The Pollard Syndrum is the first commercially available

electronic drum Electronic drums is a modern electronic musical instrument, primarily designed to serve as an alternative to an acoustic drum kit. Electronic drums consist of an electronic sound module which produces the synthesized or sampled percussion sound ...

, invented by Joe Pollard and Mark Barton in 1976. There were 3 major types: The Syndrum 1, the Syndrum TwinDrum, and the Syndrum Quad, the last being the most famous. At the time of its conception, Pollard was a session drummer working for

the Beach Boys The Beach Boys are an American rock band that formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Distinguished by the ...

and the Grass Roots. In 1976, he met Barton, who had designed and built some working prototypes which were previewed to some prominent drummers. Their reactions were encouraging, so Joe, Mark and Donald Stone incorporated Pollard Industries and starting selling Syndrums in Culver City, California. There were two models sold at the time, the single drum 177 and the four drum 477. Syndrums were a musical success with a surplus of endorsees, but a financial failure for the young company.

Legacy

Although the Syndrum was capable of many different sounds, the one favored by most recording artists was a sine wave that pitch-bends down; it can be heard at the beginning of "

Good Times Roll "Good Times Roll" is a song by American rock band the Cars released as the first track from their 1978 debut album ''The Cars''. Written by Ric Ocasek as a sarcastic comment on rock's idea of good times, the song features layered harmonies courte ...

", the opening track of

the Cars The Cars were an American rock band formed in Boston in 1976. Emerging from the new wave scene in the late 1970s, they consisted of Ric Ocasek ( rhythm guitar), Benjamin Orr ( bass guitar), Elliot Easton ( lead guitar), Greg Hawkes ( keyboar ...

' 1978 debut album, throughout Sparks' 1979 album '' No.1 in Heaven,'' particularly the opening track "Tryouts for the Human Race" and "

The Number One Song in Heaven "The Number One Song in Heaven" is a disco song by the American rock duo Sparks. Released as a single in 1979, the song was produced and co-written by electro-disco producer Giorgio Moroder. It became a top 20 hit in the UK, where it peaked at num ...

", and the percussion break of "Rydeen" by

Yellow Magic Orchestra Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO for short) is a Japanese electronic music band formed in Tokyo in 1978 by Haruomi Hosono (bass, keyboards, vocals), Yukihiro Takahashi (drums, lead vocals) and Ryuichi Sakamoto (keyboards, vocals). The group is cons ...

. After the Syndrum’s introduction to the marketplace, several companies produced electronic drum units, such as the

Synare The Synare was a series of electronic drums made by Star Instruments in the mid-1970s through the 1980s. The Synare was a drum synthesizer, meaning that it was essentially a synthesizer, but instead of being controlled by a keyboard, it was triggere ...

References

External links

Syndrum audio clip at the Radio JunkBox
{{Percussion Electronic musical instruments 20th-century percussion instruments North American percussion instruments Drums Analog synthesizers