Yamaha DD-8

deathbender · April 11, 2009, 02:53:05 PM

Got a DD-8 2 Days ago and already discovered that most "noise-bends" are located at IC-3. Doesn't seem to be dangerous to poke around randomly as long as i shorted pins of said chip. Besides of crashing it once, and having to switch it off and on again, it was unbreakable.

Its very easy to find some "working" connections so i don't need to tell them here, EVERYONE can find them on his/her own, really.

But the sounds that these IC-3 bends produce are a little bit unspectacular... the DD-11 does the job much better (concerning noise drones and harsh sounds). Has anyone bend a DD-8 before and has some hints where else to poke around without the risk of frying?

Gordonjcp · April 11, 2009, 05:50:09 PM

What are the chips used? By thinking a wee bit about what the chips are and what they do, you can often plan your way across the board and come up with good stuff.

Bogus Noise · April 14, 2009, 01:02:28 AM

I remember there were 3 chips in the DD8, one rearranged the sounds, which could make the built in rhythms a bit more varied and interesting, and another that completely mangled the sounds. I really liked this one actually! Unfortunately one got fried.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tANYn878QQw

The fun chip was in the centre of the board, with the pins more spread out than the other two. A patchbay gave the best results here - a few of the pins are connected to each other but you can find out which ones by following the traces, there's still 28 unique patch points to play with!

deathbender · April 14, 2009, 04:02:21 AM

The bends i mentioned where found at IC3 which is labelled XL177B0. The one in the center is IC2 but i don't know what's written on it because i didn't remove the board from the case. At the side of the board is another IC (IC1) with the legs more narrow spaced than IC3 and this one is labelled XM046B0. If anyone wants to know... or just for the records...

Man, that's a lot of bending work the coming days... got 2 Little Smart Tiny Touch Phone Plus, one german, the other one english, a Little Smart Talk'n Lights Radio, a vtech Laptop Junior, several Casio SA-Xs, a Yamaha PSS-7 and a PT-80 to repair for my sister (seems to work but no sound and the speaker is intact... hm...). I should be off and bending now...

Bogus Noise · April 14, 2009, 05:43:21 PM

Yeah... just checked a photo, IC3 is the one... surprised you didn't like the results more! Gave some really random sounding loops - the two vocal patterns at 98 and 99 sound crazy metallic vocoderesque. Combinations of connected helped as well.

And the backlog might be big now, but we're just hitting car boot season - if the pile doesn't at least treble, you're slacking off

deathbender · April 15, 2009, 03:53:25 PM

Quote from: Bogus Noise on April 14, 2009, 05:43:21 PM
surprised you didn't like the results more! Gave some really random sounding loops - the two vocal patterns at 98 and 99 sound crazy metallic vocoderesque. Combinations of connected helped as well.

For my taste and in comparison to my DD-11 the bends all sound much too tame and 'clean'... and the main 'problem' i have (hear

) is that when i flip some switches and hit some pads without the sequencer playing, it just burps out some random sounds, noisy of course but then it stops. When i do the same with the DD-11, i get endless loops of sonic mayhem which grow and rise with each pad you further hit and switch you flip, it's just pure noise fun... The DD-8 just won't fulfill my noisy needs...

Bogus Noise · April 15, 2009, 05:57:29 PM

Fair play! Then I look forward to trying a DD11 myself.

manufactured zero · July 26, 2009, 11:41:07 PM

One thing to avoid like hell on all of the dd's is shorting the vreg on the board. (the three legged black thing that's way bigger than your standard transistor)... This usually spells instant death and will damage the surface mounted ic on the underside of the board. Leaving you with a permanently bent machine. The vreg kicks out 5v at it's output pin (if i remember right) so is the ideal place for you v+ to an ltc pitch mod. I've got scans of 6, 7, 8, 11, 12 & 14's if anyone needs a starting point to bend one of these. 7 and 8's are identical as are 14's and 12's. The only difference i've noticed is the colour of the pads.

One thing i've always considered to be a flaw with a bent dd (with no midi) is how cluttered it all sounds if you're just trying to make an abstract rhythm with some definition. There's no breathing space for individual hits. I got around this by fitting 8 step 4017 sequencers to them.

Take a look at......

M-Z3R0 circuit bent yamaha DD7 3 to 8 step sequencer (pt1 of 2)

To see what they're like with this mod.

A much better machine but there's a fair bit of work involved. Anyone wanting to try the mods is welcome to more info.

wprosise · July 19, 2018, 07:28:51 PM

Quote from: manufactured zero on July 26, 2009, 11:41:07 PM

A much better machine but there's a fair bit of work involved. Anyone wanting to try the mods is welcome to more info.

Way late, but in the off chance that you happen to see this reply, I have a couple questions about how you wired the sequencer into the DD-7 (which sounds fantastic btw)

I think I see the drum triggers on the (former) speaker panel of the DD-7 arranged in a 4x4 grid, so there are four 'slots' for each instrument. Did you just connect the + sides of the piezos to each of the four corresponding banana jacks? Then for the 8 banana jacks that are the steps, are those just connected directly to the output pins on the 4017? It seems like it should be pretty straightforward since you just gotta get the piezos to fire. Or did you have to throw in a CD4016 or something similar to get the drums playing?

Thank you for your help!