As a natural progression from the Kit Music Percussion Computer, Clive Button, designer of MPC's products, has now developed a new drum synthesiser, the DSM, and a set of budget stage pads, which together create a modular system similar to that already marketed by Simmons, among others.

The stage pads themselves are 10" in diameter, 1½" deep, and are covered in a tough, resilient polyvinyl pad. Initial tests on the pads, which were first unveiled at this year's NAMM show in the States, tended towards this type of finish against a rubberised cover to the pads. The rear of each pad contains the MPC logo, and a mini cannon connector.

MPC have aimed towards a five pad drum kit as the basis of the system, but it is quite easy to start with just one pad and the power supply/DSM - as we shall see.

The stands for the system have been specially designed to reduce triggering of adjacent drums through stand vibration, with large individual legs for each stand and a system of reversed hooks that allow the pads to be set in any desired position.

For the purposes of this review, we will look at the integrated five-drum kit that was demonstrated. All the pads are the same, and each can be used for any purpose, be it snare, toms or bass-tom. It is the synth modules themselves that dictate the overall sound of each pad.

Using just two stands, the five-drum kit is formed with the snare pad mounted onto the side of one stand, below a pair of tom pads, while the second stand contains the bass-tom pad. The bass-drum pad is freestanding, and MPC do not supply the bass-drum beater. It's compatible with all popular makes, however.

The stands have simple butterfly lugs that hold the pads against the reverse hooks, and while the system looks a little slight in construction, a period of hard playing on the pads showed that they are quite capable of taking some extreme blows both on rim and pad.

Power Supply/Controller Module

This is an essential part of the system, since it powers the rest of the DSMs (Drum Synth Modules). The power supply is accompanied by a single DSM module, an ergonomic design that not only saves valuable space, but also allows the drummer to start off with just one pad and one Power Supply/DSM unit.

The front of this module has the power supply section on the left, with an illuminated rocker switch for on/off, and a blank set of the controls on the system in graphic form. This allows the user to set up the system to the required sounds and then to place his own favourite patches onto the graphic display with, say, a chinagraph pencil. This makes setting up and remembering patches a lot easier.

On the right is a single DSM (the other units have two DSMs). Controls are: Input Sensitivity (which controls the level of 'triggering'), Decay (dictating the length of decay on the sound), and then an integrated system that starts with Bend control (to change the attack and 'roundness' of the sound), and Pitch, followed by a Mix control. On the right of the mix control is the Click, which allows for variation of the 'noise' level of the pad.

What this means in reality is that the click factor of the sound, which is the percussive or 'stick' element regardless of pitch, can be integrated with as much Bend and Pitch as is required to give the sound you want. Really, this forms the minimum number of controls for the level of creativity that is required - and it gives the maximum control and variation of the sound for the minimum of control units. On the far right of the module is a Level control, which governs the overall output of the module.

Drum Synthesiser Module

Each of the DSMs contain two controllers. So while the power supply has capacity for only one pad, each of the DSMs can control two stage pads.

Basically, they are the same as outlined above in the controls that they offer, the only difference between the two rack mounting units being the outputs on the rear. These are an Output Jack, which can either be used to feed straight into one channel of a mixer or into the master module where a single output is available for all the pads; an Accent Adj. control, which allows for the pad being controlled by that DSM to be accented against the other drums via an external controller; and the Trigger In jack governs the external triggers (any signal can be placed through this, from, for example, the MPC). The Pad In jack takes the trigger from the stage pad itself, while a power supply on a 5-pin DIN plug feeds from the master module to power one dual DSM.

Operation

Once all the pads have been positioned correctly, they are then fed into one of the modules. Typically, the single DSM on the master would be used for the snare, while the hi tom and lo tom are fed into one DSM Module, and the bass-tom and bass-drum would be fed into another DSM.

We're using the terms hi tom etc. to distinguish between the positioning of the pads, not the sounds themselves. As we shall see, you can have a cowbell sound from the 'snare' position drum, or a synthesised bass-drum from the 'hi tom' positioned pad.

When each pad has been linked up the corresponding DSM can be marked with a chinagraph pencil, or in a static system, Letraset could be used to differentiate between the pads. Setting up the sounds can then begin.

In practice, developing sounds using the DSM controls is simple and efficient. It is easy to get the 'traditional' sounds of real drums, and these can then be built-on using the Bend, Pitch and Click controls to create an almost endless variety of sounds. As I've already mentioned, a cowbell sound is one simple patch (taking the Pitch right up, Click on around half and the Bend on minimum), and onto that you could add a little more Click and Bend and end up with a 'cracked' cowbell!

The 'Bend' sounds give an alternative to the usual rounded attack characteristics of the pad's sounds, and they can also be used to 'synthesise' the sounds; the usual range of synth drum noises can be created quite easily. All in all, a cleverly designed and simple system...

Potential

Since any of the proprietary drum pickups can be used to trigger the DSMs (such as the Tubby Drum or the C-Ducer), a standard miked-up signal can bed fed from acoustic drums to a mixer which has the facility to be switched on or off via a footswitch. The pickups are fed into the DSMs and their output can then be switched on or off via the 'Mute' footswitch. Therefore a standard drum-kit can create the usual acoustic drum sounds, or this sound can be switched off and the synth sounds used via the DSMs, or (and this is where things start to get exciting/confusing) any combination of the two sounds can be mixed together.

Of course, most drummers will plump for using either the stage pads alone or using them in conjunction with a standard kit. But the beauty of the system is that it is modular - and it is also very cheap.

Another possibility is that of using the Music Percussion Computer in conjunction with either the stage pads (which will trigger the MPC) or with the DSMs. It should in theory be possible to connect the stage pads to the DSMs via the MPC. Hopefully, we will be able to take an in-depth look at the consequences of such a system in a future E&MM.

Conclusion

The 'feel' of the stage pads themselves came as a surprise. They have a level of 'bounceback' that gives them one of the most important characteristics of playing real skins. Their robustness is unquestionable - given an extra heavy hand, you are more likely to put your eye out than do the pad in!

The controllers themselves show a very creditable amount of research into compactness, ease of operation, and versatility. Both the stage pads and the DSMs should certainly find a ready market among innovative drummers of all styles.

The complete five-pad system, ie. four pads, with stands and bass-drum, plus two DSMs, one Master Module and all leads etc. costs £799.00. The pads alone come to £299.00 (inc. leads and stands.)

DSM with Master Power Supply is £129.00, while the DSM modules are £189.00.

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