Korg Poly 800 mkII with circuitbenders.co.uk Polybeast mods - part2

Published on Feb 18, 2014 Published on Feb 18, 2014

"Quick demo of editing sounds on a modified Korg Poly 800 mkII. Mods include:

Rotary knob to replace UP/DOWN increment buttons.
Filter cutoff knob
Filter resonance knob
12dB/24dB filter switch
VCF CV input
External audio input
External audio level knob
External audio input signal path switch
VCF FM amount knob
VCF FM source knob
Delay time knob
Delay feedback knob

More details can be found at:
http://www.circuitbenders.co.uk/synthmod/POLYEX.html
http://www.circuitbenders.co.uk/synthmod/POLYII.html"

Also added to Part 1 here.

Korg Poly 800 mkII with circuitbenders.co.uk Polybeast mods

Published on Feb 3, 2014 circuitbenders.co.uk·9 videos

"Quick demo of editing sounds on a modified Korg Poly 800 mkII. Mods include:

Rotary knob to replace UP/DOWN increment buttons.
Filter cutoff knob
Filter resonance knob
12dB/24dB filter switch
VCF CV input
External audio input
External audio level knob
External audio input signal path switch
VCF FM amount knob
VCF FM source knob
Delay time knob
Delay feedback knob

More details can be found at:
http://www.circuitbenders.co.uk/synthmod/POLYEX.html
http://www.circuitbenders.co.uk/synthmod/POLYII.html"

JOMOX XBASE09 TACTILE SWITCH REPLACEMENT

via Circuitbenders.co.uk

"If you own a Jomox XBase09 drum machine, then you've probably noticed that by now some of the red LED pushbuttons / tactile switches, are starting to become a little unresponsive or prone to double triggering. This can make programming the machine extremely frustrating and unreliable. There is also a distinct danger of damage to the PCB under the buttons, as you inevitably pound away on certain commonly used steps pleading with it to 'just f*@king work you bastard thing!'"

next! SPACEBASS 3.3 With Mods

via Circuitbenders.co.uk
Click through for demos. Details on the mods captured for the archives:

"This is the 'next! SPACEBASS 3.3' version (the exclaimation mark remains a mystery), which is exceptionally rare. As far as we know, this version was only ever available very briefly in the US and this is the only one we have ever seen in Europe. Most versions found in the US appear to be imported Freebass' or MB33's, so we'd suspect that very few of these models were ever produced.

Our mods add 5 switches, 2 knobs and a jack input round the back to allow a whole extra smorgasbord of sonic mayhem. A veritable 3 course breakfast of orgasmic analogue delight! Something along those lines anyway :) .

THE MODS INCLUDE:

CLICK FOR MORE »

Project - MONOTRON Acid Thing

Published on Aug 11, 2013 squidfanny·149 videos

squidfanny on eBay (RSS)

"An old project, revived from the dead for a Monotron experiment. This synth was originally a TB-303 clone (known as the FB383), which I sadly killed after getting carried away with some modifications some years back :(
I recently managed to bring it back to life, and despite the permanently damaged tuning scale, it's been successfully combined with a Monotron!

So - The Monotron is triggered by various points inside the tb-303 clone. Non provide accurate pitch tracking, but I can tap into the envelopes, gate & various other interesting spot's.

The fun really happens when the Monotron is used as a modulator, to disrupt and screw around with the 303's internal systems. There's alot of weird modulation and bypassing going on with this machine, the best sounds are thanks to the 'Rezzy/Acid FM' on the 303, which I shamelessly copied from Circuitbenders.co.uk. It really is an amazing sound! Kudos to CBUK.

Sounds ace when the Monotron is used as the modulation source for the FM mod, and at various point's in the vid I'm using digital drums, sent through the Monotron, to act as the modulator.
The result is some fierce acid distortion and noise damage....

This is a 'work in progress'. Definably needs some more work, but the initial results are promising :)

Big thanks Mark for your generous gift of the Monotron :)"

circuitbenders.co.uk Circuit Bent Roland R5 with LED Patchbay

Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.

via this auction

Audio demo at the auction and further below.

"The Roland R5 was a late 80's / early 90's drum machine that was an extremely capable unit, and somewhat ahead of its time, but was overshadowed by its big brother the mighty Roland R8. As a result it was often neglected as a poor mans R8 and was probably never really as popular as it should have been.

The standard machine has 68 sounds, four individual outputs plus a stereo pair, extensive sound shaping capabilities, 16 velocity sensitive pads and a whole host of 'human feel' and groove editing capabilities. One additional feature that takes the R5 into whole new realms of percussion programming is the ability to record parameter changes into patterns in on the fly using the data entry slider. This may not seem like much these days, but other than the R8 and the Yamaha RY30, it was a feature that was pretty much unique at the time.

