Nord User Forum

Just curious about how people use their Nord Drum 1/2,

I'll start with my 'live' setup: I'm mixing acoustic drums and synthetic drum sounds, I really like the combination, and it works well, at least in the rehearsal studio,...

Acoustic: I only use my cymbals and snaredrum - nothing beats a real snaredrum!
Pads: Simple rubber Yamaha TP65 pads and KP65 kick pad
Acoustic triggers: I tried a ddrum pro kick trigger, it works fine with the ND1, no issues whatsoever! However, I think I prefer either acoustic (bass)drum, or pure synthetic sound, so I'm not using triggers now
Brains/sound units (other than ND): none, perhaps in future my SPD-S / MPC samplers with my own samples

I think I'm one of the few who prefers rubber pads, I find both rubber and mesh play 'unnatural', rubber are much cheaper. OK, the Roland 'supernatural' units with position sensing etc., give a very natural response, but ND isn't a TD30. Perhaps a downside of combining acoustic drums with (rubber) pads is the acoustic noise the pads make when you hit them. I find all types of pads noisy in one way or the other. In ambient 'live' band recordings I don't hear my pads, I wonder what overhead mics will pick up. Perhaps I'll have to do some clever mic positioning.. For the time being I'll stick with my synthetic rubber pads to make purely synthetic sounds, combined with 100% acoustic drums

Amplification:
At home I'm fine with studio monitors, headphones, but in rehearsal studio I use whatever vocal amp/pa is there, which doesn't always sound ok. The next step for me is to invest in some proper amplification. I bet we could start a whole new thread about amplification, well there is a sub-forum here; 'accessories and amplification' I will check that..
One thing I found out is that because I combine acoustic and electronic sounds, the speakers should be positioned near the kit, it feels totally weird when half of the drum sounds are coming from the other end of the room..

So that is my 'live' setup covered I think, so what's yours?

Cheers,
Albert

Hi,

Nice idea for a post! Let's hear about different ND-setups. Maybe post picture(s) too?

Personally I am not a drummer in our group but anyway we are just building our electro-acoustic drum set. At the moment we have Jobecky e-drum set with bd, srn, hi-hat and floor tom and 2box drum brain. Also we have Roland SPD-s. We are waiting for ND2 + pad6 to arrive tomorrov. Also the all the acoustic drum components. These are the building blocks for our modern drum set(s) for different purposes and gigs. Let's see what it will finaly be. As said earlier, there's no real substitute for an acoustic snare. In the long run I think at least this acoustic component will stay in our setup. Anyway our music is quite much comtemporary top 40 covers and in this music needs electric sounds, you know.

Thanks JP, nice input!
Nice! I like the Drumit5! Yeah, my setup is under constant change and experimentation as well..

Yeah, it's cool to hear what are people are doing;
- genre/type of music
- if/how you use the ND live as drumbrain / In studio as sound module /...
- ND combined with Acoustic / Sampled sounds /...
- Rubber pads/Mesh/Triggers
- Type of amplification..
- ...

Perhaps I spent too many words on the pads.. but the choice of pads in my case might not work with my aim of combining acoustic with synthetic sounds in recordings..
a work in progress..

So, well, looking forward to learn about your setups & ideas & Pictures!

Albert

I use my Nord Drum/s as sound modules mainly, sequenced from various units. Also I love the synthesis options and like to explore the sounds and make sample patches, since the pitch numbers match midi no.s I can make a sound at any pitch for sampling.
I just really love the character of the Nord Drums, so quick and easy to edit.
I have the alesis Percpad mainly for fun and tactile expression since the engines are so sensitive.

Getting the Nord Pad for the same reason, fun and looks damn fine too. The Nord Drum 2 will be minimal techno in a box for sure...