The “Deutsches Museum” in Munich/Germany is for sure Germany’s most important museum for technical innovations (followed by Simmonsmuseum… :-)). When I was a child, I remember several visits where I was fascinated by exhibits like aircrafts, moon vehicals, etc… . I cannot deny that recently I was pretty astonished to hear that even the SDSV made it there.
The board right in front of the SDSV says:
“In 1979, Dave Simmons invented the first drum synthesizer. Series production of this synthesiser began in 1980. This instrument was played like an acoustic drum, but offered much bigger volume and differentiation.
Thanks to its outstanding sound quality, this instrument was very high in demand. The small company rapidly grew to become the most important manufacturer of electric drums in the world.
Sounds were produced by various generators and passed through an adjustable, voltage-controlled filter. Depending on how hard the drum was hit, an amplifier controlled the output signal and intensity.
5 channel drum synthesiser
bass, snare and 3 tom modules
could be expanded to 7 modules”
The picture is taken from Wikimedia Commons