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CYBER
DRUM
CENTER |
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electronic
toy drum kit with 30 nicely unusual rhythms |
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This is a fairly big electronic toy drum kit with 8 drumpads and 30 partly
unusual preset rhythm patterns.
This instrument stank badly toxic of phthalate (and solvents?); apparently
the drum pads are made of plasticized soft PVC pseudo- rubber. The drum
pads are designed to play with sticks and don't work well by hand; they
are switchable between an acoustic and an electronic drum set, and additionally
there are 4 plastic effect pad buttons those play each an effect sample.
The preset rhythms are made from medium resolution samples and include
also quite unusual tribal and rock rhythm patterns those sound partly nicely
grungy and bizarre; they are selected by row and column buttons. Unfortunately
some patterns include a fixed key bass line or accompaniment, which makes
them less versatile; some accompaniments contain sampled e-guitar lines
of fixed speed, those mess up the patterns in funny (but interesting) ways
when tempo is changed. The samples sound nicely fat and grainy (unlike
the thin and hissy My Music Center
percussion), and drum pads and preset rhythms have each an individual analogue
volume slider.
The box of the Cyber Drum Center shows the brand names "Kid's
Com" and "Happy People"; regarding the name and the coloured
transparent control panel design, it belongs likely to the same series
like the Cyber Keyboard; also some
percussion samples remind to it and the similar Kawasaki
Pro37.
I don't own this instrument anymore but had the occasion to record
sounds from it, because it was wrongly sent to me by a mail order shop
instead of the ordered Kid's Com - Mix-Me DJ. I gave it back in
exchange for this, thus some descriptions here may be wrong since I have
partly written it from memory.
main features:
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built-in speaker (with some bass)
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8 big drumpads (likely pseudo- rubber made of odorous phthalate PVC | designed
for drum sticks and work badly by fingers)
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2 mode switch buttons for drum pads
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4 plastic effect kit buttons
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30 preset rhythms (partly containing fixed- key accompaniment | selected
through 5 row and 6 column buttons)
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indicator LEDs for selected rhythm
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volume sliders for rhythm & drumpads (no master volume control)
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tempo +/- buttons
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sound generator based on quite clear and bassy medium resolution samples.
Some drum pad sounds employ a varying chorus effect.
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no jacks
notes:
As usual with sound toys, the drum pads are not velocity sensitive. During
each drum pad hit the green "HIT" lamp lights up, which causes a beep (key
matrix noise) mixed into the drum pad sounds, which especially makes the
short closed hihat sound almost inaudible. Generally there is some beeping
static key matrix interference noise in the sound, especially when drum
pad volume is set high. The drum pads don't respond well when played with
fingers; especially the left upper pad of my tested specimen needed too
much force (possibly a defect). The preset rhythms are selected by row
and column buttons (indicated by 2 red LED rows); every column select button
resets the selected row to the first, which disturbs life play tricks.
Selecting a rhythm also always switches tempo back to default.
The 30 preset rhythm patterns are nicely unusual and include a lot of
rock guitar and hiphop samples with typical human voice and record scratching
noises. The rock patterns (e.g. "punk rock") contain grungy samples of
heavy metal e-guitar lines, those keep their own speed also with changed
rhythm tempo, which messes the patterns up in funny (but inspiring) ways.
The "tango" pattern contains a cacophonic saxophone(?) bass line in a fixed
key, which sound anarchic although it makes it little useful to accompany
given melodies. Also some other patterns contain fixed- key accompaniments.
The drum pad sounds are medium resolution samples and partly contain
a chorus effect, which phasing component varies every hit to make them
sound less static. The "electronic drum kit" sounds are not really spectacular
and rather resemble distorted acoustic ones with phasing; the cymbals and
the 4 effect pad sounds stay the same anyway.
The concept of this instrument reminds to the Kawai GB-1 Session
Trainer, although it lacks the sequencer and chord key changeability
of the latter. Generally the Cyber Drum Center is not a bad thing,
although it behaves a little stubborn, banal and unfortunately has no realtime
programmable drum pattern, which would make it much more interesting. (I
would wish something like the Yamaha PSS-260
custom drummer here.) Also the unacceptable acrid chemical odour of this
toy was quite annoying; the age of toxic phthalate plasticizers should
really be over now; polyurethane would do the job also.
| removal
of these screws voids warranty... |
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