Music Percussion Computer! Early 80's Drumsynth

abstraktor · Post by **abstraktor** » Tue Nov 12, 2013 4:12 pm

I mentioned this in another post, but it was found in the back of a store cupboard at work. Been there for years by the look of it. The foam padding in the flight case (it's built into one) had disintegrated into a nasty black dust, so i wasn't hopeful. Today I took it apart, vacuum'ed the insides, cleaned off old stickers and grease, put it back together and switched it on.
Apart from a few scratchy pots which need cleaned, it works 100%!!
It reminds me of the Vermona DRM, but has only synch in and out for clocking. A real hands on drum synth - not quite an 808 but more punch than a 606 and of course you can tweak lots in real time as it plays.
I'll put up some sounds if anybody's interested. Real old school electro thing - I'm loving it.

iamgoldman · Post by **iamgoldman** » Tue Nov 12, 2013 4:49 pm

wow! that is one nice lookin machine

let's hear it

Soy Sos · Post by **Soy Sos** » Tue Nov 12, 2013 5:02 pm

Yup, really cool looking.
Let's hear it!

authorless · Post by **authorless** » Tue Nov 12, 2013 5:08 pm

Yeah, let's here this thing! Video! I was expecting this to be about the Movement Drum Computer.

noobyscooby · Post by **noobyscooby** » Tue Nov 12, 2013 5:17 pm

Very cool. Expect an email from Sir Ruff...he may still be looking for one.

abstraktor · Post by **abstraktor** » Tue Nov 12, 2013 5:22 pm

Here you go - a very speedily done demo with some live tweaking of the controls. Straight into Logic, no Eq or effects added. I'll put up some better ones when I get more time!

http://soundcloud.com/abstraktors/mpc-test

iamgoldman · Post by **iamgoldman** » Tue Nov 12, 2013 5:52 pm

love the sounds between 2-2.5 minute marks!
nicely done

Liddlepud · Post by **Liddlepud** » Tue Nov 12, 2013 5:53 pm

Lovely machine, always wanted to try one of these.

CF3 · Post by **CF3** » Tue Nov 12, 2013 6:13 pm

Totally had one of these! Probably bought it around 2000 (for like $300). Definitely in the Simmons drums ballpark. Never had a manual tho and couldn't figure out some of the functions (if I remember right there's some sort of crazy old computer hook up). I've long since sold it, but it's a really cool percussion synth.

bergman · Post by **bergman** » Wed Nov 13, 2013 11:09 am

Very cool!
I've been looking for one of these. If you ever decide to sell it let me know!

bergmaneras(at)hotmail.com

Zenn · Post by **Zenn** » Thu Nov 14, 2013 9:30 am

Looks awesome, sounds brilliant to me. Love the hihats (quite 606'ish).

dopefiend · Post by **dopefiend** » Thu Nov 14, 2013 12:26 pm

I remember ads for this gizmo in an issue of Keyboard magazine I bought in mid 1983. Never read of any high-profile acts using it, tho... It was during the time when the Linndrum was rapidly establishing a standard of "realistic" drum sounds, and the only synthetic sounds that could compete were the soon-to-go-stale-as-shit Simmons pfooom pfooom sounds. Lovely sounds, tho..

BTW, does it have trigger in jacks for kick or HH pedals?

abstraktor · Post by **abstraktor** » Fri Nov 15, 2013 12:52 pm

dopefiend wrote:I remember ads for this gizmo in an issue of Keyboard magazine I bought in mid 1983. Never read of any high-profile acts using it, tho... It was during the time when the Linndrum was rapidly establishing a standard of "realistic" drum sounds, and the only synthetic sounds that could compete were the soon-to-go-stale-as-shit Simmons pfooom pfooom sounds. Lovely sounds, tho..

BTW, does it have trigger in jacks for kick or HH pedals?

It has a kick pedal in.

agitprop · Post by **agitprop** » Sat Nov 16, 2013 3:50 am

If I remember correctly, this was advertised as working with my first computer, the Timex-Sinclair 1000. Gave it something like 30 bars of sequencing memory.

abstraktor · Post by **abstraktor** » Sat Nov 16, 2013 10:36 am

Doing further tests today - there are some minor issues - firstly, the clap/cymbal is faulty (possibly the trig in to the circuit, as the piezzos all work)- and the stop button is sending out rogue data (maybe a worn or oxidised keypad issue). Good news is that it synchs fine to an external clock.
The hihats have an amazing variation in sound: tone, tightness and pitch - They can do the Roland sound, but also go towards an almost 8 bit crunch type thing. I'll put up some tweaks soon.

doombient.music · Post by **doombient.music** » Sat Nov 16, 2013 6:20 pm

Where do you work?

IÃ‚Â´d be happy to help out with waste disposal.

Stephen

abstraktor · Post by **abstraktor** » Sat Nov 16, 2013 7:02 pm

doombient.music wrote:Where do you work?

IÃ‚Â´d be happy to help out with waste disposal.

Stephen

No problem - it should be in a bin on Monday afternoon.
Floor 93 - outside room 808, here:

apprenticemart2 · Post by **apprenticemart2** » Thu Dec 05, 2013 10:33 am

dopefiend wrote:Never read of any high-profile acts using it, tho...

ringstone · Post by **ringstone** » Thu Dec 05, 2013 6:06 pm

I have one, lots of issues with it though - the sequencer board died not long after I got it due to battery leakage, dead buttons and pots, issues with triggering from the pads. They are now pretty much impossible to source replacements for.

The computer interface thing is pretty unique, I was planning to try and reverse engineer it before the sequencer died. The inbuilt sequencer was pretty limited anyway.

I did rig up some external triggers to drive it from the modular but the thing is so bloody big it's a bit impractical really. The pad action is pretty awful BTW (when they do work on mine). The voices are nice but nothing that special, pretty much standard Twin-T resonator circuits like most every other old analogue drum machine. The most unique aspects are the hi-hat sounds and the parameter control over the voices, and the dynamic control from the triggers.

If you need them I have some (very rough) schematics somewhere.

Cheers
Blair

MOD WIGGLER

MOD WIGGLER

Music Percussion Computer! Early 80's Drumsynth

Music Percussion Computer! Early 80's Drumsynth