Replacing Knobs on an SCI Drumtraks & Ballad of sin by lacedj

via Lace: "The sequential Drumtraks uses common B20k potentiometers (pots). You can buy a replacement pot from your local electronics/hobby store. In this case we used a B20k pot. You simply take off the black caps of the face side, then unscrew the top inside motherboard. The pots are bolted directly to the motherboard. Unbolt them first then de-solder them, their design makes it hard to use a solder sucker so you may need to heat all three pads by quickly passing your soldering iron over them, and wiggle out the pot while the lead is molten. Just be careful not to be too hard, take the time. You can clean the pads properly once the pot is removed. There's plenty of space between solder pads.

Bend the pins upward on the new pot then bolt in place and solder it once it is secured. Screw the motherboard back in, be careful to make it fit. Don't force anything. Close the lid and put the front screws back in. Put on the caps and you're done. Weee. Sequential knobs are tough to find. If you need sequential looking caps, Futurlec sells the closest approximation I have found so far. They have 4 sizes, black and silver aluminium and other styles like roland/boss 80's looking plastic caps, with colored tops. Good for DIY/repairs. On the final shot you see four of their black aluminium pots mounted on the drumtraks.

Drumtraks manage to always sit nicely in a mix. The sounds seem basic on their own, but when played against each other in a live pattern the result shines. It's definitely a machine you want to make a pattern with and record, rather than sample.

I made a down tempo track called "ballad of sin" for the b-side of my next 7" release with the drumtraks and the CZ5000, you can hear both dry together at the beginning. The pumping reverb and effects on my voice are the compressors in the tascam DM4800 being over driven. Regardless of what goes on around, the Drumtraks just sits in there and pushes the whole track through like a John Deere tractor. The beat I made is simple yet the machine's tone makes it very compelling. That's not an easy task for a 27 year old 8bit digital drum machine with no effects."

Ballad of sin by lacedj
"A chill out down tempo track I wrote after a shitty weekend of stress at the club. I used the Casio CZ 5000 with pitch modulation to get the wide moving chords, and the sequential drumtraks for the main basic beat. The beat sample is a reconstruction. The voice sample is my voice treated and detuned in ableton."

Also see:
Trouble by DJ Lace, early version
DJ Lace - This video tape