++ThE TR-50LaR!5

THe TR-50LaRi5 at play

So i spent a fair bit of effort tracking one of these things down. Trying for ages on ebay to get one at a decent price (ie.. less than 50$ us ) . Thankfully one of the guys from EM411 sold me their unit as i was getting rarther desperate :S

Someone looks like they had attemped to bend it in the past. There were trace points drawn on the board in whiteout and there was a little damage on the rear back of the unit but nothing too nasty. No power adaptor either but the thing runs nicely off AA batteries.

Ive bent a fair bit of stuff now and feel im getting more experienced, so this was a great toy to experiment with.

Firstly i planned out what i wanted to do, there are so many points in the 505 its almost a benders paradise! In next to no time i had 18+ points that were all excellent.

The case was tackled first, i originally wanted to spray it orange and do wood panel sides along with space for a rotary switch and body contacts. After fooling around with the idea for a while i realised that there wasnt the space unless i added an external interface ( which i really didnt want to do ). Wandering around the local Dick Smiths i found some compact bannana sockets that were perfect for a patchbay in a small area.

The case was sprayed with metalic solaris blue paint ( hence the name ) and the buttons are imperial blue and slightly metalic. I never seem to have much luck with enamel paint and so stuck with acrylic, but i think the next job will be tested with enamels.

I ended up with 14 patches ( which was a shame because there were at least 2 more excellent points, one being a synth point ). Combinations of the points give the unit sounds from distortion, overdrive, lofi, a strange reversing, gating, transforming the sounds into synthy beeps and effecting the stereo pan. These of course can be combined with eachother and 3 way-ed using the bannana jacks ( they have an insert in each jack so you can plug another jack stright in ). With minimal effect you can fuck the sounds greatly :)

Here's a pic of the bends themselves, its a pretty blury pic but it gives a general idea for anyone who wants to try one of these themselves.

Im pretty happy with the final look and sound of the unit, and im dying to midi the thing up with my rs7000 to see what i can pump out of it. :) :) :)