VDrum Acceptance

[Manos]

Stumbled on some interesting videos of old state of the art Simmons kits. I swear this must still be what most people think of when you mention electronic drums.

http://www.photogrammer.com/sdx/sdx_videos.html

Makes me wonder how the rest of Yes put up with Bill through this phase

[bogiesbad]

Great videos...I'm a fan of Yes for 30+ years. Thanks Man

[srobak]

Ah yeah... the vintage Simmons kits. Genesis brought them along for the Invisible Touch album, and even We Can't Dance. I remember the first couple incarnations not even having rubber playing surfaces, but hard plastic. Absolutely horrible to play on for any extended periods of time... extremely limited dynamics, and a grossly electronic sound Nevermind the fortune that they cost - making the TD-20 kit look cheap by comparison.

HOWEVER... they were also the prioneer. Without them - we would not be where we are today.

Heheh... anyone remember this little gadget? I had one...

[srobak]

Almost forgot about this too - would plug into cheap casio keyboards...

[pchanning]

Ah yeah... the vintage Simmons kits.... I remember the first couple incarnations not even having rubber playing surfaces, but hard plastic. Absolutely horrible to play on for any extended periods of time... extremely limited dynamics, and a grossly electronic sound

The plastic version was my first ekit, some 12 years ago, it was cheap, but still, it was truly awful. Still, it did mean I could play without hassle from the neighbours. I dont think my wrists ever truly recovered hahahaaaaa

[bogiesbad]

Heheh... anyone remember this little gadget? I had one...

My wife bought one of those for $1.00 a few years back...

[drumslinger50]

I love old SDX videos. At one time or another I owned nearly every electronic drums in the early days. I have had some Simmons pads but never a complete set with brain and all. The early Pearl electronics lasted me about 3 months and the same with the Tama's.

Here is a picture of the best of my early kits, put together by my current bandleader who insisted I use electronics back in 1989. It was 2 Roland PD31 (4 trigger triangle shaped pads), 3 DIY 10" tom pads and a "tombstone" DIY bass drum. All of it was powered by an Alesis HR16 drum machine through a Casio DZ-1 midi translater.

One Roland was the snare/rimshot/cowbell and the other was the ride/lg crash/sm crash & tamborine. The HH was an acoutic on a cable extension (built from scratch by Jeff because of a shoulder injury.

[i-drum]

I love old SDX videos. At one time or another I owned nearly every electronic drums in the early days. I have had some Simmons pads but never a complete set with brain and all. The early Pearl electronics lasted me about 3 months and the same with the Tama's.

Here is a picture of the best of my early kits, put together by my current bandleader who insisted I use electronics back in 1989. It was 2 Roland PD31 (4 trigger triangle shaped pads), 3 DIY 10" tom pads and a "tombstone" DIY bass drum. All of it was powered by an Alesis HR16 drum machine through a Casio DZ-1 midi translater.

One Roland was the snare/rimshot/cowbell and the other was the ride/lg crash/sm crash & tamborine. The HH was an acoutic on a cable extension (built from scratch by Jeff because of a shoulder injury.

talk about pioneers, that hi-hat design should win some kind of award.

[V(ader)DRUMMER]

Heheh... anyone remember this little gadget? I had one...

Hey, it's the ol' Synsonics pad! I had one, too. Back in junior high/high school, I added one to my first a-kit. It sat to the left and below my hi-hat. I guess that would have been my first experiment with electronic percussion.

Did you have the foot pedals that went with it? It was a single unit with two small spring-loaded buttons. One button would open and close the hat. The other was for the kick. Pretty fancy, eh?

[cstoliker]

Wonder how much a SDX # 118 system went for brand new? And when was new?

[srobak]

According to Modern Drummer's review in 1988... the basic 10 piece system was as follows:

Standard console
2MB RAM
Bass pad
Snare pad
4x Tom pads
Hi-hat system
3x Cymbal pads
Cabling

MSRP $9990

Console stand is $400
Drum rack is $635
2MB RAM expansion is $900 (can add 6 for a total of 8)

20MB Hard Drive $1750 (yes, that is MEGA Bytes, not Giga. )

Small fortune.

http://www.jymdingler.com/extras/SimmonsSDXReview.pdf

[Rrrob]

haha, and danny carey used the sdx up until relatively recently!

[Colquhoun]

According to Modern Drummer's review in 1988... the basic 10 piece system was as follows:

Standard console
2MB RAM
Bass pad
Snare pad
4x Tom pads
Hi-hat system
3x Cymbal pads
Cabling

MSRP $9990

Console stand is $400
Drum rack is $635
2MB RAM expansion is $900 (can add 6 for a total of 8)

20MB Hard Drive $1750 (yes, that is MEGA Bytes, not Giga. )

Small fortune.


http://www.jymdingler.com/extras/SimmonsSDXReview.pdf

This reminds me of the Macintosh IIfx, from 1990.
40 mhz chip, and 4 mb of ram. Yes, I typed that correctly.
Dubbed "wicked" fast...and at the time, it was.

Price? $9,900.

And people complain about how expensive Macs and Roland Vdrums are NOW!