Please refer to the
Devil
Fish page for background information on freight, insurance,
turnaround
time etc.
Prices here are in Australian dollars,
which (in August 2004) was about US $0.71.
To the page for 32 Megabyte memory boards for Akai samplers:../smem/ .
© Robin Whittle, Real World Interfaces rw@firstpr.com.au 16 August 2004
Prices on this page are in two forms. Firstly for Australian customers (with GST) and secondly for overseas customers.
Back to the Real
World Interfaces page. Back
to the main
First Principles
site.
ABN 54 367 581 108.
This costs $385 inc. GST (AUD$350 for overseas customers), and is functionally identical to the 32 bank system described for the Devil Fish here. <<<< Please read this page!!!!
The only difference is that the memory mod includes a large, long life, lithium battery to retain memory contents for at least ten years. In the Devil Fish this battery is part of the main Devil Fish modification. This is not a rechargeable battery and it cannot leak. Its life will probably be 20 years or more. The advantage of this is that there is no need to keep C cells in the machine, which means there is no longer a danger of the batteries leaking.
This memory system enables you to drop in beats from the same pattern in other memory banks while the pattern is running. This can be done by flicking the toggleswitches or pressing the pushbutton, and it can be done for one or more beats at a time, in the middle of patterns.
The result is a style of improvisatory live performance which involves dramatic and intuitive dropping in of beats.
Please read the above-mentioned Devil Fish memory page. The simplest way of understanding this system is that the CPU in the TR-606 accesses one "bank" of memory - which is the total battery backed-up memory of the machine. The CPU accesses this "bank", but in reality there are 32 such banks, and you control which one is currently being read and written. A close analogy is that the drum machine has 32 heads, and only one can be active at a time.
I can install a red pushbutton switch, like that in the memory system and the Devil Fish, most likely located to the upper right of the volume control, which activates the accent whenever it is pressed. Cost $33 inc. GST (AUD$30 for overseas customers).
This mod consists of five 3.5 mm mini-sockets – one for each volume control: Kick, Snare, Toms, Cymbal and Hi-Hat. Each output is post the volume control, and plugging a lead into it takes that signal out of the main mix.In addition, as part of this mod, I install a 3.5mm socket which is an audio input to replace the six square-wave oscillators which are used for the Cymbal and Hi-Hat sounds. This is not an audio trigger – it is a sound source for being filtered, gated, distorted and filtered again when one of these sounds is triggered. If you put a bright, continuous keyboard sound such as a chord into it, then you get metallic, shimmering fizzy Cymbal and Hi-Hat sounds which are tonally and harmonically related to the chord. Low input levels result in clear tonality. Higher levels make it fizz and hiss – but the relation to the chord is still audible.
Cost: $88 inc. GST (AUD$80 for overseas customers).
The pushbutton switches of the TR-606 are open to dust, and over time dust compacts in the contact area, leading to flaky behaviour. I can replace all the switches and install a thin, flexible, internal plastic dust guard inside the machine which greatly reduces the amount of dust which gets to the switches. I have been doing this for Devil Fishes since 1993 and no-one has yet reported that their switches needed replacing. I can't guarantee the switches forever, but I am certain they will last much longer with the dust guard than without.Cost $77 inc. GST (AUD$70 for overseas customers).
Please see the discussion of these LEDs on the Devil Fish page: ../dfish/#LEDs . Cost is $77 inc. GST (AUD$70 for overseas customers).
I do not have a MIDI retrofit system for the TR-606. It would be a lot of work and I cannot see a way of fitting it inside the machine.Money, shipping and how to proceedGenerally a TR-606 will need some minor repairs. Repairs are at the rate of AUD$60 an hour. Typical things to do are resoldering the Sync socket, including installing wires so that it it breaks free from the circuit board again, it will still be electrically connected. There can be problems with the power supply's main transistor being overheated due to inappropriate input voltages. Battery leakage and cracks in the circuit board can be a problem too. Battery leakage can cause corrosion of the circuit board and/or the components themselves. In some cases with the TB-303, the pins of memory chips have entirely corroded due to the acidic or alkaline atmosphere inside the unit and the backup voltage which is on these pins.
I have a minor mod to make the snare a little lower and more gutsy. See the DIY section below for discussion of other mods, such as boosting the internal white noise generator for the Snare and Toms.
I do not have any mods for the kick drum or other drums. Certainly, various things could be done, but there is almost nowhere to mount any controls. The TR-606 has an extra circuit board just behind the front panel compared to the TB-303, so a Devil Fish style front panel cannot be contemplated.
