Sensory Percussion has always been a powerful live performance tool, but with the new and improved features of Sensory Percussion 2, even more artists than ever are taking the musical ideas they build at home with them up on stage. In this post, we're spotlighting four working drummers from around the world who use Sensory Percussion 2 to expand their sonic palette on stage. We asked them each to tell us a little bit about the role Sensory Percussion plays in their live setup.

Featured musicians: Gerald Law II, Shawn Crowder, Jonathan Szegedi, and Brett Reed

"Sensory Percussion has become an integral tool for the types of projects I'm blessed to participate in. When leading my own band, it offers a wide range of effects and percussive layers that compliment my acoustic kit. In environments like the STROKESTRA, I am able to add atmospheric layers alongside percussive instruments, and bring melodic elements to interact with strings, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments in improvisational settings with the other participants.”

Gerald’s Gear:

• 4 Sensory Percussion sensors
• EVANS Portal interface
• Reverie Little Drum kit (18” kick, 14” snare, 12” rack tom, 14” floor tom)
• EVANS dBZero mesh heads
• Macbook Pro
• ProMark sticks

"I've been using traditional drum triggers with Sungazer for years, which are not nearly as expressive and don't catch nuances. The sensors, on the other hand, are opening up a whole world of possibilities. My experience on the road is that the system is very stable and robust; no crashes or issues like that. The sensors are super accurate and training was super quick and easy when I had to change heads. When I first tried Sensory Percussion 2, I was blown away. It was musical creative joy, and it's a really exciting time to be a drummer!"

Shawn Crowder’s Gear:

• 2 Sensory Percussion sensors
• EVANS Portal interface
• Pearl MCX (Maple): 20” kick, 10” / 12” / 14” toms, 14” matching snare
• EVANS Drumheads (UV2/HD Dry/EMAD2 acoustic + Db Zero mesh)
• Meinl Cymbals
• SPD-SX Pro
• Ableton Live 11

“I've never done much hybrid work on the drums before, but taking on this opera production was the final push I needed to engage with it properly. The provided documentation along with the video tutorials are thorough and make for a smooth experience getting to know everything. Both hardware and software are really solid and running the VST version inside of Ableton. I’ve got all the possibilities I need to properly mangle my sounds. While the presets that come with the plugin are really good, I use SP mostly with external sample libraries of vintage drum machines. The possibility to intuitively map sensor data like velocity and timbre to effect parameters makes for a really performative experience.”

Jonathan’s Gear:

• 4 Sensory Percussion sensors
• EVANS Portal interface
• Roland SPD SX (only as a MIDI controller)
• '86 Sonor Phonic kit
• '74 Sonor Phonic snare
• Evans dB Zero mesh heads
• Razer Blade 2021 Laptop running Win 11

“I'm using Sensory Percussion for all the drum tones, to load and trigger samples on rims and less-used zones, and to pass MIDI data to Mainstage for set list management for an elaborate tribute to the music of the prime years of MTV.

Alongside a variety of Sensory sets, I was able to build my own sets (35 total for this show) using samples from many of the drum machines used on the original recordings. The Sensory environment supported my goal of being authentic to the signature sounds of these great tunes at a level of detail that an acoustic kit can't reproduce in the span of a two-hour show.

A favorite: playing a detuned gated kick and snare while also triggering an 8-bar loop of vinyl surface noise for V3 of ‘Walk this Way’. Love this tool!”

Brett Reed’s Gear:

• 4 Sensory Percussion sensors
• EVANS Portal interface
• Ludwig Vintage-ish Maple Kit - 14” Snare, 12/16” Toms, 20” Kick
• Zildjian K 13" Hats and 20" Ride
• Dream Cymbals 18" and 20" Dark Matter Crashes
• Evans DB Zero Heads
• Alesis Samplepad 4
• Meinl Hybrid 8A Maple
• Alesis SR-18 Drum Machine
• M2 Macbook Air
• Mainstage software