Way, way back in October 1984 I reviewed the Dynacord digital drum-set and, while I was on the subject, commented upon something in the same vein from them, called Digital Hit. At the time, it wasn't really available in its entire sound range, and it wasn't until recently that I was able to hear all the alternatives. But, before I go any further, I should tell you exactly what it is.

Digital Hit is a sort of effects pedal which has a built-in, digitally sampled sound. This sound is encapsulated within a 'chip', and every time you ask it to, it will come out. It can be persuaded to appear in two ways: either by pressing a button in the top of the pedal or triggering it from an external source. This source may be a sequencer (ie drum-machine of some description, or synthesizer) or a microphone. This mike may be the usual sort suspended near a drum, or a contact mike joined to the drum's shell or head.

Yet another way to trigger it, of course, is from an electronic drum pad. Digital Hit has an all-important sensitivity control to cope with all these different triggering devices. (By the way, the contact mike supplied, or any other for that matter, will work dynamically and give a touch sensitive response).

The unit itself measures 8"x5" and is wedge shaped, thus 1¾" at the back and 1" at the front. It is not sophisticated in its controls, nor is it supposed to be. (I've written before about how it's rather a wasted effort to drastically change the sound parameters of a digitally sampled voice. The more you mess with it the worse it gets.)

Having said all this, the top of the unit has just two rotary 'pots'. The first for sensitivity, the other to switch from source mike, ie natural sound, through to a mix of it and the 'sample', round to the sound of the chip inside the Digital Hit itself. The only other item on the top is the red push-button which activates the voice manually. The left hand edge has an ordinary microphone input, a power input and a jack-socket for the trigger mike. The other side has a power output to take the 'juice' onto another unit placed next to it. (This means only one power pack is necessary for up to four units). There's also a mixed output here to go direct to the mixer. (If we decide to use one mike on the instrument to pickup its natural, 'dry' sound, and Dynacord's contact mike to activate the sound of the 'sample', we only need to take up a single input on our PA mixer). Also on the left is an effect output to connect it to the mixer (or amplifier).

That's about it for the unit, but there are an awful lot of different sounds available which you can choose to have in it.

(Unfortunately the sounds are not meant to be changed. They consist of a small, beetle-like IC which is actually soldered into the circuit). According to the catalogue, Digital Hit may be ordered with any one of 49 different sounds. These are divided into families: natural drum sounds of three different bass drums, three different snare drums and no less than 12 different toms. There are synthesized drum sounds too: two basses, two snares and three toms; eight cymbals and 15 percussion sounds. I have a cassette of all these sounds and with minute reservations they all work very well. For me the best ones (or should I say the ones which caught my imagination most) were the electric ones; these of course would turn your ordinary set into a synthesized one at the turn of a switch and allow you to mix the two.

One criticism — it's difficult to plug in the power pack with its two round pins. All those sounds that I listed are the same quality as those actually in Dynacord's drum set which has been much praised and would appear to be selling reasonably well. You can, of course, use Digital Hit to change the sounds on your analogue drum machine too.

DYNACORD DIGITAL HIT — RRP: £99.00