On The Hunt...
From the original Analog Industries archive. Some links and images from that era no longer resolve.
Dear Lazyweb:
There was a big studio in NYC auctioning some “bottom of the closet” shit in the late 80s (89, I think) and I went, and one of the things they had was this drum machine thing. The tag said “used by Thomas Dolby” but I don’t have any proof of that. It was orange, and looked vaguely like a PET computer or TRS80 was a parent. That is to say it was an all-in-one computer lookin’ thing. Where the keyboard should be were a couple dozen keys, and the rest of the keyboard (where the rest of the keys should be) was filled in with a plastic fascia.
Any idea as to what this was? If my memory serves me, it was called the Drum-Puter or something similar. One of my dear readers must have run across this beast, or possibly owns one. I don’t know why, but it has been scratching my brain lately, and curiosity has over-ridden.
13 comments
Movement Drum Computer. British thing, more famously used by Dave Stewart.
http://www.sonicstate.com/synth/movement_drumsystem.cfm
Hmmm. Well, that fits part of the description, but it definitely isn't what I'm talking about; the one I saw only had like 20 keys, and it didn't have all that shit on the side. The screen took up the whole front.
Perhaps what I saw was either a Drum System I or Drum System III?
-CR
Don't know. All the photos I've seen look the same, but I'm not sure what revisions each were. Here's the nicest photo I've ever seen of a system II:
http://recforums.prosoundweb.com/index.php/fa/751/0/
I have this really vague memory of an interview in which he talked about that thing. I think it was actually something that was not designed as a drum machine but he'd wired it up for the task. I think maybe it was a lighting controller of some sort? I'm really not sure.
--Adam
A bit of googling led me to a musicthing post in which you mentioned you almost bought Thomas Dolby's Movement Drum Computer in New York in '91 when a studio was having a sale:
http://musicthing.blogspot.com/2005/03/not-on-ebay-of-day-movement-drum.html
Hope this edition of Steve's memoryweb was helpful.
great picture here: http://recforums.prosoundweb.com/index.php/m/49561/8332/#msg_49561
it looks as if it has removeable modules for each sound...maybe the one you saw had differently configured modules.
and the eurythmics video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCkSx2Fm79I
definitely a different piece of gear in the vid.
he had an old PPG sequencer/lighting controller that he wired to his simmons sdsV module to trigger drum sounds. could that be it?
You could always ask Thomas Dolby. http://blog.thomasdolby.com/
http://www.tmdrfan.com/tmdr/cgi/image_page.pl?image=publicity_photo_with_henry.jpg&title=Publicity+Photo+with+Henry
It's not "Henry" is it? A PPG 240/380 WavComputor.
Unfortunatly the picture is BW so if it is orange or not is hard to see.
Or maybe it isn't Heny after all. Apparently it ended it's day in an elevator shaft!!
quote:
"At this time, I used to do bizarre one-man shows with my PPG 340/380 WavComputor, Henry. It was designed to turn Tangerine Dream's light-show on and off, but I adapted it to play drums for me." The size of a 'fridge, and rather temperamental, it eventually met its end falling down an elevator shaft.
Yeah, at the time I was fairly certain that one on MusicThing was what I was talking about. Now, I'm not so certain. I'm positive it didn't have a full keyboard or that jank to the side of the screen. The screen was definitely bigger. However, it was orange, and the form factor is correct. There must be another revision of that device.
-CR
I saw one of these at a store in Hollywood a few years back. That "jank to the side of the screen" is definitely modular and I was under the impression that those were the analog drum voices. I wonder if there was a version minus those modules that acted as just a sequencer or something.
I probably saw the same one in Hollywood... at Future Music on Sunset?
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