ATV corporation

Electronic drums traditionally have had a dynamic range that can "max out" relatively easily. While this characteristic allows anyone to perform with a consistent sound, this long-standing e-drum flaw has made it difficult to obtain the natural and varied sound of acoustic drums. During development, correcting this flaw was a priority. The aD5 features a dedicated drum sound engine, newly developed to express the full dynamic range—from subtle pianissimo (ppp) to powerful fortissimo (fff). The audio source material was captured with this full dynamic range, and the sound design process exploits it, allowing the sound engine to accurately reproduce a drummer's hits. Even when you play a roll, the sound engine allows the roll to flow in a natural-sounding way—mechanical repetitions are a thing of the past.

"Sampling," which records not music, but audio source material, requires even more precision and accuracy than conventional recording. Vintage instruments that are in good condition and have been tuned to draw out their innate charm, players who are intimately familiar with the instruments, the finest studios with the ideal equipment, and proprietary sampling technology and know-how are all required to capture the perfect sounds. Under these ideal conditions, we record all audio material with stereo, at high resolution sample and bit rates, capturing not only every detail of an instrument's true resonance and character, but its sense of "air" as well. We put these ultra-high-quality instrument sounds into the aD5 without using any compression, applying only the bare minimum of processing, ensuring that the original sound will be unimpaired. The finely-aged sound of a vintage cymbal, a snare drum that lets you hear the resonant character of its shell material, a well-rounded tom with ample decay, a spatial sense and room sound that can be heard even on a bass drum, and a powerful sensation of attack when hitting hard are all aspects of a "raw" sound that is unattainable by e-drum modules that rely solely on monaural audio sources plus reverb.

The ATV sound store provides an attractive selection of newly released instruments. Explanations and sample performances by pro drummers let you experience the character and expressive power of each instrument. The thumbnail photos are of the actual instruments that were sampled. You can enjoy taking your time selecting additional instruments.
When you find an instrument that you like, you can purchase and download it immediately. It can then be imported into the aD5 and played right away. You can easily play with a fresh drum sound simply by adding new instruments.

Because the sound of the aD5 is free from any unnecessary processing, it's also an ideal starting place from which to apply processing such as EQ or compression in your own DAW software. Using the same methods used on drums that were recorded with mics in a studio, you can shape and process each track individually. In addition, the aD5 is immune to problems such as the kick and snare bleeding into the overhead mics; you can completely control the volume of each instrument without affecting the rest of the sound. When using the aD5 to record your drum tracks, you'll be able to concentrate on the performance and the mix more than ever!

The aDrums artist series of drum/cymbal interfaces was developed in order to allow stress-free playing of the aD5 with its wide dynamic range. Snare drums and toms feature multiple sensors to eliminate inconsistent sensitivity and hotspots. Cymbals likewise feature multiple sensors, allowing you to perform using their entire surface. The hi-hat utilizes a non-contact sensor for dramatically better tracking. All of them deliver response and playability that are clearly superior to any previous electronic drum. In addition, we've designed the appearance and size to be equivalent to acoustic drums in order to optimize each instrument's sense of distance and strike sensitivity; this not only improves the playing feel but also allows the ultimate performing experience in which visuals and sound are perfectly unified.

To take full advantage of the aD5's wide dynamic range, it's very important to make fine adjustments for each pad. The depth of a rim shot, the strike location on a ride cymbal, and the angle of a crash cymbal are all things that contribute to the subtle differences of each drummer's playing style. These subtlties must be accurately detected by the pad’s signal. The aD5 has Trigger Setup Wizard software that learns the nuance of a drummer's playing technique, including dynamic range. You can complete the wizard simply by striking each pad as directed on the display. There's no longer any need to adjust sometimes incomprehensible trigger parameters.

Have you had the experience of striking a tom and hearing a cymbal sound as well? This is classic crosstalk. Crosstalk is an age-old problem for electronic drums. It's caused when the vibrations of a strike reach a different pad (sympathetic vibrations) and cause it to sound quietly in the background. On the aD5, you can fine-tune crosstalk cancellation settings by simply striking a pad as directed on the display by the Crosstalk Cancel Wizard.

In addition, the aD5 supports all the good-performing pads and drum triggers of the major manufacturers. You can use the kick, snare, hi-hat, cymbal, and percussion pads that you prefer. Of course, you can also continue using the pads that you already have. Although drum triggers are typically hard to set up, the aD5 provides stable trigger performance, using adjustment parameters that are easy to understand.

If you're already using an electronic drum kit made by a major manufacturer, you can give it a completely new life by simply replacing your drum sound module with the aD5. It's easy to make settings for all pads; just load the "trigger setup file" that's appropriate for your particular drum kit.