Soundmaster Stix st 305-thread

[louisroman]

Hi everyone,

Post your thoughts, expierinces and photos about this unique machine right here in this thread !

As a proud owner of a Stix, I am wondering where I can find some schematics. I'd like to modify it but as a mod-noob it's pretty harsh.

Pretty cool : if I shake with the Stix the pitch of the Hihats change
If i use an external trigger, the snare changes in a cool way like it sounds like allmost a 909 snare !

some vids :

here is numbah one
and number 2

Love the obscureness of it !
But for what is the 'Sequence out' good ??

greetings

[plikestechno]

Nice, you're really working that sucker! Really like the vid of it with the monopoly. Reminding me that I really have to buy one of those one day.

I got one of these at a pawn shop locally for $40 last year. Mods would be cool, if ya find a schematic or successfully mod it lemme know. Tuning would make it unstoppable. Definitely has its own weird tone. When I first bought it I played with it for weeks on end.

[louisroman]

Thanks Plike !
Indeed tunning pots will male it the master of the universe. I just need an orginal stix manual and hope the schematics will be in the back !

40$ is a really cool price : thats ten times nothing for what it is.

[Big Chris]

Just got hold of a Soundmaster Stix, complete with original box and manual. The manual is only eight tiny pages (including the cover), and doesn't contain any schematics. It's a great little drum machine, somewhere between the Boss DR-55 and Roland TR-606 in terms of sounds - which makes sense as it was the successor to the Soundmaster SR-88 (which was a clone of the Boss DR-55) and came out just before the TR-606. I sent an email to the webmaster address for the VSE website, offering to submit a write up and pictures of the Stix, but haven't heard back yet.

[Zonkout]

I sold my Stix to Martin Gore.
It had that hh/cymbal quirk when I was using the clock input; you could get the cymbal to decay really slowly. Clocking it from a TB-303 provided some hilarious results. Interfacing with a modular got pretty weird.
It is really a unique sounding box. It's not as punchy as the DR-55 or TR-606...although, with the individual outputs you can make it sound however you want. I kinda prefer the SR-88 sounds or SR-99 programming flexibility, but neither of those have the Stix's cool tom sounds.

[Big Chris]

Hi Zonkout,

Was your Stix extremely quiet? Mine's virtually silent unless I crank up the input gain on my mixer, although there's no noticable background noise even at this high level which leads me to think it was designed to be used like this! Also, do you or anyone else know what polarity the power supply socket expects (tip or ring hot), as I don't want to blow the Stix up by using the wrong power supply. I've already read that it expects a regulated, 6V PSU.

Regards,

Chris

[plikestechno]

Mine is somewhat quiet, but I don't have to turn up my mixer much to overdrive it. I wouldn't say virtually silent for sure. I also use it to trigger my techstar and syncussion and stuff.

I always use batteries.

[Zonkout]

Yeah, my Stix was pretty quiet, too.
I was always afraid to try out a power adapter, since its specifications remain mysterious. It needs batteries in there to save the patches anyway.

[hageir]

I just joined the Stix club,
I actually got two of these puppies,
one super mint in the box and another one that I was planning on modifying to bits..

I've found out that the adapter is indeed (wrong value here). UPDATE 2014!!! -see next comment for details
I was just wondering if it'd be possible to hotwire the battery plug and adding/rerouting the PSU to that?
So you could have both batteries and the PSU on the same connector on the PCB?

Anyways,
how does the Trigger In work for you guys?
Mine just plays all the sounds at the same time

Is it possible to sync it to external gear or is it strictly used to trigger all the sounds?

[hageir]

I want to give this thread an update for 2014.
I've got two of these and one is busted, so I'm gonna fix it.

I've been looking everywhere for the voltage and specs of the PSU and I've finally found it!

2021 EDIT!
LOL, I just found the broken Stix in a drawer, recapping it now and working on it.
SEE COMMENT BELOW FOR FURTHER DETAILS ON THE PSU (which is WRONGLY marked on the original casing)

I found this photo here, which shows the underside of a European version of the Stix
(different graphics, three columns instead of the one-type on mine) and voila!
It shows the -(+ sign for the PSU.


In this old ad, there's a mention of a 6V AC Adapter:


So the PSU for the Soundmaster Stix ST-305 should be 6V AC/DC -(+

[nathanscribe]

I wonder, and this is pure conjecture till I see the schematics, if the reason your machine plays all sounds at all times is that the connection of an incorrect power supply has blown the RAM. This happens with the Boss DR-55 too, there was a stupid rumour that you could run it off a 9V battery, but all it does is blow the RAM from overvoltage. If it's a 5501 or euivalent, it isn't meant to survive more than about 6V. The only reason some dont't die is if the owner has used a partially-depleted battery. There was no regulation in the 55, so perhaps the Stix is the same.

[hageir]

I wonder, and this is pure conjecture till I see the schematics, if the reason your machine plays all sounds at all times is that the connection of an incorrect power supply has blown the RAM. This happens with the Boss DR-55 too, there was a stupid rumour that you could run it off a 9V battery, but all it does is blow the RAM from overvoltage. If it's a 5501 or euivalent, it isn't meant to survive more than about 6V. The only reason some dont't die is if the owner has used a partially-depleted battery. There was no regulation in the 55, so perhaps the Stix is the same.

I actually got a two for one deal on some Stixs,
one was in mint condition and the other doesn't turn on (there's a small burnt part on the PCB, near the PSU/Adaptor port)

I've only used mine as a master, sending a click into my SH-101 to sync the arp to the Stix,
when I do it vice versa, it triggers all the sounds… Pretty Strange
So when I just make one step on the Machinedrum (sending a click to the Stix) I can trigger all the sounds at once… I guess you could turn the volume down on everything but the sound you want? Hehe

[njosnari]

Old thread, but I'm posting in case anyone else googles their way here like I did looking for info on the PSU polarity for the Stix-305...

As stated earlier in the thread INCORRECTLY. The polarity of the PSU is CENTER NEGATIVE! It is NOT -(+! The 305 is a little weird, and if you want to work with and save patterns, you still need to have batteries in the unit.

Just a public service announcement for anyone else who might be wondering why the h**l their 305 isn't working with a center positive 6vdc psu.

[njosnari]

I see the images talked about before, and now I don't know what to think... I have a Stix 305, and it only runs on +(-. Center positive will not work!

Well, it is a weird machine...