advice on drum machines

brewmachine · October 23, 2008, 07:36:22 PM

HI,

Not sure whether to put this in the toy forum or not as im not after doing an actual major drum machine, but i was just wondering if anyone could suggest a simple toy drum machine that has a lots of distortion and glitch bends so i can get some dirty distorted loops (or demos) to play over with my other instruments to make some decimated lo-fi compositions....

i also have a korg electribe (the one with the valves) im not really considering it yet, but has anyone got any experience with this?

cheers

brew

Gordonjcp · October 24, 2008, 12:17:21 PM

Recent DSP-based stuff like the Electribe tends to be pretty disappointing. The classic circuit-bending drum machine seems to be the Alesis HR-16, which has loads of lovely mucky noises in there. Just keep to the two big 32-pin sample ROMs, and stay away from the DAC chip - the +/-12v supply present on the pins there will damage the big square ASIC and then you've got a very dead HR16.

I wrote some software to let you replace the samples in the HR-16, but even if you don't go down that route it's worth remembering that an HR-16 can be converted to an HR-16:B by simply swapping all three ROMs over!

Signal:Noise · October 24, 2008, 12:55:22 PM

If you've never modded a drum machine a yamaha dd6 is a good starting point, though you can't sync them to anything.

djsynchro · November 02, 2008, 04:33:04 PM

Just got to a good toy shop they allways have various scratch and Hiphop toys with breaks playing. You usually only get a pitch bend (resistor) and a bodycontact usually works too, but toys sound incredibly dirty if you make a line out so that might well do the trick for you.

brewmachine · November 03, 2008, 03:52:13 PM

cheers 4 the help guys, i just got a yamaha dd-12 through on e-bay after looking around on youtube, it just set me back £40 though

have you any advice on this model as i dont wanna kill it through in experience?

cheers
brew

Gordonjcp · November 03, 2008, 11:32:53 PM

have you any advice on this model as i dont wanna kill it through in experience?

Something that no-one seems to do is check the voltage between a point and ground before applying it to other bits of the circuit. Make sure you're not about to stick 15V into the CPU!

Get all the datasheets you can, for the chips inside. Good places to look for glitchy messy noises are the address and data lines of sample ROMs, and the data lines going to DAC and synthesizer chips.

brewmachine · November 05, 2008, 04:40:49 AM

thanks,
ill make sure i invest in a multi-meter before getting involved in this one cos i definately dont have the time or money to replace it.

just opened it to have a look at the inside and its definatley the most complex circuit ive worked with yet, so Im gunna take it easy i reck.

does you know whether voltage crash works on this model and how to cause that evil distortion effect which i saw on you-tube that attracted me to this particular model?

cheers
brew