Hi Ralis,
I originally saw your idea over at SDdrummer.com.
You have a lot to unpack in your idea. I think some of your idea has merit, other parts of it would be difficult to pull off in todays environment of edrumming.
I agree that Simmons should have some kind of true analog synthesis. After all, that’s what put them on the map…
Something to keep in mind: Edrummers are a niche of drumming in general. And the vast majority of those edrummers (meaning 90+%) want perfect acoustic emulation. This is why the Pearl Mimic is thought of as the gold standard. Those that want true analog synthesis is a small minority. So we are talking about a niche of a niche. That alone is tough to base any kind of business model around.
As to re-releasing the original 1980’s hex pads, let’s start with the playing surface.
…Mesh has already won the war.
The majority of edrummers today believe (rightly or wrongly) that rubber pads suck and are no good. Therefor, no serious edrummer plays on rubber pads. Ironically, they do (i.e. Cymbal triggers) and yet don’t consider that a problem.
Can rubber pads be made to feel great? Sure, the Simmons SD1500 (the kit before the SD2000) had great feeling rubber pads. Yamaha has incredible feeling silicone based rubber pads but again, the majority of the edrummers have spoken and they want mesh.
I agree the original hex pads have an awesome iconic look to them. But the issue with that exact look is, most associate that look with the 1980’s. It’s no different than shag carpet and faux wood panelling with the 1970’s. These things by themselves aren’t bad, they are just too heavily associate with a specific decade. That’s a hard one to shake.
I don’t know if you know this or not but the first hex pads by Simmons were not fun to play on. They had a hard acrylic surface. I assume you like the second gen of hex pads which had a rubber surface? There isn’t much to those pads. They are just plywood with a very thin sheet of rubber over top of them. Even back in the day players thought it was too hard of a surface to play on.
Because of everything I listed above it doesn’t make for a very good business module to re-release these with no special branding. To just say “Simmons Drums We’re back!” Would give an impression to most modern edrummers that Simmons isn’t capable of evolving. Not only that it wouldn’t command the prices that you see for legacy equipment and in the process would drive down the value of the true legacy equipment.
With that in mind, (IMHO) the best way for Simmons to go forward is to incorporate true analog synthesis along with sample based acoustic emulation in the same module. That way the two can be used together (or layered) to create new/innovative/different sounds. If they can do in a very innovative way they would have a much bigger influence on the market. As to hex shaped pads…They need to evolve to be accepted today. I think the new SD2000 pads was a good attempt at this. They are really well made, unfortunately the module held back the rest of the kit and because of that edrummers were not ready to accept Simmons as a major player yet. (A little color on the pads might have helped too).
So, could Simmons do what you suggest? Sure, but they would need to be very careful how they go about it. And I’m sorry to say they would have to brand them as “Retro”, “Classic” or something to denote what they are or else it could end up shooting themselves in the foot.