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The AKAI XR-10 is a suspiciously rare machine, which is odd seeing as it has a set of drum samples that are both interesting and useful. As anyone who has used a lot of drum machines from this era will know, both these features are a bit of a rarity although this may go some way to explaining why they are not often seen for sale. Its also one of those strange machines where samples of its sounds never sound as good as the real thing, even if you sample them using an AKAI sampler, bizarre.
The XR10 patchbay is a 24 socket minijack affair which can grind up, ring modulate, swap and warp the onboard sounds in all kinds of unlikely and bizarre ways. The patchbay means the XR10 is now capable of some savage distortions, strobe gating and nasty aliased pitch shifting which take the sounds to a whole new level of unexpected sickness. Unlike a lot of circuitbent drum machines the XR-10 doesn't just grind up the sounds but is also rather keen on resequencing the patterns with different arrangements and voices.
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Along with the main patchbay there are also:
2 Patchable switches: These two switches on the right of the main patchbay on the bottom row 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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Cheetah MD-16 Patchbay Mods: £70
The Cheetah MD-16 is far and away the most complex drum machine ever made. Basically with the MD-16 if you can think of it then you can do it. Pitching sounds up, down, forwards, backwards and inside out is all in a days work for this beast. Want to set the start point, pitch and gate time of a sound randomly according to 'human feel' velocity? Want to auto pan a drum roll across 8 outputs while echoing the sound to other midi notes? This is your baby! There is very little you can't do with this machine, so its a major pain that not only do you have to program all this via a 2 line LCD display but also that the onboard sounds do tend to be a little 'thin'.
This is not really a problem though as on the plus side all this complexity makes for the best circuitbent drum machine you will ever hear. At circuitbenders we have used a ridiculous number of circuitbent drum machines but the MD-16 is the only one that you can rely on to vomit forth something not only completely unbelievable but totally usable EVERY time you turn it on.
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The mods consist of:
28 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, filtering, 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 MD-16 has so many parameters that its not surprising that it produces some very extreme resequencing of patterns and sound warping with can create some stunningly bizarre effects
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 insane sounds and patterns these mods produce click on the demo 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. |
