Nord Drum 2 Electronic Drum Module Overview
Debuting in the Spring of 2013, the Nord Drum 2 added some interesting improvements to the already popular Nord Drum Electronic Drum Module. A little over a year after its release and a lot of people are still singing its praises. We can barely hold on to them when they come in because so many people love this little Modeling Percussion Synthesizer. The inspiration for the Nord Drum 2 was a box that could mimic some of the drum machines of the past into a single unit. There was also a motivation to get away from samples and explore the sounds of synthesized drums. Other products that have hit the market in the past 2 years signal a growing interest in synthesized drums over samples. The Nord Drum 2 eliminates the tiring task of endless sample hunting and replaces it with intuitive control to create unique and inspiring drum sounds. It's a great device for acoustic drummers with an easy solution to take control of their tone on stage and in the studio. For all of these reasons and more, we decided to take a closer look at the Nord Drum 2. For those of you in the market for a great drum machine, you should defienetly get intimate with the Nord Drum 2.
The I/O
There are some upgrades in terms of I/O from the original Nord Drum. The Nord Drum only had 4 inputs for you to assign your triggers to. Now with the Nord Drum 2 you have the ability to connect 6 drum pads. The Nord Pad is great for this, but you are not limited to the Nord branded drum triggers. I have seen plenty of videos of folks using Roland, Yamaha, and Alesis drum pads to trigger the sounds in the Nord Drum 2. But if you do want to connect the Nord Pad there is an ethernet style connection called the RJ45 port. This port is designed specifically for integrating the Nord Pad with your Nord Drum 2. Nord have added stereo output so you are no longer limited to mono like on the original Nord Drum. There is also a 1/8" headphone out for you to monitor the sounds. The back of the unit houses your MIDI in and out ports so you can have your MIDI controller trigger sounds. You can get the Nord Drum 2 sequenced with your other gear or use your DAW's MIDI sequencer and have the Nord Drum 2 as the host for all of your drum sounds.
Features
The appeal for me of the Nord Drum 2 is a single knob for controlling all of your sound design. The switches designate which tone control function you want to manipulate, but having a single knob for this makes the Nord Drum 2 easy and intuitive. This is great for the drummer that wants to add more tonal control over their sound, but with incredible ease. Let the dumb drummer jokes begin. What do you call a 3 piece band? There are three different tone sections including noise, oscillators, and click. Noise is exactly what it sounds like and ranges from a gritty attack to a wispy tone wash. You can change the noise with Low-Pass, High-Pass or Band-Pass filters with Cut-Off and Resonance controls. You can do things like add an attack envelope to the noise to get a shaker sound. You also have control for resonance and decay. The Click section provides you with short attack sounds as well as level control. The real power of the Nord Drum 2 is in the synthesis section where you have Resonant, Subtractive, and Frequency Modulation (FM) synthesis modes. Resonant synthesis contains sounds like drum heads, marimba, vibraphone, or cymbals. Subtractive synthesis should be familiar to folks who have some synthesizer experience. You have the basic Sine, Saw, Square and Pulse waveforms which are great for achieving some classic drum machine sounds. Frequency Modulation synthesis has 6 different FM algorithms where Timbre controls modulation amount and Spectra controls modulation frequency. Each of the input channels have their own set of FX including Distortion, EQ and Repeat. Distortion mode has a crunchy overdrive and a crush effect which changes the sample rate. The EQ effect will seem familiar with the ability to modulate the frequencies of your sound. The Repeat effect acts similar to a delay but the great thing is that you can add this effect to each channel independently. The harmonic spectras on the Norm Drum 2 have dynamic control. This means that the velocity with which you strike either the Nord Pad or your preferred drum triggers will effect things like the decay making it a dynamic decay. When using the Subtractive synthesis mode, the Timbre and Timbre Dyn controls a Low-Pass filter and the Hi Decay parameter becomes a Filter Sweep control. The Punch parameter lets you add more attack to the Tone by making the pitch perform a pitch or volume envelope. Bend parameter is a velocity sensitive pitch envelope and like the Punch parameter it can be used both to create attack-like effects but also bending sounds. Word can't really do the Nord Drum 2 justice so you should definitely get your fill of sound demos by going to the Nord website here.
Nord Beat iPad App
It's not necessary to use the Nord Beat app, but it sure is useful. You have the ability to sync this with your iPad from an app called Nord Beat. The app has a step sequencer with 16 steps and up to 8 different patterns. The app is pretty stacked but as you can see from the picture, it's rather easy to understand and navigate. You can change the velocity of each step and those are represented by the different shades of color. Three special step modifiers are available, letting you add a Flam, 32th note or 32th triplet to any of the steps of the sequencer. The iPad can also be put into pad mode so you can tap out rhythms with your fingers. While the app is not necessary to take advantage of the Nord Drum 2, it provides a level of control that you could only get from a step sequencer.
The Verdict
The Nord Drum 2 has all the potential for deep drum synthesis control in the studio, but it's also one of the most useful tools for acoustic drummers to add more sound elements to their rig. The appeal of the Nord Drum 2 is its ease of use. Everything is on the front panel control and there is very little menu diving to get this module operating at its full potential. I liked how you could assign different effects to each channel to have creative and original sounds every time you turn the Nord Drum 2 on. So whether you are looking for a device to give you more dynamic and original drum sounds, or your a drummer looking to finally integrate some electronic elements into your drum rig, the Nord Drum 2 has everything you need in one small durable box to achieve your goals. So if you have any questions about the Nord Drum 2 be sure to leave them in the comments section below and we will be happy to answer them. If you are looking to pick up a Nord Drum 2 for yourself, there is no better place to go than UniqueSquared.com. SLAM!!