Elka Drummer One SUPER ULTRA RARE VINTAGE Analog Drum Machine

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via this auction

Video at the auction and previously posted here.

"This unit has 16 preset rhythms and 9 individual drum sounds that all have volume knobs on the front of the unit.

Just as an FYI, when I was testing the circuits, I also casually checked out the "Solo Rhythmer" plug on the rear of the unit. My best guess, considering the vintage of this unit, is that it was used to interface with an Elka organ and provide some sort of gating/arpeggio CV-type functions to the organ. When I made connections to different points with a volt meter, I found the following functions which could be accessed if you were willing to hack into the unit and put 1/8" ins and outs instead of the very odd connector that it uses-

· trigger outputs (kick for sure, perhaps snare)

· different drum patterns (making one connection for example would trigger the snare to play more often within a given pattern- seemed like a "fill" function of some sort)

· clock outputs (one of them was 1 ppqn if I remember correctly)

· something that shorted the audio, which I would guess might be individual outs for the drum machine

· there could have been trigger inputs, but I wasn't very thorough with my testing of this function as it's not a main feature of this unit

DISCLAIMER- I make no claims that the 5 previous features will work for you, as they might not work exactly as described (after all, I don't have the service manual to tell me what they do, so I'm just poking around and guessing)

The flaws for this unit-

1. somebody painted it black at some point, but not very well. it's a very glossy black as you can see in the pictures
2. the top lamp is not working (but the bottom light is working)
3. the "short cymbal" sound is not working (although I can hear it very faintly in the ouptut)
4. the faceplate is in good, but not perfect condition- see pictures for details

The original unit had a wood finish, but this specific unit has been painted a glossy black at some point. The paint job wasn’t done very well (please see the pictures that show the quality of the paint job), but it does look pretty nice from a distance. It's nothing that a good paint-stripping and varnishing job couldn't take care of to let the original, beautiful wood shine through.

This drum machine was used on the Kraftwerk records ”Kling Klang” and “Tanz Musik”, as well as by many German Kosmische/Krautrock bands such as- Cluster, Roedelius, Tangerine Dream, and Popul Vuh."