dead voice chip...maybe?

[kazper]

I believe it has the same chips that the Juno-106 has for some of the synth voices. The custom ones that are prone to problems there.

It's up to you if you want to chase down a replacement. If it was me I would use it as is or try the cleaning and resealing method that has been talked about on the net. I don't think it's worth the $$ for replacement IC's.

Kaz

[tstu102]

yeah, I know its the same chip as the juno, and I've looked into replacements, which is why I'm trying to figure out if I really need to replace it. It would be worth it, this thing is a polytimbral juno with velocity sensitive filter, 707, and SH sounds!

anyways, thanks for the info i'm gonna look into cleaning it

[kazper]

Cool.

I've never used one but speck wise it's a interesting box. The only reason why I wouldn't spend any money on it personally is the additional investment into it will not help it's resale value at all. I'd think that it may be better to place to use funds toward something with adjustments like a Juno. Again this is just my opinion.

Good luck

I definitely would look into reviving the chips, because that ROI is fairly high. On Harmony Central there was a Juno 106 chip revival thread BTW. I got a Juno 106 myself and so far the chips been ok...

Kaz

[tstu102]

yeah, I just looked it up and will definitely be doing that. ALthough its embarassing I don't know how to solder.

Anyways, I have a juno 60 to the left of my mks-7 and an SH-101 to the right, and the MKS holds its own. I think it sounds much better than the 101, actually. Except it doesn't have glide. It sounds brighter than the 60, (more like the 106) but obviously isn't as fat.

I Got it for $250! they're selling for way more now. Plus I programmed the behringer bcf2000 to control every parameter of each voice section (which can be done independently of one another). For me, it is the ultimate live analog synth. And way smaller than a 106. highly recommended.

There, I'm done bragging bout it. haha.

[kazper]

Cool thanks for the heads up on that one.. Soldering is fairly easy when your dealing with stuff of that age.

[nofi]

Originally Posted by tstu102

I've had what I thought was a dead voice chip in my roland mks 7 for two years now. But the thing is sometimes it will work perfectly (like when I brought it to get fixed). Very rarely.

Is this possible? Because it has been dead for two years but is now working. Or do I maybe have a loose connection in the synth somewhere?

Thanks

how does it sound when misbehaving?

I've heard a bunch of these chips die in different synths, and you can often get what sounds like a stuck note, otherwise you can get sounds like static when you play, general distortion and warbly tones in the sound of a voice.

generally, when a voice chip starts going bad, you notice it some time after power on. If it happens when you are using it you can turn the synth off, leave it for a while, and keep using the synth.... then gradually over time the time between turning it on and having a problem with the voice becomes zero...


so - if your synth problems sound like that - then you probably have dead voices.... if its the case that this sort of thing has come good again, I'm very impressed! never seen that happen.

But if you have voices that just stop working, then can work again, I'd be looking at dry solder joints or cracked PCB tracks.. though the MKS-7 is a really solidly built rack, so I'd be very surprised about cracked traces.


also - bad voice chips tend to die together. if you have one bad chip, and leave the synth on for 24 hours you might discover you actually have 2-3 more bad voices waiting to happen.

[tstu102]

hmm interesting. Yeah, it doesn't sound like my dead voice chip that happened with my juno106 (which was completely ****ed). isn't the holding down thing a dead part of the VCA?

I get static, and pops when I play the note. But sometimes when I play it enough, it starts working again. although that sounds completely crazy, I know.

Anyways, I have no other problems with the other voice chips. And yes, this has been happening on and off for two years.
Should I soak the chip in acetone? that is my next move. But for some reason it has always felt like its something that happens when the rack is physically moved around. like when I took it to get repaired, I carried it on the subway all the way from brooklyn to harlem, and when it got there, it worked fine. weiird. Plus, I've left it on overnight for many days in a row (months) which I shouldn't do, but...

what are dry solder joints?