A newbie about to embark on bending a PT-80

[wAgA]

hello.

Ive just recently got round to attempting circuit bending and its been really exciting. i started out by acquiring a casio sa-2 from a friend. after buying a soldering iron and some push-to-make switches i spent 2 long evenings wishing i had 3 hands as a first attempt i think i did pretty well. i managed to rob some components from old electricals and i eventually hooked up 2 scalextric controllers as lil glitch triggers, something more cosmetic than actually practical.

big thanks to ne7. your little guide to the sa2 started me off really nicely. i spent about 10mins just connecting things at random on the board without any success at all. after initially getting disillusioned i spotted the posts on this forum and everything kicked off from there.

its only about a week since i bent that lil casio but ive already got some big plans for what to do next I got hold of a casio PT-80 and after spending a long time looking i realised that no one (it seems) has done anything comprehensive with it, and the few i did find (youtube) didnt provide any guides or insight into what they did.

i sat down last night and took the cover off for the first time. the circuit is alot more exciting and instantly accessible than the sa-2. results can be achieved with just the finger tips, although i didnt have time to explore the oportunities for glitch crashes. after a brief scan i found that depending on where u connect/touch it is possible to do make some quite drastic changes to the hi-hat of the drum machine.

for example.

1. white noise of differing tones (hi hat open)
2. lengthening the hi-hat release
3. muting the hi-hat completely
4. tightening the envelope on all the drums
5. bass tones

i recorded a short techno track using the pt-80 last night, so if u wanna hear some examples heres the link www.samosborn.com/downloads/beeg_one.mp3

these few discoveries were a product of a short 2 hour session, but it got me thinking that the pt-80 is an underdeveloped instrument in terms of bends. everyone seems to bend and rebend the sk-1 which everyone knows is fantastic for it.

Anyway, ive decided rather than rushing into and making a bit of a cack job out of bending the PT-80 im gonna do it properly and install patch bays and appropriate control points so that the drum machine can be played live and used comprehensively to jam with. it may also be possible to sync it with an external clock, similar to what people have done using a tr-606 and other bent kit.

So thats it. a slightly pointless post but i thought someone may be interested in the initial conception of a comprehensively twisted pt-80. once ive finished it i will endeavour to write a full guide and document all the bend points. that way anyone as lazy as me can just look it up

ill let u guys know how i get on.

ciaociao
wagawaga

[Källman]

Actually iv seen a german guy bend the pt-80 and it sounded pritty awesome. He only did a drum trigger mod tho, dont know how, and wired it to a coron ds-8 clone. Imho, you will find some of the best mini-synth drum sounds on the pt-80. The snare is a farkin killer.

[sk-1]

Unfortunately the Casio PT range are only suitable for bending the warm analog drums and drum patterns. There are also bends that enable and disable chord and rhythm combinations as well as fattening up drum sounds and simulating gates and noise on the percussive sections.

As far as I know, it is not possible (or extremely difficult) to bend the tones and arpeggio's on a PT keyboard.  I have two PT-30's and have spent several weeks extensively researching other people's efforts, including S-Cat and others.

If you can find a way to bend the tones on a PT-80 then I guarantee you that there will be many dudes out there who would wanna get their hands on your findings!

Good Luck and Happy Bending!  

[jamiewoody]

i dunno. i found a few eastereggs in my pt-1.