via this auction
"Classic Roland drum machine from 1980 with 13 analogue drums including: kick, snare, lo/hi toms, open/closed hi-hats, cymbal, cowbell & lo/mid/hi congas. It sounds a little like a cross between a CR-78 and a TR-808. This unit has the full set of Analogue Solutions modifications - MIDI, tonal controls, individual outputs - at a cost of £300. (That was several years ago & I think Tom Carpenter has raised his prices since then!)...The unit has also had the following mods fitted by Tom Carpenter of Analogue Solutions here in the UK:
- MIDI: note on/off of all drums except the 3 congas. Accent is available via velocity - high value on/low value off, amount set by the Accent pot. Accent is only available on the voices designed to respond to it in the original spec - not clap, cowbell, or clave. The mod does not support MIDI Clock or Time Code.
- Tonal: BD Tune 1/2, SD Tune/Decay/Snappy, Clap Snap/Filter, HH/CY Filter, HH Decay, CB Tune 1/2 & Decay, LT Tune, HT Tune. BD Tune 2 does nothing - a design flaw on Analogue Solutions behalf rather than a fault apparently.
- Individual Outs: 6 outputs on 3.5mm jacks corresponding to the 6 level pots with drums grouped together according to original design. The level pots do not affect the volume at the individual outs.
This unit has been in storage for 2 years and on testing, I have found the following problems with the mods:
- MIDI: accent via velocity is only audible over the Main output.
- Tonal: the Filter & Snap on the Clap voice do not function correctly - the noise component (the Snap) of the voice is louder than it should be and the Filter pot does not reduce the noise as it should. The pitch of LT & HT Tune mods can be unstable and can interact with each other.
- Individual Outs: at very high Tune or Filter settings there is some high frequency noise in the voice channels, particularly in the cowbell."
Accent on the CR-8000 could only be available on the main output unless it were to be substantially modified, due to its design. While some machines implement accent by increasing the strength of the trigger pulse, on the CR-8000 it's implemented by simply increasing the volume of the voice mix with a transistor driven by the accent trigger (before cowbell/claves/handclap are mixed in). It would be possible to add/remove various voices from accent fairly easily though.
ReplyDeleteThe behaviour of the toms mod is as expected, there's quite a narrow region of adjustment before the circuits start to interact. I noted this when modifying my unit, as well as the tendency for the cowbell circuit to produce some background noise when modified. I suspect the clap circuitry does not work correctly due to the clap trimpot requiring adjustment after the mods are installed (variations in tolerance in components between machines means each is slightly different).
Hmm... after looking closer I realised the transistor only buffers the accent trigger, the actual accent volume boost is produced by a BA662 VCA chip, which is the same chip used in the Juno-60, Jupiter 4 and 8 etc. These are getting pretty rare and expensive now so good luck getting enough to provide accent for all drum voices in a CR-8000! On the other hand if you are looking for a replacement BA662 and know of a dead CR-5000 or 8000 you might be in luck!
ReplyDeleteHi.
ReplyDeleteI have a CR8000 with the Analogue Solutions Midi mod. The presets work fine, but the programmable patterns cannot be programmed from the front panel. Is this by design or is there something wrong with the unit?