Part of the 80s music technology hall of fame, alongside the Yamaha DX7 and the Synclavier, Emulator, and Fairlight samplers, et al. A refinement of crude disco-era electropercussion devices (e.g. the whistling bloops on Anita Ward's "Ring My Bell"), expanded to become a substitute for an entire drum kit (except for the cymbals). Trademark hexagonal shape and a rich, tweakable sound. So widely used as to quickly become a cliché. Simmons later tried (and failed) to market a sampler.