Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: Vintage Simmons Drums (UK) Users Group

previous by date index next by date
previous in topic topic list next in topic

Subject: Re: SV: [Simmons Drums] Remake of famus simmons!

From: Gordon JC Pearce <gordon@...>
Date: 2005-08-18

KW wrote:
> i would go for SDS-5 or SDS-7 as a sound engine, and the sequencer SDS-6, if any other sequencer i don't know what else choose, maybe to throw in a CRT or TFT and paint it orange and call it Movement Drum III ;=)
>
> cheers....
>
>

It wouldn't be difficult. The SDS-7 uses a couple of unusual chips, and
of course the hybrid modules on each board. I tried reading the service
manual on www.simmons.synth.net but it's scanned at way too low a
resolution - labels on IC pins and board connections are maybe 3 pixels
high at best!

Getting the Curtis VCO and VCF chips would be tricky, to say the least.
However, there are a lot of DIY synth websites out there with circuit
diagrams for VCOs and VCFs made from discrete components and
easily-available op-amps, so this need not be a problem. I haven't
really worked out what the hybrid does - by the looks of things it's a
kind of multi-channel sample-and-hold.

Gordon.