Danny Carey - Tool
  
• Matt Chamberlain - Pearl Jam, David Bowie, Peter Gabriel, Tori Amos, Critters Buggin
  
• Steven Nistor - Daniel Lanois
  
• Tom Roady - Lynyrd Skynyrd, James Brown
  
• Laurance \"Lol\" Tolhurst - The Cure, Levinhurst
  
• Aaron Harris - Isis

The new website of Synesthesia\'s Mandala is mandaladrum.com.