Theres no room for any decent mods inside the casing of the R5, so as you can see we've bolted an extra case to the side of the unit and mounted a patchbay in it. The case is made from transparent blue plastic and contains several LED's that light up when you power up the machine. This gives you a very cool and unique glowing blue patchbay.

The patchbay mods consist of a 20 way main patching area, 2 x patching multiples, 2 x patchable switches and 1 x patchable momentary button. You can find full details of our drum machine patchbay mods on our website HERE. but essentially each 3.5mm patchbay socket is home to a certain audio process or effect which either combines with the effect from another socket when they are patched together, or sometimes just produces an entirely new effect you've never heard before. Multiple simultaneous connections may also combine in unexpected ways to produce a brand new unexpected effect, giving you a virtually unlimited number of warped alterations and audio mutations.

CLICK FOR MORE »

circuitbenders.co.uk Circuit Bent AKAI S01 with 'Bend Bus' Switching Matrix

Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.

via this auction

Audio demos at the auction and further below.

"For over a decade we have been creating and supplying aural havoc with rewired childrens toys, modified drum machines, abused samplers and audio insanity machines. Our instuments have featured in both DJ magazine and Future Music cover CD and we have supplied and modified custom machines for:

The Chemical Brothers, Factory Floor, Pedigree Cuts, Raiden (renegade hardware / Off Key records), The Plump DJ's, Jacknife Lee, Bloc Party, Twisted Records (Hallucinogen, Shpongle, OTT, Younger Brother etc), Howie Miura (Island / Def Jam), matrix22 (12 Inch Thumpers, Brick records), Groove Criminals, Sweet Noise, Noise Inc and many many more.

TODAYS VICTIM: AKAI S01 SAMPLE GRINDER

The fact that the Akai S01 exists at all is fairly baffling fact as to all intents and purposes it was obsolete before it was even released. A 16 bit mono sampler with 1MB of memory as standard expandable to a massive 2MB maximum, sampling at a maximum bandwidth of 32khz, with no storage options other than a floppy drive, with only one output and only a 3 figure numerical display to edit with. Even the rather odd addition of 2 MIDI in's doesn't save it from being a rather cofusing addition to the Akai range. EMU and Ensoniq must have been pissing themselves laughing when Akai released the S01 for £999 in 1993 (yes you did read that right - £999), but the S01 has the last laugh as our mods have taken its sound mangling possibilities way beyond any other rackmount sampler ever produced.

CLICK FOR MORE »

Korg Poly800 Synthesizer Keyboard with Hawk800 Mods & More

Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.

via this auction

"Korg Poly800 Mark 1 Synthesizer

with loads of mods making an extreme uber synth with full MIDI spec and loads of new parameters:

The knobby hardware mods were professional installed by Circuitbenders.co.uk:

The "Moog slayer" mod which allows extreme filter resonance and manual control: Cutoff knob, Resonance knob, 12/24db switch.
The "FM800" mod : Source switch, FM Modulation depth knob
Audio Input: Level Knob, Path switch, Filter CV socket.
Hawk800 and Atomahawk boards both installed with all these extra features:

full MIDI spec whereas the original Poly800 had none.
Loads of new parameters: 4 LFOs, many LFO shapes, masses of modulation routings possible, free running or not.
Flash memory so no internal battery required.
7 sequencer memories (originally 1).
MIDI velocity sensitivity.
Moog Slayer and FM800 mods also included so they can be MIDI controlled.
Portamento Mono mode.
4 patch banks
and much much more.
All these mods turn the friendly Poly800 into an extremely versatile and deep synthesizer.

The synth itself is in good condition with the usual minor scratches of something this age. Supplied also is a printed Poly800 manual (not original) and Hawk800 manual, plus PSU."

CLICK FOR MORE »

Roland SH-101 Analogue Synthesiser Sequencer+ Mods

Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.

via this auction

"Sh101 Mods
Filter overdrive knob.
Audio input.
LFO rate extender switch.
PWM source selector.
Filter FM controls.
Filter FM source selector.

1)top-left edge= 3-way switch for LFO speed

2)top edge above VCO section= Audio input jack socket

3)top edge centre= key-switch for filter overdrive with overdrive amount pot next to it.

4)centre panel below source mixer= oscillator pulse width source-selector with on/off switch

5)right side cheek= filter FM on/off switch, large source-selector switch and small FM-amount pot.

Link to mods fitted. except cv input not fitted
http://www.circuitbenders.co.uk/Circuitbenders101guide.pdf"

Absolute Extremes MCBC-01 Moog Circuit Bending Challenge 2012 Video

Published on Sep 21, 2012 by deathstarchris
Video of the MCBC-01 featured in this post.

