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 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, for instance an Alesis D4.

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 stood out because of their coloring, their materials and their affordability.

Later on, Roland and Yamaha started selling lower priced electronic kits. Despite of the softer playing surfaces and the innovative character of my products, sales went down a bit every year. Without regrets I decided to stop production 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.

After I stopped making and selling products, I still got regular emails from people asking me tips on how to make drumpads. Since I am an idealist, I love to share my knowledge if that helps people to make their own electronic drumkit.

Obviously I never stopped playing drums myself. When looking at other drumkits, I know my drumkit is a pretty unique drumkit. My drumkit is a 24 piece drumkit, I use 2 drum modules, a small mixer and a netbook with software that I developed myself. With that software, I control the sounds of my drumkit and it also includes a flexible metronome. I can get my drumkit out of my car and up and running in only 5 minutes.