electro-music.com   Dedicated to experimental electro-acoustic
and electronic music
 
    Front Page  |  Radio
 |  Media  |  Forum  |  Wiki  |  Links
Forum with support of Syndicator RSS
 FAQFAQ   CalendarCalendar   SearchSearch   MemberlistMemberlist   UsergroupsUsergroups   LinksLinks
 RegisterRegister   ProfileProfile   Log in to check your private messagesLog in to check your private messages   Log inLog in  Chat RoomChat Room 
 Forum index » Instruments and Equipment » Alesis Andromeda
Andy OUT OF TUNE (hell another topic)
Post new topic   Reply to topic
Page 1 of 1 [12 Posts]
View unread posts
View new posts in the last week
Mark the topic unread :: View previous topic :: View next topic
Author Message
HouseCat



Joined: Jan 30, 2014
Posts: 8
Location: Hungary
Audio files: 1

PostPosted: Thu Jan 30, 2014 3:57 am    Post subject: Andy OUT OF TUNE (hell another topic) Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Bought Andy A6 second hand
It's got 1.40.12 os
and bootloader 01.20.37

Several voices are horrible out of tune.
Some of them strangely in some octaves.
The Auto tune procedure shows OK on everything.
Sometimes in tunes voices 1-4 perfectly, some times
voice 1 is noticably lower. The worst degree on some voices is
around semitone.
But the mashine doesn't show any voices are faulty or something.

I'm going mad
Please help somebody...
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Silagemaker



Joined: Aug 01, 2013
Posts: 47
Location: Ireland

PostPosted: Thu Jan 30, 2014 11:46 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Hi,
I know whats it's like as you can see from my thread Confused
When I bought mine all voices passed the tuning test. As far as I can see that means damn all.
I presume you've done a soft reset to reset the tuning tables ( hold down button 4 at startup) or a hard reset ( button 3).
You've given it half an hour in a warmish room before tuning.
Is background tuning and tempeture tuning on or off. Try both.
I tried all of these and no go. If you're voice chips are faulty then you can buy new ones from inMusic in UK or directly from Alesis in Germany. They're not to expensive ( £81.34 including vat and p&p for 3).
Mine is back for repair because replacement for voice 12 now stays in tune but fails tuning test! I'm determined to have it right😥. Especially if I want to sell it.
Don't panic too much as a skilled technician can hopefully sort it out.
There's a lot of people on the forum that know a lot more than me and they'll probably have more suggestions.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
HouseCat



Joined: Jan 30, 2014
Posts: 8
Location: Hungary
Audio files: 1

PostPosted: Thu Jan 30, 2014 12:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Of course I've done soft and hard resets, even reflashed the OS.
Nothing...
Voices 1-4 work flawlessly in all octaves.
Voice 5 is lower and has beating of oscillators (detune) That means that both osc of a chip are drifting in opposite ways.
Voice 6 , very strange situation, it wits well with 1-4 voices within 3 octaves (if watching on andy keyboard), in 4th octave beginning from B4 to B5 it has crazy hoover DETUNE and C5 is rapidly again clean and free of artifacts!!!
Voice 7 is ouf of tune and has beating from F2 to C6...
Voice 8 has detune oscs from C3 to A4
Voice 9 seems absolute normal
Voice 10has detune from C3 to A4
Voice 11 Okay
Voice 12 Okay
Voice 13 detune begins at B3 and to the end, from Eflat5 it sounds like machine gun, no actual pitch can be heard, like superHOOVERmadness
Voice 14 detunes from C5 to C6, in the upper end of the keyboard it also sounds like machinegunhoover )
Voice 15 detuned from F2 to A3, in the upper range A3 and higher it blends well with 1-4 oscs
Voice 16 faulty and detuned almost all over the range

So by paying 3300$ I got 7 voice synth. (((

Actually I don't think that this Andy has so much faulty or broken voice chips.
That is too many. And the tuning is strange, in some octaves there's no artifacts at all, but on some intervals I got a hoover!

I think that the problem is in tuning system.
It can't tune some ranges.

Shall be interesting to hear more opinions, of course the words of a technicians and pros in electronics.

