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Can I ask a keyboard electronics question?

rojo412

rojo412

Sit down, Danny...
Supporting Member
Feb 26, 2000
10,914
15,077
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Cleveland, OH.
#1
(didn't know if MISCELLANEOUS would know what to do for this one... but feel free to move it if need be)

I'm sure one of you electronics guys would know about this, or at least in a direction to go...

A buddy of mine gave me an Ensoniq VFX synth keyboard. It seems to work fine BUT has a slight "warbling, out of tune" thing happening.

If you hold down a key, sometimes the pitch seems to shift a little. It's one thing on the synth stuff, but on a piano or guitar tone, it shouldn't do that.

I thought maybe it was because it hadn't been used in a long time.
Or, it could be a dirty connection in the pitch bend.
Or maybe there's some calibration mini pot somewhere.
Basically, I don't know and I'm wondering if someone here has experience with those.
 
#2
:) That's a feature called "aftertouch" which you can route to other effects besides pitch bending, or disable altogether. There are settings for it in each individual patch, and there may also be global settings that affect all patches.
 
#3
It's been reset and it's not like the kind of effect that I'm used to hearing...

If you hold down a note, it sounds out for a couple of seconds, but then starts to dip and warble. It sometimes just stays out of tune after that.

Also, when adjusting some of the effects on it, the parameters start to jump wildly (like "+64" jumps to "+99" and back again). You don't even have to touch it, they just start bouncing.

I feel like maybe those are connected somehow.
 
#4
Ah yes, OK that means something else is up, not aftertouch. Two things most commonly go bad on older synths: the numeric keypad contacts wear out or get dirty, and the main memory battery reaches the end of its useful life. Either one could cause the parameter jumping you're describing.

Both are fixable, but are kind of a pain to fix. A competent keyboard tech should be able to sort them out though.
 
#5
I have to find one of those guys, I guess.

The battery backup died long ago. When I opened this bad boy up, I tried to remove the old 2032 lithium button cell battery, but it wasn't budging... so it got ripped out.

The pad contacts sounds more like the issue.
 

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