Models
3 models
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Simmons SDS-V
The hexagonal pads of the 1980s
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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Roland Octapad PAD-8
The 1985 pad controller that named a category
Electronic drums · Japan
The original Octapad was eight rubber pads and a MIDI socket, and it made "octapad" a generic word for a percussion controller. It is still the reason a drummer's auxiliary pad set is called that.
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Roland TD-10
The first V-Drums
Electronic drums · Japan
The TD-10 introduced mesh heads and physical-modelling drum synthesis in 1997, and it is the moment electronic drums stopped being pads that triggered samples and started being instruments a drummer could play dynamically.