Sunlight - Stereo Playkeys! (digital animal sound
toy keyboard)
Although the control panel of this keyboard resembles much My
Music Center, it uses completely different hardware.
main features:
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24 mini keys
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2 note polyphonic stereo sound (one note on each loudspeaker, only 1 note
with rhythm, rhythm plays always on the right channel)
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8 OBS preset animal instrument sounds {bird, dog, duck, cat, bee, frog,
cat, cow} (very low resolution 6 bit samples without loop point)
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2 cute OBS squarewave instrument sound presets {piano, organ}
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8 OBS preset rhythms (with rhythm only monophonic play possible) {rhumba,
bossa nova, march, disco, soul, cha cha, slow, new ware}
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4 drumpad + selection button to switch them between drum or other samples
{sea bird, whistle, car horn, horse}
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drumpad drum samples play lower than the rhythm ones.
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volume control knob
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monophonic sequencer of some dozen notes (2nd voice can be played live)
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demo melodies use more samples than available to the player
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"one key play" mode for demo tunes (only 1 voice)
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CPU uses a normal internal D/ A converter (6 bit?) for each channel (no
pulse width modulation).
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both speakers are driven by each a single transistor amplifier
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when new, the PCB stank badly of chemicals (styrene?)
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14 demo melodies (very fast and intense, virtuously composed 2 voiced demo
melodies with lots of furious instrument changes)
eastereggs:
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By holding the "organ" button and simultaneously selecting an animal sound,
some of the hidden samples from the demo melodies occur on half of the
keys. (There might be other such program glitch tricks.)
modifications:
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cinch sound outputs, speaker mute switch and AC adapter jack with regulator
added. Due to the hardware taps from the battery box 4. 5V for the CPU
but 6V for the speaker, I had to simulate this with a row of diodes in
series to connect a voltage regulator for a power supply.
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Some key combinations didn't work <=keyboard matrix made problems when
pressing 2 keys sharing the same lines =>soldering a diode into each keyboard
input(?) line fixed this problem.
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2 distortion/ volume pots for left and right speaker channel added.
(caution: During this I accidentally cracked off the base pins
of the 2 speaker output transistors; while I tried to replace the transistors,
I discovered that any other types I inserted sounded ugly distorting, though
I was urged to re- solder thin wires to the old transistors, which was
very awkward and time consuming. Though if you modify this instrument,
be careful not to break or fry yours - these transistors may be special.)
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clock speed/ pitch pot added.
notes:
This instrument's rhythms have booming drums and are nice for tribal- like
tekkno. There are many other animal sound toy keyboards around, but most
have no OBS rhythm buttons which makes them less interesting for tekkno.
Unfortunately they turn themselves off to save batteries when for some
minutes no keys/ buttons get pressed. Also the demo selection mode is very
interesting, because all the demo tunes are on the white keys and while
a demo melody runs, pressing any of them immediately starts the one of
the pressed key; though they can be abused as sound patterns by pressing
these keys rhythmically.
The squarewave sounds are very cute. Especially the "piano" sounds very
cheesy and begins to howl when batteries get empty (a pot might be added
simulate this). Together with the distortions you can make it sound like
one of these battery operated santaclauses or anything funny like this.
The animal samples are of very low resolution and often too short, but
for tekkno and similar stuff they can be certainly also interesting, especially
when messing around with the pitch pot.
Possibly this hardware was also released in the same case like Musical
Centre, because its beautiful button design matches exactly the
animal sound set of this one.
| removal
of these screws voids warranty... |
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