POLLARD SYNDRUM | Synth Quest Episode 4

[@Ashfaq1999]

Great video. Can hear echo’s of rose royce: is it love your after & anita ward’s : ring my bell plus endless disco classics 🎶

[@MrTacoInc]

You can hear the Syndrum all over earlier Yellow Magic Orchestra stuff. Yukihiro Takahashi used an earlier Quad Syndrum (P. Industries), plus a couple of ULTSound DS-4 units live, along with an acoustic kit. Thanks for taking the time to mess around with this one camera!

[@madFame]

@MrTacoInc I'm a YMO fan and couldn't believe my luck when I came across these beauties. There's very few close up demos of Syndrums on the net, so I thought there must be some people out there who'd love to see it.

[@AlexBallMusic]

I love this series Ra, especially things like this that I'd never heard of. A lot of fun to be had with those bloopy tones no doubt!

[@madFame]

Thanks Alex! It's fun getting through some of this older gear that doesn't have much coverage. This one has almost no info online, took me ages to go through old drum mags from the late 70's to get the info in the video. This unit's a little beast as well, fat like an 808 wacky like an Odyssey, I forgot how fun it is to play with!

[@AlexBallMusic]

@@madFame It's the joy of the hunt! Finding out about esoteric bits of equipment. If we were in the same hemisphere I'd lend you every bit of my gear for synth quests.

[@madFame]

@Alex Ball Oh man, the possibilities! The feeling is mutual my friend, I bet you'd come up with some awesome songs with the madFame gear. The Oberheim Expander demo you just uploaded is awesome!

[@waxwarrior03]

Great video!! Prince used them on his debut album, although I always recall the certain Rose Royce hits from the late seventies when that pow fx strikes lol

[@JamesVytas]

Those are the coolest synth drum sounds.

[@matthewpaluch777]

Terry Bozzio with Frank Zappa!

[@crenshawblaster3982]

this model was officially used on Saturday Night Fever performed by Mike Baird, check out the interlude of How Deep Is Your Love played on the train scene where Tony Manero was desperately riding the good-old-dirty NYC subway into the night after he lost his geek friend on the bridge. There is a promo poster of Pollard indicating it was used on SNF, downloaded it from somewhere a couple of years ago. I believe even Jamiroquai used them on Cosmic Girl, just before the bridge part. Lovely video for the mighty Pollard!

[@madFame]

@Crenshaw Blaster Thanks for the great info! Jeff Porcaro was the first to record a Syndrum on a commercial recording - Carly Simon's Nobody Does it Better for The Spy Who Loved Me soundtrack. It was quite hard to find info for this great machine so I appreciate your input.

[@crenshawblaster3982]

@@madFame You're so welcome, I'm humbled. Didn't know Jeff Porcaro was the first player to record this incredible machine, many thanks for the info! For your information: www.thewho.net/whotabs/images/equipment/drums/79_syndrums_ad.jpg

[@Butterflyproject]

Hello madFame, I'm looking for how the bomb drop sound was made with Syndrum in the song You drop a bomb on me by the gap band, can you help me? Thanks a lot

[@aseomg]

Interesting piece. The modern equivalent in terms of sounds or perhaps the closest might be Korg’s volca kick.

[@Elektrojamzz]

I just got a 477 and am trying to figure out what the switches next to the sensitivity knobs do. When they are in the up position, they just seem to add a pop to the beginning of the sound. I'm wondering if they are kill switches for inputs that perhaps don't quite work on my kit. I haven't been able to find the manual for this version of the quad anywhere.

[@madFame]

Hey thanks for watching! I've never seen a unit with switches there myself. It may have been a mod by a previous owner or possibly a custom mod from Pollard? Finding info on this machine is near impossible. I spent quite a bit of time trawling through old drum magazines from the 70s just to get the info I presented in the video.

[@Elektrojamzz]

@@madFame The original quad has switches (the 477) The main difference from the 478 is the 477 doesn't have a snare sustain, just a tone sustain.

[@rolandedrummer9723]

I remember Carmine Appice having these on his kit. Can't imagine what he could have used them for though.

[@madFame]

Yeah, that's him on the flyer at 0:51. He might have used it for some disco/rock crossovers in the late 70s. He toured with Rod Stewart in 1979 right after the Syndrum was released, so that's a possibility.

[@socalltd]

check out Mandre II from 1978. I think he uses the pollard quad set as the toms in a drum kit and gets some interesting fills from it.

[@madFame]

Excellent suggestion my friend! I'm a huge Mandre fan and know his work well so it's great to hear his name pop up. Thanks for checking out the video :)

[@billk9403]

Any idea where I might be able to find a schematic for a Syndrum CM?? HELP!

[@Stonemetal3]

2:35 Is such a breakout cable for the quad module available anywhere?

[@madFame]

When I purchased my Syndrum Quad it didn't come with a breakout cable either. I ended up making my own by purchasing 4 cheap guitar cables cutting off one of each of the ends and soldering those to a 5-pin din plug (female).

[@Stonemetal3]

​@@madFame Thanks for the reply! Another couple of questions is - how do you trigger your module? Do you have drumpads? Could I connect the module to my audio interface and send sounds from my DAW to the module? What kind of sounds would work?

[@hudu]

Oh, are these the drums on She's Lost Control? Definitely similar sound and look, from videos I've seen.

[@madFame]

No but very similar in some respects. The one's on She's Lost Control look like Star Instruments Synare S3X

[@fremax6946]

Thanks Madfame ! it's very interesting, i had no idea such things existed before the Simmons drum ! The music at the end is yours ?

[@madFame]

Hi Frank, yeah the Syndrum is a certified classic. Right after these units came the STAR Instruments Synare units and then the Simmons after that. The music at the end is mine, I make music under the band name Magic & Steel.

[@fremax6946]

Excellent, thank's to you, i can aiming at go to bed less idiot, it's past midnight here :) Good music btw !

[@MrTacoInc]

Hey Ra, I was wondering if you happen to have a service manual or schematic for this lying around. I've been trying to build a more-or-less clone, but I've been having some trouble finding info online.

[@madFame]

Hi MrTacoInc No I don't have a service manual. In fact, getting any info or documentation on this thing was really difficult. However, if you look up Clacktronics they've drawn up a schematic on it that's really nice. clacktronics.co.uk/research/drumlab/pollard-syndrum/

[@rodmac8358]

Roger Taylor during the 80/81 Queen tour used these Syndrums.

[@rogertakahashi5082]

Late 1977 to November 1981