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Roland CR-8000 Individual Outputs

Roland CR-8000 Individual Outputs

June 11th, 2010  |  Published in Roland CR-8000  |  2 Comments

Installing individual outputs on the CR-8000 has already been well documented by other DIYers. The work requires a little patience but it’s not too difficult. I think Estecho has the best indy out tutorial for the CR-5000/8000. But you can also look at how others have installed indy outs on the TR-606. The process is nearly identical between the two machines.

That said, I do things a little differently that makes the work a bit easier, in my opinion. Instead of desoldering and lifting the center pin of each voice group’s volume pot, I desolder the resistor that normally connects to the center pin of the pots (i.e. desolder the side of the resistor that connects directly to the center pin). See the diagram below:

After desoldering the appropriate side of each resistor, lift that side out of the hole. Then run a wire from the unconnected side of the resistor to a 1/4″ switching jack. I use Neutrik NYS2122 switched jacks. Then run a wire from the other tab (tip) of the jack to the empty hole in the PCB (where you removed one side of the resistor). Here is a detail of how the jacks are wired:

Here’s how it works: When nothing is plugged into the jack, the circuit is closed and the voice will be sent out the main output, as if no modification was made at all. When a cable is inserted, the original circuit is broken and the voice is sent out the individual output jack. Since we tapped the center pin of each voice group’s volume pot, you can control the level of each individual output.

You also need to ground all of the jacks together. Find a ground point anywhere on the CR-8000 and run a wire to the sleeve tab of the individual output jacks. I use the ground from the main output for this.

And here are the resistor locations for each output:

  1. BD – R84
  2. SD/TOM/RS – R85
  3. CON – R87
  4. C/CB – R196
  5. CY/HH – R86
  6. HCP – R198

There are a few things worth noting before you dive into this mod:

1) This mod gives you outputs for each voice group (the same voice groups as the front panel volume controls), so you can’t get individual outs for all 14 voices separately. So you’ll end up with these six output groups:

  1. BD
  2. SD/TOM/RS
  3. CON
  4. C/CB
  5. CY/HH
  6. HCP

2) The output groups can be easily re-routed to create new groups more suitable for mixing and recording. For example, I decided to swap the Toms with the Clave in order to get more control over Toms when performing or recording. So my CR’s Output Group 2 now carries Snare/Rim/Clave and Output Group 4 now carries Toms/Cowbell. See the notes on the CR-8000 Gumi Mods page for more info.

3) Using the individual outs removes the ability to use the Accent feature. The Accent is only available on the Main Out, not the individual outs.

4) There is still some bleed in the Main Out when using the indy outs (i.e. you can still sort of hear all the voices in the Main Out even if you have cables inserted into the indy out jacks). The bleed is quiet and sounds like it has a HPF applied to it. I was never able to figure this out. If anyone can give me a clue, please post here!

Drilling the holes can be tedious if you don’t have the right tools. I use a step drill bit, which drills perfectly round holes in metal with ease. They’re generally pretty expensive, but they’re well worth the money if you’re going to be drilling a lot of holes through metal in the future. A step bit looks something like this. And the holes it creates look something like this:

And finally, here’s the rear panel with the individual outputs installed:

If you have specific questions, post them here and I’ll do my best to help you out.

Responses

  1. Keyboard Controllers says:

    April 30th, 2011at 1:09 pm(#)

    Thanks for all the excellent information. For my individual outs, I used vintage “Switchcraft 142a Jax”. They are a vintage mil spec standard size .141″, which is very close to Japanese Industrial standard 3.5mm. The compact size of the jack, and the shorting design, made it the perfect solution for this job. I then made my own custom cables using vintage made in Chicago Switchcraft .141 mono plugs to 1/4″ G&H made-in-Pennsylvania phone plugs with Japanese Canare star quad cable in colors as shown. It looks great, sounds great, and is perfect for recording. I will email you some photos of everything I describe here.

  2. Erik says:

    September 13th, 2012at 3:46 pm(#)

    Josh Gumi is the best tech hands down! I had a Roland CR8000 that I sent to Josh for repair and some mods.The CR was pretty beat up.Buttons weren’t working tempo pot was missing, some internal electronics needed to be replaced case was damaged. I really thought it was beyond repair or was going to be costly. I was wrong not only did he fix at a very reasonable rate he also restored it to its former glory. Infarct when I first saw it I thought this can’t be the same CR It looks and sounds to good! I was so impressed I sent it back for his voice mods which by the way really make the kick and snare thump.I can’t say enough about Josh. Super friendly great rates honest very knowledge. Just an all around nice guy. Its nice to know there are still techs like Josh out there.I highly recommend him for any electronic repair out mod you may have.

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