I will ship the TR-606 back to you via Australia Post's "EMS" courier service. This is delivered by DHL in most countries, and the package must be signed for. The EMS service is very reliable. There has never been any damage or need to call on the insurance. Delivery times are up to a week, mainly because of customs delays. The best times have been sending the package on Friday afternoon here and having it delivered on Monday afternoon in London.Sometimes there is a headache with customs, and I have to fax the customer or the customs people a long letter explaining how the machine is second-hand and is being returned to its owner after repair and modification in Australia. However this will not always do the trick. European and British customs seem to be charging their local taxes on the insured value of packages. I have never heard of anyone paying customs taxes when a machine comes into the USA.
Please send the TR-606 without its plastic case, and without batteries unless you want to retain the memory contents. Note that the memory contents are lost anyway if I install the 32 bank memory system.I ship the machine well packed in a 32 x 24 x 11 cm carton (13 x 9.5 x 4.2 inches). Generally the shipping weight is 1.5 kg, but if I have to include the C-cell batteries, that takes it to the 2 kg bracket.
I do not yet have a credit card facility, so payment is by a bank cheque written on an Australian bank, or by a direct funds transfer to the Real World Interfaces account from your bank. The latter is much faster and only marginally more expensive. Transfer costs here are about USD$17, but I have heard that some US banks charge twice this. Some US banks are incompetent, in not being able to transfer an Australian dollar figure (only US dollars) and even being unable to tell their customer what the current exchange rate is! Still, no-one has found it impossible, and it doesn't matter if the funds are sent as US dollars, provided the amount is about right. PayPal is probably a better alternative, but their fees and exchange rates mean that I will need to add several percent to the total charge.
To proceed, add up the Australian dollar prices of the mods you want, and then add courier and insurance:
Use the Commonwealth Bank currency converter to figure out the total cost in your currency. This link will open a new browser window, so Alt Tab (for Windows users) back to this page.Courier from Australia to North America is AUD$64. To Japan it is AUD$55 and to European countries, AUD$72. This is for 1.5 kg. If I have to ship the machine with batteries or any plastic case which you send me, then the costs are: AUD$72, AUD$61 and AUD$81 respectively. Insurance to the value of AUD$1000 (~USD$700) is AUD$25. (Insurance is $5 plus $2 per $100 value insured.) For instance, "One with the lot" costs:
32 banks of memory AUD$350
Accent button AUD$30
Indiv. outs & Cym/HH input AUD$80
Switch replacement and dust guard AUD$70
Deep blue LEDs AUD$70
Misc. repairs and Snare mod AUD$40
Sub total: AUD$640EMS courier to Europe / N America AUD$72 64
Insurance to AUD$1000 AUD$25
Total AUD$737 729
I usually have to pay an Australian customs charge of about AUD$50 on each package which arrives from overseas. This is their charge for entering it into their system and deciding that no duty is payable! If you are sending your machine only for a small amount of work, such as just LEDs and switch replacement, I will have to add this to the total price of the work.You can use the following links to find out, approximately, the current conversion rates of AUD$737, (or AUD$729 for North America, because the EMS cost is lower). As noted in the Devil Fish page, the figures include an extra margin so the result approximates the conversion rates from overseas to Australia currencies, whilst using the Aus -> overseas rates in the Commonwealth Bank site.
Country
USA AUD$729 Canada AUD$729 UK AUD$737 Germany, France and other European countries
AUD$737 Then email me at rw@firstpr.com.au to check that all is well to proceed.
I will email you the shipping address. It is best to use a courier service such as Federal Express or DHL. DHL, Federal Express and your Post Office's EMS service are all excellent. Don't use ordinary post, since that may result in the package sitting on my doorstep, and I might not always be here! The German PostPaket service should not be used - Australia Post treats this as an ordinary parcel, with no signature required.
When the machine arrives, I will test it, determine what (if any) extra repairs need to be done, and email you the total cost of all the work, EMS and insurance.
Then you can transfer the funds, which usually takes a day or two, but sometimes up to five days to come through. By then, I should have the enhanced machine ready to ship back to you. In general, this means a 3 week turnaround time from you sending it, to receiving it back – but this depends on my workload.
There used to be a chap in South Australia who called himself Funk Tech Systems who did an extensive set of modifications for the TR-606: His web page was http://www.eisa.net.au/~budfts/ I have not seen one of these modifications.Analogue Solutions has an external sound control box for the TR-606, which is permanently wired into the machine with a ribbon cable .http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~concuss/ .
New - May 2002: Australian Matt Costain has done extensive mods to his TR-606: http://www.confusedmachines.com and has some sound samples there too.
