Maker
Simmons
The hexagonal pads that defined a decade
Dave Simmons built the first commercially successful electronic drum kit in Britain at the end of the 1970s, and the hexagonal pads and synthetic tom sound of the SDS-V are inseparable from 1980s production. The original company failed in 1994; the name now appears on budget electronic kits.
Models
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Simmons SDS 1000
Drum machine · United Kingdom
The SDS 1000 put the Simmons voice — pitch-swept toms, that hollow snare — into an affordable module driven by pads or MIDI, and carried the sound past the end of the hexagonal kits.
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Simmons SDS-V
Electronic drums · United Kingdom
The SDS-V put hexagonal playing surfaces and an analogue drum synthesizer in front of drummers in 1981, and its pitch-swept toms are so tied to the decade that using one now is a period reference. The pads were also famously hard on wrists.
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Simmons Titan
Electronic drums
The Titan series is the modern Simmons: mesh heads, a conventional rack, and a module with Bluetooth practice features, sharing nothing with the 1980s designs but the name.
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Simmons SDS-8
Electronic drums · United Kingdom
The SDS-8 brought the hexagonal pad and analogue voicing to a price home studios could reach, and is the Simmons most often found today.
Sources
Categories
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Electronic Drums
Complete electronic kits, the sound modules that drive them, and the standalone pads that sit alongside an acoustic set. Distinct from drum machines, which are sequenced rather than struck.
Representative model
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Simmons SDS-V
Electronic drums · United Kingdom
The SDS-V put hexagonal playing surfaces and an analogue drum synthesizer in front of drummers in 1981, and its pitch-swept toms are so tied to the decade that using one now is a period reference. The pads were also famously hard on wrists.