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[migraneboy]

Another newbie here with newbie questions

I have been bending my Casio SA-35 for a while and have got it to play random loops and glitch with a few push buttons, but thats about it... theres very little about this machine on the net, so I was hoping you guys might now some tricks..

Ever since I started to bend it, a certain amount of hiss was introduced to the overall sound.. not that bad, but if anyone has had success in removing hiss from these things, please tell me how!

Iīve heard people talking about a "voltage crash pot" and  Im wondering  how exactly is it done ?

I would also like to build a pitch control for it, but canīt seem to find the right spot for it.. is it even possible with the SA series keyboards?

[andy_wheels]

the voltage drop is discussed in the other 'sa' thread. it might be different on the sa-35 so you might need to experiment.

the sa tends to do a solid, turning off, crash when you try and short many of the points on the circuit board. the way to get around this is to use a small value pot between your two testing probes so theres a bit of resistance when you connect points. this will help you find rings, distortions and buzzy modulations.

i think all the sa's are crystal locked so pitch control isnt an option. someone can correct me if i'm wrong.

[migraneboy]

thanks andy!!

good tip about using small value pots between the crash points! I was wondering if trimmers work for this purpose .. so I could "fine tune"  the aproppriate level for each crash..

[the_zombiest]

trimmers would work instead of pots but when you're probing a pot is a lot more practical as it has a dial knob and trimmers don't.  For the final soldered bend, I personally prefer to use resistors.  Make a wild but educated guess after using a trimmer/pot and solder a resistor inline.  It works out much cheaper, but doesn't leave any room for fine tuning.

i think all the sa's are crystal locked so pitch control isnt an option. someone can correct me if i'm wrong.

it can be acheived by making an external oscillator.  I got a Yamaha pss-120 to pitch up and down using a 2 Inv IC (4011), it was a royal pain in the arse to make but worth it in the end.  I presume it'd work on an SA casio too.

[sn7ke]

Sa 35 is basicly a pimped SA 5 i think.
So same hardware.
Chek www.natemc.com for a tutorial for the SA-5 !