Circuit Bending

Yamaha MK-100

The MK-100's range of functions is truely quite remarkable and could easily be called an early predecessor of the workstation.

Each of the 12 beats has 3 variations; one variation per beat can be reprogrammed, including bass and chord figure. On top, each chord figure also has 3 variations per beat. Free choice of bass and chord sounds from the pool of 12 preset sounds, which can be edited with synthesizer-like functions and "saved", rounds things up. So you can quasi individually reprogramme a large part of your MK-100.

An amazing range of functions for a "cheap" keyboard from 1983. Also, the sound and the preprogrammed patterns are very good and minimal. Up to now, I've only built in a tempo fine controller and a "shitshot"-button, that produces very interesting fill-ins.

Sound example