Sequential Curcuits TOM

[LB]

Anyone ever tried this one?
I'm thinking of grabing one this summer.

[Circuitbenders]

I've not tried one mainly because they sell for a lot more money than they are actually worth but it seems like they should be bendable.

Although the sounds are on removable EPROM's aren't they? That could mean it might  be a little easy to accidently corrupt the sound data.

[Gordonjcp]

Why would the sounds being on EPROMs make them more easily corruptible?

In any case, the real fun with these is blowing your own sounds.

[Circuitbenders]

Why would the sounds being on EPROMs make them more easily corruptible?

I was talking to a guy who used to work for the repair company Cimple Solutions about this a while back and he was saying that when they got machines in for repair with old EPROM's in them the fault was almost always corrupted EPROM data as the original chips from older machines like the sequential tom are very sensitive.

I'm assuming he was talking about the original chips and not any modern replacements that you could blow your own sounds onto, but it seemed like a good idea to point out a potential risk there.

[Gordonjcp]

Hmm, sounds unlikely to me, unless people have been badly mishandling the EPROMs.  One thing to watch is that they do forget what's programmed into them, but only after a very long time.  Basically an EPROM works a bit like dynamic RAM, by having the gate capacitance of a FET charged up or not depending on how the bit is set.  Over a (very very long) time, this charge will leak away.  We're talking decades here, though.

[Circuitbenders]

Hmm, sounds unlikely to me, unless people have been badly mishandling the EPROMs. 

That seems entirely possible. Weren't the EPROMS on the sequential tom designed to be swapped out for new sounds anyway. Or am i thinking of that Oberheim machine............

[Gordonjcp]

They are on the Drumtraks at least - there's even a little "bonnet prop" when you open the lid to stop it dropping shut on your hands when you're inside it.  The chips are in normal sockets - presumably you either weren't meant to change the chips often, or you were meant to fit your own ZIF sockets if you were in there a lot.