This is an introduction tot he rollz-5 drum machine by ciat lonbarde. If you want any more information please feel free to contact me.

1. A guide to building a
rollz-5 drum machine
Adapted from the Ciat-
Lonbarde website
By: Circitfied

2. introduction
• The rollz-5 drum machine is designed by peter
blasser.
• It is a non-traditional drum machine, in that
instead of sequencers it has “pulse Brains”
• Pulse brains are transistor-capacitor networks
that are patched together to produce repeating
complex patterns, with a hint of chaos.
• The drum voices are also non-traditional, in that
they are more like tone generators with
resonators and filters built in. They are built
using op-amp circuits.
• The basic design consists of 5 pulse modules and 6
drum voices.
• The original design can be found at:
http://www.ciat-lonbarde.net/rollz5/index.html

3. Getting started
• I suggest you read the original assembly
guide: http://www.ciat-
lonbarde.net/rollz5/index.html
• if you haven’t Built a paper circuit
before then it may be worth starting
with one of his simpler circuits, this is
to show you how much work goes into a
fairly simple circuit, before you invest
time and money in something this
complex. Check out: http://www.ciat-
lonbarde.net/paper/index.html

4. Building time
• A 3-node pulse brain takes about 15 minutes to solder
and assemble.
• 4-node 20 minutes
• 5-node 25 minutes
• 6-node 30 minutes
• Ultrasound filters (2 on each board) 60 minutes
• Gongs (2 on each board) 60 minutes
• AV-dog, 45 minutes each.
You will need to set aside time for wiring up and fault
finding. Wiring up will take about two hours and fault
finding can take a deceptively long time. You also need to
take account of the amount of time to populate your top
panel, whether you are using banana jacks or bolts to
patch with.

5. Ordering parts
Decide on how many circuits you want to make.
Use the bill of materials to formulate how many of
each component you need.
I suggest you order IC holders as well, as this will
save a lot of hassle.
It may also be worth thinking about what you are
going to house the circuits in.
Also depending on your budget you need to think how
much you want to spend on binding posts to connect
the nodes together.
You will also need someway of connecting power to
the circuits. Since it all works off of 9V DC, you can
just use a snap on battery connector.

6. Modifications
• All of the drum voices can be tuned.
• The tuning is hardwired by using
fixed capacitors and resistors.
• However, instead you can use
potentiometers and rotary
switches, to provide more control.
• With experience of both methods, I
prefer to use fixed settings, it
reduces costs and complexities.

7. Printing the circuit boards
You will need to print out the files at 200 dpi. However, you
may not have this option so you may have to cut and paste the
image into word and expand it to the right size. I printed a
circuit out when I thought it was the correct size and then
used an IC holder to compare the pin configuration size.

8. Assembling the circuit
boards
Cut out the circuit board and
crease it along the dashed line. Put
this over a piece of card (cereal box
will do), then glue it in place. Use
something sharp to puncture
through the component holes. It is
important to keep the paper circuit
squared up, as the components will
not align on the top and bottom
surface.

9. Populating the circuit
boards
With conventional circuit boards, you populated the circuit board with the
smallest components first.
However, I find that it is best to populate the boards with the components that
have the longest legs. This enables a framework to be assembled relatively fast.
Push the components through the holes and bend the legs along the circuit
traces. The component legs form the traces on the circuit board.
Solder together any legs that overlap. Instead of cutting the legs short, bend
them so that they can reach another component along the trace. This will create
a much stronger circuit board.
any resistors laBelled ‘0’ are jumper wires.
Use wire to bridge big gaps in the circuit.
I always use long wires for the power and any other connections, this gives you
flexibility during assembly.

10. Half assembled circuit
boards

11. Assemble circuits until you
feel suicidal

12. Populate top panel
I was lucky
enough to
acquire these
populated
panels. I drilled
out the panels,
to provide
individual audio
outputs for each
drum voice. I also
drilled out holes
for LED power
indicator, power
jack and master
output. I used
the central knob
as a volume
controller.