Regards ...
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
sunny pedaal



Joined: Nov 16, 2004
Posts: 735
Location: netherlands
Audio files: 12

PostPosted: Fri Jan 31, 2014 3:11 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

either 4 voicechips defect , or motherboard problem
voicechips deliver voices in pairs ( 1+2, 3+4 etc )
tuning happens in octaveintervalles, no possibilitie to change tuningtables.
you can however try to autotune, then switch of voices correctly tuned and press osc tune for the remaining voices.
thing i would do is : try 1 new voice chip ( at numark service station.
if that helps change all faulty ones ,
or buy a newvoiceboard with all chips somewhere.
the all voices tuned isn't always right. reason why i always recommended to test all voices seperately over the 5 octaves before buying and even put some testpatch / default patch on this side.
sorry to hear.
alternative is bring it back, get your money back and buy another one as this are "hidden defects" for which the seller should take responsibility

Last edited by sunny pedaal on Fri Jan 31, 2014 1:50 pm; edited 1 time in total
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
HouseCat



Joined: Jan 30, 2014
Posts: 8
Location: Hungary
Audio files: 1

PostPosted: Fri Jan 31, 2014 3:37 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Could it be ribbon cables and leads badly attached to boards inside ?
Maybe disassemble and reattach them may help ?
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
sunny pedaal



Joined: Nov 16, 2004
Posts: 735
Location: netherlands
Audio files: 12

PostPosted: Fri Jan 31, 2014 1:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

can always try it, but why only some voicepairs and not others ?
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
HouseCat



Joined: Jan 30, 2014
Posts: 8
Location: Hungary
Audio files: 1

PostPosted: Fri Jan 31, 2014 3:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Every time the system tunes the voices the same way.
The same voices has same artifacts in the same octaves.
I guess if it was digital controller failure the results should be random.
But today again voices 1-4 flawlessly, and etc the same way I already mentioned.
Today I tried to swap the ribbons in and out from main to analog pcb, no result.
It come so clear to me that certain voice chips are failing.
(((
I don't know a place to buy a single ASIC VCO chip, only the PCB.
Due to the fact that I have more than half faulty voices maybe it would be wise to buy the entire ANALOG ASIC pcb.

But what if the problem is NOT WITH THE VOICE CHIPS ???
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
sunny pedaal



Joined: Nov 16, 2004
Posts: 735
Location: netherlands
Audio files: 12

PostPosted: Sat Feb 01, 2014 4:19 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

you can only find it out with the change of one chip at the time.
a whole board swap is probably what i would do...
or go back , get my money back and but another one
why not contact the numark-alesis service station in your country ?
otherwise the one in germany is very good, they certainly will be able to repair it
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
HouseCat



Joined: Jan 30, 2014
Posts: 8
Location: Hungary
Audio files: 1

PostPosted: Thu Mar 27, 2014 8:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Returned mine back to the owner succesfully.

A few days ago I decided to go and listen to another Andromeda.
Went to another town 400 miles away.
And when we turn on that damn thing what you guess I heard ???
The same PROBLEM.

Autotune test draws me ALL OK.
But almost all of the voices of the owners unit are drifting in opposite directions just like mine, even worse, ALL VOICES, except number 9.

We tried to turn off background and temp tuning options and retune it again,
the same problem. Just like old saloon honky tonk.

Now I'm afraid of Andromedas. In my situation it seems like many of them went bad for some reason.

But one question is still in my head.
In this last situation how could all of voice ASIC go bad, the seller swared that the synth has been babied and never was operating in extreme conditions ???!!!

Mannnn, ONLY 1 WORKING VOICE...
I do not believe in this.

It's so right that I did not bought it without hearing.

So guys, maybe in this crazy situations, when half of the voices and even all of them don't tune, maybe it is motherboard problem, rather than voiceboard ?

IT IS HELL BUGGY BLUE THING...

I still don't know how to get a working one.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
sunny pedaal



Joined: Nov 16, 2004
Posts: 735
Location: netherlands
Audio files: 12

PostPosted: Sun Mar 30, 2014 2:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

shit
don't know, mod wheel, no
psu ?
maybe
bad news indeed.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
marino



Joined: Aug 08, 2011
Posts: 2
Location: Italy

PostPosted: Sun May 04, 2014 8:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

I assume that you let the instrument warm up for 30 minutes or more before autotune every time? There's no mention of that in any of your posts.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Silagemaker



Joined: Aug 01, 2013
Posts: 47
Location: Ireland

PostPosted: Sat May 31, 2014 12:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Just to confirm it's virtually impossible to get a new board that's ok. I'll be posting in my own topic but I have tried 3 new voice boards and all three are defective. One with as many faults as your original Andy. In tune in some octaves and out in others. All pass tuning routine.
By the way one "new" board is stamped tested in 2002!
As far as I can tell there are no new boards being produced but only old stock.
Bummer.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Post new topic   Reply to topic
Page 1 of 1 [12 Posts]
View unread posts
View new posts in the last week
Mark the topic unread :: View previous topic :: View next topic
 Forum index » Instruments and Equipment » Alesis Andromeda
Jump to:  

You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
You cannot attach files in this forum
You can download files in this forum


Forum with support of Syndicator RSS
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group
Copyright © 2003 through 2009 by electro-music.com - Conditions Of Use