HAXXED OMNICHORD SYNTHESIZER w/ Monotron Delay

+ HAXXED OMNICHORD SYNTHESIZER + for Olly (December 2013)

Published on Dec 19, 2013 HAXXOR AUDIO·38 videos

Note: HAXXOR is Dave Bradbury's aka Squidfanny's new branding. Not sure if it replaces Squidfanny. I shot Dave a message to find out. I did however create a new HAXXOR label for new posts and found one older post I added it to. See the HAXXOR channel at the bottom of this post for it.

Video description:
"This modified Omnichord OM-84 has been infiltrated and subverted using an assortment of DIY circuitry, and a Monotron Delay -

The Monotron is firmly bolted onto the Omnichord, and provides Resonant Filter & Space Echo, and there's a little mixer built into the Omnichord, so that it's individual channels can be sent through the echo & filter.

The Monotron can even be triggered from the Omnichord!

Deep hardware hacking using a sophisticated little Step-Sequencer circuit has opened up a world of weirdness, modulations and custom rhythm patterns.

The Step-Sequencer will trigger a pair of envelope generators, which can be used to MODULATE THE PITCH of the Omnichord & MODULATE THE ECHO RATE on the Monotron. Both envelope generators can also be used the Trigger the Monotron and provide Whooshy synth sounds.

The Modulated Echo sounds amazing....

There's also an array of metal touch-points, which can be used to 'Play' the insides of the Omnichord with fingers...

Other Modifications include a Patch-Bay, which can be used to re-patch the triggers from the preset rhythms (drums, chord & bass), and an extra row of patch-able bolts belonging to the Step-Sequencer; these bolts can be used to generate unique custom rhythms, or just used to add variations to the existing rhythms.

There's also some knobs for tweaking the Analog Drum sounds, and there's powered individual outputs on the back of the machine for the Omnichords separate channels (Drums, Chord/Bass & Harp).

Yep, this one's been an epic project..... Learned alot though, and it's interesting to see how the technology inside has advanced from the original OM-27 (produced 8 years earlier in 1980).
This OM-84 was the last 'Analog' Omnichord, and although the voicing circuits ARE analog, all of the really cool chips/circuits have been compressed into a large ROM/MPU, so sadly they can't be accessed externally - and that means NO GLITCH SOUNDs on this machine :(
Instead, I've gone to some considerable effort to modify the ECHO on the Monotron, to act as a 'Glitch Sound' provider. It works very well, and has an interesting 'under water' style of sounds, which I really like :)

Sorry about the dodgy audio levels in places - recorded this vid late at night with cheap headphones, while the neighborhood was soundly sleeping :]"