Re: finger-style drum pad recommendations

[Scott]

I’ve used a Korg Padkontrol for awhile and it worked ok. I liked the X-Y pad for rolls and such. It worked great for simple finger drumming. The pads were quite sensitive and picked up ghost notes pretty well. I did have difficulty playing the same pad for quick rolls and having it trigger the sounds consecutively. IOW it would miss quite a few hit if I played the same pad over and over.

I then upgraded to a http://www.zendrum.com/catalog.html#zap. The price was quite a bit more than the Korg but the difference in triggering quality was astounding! This thing picks up extremely light ghost taps and will trigger as many consecutive hits on the same pad as fast as I can throw at it. It’s built like a tank but is quite attractive for a hunk o’ wood.

I later added an Alesis Trigger i/o and an Alternate Mode hi hat pedal. I did this so I could control the hats open/close/chicks with my foot and allows for more articulations on the Zendrum triggers instead of using them for hi hats. I just have 2 triggers for hats on the Zendrum…one for hatsTtrig and one for hatsTipTrig. I’m not a drummer (guitarist by trade) but I can work my way around my Zendrum setup quite nicely and it plays as real as I need.

Scott Sibley - Toontrack
Technical Advisor