Peter Randall’s July 1978 review examined a Syndrum 477 prototype; its postscript reported the replacement 478 and identified the changes.
The machine in the record
Prince / For You.
Prince’s debut arrived with an unusually plain promise: he had played every instrument. The detailed credits include a Syndrum, placing Pollard’s electronic percussion inside the dense, self-made world of For You. They do not identify a particular track or numbered unit, but the album connection is real and unusually early.
Read Prince — For You album credits ↗More records in the archive
The machine keeps turning up.
Reported association
Yukihiro Takahashi / Yellow Magic Orchestra / Yellow Magic Orchestra overseas tour
Yukihiro Takahashi’s Yellow Magic Orchestra touring kit incorporated a Pollard Syndrum 477.
Read Japanese electronic-instrument technology history: Pollard Syndrum 477 ↗Four pads, four synthesizer voices
Four eight-inch pads feed separate synthesizer channels. Randall describes sine, triangle and square-wave tones shaped with sustain, sweep and vibrato. Each pad can carry a different sound, placing contrasting electronic voices around a percussionist’s kit.
A foot on the pitch
The foot controller has two plates: one cuts off a sounding note, the larger bends pitch on a selected channel. It makes the Syndrum a physical performance system, shaped with sticks and feet.
The reviewed 477 and revised 478
Randall tested the 477 prototype. The replacement 478 changes the snare sustain switch to a fader and uses the switch to select white or pink noise. This is the July 1978 review’s account of the transition, with first-sale dates still unresolved.
A drummer’s loan
Randall borrowed his review instrument from Clem Cattini, then playing with Cliff Richard’s group. The Syndrum was already in a working drummer’s hands: an addition to the kit that called for a different kind of physical performance.
On record
- Yukihiro Takahashi / Yellow Magic Orchestra — Yellow Magic Orchestra overseas tour. Yukihiro Takahashi’s Yellow Magic Orchestra touring kit incorporated a Pollard Syndrum 477. Source ↗
Sources
- Syndrums
- The 1978 NAMM Western Market Convention
- Pollard Syndrum 178 / 278 / 478 schematic — original file currently unavailable
The visual archive
Further visual evidence.
Sources for images shown earlier (2)
- Sound International — Syndrums ↗
- Prince — For You ↗
1978 · Distributed by Warner Bros. · Cropped one-sheet published to promote Prince’s debut album For You.