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[Circuitbenders]

Heres the latest in my assault on the world of Akai, the Akai S2000. Theres 9 x 3 way switches in a 'bend bus' configuration (see here for more details http://www.circuitbenders.co.uk/bendbus.html)





Theres some audio demos here:
http://soundcloud.com/circuitbenders-co-uk/sets/circuit-bent-akai-s2000-demos

With only 18 connection points there didn't seem much point going to the effort of building an external patchbay. In that two of those connection points that create the best effects are Ground and +5v, which you'd never want connected together anyway, you'd have to sacrifice at least one of those with a patchbay. Theres nowhere else to mount anything on the front panel apart from the small space about the floppy drive.

The only real problem with this thing is that unless you are very careful you do keep having to reload the samples as some switch combinations are a little on the destructive side. This isn't really an issue though as its pretty easy to add an internal SCSI connector to the main board as theres space for it, just no connector in place. You can mount a hard drive inside pretty easily and reload your samples in about 5 seconds if they are irretrievably destroyed but the switches.

[Dylan]

Sounds great man.

[noiseybeast]

Are you using any RAM sticks in the S2000 with the bends or are you bending the internal memory? Or are you bending points on an empty SIM socket like GordonJCP suggested

[Circuitbenders]

I'm using the solder points under the board where the RAM slots are soldered in. That way you can still have 32MB in it if you want.

I guess you could use the onboard RAM as its connected to the same points, but its surface mount and i found it a lot easier to go from under the board.

You can find the pinout for 72 pin SIMM memory here http://www.interfacebus.com/Memory_Modules_72Pin_SIMM_PinOut.html

[noiseybeast]

I'm using the solder points under the board where the RAM slots are soldered in. That way you can still have 32MB in it if you want.

That's smart.

You can find the pinout for 72 pin SIMM memory here http://www.interfacebus.com/Memory_Modules_72Pin_SIMM_PinOut.html

That's awesome!

[noiseybeast]

Congrats on the sale, BTW.  Do you think it was worth the amount of work you did with it? 

[Circuitbenders]

I'd have been quite happy to see it go for less. To be honest i think that the S01 is a far better circuit bent sampler than the S2000.

[noiseybeast]

I ask because I ended up with three-I bought the first and hated it. It broke and I bought two for parts cheap.  Now they all work and I NEVER use them.  I keep thinking someone will buy them from me for lots of money.  I know it won't happen, but you've made it at least a LITTLE easier to move them.

[selfpreservation]

I ask because I ended up with three-I bought the first and hated it. It broke and I bought two for parts cheap.  Now they all work and I NEVER use them.  I keep thinking someone will buy them from me for lots of money.  I know it won't happen, but you've made it at least a LITTLE easier to move them.

i love my s2000 i bought it bitd for a fortune about £800 and then the extra outs and fx which were about £400 each or something and it handled all my sampling  and all my drums for years with never a hic-cup,yes its a pain to program on that small screen compared with a 3000xl or something but we just couldnt afford anything else at the time and it sounded great,  still use it today when i want that akai sound that i know you all love  use battery for most sampling now

[Circuitbenders]

  I keep thinking someone will buy them from me for lots of money.  I know it won't happen, but you've made it at least a LITTLE easier to move them.

hahaha !

Glad to be of assistance, although i do think the one on ebay went for a little more than its actually worth. Thats ebay for you though i guess.

These days i guess the main reason people buy S2000's is so they can pull out the FX cards and output boards and stick them in an MPC2000XL. For some reason you can get an S2000 with the output board and FX card installed for less than the price of just the FX card on its own!

[basshell]

any chance you can post pictures of the insides.?

[Circuitbenders]

Theres not really anything exciting to see inside in the way of bends. Theres nothing that you could really work from anyway, just a cluster of wires running under the main board from a hole in the back of the front panel chassis.

As i say, if you wanted to do a similar mod just locate the underside of the memory slots and try shorting the pins together using that pinout i posted up there as a guide. Just avoid shorting the +ve to the ground and you should be alright.

[dislocations]

I have an S2000 too! Cost me £930 many moons ago.......how times have changed!

[rrooyyccee]

Hi folks,

My first post. I've recently bent a Kawai K1 and HR16 and so now am taking on an S2000 that was given to me for 25$. I plan on using a breadboard as a patchbay.

I have a question for the experts here on appropriate pins for cross-contacting. There are some pins that are not ground, rail, data, or address but have the labels "strobe" and "parity". Are these fair game for bending?

Also...I know that there are some recommendations for connecting the data/address pins to ground...what happens when you connect data and address points, or data and data points, etc.

Thanks!

rrooyyccee