I suppose it's more "hum" than "BUZZ". I wasn't sure if there was some part of the NES circitry that could be bypassed some way... It may even have something to do w/ the TV set, which I hadn't though about... though I kind of doubt this.

It may simply be that I'm not really using "pro" gear of any sort. I suppose it's also possible that I'm just noticing the noise more when using the MIDINES to record clean/non-distorted audio. (BTW, I only notice the hum when using the NES output, but not when the audio is coming from the TV's speakers... But I can say with some confidence that the hum is produced in part by the NES itself, and not solely from my mixer-- which happens to be kind of noisy.)

Anyways, if I do decide to sell the MN, I'll contact you first!
And a bit of advice to potential buyers: Make sure the guy building these actually has the parts... He took around a year to build and send me mine, and his excuse (after several e-mails and a paypal claim) was that he didn't have the supplies.
He did send it, and it works fine, but you might have to get onto him about it!

I have a MIDINES cartridge and I was just wondering if there's any websites w/ tutorials on adding a 1/4 output jack wich will let me plug into a mixer/fx pedals. I have an RCA-to-1/4 cable I bought at Radioshack which works, but I get a lot of buzzing which is hard to dial out w/o altering the sound too much. It's also just much more convenient for me to have a standard 1/4 output.

Thank you.

I got a "working" Arion Metal Master though ebay today and here are the problems:

The LED comes on, but it never turns off... the pedal won't even bypass...

There is no effect on the sound... Only an incredibly faint signal comes through, and even then, the knobs have no effect...

The battery clip is torn out, so I can't test that way, but using a daisychain adapter does get it to turn on. Can anyone offer some clues as to what the problem might be?... I glanced at the PCB and didn't see anything that looked exploded or damaged.

Thanks a lot.

woah.... they make pedals!? yeesh... every store (wal-mart, target) seems to be doing this now. I am pretty tempted, haha... Maybe I should check ebay.

Also, just a friendly tip: Don't buy "Lyon" gear unless you can test it first. I've got a wah which just sounds crappy and seems to work properly only half the time, and a chorus which pretty much doesn't work at all-- It will kick in if you leave the power on for a really long time and it decides to work...

Also, I am not really the kind of person who complains about these things, but the Chorus colors your signal *WAY-A LOT* and the bypass is pretty poor (thouhg I notice no problems with the wah's bypass)... And the damn thing was 40 dollars...

Okay, so I just cannibalized my blown Karaoke machine/amplifier...
I wanted to try and see if making a standalone echo unit would work as I know it works for those Barbie machines...
I'm just looking for some clues right now...


Does "BUCK" refer to a bucket brigade chip? Everything I found online seems to be about  the JRC chips being used for TS-808's or something, but I found at least one image of some 8-peg (4 per-side) chips that looked the same and were supposedly delay chips...
I haven't had an opportunity to check out the Casper Electronics page yet, but are there any online resources/tutorials discussing this kind of thing and how similar circuits can be moded to work as standalone units? I did a search here but I didn't find a lot specifficaly relating to this, and I'm out of ideas...

Thank you.

EDIT: Also, I think I can figure out the input easly enough, but I'm not certain about the output... And are the two wires (red and black) probably connecting it to a powersource? (The red wire is hard to see as it's cut off in the far left, but it is there in the bottom image.)

The important thing is that the circuits are identical.  The pedal is not just one chip and nothing else - there's a lot that goes around it (preamps, buffers, power conditioning, memory, etc).  So the pedals must be identical in every way except for the code on the main chip.  The reason people can do the XP-100/200/300/400 mods is because the circuits are basically the same.  Now I may be wrong, but the WH-1 and WH-4 are most likely very different circuit-wise because they were made a long time apart, and have different features.

-Colin

I understand that, but it just seems strange that something like that hasn't been done, still. You know, copying the chip and then just reverse engineering the other circuitry... It would make sense if there just isn't anyone with the resources *AND* willingness to take apart their WH-1, but I just thinks it's weird that it hasn't really even been explored from what I can tell. A simple box w/ a rotary knob, bypass switch, and exp. input would certainly be cool, though...

A while back I inquired about the XP-1000. It was explained that someone thought to copy the EPROM data from the chips and burn them to new ones/stack them.

So what is keeping people from copying/burning the EPROM from to oh-so-superior WH-1 (and ending their b****ing about the WH-4?-- which I think is a perfectly acceptable unit, mind you... Perhaps not the same, but still just fine with me.)

Now, I have no experience with this sort of thing, or what type of limitations there are when it comes to ripping/burning chip data, but the idea just seems pretty obvious to me. (If it isn't possible as it is with the XP chips, then I'd understand whay it hasn't been done...)
I realize that stacking XP chips and reverse-engineering the WH-1 from copied EPROM are on totally different levels, but is there anything *else* that actually keeps anyone (particularly Digitech themselves) from doing this?

