Simmons SDS 800 | Fully analog drums | THIS is the Tom sound you want!

Published on Feb 8, 2019 Espen Kraft

"Simmons SDS 800 electronic drums from the mid 80s. A budget variation of the more famous SDSV and SDS9, but very capable of making those famous TOMs as well as a 808-like kick and snare. A fully analog drum brain/machine.

Originally the SDS 800 came with the corresponding hexagon drum pads/triggers from SImmons.
The SDS 800 is NOT a drum machine as such and it needs to be triggered to output any sound. There is no MIDI here.
In the absence of original drum pads I've hooked up a couple of DIY piezo electric elements to the two TOM inputs and I play on those with a couple of BIC ballpoint pens, works very well and clearly demonstrates the dynamics you can acheive.

Such piezo electric transducers are dead cheap to buy on Ebay.
The rest of the demo I use the Roland TR-626 to trigger the inputs of the SDS 800 as the 626 has individual outputs that I just route directly into the SDS 800 inputs. Kick - Snare - Tom1 - Tom2."