The kit set-up is basically a Tama Starclassic Fusion Kit with 12” piccolo and Gretsch 10” piccolino snare drums and an array of Zildjian and Sabian cymbals.
Snare and Bass drums are fitted with ddrum triggers and in addition there are 2 old faithful Simmons drum hugger pads and a Roland KD7 kick pedal. All triggers are routed to a Drumkat 3.8 which handles the trigger-to-midi processing and provides an additional 10 triggering surfaces, giving a total of 17 possible triggers.
The Drumkat is an absolute beast with more functions and features than I could possibly list. Anyone that’s interested in triggering really should check it out at www.alternatemode.com I’ve been using triggers and electronic percussion for about 16 years and this is the best device I have ever used. They are expensive, but for a very good reason!
The bulk of the midi is routed to an Akai MPC2000, a Waldorf MicroQ sound generator and a Korg keyboard expander. The MPC is used only for its sampler functions and is great creative tool for multi-layering of sounds and cool things like muting.
In Use
Many of the rhythm tracks involve a loop being triggered from the bass drum. The loops are short (often no more than a bar or two) and can be triggered monophonically (restarting with each hit and repositioning themselves within the timeframe of the bar) or polyphonically (layered). Choice of samples and loops can be determined by dynamics or by cycling through sequences of consecutive notes.
Other triggers are used to access vocal samples, pad chords, drum and percussion voices or literally any sound to augment the overall mix.
The acoustic kit is used reactively to create rhythms that fit in and around the electronic sounds and everything is played live in real-time. When the playing stops, the sounds stop!
The fact that the samples and loops are trigger-driven means that a vast array of musical textures may be accessed without using sequencers or backing tracks. In this way, arrangements remain infinitely flexible and parts within them can be improvised.
The result is that every performance evolves into a unique interpretation of each piece.
back to minal p minal biog