Drumulator PROM Changing

  1. Open up the base plate of your Drumulator.

You should see something like this:

  1. Locate the original PROMs and extract them using the blue chip extractor tool. Be careful not to bend the pins.
  1. Note the orientation. There's a notch in the IC at the top. This points to the back of the case.
  1. Insert the black ZIF sockets into the empty IC sockets on the main board. Note that the lever in the up position is for inserting the EPROM into the ZIF socket. The lever in the down position is the locked position. It doesn't matter which way round the ZIF socket is but there must be space for the lever to go up and down.

With the back of the case away from you, the left hand side socket contains the Cymbal EPROM. Only one sound fits in here. Noted that any cymbal can be inserted here, ride, crash, china etc and doesn't have to belong to the same kit.

The next socket on the right contains the Mid and Low tom samples, the next socket on the right contains the open and closed hi-hat, the snare drum and the clave. The last socket on the right contains the high tom, the bass drum, rim, clap and cowbell.

Note that I haven't religiously stuck to a clave sample or a cowbell sample. In some EPROM sets there are different sounds like a Hi-Q pulse or a scratch sample.

Cymbal EPROMs are marked with the name of the cymbal - ride, crash etc.

Mid and Low tom EPROMS are marked MLTOM.

Open,closed, snare, clave EPROMS are marked OCSC.

High tom, bass drum, rim, clap ,cowbell EPROMS are marked HBRCC.

The first few letters of the start of the EPROM's name is the kit name e.g. 808, pro, F2x.

  1. Put the new EPROM set into the ZIF socket with the lever in the up position. Make sure the new EPROM notch faces away from you or towards the back of the case. Close the lever to lock the EPROM into the socket.
  1. Put the base plate back, it should not foul the EPROMs even with their extra height.
  1. Turn on and (hopefully) enjoy the new sounds.

The ZIF sockets make it MUCH easier to change sounds.

You can mix and match EPROMs across sets as longs as OCSC goes to OCSC, HBRCC goes to HBRCC, MLTOM goes to MLTOM and CYMBAL to CYMBAL.

No harm will be done if EPROMS are swapped AS LONG AS the notch orientation is correct. If you out MLTOM in the CYMBAL socket then every time the cymbal is triggered you get a Mid Tom sounds followed by a Low Tom sound!

Have Fun!

Chris Strellis

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P.S. Whilst the case is open you can change the yellow lithium battery if yours is past its best. I used RS part number 593-495, costs about £5.