I hear so much crap about how The WH-1 sounds "more analog" which seems utterly ludicrous and naive, seeing as how it's a damn pitch shifter! Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't/doesn't DIGI-tech make DIGITAL effects? all that pitch shifting is happening through those chips... I realize I may be oversimplifying things, but I am just trying to get the answer to my original quesiton, not get into "how much" analog circutry the WH-1 does or does not have!

Thanks in advance for any explanations you might offer.

EDIT: http://www.effector-repair.com/datashee ... HAMMY%20(0).php
meant to post that link just to show the insides of the WH-1... and for some reaosn or other, you may need to copy/paste the link as the hyperlink is cut off.

well, if it were as simple as sticking the boards together, I would think all that's required to make to two circuits into a single machine would be to just solder the output (Speaker) wires on the megaphone to the input solder pad things on the fab echo circuit... I suppose rehousing would go into more detail, especially if you wanted to bypass the echo/VC effect at once, but otherwise, that *should* work... and then you'd have a separate delay and voice changer in the same box...

drum samples are typically triggered by hitting a piezo disk, correct?...... Correct?!?!?

Assuming that's the case, how easy would it be to put little samplers into a case to get a "sampler drum brain"? Can something like a "Yak Bak" be triggered by replacing the buttons with piezos?

Also, can someone provide me with links to simple, cheap "byo" sample/playback kits? pref. ones that may be bought in bulk! I don't really know what to look for, but I know I've seen them sold... and I figure they are basically the same thing as those Yak Baks...

I have this idea to basically just have a box with jacks for trigger inputs, along with maybe buttons for direct playback w/o drum pads.... and to have in jacks for recording samples... and I guess a "record" button for each would be neccessary...

The most worrisome aspect of this is how to be able to wire and power this up in a practical way... Any and all tips would be immensely appreciated.

Thanks.

a depressing amount... mostly because a whole lot of them are fried or broken/mangled/etc... so a lot of them just collect dust.

Some are in a bout 30 pieces and have ended up being cannibalized, others just look like hell and only work half the time! But including every ROMpler, synth, and toy keyboard (dead or alive, bent and unbent) that I can remember, probably somewhere around 25+ all together

seconded... you could, of course, just dumpster dive at the thrift stores (though you may not find as much)... I found a working toy laser gun, the kind that cycle through those really crunchy, beepy explosion noises (BATTERIES INCLUDED, haha) along with an LED light... and some other knick-knacks... there's SHIT-TONS of filthy clothing to soft through, too...

I'm certainly willing to give it a go again... It was a lot of fun while it lasted over at IM...

Feel free to e-mail me: theraytownians@hotmail.com
with some times & dates people decide on... I think the best time for me is on a fri/sat night.

The switch on my Black Russian BMP started "acting up" a few months back (there's a really bad volume drop and I have to keep tapping it to get it just right and get the full volume, both in BP and activated mode, but more so in BP)

I've looked at the inside and all the wires look to be snuggly in place, so I figure it's the switch that's gone bad... Right now I don't really have the required time or desire to go into doing the full true bypass mod, so I figure I will simply replace the orig. switch type with a new one for now. But I just wanted to know if there's any salvaging the switch, or if there's not something I can do to fix it (Is it just "dusty"?)... It actually seems to be working a lot better lately, but I'm not sure if that's just a coincidence... Thanks.

make sure you didn't accidentally pull out a wire or ribbon cable or something... I dropped an open Speak & Read and it yanked the ribbon cable out (which I could never get back into place) and now it can't turn on because the membrane buttons don't make any contact w/ the circuit.

I completely brutalized my PSS-130 and never found much of anything (it was an early bending attempt)... It's now sitting half-open and mutilated to death in the BURN WARD (AKA CLOSET) where it's been forgotten about... I am a bad doctor. A very bad doctor.

But I do seem to remember it having some ribbon connector things.

Also, I forgot to mention: John Ingram over at Intelligent Machinery was hosting/recording a monthly "Noise Free-For-All" on Ninjam every month up until just a few months ago but has since stopped doing so. (Not much participation from more than a handful of folks after a while+a lack of interest)

I bet if you bugged him, he'd put one on! (also, each NFFA is archived on the site somewhere as an MP3, most running around 2 hours I belive.)

If John still doesn't feel up to hosting them anymore, maybe you can convince people hurr to host a NFFA!
---
The one thing I absolutley hate about Ninjam is the server gets overloaded really easily with too many participants... and it can be hard to tell if you're like... BLARING over everyone else or not coming through at all... at least for me! But yeah, I'm totally interested in doing something online.