Ruining My Most Valuable Drum Machine - CR78 -

[@LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER]

name a drum machine i should ruin

[@alpuhagame]

Behringer EDGE! Or Moog DFAM? I'm broke so I'll buy first one but I think they both sound cool. By the way you're my inspiration to dive into world of synthesis, as a hobbyist guitarist 🎸 Thank you for all the demos!

[@8uyhghggfcmjt]

theres a old yamaha thing from late 90s with square green pads , its about the size of a akai sampler ,,. i had one and sold it years ago ,,i cannot tell u the name but im sure their aint many yamaha drum machines with green finger pads oh it was black /green ..id just like to see if their still alive or they might be a rariety. similar to ry 20. but more like clunky ,,.or an old alesi their just as annoying

[@DiomedeGap]

Mattel Synsonics

[@Nervejam]

DR55

[@snag1508]

Akai Rhythm Wolf

[@_o-]

I think you made a beautifully elegant modification with the switched jacks. Having the outputs in the back like that can only be called a massive improvement. Those that complain about it don't understand the value of these devices and look at them as just a collector's object rather than a musical instrument.

[@diggabledork]

Yeah exactly. Thanks.

[@SeverityOne]

Well, there is something to be said for both. As long as there are unmodified CR78s, as a sort of museum piece, it doesn't really matter if someone improves theirs. People can have different reasons why they collect vintage gear, and will have different perceptions. That's fine. Not everybody is the same.

[@henriknykvist]

Improved, not ruined and the song is great

[@RichardFraser-y9t]

Sam, you are crazy.... in a really good way

[@jamisondonald384]

Watching you drill holes over the exposed electronics was way more alarming than anything else. The end result is grrrreat

[@klausy7769]

oh yes, that makes some pain! Never mind! :-)

[@McHale72]

"No disassemble!" - Johnny 5

[@massminer2343]

Jonny 5 is alive!

[@riggidyboo]

“Need input” - Johhny 5. Sam adds more outputs.

[@aserta]

Yo mamma was a snow blower!

[@ASBO_LUTELY]

You're never old enough to remember that film !

[@inthefade]

GREAT 80s reference

[@NicStage]

Nice! Doesn't feel ruined to me. Still does what it used to do, and now a new thing. :)

[@brunovalente2077]

amazing, everything looks so straith forward and simple with you, due your experience and hard working it is really indeed, simple. You're a Genius to me.

[@schlaflabor1]

Hey Sam, really love this video and your new toy, the reel-to-reel. .Thanks for sharing your recording process. It´s really cool to see you just recording stuff and not getting lost in any fx and gear sidequests. just pure producing :-)

[@TheFujac]

oh for sure....that was definitely interesting and entertaining....inspiring too

[@kvmoore1]

That CR78 sounds great with the modifications and that song you've created at the end sounds lovely! I admire your technical expertise in electrical engineering and electronics as well as your musical talent regarding synthesizers. Keep up the great work!

[@DaftyBoi412]

Sounds sooo much better like that! Nice work man.

[@fmoll8748]

Hey Sam, don't care about the modding personally, but hope none of those delicious metal shavings found their way into the circuit xD. Appreciate you banging out stuff at this speed.

[@rzerobzero]

I've watched this video like 4 times. I think it is your most perfect video to date. The editing, the timing, the length; the quick and painless, but thourough detail of how the mods work. Right into the fantastic demo (using the 16th channel as a sync clock!). IDK, maybe I just loved the idea, or maybe, even with a decent amateur electronics background, I never though something like this would be this straightforward (I'm not saying simple). Regardless, great work.

[@Lazored1]

even though limited and inconvenient, it looks fun to work with reel to reel

[@germancaperarojas4023]

What an electronics wizard you are. The song is extra great and beautifully crafted. And the mod in the CR78 is super handy in the right hands, off course. I can hear that intro of Blondie's mega hit, Heart of Glass, embedded at the heart of the machine. Keep the excellent work Mr. LMNC!!!

[@doublebass5y]

That is an awesome track man. Totally love the Tascam banging into the red with no distoshion. Dark genius dude.

