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Alesis HR-16 / HR-16B Percussion Grinder Mods: £70
For many years mankind has been baffled by the existence of the Alesis HR-16 & HR-16B drum machines, mainly due to the fact that the Alesis engineers appeared to have an obsession with doorstops at the time (see Alesis MMT-8 sequencer) and filled it with 49 sounds that sound strangely 'odd' in some indefinable way. Despite this, the HR--16 is one of our favorite bent drum machine along with the Roland TR-727.
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The modifications consist of:
28 way main patchbay: This feature enables the HR-16 to produce some savagely unlikely sounds. The main patchbay consists of 28 minijack sockets mounted on the top of the machine. Connections made between these sockets using standard minijack cables cause all kinds of sound swapping, distortion, pitching, ring modulation, envelope and odd mix effects to be applied to the sounds and patterns. Some connections will effect only one sound while others effect the whole mix. The amount of connections you can make at any one time is limited only by the number of patch cables you have.
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2 Patchable switches: These two switches on the right of the main patchbay are each associated with two minijack sockets each. Each switch can be patched 'in line' with any main patchbay connection allowing you to turn a connection on and off at the flick of a switch instead of having to repatch cables
2X3 way multiples: These two groups of three sockets on the top right of the main patchbay act the same as a patching multiple you would find on a modular synthesiser. Each group of three sockets is connected together internally. This means that any signal present at one socket is also available at the other two. This feature is useful for connecting one main patchbay socket to two other sockets or vice versa.
Click on the buttons below to hear demo mp3's of what these mods can do.
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Yamaha RX-17 Patchbay Mods: £75
The RX-17 mods add a 25 way minijack percussion grinding patchbay to the machine. Connections made between these sockets using standard minijack cables cause all kinds of sound swapping, distortion, pitching, ring modulation, envelope and odd mix effects to be applied to the sounds and patterns. Some connections will effect only one sound while others effect the whole mix. The RX-17 seems especially good at bizarre ring mod and chopping effects on the high frequency sounds. It also comes up with a lot of unexpected percussion sequences on each drum hit i.e. the crash cymbal can start as a crash and then strangely morph into a clap, timbale or any / all of the other sounds in sequence.
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On the RX-17 there is no room inside the case so the patchbay must be mounted in an external box bolted to the front of the unit and connected via a 25 way multicore cable.
The patchbay also includes 2 patchable switches that can be patched in line with any of the main patchbay connections allowing you to turn of any connection at the flick of a switch instead of having to repatch cables. There are also 2X3 way patching multiples which act like an internal Y splitter cable allowing to you connect two patchbay sources to one destination and vice versa.
To hear demo mp3's of the kind of sounds these mods produce click on the buttons below. The first two mp3's are the same drum patterns processed live by repatching connections. The third is a selection of random loops.
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Yamaha RX-8 Patchbay Mods: £65
Yet another vastly underrated drum machine released around the same time as the TR-505 that committed the horrific crime of not saying the word 'Roland' on the front and therefore, like the Kawai R-50, seems to be more or less forgotten despite laughing in the face of the TR-505's feeble soundset and features. You can't help thinking when looking at the RX-8 that the designers were rather too fond of Battlestar Galactica at the time as it seems to hold an uncanny resemblance to a Cylon Warrior, or that could be just us :)
The RX-8 mods are more or less the same as the RX-17 mods above in that they include a 25 way patchbay, 2X3 way patching multiples and 2 patchable switches. The main difference is that on the RX-8 the patchbay is mounted on the machine itself and the modded RX-8 is especially keen on savage distortion sounds and oddly metallic tones. The sounds are all pure 12 bit filth already, but when processed with the patchbay they tend to sound like the end of the world. Atari Teenage Riot / Download here we come :)
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To hear demo mp3's of the kind of sounds these mods produce click on the buttons below.
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We're working on a new contact system, in the meantime if you want your machine modded click the button on the left and fill in the form on the page that opens. |
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Alternatively sign up at the circuitbenders.co.uk forum for the latest information and circuitbending related nonsense. |
