Nord drum as A4 expander

Elektron Gear Analog Keys/Four
#1

I just ordered a Nord Drum 1 as an impulse buy and I’m thinking it should work quite well as 4 voice drum expander for my A4. My CV brain is pretty limited but I’m thinking that I can set the 4 CV out’s to gate or trig and then plug them direct in to the 4 trigger input’s on the Nord drum and sequence it from the A4 while running the signal back in through the A4 effects. I’ll plan to use the CV, Effects, and tracks 3 & 4 as sources leaving me with 2 synth tracks and plenty of flexibility.

Even though the single mono out kind of sucks on the ND, it was kind of a no brainer for how cheap it was. Needless to say, I’m pretty excited for the possibilities. With sounds locks and Daren’s Drum-A I’m envisioning my own 8-Voice/poor man’s Rytm.

Anyone else use this combo?

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Analog Four CV
#2

could be nice!

you probably can do some pretty good rolls etc. when using the LFOs in trig mode, modulating/locking depth and all that?

#3

Yes, sort of.
I used the OT with ND1.
The OT was sending MIDI notes to ND1, ND1 sending audio into OT, somtimes live sampled, sometimes not.
I used this setup for playing live, using the ND1 as backing drums.
It worked quite well as the ND1 is small and easy to carry along, it also cuts well through a mix.
The big drawback for me was that you can’t control any CCs on the ND1 externally, which seriously limits live tweaking. I currently prefer the Volca Beats.

#4

Good idea void! I’m definitely thinking it will be a nice live combo.

I’ve also got the beats and the output was a little weak when trying to go back through the a4 when I last tried to use it live. Also, I have had trouble with sync because it doesn’t seem to take start/stop message from the A4 (I’m probably missing something there). The octatrack seems like a much better midi companion for the beats though.

#5

Hi, sorry to bumb an older thread.

How did this work out - were you able to let the A4 and the Nord Drum 1 work together? I’m interested in this combination and would love to learn how this can be set up.

#6

I am also interested to know how the A4 and ND1 get along. Anyone?

#7

Well I got myself the ND1 for A4 voice expansion.
Absolutely loving it, and you can’t beat the used prices right now.

ND1 is such a low cost, great sounding extension to A4. It’s a no brainer if you’re not using the CV track for anything and doing any kind of drums on your A4. Go get one! Two just sold on eBay for about $175 ea this week.

At first I thought I was going to use the FX track for sequencing 1 or 2 of ND1’s voices, but as it turns out you can sequence all 4 sounds on the CV track alone, and still get full polyphony. It’s not like sound locks. You can have all 4 voices going on every step. It’s not as difficult as I thought it would be, to decipher and edit the patterns, using just the single CV track that’s full of trigs. Turns out P-locking the source for each CV out on each step turned isn’t that time consuming at all.

So i’m dedicating the FX track for p-locked pans and FX sends on the External Input (ND1) and some live fills of drums that have their CV source set to FX.

Also, I’m not minding the ND1 being mono, at all. I can p-lock pan on hats and the FX give it a good enough stereo sound. Plus most cheap FX pedals are mono anyway. The cost of expanding it sonically is very low. Considering the Zoom MS-60B as it can chain 4 FX. I imagine limiter, filter, and some modulations will really take it over the top.

Really, the main limitation of ND1 over ND2 that I’ll bump into is the 99 programs (vs 400), as I prefer to use A4’s midi program change. Sadly, the limitation is on both sides of the fence. A4 sends an automatic program # (that cannot be changed) corresponding to the pattern & bank (A04 = program 4, B01 = program 17, etc.)
So I guess I’ll only get the first 6 of 8 banks in the A4 to send program change. After that I’ll have to manually change ND1 programs.
If this is the main limitation I have to deal with, then who am I to complain? I’ll have to reuse some programs and make a little laminated cheat sheet to help out with manually assigning them at the gigs.

And I love the sound! ND1 doesn’t disappoint. ND2 is surely amazing as well. I’ll look to add an ND2 to my MonoMachine’s midi sequencer next year.

In summary, ND1 is still a great solution, especially for expanding your A4.

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