The Keytek MDP-40 combines preset rhythm selection with manually triggered drum sounds and MIDI input in Bert Koorengevel’s owner account. The related SIEL manual has a MIDI chart dated 25 February 1986; that document date does not establish the Keytek model’s launch.
The machine in the record
Bert Koorengevel / still in the songs.
Bert Koorengevel says he still uses the Keytek MDP40’s sounds in his own songs, driven from MIDI and shaped with compression, EQ, pitch, reverb and delay. That is a modern-use account without named tracks, and it makes a case for the machine as a durable sound source rather than a relic.
Read Keytek MDP40: contributor testimony ↗More records in the archive
The machine keeps turning up.
Reported association
Moby / Official drum-machine collection sale
A 2018 capture of Moby’s official drum-machine sale lists a Keytek MDP40 among the machines offered from his collection.
Read Moby’s Drum Machines For Sale ↗Presets and drums on the same buttons
The Keytek’s photographed panel is arranged around rows of small square buttons, with rhythm names above the drum controls. Koorengevel describes forty preset patterns and the option to play drums directly or through MIDI input. The buttons therefore offer two ways into the instrument: select a ready-made accompaniment or play its sounds individually. His account concerns the Keytek he owned, not a tested specification for every badge or revision.
The SIEL manual’s playing controls
The related SIEL MDP 40 manual explains verse and chorus choices, separate breaks leading into each, an introductory count, swing and added handclaps. In Manual Drum mode its rhythm buttons trigger individual sounds, with or without the preset running. MIDI can synchronise the rhythm or let a keyboard or external sequencer play the drums; custom sequences are stored externally. These are documented SIEL-family procedures, not proof that every Keytek revision implements them identically.
MDP 40 MIDI Digital Percussion: owner’s manual ↗ MIDI Digital Rhythm Unit (MDP-40 / RPM-40): schematic diagram ↗
Related badges, distinct evidence
Audio Trough’s owner review groups the SIEL MDP-40, Suzuki RPM-40 and Keytek MDP-40. The factory schematic explicitly names MDP-40 and RPM-40, while the manual cover carries SIEL’s name. That supports a family relationship without establishing every Keytek circuit revision or the companies’ succession. A 2018 Matrixsynth capture separately lists a Keytek MDP40 in Moby’s collection sale; collection history is not a recording credit.
Keytek MDP40: contributor testimony ↗ MIDI Digital Rhythm Unit (MDP-40 / RPM-40): schematic diagram ↗ Instrument Review — Siel MDP-40 a.k.a. Suzuki RPM-40 a.k.a. Keytek MDP-40 ↗ Moby’s Drum Machines For Sale ↗
MIDI after the buttons wore down
Koorengevel bought his Keytek used around 1990, without its box or manual. By the time of his retrospective account, worn bass-drum and snare switches could produce repeated hits, so he played it through MIDI instead. He says he continued using its sounds in his own songs, processing them with compression, EQ, pitch, reverb and delay. No individual tracks or release dates are named, and his description is testimony about that instrument rather than a Museum audition.
Sources
The visual archive
Further visual evidence.
Sources for images shown earlier (2)
- Keytek MDP-40 owner’s manual ↗
- Keytek MDP40 ↗
Undated contributor page · Bert Koorengevel / Hollow Sun · MDP40 image beside quoted contributor testimony