Please think very carefully before attempting electronic work on your own. This is not for people who know nothing about electronics. All the information you need is here – provided you have the required electronic knowledge. Please do not ask for further details! Nonetheless, if you find something here confusing and can suggest an improvement, please let me know.The switch replacement and dust guard procedure is the same as for the TB-303 and is documented here: ../dfish/303-mods.html . This also contains tips on maintenance issues such as the power supply transistor and the positive battery terminal which needs to be bent to make it connect with all batteries.
Someone has documented the individual output mod at Hyperreal, but I do not recommend this approach. ( http://machines.hyperreal.org/manufacturers/Roland/TR-606/mods/roland.TR-606.indiv-outs ). My approach involves 3.5 mm switch sockets, which take the signal after the resistor which is driven by the wiper of the volume pots. For instance this is after R57, R102, R108, R109 and R149 as shown in the schematic at: http://machines.hyperreal.org/manufacturers/Roland/TR-606/schematics/roland.TR-606.schem-6.gif . This way, the mixing bus consists of a wire running along the connectors themselves, rather than the need for a separate wire from each connector to bring the signal back to the PCB for mixing when nothing is plugged into the socket. So you have a common ground wire running to all sockets, a common mix wire, and then each socket has a wire coming from the resistor on the PCB. All you need to do is isolate the ends of those resistors from the mixing line. From memory, this involves a bit of thought, but it is obvious once you have the board in front of you. Just use a sharp knife to cut the copper tracks.
I mount the sockets between and to the left of the relevant volume control, with the socket for the Cymbal / Hi-Hat input mod to the right of the Hi-Hat volume knob. The centre of the holes should be about 8mm above the lower edge of the outside of the case.
The Cymbal / Hi-Hat input mod is straightforward. There are three wires to the socket. Ground, the signal to the socket (its "normally closed" switch contact) and the signal from it (the tip of the plug drives this, if a plug is inserted). When you plug a signal into it, the internal noise source is disconnected and your external signal drives the Cymbal and Hi-Hat circuits. You only need to cut the circuit board track at one point. Looking at the bottom right of the schematic (URL above), you need to isolate the mixing point of the six square-wave oscillators (that which is common to R227, R228, R229, R230, R231, R232 and R210) from the track which leads to C92 and C96. It is quite obvious when you look at the PCB.
There are some other mods, like making the trigger outputs be driven from the Accent and Cymbal rather than the Toms. This is obvious when you look at the schematic.
My Snare mods are as follows: Add a 0.1uF cap across C52, replace R107 with a 470 ohm and replace R110 with a 33k. This lowers the pitch of the Twin-T oscillator a little and boosts its mix level relative to the noise component.
If you are interested in weirdo snare sounds, perhaps you might like to boost the level of the snare white noise source, or provide an external input in its place so you can plug whatever you like into it. To boost the noise generator, put a resistor across R117 (say a 2.2k or a 1k) and then adjust TM3 to give a much higher level. With the TR-808, this can create really loud snare noise sounds and big rumbles in the Toms. At high enough levels, the noise breaks through even when no drum circuit is triggered.
The Accent switch is straightforward. Connect the normally open contacts of a quality switch such as a C&K 8125 SHZBE across the emitter and collector of Q10.
If you need tiny toggleswitches, I highly recommend the C&K Tiny Toggle range, such as the T101 SHZQE solder tail, thread mounting single pole changeover switch, the double pole T201 of the special three position changeover T211, which I use in the Devil Fish. http://www.ckcorp.com/ . Distributors and global parts searches are available from http://www.electronet.com/ . Some useful electronics distributors include: http://www.farnell.com/ , http://www.digikey.com/ and http://www.mouser.com/ .
The TR-808 is an excellent drum machine. I have been working on them for extra memory, and then for sound controls, four levels of accent and later for MIDI since they first came out. At present, I am not organised to do any of these mods, and I am too busy with the Devil Fish and Akai memory projects to work towards TR-808 mods. I don't have any MIDI retrofit boards left, and I would need to redesign it before I attempted to make more. The pots I used for the sound controls are still obtainable, but I am unhappy that they are not entirely robust enough, and so can be damaged if knocked.While I maintain the machines here in Australia which I modified, I do not think it is worthwhile re-developing the TR-808 mods and shipping machines around the world. I would prefer to work towards a standalone TR808 like sound generator, but that would follow a standalone Devil Fish, which is still several years away.
I don't do any work on the TR-909 or TR-707, though I can install multiple banks of memory. Likewise, I have no mods for the MC-303, other than extra memory. Like the TR-909, this memory (say 8 or 16 banks) is controlled by two push-button switches and a 15mm high 7 segment LED display. It is not possible to do the dynamic switching of banks with the MC-303, TR-909 or TR-707 which I can do with the TB-303, TR-606 and TR-808.
