Peter Erskine

"When I was in Weather Report we had used the Linn LM1 drum machine on one record and the word we heard was that Oberheim were working on a drum machine of their own. Well, Tom Oberheim used to come to Weather Report shows and I had met him, and a short while later a keyboard tech for Joe [Zawinul, keyboard player with Weather Report] who had a connection with Oberheim called me up and I went into the studio and recorded about three sets worth of drums for them. Most of the sounds on the original DMX, including the snare, were mine."

"Then I finally decided to take the Simmons plunge. I did a NAMM show for them and got to use an SDS7. I remember I wasn't exactly sure of how the thing worked, so I just set up some ostinatos on their sequencer. But I loved the sound possibilities, the multi-note samples. I found most of the sounds to be grainy and noisy, however, so I went looking for a '5. I ended up doing a lot of phone work with drum technician Vince Gutman, and he put together a system with footswitching and triggering capability for me. I had it split between the '5 and '7 because I liked the digital attack of the '7 but I also liked the thick analogue stuff from the '5. It's a tremendous sounding instrument, especially in the lower frequencies."

After a brief stint with the Korg DDD1, Erskine also changed his drum machine for a Yamaha.

IN ADDITION TO his work with electronic percussion devices, Erskine has jumped headfirst into the synth and MIDI fray. His home studio contains a Casio FZ1 and CZ101, a Roland Super JX, a Korg DW8000 and Poly 800, a recently MIDI'd Oberheim OBXa, a Yamaha DX100 and Yamaha RX5, PMC1 and TX816.

IN ADDITION TO his work with electronic percussion devices, Erskine has jumped headfirst into the synth and MIDI fray. His home studio contains a Casio FZ1 and CZ101, a Roland Super JX, a Korg DW8000 and Poly 800, a recently MIDI'd Oberheim OBXa, a Yamaha DX100 and Yamaha RX5, PMC1 and TX816.