Francis Preve has put together a free virtual Mattel Synsonics drum machine for Ableton Live:
In the pantheon of vintage analog drum machines, there’s an unsung classic that isn’t from a big name manufacturer like Roland or Korg, but from a toy company. Released in 1981, the Mattel Synsonics was an affordable black box that housed a fully analog kit consisting of kick, two toms, snare, cymbal and hi-hat – all playable via velocity sensitive pads.
Of course, since it was a “toy”, few artists took it very seriously – with one notable exception: Kraftwerk.
About a month ago, I pulled my Synsonics of its shelf in my studio, fired it up and started sampling.
It’s available as a free download from Preve’s site.
Oh man, this is awesome. Seriously my very first drum machine ever. I thought it was so high tech as a kid in the '80s.
Wish I had been able to hold onto it, but a lot of things did not survive my college years…
I have a friend who uses this as a mainstay…. See isidro Robinson
hmm… Not sure I'd describe a Live drum rack as being a drum machine to be honest.. This one offers you 10 different percussion sounds and the option to tweak them a little using the enabled macro's (volume, tone and one decay setting for snares).
Still, its more of a sample library than a drum machine; considering that you're basically playing sampled and not really generating percussion sounds.
Oh; if you're on Windows you may get errors when extracting the archive; seems some filenames are incompatible. But it doesn't result in a non working project.
Nice work!!! Sounds dope on my little tweaker speakers. Can't wait to load this up at the studio. Check the Whoosh Machine free Ableton instrument download from http://www.SonicFaction.com
Nice work!!! Sounds dope on my little tweaker speakers. Can't wait to load this up at the studio. Check the Whoosh Machine free Ableton instrument download from http://www.SonicFaction.com
Nice work!!! Sounds dope on my little tweaker speakers. Can't wait to load this up at the studio. Check the Whoosh Machine free Ableton instrument download from http://www.SonicFaction.com
Nice work!!! Sounds dope on my little tweaker speakers. Can't wait to load this up at the studio. Check the Whoosh Machine free Ableton instrument download from http://www.SonicFaction.com
Nice work!!! Sounds dope on my little tweaker speakers. Can't wait to load this up at the studio. Check the Whoosh Machine free Ableton instrument download from http://www.SonicFaction.com
Nice work!!! Sounds dope on my little tweaker speakers. Can't wait to load this up at the studio. Check the Whoosh Machine free Ableton instrument download from http://www.SonicFaction.com
My very first drum machine too…
I can still recall the way the Synsonics that was the drummer in my band exploded into a wonderful shower of sparks and smoke when we connected the wrong ac adapter. If we had recorded the sounds that it made while it was melting I think we would have had a hit single.
I had a very similar experience with a microkorg.
I once recorded the Synsonics while the battery was dying. Sounded like the death of a drum machine.
Does anyone know which Kraftwerk tracks this drum machine would have been used on? I am guessing Pocket Calculator.
I’m guessing “Numbers” and “Home Computer”.