[@TheEPROM9]

Best thing to do is mod your stuff to do exactly what you want. You are loving that new tape machine.

[@williamolsen20]

You have giant balls dude, I would be so afraid of doing that to a vintage piece of gear like that. Kudos to you!

[@AppleKid]

Thanks!

[@commodore74]

Excellent stuff!

[@SamHarrisonMusic]

The tape saturation really helps the sound :) feels like a level up!

[@marvelherman419]

Always so much fun watching your shows.

[@sachiperez]

watching you pluck those sounds out of the hardware blew my mind! I'm currently teaching myself electronics and just started creating oscillators. this video is giving me dreams of building a simple drum machine. thank you!

[@nicoracien1924]

For my wife and I, THE MAGNIFIQUE is her Yamaha grand piano. Good tune my men, keep it up. I wish I had your creativity

[@pablowentscobar]

"I'm gonna do the noise track, the Ssswicchhhh Ssschawooo" Are those technical terms? Very nice.

[@AMOKIAN]

🤯like always! Wishing you continued success with your museum, machines & contraptions.

[@jkuebler89]

So cool to witness your process in creating a song!

[@MrSlipstreem]

Some may call this sacrilege. Some my say it had to be done. I'm in the latter camp. If it ain't broke, unbreak it some more!

[@HenritheHorse]

You definitely made it better and more useful!

[@palma_smm]

Las máquinas, el proceso, tu relato, el resultado... extraordinario!

[@danniielle]

Simply absolutely bloody epic stuff Sam! We are peas in a pod my friend! CR78 is probably my all-time favourite drum machine too. I love that you dive in and mod expensive classics like this to make them more useful. They're tools after all, and anything that makes them more useful for actually making music makes sense to me. I'm no stranger to modding rare and expensive gear either. I modded some parts of my Roland System 700 sequencer to make it fit in with my workflow better. I've used that sequencer on pretty much everything I've released over the last 30 odd years.

[@roave_music]

Amazing, cheers

[@inthefade]

I haven't been keeping up on this channel and it is so inspiring, I feel dumb for not following this and other music channels the last 4 or 5 months. This was excellent

[@nicok5630]

Those CR78 were used a lot in disco/funk. They really groove.

[@Knightsnare]

Amazing journey through the schematics, thank you!

[@tobiverseofficial]

Such a fantastic song! Am I starting to hear a „Berlin influence“ in your sound? So dark, I love it! All the best, Tobi

[@taab295]

Bro we will not even try to call you crazy because you already are crazy, but in a good way and we love it! Keep it coming bro! 🥂

[@ZoneKei]

Nice, definitely worth it for the modifications!

[@videomentaryproductionschannel]

Fantastic I love watching you make your tracks an artist at work the finished track is great even more so when you know what went into making , love it thanks for sharring

[@robocelot]

CR-78 owner here (1 working, 2 dead for parts). Never done the individual outputs mod -- to be honest I have nightmares dealing with the wire wrap posts for the sequencer board that I swore I'd never open my working one again after MIDIfying it. You've convinced me the individual outputs are worth doing. One other interesting mod might be a multiturn/Vernier pot for the tempo for fine control -- you can see one on Dr. Mix's CR-78. Not sure if it's a multiturn pot or it's just the knob that's fine control.

[@piynubbunyip]

Try using a mini din socket to rout the outputs through one of the unused sockets. This way you don't need to drill any holes. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mini-DIN_connector

[@mxslick50]

@@piynubbunyip That won't work as the outputs are hard tied together on the mix bus so you won't get any separation. You have to do it exactly as Sam did in this video so you can extract each sound separately.

[@piynubbunyip]

@@mxslick50 but the breakout box has the switching sockets. all the din socket does is let the wires leave through a smaller hole to the breakout box where the holes are drilled. It is identical to Sam's electronically but instead of the wires going to the sockets inside the unit they pass through the socket to the breakout box.

