Friday, 28 September 2007 21:01
Last Updated on Friday, 04 June 2010 12:33
Last time we looked at EH’s drum machines, so this time we’ll look at their drum effects. As far as I know, all of their battery-powered drum effects came in the standard Big Muff chassis. As usual, there were 3 knobs, one of which was SENSITIVITY (used to control how hard you had to hit the pad to activate it), a switch in back, and a cork or leather pad on top for striking. The AC-powered models came in the Memory Man-style box with an assortment of knobs, switches, and a pad. All models had an EXT. TRIGGER jack.
Here’s the battery-powered models:
EH-5300 The Space Drum
This was a nifty little unit whose sound was described in the last article as an electronic tone that changed in pitch as it reached the end of its length. The sound was very reminiscent of the electronic drum used in the intro of The Cars’ “Let The Good Times Roll”. START FREQ and STOP FREQ set the pitch for the tone while the DECAY switch set the length of the tone.
EH-5310 The Panic Button
A great little siren effect. Just set the RISE TIME and FALL TIME knobs, and watch your party clear out fast. The DECAY switch set length.
EH-5320 The Sonic Boomer
A tunable electronic drum. The tone is set using the PITCH and RESONANCE controls while the LOW – HI switch selects the pitch range. I’ve always wanted to get about 6 or 7 of these and build
an electronic drum set with them.
EH-5330 The Rolling Thunder
An electronic kick drum, thunder, explosion, etc. Hook this up to your SVT, set the DECAY and TONE controls, and put the PITCH switch on low. Now, turn your amp to the desired level and hit the pad. Presto!!! You need new windows!! And eardrums. And neighbors. Anyway, you get the idea.
EH’s ac-powered models just don’t catch my interest as much as the battery-powered models, but some of them were still pretty good. Here’s a list:
EH-5350 The Super Space Drum
Took the Space Drum one step further by adding two controls (MODULATION DEPTH and MODULATION RATE) and an on/off switch for modulation of the signal. It also features a COORD. IN jack that allows you to connect an external sound source and trigger it through the unit with the pad. A SHORT-LONG switch sets the length of the tone. Some units had a RESONANCE switch instead.
EH-5360 The Crash Pad
An electronic crash drum. You can also use this to simulate the sounds of surf, crashing metal, gunshots, and, of course, a snare or cymbal. Controls are: SWEEP START, SWEEP STOP, SWEEP TIME, RESONANCE, and DECAY TIME.
EH-5370 The Clap Track
Used for simulating (what else?) clapping sounds. It also has an interesting feature using the REV. NOISE OUT jack. This gives you a white noise sound which is adjustable in Volume, Attack, and Decay. Actually cooler than the clapping sound.
EH-5380 Sequencer Drum
A silly little unit that uses slide pots to set the pitch of 8 tones along with controls for the RATE and DECAY. You also have a line of LEDs, one for each tone, to serve as a visual indicator of the speed. A switch selects the driver to be the internal CLOCK or the PAD, while another switch selects REPEAT or SINGLE. Two jacks are provided, one for OUTPUT and one for TRIG IN. Some later models also have CV OUT and CLOCK IN/ OUT jacks for hooking it up to your synth. Believe it or not, some of my friends really like this thing.
EH-5385 The Clockworks Controller
A nifty lil’ Rhythm Generator/Synthesizer that controlled up to 4 of your triggered drums or effects. Each channel had a LEVEL and a DIVISOR control to set strength and timing of the trigger signal. TEMPO and LEVEL controls on the Clock section set overall levels. You could also select an external clock signal via the toggle switch.
The battery-powered effects listed for $89-$99 in 1981. The AC models varied a bit more, $129-$199. Get a bunch of them and tell your drummer he/she has to use them from now on in place of a drum set.