MATRIXSYNTH

Possible Repair Technique for the 80017a, the Juno-106 Voice Chip

YouTube via rolandsh1000

"Upfront, I'd like to say that I take no credit for inventing this technique, only for demonstrating it. I was inspired to try it by two compelling images that a person named Ramcur had posted on Flickr. I emailed him and he told me what he had done. So very special thanks to Ramcur for the method, and thanks to Chris Strellis (http://www.strellis.com) and K/Modeless Factory (http://modelessfactory.com) on the Analog Heaven mailing list for sending me sample failed chips to test this method out. Please visit their sites and patronize their services!

Some background: my HS-60 had 4 bad voices so I removed those 80017a's with plans to buy clones sometime in the future. But after I stumbled across Ramcur's photos, I tried to see if these chips could be repaired. I first used a professional heat gun, and I was able to salvage 2 of the 4 chips satisfactorially by simply removing the resin coating of the chips (the right heat allowed me to peel the coating off). But that was still only 50% yield and about 30minutes messing around with the heat gun - not easy.

After Ramcur emailed me back about using acetone, I tried it on a bad 80017 that Chris Strellis had sent me and it worked great. So I decided to create a video to show how this might be done. In the video, my HS-60 has been fitted with SIP socket to allow for quick swap out of the chips for testing. These sockets are in voice slots 2 and 3. Slot 1 has a 'known good' chip for comparison. In the final part of the video, I installed the chip that I was able to get "cleaned" in slot 2 for comparison to the good chip in slot 1 (slots 3, 4, 5, and 6 have no chips/are empty). I apologize for the bad lighting in that last part.

Does this really fix the chips? What about longer-term performance? The chips I've "rescued" so far I have put in my constantly-powered-on HS-60 for over a week and checked them twice a day and all of them no longer had any popping or cracking or cut-outs or runaway resonance or any of the classic failure modes of the 80017a. They did sound slightly different chip-to-chip, but I think that was due to me not recalibrating the trimmers for each voice.

Should you try this? I'd say you have nothing to lose and, as I show, it's pretty easy to do. If you already have a bad voice chip in your 106 or HS-60, you already would have to desolder it to install the reportedly-excellent clones from D'Naab (http://www.analoguerenaissance.com). So you could try this method first and, if it doesn't work or it's not to your liking, or you just want the comfort of something pretty much guaranteed, then you can always get the clone.

As the weeks go forward and I get time, I'll be subjecting this method to a lot of known-dead chips. I'll try to report back how that goes.

Good luck!"
Roland Juno-106 chip fix - IC repair

Muzix81 Computer Music System

via Retro Thing where you'll find the full post. It's a good one so do check it out. You'll find a free mp3 of an album created with this system.

The following is a small excerpt:
"In 1981, Hungarian musician and physicist Andras Szalay visited Sinclair in Cambridge where he bought a Sinclair ZX81 kit and built a computer at home. He designed an interface called the Composer, the first part of the powerful Muzix81 system, in 1982.

The Composer was a pre-MIDI sequencer software with a dedicated hardware interface for synthesizers and drum-machines. It used control-voltage."

mini3

flickr by parasitk
(click for more)

"A MiniMoog borrowed from Scooter McCrae (of the Mondo Modular series) and used on Devour, Rise, and Take Flight by Android Lust, and The Sick Are Not Healing by I, Parasite."

Moog IIIp

flickr by E_sus

full size

"Moog modular synthesizer. It was the second or third IIIp to leave the Moog factory (3/15/68). Paul Beaver was the first owner. It's in incredible shape for being over 40 years old."