[@mxslick50]

@@piynubbunyip There are not enough pins available on the din socket to send the signals, return them to the bus and provide a signal ground point. And they do not make DIN sockets that can interrupt the path like the 1/4" jacks do. You said nothing in your first post about any breakout box, and second, the internal constriction of the CR-78 has ALL of the signals' outputs tied to a common solid bus, so a simple tap to each won't work unless it is wired EXACTLY as Sam did, to interrupt that common tie to the bus. And there were no "unused sockets" on his CR-78, and the way he did it allows the original output to be used.

[@piynubbunyip]

@@mxslick50 three wires per instrument right? Mini DIN 10 pin would give you three instruments and the other untouched mix bus instruments would leave via the main output. I didn't bother mentioning making a break out box with the switched sockets wired up, or the number of instruments coming out. Supposedly John Fox used carefully tuned gates to get the CR-78 on Metamatic to be sent to different tracks.

[@0xphk]

Stunning journey, thank you and much love

[@kenschestok9515]

sounds so good!! got to see that baby in action in London and Bristol ... it (and you and hainbach) rocked the house! dont forget to turn off swing!

[@dillipphunbar7924]

Gr8 mod to the cr78....your mixing desk and tascam reel2reel really add quality to your already excellent studio/jam space. Cool track.

[@andrewrichardsuk]

I remember seeing and playing with this machine at our local music shop (Carlsboro) in the early 80s. That very Christmas my parents got me a cheap drum machine (boss dr rhythm) and a small peavey amp n speaker! ... i was hooked in seconds! ❤

[@petersontaylor2000]

Fuck! This mod is really awesome, man! Nice work again.

[@joancatsthorpe8130]

Bless you for liberating the crickets! I love the sounds. Your tape treatment is very nice. Would be lovely to hear resampled. :) Could you please do a dive into the combinatorics of having multiple preset button pressed? What is going on there in terms of potential variations? Is it really as vast as it seem? I mean, I think we are looking at the beginnings of a generative drum AI! I'm also curious how they came up with the rhythm patterns and how they achieved them technically. Imagine the Japanese engineers studying salsa and tango records and going to dance clubs to research! Hearing the ancient rhythms with new sounds helps to broaden our understanding of rhythm, I think

[@hjd3481]

very cool that with a few modifications you've given it so much more range and functionaility !

[@umbertoyltp]

Around 1980 a friend of mine hooked this Roland drum machine to his BBC Micro computer (Midi was not yet a standard) to bypass the poor internal programming, fully operating from the BBC output ports to obtain complete freedom.

[@LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER]

yeah makes sense! you could trigger each of the drums from the parallel port of a bbc

[@AquarianSoulTimeTraveler]

​@@LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTERneeds more swing... Lol

[@inthefade]

I love the soft BD on these old machines with nearly no snap and click on the attack. Then the hissy HHs and SD are just so pleasant. The toms appeal in the same way as the BD... The CR-78 is just perfect. Cool mods though!

[@drumnotdrum9262]

Nice trick feeding a clock thru the desk mixer 🤯 Elementary my dear Watson! Sometimes my own daftness surprises me 😁

[@GuyPerson-jt9tv]

I love that track you just wrote!

[@dinkc64]

That's really quite a nice mod! I dig your song, too!

[@tzed2509]

You're a brave man! Sounds good.

[@leninrockstar2510]

17:36 its seems like some kind of ending... the end of something. and as we all know, the end of something means the beginning of something else. I want to express my recognition. you're impressive. Thank you

[@adadinthelifeofacyclist]

Superb mod, and you sir are a maestro

[@cmdrredhawk]

1 minute of any part of this video shows the unmeasurable amount of talent, skill, and knowledge you have. Going from nothing to a song like that is overwhelming to the musically ignorant like me.

[@stoatystoat174]

Sounds great through that mixing desk

[@gaspardorion9332]

Happy to be alive, to witness you through all this.

[@aklef]

Sam, this is one of the coolest music videos I've ever seen. You rock man

[@AxelWerner]

SICK SOUNDS!

[@HamiltonMechanical]

i am so glad you make youtube videos :) this is fucking great man

[@StephenMcLeod]

1:48 love it.

