Nord have listened to the feedback they received and revisited their design with the all new Nord Drum 2.В At first glance the new machine doesnвЂ™t look much different to the old unit, wisely opting to keep its demure size and weight, durable chassis and simple layout. Despite some outward limitations, there was plenty of scope for MIDI integration with control over the editing of MIDI channels as well as MIDI notes (no MIDI CC though) and the trigger control was enhanced by handy input thresholds and sensitivity вЂ“ in other words, good, but not without its flaws. However, it only featured a single mono 1/4вЂќ TRS output and there was no separate headphone output. There were four trigger inputs for integration with any kind of trigger system you cared to choose as well as MIDI I/O. The Nord DrumвЂ™s interface was equally simple with a single knob and a team of satisfyingly high-end Nord buttons to help navigate and edit the sounds, including a simple numerical display to give a visual representation of the currently chosen parameter. The original Nord Drum used three partial sources to create drum sounds, and by mixing the tone, noise and click elements and manipulating them via filters, velocity and pitch, a lot of variety could be teased out. Although these days the Swedish brand is best known for its lead synths and stage pianos, it has its origins in the world of drum and percussion triggers, having developed the industry standard Ddrum triggers in their early days.

It wasnвЂ™t that long ago that Nord released their Simmons-inspired virtual analogue drum synthesizer, the Nord Drum. Rob Lee finds out how the Swedish synthesizer designers Nord have improved on their original Nord Drum unit.

Nord drum step sequencer