So I've started the process of opening the beast up and getting it ready for some UMR2 MIDI IN/OUT boards from Highly Liquid. I'm going to install one on each of the upper and lower keyboards; each keyboard will have the ability to be a MIDI sound module via MIDI IN, as well as a be a controller keyboard via MIDI out, on separate MIDI channels. Or, I can control the top keyboard witn the bottom keyboard etc. I will have a MIDI patch switch selector that will enable me to configure different arrangements such as these.
The first thing I found on opening up the case is that the DM100 is an amazing keyboard to do mods to. There is a huge amount of space in there for other boards. There is acres of room all over the front of it for switches and knobs etc.
The second thing I discovered that, contrary to rumours and posts that I've read about it, it is not two separate casio keyboards (an Sk8/5 and an MT240) shoehorned into a single case. It contains only one large board. The presets for the upper board are the same as an sk8, and it has 4 sample slots, as the sk8 does. The board has the same RAM chip as the SK8. That is where the similarity ends. It has no SK type drum sounds. There is an area on the board that contains some of the chips from an SK8, and another for the lower keyboard, which has the same sound set as the MT240, but all built on to the single board, so there is no similarity for the address lines and tracks in comparison to the SK and MT. It is its own beast.
I've prepared the DM100 for the MIDI boards when they arrive by soldering ranbow ribbon looms with 16-way plugs on them (floppy disk cable type plugs) for easy connectability. Today, I'm going to remove the sample RAM chip and put a socket in its place, to mount a much larger RAM chip, capable of giving it 16 times the sample capacity of the original chip - so instead of 4 samples, it will have 64 samples, in 16 selectable banks!!
I'll put up some pics of the board and my work so far very soon.
Cheers, Graham