Welcome

In 1993 I founded a company called Marcel Digital Sound Systems, which I later renamed Marcel Electronic Percussion. For 15 years I developed, manufatured and sold electronic percussion products through shops in the Netherlands and through internet.

Back in 1993 there was little choice for those that wanted to buy an electronic kit for a limited budget. Electronic drumkits cost more than acoustic drumkits. In the 90's the leaders of the industry Roland and Yamaha launched expensive drumkits of thousands of dollars and were exclusively aiming at professionals and studio's.

In those years I made it possible for customers to buy a good quality electronic drumkit for less than 500 US dollars. I sold a Marcel drumkit (direct or through a shop) and the customer bought a drum module of an existing brand in a shop.

In the last decade of the past millennium I have shown my products on many music fairs in Utrecht and Rotterdam. During these occasions and after each of those fairs, I got a lot of attention, from both customers and media. The products did not only stand out because of their coloring and their materials, the fact that prices were lower than those of competitive products of bigger brands was a major selling point.

Later on, Roland and Yamaha started selling lower priced electronic kits. Despite of the better playing surfaces (softer) and the innovative character of my products (you could choose different colored pads but also different playing surfaces) sales went down a bit every year.

Without regrets I have decided to stop production and sales of my products (pads, racks, accessories) in 2008. Having started with idealistic goals, I believe I have succeeded in my mission to make electronic percussion affordable and I am proud of the products that I have designed, manufactured and sold.

I am considering whether to start developing software especially for drummers/percussionists (see page Software). In the meantime, I have refreshed my website and I hope to encourage people to build their own pads and benefit from the expertise and experience I gained in the past 15 years.

Have fun building and playing!
 
Marcel de Natris
marcel.ep@building.nl