Another fine demo there Bob! I just discovered tonight that one of my favourite bands... "LadyTron" have used this synth... = Now I have to find one :) sounds like a winner!
hey bob i love the video and have 1 of these i was just wonderin how you get that sound at 6mins 14 mark on your video and... how would i go about spraying the contacts on the control selector as the sound sumtimes cuts out on synthe 2 any info would be amazin thanks again :)
Hey Bob. I have one of these but only the presets(Brass, String, Wood Voice) work. The Synthe 1 and 2 switches do nothing. I really would like to hear these sounds and use the attack and release to edit. i have cleaned the switches but it does nothing. Any advice? Thanks!!
@Nastic88 It could be the filter. There are two in these units and I believe one handles the synthe stuff and one the other presets. Unfortunately the diagrams aren't great so I'd have to do some prep work to figure out what goes where and all. They're so light you may want to send it for repair. -Bob
@Nastic88 Oops I never saw this question somehow. Yeah oryjen has the probably cause. An ESR meter will usually sniff out which electrolytics are giving trouble without removing them from the board. It could also be a dead op amp or something I suppose...I don't have the diagram in front of me but check capacitor equivelant series resistances (THose esr meters put a fairly high frequency..100khz or so.. across the caps. Since they should have fairly high DC res. in parallel it shows hf res.)
You can always send it. They're so super light it's probably better if your time is worth anything. It's not a problem I've seen so would take some investigation probably. Could be dirty switches maybe..try wiggling things first.
mine went out of tune really bad, sounded like it was in serious pain! i opened it up 20 years ago and located a dry solder joint, soldered it and voila! i suggest you find a good electronics engineer to do it though, dont mess it up for the sake of a few bucks/quid! a tv engineer should do, piece of cake for them to do it. drop me a line if you wish! it really used to piss me off when it went crazy pitch while i played it haha!
is that a delta with its back to the micro preset? i have one, its broke :-( something up with the synth board, think ive narrowed it down to the resonance knob, makes the sound pop and bang in and out, then after its warm, just goes to barely hearable (if thats a word)
No but there's one to the right of it on the wall. It had about every problem imaginable due to the work of a clever mouse :-). I cleaned it up and parts were just falling off boards. The problem you are having though...not sure what's going on there. Check power supply rails to make sure they're good by probing pins 4 and 8 of a 1458 or 4558 op amp which I seem to recall are in there.. Or they might be under another name in that one come to think of it bu they are the most common 8 pin chip
Yup. The machine does have two Korg 35 filters though which are... 4 transistors, 1 FET, and half a dozen or so resistors. Really fairly simple circuits in those modules but great sounding! I'm not sure the LM13600 got in there but not as the primary filters anyway... Perhaps they're in there as a vca? I with the diagram was more readable. I can see the "Korg 35" designator and I remember then when I looked inside. But not sure about the dual ota's.
@sounddoctorin sorry - think i got things mixed up and have confused matters - I was talking about the Delta which I thought zoso11 was talking about above (even though this vid is about the Micropreset)? :-S - I bet the Micropreset has the 35 in it! But I'm sure the Delta has LM13600!
Wow! Brought back loads of memories from almost 30 years ago when I first played one. Your demo is inspiring so I've just bought one off eBay, can't wait to get it home. Will complement my old Oberheims and Prophet fine. With this machine having 2 filters, is one used for the orchestral presets and the other for the Traveler control on the Synth sounds?
Great Demo! just shows what old analogue gear can do.
Yeah it's a great little machine to have in the mix. I haven't studied diagram I guess on this one because the resolution is horrible on the pdf I have! But generally that seems to be the case. One filter for the traveller control on the synth sounds and one for presents probably from the way it behaves.
hey there loved the demo :D i recently managed to get hold of 1 but when i set the selection dial to 18 the sound goes and if i tinker with it it comes back.was just wondering if you knew how i could fix it at all or help with any info. i might try wd40 cheers Jamie
Use a contact cleaner like deoxit D5 for switch contacts, not WD40 in general I think. WD40 has things in it which are designed to leave a non-conductive film I believe.
Wow, this korg really has an awesome tone! A friend of mine used to have one of these but he sold it because he thought it sounded like crap. I think I need to have a word with him...
So many of these old units, while limited in many respects, have strengths that can find their way into pieces of actual music :-) The extensive amount of hardware that went into doing these simple things presents a reality. Other instruments can try to mimick that reality with less hardware but the human spirit is incredibly perceptive I believe and it knows the phony and the real thing. Especially those who are still youthful. Older people seem to lose touch with it often.
I hope you put the polymoog vid up, the korg sigma is great to play, especially the quick portamento button but its so weird, needs more modulation do you ever use the pitch bend with the after touch? it sounds unique. I like to tune the synth to a different note and play two notes at once, you can hear it on a track on my channel called italo buster, synths used were the siggy, cs15d, monopoly, juno 60, and korg ms 10, can you identify them all???
