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The Casio RZ-1 is a member of that rarest of breeds, the sampling drum machine. With a grand total of 12 sounds that seem to have been recorded from a passing bus, and space for four short 12 bit samples the RZ-1 was never going to be right at the top of anyone's kit lust list (and there's a phrase you don't hear everyday), but what really makes the RZ cool is its sheer crapness. The sounds punch and flap like someone battering you around the head with a plank of balsa wood, the timing has mechanical 'Daft Punk'ness' written all over it and the tiny amount of RAM assigned to each sample pad can be spliced together into one big sample (about 1.5 seconds). Combine this with individual outputs and volume sliders for each sound, and the kind of build quality you could uses to beat wales to death (and yes, we do mean the country) and you have a machine that passes through coolness and out the other side into the realm of uber-cool.
The RZ-1 mods consist of two main patchbay areas, one for the built in sounds and one for the sampled sounds. Each patching area consists of 16 patchbay sockets. Connections made between sockets in the upper preset sounds area will cause all kinds of ring modulation, sound chopping, distortion, resequencing and general weirdness to be applied to the preset sounds. The sampled sounds are not affected. When the lower patching area is used the same kind of effects are applied to the sampled sounds and the preset sounds aren't affected. It is also possible to patch from the preset area to the sampled area to that the built in and the sampled sounds affect each other with bizarre splicing and re-triggering effects.
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Below the main patchbay there are also:
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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Casio RZ-1 Tone / Filter knob Mods: £20
Another thrilling feature of the RZ-1 are the 'tone' knobs that act as a kind of low pass filter for the banks of samples, one knob per two samples. For some reason Casio in their infinite wisdom chose to implement these controls as two minute knobs on the back of the machine. The main problem with this being both their inaccessibility and the fact that the pots tend to fall apart through over use.
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This mod brings the tone / filter controls out to knobs on the front panel giving far more accessible control. Demos of this mod in action can be heard on the mp3's above.
| RZ-1 MODIFICATION DEAL: If you want both the patchbay and the filter knob mods installed on your RZ it costs £85. A saving of £10 on the the normal price. |
Korg DDD-1Patchbay Mods (without sampling option): £65
The Korg DDD-1 (that's Dynamic Digital Drums or some such nonsense) is another one of those dirty 12-bit drum machines that ooze filth from every orifice but could be seen to have been produced to compete with the Roland TR-707. Along with the Kawai R-100, the Cheetah MR16 and the Casio RZ-1 this machine comes from the last era of totally over-engineered drum machine monsters before the likes of the Alesis SR-16 and the Boss DR-550 made the drum machine sterile and painfully dull.
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The mods consist of:
24 way Drum Destruction patchbay: This is a minijack patchbay mounted on the front of the machine. When connections are made between the sockets using minijack patch cables the sounds from the machine are ground up and transformed with ring modulation, bit crushing, sound splicing, distortion and all kinds of unexpected effects. Each connection produces a totally different effect or a variation on another effect and multiple connections can be made at any one time for further percussion mangling options. The DDD-1 is rather keen on fat grinding distortion effects and ring modulated tones but also comes up with some strange random grooves through sounds getting spliced and sequenced together.
2X3 way patching multiples: Two sets of three sockets which are connected together internally. Basically each multiple allows you to connect one patchbay source to two destinations on the main patchbay further multiplying the sounds available.
2X Patchable Switches: these are two switches connected to two sockets each. They can be patched in line with any main patchbay connection to allow you to turn an effect on or off at the flick of a switch instead of having to repatch any cables.
For mp3 demos of the kind of grinding percussion sounds these mods produce click on the demo buttons below.
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These mods currently only apply to DDD-1's without the sampling option installed. If your DDD-1 has the sampling option and you want it modded please get in touch as we can offer you a good deal on prototyping your machine
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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. |
