This is a somewhat rare but cool drum machine from the late 80’s. It uses an unusually high sample rate (for the time) of 50kHz. Sampling is done at 12-bits which is not surprising since 12 bit converters were very common back in the day. At that time most designs would have had to use two DACs (one 12-bit, one 4-bit) working together to even accomplish 16-bit resolution.
Dynacord designed the ADD-one in conjunction with Fast Forward Designs, a small engineering group in California that later went on to play major roles designing the SR-16 and the ADAT for Alesis (they became Line6 in the 90’s).
February 3rd, 2009 at 5:11 pm
In fact it was an 8 bit DAC with a lot of compending which made it sound better than even a 12 bit DAC of those days (but saved a lot of memory space to store the samples)
Now, using a 12 bit DAC + a 4 bit DAC will NOT give you a 16 bit DAC. To do so either the 12 bit DAC or the 4 bit DAC would have to have a 16 bit resolution, which would be as difficult (= expensive) as making a 16 bit DAC in the first place. This, by the way, is a common missconception.
Michel
July 15th, 2009 at 12:23 am
Hi
Is the Dynacord Add One shown for sale? I am currently looking for one, I’m based in the UK
Cheers
Mark
July 15th, 2009 at 8:51 am
There was one on ebay at the time of the original post, not any more
August 18th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
I’m selling mine, but I’m located in Los Angeles. Make me an offer at m_rubner (at) hotmail (dot) com (my spam account, so it may take a while for me to get back to you).
Here’s a description of what it comes with and what the condition is (sorry about the vague stuff… I’m at work and am writing this from memory):
- ADD-One
- Memory Extension (I think 1 MB, not sure - not bad for 1986)
- ADD-Drive
- Connection Cable for ADD-Drive
- 20 or 30 floppies with samples and programs (e.g. Emax, D10, Akai samples, etc.).
- four trapezoid Dynacord pads (black)
- two 5-corner Dynacord pads (one red, one white)
- two round-ish Yamaha pads
- remote pad - allowing switching through programs via a drum stick
- original manual in English and German
- if desired, I have a complete Tama drum rack with 10 clamps and all hardware needed to put up the pads. I also have a bass drum pedal that would come with the rack. However, the rack would add about $150 to whatever the price for the ADD-one would be (which is a good deal, since many of the clamps are practically new, and cost about $25 each when I bought them).
Condition:
- All the buttons, encoders, etc. work like new - this is rare for these units.
- All on-board tests pass (and there are extensive tests included in this unit). The only exception is the test for the Floppy drive interface… you need a “test plug” for this test that I don’t have.
- The outputs sometimes crackle when triggering samples on some of the channels. Sounds like some of the contacts or pots etc. may need cleaning.
- Many of the included floppies don’t read completely. I’m not sure if it’s the floppies, or if the floppy drive would need to be calibrated.
This is likely all fixable for someone with a clue, and better than the dead unit that turned on but made no sound that sold on ebay for some atronomous sum…
February 15th, 2010 at 3:55 pm
there is one copy for sale in zagreb, croatia
http://www.rumski.com/forum/showthread.php?t=32499
June 27th, 2010 at 6:10 pm
M SELLING MYNE
DYNACORD ADD ONE
DYNACORD ADD DRIVE
7 DYNACORD PADS + DYNACORD FOOT PEDAL+REMOTE PROGRAM (CHANGE CHANNEL VIA STICK) +
THE ORIGINAL DYNACORD BLACK RACK
ALL THE ORIGINAL DISKS AND THE MANUAL(COPY)
EVERYTHING WORKING IM 100%
IM ONLY SELLING IT BECAUSE I ONLY USE IT TO PLAY DRUMS WITHOUT DISTURBING ANYBODY, AND THIS BEAUTY DESERVES A PRODUCER A STUDIO OR SOMEONE WHO CAN REALLY USE HER CAPABILITIES
IM IN PORTUGAL
AND THE SELLING PRICE IS 1300 EUROS
NON NEOCIABLES,GOOD CONDITTIONS
BEST REGARDS
EMAIL ME AT,
MARCOALEXANDRECASTRO@GMAIL.COM