Hehe...boy it's tough. I think the CS15D is doing the later lead lines and the wheezy part at the first MS10. The bow bow bow bass is maybe JUNO? Hard to say which parts are the Sigma because it's so tonally flexible unless someone does something trade mark like move the filter joystick :-) Is the third held sound Sigma ...I think you gave that away :-). But process of elimination..eheh. And the 4th rounder tone I'm guessing Mono/poly. Yeah I do all kinds of nutty stuff w/sigma.
Tottally wrong im afraid, wheezy is sigma, bow wow wow is cs15d 3rd sound is juno your right about the monopoly tho, the later leads are sigma and cs15d only 2nd chorous is sigma my favorite sound coming out of it too, rectangle +flute +string with a touch of reverb, getting an elka ek 22 should arrive this week, know anything about that unit?
Hehe not surprising. It's really hard to tell on those types of sounds..especially since the sigma and ms10 have the same hardware involved to a good degree and I've never played with an MS10/20 so just a raw guess knowing they are capable of similar sounds architecture wise. Nice video anyway. Looks exactly like a typical day in the streets of Bozeman :-)
What a great tone, ive just looked at your gear list on your site, wow, could you please do a demo of the polynoog, what about the Korg Sigma, i have one but don't have a camera to record, id love to see what you think of those two machines.
Hey, I actually have a polymoog video but it's a bit dark. I was going to try to edit it down and enhance it and see if it works ok without reshooting and just haven't gotten around to it. The Sigma is one of my favorite monosynths. It'll definitely get covered soon here. Polymoog is great for certain sounds. A very unique machine though not massively diverse of course in the types of sounds available. But much depth within the basics.
This guy's brilliant, truly brilliant, like a true analogue savant or something!
eggtheist 4 months ago
Another fine demo there Bob! I just discovered tonight that one of my favourite bands... "LadyTron" have used this synth... = Now I have to find one :) sounds like a winner!
Sjobeck7 5 months ago
All those classic SYNTHE1&2 failures are due to old capacitors loosing their corrosive liquid and erasing tracks on the board.
It's a real shit to fix, 'cause that card is so so crowded!!!
Have pleasure...
oryjen 1 year ago
hey bob i love the video and have 1 of these i was just wonderin how you get that sound at 6mins 14 mark on your video and... how would i go about spraying the contacts on the control selector as the sound sumtimes cuts out on synthe 2 any info would be amazin thanks again :)
devine777 1 year ago
Hey Bob. I have one of these but only the presets(Brass, String, Wood Voice) work. The Synthe 1 and 2 switches do nothing. I really would like to hear these sounds and use the attack and release to edit. i have cleaned the switches but it does nothing. Any advice? Thanks!!
Nastic88 1 year ago
@Nastic88 It could be the filter. There are two in these units and I believe one handles the synthe stuff and one the other presets. Unfortunately the diagrams aren't great so I'd have to do some prep work to figure out what goes where and all. They're so light you may want to send it for repair. -Bob
sounddoctorin 1 year ago
@Nastic88 Oops I never saw this question somehow. Yeah oryjen has the probably cause. An ESR meter will usually sniff out which electrolytics are giving trouble without removing them from the board. It could also be a dead op amp or something I suppose...I don't have the diagram in front of me but check capacitor equivelant series resistances (THose esr meters put a fairly high frequency..100khz or so.. across the caps. Since they should have fairly high DC res. in parallel it shows hf res.)
sounddoctorin 1 year ago
my korg micropresetsometimes goeshorribly out of tune while playing and almost every time i change presets. any ideas of what should i do?
xtenantx 2 years ago
You can always send it. They're so super light it's probably better if your time is worth anything. It's not a problem I've seen so would take some investigation probably. Could be dirty switches maybe..try wiggling things first.
sounddoctorin 2 years ago
@xtenantx
mine went out of tune really bad, sounded like it was in serious pain! i opened it up 20 years ago and located a dry solder joint, soldered it and voila! i suggest you find a good electronics engineer to do it though, dont mess it up for the sake of a few bucks/quid! a tv engineer should do, piece of cake for them to do it. drop me a line if you wish! it really used to piss me off when it went crazy pitch while i played it haha!
PhobiaGuy 2 years ago
is that a delta with its back to the micro preset? i have one, its broke :-( something up with the synth board, think ive narrowed it down to the resonance knob, makes the sound pop and bang in and out, then after its warm, just goes to barely hearable (if thats a word)
zoso11 2 years ago
No but there's one to the right of it on the wall. It had about every problem imaginable due to the work of a clever mouse :-). I cleaned it up and parts were just falling off boards. The problem you are having though...not sure what's going on there. Check power supply rails to make sure they're good by probing pins 4 and 8 of a 1458 or 4558 op amp which I seem to recall are in there.. Or they might be under another name in that one come to think of it bu they are the most common 8 pin chip
sounddoctorin 2 years ago
Loving the sound of the Micropreset. Full of character!
