Thanks, it was great to watch this. I could almost smell the solder smoke! And I agree, the old dipped tants would short out if you looked at them wrong.
Great video and nice to see the synth restored. Used to have a Mk.2 Axxe about 10 years ago. Pity you couldn't get the LED's to mimic the original colours of the sliders 😜 but good to see another old synth working correctly again.
First synth I bought in 1978. Took my life savings of 650$ and got it brand new. The ppcs worked for about 2 months, and were so hard to push that it killed your finger. Gigged with it for years. Decided to work on it a few months back. Got your kit and swapped out all the caps and chips. Rebuilt the filter. Rebuilt the keybed with new bushings. Replaced the large yellow film capacitor. Replaced the garbage ppc sensors with fsrs, but hooked them up wrong, the flat one goes sharp, the mod one goes flat and the sharp one does the mod.....but I was thrilled that they worked at all after all those years with NO pitchbend! Still have no noise and the pulse width section is not all working right. Any tips on that? Probably need the noise transistor and? ......saw the new Behringer Odyssey with the colored LEDs....just got one and I love it! Still gotta finish the AXXE tho.....so i can move on and rebuild and gli gli my old prophet 600! Thanks for finally doing the AXXE!
oh also I took the circuit board out and did the scrub with Simple Green and spray down with WATER in the kitchen sink! Fixed most of the sliders! Maybe the noise slider is messed up tho....
Sliders are an important part of methodically restoring these. You saw in this video how the S&H started working after replacing the slider. If all PWM sliders don't affect the sound then it's probably a faulty 3086 transistor array.
@22:41 What was the reason they used Tantalum caps in those days in the first place? Why didn't they just put in your normal run of the mill electrolytic caps?
I think because when ARP started making synths electrolytic capacitors were much larger than tantalums. Their filter modules were really packed in even with the tantalums. Towards the end in later Omni 2s and Quadras they did switch in many places from tantalum to electrolytic.
Tantalum caps were great until they turned into 5 ohm resistors. Small for their capacitance, low esr, etc. i heard somewhere they need to be used at voltages 1/4 or less than their rated voltage. I’m not sure that was well known in the 70s and 80s.
Thumbscrews? I should have put those on my Clef B30 Microsynth! It has those nasty spring contacts that would die regularly so I had it open every few months while I was gigging it. As part of my refurb I'm ditching the keyboard to make a module (it's got CV in).
![KSI - Dirty [Official Visualiser]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/VoDh1h1dPUE/mqdefault.jpg)
I just find your methodical, clear commentary and process sooo relaxing, lol! Another great video! :)
Thanks, it was great to watch this. I could almost smell the solder smoke! And I agree, the old dipped tants would short out if you looked at them wrong.
I was missing your videos! Thanks for making this one 👍
Great to have you back.
Great video and nice to see the synth restored. Used to have a Mk.2 Axxe about 10 years ago. Pity you couldn't get the LED's to mimic the original colours of the sliders 😜 but good to see another old synth working correctly again.
Great to see a new video. Fantastic 😃. Thank you.
Bout time, I was in Synthchaser withdrawal...
First synth I bought in 1978. Took my life savings of 650$ and got it brand new. The ppcs worked for about 2 months, and were so hard to push that it killed your finger. Gigged with it for years. Decided to work on it a few months back. Got your kit and swapped out all the caps and chips. Rebuilt the filter. Rebuilt the keybed with new bushings. Replaced the large yellow film capacitor. Replaced the garbage ppc sensors with fsrs, but hooked them up wrong, the flat one goes sharp, the mod one goes flat and the sharp one does the mod.....but I was thrilled that they worked at all after all those years with NO pitchbend! Still have no noise and the pulse width section is not all working right. Any tips on that? Probably need the noise transistor and? ......saw the new Behringer Odyssey with the colored LEDs....just got one and I love it! Still gotta finish the AXXE tho.....so i can move on and rebuild and gli gli my old prophet 600! Thanks for finally doing the AXXE!
oh also I took the circuit board out and did the scrub with Simple Green and spray down with WATER in the kitchen sink! Fixed most of the sliders! Maybe the noise slider is messed up tho....
Sliders are an important part of methodically restoring these. You saw in this video how the S&H started working after replacing the slider. If all PWM sliders don't affect the sound then it's probably a faulty 3086 transistor array.
Question: On the MKI Axxe the some of the sliders are audio taper and not linear as they are on the MKII. Why would that be?
@22:41 What was the reason they used Tantalum caps in those days in the first place? Why didn't they just put in your normal run of the mill electrolytic caps?
I think because when ARP started making synths electrolytic capacitors were much larger than tantalums. Their filter modules were really packed in even with the tantalums. Towards the end in later Omni 2s and Quadras they did switch in many places from tantalum to electrolytic.
@@Synthchaser Ah right. That would make sense. Thanks!
Tantalum caps were great until they turned into 5 ohm resistors. Small for their capacitance, low esr, etc. i heard somewhere they need to be used at voltages 1/4 or less than their rated voltage. I’m not sure that was well known in the 70s and 80s.
Thumbscrews? I should have put those on my Clef B30 Microsynth! It has those nasty spring contacts that would die regularly so I had it open every few months while I was gigging it. As part of my refurb I'm ditching the keyboard to make a module (it's got CV in).
Isn't the croc clip on the bus bar still a bit dodgy? A good knock or two and it'll fall off, won't it?
Maybe, but time will tell. I figured if it was abused to the point that a key broke but the clip stayed on, it should be OK.
@@Synthchaser Good point!
723 regulator still available