Category: News
Moog’s Grandmother is an all-analogue semi-modular synth with a retro vibe | MusicRadar
An old-school synth for today’s generation of producers
Source: Moog’s Grandmother is an all-analogue semi-modular synth with a retro vibe | MusicRadar
Oh, My!
[SOLD] Selling my “itchy trigger finger” Yamaha RX21..
That’s right. The RX21 I bought in a moment of “Buy-it-now” madness is for sale. I’ve had a play with it and it’s fine. Backup battery is working, as it saves whatever I program into it.But it’s not for me. Grab yourself a bargain. (Check out the front page for details)
[SOLD] Synteknik News Update: Electribe sales | Itchy Trigger Finger Syndrome: Mattel Synsonics
Electribe Sales:
I have now sold both my Korg Electribes (EA-1 and ER-1). I got £125 for each of them, and I have to say that it was MUCH easier to sell the ER-1 (drum machine).
Here’s a selling tip: include the spec from the Korg website in the listing. I was on the second relist for the EA-1 when I added this, and it sold for the full amount an hour later.
Mattel Synsonics:
My “Itchy trigger finger” went off again.. this time I bought a “broken” Mattel Synsonics Drum machine.
I’ve always liked these things, but as I remember, the last one I had was very noisy and I didn’t have any way to shut it up at the time.. Pretty sure I sold mine to Shaun, at dubsounds.com, who was compiling a huge collection of drum machines, for sample pack creation.
Anyway, that was then and this is now. The machine would have been delivered on Easter Saturday, IF I’d been in at the time. Nobody else could be bothered to answer the door, so now I have to wait until Wednesday, which is the only late opening for the sorting office.
The one I just bought is rough and non-working, so we’ll see how I get on with that,
No Work Done:
I’ve done absolutely NOTHING on ANY of my projects, (DR-55 / SR-99 / Korg Delta / EK-2). I really MUST get a grip. There are other machines in storage as well.. (M500, SH1000, CZ3000, Big Roland Thing).. the big Roland thing is getting in my way.
Rakit Electronic Kits
Last night, while browsing for something else entirely, I came across RAKITS. They make interesting electronic music kits, such as Drum Synth, Mini Sequencer, Atari Punk console, ect.
I’m most interested in the drum synth, which is a clone of the AMDEK PC-2 from years ago. It has a trigger input, so I can hook it up to my DR-55’s output and use it as an extra sound, but it’s MUCH more than that.
The mini-sequencer looks interesting, too..
There’s a website, but all their stuff is also available on ebay.co.uk (and probably etsy as well.)
The drum synth is £45 as a kit, or £65 assembled. Tempted? You bet!
Here’s the link to the RAKIT store: http://stores.ebay.co.uk/rakit/
Link to the eBay Listing.. (may have changed..)
Australian Flu.
All work has currently stalled due to me having an attack of H3N2.
At least I’ve got the bloody site working again after it all went pear-shaped last week.
Check out the new homepage..
I’ve found a way to separate the News, Projects and ebay listings..
I think it’s rather smart: New Homepage
Technical Issue with ebay links [solved]
I noticed yesterday that all the ebay links at the bottom of the posts were returning a “forbidden” error.
The links were generated by the “wordbay” plugin, which I’ve been using for years, but has now been superceded by something much better. However, I used wordbay as I was in at the start, and therefore got it for free. The new plugin isn’t free.
Anyway, I have taken the decision to replace wordbay with the “fast ebay listings” instead, because it IS free.
I managed to replace ALL occurrences of the wordbay shortcode with “fast ebay listings” shortcodes using the “better search replace” plugin.
Quite clever, even if I do say so myself: these shortcodes are in different syntax, so I translated this in two runs of bsr:
1. replace all occurrences of '{wordbay}' with '{ebay search query="'
2. replace all occurrences of '{/wordbay}' with '"}'
example: {wordbay}tc5501p{/wordbay} becomes {ebay search query="tc5501p"}
* I have changed square brackets to curly ones so it doesn’t get overwritten.. *
Job done. And all the links work.
** this may not sound like a big deal, but if you are looking for up-to-date listings for vintage chips, it’s ideal to have them on a page talking about them, automatically **
Shop: Dealcroydon
£95.99
Ends in 29d 6h
Shop: guru_vaz
£99.99
(0 bids)Ends in 5d 16h
Shop: Ceylontech
£107.61
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Shop: RSPCA HalifaxHuddersfield&District
£9.99
(0 bids)Ends in 4d 11h
Shop: Rhythm Active Store
£15.29
Ends in 25d
Shop: Rhythm Active Store
£15.29
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£62.00
(6 bids)Ends in 1d 14h
Shop: gibson craftwood
£95.00
Ends in 24d 5h
Shop: British Heart Foundation Shop
£9.99
(1 bid)Ends in 18h 49m
Shop: Rhythm Active Store
£18.08
Ends in 19d 4h
The ‘mare continues..
I ordered a replacement battery holder for the DR-55.
Firstly, it’s too long. I can force it into place, but need pliers to get it back out. Not ideal.
I’m going to have to swap it out with the version without the pp3 battery clip.
But that’s not the worst. The DR-55 doesn’t work!.
It will play the hats. That’s it, though.
No attempt at programming it works. It goes through the motions, but there are NO SOUNDS.
I’m going to try replacing the 4011 chip. That usually works on these machines.
Watch out for a feature on it..
News Update | Boss DR-55 | Casio CZ1000 | Yamaha PSS 560 | Amstrad NC100
News Update
Aargh! I’m having a ‘mare!
Boss DR-55
I came across my mint DR-55 in my drawer at work. I haven’t looked at this for maybe 8 years!.. Got it home and the bloody battery holder is missing.. I must have “borrowed” it for another machine. I have ordered a couple of spares.. Check out the photos.. Note the condition is amazing. Even the battery cover is there – these are usually missing. I’m going to look at 3d-printing these..
What’s in the box?
Free Stickers!
This goes on the back..
Sample Rhythms
Instructions
Mint Condition
This is where the black sticker goes.
Amstrad NC100
I found an Amstrad NC100 PSU in the same drawer. Works great, but the NC100 does not. Damnit. Opened it up using my new mini-electric-screwdriver and this.. Black and Decker, none of your cheap and nasty rubbish.. So much easier! However, I was surprised to find surface-mount components in a machine this old, and no obvious fault. Curses.
Cheap PSUs | Casio CZ1000 | Yamaha PSS 560
I found a local store that sells cheap multi-voltage PSUs.. (£5) – I’ve used these before, on drum machines, in fact I sold my last one with a Yamaha RX, but they don’t seem to have enough oomph to power either the Yamaha or the Casio. Damn*2..
Does anyone know what rating the Yamaha or Casio power supplies are? Answers on a postcard, or even better, leave a comment. Please!
** I did get a very quiet sound out of the Yamaha at 7.5v, but when I upped the voltage to 9v, nothing.. NADA. Arse. The power output decreases with voltage on these..**
I really should just get on with the Delta, and stop messing about.
£123.00
(7 bids)Ends in 5d 17h
Shop: Music Sound Tokyo
£160.30
Ends in 21d 11h