"Josh Felice and I (Chris Blarsky) are proud to enter out MCBC-01 into the Moog Circuit Bending Challenge. We spent a considerable amount of time working out the best bends available from the Akai S01 and believe this to be the best of the best as far as bent samplers. We are not alone in this opinion as www.Circuitbenders.co.uk were the first to attempt bending this particular model sampler and have found it to be superior in flexibility and reliability. We have built upon their ideas and tried to push the limit even further. Along with the ability to midi trigger from an iPad or QuNeo, we have added a couple of square clocks that feed directly into the ram causing all sorts of mayhem. I enjoyed designing this piece in hardwood. I can see after working with wood why Bob Moog liked to build with it. It feels natural and strong. I will work in wood more now that I have had a chance to do so. I have more information available about this unique piece of kit on my audio page located here:
http://www.absolutextremes.com/blarsky/?page_id=15"

iTunes:
Animoog - Moog Music Inc.
iPads on eBay

Absolute Extremes MCBC-01 Moog Circuit Bending Akai S01

From the creators of the Ninstrument & SYNTHBOY+, Absolute Extremes brings us the MCBC-01 custom bent Akai S01 with Keith McMillen QuNeo & iPad dock (click through for more pics).

"Josh Felice and I saw the next Moog Circuit Bending Challenge and Josh suggested we enter in a custom version of the bent Akai S01 that I had done before. (Scroll down to see the original) Credit goes to Circuitbenders.co.uk for first inventing this bend. We took the original bent design and disseminated the best bends and added a few more cool and crazy features. First we have introduced a couple of square clocks that actually feed directly into the ram causing all sorts of mayhem and the other feature was to include a dock feature that would allow midi control from an iPad or QuNeo. You can also sample Animoog straight from the iPad too! I chose to design in hardwood to pay tribute to Moog and their designs. It was a lot of fun working in wood for a change. Video coming soon!"

CLICK FOR MORE »

Dr-110 with din sync and Tb-303 jam

YouTube Published on Sep 16, 2012 by Benjamin Hawkins

"I got the dr-110 din sync kit from circuitbenders.co.uk installed it and time for a little test jam!!! Love it!"

Circuit Bent Yamaha DX100 demos

Circuit Bent Yamaha DX100 demos by circuitbenders.co.uk
"Demo of a circuit bent Yamaha DX100 synth. Features 8 dataline cut switches that prevent sound setup data getting from the ROM/RAM chips to the FM synth chip. When a data line is cut, each voice of the 8 note polyphony takes on a different circuit bent character leading to some bizarrely morphing digital wavetable type sequences."

Circuit Bent AKAI XE8 DRUM MODULE

via Circuitbenders
"The Akai XE8 is an excellent sounding rackmount midi drum module with a grand total of 16 onboard sounds, slots for 2 extra sound cards each featuring another 16 sounds, 8 individual outputs plus a mix out, some excellent percussion shaping parameters including a pitch envelope, and a baffling operating system thats almost impossible to use without a manual!..

As you can see, our main modification on this machine is the addition of a single unit rackmounted patchbay which is connected to the main unit via a 25 way D-sub cable. More details of our patchbay mods can be found HERE

The patchbay has a total of 22 sockets in the main patching area and also includes 2 X Patchable switches, 2 X 3 way Patching multiples and a patchable momentary pushbutton for quick drum fills and spot effects. These extra features offer huge range of extra percussion grinding possibilities.

There is also the addition of a pitch knob that controls all of the onboard sounds simultaneously. This can take the pitch of the sounds way beyond what is possible using the tuning parameters. At its lowest setting the sounds disintegrate into a wall of digital aliasing noise and are barely even recognisable as percussion samples..."

Circuit bent AKAI XE8 drum module by circuitbenders.co.uk

modified / circuit bent KORG POLY800

via this auction

"The mods we have installed on this synth consist of 3 main sections, Filter mods, FM mods and Audio mods.

FILTER MODS:

Cutoff & Resonance Knobs: The new resonance knob can take the resonance well into self oscillation and far beyond what is normally programmable from the front panel. This can produce the kind of screaming tweeter eating top end and subsonic bass that gives these machines a whole new range of sonic possibilities. The filter cutoff knob allows you to perform long filter sweeps for those squidgy burbling analogue lines that you could never actually perform on a Poly800 before now. Both parameters are still also controlled by the normal programming methods which can set the range of the knobs control.

12dB / 24dB Filter Response Switch: Somewhat mysteriously the filter chip used in these machines has both 12dB/Oct and 24dB/Oct outputs but only the 24dB one is actually used. This mod adds a switch to select either a 24dB or less drastic 12dB filter response

VCF CV input: This socket round the back of the machine adds an external 0 to 5v control voltage input that controls the filter cutoff. The new filter cutoff control knob is disabled when a jack is plugged into the socket.

