History of Electric Drum Sets
Electronic drum sets haven’t been around forever. In fact, they are less than 50 years old. You may wonder who came up with the idea of the electronic drum set and how it became popular. The history of electronic drum sets starts with Graeme Edge, the drummer for the group The Moody Blues. Edge first came up with the idea for an electronic drum set during a discussion with Brian Groves, a professor of electronics. The two built what would be the very first electronic drum set. It featured a control panel that was touch sensitive thanks to a number of magnets inside it. The drum set was very large—it features five snares, ten tom-toms, a number of bass drums, 16 different sequencers, and more. It took more than 500 transistors to make the entire thing work, and Edge’s set didn’t look nearly as elegant or as sophisticated as today’s electronic drum sets. However, it did work, and it got people talking about electronic drum sets.
Of course, there were some technical issues. Edge’s and other early electronic drum sets often broke down, and many complained that they didn’t quite capture the sound of acoustic drums. They also couldn’t capture subtle tones and didn’t have the dynamic range as acoustic drums. While Simmons and Yamaha, two companies known for their quality instruments, soon created electronic drum sets, they really weren’t much more than manual sequencers and were only really good in musical genres where the drummers played the same pattern very quickly with no timbre variation.
It wasn’t until Pollard Syndrum released their version of the electronic drum that a true electronic drum was available. This drum was of recording studio quality, and it was very reliable. Its dynamic audio range actually went beyond the range of human hearing! Today, many drummers prefer to use Pollard Syndrum drums when recording.
Over the years, electronic drum companies have worked hard to address the many issues found in Edge’s and other early drum kits. While the first electronic drums didn’t quite catch that acoustic sound, todays are nearly indistinguishable from acoustic drums. They feature high quality digital sound, including some samples of actual instruments. The entire electronic drum set is crawling with sensors that measure where the drum stick hit and with how much pressure it hit. They’re incredibly complex, yet everything is hidden away inside the drum set so that the drummer can be seen and heard. If you play the drums and don’t mind spending a good amount of money on a nice electronic drum set, you can take your music to a truly new level.
