e-licktronic Forum

Hello to all Yocto Lovers out there,

I´m having problems with the Bass Drum.

For example, if i turn up or down the tempo, the sound will alter somehow. It can be from a long decay, to a shorter decay. And also the other way around.

In a long sequence with many bass drum triggers, there´s seldomly the same steady bass drum sound, you wish to hear. It´s altered in the same way in every repeating loop. For example, 3 long decays, then 2 very short decay and then 2 long decays. And then from the top. It stays the same, if i don´t change the settings of the bass drum or the tempo. But if i turn the tempo knob again, it changes again.

I may play a bit with the tempo until there is the desired Bass drum sound with the exact same decay on all triggers. But that´s not how it should be.

All other sounds are working perfectly.

What might be the problem ?

Thank you.

Christoph Gillich

Sounds like the same problem I have..
Recording: https://soundcloud.com/rvooh/808-bd-gone-wild/s-1cnA4
- first part: low decay
- 2nd part: mid decay
- 3rd part (and only here you hear the problem): high decay

My friends yocto kinda does the same, but less bad. It also varies with tempo.

Wish I had some meaningful input for this but I've worked on an 808 with same issue which was not resolved

I have the same issue with two separate Yocto's here as well. The bass drum doesn't seem to gate itself. It seems like using even a medium amount of decay causes overlapping bass tones that phase each other. It is very frustrating not having consistent sounding kicks.

Haven't looked at the BD schematic much yet, I wonder if it could be a bad Germanium diode...Hmmm

Any tips massively appreciated!

After talking to my synth tech, he informed me that the problem can be found on some 808's too, more or less..its a component tolerance thing.

His suggestion was to play a bit with R164

ok, i tried playing with r164. but it doesnt seem to help.

ok, time to revisit this

the fact that you get altering bass drum sounds with long decay is completely normal because thats how the circuit works.
avoid retriggering the BD while it is still decaying.

R164 is very critical.. I had a 1,5 minute decay on my BD.. I measured R164 and it was close to 46k instead of 47k.
I replaced it by a 1% resistor of 47k and bam, my decay decreased to less than 5s!

Here´s an update on the issues of my Yocto.

The drum machine doctor cleaned the superfluos flux (the lubricant used for the solder) from the surface. This was the reason for some of the strange behaviour.

Now the bassdrum won´t have no more jumps in volume and a proper decay, which i can dial via the decay knob. That´s at least one issue solved.

He couldn´t find the reason for the pitch shifts on the bassdrum (and the snare btw, which i found out later), when i turn the tempo knob.

I will open another topic for this issue.
Thanks to you all for your help.