Product: Pearl Syncussion SY-1
Price Paid: UNKNOWN
Submitted
11/27/2006
at
07:48am
by
bugswhiskers
Ease of Use
:
10
No manual needed if you've been anywhere near an analogue synth.
2 identical channels, with 6 preset oscillator modes, I suspect each channel has 2 oscillators and the 6 modes are preset variations and modulations of both.
On each channel, 8 beautiful sliders control, tune, decay, width, sweep speed, sweep range, lfo speed, lfo range, and output.
sliding switches control "sweep up-off-down" and "lfo squarewv-off-sawwav" and sample and hold.
Features
:
10
There are sensitivity pots tucked away behind to tweak the trigger strength - it comes with two real drums that connect mono 1/4" jack style, but it is will take pretty much any trigger you throw at it, classically a 606 with each tom out as a trigger, but the audio outs from pretty much any drum machine will do with this chap.
For the spotters! theres two types of syncussion I have come across, one with one audio output and a footswith input; and one with an audio out for each channel and no footswitch in.
The 2xaudio out model has obvious benefits, but the the one with the footswitch in has a trick up it's sleeve when you connect a cv input from an analogue sequencer (a tb303 will do) and you get control of the pitch, I don't reccomend the 303 trick actually as it could be a bit hot for it, the pitch was very high and the scaling sent thing covering a ridiculous amount of octaves. Sounded mental tho : ) try a korg or moog or better still a kenton for midi action.
Expressiveness/Sounds
:
10
This is an analogue drum synth for going boo-boobeeboooo
and Dugghh! and tsschhh.. and pooeeooeeooeeooee and durriing
probably the best raw oscillator sounds going in any drum synth, and up there with any analogue synth - an unsung hero of electronic music from the Human League to Aphex Twin.
live tweaks lovely.
Reliability
:
5
sometimes mine mysteriously works in one channel only but completely works 90% of the time for many many years, it's really old and I should send it off for some TLC but it keeps going - Japanese innit.
wouldn't take it anywhere near a venue.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
needs specialist care to fix - worth every penny,
fully mod-able at a price, although the exisisting case is pretty full.
Overall Rating
:
10
This is the piece of gear in my studio that non musical friends go straight for to have a play with, I set it up with a 606 or something and they are usually on it for hours, it has the vintage analogue x-factor, it is more than the sum of it's parts, it is very very musical sounding.
I own or have played with shedloads of drum synths and this is arguably number one mostly because there is nothing that sounds like it and it is so musical.
(Given that you like Human League and Aphex Twin : )
