When they were both at school, Tim Mosely pestered Melissa Elliott to come round to his house and hear the beats he'd made. When she finally got there, Missy was a bit surprised to find that he'd made the beats on a Casio SK1 keyboard. It was the first really cheap (less than £100) sampler ever made, and it's the crappiest-looking thing ever (this one on the left is modified - the original didn't have the weird patchbay. And they keys weren't coloured in with felt-tip-pen). Missy was impressed with his beats and Timbaland now has plenty of samplers, but the SK1 lives on. The circuit bending community:This guy connects his SK1 to a huge modular synth.
These guys will tell you how to connect your SK-1 to MIDI.
Q.R.Chazala pretty much invented circuit-bending with an SK1. He doesn't half go on about it, though.
Tablebeast sell modified SK1s through their Ebay shop, and supplied the one in Nine Inch Nail's studio.
Inspired? There's a boxed, working SK1 for sale on Ebay right now. It's in Margate, the current bid is 99p and you've got nine days to go. (They normally go for between £20 and £50).
CLICK FOR PART FOUR
Let me just go out on a limb here and suggest that the SK-1 Timba story is very mythy. Anyone who has ever used a SK-1 knows you can't do jack-shit for beats; it can only hold 1 1.5sec sample. What're you gonna sample a conga or cowbell? The built in rhythms can in no way be described as bumpin (they are cute but sucky). A lot of hip-hop equipment stories seem to imply that so-and-so producer only uses 1 ASR or 1 MPC and NOTHING ELSE. It's possible but not likely, especially these days.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, the SK-1 is great fun and I keep one in my bedroom to noodle on. Circuit-bending is so easy on the thing, just pop it open, grab a razor-blade and start shorting those posts baby! (oops don't forget to only use batteries) The lil sequencer is even pretty cool.
But beats it don't do. Not even Timba!
Could it be that it actually is a RZ-1 drum machine we´re talking about here? It´s the poor man substitute for an E-mu SP1200.
ReplyDeleteI actually heard he started directly on the ASR-10 and thats why he has been able to perfect it to the point where he uses it to freak crazy beats.
ReplyDeleteselling book on ebay - More time: You will learn to put your entire business on "Autopilot"! The result will be more time with your family, more time with your friends, more vacations and more FUN!
ReplyDelete