Jomox Xbase 09 (1997)
Midi Controlled Drum Machine

A little modern analog box aimed to emulate 2 legendary drum machines: Roland tr808 and tr909.

Xbase tries to keep the sound and adding some new features for modern studio implementation.

DRUM MACHINE Main panel features a 3 digit red LED 7-segment display, 5 velocity pads, 25 knobs (transmit Midi CC#), 16 buttons for step edit and 10 others for pattern edit.

Back panel terminal connectors:
- main signal out
- 3 individual audio outputs
- Midi interface
- 5-dins syncclocked at 24 PPQ resolution.

Power supply is external AC-AC model 12 Volts / 1A.

VOICE based on a 8/16-Bit Risc Controller CPU clocked at 16 mHz which manages 3 voices polyphony. The Jomox hardware features both analog and digital sound generation technology:
- PCM HIHATS is a sampled digital PCM channel at 8 bits resolution.
- ANALOG BASS DRUM and SNARE have both analog circuits.

PERCUSSIONS DETAILS: the kick, the snare and the hihats have various sound parameters:

BEAT basically BEAT DRUM is a VCO OSC generating a sinewave: - TUNE controls its pitch EG amount on VCO for warping - PITCH overall tuning: starting from rumbling 20 Hz - DECAY controls the generated EG decay up to a long time of 2.5s - HARMONICS adds harmonics to the sinewave with some distortions - PULSE (attack) add a square impulse to the attack for click - NOISE (attack) adds some white noise - ATTACK ratio of added pulse and noise attack to the sine - EQ simple lowpass filter attenuates high frequency. SNARE drum is composed by 2 triangle VCO + 1 white noise generator: - TUNE changes the pitch of both OSC. - XSNAPP the 808 SNAP of amount of filtered noise balanced with OSC - DECAY the lenght - DETUNE detunes the snare drum oscillators for resonating effect - NOISE TUNE amount of noise mixed (also open the VCF filter). HITHATS sampled Hit-hats and some other PCM samples for a total of 6 samples coded at 8 bit resolutions: closed / open hihat, crash cymbal, ride, rim shot and clap routed to an analog EG : - OH / CH DECAY controls the decay time of the analog EG of the sample. - HH BAL volume balancing between OH and CH. - TUNE changes the sample reading speed. - REVERSE plays the sample backward.

EDIT INTERFACE: the jomox is quite straightforward, some minimal keycombo:

LFO up to 2 modulators* with retrigger (shapes: saw-up, saw-down, square and triangle) sharing same tempo frequency. Modulators have 5 destinations:
- BD pitch
- snare tune
- Xsnapp factor
- noise frequency
- Hi Hat pitch.
*note: only OS 2.09 and higher.

SEQUENCER real-time record or step entry using the 16 dedicated buttons.
The sequencer also records knobs movements, in addition there is micro groove editor and a shuffle to shift each step with a maximum of 96th of a bar resolution with a 92 ticks / bar resolution.
Internal tempo range from 38 BPM to 292 BPM or unit can be slaved with external Midi clock from other units or Sync at 24 PPQ to vintage drum machines.
MIDI all functions are available also by Midi control change: surely one of the best feature! also a complete Exclusive implementation for edit and librarian storage purposes. Each voice in sequencer can transmit or transmits on its own Midi channel.

MEMORY:
- 100 ROM preset drum kits
- 100 RAM slots
- 64 user patterns
- 10 user songs
Battery replacement: internal memory works with a standard soldered Cr-2032 lithium battery, an easy task.

 

MODIFICATION two nice links: custom sample with eprom change, here's a very nice project from frequency response, now discontinued - another for tact switch fix/clean from My Diy blog:

FREQUENCY RESPONSE	My Diy blog

EDITOR free performance panel fror CTRLR.org

 

RELATED JOMOX XBASE FAMILY :

X-base 09 "DR Walker limited edition" valuable on the market VIDEO	X-base tok tok limited edition VIDEO	X-base 888 much bigger than 09, replaced by 999 VIDEO	X-base 999 with sample import option VIDEO
Airbase 09: revamp 09 rackmount VIDEO	JaZBase03 - different sampleset MP3 demo	Mbase 01 the 09 kick section - updated to Mbase 11

VST PLUGIN / SAMPLED VERSION there are some free and commercial samples set:

	name	price
	hellosamples	sample pack: -free light version -commercial version

AUDIO DEMO

	mix pattern 1
	rhythm 1
	rhythm 2
	have some nice 09 demos? shar'em UPLOAD

VIDEO CLIP SELECTION Analog Drum Synthesizer Roland TR-909 Emulation vs. Roland TR-909

MANUAL

SCHEMATICS / SERVICE MANUAL-

orginal brochure

nice PIC

Jomox Xbase 09 FOR SALE CHECK OUT EBAY OFFERS