[@sylvesterbaldauf8218]

thanks so much for the grate vids , you did really inspire me to create music myself

[@notthesame3606]

I somehow love the CR78. It's so minimal. Your track in the end is fantastic!

[@Mr.Mint3003]

Nice trancey vibe on the end track ! Thanks

[@thevoidedwarranty]

Sounds so clean

[@RaccoonHenry]

"how dare you modify this thing YOU OWN to better suit YOUR NEEDS!!!" I don't understand people...

[@palsheldon6520]

Love this mod of the old CR 78...

[@WayneLambrightIII]

That new reel to reel is coming in handy, well done on your music creations.

[@EdGreenTO]

Other KZbinrs wouldn't dare title something "ruining" but here it's used like as in, as some adults might say, "wreck my a$*" 🤣 great vid as always !

[@ares395]

I've been watching you for years by now and I still have no clue about synthesizers or music (always wanted to get into music making but alas it's not meant to be). I might as well be looking at a spiderweb, those schematics look horrendous haha. But watching someone passionate about something is just my thing. Not to mention that I'm just jelly in general how many projects you undertake AND finish. That's insane to me. Cheers Sam. That song is juicy. Reminds me a bit of Kraftwerk. I think it's the bassline. I'm really liking that sound, that ms20 is awesome.

[@tahajfirst6836]

That trick of using that hi hat type output track to trigger the sequencer is genius

[@DaveMenkehorst]

Sounds great!

[@illyareid66]

Really impressed how u rewired this old machine to modern usability and not f it up,no noise and it still looks good

[@clovertu5616]

I love the song one of my favourite yet

[@richardbrobeck2384]

Sam you are always creating !

[@SPINNINGMYWHEELS777]

yes sir one of the best right there loved the sounds of this unit since day one and it's now day 14,600

[@matthieu4351]

Incredible ⭐️⭐️⭐️

[@-______-______-]

The internet doesn't deserve epic content like this, but thanks for it anyway bruv!

[@paradoxstate5018]

Love the tune, sounds a lot like the stuff my band used to do in the early 80's at Ken Pattens studio in Sheffield, lovely memories :)

[@Gerrit-j5c]

that track is like straight from a international deejay gigolos release from 2001. I absolutely love it and I feel like I'm 18 again.

[@tschak909]

On the plaza, Sam is wiring up his 78... Across the plaza, Hainbach is working on his latest track...

[@brnrds]

Bless you, thank you. 🙏

[@trabolmix2839]

Hello, Genial trabajo ❤

[@ssmith2019]

Excellent Groove, Plenty "Frumpy Enuff" and I like the high notes ! Cheers ! 😁

[@joelizquierdo8624]

I’m glad you kept the Buchla 🎹

[@2GooDProductions]

Years and years and years ago I soldered a male phono output on my ZX spectrum 128k, I used the spectrum as a bass generator, I had a sampling mixer, I would overdub on a twin cassette deck. Ended up sounding like the deepest snake pit of hell with all the hiss, but my journey of making music had begun

[@polycompurhythm-7853]

Numan and Foxx really took the 78's Metallic Beat to heart to create the best electronic music.

[@2009numan]

Gary Numan also uses the CR 78 as well

[@catandtheostrich]

Awesome! Love it.

[@alienboy689]

Amazing job, nice electronics break out

[@erickvond6825]

That is well good mate. Cheers!!!!

[@secotioid]

Banger!

[@Everude3000]

beautiful song man!

[@oblitafier]

These instruments are being used and that’s all that matters. Love your work.

[@EternalEngineEMI]

Good job! I suggest you try the Formanta UDS drum machine. Very much room for modifications. For example, on board there are already polyvox filters on each channel and a tone noise generator for hihat on dividers from the organ.

[@markorendas1423]

Nifty....!! Thankx

[@jandoedel1012]

Hey Punk...you are standing with your back black jacket to the camera! Hahaha. Anyway, your vids are always good fun. Ive read btw that quality reel to reel tape is really expensive. I hope I can visit your museum one day.

[@pmscompany]

Fantastic congrats 👏

[@niklaswallin9478]

It's like it finally came out of the box so to speak.. very nice sounding..