Moog Synthesizer flickr set

Fatty Acid in the studio

YouTube via fattyacidmusic
"Fatty Acid in the studio, laying down some sounds for the song 'Sunday Morning'."

via Jon of Fatty Acid:

Stream the whole album for free on last.fm:
http://www.last.fm/music/Fatty+Acid/Fatty+Acid

a great recipe for bacon lovers:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/28/dining/28bacon.html"

Simmons SDSV Vintage Analog Synth Drum Modular

via these auctions

snare
bass
tom

circuit bent analog synth, joystick

via this auction

"this joystick-synth utilizes a square wave and produces a tonal range from deep lows to earsplitting highs…….it basically boils down to four independent, selectable notes (up, down, left, right), and the diagonal positions are the sum note of their adjacent selections……overall this will produce up to eight notes, for all eight directions (up, down, left, right, right/down, left/down, up/left, right/up)…….awesome functions, which allow for professional compositions……

Here is the hardware…..four alpha potentiometers (slow turn for precise tuning), four unique vintage styled knobs with aluminum inserts, one alps chrome toggle switch, one GREEN LED, one rugged joystick with a beautiful feel and response….the joystick has an ABS plastic shaft cap and a solid chrome shaft (quality!)…..all solid steel control plates, which have been hand painted ORANGE, a solid, select pine chassis which has been brad nailed/glued/puttied on all joints and a dark walnut, hand rubbed finish….smoooooth!...... super sturdy construction/design and when you feel the weight you’ll understand….tough as nails!

So whether you plan on adding some backing notes to your latest work or decide to go nuts and run the joystick 360 degrees for that CPU melt down sound…..this synth has you covered….."

Ian Fritz 5Pulser Waveshaper

YouTube via attorks. via the Bridechamber Fritz 5Pulser page.
"A short demonstration of the Ian Fritz 5Pulser Waveshaper. Bought it as a full kit from the Bride Chamber (www.bridechamber.com). Building it was fairly simple and took about 4 hours."

Cwejman Scope Analyze at Electrypnose labs

YouTube via lebarde1
"Pretty waveform show with the Cwejman S1 analog synth, playing in a track building process."

CME u-key mobiltone USB keyboard & MIDI controller

via this auction
Be sure to see the comments of this post for some notes on quality.
I don't think I ever realized/ registered that these had an internal speakers and joystick. It was announced at Winter NAMM back in 2006.

Details from the auction (note the two speakers were removed on this one):
"CMU u-key midi keyboard and controller. It comes with a MIDI cable. It's been slightly modified, and there's a couple of things I want to point out about it before selling it:

1. The internal speakers have been removed. The sound output still works fine.
2. The keyboard has been updated to the latest firmware.
3. The "CME" and "u-key" logos that were on the top left and right side of the keyboard have been removed. Not abrasively, they actually rubbed off when I was cleaning it.
4. Three black keys make a little more noise than the others when you play them. There is nothing wrong with them - they transmit velocity just as evenly as the other keys. There's a rubber strip that runs underneath the keybed to stop the keys in the event that they "travel" further down for some reason, thus, the noise.

All that aside, everything else is like new and functions as such. Full information can be found here"

From CME:
U-Key uses ultra-thin full-action semi-weighted keys to give a total thickness of only 3.7cm. Yet the key touch of U-Key is the same as keyboards of standard thickness. U-Key has a built-in 64-polyphony high quality mobile phone sound module, and internal high fidelity speaker driven by a digital amplifier. U-Key also has many MIDI songs built in with accompaniment in different styles, including loop variation and chord change. These have been carefully made by professional musicians and can be sprung by U-Key's unique 'PadStyle'. All MIDI songs and styles can be downloaded from Internet and transferred into U-Key via USB. U-Key contains a brand new Game mode, users can use this function and music books with U-Key to test their skill of performance, and students can learn many tips from using this mode. U-Key is the first mobiltone keyboard that has build in muiti ethical scales from around the world, and you may be surprised to learn that you can even play Arabian music or Asian music. U-CTRL is a brand new concept by CME, it provides the easiest way to communicate between controller and music software. You do not need to load template or presets, just press U-CTRL button and all the controllers you use for software control will be ready.

U-Key offers more than 20 user-defined controllers in different styles, including joystick, trigger pads, encoder for data entry, pedals. All controllers are programmable and all functions of U-Key can be quickly and easily set up by pressing certain keys. User can save their controller settings into U-Key and load them any time they want. U-Key has plug and play USB MIDI drivers for Windows XP / MAC OSX, and it can be USB powered.