VSS-30 bend points

[Orangery]

Hi... does anyone know of any good bend points for this machine apart from the sample scruncher RAM chip noises? 

[Circuitbenders]

I don't think anyone can afford to own a VSS-30 anymore. I've only ever owned 2 and that was a few years back before the price suddenly went through the roof, i've seen them go for £80 on ebay which is ridiculous!

We haven't got our hands on one that didn't belong to someone else for some time.

[octatone]

it's noisy as hell but here's what I'm working on:

if you have the keyboard open and you are looking at the main circuit board so that it sits in the upper left corner, there is a small single row "IC" pad (i'll call it that because i have no idea what it is) in the upper middle section of the board (you have to flip it over to actually see it).  you can bend from the middle three pins on that (they all do the same thing) over to the pins of the main CPU that attach to the ram chip.  I have a bunch of switches all sharing the path back to that point over to separate points on main cpu IC that also connect to the ram chip.  10 pins produce useable glitches on the preset sounds.  but, they are LOUD.  Squelchy, bleepy, mega distortion, octave jumps, etc.  I wired my switches so that there is only one wire going back to one point on that pad i mentioned before.  lots of tiny wires in between the switches to share the juice.  some of these bends ALSO end up effecting the sample based synths as well.  unfortunately it ads some noise into the path when the glitches are innactive, and I'm trying to figure out how to get rid of it, but I may just keep it as is.

Since I can't find any other VSS30 threads on here.  I'll post some pics of where I've gotten so far with it and some audio too when I get home.  The vss30 is a beast.

BTW.  Anyone know how to get rid of noise from points that are "hot"? e.g. if you touch them with your finger (to a single pin) it adds noise into the signal.  I'm bending from such a point, and unless I switch on to complete the circuit so that the the wire is not just terminating at the switch, there is now noise in the signal (low volume, but still anoying as all hell).

[Circuitbenders]

BTW.  Anyone know how to get rid of noise from points that are "hot"? e.g. if you touch them with your finger (to a single pin) it adds noise into the signal.  I'm bending from such a point, and unless I switch on to complete the circuit so that the the wire is not just terminating at the switch, there is now noise in the signal (low volume, but still anoying as all hell).

Take a look at this thread about noise on an Alesis SR-16:
http://www.circuitbenders.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,456.0.html

[octatone]

Here's the bend point for mashing the preset sounds (it would be that black arrow in sharpie):

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It's really hot, and I actually desoldered that yellow wire this afternoon and moved it one pin to the left to get rid of some noise in the signal.  The pin under the arrow and the two pins on either side of it all create the same bends when attached to the main cpu, with varying levels of noise in the signal.

Leads to the toggles and the patch bay:

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The leads going left are all wired to toggles, while the leads going right all go to a patch bay.

And how I decided to wire my toggles:

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Obviously this wiring alows the toggles to "bleed" together ... which is a good thing

On the front:

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Anyway, that's it for now.

And a quick and dirty mp3: http://www.archive.org/download/Vss-30PresetBending/vss30.mp3

[Circuitbenders]

Whats the component on the other side of the board where you have the point for 'mashing the preset sounds'?

[octatone]

It's an IC labeled AN7410 77.7

If anyone knows what that is, let us know

[catweazle]

It is a FM stereo demultiplex demodulator.
This IC makes a stereo audio signal out of an modulated "mono" signal. Also used in FM receivers
to decode the stereo signal if the station sending in stereo. Strange that it is used in a keyboard

similar part:
http://www.alldatasheet.com/datasheet-pdf/pdf/124406/FUJITSU/MB4105.html

I only found the japanese datasheet
http://www.alldatasheet.com/datasheet-pdf/pdf/135862/ETC/AN7410N.html

[octatone]

yeah, i don't think that's it.  it's only got one row of pins.  it doesn't look likt your standard IC ... and has a tiny metal heatsink comming off of it.  I looked at that data sheet of the AN7140N and it's definately not the same thing on my board (AN7140)

[catweazle]

seems to be an audio amplifier ic. AN7140  not AN7410 I see  
Acts like distortion boxes in their behavior. Like bending a distortion stomp box.

ftp://ftp.neva.ru/.6/Mirrors/ftp.qrz.ru/pub/1unsorted/CD8/an7140.pdf

[octatone]

sweet! thanks for the find.  that explains why the volume level maxes out when you use this bend

[Critical Vibrations]

For posterity, here is an updated link to AN7140 datasheet: https://industrial.panasonic.com/content/data/SC/ds/ds4/AN7140_E_discon.pdf
Backup link: https://www.digchip.com/datasheets/parts/datasheet/353/AN7140-pdf.php