Skip to main content

Sunday Soldering: Akai Rhythm Wolf Drum Machine modifications

Sunday Soldering: Akai Rhythm Wolf Drum Machine modifications


Akai Rhythm wolf is a cheap analog drum machine. It has a nice old school lo-fi sound but unfortunately Akai left out some quite useful features from the standard setup. Today I decided to modify my unit to better suit my needs.

Here are the added mods:

  • Added a resistor to the outer legs of the 'Howl' pot to make the range more useful. By default it's pretty much a switch between clean and a completely destroyed signal. I used 33k. Probably even smaller value would do.
  • Added 3.5mm individual output jacks for all drums. The PCB has nicely marked spots where the individual signals are available but it's actually easier to take them from the volume potentiometers directly. The middle leg gives the signal after the potentiometer so volume also affects the individual outputs. It might have been a better idea to take it before the pot so that it would be possible to silence the signal from the main output by turning volume to zero. Even better would be to use a jack with a switch but that would require some more wiring.
  • Added a separate decay pot for open hihat. I have no idea why Akai didn't do this. They added a stereo potentiometer for the hihat decay to dump both open and closed hihat to same pot. It's just stupid. It's much more useful with 2 separate potentiometers!


Adding some wires. The blue-orange wire is for the open hihat decay pot and other wires are for individual outputs.

The open hihat decay mod. I cut the other legs from the orignal stereo potentiometer so it's now only affecting closed hihat. A linear 100k pot was added to the panel directly for the open hihat.

Individual outputs from volume pots.

Drilled some new holes to the enclosure for 3.5mm jacks and a potentiometer

Better than new!

I stole the modification ideas from these pages:

 http://www.goltstein.nl/Rhythm_Wolf_Modifications
https://carillonaudio.wordpress.com/2017/01/14/akai-rhythm-wolf-mods-hacks-circuit-bending/

Thank you very much!
Labels:

Comments

  1. AnonymousJanuary 22, 2020 at 10:22 AM

    Love the work <3 Would you be open to doing this for me? I can ship UPS and pay via paypal :)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Waldorf Blofeld Encoder Fix

Waldorf Blofeld is amazing little digital synth with almost endless possibilities. Unfortunately the rotary encoders seem to start skipping and failing sooner or later. After couple of years of light use my unit started failing too and it became very annoying to use.  First Try I first tried to open one encoder and clean it from inside. It worked ok but these components aren't really meant to be opened and closed again and I never managed to put it back together properly. Encoder shaft was loose and wobbly and it would have failed again soon because the encoder wasn't tightly closed. Proper Fix Luckily it's possible to fix it properly as long as you know how to solder. Current price for the full set of encoders is less than 7 euros. I ordered new Bourns encoders from Mouser: 1 pcs of  https://www.mouser.fi/ProductDetail/652-PEC16-4220FN0024  for the main encoder, this one has detents so it "clicks" when you turn it. 6 pcs of  https://www.mouser.fi/ProductDetail/65
Post a Comment
Read more

Uraltone Mixer and Spring Reverb (and some synth literature...)

DIY kits and literature Bjooks and DIY kits Every now and then I had seen pictures of the beautiful and super interesting Push Turn Move book by Kim Bjørn:  https://www.pushturnmove.com/ . Unfortunately it's not available as an eBook and the price has been too high for me because of the shipping costs. Some time ago Bjørn launched the Kickstarter campaign for his third book Pedal Crush . All the buzz it generated in social media led me once again to the Push Turn Move web page. This time I was delighted to find our local DIY music electronics store Uraltone in the reseller list. Of course I had to buy both of the already published "Bjooks" immediately and while at it I decided to buy some Uraltone eurorack DIY kits too. I have wanted a spring reverb since the days I got my first electric guitar and another mixer in my eurorack wouldn't harm. After a short bike ride to Uraltone I had my back bag full of reading and soldering! Support your local! Uralkit Spring
Post a Comment
Read more