Circuit Bending a Roland TR-77 aka Bentley Rhythm Ace FR-8L

Details on the bends on Circuitbenders.co.uk. Interesting bit on the history of the TR-77:

"Why both names you might ask? Well, before Roland came into existence there was a company in the 70's called Acetone who distributed several drum machines of the 'sit on top of your home organ' variety. These machines were mostly firmly in the Rhumba and Bossanova camps, but in the UK they were marketed under the name Bentley Rhythm Ace, which is as good a name as any i guess. Eventually all these distributors morphed into the mighty beast that was Roland in the late 70's and early 80's, but many of their product ranges seem to have been redesigned and sold as Roland machines, often at the same time as appearing under other names. One of these is the Bentley Rhythm Ace FR8L which is to all intents and purposes a Roland TR77 drum machine, the first product ever to bear the Roland name."

You can find an image of the FR-8L in this previous post. For comparison, here is a pic of an FR-6.

Brainwave Sequencer for iPad

"Brainwave is a clip based MIDI sequencer. Bring your melodies and drum beats into life with the streamlined and intuitive MIDI clip editor. Assemble and arrange entire songs with the Arrangement editor. Control up to 16 instruments using the built-in sampler. Use the built-in audio samples to quickly get up and running, or use your own samples for even more creative sounds. Then produce and export MIDI files to be imported to your favourite Digital Audio Workstation software. All this inside of an ergonomic and minimalist user interface that will help get your inspiration to fruition.

Drive up to 16 instruments
* built-in sampler with 16 voices
* volume envelope
* loop points and loop modes (once, loop, ping pong)
* transpose offset to tune samples
* built-in samples or user samples, through iTunes sharing
* drum pad mode allowing for 16 individual samples to be mapped to drum pads
* mixer interface to solo/mute and adjust track volume

MIDI Clip Editor
* 16 ticks per beat
* up to 256 clips per song
* sequence melodies and beats in the clip editor
* sequence all instruments in the same clip
* fine control over note length and velocity per note or for a selection of notes
* copy a note sequence from one instrument to another
* make a copy of a MIDI clip to create new variations
* unlimited length
* looping mode to easily iterate on a clip

Song Arrangement
* quick start with built-in templates
* sequence and layer MIDI clips
* reorder clips to organize the visual layout

Interoperability
* export as multi-track MIDI file to your favourite DAW
* manage songs and samples via iTunes sharing"

Brainwave Sequencer - Alexandre Jean Claude
iPads on eBay

O-Generator - Hey There Delilah - The Plain White T's

YouTube Uploaded by ogenerator on Apr 8, 2011
It would be great to see MIDI out support for this so you could use it to sequence external gear.
"O-Generator Music Maker is an App that can be used as a musical sketchpad to compose, learn, create and develop ideas in different styles whatever your musical level.

O-Generator's simple interface achieves sophisticated results. You can create and combine chords, choose individual notes and develop unique rhythmic patterns for your music compositions using an array of real instruments from drumkits to guitars. The beauty about O-Generator is that YOU compose the music.

http://www.o-generator.com"

O-Generator Acoustic Music Maker - O-Music Ltd
iPads on eBay

Visualizing PWM

YouTube Uploaded by ostrakamusic on Apr 8, 2011

"MKS-80 PWM visualized in the MOTU Audio Express oscilloscope."

ENSONIQ SD1

via this auction

"12 CHANNELS FOR MULTIMBERAL FUNTIONS AS WELL AS FOUR 16-BIT DAC OUTPUTS, WITH A BEAUTIFUL 5-OCTAVE SYNTH ACTION KEYBOARD AND THE EASIEST MOST POWERFUL SEQUENCER EVER INSTALLED IN A WORKSTATION"

CLICK FOR MORE »

Korg Mono/Poly

via this auction

Roland V Synth (version 2)

via this auction

CLICK FOR MORE »

Kawai K3m Rackmount Digital/Analog Hybrid with RC-2 Memory Cartridge

via this auction

The auction states the K3R is a wavetable synth, but it actually isn't. The oscillators have digital waveforms you can select from but they are not wavetables. It does have SSM 2044 analog filters (see this post). It is a nice sounding synth.

"It has 32 waveforms, some of which are samples of acoustic instruments like piano and percussion as well as some unique waveforms. By combining two of these waveforms you can create unique new sounds or add a twist to a traditional sound. Since there are only 32 of these waveforms, the K3 also features a programmable digital waveform where you can tweak the harmonic content of a waveform allowing for added flexibility and range of sounds."

Fender Rhodes Chroma Expander

via this auction

via the description:
"I bought this Chroma Expander in either 1986 or 1987 directly from Fender to use as a backup and programming synth when I was working with Josef Zawinul in all technical capacities. As you can see from the pictures, I added forced air cooling (a fan) to the rear panel and cut an air intake hole on the bottom of the synth adjacent to the power transformer location. I did this mod to all of Joe's Expander's and he had already had it done to his Chroma's. European Jazz Festivals in the summer were not forgiving to his analog synth gear. The fan will run at the same speed regardless of the Mains Voltage selected. Even though we never took this unit on the road with us, it had to be ready to travel just in case.

I have completely rebuilt the power supply. C3 is now 50,000ufd 16VDC rated allowing me to remove the OverVoltage Crowbar circuit and all Series Pass elements have been replaced as well as the rectifiers and electrolytic capacitors. The capacitors have been replaced with 105 degree Panasonic FC or Nichicon types with higher microfarad values. The Dual Channel Voice Card Motherboard has been upgraded as well. The batteries have been replaced with rechargable Li-ion types and the battery holder was replaced as well.

The Midi Converter is from my friend Ken Ypparila at Syntech and is installed internally. I will include a copy of the manual I made back in the day. The midi jacks are not labeled, however, I used patch-bay wiring convention of Send upper and Receive lower...

Shipping will be expensive. Roughly 60 lb.'s and because of double boxing the packaging will be 50 inches X 20 inches X 15 inches. "

CLICK FOR MORE »

Audio To Synth converter on Breadboard

YouTube Uploaded by hesed23 on Apr 8, 2011

"New test.....

Convert audio in this case guitar in to a synth sound with variable PW, triangle LFO speed and depth.
It sound also amazing with voice thru mic or piezo... :)"