@zoso11 - try replacing 4x 0.001 microF tantalum caps (C21,22,23,24) located near the LM13600 filter opamps!
twidknobbler 2 years ago
Yup. The machine does have two Korg 35 filters though which are... 4 transistors, 1 FET, and half a dozen or so resistors. Really fairly simple circuits in those modules but great sounding! I'm not sure the LM13600 got in there but not as the primary filters anyway... Perhaps they're in there as a vca? I with the diagram was more readable. I can see the "Korg 35" designator and I remember then when I looked inside. But not sure about the dual ota's.
sounddoctorin 2 years ago
@sounddoctorin sorry - think i got things mixed up and have confused matters - I was talking about the Delta which I thought zoso11 was talking about above (even though this vid is about the Micropreset)? :-S - I bet the Micropreset has the 35 in it! But I'm sure the Delta has LM13600!
twidknobbler 2 years ago
Oh right didn't understand you there. Delta indeed has that issue with caps around LM13600 (and failure of 13600 in one I did)
sounddoctorin 2 years ago
Wow! Brought back loads of memories from almost 30 years ago when I first played one. Your demo is inspiring so I've just bought one off eBay, can't wait to get it home. Will complement my old Oberheims and Prophet fine. With this machine having 2 filters, is one used for the orchestral presets and the other for the Traveler control on the Synth sounds?
Great Demo! just shows what old analogue gear can do.
Cheers
Pete
ja55pl65 2 years ago
Yeah it's a great little machine to have in the mix. I haven't studied diagram I guess on this one because the resolution is horrible on the pdf I have! But generally that seems to be the case. One filter for the traveller control on the synth sounds and one for presents probably from the way it behaves.
sounddoctorin 2 years ago
hey there loved the demo :D i recently managed to get hold of 1 but when i set the selection dial to 18 the sound goes and if i tinker with it it comes back.was just wondering if you knew how i could fix it at all or help with any info. i might try wd40 cheers Jamie
devine777 2 years ago
Use a contact cleaner like deoxit D5 for switch contacts, not WD40 in general I think. WD40 has things in it which are designed to leave a non-conductive film I believe.
sounddoctorin 2 years ago
Wow, this korg really has an awesome tone! A friend of mine used to have one of these but he sold it because he thought it sounded like crap. I think I need to have a word with him...
DennisBastian 3 years ago
So many of these old units, while limited in many respects, have strengths that can find their way into pieces of actual music :-) The extensive amount of hardware that went into doing these simple things presents a reality. Other instruments can try to mimick that reality with less hardware but the human spirit is incredibly perceptive I believe and it knows the phony and the real thing. Especially those who are still youthful. Older people seem to lose touch with it often.
sounddoctorin 3 years ago
I hope you put the polymoog vid up, the korg sigma is great to play, especially the quick portamento button but its so weird, needs more modulation do you ever use the pitch bend with the after touch? it sounds unique. I like to tune the synth to a different note and play two notes at once, you can hear it on a track on my channel called italo buster, synths used were the siggy, cs15d, monopoly, juno 60, and korg ms 10, can you identify them all???
gummybits 3 years ago
Hehe...boy it's tough. I think the CS15D is doing the later lead lines and the wheezy part at the first MS10. The bow bow bow bass is maybe JUNO? Hard to say which parts are the Sigma because it's so tonally flexible unless someone does something trade mark like move the filter joystick :-) Is the third held sound Sigma ...I think you gave that away :-). But process of elimination..eheh. And the 4th rounder tone I'm guessing Mono/poly. Yeah I do all kinds of nutty stuff w/sigma.
sounddoctorin 3 years ago
Tottally wrong im afraid, wheezy is sigma, bow wow wow is cs15d 3rd sound is juno your right about the monopoly tho, the later leads are sigma and cs15d only 2nd chorous is sigma my favorite sound coming out of it too, rectangle +flute +string with a touch of reverb, getting an elka ek 22 should arrive this week, know anything about that unit?
gummybits 3 years ago
Hehe not surprising. It's really hard to tell on those types of sounds..especially since the sigma and ms10 have the same hardware involved to a good degree and I've never played with an MS10/20 so just a raw guess knowing they are capable of similar sounds architecture wise. Nice video anyway. Looks exactly like a typical day in the streets of Bozeman :-)
sounddoctorin 3 years ago
And never worked on or play an EK22. Let me know how you like it!
sounddoctorin 3 years ago
What a great tone, ive just looked at your gear list on your site, wow, could you please do a demo of the polynoog, what about the Korg Sigma, i have one but don't have a camera to record, id love to see what you think of those two machines.
gummybits 3 years ago
Hey, I actually have a polymoog video but it's a bit dark. I was going to try to edit it down and enhance it and see if it works ok without reshooting and just haven't gotten around to it. The Sigma is one of my favorite monosynths. It'll definitely get covered soon here. Polymoog is great for certain sounds. A very unique machine though not massively diverse of course in the types of sounds available. But much depth within the basics.
sounddoctorin 3 years ago