FM MOD'S:

These consist of a source selection knob and an FM (frequency modulation) amount knob. Essentially VCF FM allows you to modulate the filter cutoff at audio frequencies to create all kinds of clanging cross modulation and bizarre alien splatters & sweeps. This effect works best with the resonance cranked up into self oscillation which is where the new resonance knob mod comes into its own. The source selection knob allows you to select one of four sources for the FM signal. These are DCO1, DCO2, Noise and audio input. The audio input takes its signal from before the input level knob so you can use the audio to modulate the filter cutoff but remove the actual audio signal from the mix. The source knob also has an off setting.

This Poly800 still produces all the normal sounds possible with this unit when the new controls are not in use. It runs from either 6 x C size batteries or an external 9v power supply.

Listen to the soundcloud demos below to hear the kind of extra sounds that can be produced using the new mods."

Modified Korg Poly800 demos by circuitbenders.co.uk

Roland SH101 Analogue Synthesizer with NOVA mod

via this auction

"Extend the sonic capabilities with a NOVA MOD which allows extended destruction of the analogue waveforms allowing the sh101 to produce sounds that are not normally possible with a standard sh101. Modulate upto six different sources using multiple waveshapes and frequency modulate waveforms to mess things up completely!!. Why do the mod yourself when you can buy an sh101 already modified?. Still the same SH101 sound but you decide how much you want to mess things up!!. Here is the link to give a little more information regarding the modification:- http://www.circuitbenders.co.uk/Circuitbenders101guide.pdf"

CLICK FOR MORE »

Modified FAT Freebass Demo

YouTube Uploaded by circuitbenders on Aug 18, 2011

"Quick demo of a modified FAT Freebass FB383, otherwise known as a MAM MB33. The YouTube audio encoding has made the really high frequencies go a bit strange, but you get the general idea.

This one has:
VCO On/Off Switch
VCO Drive
Resonance Boost Switch
VCF FM on/off
VCF FM amount knob
VCF FM source selector (saw, square, VCF input, FM input)
Filter Lock switch
External VCF FM input socket
Accent LED
Power switch

Details of the mods can be found at: http://www.circuitbenders.co.uk/synthmod/FREEBASS.html"

Modified FAT Freebass Demo Part.2

Uploaded by circuitbenders on Sep 5, 2011

Demo of some gurgling throaty VCF FM effects from a modified FAT Freebass FB383, otherwise known as a MAM MB33.

"This one has:
VCO On/Off Switch
VCO Drive
Resonance Boost Switch
VCF FM on/off
VCF FM Mode
VCF FM amount knob
VCF FM source selector (saw, square, VCF input, FM input)
Filter Lock switch
External VCF FM input socket
Accent LED
Blue power & midi LED's
Power switch

Details of the mods can be found at: http://www.circuitbenders.co.uk/synthmod/FREEBASS.html"

Circuitbenders CASIO RZ1 MODS

Patchbay, filter and pitch knobs and more via Circuitbenders.

"The Casio RZ-1 is a member of that rarest of breeds, the sampling drum machine. With a grand total of 12 sounds that seem to have been recorded from a passing bus, and space for four short 12 bit samples the RZ-1 was never going to be right at the top of anyone's kit lust list (and there's a phrase you don't hear everyday), but what really makes the RZ cool is its sheer crapness. The sounds punch and flap like someone battering you around the head with a plank of balsa wood, the timing has mechanical 'Daft Punk'ness' written all over it and the tiny amount of RAM assigned to each sample pad can be spliced together into one vast 1.5 second sample! Combine this with individual outputs and volume sliders for each sound, and the kind of weight you could uses to beat wales to death (and yes, we do mean the country) and you have a machine that passes through coolness and out the other side into the realm of uber-cool."

Casio RZ1 pitch demo by circuitbenders.co.uk

Circuitbenders TR505 Pitch Mod

via Circuitbenders

"This mod adds a pitch knob that controls the sample playback speed, and therefore the pitch of every drum sound simultaneously. It can sweep from punchy clicks and blips at the top, to horribly granular crunchy noise at the bottom as the sounds disappear under a wall of aliasing noise. The pitch knob can be used alongside the patchbay effects for some seriously messed up percussion sounds."

TR505 pitch mod demo by circuitbenders.co.uk

Bent Akai S01

YouTube Uploaded by deathstarchris on Jun 29, 2011

"After seeing the guys over at circuitbenders.co.uk bend some of these older Akai samplers, I just had to bend one. CrustyPaul over there got me started off on the right foot. I made a couple more little tweaks and here's what it sounds like. Check out my website for more info and more circuit bent stuff.
www.absolutextremes.com"