Tandy Electronic Drum synth - how to sample with no audio out?

[Polytrix]

Hey all.

 

Picked this up today at my local give and take place. I keep finding awesome stuff.

 

I've got a zoom h4n and an ahuja dynamic mic and plan to record the sounds from the shitty speakers on this thing but I'm going to be picking up all sorts of unwanted sounds as I hit the pads with the plastic sticks....how can I break this thing open to record the sounds/circuit bend it?

 

Picture of the beast here

 

 

[hoggy]

surely you can just solder a jack lead, stripped at one end, onto the connections to the speaker?

[hoggy]

I suppose to sample the speakers without any stick noise, you'd have to separate them from the body, but then you'd lose the effect of the plastic housing

[Polytrix]

Ah great. I'll try that then!

 

Would I need to make sure there are two jack ends on the non stripped end of the lead so I can get the left and right channels recorded?

 

How do you strip a jack cable exactly and how do I know which cables to solder to? The two cables going to each speaker?

 

Surely the stick noise/effect of plastic housing won't record anyway via this method?

 

Thanks. This is fun.

[hoggy]

well yeah you wont get the stick noise but little cheap speakers give the sound a different effect but maybe you could use sticks with felt on to do a mic'ed recording of the speakers themselves

yeah should be 2 wires going into each speaker

well it's easy to connect a mono jack because there are only 2 inputs to 1 speaker and 2 wires inside a mono jack lead, but I think a stereo jack has 3 wires, so I'm not sure about how to connect to the 4 connections of the 2 speakers

 

anyone?

[hoggy]

oh yeah and you strip wires with wire stippers, but you can sometimes do it with scissors if you're careful and the cable is thick

[hoggy]

I mean my guess is that you need the one going into the speaker to connect to the L and R cables of the stereo jack lead and then either of the ones going out of the speakers to connect to the common, but I don't know how you find out which one is going into the speaker - I guess you could test it by holding the jack lead onto where the wire is soldered on to the speaker and see if you get sound coming through

 

don't do it too loud though, you might damage your recording equipment

[Polytrix]

cheers. It sounds pretty good. I'm surprised really

[b born droid]

Ah great. I'll try that then!

 

Would I need to make sure there are two jack ends on the non stripped end of the lead so I can get the left and right channels recorded?

 

How do you strip a jack cable exactly and how do I know which cables to solder to? The two cables going to each speaker?

 

Surely the stick noise/effect of plastic housing won't record anyway via this method?

 

Thanks. This is fun.

A TS jack has the signal on the tip, and the ground/common on the sleeve connection. I'm not sure if the drum synth would have a corresponding ground signal going out the internal speaker though. But if it did you'd need to make sure you go like for like i.e. don't connect the ground/common to the tip.

 

[hoggy]

Is it actually stereo or just mono with 2 speakers?

[fenton]

A speaker connection is not line level.

[th555]

If you want the actual speaker/body sound without the pad you could try shorting the pad switch.

[Polytrix]

Thanks for all this. As I don't have a soldering iron I plan to just go into Maplin with it and see what they can do for cheap. I have loads of audio jack cables so that'll be fine if they want to strip those.

 

I have no idea if it is really mono with two speakers or actually stereo. It simply says 'Dual Speakers' on the front of it and even if I opened it up, I wouldn't be sure how to tell...sorry, not so good when it comes to analogue stuff.

 

I'll mic it up and see how that comes out anyway as the stick/body noise is part of the reason it sounds so lo-fi.

[Polytrix]

So I opened it up and it is mono output with two speakers. It won't be line level if I attach an output to the speaker connection so I need to identify the amp on the circuit board to then sample directly from that as an output. I have an idea where the amp is located on the circuit board but don't know for sure or what I would need to solder to.

 

Best place to locate old schematics/a manual?

 

Apparently the circuit board is nicely set out meaning it's a circuit benders heaven. I've found a few videos of people who've modded them...I'm getting some crazy kick sounds out of it!

[hoggy]

I dunno dude can't you just record from the speaker input if you keep the volume low?

[Polytrix]

Yeah, I've done that already. I've actually been in contact with someone I found online and they've managed to do it so will follow those instructions :)

 

I can share the final samples if you'd like (although I'm unsure of the legality of that)

[digman]

looking forward to hearing some sounds from the beast

[Polytrix]

Haha, just started to make racks with the mic recordings and make little loops. Sounds kinda rough but cool all the same. Just reverb and delay without processing the sounds beyond that..sounds cool.

[fenton]

 

I can share the final samples if you'd like (although I'm unsure of the legality of that)

 

Not an issue.