Viscount R64S
PCM drum machine (198x)

Italian preset drum machine based on really lo-fi 8-bits samples with rhythm patterns. The "S" version is a minor hardware revision from previous R64, but it seems to be the same with no noticeable differences.

DRUM MACHINE main panel features no display, 2 knobs for volume and tempo, 6 knobs for individual instruments mix (some are circuit-shared) and 28 buttons for pattern control.

Back panel terminal connectors:
- main analog signal out + separate snare-kick out
- headphones out
- start stop pedalswitch
- break/fill pedalswitch
- claps solo pedalswitch
- trigger out (3 tempo dividers)

 

 

VOICE machine handles 6 channels polyphony based on PCM samples.

No display, straightforward: select a rhythm and press Start. Cool eh?

 

SAMPLES 11 PCM samples coded at 8 bits resolution: kick, snare, tomtom (x2), rimshot, hihats, claves, bongo, agogo, handclaps and cymbals. Sounds are sampled from real drums and are pretty short on memory, only volume can be changed.

Too bad there's no pitch/decay

EPROM MEMORY

M2732A. EPROM NMOS 32K

RHYTHM there are 64 preset patterns on 4 banks: quite all kind of music styles are there e.g rock, disco, samba, jazz, bossanova, slow, tarantella, rhythm and blues and more - sadly patterns cannot be edited but they do have 3 minor variation controls:

- 3 cancel modes for Bongo/Conga, Agogo, Claves/Cowbell - pattern break - 2 Claps fill modes.

hear funky rock pattern

 

 

SYNC the trigger option syncs analog machines like other drum machines or synthesizers arpeggiators.

I tried to slave both R64 and Roland Juno-60 and worked flawless. Note that you can change the OUT dividers values on the back panel switch to match the wished tempo. Juno60-R64 Sync on the DEMO section. This function allows to make some pretty interesting and fun jam session with many compatible hardware, and best of all, the timing is perfect, much more better than classic Midi clock. two synched machine! click on pic to magnify

TECH The R64 is very difficult to repair, quite impossible for now.

R64 motherboard The R64 voice board is wrapped in a black resin block, probably a protection from copyright-thieves but this does not help any technical repairs for sure. - click to magnify

typical issues are buttons that need cleaning as well as pots.

 

 

RELATED FAMILY:

Model PCM64 and PCM64S are quite similar with just some minor differences on the board, but they do sound the same.

 

 

GALLERY:

Viscount R64 S PCM with friends: Tr909 tb303, tr606 and ultimate sound DS-4 Tokyo Gakki