Product: Simmons SDS-200
Price Paid: US $115 used
Submitted
07/06/2001
at
09:13am
by
ByronIV
Ease of Use
:
10
It doesnt get any easier than this....hit a drum pad, turn a knob...repeat.
Features
:
8
2 tom modules...no fx...no midi...it has 2 trigger ins and 2 audio outs, plus a headphone jack. 10 knobs for each drum, including pitch, bend, filter, envelope, noise, click, and intensity. Very similar to the sds 400 from what I have heard. Midi would be nice....midi and analog things are just so happy together :) I dont often play them with drum pads though, I use the 2 trigger outs on my TR-606 to sequence it, and my 727 as a master midi clock which triggers the 606 to start as well.
Expressiveness/Sounds
:
9
2 Tom drums, supposedly...i think the toms are the cheesiest sounds this thing makes....if you want subsonic analog bass and super fat 808ish kicks...here is your gear :) It makes some very nice tweaky hi hats and snares ...as well as some very spaced out stuff. My friends tell me you couldnt pull a good sound out of it if your life depended on...my friends are d, u, m, b...check this track out if you dont believe me... http://artists.mp3s.com/artist_song/1230/1230249.html
the simmons is the deep deep bass line....or check this one out...
http://www.mp3.com.au/track.asp?id=14590
the simmons are the 2 snare-ish like sounds that start right with the intro...very fat.
Reliability
:
10
This thing is built like a brick house...solid steel (the knobs are plastic). It must be older than sin itself, and none of the pots even crackle at all. I've hopped all over the circuit board modifying it (I tightend the ampeg up to get a cleaner tighter kick out of it) and nothing blew ...so its all good:)
Customer Support
:
1
Yeah right....I cant find much of anything out about Simmons stuff, much less find out how to contact the original manufacturers. I have seen a few sights online however where you can purchase replacement knobs and Schematics for the entire sds series.
Overall Rating
:
9
Grade A prime cut here...wouldn't sell it for anything except maybe for a sds 400 or so:)
