Drum Machines Have No Soul

Preset rhythm machine

Elka Sidekick 32

Choose a rhythm, call a break with an optional footswitch and move the balance between its percussion groups. The Sidekick 32 leaves both hands free to play.

Rhythm takes control →
Sidekick 32 photograph in Elka–Orla’s December 1981 advertisement. Inspect the complete page.December 1981 · Elka–Orla (UK) Ltd.Source & credit ↗

Elka brought the Sidekick 32 into its British range in late 1981: a compact accompaniment machine built for players who wanted a steady rhythm section beside an organ or keyboard.

The machine in the record

Cover artwork for Craven Faults — Netherfield Works.
Eller Ghyll gives Craven Faults’ Sidekick-32 account a landscape and a record; the cover identifies the release, not a preset or unchanged live playback.

Craven Faults / “Eller Ghyll”.

For “Eller Ghyll”, Craven Faults isolated drum hits from Sidekick preset rhythms and worked them through an Akai S950 sampler, making woodblock-like percussion for the arrangement. His account describes earlier drum and bass experiments being discarded before this new rhythm approach took shape. The parts were arranged in Pro Tools. A box designed to supply a complete backing had become material to cut, reshape and place inside a larger composition.

Read The modular mathematics behind Craven Faults’ expansive kosmische musik ↗

More records in the archive

The machine keeps turning up.

01 // Preset accompaniment to choose, interrupt and rebalance while another instrument stays under the hands.

In the Elka line

A November 1981 equipment report introduced the Sidekick 32 to British readers, and Elka’s December campaign placed it beside the Elkatwin 61, X-50 and R.M. 140. The message was practical: a portable rhythm partner, with its own place in a keyboard player’s setup.

Music Maker Equipment Scene, p.12 ↗ A lot more sounds for a lot less pounds — Elka advertisement, p.53 ↗

02 // Preset accompaniment to choose, interrupt and rebalance while another instrument stays under the hands.

Thirty-two choices, with a break

The Sidekick offered sixteen named rhythms, each with an A or B version. Waltz, tango and march sat beside rock, disco and Latin patterns. Each rhythm had a break that could be called from the front panel or a remote footswitch. A player could change the accompaniment with a foot while keeping both hands on a keyboard.

A lot more sounds for a lot less pounds — Elka advertisement, p.53 ↗

03 // Preset accompaniment to choose, interrupt and rebalance while another instrument stays under the hands.

Move the balance, change the band

The balance slider gave those patterns another kind of movement. Elka’s advertisement describes cymbals, hi-hat, cabasa and brushed bass at one end, with snare, toms, rim shot, cowbell, bongos, conga and bass at the other. In the middle, both groups played together. Moving that control could change the backing without choosing a different rhythm.

A lot more sounds for a lot less pounds — Elka advertisement, p.53 ↗

04 // Preset accompaniment to choose, interrupt and rebalance while another instrument stays under the hands.

A ready-made part beside the player

In July 1982, Electronics & Music Maker listed the Sidekick at £250, including VAT. Its guide classified the Elka as a preset instrument and noted the optional pedal-controlled fill. Those details capture its working role: a player could call up accompaniment, bring in a break and continue performing on another instrument.

Drum Machines Buyers Guide, p.26 ↗

05 // Preset accompaniment to choose, interrupt and rebalance while another instrument stays under the hands.

From preset rhythm to separate notes

A later modification opened a different route into the box. Tubbutec’s 2021 uniPulse installation connects MIDI to the individual sounds and gives most trigger paths velocity response. The installation also distinguishes the original bass-drum trigger from an alternative velocity-sensitive path. These are capabilities of the modified instrument, adding note-by-note access to the earlier preset machine.

ELKA – The Sidekick 32 MIDI with uniPulse ↗

MUSIC HISTORY

In the market

  • 1982-07: GBP 250 — UK contemporary buyer guide price. Sidekick 32; foot-pedal control described as optional Source ↗
  • 1981-11: GBP 225 — UK new-equipment news retail quotation. Sidekick 32; accessories inclusion unspecified Source ↗

On record

  • Craven Faults — Eller Ghyll — Netherfield Works. Craven Faults drew Sidekick presets into an S950 and reshaped them into woodblock-like percussion for “Eller Ghyll”. Source ↗

In the studio and on stage

  • Craven Faults — home-studio work. Craven Faults’ sleeve-notes equipment list names an Elka Sidekick 32 among the home-studio machines. Source ↗

Sources

  1. Drum Machines Buyers Guide, p.26
  2. The modular mathematics behind Craven Faults’ expansive kosmische musik
  3. ELKA – The Sidekick 32 MIDI with uniPulse
  4. Netherfield Works
  5. Music Maker Equipment Scene, p.12
  6. A lot more sounds for a lot less pounds — Elka advertisement, p.53

The visual archive

Further visual evidence.

Sources for images shown earlier (2)
Additional visual sources (1)

Original publications and related image sources.

Machine Museum image viewer

Period image shown in the dossier.