quick Mattel Synsonics drum machine demo w/ Midittel MIDI In & tone mods

For the past couple of months I've been working on the repair and modification of a 1983 Mattel Synsonics drum machine. This includes fitting 6 mod controls for the drum sounds, as taken from schematics published online by Richard Curcio, along with a li-po battery pack, charge socket and regulator, and best of all a MIDI input interface (which inadvertently gave it a bassline feature by holding the tomtom notes) based around an Arduino Nano, all assembled on a custom circuit board I designed and had made by JLCPCB, and all assembled at my kitchen workbench. I would also like to give massive thanks to Jarrett Billingsley for helping me immensely with Arduino coding.
At some point I would like to do a proper version of this video showing off the board (because it's very pretty) and internals, with a voiceover and stuff, and that will come in future I hope. I literally jammed my phone under the foot of a speaker on the shelf to film this, recorded the audio to a Zoom H1, and only the phone's wide angle lens would fit it in, so excuse the bench mess while I sort out a camera arm that actually works. The drum machine isn't even fully bolted back together yet.
Richard Curcio's Synsonics documentation can be found here: www.sdiy.org/richardc64/synson...
Schematics and service manual can be found here:
www.burnkit2600.com/manuals/MA...
More Synsonics references here:
www.burnkit2600.com/synsonics-...

[@chrisgadd]

If you sell kits, we will totally buy them!

[@boombap28]

That house beat sounds incredible. I need to know how to do this.

[@marcuspearson6214]

Awesome, I had one back in the 80’s, it was my first drum machine. And after watching this I just went and bought another one on eBay. I had forgotten how good they sound

[@alfonsemusic]

Great mod - I'm a fan of the Synsonics sound anyway, but this really kicks it up a gear!

[@DynamicRockers]

Wow this is a serious mod! You did a great job James. I was preparing the BOM for the mods and was missing the arduino midi interface part. I just sent you an email about that ;) You should definitely record a voiceover visit of the wiring of the machine ;) cheers. Damien

[@gooddogtrainingservices5351]

Omg I remember playing around with this in the late 90s. College 😂

[@iancain6647]

Show it off! Yeah this is awesome. I bought 4 of these so I can try doing something like this!

[@jarrettdoesstuff2318]

And I helped!!!

[@gooddogtrainingservices5351]

This is awesome!! Can you use the pads to trigger midi drums with velocity sensing? That would be rad Af

[@jamesbennettmusic]

Doesn't do output, no, just input, triggered from another MIDI device. You could make one that reads the pads probably, but I don't know that it could do both at the same time. There's plenty of midi output pads around anyway but not many synsonics drum synths after all

[@personalwatching9312]

Hold on, it's it possible to midi clock these????

[@scottloesch6808]

I'm having trouble finding the correct AC adaptor. Any chance you could point me in the right direction?

[@colincheyne]

Hey this is great. I was wondering if wiring is as simple as digital pin out on arduino to pad lead? And would you be willing to share the arduino sketch?

[@jamesbennettmusic]

Sure, drop me an email - it should be on my 'about' page

[@colincheyne]

@@jamesbennettmusic Email sent! thanks!

[@iancain6647]

Any chance I could get this as well?

[@jamesbennettmusic]

@@iancain6647 yep, drop me an email

[@iancain6647]

@@jamesbennettmusic I'm having trouble finding the email...

[@AkAMuzik]

Nice ! Does the midi port work as a regular midi in ?

[@jamesbennettmusic]

Yep, channel 10 and the same drum notes as general midi

[@AkAMuzik]

yarrr ! I think I'll dedust my unit and refresh the percussion contacts !@@jamesbennettmusic

[@Anton-du-Fleur]

Circuitbent?

[@jamesbennettmusic]

yep, info and links in the description

[@bethbitz]

Are u running on batteries or how is power supplied?

[@jamesbennettmusic]

I modded it for a lithium polymer rechargeable battery but it didn't really work out. Now I just stick to AC power

[@bethbitz]

can you link a good ac power to buy? I need one for mine@@jamesbennettmusic

[@Jimonjitou]

Share with the world, bitch, or I'll have to do it