wicked1
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Posts posted by wicked1
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Oh no... I had a story about solving the buzzing in my sid, but it's not fixed.. I suppose everything was warmed up and the usual power cycle didn't make it start buzzing again..
So, if anyone reads this, even though it says "solved", can you help me figure out the buzzing my 6582 has developed? When I first built it, it was quiet. Then after messing w/ it w/out a case and debugging the control surface it started buzzing. All 4 pair of sids do it. 4 are 6582, 2 are 6581's, and the oters are swinsid's. After it warms up for 5 or 10 min, it stops buzzing. Voltages at the power supply, and at each sid are correct.
I was thinking about replacing the regulators and large power supply caps, but the voltages are alright, and I've never heard of a capacitor needing to warm up.. (When caps have failed on me, it's been as a short circuit)
Any ideas?
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Good point... Local/US bank transfers are free for me.
And, the extra cost at my bank (vs larger US banks) is probably paying for the bankers time at the office.
I'm usually happy I'm with a small local bank, but this is one case where it's a disadvantage.
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Actually, they'll take paypal if all else fails. (people here are great!) (I dont like paypal either, but they are the easiest)
Interesting to know bank transfers are basically free in Europe. Also, I heard back from a friend and they can do transfers online with their bank and pay a $40.00 fee.. That's much better than my bank, but still not great.
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He says he does not use paypal. Obviously that would be ideal. I've asked if he'll take western union or moneygram... Waiting to hear back.
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I'm wanting to purchase something from someone here in the fleamarket, and they want a bank transfer.
My bank doesn't like doing them. I have to go to the main office, wait for a banker (not just a teller, but someone to go into an office and sit down with). And, the last time I did it, they were hesitant to even do it, and kept telling me "these are usually used for much much larger transfers". Oh, and they charge a HUGE fee.. $60.00 just to do it, and then some % of the transfer amount on top of it.
So, this seems excessive. Is the seller asking too much of me, or is my local bank the problem?
I basically want to know how other people handle international payments, and if bank transfers are standard... even if my bank doesn't think they are.
Thanks!
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It's sold
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Wow, that's an expensive synth.
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The 6582 isn't all that menu driven.. It's got a good set of knobs on it. The mod matrix makes setting up patches easy. It's got everything you need for real time tweaking. I've got to admit I've had mine finished a month or less, but so far I'd say you can do 80% of your sound sculpting w/out getting in to the menus, and 100r% of your tweaking while playing it, w/out getting in to the menus.
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That's great!
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I'm interested too..... After reading through the threads, I want one!
If anyone wants to back out, I'll buy your parts :).
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I'm about to breadboard this VCA, but was thinking...... to the people who have built it, do you really get much use out of it? I built the ssm filters, but don't think I'll have them up to self oscillating very often. Then, since you can only automatically route the volume to it, it must take a bit of effort to re-do your patches and map the EG to the external VCA.
So, is it worth the effort?
Thanks!
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The ebay switches are overseas, and from what I can tell, Frarnell is shipping out of the UK with a $20.00 shipping fee. I had hoped to find them local so I could get them in a few days.
Well, thanks anyway.. I guess I'll have to wait. I took a few years break from electronics, and components for synths and these midibox projects have gotten very difficult to find in that time! And it seems 90% of the building community has disappeared :(. Hopefully it's cyclical and people will get in to it again.
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Where can I get this special firmware? I asked about it when I purchased my nano swinsids, and the guy at retro-donald said he's got the only available firmware, and that's what is installed.
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I just received a couple of the nano swinsid's and have the same issue.. None of the swinsid extensions or waves work. I did enable them, compile, upload, the options are in the menu, but don't work.
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I'm looking for alps tactile switches, for the mb-6582. SKHHDTA010, 13mm tall.
Mouser is out of them. Digikey doesn't stock them. I only need a few. I melted a few while debugging some control surface problems......... Now the front panel won't fit.
Let me know if anyone has a few they could sell me. (5 or 6 would be ideal, but 3 would do). I'm in the USA.
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Thanks for the replies! Looks like we're all mostly in agreement on the performance side of things.. Personally, I relate most to what hawkeye said about the gear being inspiring.. Stare at a particular instrument w/ a certain knob and light layout for long enough, and it affects you... The way you play and interact w/ the gear changes the music. I can't even get in to using a midi controller keyboard and having it set up for all my gear... I'd rather hop back and forth between each box.
And to what IMP said, about not needing the band.. That's true in a way, but composing music alone is completely different than jamming w/ friends. That's another disturbing aspect to modern music, to me. Looking back on all my favorite electronic music, most of it is a collaboration. Even just the flat out techno acts I like were at least 2 guys working together. Working alone, the music is just about you and your world.. If you have even one other person as a bit of a filter and different look on things, it will make the music accessible to that many more people.
But, how about the sound quality aspect? I got in to building hi-fi amplifiers several years ago, and it has ruined me, in a way. I listen for distortion in everything now, and it is there! So to me, I can almost always hear a difference between record and mp3, vst and real analog gear. But to most now days, it seems they don't care. 96k mp3 is the same as analog vinyl to them.. they still hear the notes and beats. So, if that's the case, why bother? Like nILS says, then it's all just software. Why build a sid or real mb FM? Why build filters or 909/808 clones? (Obviously around here, it's because it's our hobby.... but is it worth bothering for the sake of music production? Hopefully people like some of us will always think it is :) )
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I continue building real synths, while most of my friends have been getting rid of anything real and moving to all computer based music. Records are gone in favor of traktor, effects, filters, etc, are all gone in favor of digital plug-ins. Synths and sequencers are gone. I personally love my gear and honestly, it sounds better. But does it matter?
