Mattel Synsonics

Circuitbenders · December 18, 2008, 12:12:27 PM

I must have owned at least 5 or 6 of these in my life and yet mysteriously have never got around to modding one, until Mr Chris Pooley asked me to have a go at modding his. After a ridiculous amount of swearing and rebuilding one machine from two sets of parts i finally came up with this:

And a couple of demos:
http://www.circuitbenders.co.uk/demos/synsonics/synsonics1.mp3
http://www.circuitbenders.co.uk/demos/synsonics/synsonics2.mp3

3rdness · December 18, 2008, 02:40:17 PM

That looks and sounds great. what do the controls do?

I had one of these, but murdered it.

Matt the Modulator · December 18, 2008, 02:48:00 PM

Great work i had a go at modding 2 and blew them both up so i got a tr606 instead and bent that but the tr-606 dosent have such punchy sounds? and costs err mmm a lot more.

Circuitbenders · December 18, 2008, 03:28:40 PM

Yeah, it appears that the synth chip is very very sensitive and has the magical ability to die very slowly and gradually.

There is a bit of compression on those demos to even out the volume changes when you turn up the overdrive on the kick sounds but the sounds are whole lot more punchy and less lightweight than a 606.

The mods are:

Trigger input for each sound.
Hi Hat decay knob
Hi Hat open / closed button
Snare decay knob
Tom 1 Decay knob
Tom 1 initial click amount knob
Tom 1 level/overdrive knob
Tom 1 Boing decay switch
Tom 2 Pitch knob
Tom 2 level/overdrive knob
Tom 2 Decay knob

All the kicks you hear on the demos are the modded toms as the original bassdrum on a synsonics is just a blip that can't be adjusted.

computer at sea · December 18, 2008, 05:22:29 PM

Fantastic work, as per usual.

DenDer · December 18, 2008, 08:35:42 PM

Damn nice work Paul...... that sounds really really good.....very useable for techno....i'm in love with the tom sound.
Are the demo's internal patterns or did you sequenced it?(and with what).
What kind of pulse do the triggers need btw?

Circuitbenders · December 18, 2008, 09:12:53 PM

Quote from: DenDer on December 18, 2008, 08:35:42 PM
Are the demo's internal patterns or did you sequenced it?(and with what).
What kind of pulse do the triggers need btw?

You can record 3 patterns on the synsonics, but theres no quantisation. Luckily theres buttons that play each sound on 1/4. 1/8th and 1/16th notes and it'll record when the notes trigger, which is useful if like me, you are crap at drumming.

The triggers need a standard +5v pulse like on most analogue drum machines etc.

DenDer · December 19, 2008, 10:26:04 AM

So its also possible to trigger them with lets say a TR 505 with trigger out mods? So it acts like a drum module?
I think i'm in the market now for one......does anybody have a synsonics they want to sell?

Circuitbenders · December 19, 2008, 11:58:50 AM

that one worked with the trigger outputs on one of my modded TR505's so it should work fine

Signal:Noise · December 21, 2008, 01:51:01 PM

Nice work as always Paul.

ne7 · December 22, 2008, 07:06:23 PM

wonderful

i've actually been trying to buy one of these for bloody ages - are they really really that fragile? or is it a case of just being real careful?

Circuitbenders · December 23, 2008, 02:06:22 PM

Even handling the circuitboard gives you the impression that the synsonics is a bit cheap and shoddy so i'd suggest being a bit more gentle with it than you might normally be. Its also very prone to picking up noise and hum so you have to use shielded cable for some stuff.

Basically its a piece of crap in terms of electronics and construction, but then its probably no worse than the TR606 and TB303 and i'd be a lot more carefull working on then as well.

rhisc · December 23, 2008, 05:54:56 PM

The Synsonics sounds so much better now... and looks really koool, like a prop out of the first Star Wars film lol

I appreciate the time and effort you put into doing this, Paul.

It did take quite a while so if you're thinking about having a go at it yourself, bear that in mind.
And ideally have another 1 or 2 units handy as backup if one dies!

I have another spare one that im thinking of putting up on ebay early in the new year. It's the grey version with black pads, which I imagine is a bit more rare?
Im new here so I dont know if you can send private messages or not, but if anyone is interested in buying this little gem then let me know, and i'll be in touch to let you know when im putting it up.

Cheers

TonMaison · April 27, 2009, 03:20:06 AM

Quote from: Circuitbenders on December 18, 2008, 03:28:40 PM
Yeah, it appears that the synth chip is very very sensitive and has the magical ability to die very slowly and gradually.

There is a bit of compression on those demos to even out the volume changes when you turn up the overdrive on the kick sounds but the sounds are whole lot more punchy and less lightweight than a 606.

The mods are:

Trigger input for each sound.
Hi Hat decay knob
Hi Hat open / closed button
Snare decay knob
Tom 1 Decay knob
Tom 1 initial click amount knob
Tom 1 level/overdrive knob
Tom 1 Boing decay switch
Tom 2 Pitch knob
Tom 2 level/overdrive knob
Tom 2 Decay knob

All the kicks you hear on the demos are the modded toms as the original bassdrum on a synsonics is just a blip that can't be adjusted.

HOLY CRAP! I have had one for 20 years. After reading this post, I took it out and played it for 3 hours.

jochenp · May 13, 2009, 02:57:27 PM

Are the components of these hard to find? I mean IC's and such.
I found one around, quite cheaply, but it won't turn on. I don't know what's wrong with it really, I hope there's simply something wrong with the power circuit (easy to fix), but if there's more to it, is it worth it or even possible?