[sdiy] Tama Techstar series

[jeffb]

Thanks to Florian for the great Techstar info.

About trimpot tweaks: First of all, they only work for the fixed drum
setting, which I think is good, cause that means you could essentially
program your own custom sounds into memory. Be warned though: it seems
that if you turn a little too much one way or the other, the sound
quality of the unit may be degraded somewhat in both the fixed or
manual settings.  For example, on the handclap board there's a point
where the sound is a really interesting grungey hit with pad-like
envelope characteristics.  However, due to this tweak alone, the
output of the entire Techstar unit is extremely noisy, and it gets
much worse as you increase the overall level, not just that of the
handclap itself.

otoh, I find the bend and noise trimpot tweaks for the Toms most
useful.  I'm guessing that the slight noise in the fixed Tom sounds
was to simulate realism (i.e. resonances from a nearby snare).
Personally I'd rather have a straight Tom sound, so I adjusted the
trimpot for each fixed Tom to be noise free (I can always add my own
noise if need be).

> make simple multiply divide circuits to give you a variety of      >
patchable
> frequencies. usingsome CD4046, CD4027, CD4017, and assorted support
> circuitry....simple enough.
> 

Yes, exactly; then you could use a pulse wave as a master clock. 
Using mutiply divide circuits, you could have one module with the
interchangability of a big sequential triggerer, a big frequency
divider, or half 'n half.


jeff