Genuine Soundware – Drum-80 v1.1.0

Today we all know and use electronic drums, but in the early 80s of the last century, the first electronic drums were a real novelty that revolutionized not only the sound of the music of those years, but also in the process of working in the recording studio. 

Many producers preferred to record the sound of electronic drums rather than acoustic ones, as it saved time and money, eliminated the need to install microphones, look for the right positions, spend hours on equalization and correction of the recorded material. With an electronic drum kit, everything happened faster: you just plugged in the cables and maybe found a suitable sound for the song, which was ideal, especially for many low-budget productions, such as pop music.

The first electronic drums were completely analog, generating drum sounds using just a few elements, such as an oscillator and a white noise generator, as well as a couple of envelopes and a filter. The sound was not entirely realistic, but it was unique and ideal for creating specific, previously unheard-of sounds.

The downside was that electronic drums could only generate drum sounds, not cymbals. So the sound of real cymbals was recorded together with the sound of the electronic drums. This setup was often used live as well. It was common to see a drummer on stage playing typical hexagonal pads, but combined with a set of real cymbals.

The GSi Drum-80 reproduces exactly this scenario. It contains two separate sound engines that can play simultaneously.

One of them recreates the sounds of the famous Simmons SDS-V electronic drum module (very similar to the later SDS-8 model); At the same time, the exclusive GSi WLF Engine reproduces a multi-sample of real cymbals recorded exclusively for the Drum-80.