(Fr. percussion électronique, Ger. elektronisches Schlagzeug, It. percussione elettronica).
An electronic instrument that synthesizes percussion sounds or stores and reproduces the sounds of percussion instruments; it is either played on controllers resembling conventional percussion instruments but equipped with a pickup or other sensor, or operated by an electronic drum machine or rhythm machine. The earliest electronic percussion instruments were the Rhythmicon by Lev Sergeyevich Termen (1931) and his oscillator-based ‘keyboard electronic timpani’ (1932). Around the same time Benjamin F. Miessner, with the collaboration of his brother, independently produced his own similar Rhythmicon, and about 1935 the ‘chromatic electronic timpani’ with amplified strings. Electronic percussion was first developed consistently during the 1950s and 60s in the form of the ‘rhythm box’ (related to the electronic metronome) and as an addition to some models of home electronic organ; these produced rhythms electronically but the imitation of percussion timbre and attack was not very realistic. The earliest commercial electronic drum machine was Wurlitzer's Sideman (1959), which was soon followed by models from other organ manufacturers, such as Kinsman's Rhythm King, Korg's Doncamatic and MiniPops, Ace Electronics' Rhythm Ace (Ace Tone), Bentley's Rhythm Ace and units by Farfisa and Hammond; the incorporation of such devices into electronic entertainment organs recalls the inclusion of percussion sections in the 19th-century orchestrion and the cinema and theatre organs of the 1920s and 30s. Synthesizer companies entered the field in the 1970s, with PAIA's Programmable Drum Set (1975), Paice's drum synthesizer (1976) and the Ludwig ‘Moog’ drum, a drum controller for the Minimoog (early 1970s). Since 1986 finger-sized drum pads have been included on various electronic keyboards.
With the constantly increasing volume of rock music during the 1970s, even drum kits began to need amplification. Furthermore, problems arose in recording studios, where the recording of each percussion instrument from its own microphone was affected by substantial leakage from other instruments in the kit. The strong vibrations produced in the instruments necessitated the development of special contact microphones and other sensors. In the late 1970s a new generation of electronic percussion devices became possible through advances in electronic technology; they combine the sequencer with a microcomputer memory, and found widespread use in rock music. These updated versions of the rhythm box, in which everything is programmed by a combination of knobs and switches, are often controlled or triggered by special drums or drum-pads (touch-sensitive rubber or plastic-coated foam rubber surfaces resembling practice pads, usually incorporating piezoelectric crystal or other sensors which in some cases provide additional information about the position of impact). The sounds were originally synthesized electronically, as in the Kit (fig.1), Space drum, Synare, Synsonics drums and Syndrum, in Pearl Music's Syncussion (special drums), the Klone Kit and models (largely lacking any facility for real-time performance) made by the synthesizer and electronic organ manufacturers Cheetah, Elka, Godwin, Kawai, Korg, Lowrey, Multivox, Roland (over a dozen models; fig.2), Technics, Thomas, Wersi and Yamaha; the sounds of sampled percussion instruments were the basis of the E-mu Drumulator, LinnDrum, Movement Computer Systems' Percussion Computer (the only model to incorporate a VDU screen) and Digital Drum Kit (with one drum-pad), MXR's Drum Computer, Simmons electronic drums and two models made by Oberheim, and of most instruments since the early 1980s. The availability of MIDI since 1983 has meant that drum controllers such as Roland's Octapad, the drumKAT series, and models produced by Akai, Alesis, Aphex, Cheetah, Clavia (ddrum), Dynacord (Rhythm Stick), Korg, Kurzweil, Roland, Simmons, Yamaha, Zoom and others need no longer be limited to the manufacturer's own selection of timbres, which have occasionally included handclaps. In addition to electronic drums this approach has occasionally been applied to keyed percussion, as in Simmons' Silicon Mallet and the malletKAT.
Programmable drum machines have been common in rap music and some areas of reggae, usually to create unvarying repetitive rhythmic patterns. A few composers have integrated such inflexible devices into more experimental musical contexts, including Mauricio Kagel in the theatrical Die Rhythmusmaschinen(1978), the text-sound poet Charles Amirkhanian in several works around 1981 (such as History of Collage), and Vinko Globokar in Ombre(1989). Around 1990 Ikue Mori began performing with adapted drum machines controlling samplers.
B. Drukker and H. Goddijn: Handboek elektronische orgels en synthesizers (Deventer and Antwerp, 1978), 71–5
R. Hammond: The Musician and the Micro (Poole, Dorset, 1983), 72–89
M. Norman and B. Dickey: The Complete Synthesizer Handbook (London, 1984), 54–65
HUGH DAVIES