Synsonics Drums by Mattel (1981) Vintage Analog Drum Machine & Synth with p.supply!

We are selling this rare and vintage Synsonics Drums by Mattel, analog electronic drum machine made in USA in 1981!

It comes with a compatible Elcectro-Harmonix EU power supply. It has toms, kick & snare sounds and tone/pitch control!

CONDITIONS: The drum machine works perfectly and is in very good cosmetical condition for its age. All buttons, pitch, sequencer respond to commands. This drum machine can also operate on 6 C-size batteries. When powered by batteries, all Synsonic Drums are louder, but they also produce more background noise than when powered by an AC adapter.

IMPORTANT: As in all Synsonic Drums, which were born as toy drum machines, also the power supply can be a bit noisy if you set the volume of the drum machine to maximum: just adjust the volume between the drum machine and your mixer or amplifier to eliminate (or lower) the noise.

Please, note that Mattel Synsonics Drums model 5350 does not have an external speaker: you must connect them to a mixer or stereo system or headphones.

This is a very cool analog drum machine made by Mattel back in 1981: an instrument that turns 45 this year! Super simple to operate, however there are lots of potential modifications to expand usability.

Very sturdy, handy analog sounds!

DESCRIPTION: The Synsonics contained four stick-played drum pads and produced six drum sounds: two toms (one tuneable), a snare, a cymbal, a closed hi-hat, and a kick drum. All of the sound-producing circuitry was analog. Despite its origins and its somewhat toy-like appearance, the Synsonics was taken seriously in some quarters and used in some professionally produced music. It was far less expensive than competing products of the era, and many drummers in the '80s got their first exposure to electronic drumming via the Synsonics. 

The Synsonics also contained a rudimentary sequencer. For the toms, snare, cymbal and kick sounds, there were buttons that would play each sound at quarter, eight, or sixteenth note intervals, as driven by an internal clock. The sequencer was the only way to play the kick, since it had no associated pad. Pressing an "accent" button changed the cymbal to the closed hi-hat sound: it was not possible to make them both sound at once.

The sequencer had memory for three tracks, and the pads could be used to play along when a sequence was playing. Unfortunately, the sequencer did not have any non-volatile memory, which meant that all sequences were lost each time the machine was switched off. 

For synchronizing the clock, the sequencer had one of the first implementations of tap tempo: if a button was pressed twice, the CPU that ran the sequencer measured the interval and used that to set the clock rate. (There was no way to synchronize to an external clock.) 

Kraftwerk was one of the major artists that used the Synsonics Drums. 

A five-pin DIN jack on one side appears to be a MIDI interface, but it is not (MIDI had not yet been invented); it was intended for an auxiliary pedalboard (not included in this sale) that allowed the user to control the kick drum and to open and close the high-hat. 

Very hard to let this one go, but it's not getting enough use and it's just time to move on. 

THIS SYNSONICS DRUM IS FULLY WORKING AND IN VERY GOOD COSMETICAL CONDITIONS FOR ITS AGE. IT WILL BE PACKAGED IN A PROFESSIONAL WAY (PLEASE, READ OUR FEEDBACK) BUT ANY WAY IT WILL BE SOLD AT BUYER'S OWN RISK, WITHOUT WARRANTY AGAINST POSSIBLE DEFECTS: WE CAN'T OFFER ANY REFUND OR RETURN!

See photos & condition description for condition details, but feel free to ask questions. 

OPEN TO OFFERS!

Find out more about all the instruments we stock on our Reverb shop!