80's Analog Electronic Drum Kit Revisited

US GSi Drum-80 features a VA engine based on the Simmons SDS-V drum module 19/12/22

GSi has released Drum-80, which they describe as the analog drum kit of the 80's. This is what they have to say about it...

We all know and use electronic drums today, but at the beginning of the 80's the first electronic drums were a real novelty that revolutionized not only the sound of music of those years, but also the workflow in the recording studio. Many producers preferred to record the sound of electronic drums rather than acoustic drums because it saved time and money, avoiding having to mount microphones, find the right positions, spend hours equalizing and correcting the recorded material. With an electronic drum set it was quicker: it was enough to connect the cables and maybe find the right sound for the song, which was a perfect scenario especially for many low-cost productions, for example those of pop music.

The first electronic drums were completely analog, they generated the sounds of the drums using only a few elements such as an oscillator and a white noise generator, plus a couple of envelopes and a filter. The sound wasn't exactly realistic but it was peculiar, and perfect for creating certain sounds never heard before.

The downside was that electronic drums could only generate the sound of drums but not cymbals. For this reason, the sound of real cymbals was recorded alongside the sound of electronic drums. This kind of setup was also used live quite often. It was common to see a drummer on stage playing the typical hexagonal pads but combined with a set of real cymbals.

GSi Drum-80 reproduces that exact scenario. It contains two separate sound engines that can play at the same time. One engine recreates the sounds of the famous electronic drum module known as the Simmons SDS-V (very similar to the later SDS-8 model); at the same time, the exclusive GSi WLF Engine plays a multi-sample of real cymbals recorded exclusively for Drum-80.

Main features

    Virtual Analog Engine based on the famous SDS-V drum module

    Sampled Cymbal sounds (Hi-Hat, Ride, 4 Crashes, 3 Splashes) provided by the exclusive GSi WLF Engine

    Full Polyphony

    Separate section with adjustments for Cymbal sounds (tuning, leveling and EQ)

    Stereo 1176-Style Limiter

    Stereo Delay effect

    Stereo Reverb effect

    Built-in programmer with unlimited Programs

    Embedded user's manual

    Available as Stand-alone application and audio plugin

    Very low CPU and RAM usage

PLEASE NOTE: To play the cymbal samples, a separate download (free, in-app) of ~180 MB is required. The App also works without the cymbal samples.