Simmons Drum
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Simmons SDS-V, SDS5, (or Simmons Drum Synth[esizer]) was the first viable electronic replacement for acoustic drums. It was developed by Richard James Burgess and Dave Simmons and manufactured initially by Musicaid in Hatfield, UK. After Musicaid went bankrupt, Simmons set up a new manufacturing company under his name. Burgess pioneered the use of the SDS-V triggering the prototype version with a Roland MC-8 Microcomposer in 1979 to make Landscape's groundbreaking computer-programmed futurist album From the Tearooms of Mars...To the Hellholes of Uranus. Burgess's original concept had been to make a machine which could be played by a drummer as a replacement for acoustic drums. This idea developed from dealing with the problems of audio spill via the microphones on a live stage and was fleshed out via an article he wrote for Sound International Magazine in 1979 called Skin and Syn. He finally recorded the first example of the SDS-V to be played by a drummer in 1981 when he produced the Spandau Ballet hit, Chant #1 featuring John Keeble on the now famous hexagonal pads and the first production SDS-V 'brain.' which immediately became popular with the new wave of 1980s musicians.
The pads were made from extremely hard plastic material that was used in police riot shields. They were robust and could take a serious beating but many drummer's complained of wrist and elbow ache. Subsequent versions of the SDS line introduced rubber pads that were kinder on drummers but many felt that the later revisions of the electronics lacked the character of the original SDSV.
Burgess had been triggering electronics from his acoustic drums both live and in the studio through the seventies but he really wanted a drum synthesiser that would stand alone and would allow adjustment of the individual parameters of the drum sound. For live applications he realised some sort of sound memory would be essential so they came up with the cost-effective idea of four (adjustable) presets for each module which were preloaded so, even without programming experience, something decent could be coaxed out of it.
The standard SDSV was loaded with 5 modules - kick, snare and three toms which looked almost identical with controls for noise level, tone level, bend, decay time, noise tone (a simple filter) and click drum control which added extra attack derived from pad impact. Each module's parameters were optimised for the drum it was designed to emulate. Cymbal and hihat modules were available but not so popular as the drum modules. Outputs and inputs were balanced XLRs for live and studio application.
The futuristic and cameral friendly hexagonal pads were Burgess's idea based on the idea of interlocking shapes and inspired by a honeycomb. Many other prototype shapes were tested including batwings and triangles and there were a very limited number of production kits made that were known as the Rushmore headkits that featured fiberglass faces as the body/shell of the 'drum.'
The subsequent SDS7 was an analogue/digital hybrid that included sampled sounds on a EEPROM chip. Users could 'blow' their own chips by purchasing an EEPROM blower. The SDS7 was too expensive for most drummers. In an attempt to capture a larger market, Simmons released the simpler and cheaper SDS8 which was then superseded by the SDS800, an expandable system with 2 and 4 expander tom modules. There were several subsequent Simmons drums and a sequencer (the SDS6) most of which were very expensive and none managed to captured the qualities of the original SDSV. Simmons went out of business in 1993.
For devotees of the sound, the legend of the original Simmons SDSV lives on. It figured prominently in the sound of the '80s and to this day the theme to Eastenders, the UK's leading soap opera, kicks off with SDSV tom fills.
