SDS7
2013-06-13 by Michael Buchner
As Pratrice says right: SDS7 often brings you somewhere in between frustration and fascination.
1984 I was touring when we had a narrow stage so I could place the brain only on the side because of no space. When checking the sound, I realised that all parameters in every program of the whole unit were on 255. All settings were gone, no memory cartridge.
The basic idea of SDS7 was brilliant, to combine sampled sound with synthesis. But the construction was a mess. Starting with the frame: Channel in/out numbers were in the false direction beeing not behind the corresponding card on the front. Summing rails near the data lines with all the noise bleeding in. They made a noise reduction later with an unused opamp on the back panel, funny, because of a writing error this was called "backplane" instead of "panel" from then.
The steel case was not stable and bent all the time. So the card placement was always not sure and the contacts with the back"plane" horrible. Some improvements were made, but without any positive result. The servicemen called it "Simmons cabasa" because of all the parts falling around inside the case.
To have more contact for the CPU, they bent the CPU PCB to the side and attached it like this! Raw and brutal! They tried to "hot glue" the parts. They called back all sold units to improve them several times. They were in despair!
And it was very expensive those days. Until today I don't understand, that they had gold-plated fingers and an expensive (useless) XLR "graveyard" on the back and- took the cheapest push buttons for the programming panel.
I once sent a 7 to the U.K. when a message came: Not working. I had to pay all the shipping to and back. At home again, I checked it again and made the "SDS7 standard repair": CPU and RAM out and in 10 times. And: Working again until now.
I love and hate my 7's...
1984 I was touring when we had a narrow stage so I could place the brain only on the side because of no space. When checking the sound, I realised that all parameters in every program of the whole unit were on 255. All settings were gone, no memory cartridge.
The basic idea of SDS7 was brilliant, to combine sampled sound with synthesis. But the construction was a mess. Starting with the frame: Channel in/out numbers were in the false direction beeing not behind the corresponding card on the front. Summing rails near the data lines with all the noise bleeding in. They made a noise reduction later with an unused opamp on the back panel, funny, because of a writing error this was called "backplane" instead of "panel" from then.
The steel case was not stable and bent all the time. So the card placement was always not sure and the contacts with the back"plane" horrible. Some improvements were made, but without any positive result. The servicemen called it "Simmons cabasa" because of all the parts falling around inside the case.
To have more contact for the CPU, they bent the CPU PCB to the side and attached it like this! Raw and brutal! They tried to "hot glue" the parts. They called back all sold units to improve them several times. They were in despair!
And it was very expensive those days. Until today I don't understand, that they had gold-plated fingers and an expensive (useless) XLR "graveyard" on the back and- took the cheapest push buttons for the programming panel.
I once sent a 7 to the U.K. when a message came: Not working. I had to pay all the shipping to and back. At home again, I checked it again and made the "SDS7 standard repair": CPU and RAM out and in 10 times. And: Working again until now.
I love and hate my 7's...
----- Original Message -----
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From: Jacquot.Patrice@...
To: Simmons Drums
Sent: Thursday, June 13, 2013 2:12 PM
Subject: Re : Re: Re : Re: [Simmons Drums] Re: sds8 price
Well I'd say ...the SDS7 can definitely be a bitch to program despite its great & beautiful sound !
It requires a lot of care & attention... & Issues are legendary if you talk to the pro drummers or drumtechs back in the days.
But it has a great charm. & digging in the settings is a great fun.
Clicking is a pain especially when you are at the end of the sound of your life & suddenly a double click occurs...End of the game you have to restart everything. But well, the more you do it the more you enter in its logic & acquires it. But for a beginner it can be hell !
If that memory loss occurs at the sound check you're dead !
It happened to a friend of mine, with a very known singer here, more than 10000 people in the audience... ARGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG ... & the arrangments were done a lot around the Simmons then !
But I love the 7 & its crazy analog part, the grainy 8bits chips transposition :)
It's worthwhile redoing the setting when it loses it sounds.. & a good opportunity to understand the machine.
As often with Simmons, it brings you somewhere in between Frustration & Fascination.
P.
----- Mail d'origine -----
De: jesper <jesper@...>
À: Simmons Drums <Simmons_Drums@yahoogroups.com>
Envoyé: Thu, 13 Jun 2013 13:08:49 +0200 (CEST)
Objet: Re: Re : Re: [Simmons Drums] Re: sds8 price
OK, bad choice of words... clicking isn't my idea of fun when there are
units with knobs and sliders. :) And when you find broken Simmons gear
online or spare parts for that matter, it's often SDS-7 stuff. There
must be a reason for that.
But it's a great machine! :D
--
electronically yours, jesper
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www.electronic-obsession.se
teknikfourteen skrev 2013-06-12 15:03:
> SDS7... a bitch to program??? Hmmm... in my opinion, the programming is
> actually simple enough once you get used to the procedure. (Unless it's
> the tedious process of reprogramming EVERY patch as a result of memory
> loss..) I actually enjoy tweaking and discovering its many nuances. Some
> of the better patches I came across were the result of messing about
> with random values. The "bitch" with respect to the SDS7 is the lack of
> the Memory Cartridge availability. I would kill to find one of those,
> lol. I own 3 SDS7's (2 fully loaded working and 1 non working for
> spares) and they won't be going anywhere!! :-)
>
> As for reliable, when I bought my second SDS7 it was literally dead. The
> previous owner said it was working when he had it. Upon inspection,
> there was nothing wrong with it other than the the fact that it had been
> transported a great distance.. and as we know the older SDS7's were
> plagued with loss of memory and patch info due to the cards and boards
> moving about in their slots. This particular unit is a later version
> with the "locking" slots that had been introduced to alleviate the loss
> of data problem. Nonetheless, I simply removed all the cards and front
> panel assembly, replaced the battery, cleaned and reassembled the unit
> and it's been rock solid ever since. Mind you, it hasn't left the studio
> and is powered by conditioned A/C on a UPS. The gig is a much harsher
> environment and can destroy electronics if one isn't mindful of the
> mains and power sources. (Bad power claimed the life of my Ensoniq ESQ-1
> moments before a gig many years ago.. that was fun!) Hauling a UPS to
> the gig can be the difference between taking home a working unit versus
> one with a burned out PSU or worse.
>
> Errrrr.... sorry.. what was the question again? lol...
>
> Teknik1
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