In 1976 Pollard introduced the first commercially available drum synthesizer, the Syndrum.  Two years later, Toyo Gakki of Japan answered back with the Ult-Sound DS-4.  The Syndrum and the DS-4 were part of the technological revolution taking place in the late 70’s and early 80’s that made synthesizers more accessible, which gave way to new sounds and new musical forms going into the 1980’s.  

 

Iconic Instruments has created virtual versions of these two classic instruments.  We employed circuit-bending to sample every waveform at every pitch from original units.  Using Kontakt’s engine we were able to model all of the functionality of the original units, plus some enhancements and additions, including a built-in effects section.  

 

Since we have every note sampled, we spun off our own synthesizer versions of both the Syndrum and the DS-4 with all the notes laid across the entire keyboard, as opposed to the four channel drum versions.  We’ve added synthesizer-specific functionality, like Portamento, Poly, Mono and Legato modes, Voltage-Controlled Amplifier and Filter modules, an Arpeggiator and and effects section.  Each instrument also comes with a host of ready-to-use presets, including carefully crafted Multi-Instruments.