#sy77

I wanted to get a TG77 (again) for a while but any time I looked on the auction or digimart there were none listed, so some time ago I said whatever and bought an SY77 thinking "same thing" but I was wrong. The synth engine is the same but the preset sounds are different and there is one that I really really like on the TG that was not present on the SY (Aquavox or something like that). That was disappointing, but I had fun with the SY anyway for a bit, until I started to notice how much space it took up... so I thought I would just sell it and wait til I found a TG77 sometime in the future. At least a year has gone by since then if not more. Anyway I was killing time browsing the auction the other day and FINALLY saw a TG77 and thought yay! Nobody else bid, so I won. When it arrived, it was working but in obvious need of some repairs. The screen backlight was dead, a handful of buttons simply did not respond, others would respond half the time, while others were perfectly fine. Anyway I decided to replace the screen entirely and put an LED white on black one in. Part of that process involved replacing the tact switches for the Shift, F1-F8 and Exit buttons, as the new screen is a tad thicker than the stock one, so the height of the factory tact switch buttons is a fraction too low. The guy who sells the screens provided a set of tact switches with the screen, so that was nice. While I was at it, I decided just to say fuggit and replace the whole entire set of tact switches with the slightly taller version. Have a peek:

De-tact-switchified.

New ones done. Everything works perfectly now. And I think in my previous post I talked about the chorus on the DW-6000 making a noticeable but not really in your face bit of white noise at the top of the chorus LFO, so I removed the MN3209 BBD and MN3102 clock chips, put sockets in, and tried my luck with a set of replacement ICs. But, nothing changed. Hmmmmmm.

『キーボードプレイヤー(1990年代風)』

Well, 2020 was a helluva clusterfuck-train-wreck-sewer-explosion-dumpster-fire of a year, and to be honest, 2021 ain't off to that great of a start really. Look at 'Murica. The trumpty-dumpties tried their inane, lunacy- and conspiracy theory-fueled "revolution" at the Capitol, and how'd that end up? Bunch of bearded, beer-bellied, barely literate, bandana-wearing bumpkins. Aaaargh! And Covid is on the rise here in Japan, so the gov has announced a second "state of emergency" but all they're doing is "asking" people to avoid unnecessary outings and for drinking/eating establishments to close at 8pm. We're doomed.

But, the gear quest continues! The B200 wasn't doing it for me, not enough control, so I said fuggit and bought a DX7II-D, the second one I've owned actually. Obviously, 6-op full control is miles ahead of what I was dealing with using the B200, but there are no Easy Edit features, so it's pretty much dive in with both feet, sink or swim. There are a few decent tutorials on youtube, especially the MadFame channel, and following those definitely helps get your head around the basic idea of how FM works. I'm no expert, but at least now I can think OK I want this kind of sound, and I have a feel for how to go about doing it, and can actually get close to what I had in mind, compared to before, when I had less than zero of a clue what to do. FM is nuts.

What a mess I had going when I took that photo. I wanted a TG77 but they were going for like $500 and up, and that was outta the already non-existent budget, so I saw this for $99 and thought, well? Spent another $90 getting a bright green replacement LCD, that is actually so bright, I can't see the buttons or the knob or anything. Madness! This is a helluva synth though. AFM is no joke. every operator has two inputs, and you can freely assign feedback loops. Shit, you can even write your own algorithm! Mental as fuck. Such a rich, deep sound too. I love this synth. Not too keen about the size, but there's always a compromise.

Replacing the LCD was a HUGE task. Not for the faint of heart, seriously. I followed Midera's video and that was a huge help. You literally have to remove EVERYTHING to get to the LCD. But at least the replacement was a plug & play drop-in replacement. I replaced the backup battery while I was in there. I can't remember if I replaced the tact switches... I've done that so many times on so many pieces of gear in the past half year that it's not even funny. Seriously. Today for example....

Tact switch highjinks on a KORG RE1. I picked up an O3 R/W, as I was getting the itch to use M1 sounds into my projects but didn't wanna deal with USB dongles and camera kits and all the associated iPad paraphernalia. So I bought an O3 R/W, and saw an RE1, remote editor, and was like YES, and bid an insane amount considering I'm really in no position to be spending money on this stuff right now, but luckily won the auction for $125. The tact switches were like NOPE, so I replaced them all, except for the A-H buttons under the LCD because those worked fine. 30-minute job and now it's good as new. Using the RE-1 I guess makes the O3 R/W (or the M3 as it works with that too) rather like an M1R as far as interface goes. I don't recall if the M1R has sliders, but I know it has the bigger (wider) LCD. Less pages to scroll through and you get a blurb that tells you what the parameter is you're editing displayed in the upper right hand corner. VERY happy to have gotten this.

In other news, I impulse bought an old Fostex 3070 compressor for shits and giggles and it's turned to tears and sniffles as the left channel is just not working right whatsoever. I've replaced all the caps, and socketed and replaced all the ICs except for one (the LM2309 comparator). And it was like NOPE. Cleaner, but still it was not functioning right and there was a huge difference in output levels between sides. So I think the comparator chip that I haven't replaced, on the left channel, is the culprit, as when I mess with the Expander/Gate switch and knob, all hell breaks loose. It's an odd chip though, they went with a 9-pin SIP (single in-line package) chip instead of a standard, 8-pin, DIP (dual in-line package) chip. The former is a chip that is long and skinny and has one row of 9 pins along the bottom, whereas the latter is a small black rectangle with four pins on either side. I did look at the schematics and saw that pins 1 and 9 are routed to +V, and that if you just shift pins so that 1 is left unconnected, the pinout will match a DIP chip. Aitendo to the rescue! They sell converter baby PCBs so you can pretty much change between any kind of IC format.

And that is the part in question. I'll put a socket on the PCB where the original chip sits, and see what happens. No great expectations but who knows. For the ultra tech savvy of yous out there, you'll know that a certain big name four-letter electronic act of the 90s used the 3070 and ran their whole mix through it. Hehehe. Yeah ok so that is basically what I had in mind, but who knows. If the thing comes back to life, we'll see...