Circuit Bending

Casio MT-70

German Version

The mysterious MT-70 sounds a lot like an organ from the seventies and has very complex hardware in most sophisticated multichip architecture. This seems also to be due to the ability of reading and playing out whole sequences of notes serially via barcode pen. Sadly, I never owned this pen nor the corresponding codes to try it out.

It offers many possibilities for serial data manipulation, often causing random-like note sequences. Moreover, the melody sounds can be drastically manipulated, creating weird musical atmospheres.

I haven't got around to fiddeling with this one much yet, as there is always so much to do, so I've only built in the following functions up to now:

• Mute switch for almost all singular drum sounds with "ground matrix" (making the drum impulses effect each other -> snare plays hihat figures, etc.)
• Additional volume controller for bass & chords
• Additional "tempo fine" controller
• Distortion switch for melody and chord sounds
• "Special effects" matrix (SFX) for unmotivated breaks and sound interference
• Reset button against system crashes

I often use this one, so I've got 2 sound examples for you: the first one is pure MT-70, the other one was taken from a session with my Casio live projekt Monomal & Muttermahl.

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