People don't seem to care that my analog filter sounds a bit better than their VST. They don't notice the thin-ness or aliasing of their digital synths.. they just know it's playing the basic notes and general sound they're going for, and that's good enough.
Now it's getting to the point where it's hard to work w/ guys who used to be basically studio partners.. I look at their screens w/ a blank stare, and they're completely intimidated by my mass of cables and faders and knobs.
It's also getting sad, because instead of the usual excitement when I bring out a new instrument, now all I get is "well, couldn't you just model that?" "Wouldn't it be easier to set up if you just had to load your program" and most recently when I built a new filter, "why do you bother when you can just download a vst".
I think it's sad... The big down side I see to computers, other than the audio quality, is the loss of the band feel. Trying to "jam" w/ people on their ipads is sort of lame... They just pick out pre-recorded (or pre-sequenced) music and press play.. No live, in the heat of the moment tweaks or anything.........
Owell.. end of an era, I guess. I'm wondering if I'm the only one bothered by it..
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I finished mine last week. The documentation is great. Only problem I had was a few bad IC's which were tricky to figure out. I used 4-6582, 2x6581, and 2xswinsid's (are in the mail).
Had a little jam session w/ it last night at a friends house, and it was a LOT of fun!
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There was special firmware version specially designed for MIDIBox with extended filter range but this feature is not enabled in standard release.
Anyone know where I can find that firmware?
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Well, I suppose like everyone else, I've finally found the problems of the ADSR bug. I pretty much only play live, so fixing things later isn't an option. (Ok, to be honest, it's been years since I've performed at an event, but live play is my general goal)
When playing drums and bassline on the sid, and having the ADSR bug workaround turned on with both, are things in sync?(Using 2 separate cores, 4 sids in this example) I think they are.. It sounds better than having the ABW off. But, it's sad what aging and general lack of time for music does to your ability to correctly hear 30ms, and I can't quite tell if it's right!
I know an external VCA would get around the issue for lead mode... Can I set drum mode to use an external VCA as well to overcome the issue?
And finally, are there any little delay boxes that would add the 30ms delay? DIY would be awesome.. But even some sort of rack equipment that just has in's and outs and a delay time would be great. I still don't use computers in my music! (like I said, I'm old.. and I run an IT company, so I get enough of computers in other parts of my life!)
Thanks for any advice.
BTW, the mb-sid has far surpassed my expectations.. (other than the expectation of the VCA working :D, but that's not the fault of anyone here...)
This thing is seriously amazing!
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I found it! It's at least 2 bad ic's, so swapping them internally didn't make the problems go away.
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A little more info..
Most the problem parts are with buttons connected to jd8 pin5. So, I swapped it w/ jd8 pin 0, and the problems stayed w/ the buttons.. so now for example the button controlling "select 1", which was the matrix mode button works, but pressing the old select 1 to change the matrix mode still selects si4 and other things... I think that tells me the problem is on the control surface. I've swapped the IC checked everything else on the base board at jd8. I hate to admit it, but I didn't have these problems until I cleaned the flux off the PCB! At post 2 it was all working, other than some LED's that wouldn't go all the way out. Then I cleaned the bottom of each PCB w/ alcohol and that's when these buttons stopped working :(.
I'll continue re-soldering and maybe start replacing diodes..
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It's not that the LED's aren't lighting up.. It's that they are not turning all the way off.
But, I've developed a new issue.. I've never gotten the controls 100%, but now I noticed, if I press the buttons under the display, so the far left button, "select 1" it changes to sid4, if I press select 2, it changes to sid 3, select 3 changes to sid2, and select 4 is like pressing sid1. Occasionally other buttons (like the l/r) thinks it's been pressed as well.
So, looking at the wiring PDF, http://www.midibox.org/dokuwiki/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=mb-6582:mb-6582_cs_din_wiring.pdf, select1 for example is next to sid4, connected to "JD5" "D0". The same is true for the other buttons that are acting strange, the other button that gets engaged is on the same connection (bus?).
But, I have tested all the connections, and there are no shorts (multimeter/beep test).. To be double sure I took a pin and scraped around every solder joint around those buttons and led's, and also around the din and douts on the base PCB. I also swapped IC's. I tested all the diodes.
I must be missing something. From those symptoms, an adjacent button getting triggered, what would you suspect the cause? I suppose I'll start reading the din and dout pages on ucapps, too...
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Well, I found 2 bad LED's!! I wouldn't have thought bad led's would cause the buttons to act so crazy, but they did!
So, it is working!! I still have some partially lit LED's that should be all the way out, though. Anyone know what's up w/ that?
6582 buzz (solved)
in MIDIbox SID
Posted
I've re-soldered a good portion of the board. (and am a pretty good solderer, to begin with).. I have not pulled IC's, though. Could be same issue w/ contact between an IC and the socket..
What bothers me most is that I really don't think it buzzed before I messed w/ it. In debugging things I managed to shock(I guess) one of the din IC's which caused a lot of strange trouble. Replacing it fixed those issues. But, that has me worried I could have 1/2 shocked another component.
The buzz is much louder on the higher voltage 6581's, than the 2's. Not sure if that helps give any clues as to where to look. (12v vs 9v)
Is it possible for a voltage regulator to develop an issue that could cause noise? (I don't have extra regulators at this time, to try replacing them)
I suppose I'll pull IC's and keep looking for bad solders.
One last strange symptom is that when the buzzing is fading, if I touch the base board around the power supply or sid audio outs, the buzz comes back to full volume, but quickly fades away again.
It's not any specific spot.. I can touch the power supply caps, or really just about anything behind the sids, and the buzz comes back. I have learned over the years that these types of observations usually don't help me or anyone else track down the issue... Debugging sucks! :)