I’ve promised these and so fresh for 2013 here they are! Extensive photos of the inner life and workings of a Simmons SDS-V with the MFB SEQ-01 sequencer built in.
But first, a little background.
Simmons electronic drums were developed by Richard James Burgess and Dave Simmons. Burgess’ idea was to make a fully electronic drumset that could be played by a real drummer or a sequencer. He pioneered this idea while working on the first Landscape album From the Tea-Rooms of Mars… To the Hell-Holes of Uranus ( a great soundtrack styled listen BTW ). In 1981 he produced the Spandau Ballet hit, “Chant No. 1 (I Don’t Need This Pressure On)”. It was the first breakthrough hit with a real drummer playing the now famous hexagonal pads and the first production Simmons SDS-V brain.
They offered a Kick drum, Snare drum, Toms, and even High Hats and Cymbal modules although the Cymbal and HH ones are super rare. Seven of any combination could be housed in one brain and triggered via octagonal pad, sequencer, and even acoustic triggers attached to drums. There was even an open/closed HH pedal input to trigger 2 different variations from the HH module. You could program your own sounds via the front panel of each module with full controls for 3 presets on the front and one ‘factory’ set inside that are all adjustable. The Brain did double duty of allowing trigger inputs while offering basic mixing of the internal sounds via a stereo and mono output ( with individual out as well ). These brains quickly became cult like in their status and were used in everything from jazz bands by Bill Bruford to rock groups like Def Leppard ( by the one armed Rick Allen ) and of course funk and dance groups like Prince.
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And i never get bored of this song:
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I had picked up an SDS-V brain with a Kick, Snare, and 3 Tom modules. But there was those two empty slots at the end… hmmmm… Then it occurred to me, What if i turn this Brain into a full DRUM MACHINE!!! Lo an behold, a few Googles later yielded my plan of attack. I could fit a modern modular sequencer into this old brain and make an instrument of the future past! There’s some technical hurdles to surmount in adding a sequencer to the SDS-V brain.
1, The MFB SEQ-01 is designed to work in a modular synth case. the SDS-V case is of equivalent hight but the mounting holes are not lined up. So, more accurately, the MFB fits vertically and horizontally but the mounting holes don’t line up. To avoid damaging the original mounting setup i opted to temporarily put washers over the adjacent screws to hold the sequencer in.
2, The MFB SEQ-01 needs to be routed to the trigger or sequencer inputs on the SDS-V cards. I had a few options here. One was to connect the sequencer outs to the Simmons’ native sequencer inputs. The other was to hook it up to the trigger or pad inputs. I opted to use the trigger inputs ( counter intuitive, i know! ) because this gave me a gain adjustment on the face plate of the brain for each trigger from the sequencer to the drum module. The SDS-V drum modules are very dynamic and it’s useful to be able to hit them with sequencer trigger more or less to taste.
3, Lastly, The MFB SEQ-01 needs to be powered and it runs at a different voltage than the SDS-V. I had MFB modify the Seq-01 to run on 15 volts in the SDS. Then i connected the power from the +/-15 volt rail in the Brain to the power input on the MFB edge connector. Pretty straight forward!
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Photos by J-poo.
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Future plans for the SDS-V:
1, So, there’s one quirk in the Simmons SDS-V design i’d like to point out. The audio outs are wired pin 3 hot. This is the XLR wiring convention used by many old British companies and it’s the opposite of the US convention of pin 2 hot. Reversing this would be great to more easily interface with other equipment.
2, I’d eventually like to disconnect the back panel sequencer jacks from the SDS-V modules and instead wire them to the MFB SEQ-01 outputs. This way the sequencer outs could be used to drive more than just the Simmons modules. there’s actually 12 sequencer slots and the Simmons SDSV can only hold 5 cards with the sequencer installed. Maybe someday!
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References:
Simmons SDSV with MFB SEQ-01
Simmons SDS–V – Wikipedia
Simmons Synth
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Is it possible to still trigger the sounds via the pads at the same time ?
YES, the sequencer outs are just piggybacked onto the pad inputs so it should work simultaneously. i was considering mapping the extra SEQ01 outputs to the sequencer out jacks on the back to drive other analog gear. maybe some day!
you are great ! thanx – i just do the same now 😉
hugs from vienna
[…] garage of our apartment building. It’s exactly like the other one I have written about here before. It had the Kick, Snare, Tom, Tom, Tom cards and an MFB sequencer that i installed in the […]
Great yob! My sds go’s out of tune. Must it have some rewirering to?
out of tune? on all the presets and the manual setting?
My concern is the basedrum on 4×4 trigger thru outputs from Acidlab Miami and try it with the elektron analog four and no diffenance. Its on the manual settings becas its more on the noise then the basedrum pulse. Basedrum whitout noise it works good or much bether! The other sounds is not so much my concern. I have buy a midi2sds and the simmons is now at a technican and looking forewarth to the simmons if the midi is buld in. Then i can tel more. There is not much info on the net about the sds-v, thats wy im asking. But its a great drumbrain, the basedrum is fat and possible to tweak it a lot to yor own taste!
Make sure that your midi to trigger interface is velocity sensitive. The SDS-V modules are very lively and reactive when treated dynamically!
The sounds in the SDSV are my favorite secret weapon layer to add to other machines. It can make the Linndrum sound more electronic and the TR 808 sound even more other worldly than it does.
Great to hear that! Im verry happy whit the sds-v it sounds great! Im curious about to layer the sound what you tel about it. Its now at the technican for service and bult in midi2sds and velocity sensitive to work with ableton and push
I decided to pull my SDSV apart and and give it a good look over before ordering an MFB Seq-03. Lucky I spotted “12v reg” scrawled on the inner case. Checked with a multimeter and mine is +-12V. I don’t know if others might be like this but definitely worth checking first.
i’m nt sure what you mean but keep in mind the seq is +15 so i modded it to be 12 compatible…
Other way around. The seq is +-12 Vand the SDSV is +-15V (as you say above) but my SDSV was changed to +-12 for some reason. It still says +/-15 on the cards. I’m just warning that there may be some others out there that are +-12 in which case you would order the standard seq not the modified +-15V one.
interesting…. i have never seen one that was 12…
Mi’n is 15v either and must have a buld in 12v to let work the midi2sds. So look out for damage and make shure. Its not normal that you’rs is 12v.
I finally got around to installing the MFB Seq-03 in the SDSV. I first hooked up the sequencer outputs to the pads input but had intermittent triggering. Probably due to dirty sens pots. So I used the synth inputs. I might put switches in at some stage so I can switch between the two inputs. While I was there I changed the output XLRs to pin 2 hot. This looked daunting at first because a bus bar runs through all of the XLRs joining pin 1 &2. But I found I could unsolder pin 2 and use pliers to bend the bus bar over to pin 3.
Thanks so much for this great idea.
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Awesome! so much fun!
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