13. As can be seen, I had
to assemble a few
extra pulse brains
to account for the
extra connectors.

14. To wire up individual audio outputs I used break circuit audio
sockets, this meant that the audio for each drum voice would
automatically be routed through to the master unless a jack was
plugged into that drum voice. All of the drum voices that connect
to the master output are in this drum machine soldered together
onto the middle leg of a potentiometer. With the other two legs
getting wired to either ground or the master output jack.

15. Testing
Turn it on and pray
it works!
I plugged a speaker
into one individual
output and then
wired some nodes to
it. Testing each
drum voice
individually.
if a voice isn’t
working, check for
breaks in the
circuit. If it still
doesn’t work then
check component
values. Then if all
else fails try
swapping out an IC.

16. Your nearly ready to play
So now you have
tested all your
circuit boards. I
would suggest that
you now insulate all
your circuit
boards. I used
masking tape. All it
is, is to stop the
bare traces from
touching each
other.

17. Play!

18. More information
• http://www.ciat-
lonbarde.net/rollz5/index.html this is the
website from the original designer.
• http://www.youtube.com/user/circitfied?fea
ture=mhee my videos with completed Rollz-5.
• https://soundcloud.com/circitfied/sets/roll
z-5-samples samples from my rollz-5.
• If you want to buy one then either contact
me (circitfied) or buy from my etsy shop
https://www.etsy.com/shop/Circitfied, a
contribution from each sale will go to the
original designer.

19. BOM 3-node pulse brain
Component Quantity
NPN 3
1n914 diode 1
470k 3
22k 3
bannana plug or binding posts 3
power connector 1
1uF 1
3 random capacitors 0.1uF or more 3
wire

20. BOM 4-node pulse brain
Component Quantity
NPN 4
1n914 diode 1
470k 4
22k 4
bannana plug or binding posts 4
power connector 1
1uF 1
4 random capacitors 0.1uF or more 4
wire

21. BOM 5-node pulse Brain
Component Quantity
NPN 5
1n914 diode 1
470k 5
22k 5
bannana plug or binding posters 5
power connector 1
1uF 1
5random capacitors 0.1uF or more 5

22. BOM 6-node pulse brain
Component Quantity
NPN 6
1n914 diode 1
470k 6
22k 6
bannana plug or binding posts 6
power connector 1
1uF 1
6random capacitors 0.1uF or more 6
wire

23. BOM Ultrasound Filters
Component Quanitity
10k 4
22k 8
100k 2
220k 2
2.2M 2
10K variable 2
npn 4
pnp 4
1n914 diode 1
0.01uF 2
power jack 1
output jack 1
0.001uf 2
0.01uF 2
1uF 3
banana socket or binding posts 2
volume resistors 22K or less 2
4066 IC 1
tlo84cn 2
damping caps 0.01uF or less 2
wire

24. BOM GONGS
Component Quantity
10k 2
22k 5
47k 2
100k 8
220k 8
1M 2
pitch resistors 2 matching pairs 22K to 2.2M 4
Decay resistor 470 to 10K 2
Volume resistor 4K to 22K 2
capacitors from .1uF to 100uF 2
banana sockets or binding posts 2
10k variable resistors 2
power jack 1
output jack 1
4013 IC 1
084 IC 2
npn 4
1uF 3
0.01uF 2
0.001uF 4
1n914 3
wire for connecting to connectors

25. BOM AV DOGS
Component Quantitiy
4.7k 2
10k 10
22k 8
100k 10
220k 4
X resistor matching pair 22K to 2.2M 2
Y pitch resitor 220K to 1M 2
Z 47K to 100K 2
npn 4
pnp 8
capacitors 0.1uF to 400 uF 2
1uF 8
0.01uF 2
10k variable 2
banana socket or binding post 2
power 2
output jack 2
084 ic 2
082 ic 2
1n914 diode 2
wire to connect to connectors