Drum Machines Have No Soul

Programmable analogue drum machine

Stix Programma ST‑305

Seven voice faders put the balance of the kit in the player’s hands. The Stix Programma ST-305 adds pattern writing, variations and fills to that small mixing desk, giving a budget drum machine a part to shape across a song.

Rhythm takes control →
The ST-305’s control-panel drawing from its operating manual: voice faders above, rhythm and programming controls below.Undated · Sound MasterSource & credit ↗

Sound Master demonstrated the Stix Programma ST-305 at the Birmingham British Music Fair in May 1982 and advertised it in Britain through 1983.

Sources (6)
  1. Business In Brum, pp. 12–14 ↗
  2. Stix Programma ST-305 Operating Manual ↗
  3. Beat On The Cheap ↗
  4. JSG Music advertisement, Sounds p. 53 ↗
  5. Pure Mind Technology — artist album notes ↗
  6. Drum Machines Buyers Guide, p.26 ↗

The machine in the record

Cover artwork for Rayspark Industries — Pure Mind Technology.
Record artwork for Rayspark Industries — Pure Mind Technology; it identifies the compilation whose equipment statement includes a Stix Programma ST-305, not the machine or a recording session.

Rayspark Industries / Pure Mind Technology.

Paul Darlington lists the ST-305 among the equipment behind the Pure Mind Technology compilation, principally associated with 1998–99 work. It is compilation-level evidence, not a track-by-track claim, and it preserves a small Soundmaster inside a personal electronic history.

Read Pure Mind Technology — artist album notes ↗

More records in the archive

The machine keeps turning up.

01 // A British programmable drum machine that gave budget players patterns, mixing, separate outputs and a real chance to make a fixed voice set behave like part of a track.

A programmable step forward

Shown at the 1982 British Music Fair at £124.95, Sound Master’s Stix Programma ST-305 offered more voices, individual levels and separate outputs than the earlier SR88. It belongs to the moment when a British musician could expect a rhythm box to remember an arrangement, while still learning its particular panel logic.

Sources (2)
  1. Business In Brum, pp. 12–14 ↗
  2. Drum Machines Buyers Guide, p.26 ↗

02 // A British programmable drum machine that gave budget players patterns, mixing, separate outputs and a real chance to make a fixed voice set behave like part of a track.

Writing a beat into the box

The manual sets out a tactile system of paired 16-step patterns, two 12-step pairs, A/B variations and fills at selected bar intervals. Write mode records notes and rests, while seven percussion voices and accent hold their own places on the panel. The ST-305 lets a musician build a pattern and then give it a route through a song.

Source (1)
  1. Stix Programma ST-305 Operating Manual ↗

03 // A British programmable drum machine that gave budget players patterns, mixing, separate outputs and a real chance to make a fixed voice set behave like part of a track.

Made for the mixer

Individual outputs and external clock made the Stix more than a domestic accompaniment box. A 1984 comparison valued the chance to correct its sounds with EQ and effects, while warning that an accidental Clear could undo a carefully made program—a vivid portrait of an affordable machine that still asked its owner to protect the work.

Sources (2)
  1. Beat On The Cheap ↗
  2. Stix Programma ST-305 Operating Manual ↗

04 // A British programmable drum machine that gave budget players patterns, mixing, separate outputs and a real chance to make a fixed voice set behave like part of a track.

Seven faders, one proposition

The operating-manual cover shows the ST-305 panel, its seven voice faders and the controls used to enter, vary and interrupt rhythms. Alongside the show report, it makes the design proposition clear: a modest drum machine that expects a player to balance a kit rather than accept a finished accompaniment.

Sources (2)
  1. Stix Programma ST-305 Operating Manual ↗
  2. Business In Brum, pp. 12–14 ↗

05 // A British programmable drum machine that gave budget players patterns, mixing, separate outputs and a real chance to make a fixed voice set behave like part of a track.

A machine with a later life

JSG Music offered the ST-305 for £99 including VAT in 1983. Much later, Rayspark Industries named one in the equipment used for Pure Mind Technology. Together the records follow a budget-shop rhythm box into a later musician’s working collection.

Sources (2)
  1. JSG Music advertisement, Sounds p. 53 ↗
  2. Pure Mind Technology — artist album notes ↗

MUSIC HISTORY

In the market

  • 1982-08: GBP 124.95 — UK trade-show report quotation. ST305; accessories not specified. Report concerns May 14–18, 1982 show. Source ↗
  • 1983-11-05: GBP 99 — UK retailer advertised offer, JSG Music. ST 305; free Securicor delivery stated Source ↗
  • 1982-07: GBP 124.95 — UK contemporary buyers-guide quotation. Instrument; options not specified Source ↗

On record

  • Rayspark Industries (Paul Darlington) — Pure Mind Technology (compilation; track allocation unspecified). Artist lists ST-305 among equipment used for the compilation, principally associated with 1998–99 compositions plus older material. Source ↗
  • Larry Smith / Androids in the Mist — early synth-rock recording practice. Larry Smith’s early recording rig paired a Soundmaster Stix ST-305 with a Fostex X15 four-track. Source ↗

Sources

  1. Business In Brum, pp. 12–14
  2. Stix Programma ST-305 Operating Manual
  3. Beat On The Cheap
  4. JSG Music advertisement, Sounds p. 53
  5. Pure Mind Technology — artist album notes
  6. Drum Machines Buyers Guide, p.26

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.