  This didn't start as a blog, but I have a blog for almost everything else. I know that for most people this whole text will be meaningless and pointless. For the very few who are interested I will start by saying this. The more transparent and seemless your hacks and programming are the more people will appreciate it. Because noone really cares, the only person I have divulged even an iota of the latter information to is my fellow keyboard, 80's loving, electronic hack, geek Mike. But even he knows little of this. So if you care, the secrets are revealed. I at one time owned a beautiful Roland HP-800 digital piano. It was in rough shape, but I fixed it up and even used it on a couple of recordings. Unfortunately I had to sell it. I also owned a Ensoniq ESQ-1 (and recieved a parts unit) which was an amazing piece of equipment, but I sold that also and lost the parts unit. But I do have 8 keyboards, 5 rackmounts, 2 sequencers and a bunch of other stuff that I have tried to include in my Bėker show. I have been a Roland fan ever since I purchased the JX-3P in 1983. It took a long time before I could afford a new keyboard, I picked up the S-220 in 1996 and the U-20 in 1997. In 2002 I started buying some of the equipment I had always wanted, but there are still a few large ones still on my list. A Jupiter 6 and a MKS-80 for example, maybe someday. My keyboard rig at this time, Jan 2014, consists of: Roland gear MC-50 GP-8 JV-880 S-220 S-550 MKS-7 MKS-30 EP-11 JX-3P MKB-200 U-20 aJ-1 RS-5 MKB-300 JU-106 PR-100 Yorkville gear LP-608 LP-304 x4 I have a quick MIDI diagram to show how the system is hooked up, the numbers in brackets denote which channels the unit responds to. A second or third number references a channel for a second or third sound. The last channel for the MKS-7 , U-20, and the RS-5 is for the drum channel. For the time being I won't be using the drums off of the JV-880. Some of the equipment is not hooked up or programmed properly yet.
MKB-200
I will have to add that some of my gear does not work or is not nessessary for the system. The PR-100 is a small sequencer that is not useful to me at the moment so is not actually hooked into the system. Maybe at some point I can find a place for this sequencer. The Juno-106 has defective voice chips, as does the MKS-30. While I do intend to repair them at some point for the time being they are both not used. Now while I would say everything else is part of the system, some units are better assimilated than others. The core system for the Bėker show are the MC-50, S-220, MKS-7, EP-11, JX-3P, MKB-200, U-20 and the LP-608 . Aside from the EP-11 which has no MIDI, all of these units are well intergrated. I have used them together for some time, and played a show with them. The MC-50 is the true heart of the system, in fact, my last MC-50 died, and I had to purchase another one to continue these endevors. I may at some point migrate to a computer, but I will have to get a special card to have the 2 separate MIDI outs. The only real benefit to using a computer would be that if the computer died I could get a replacement fairly easily, and the possibility of SMTPE sync. The LP equipment is a self-contained lighting system by Yorkville. The LP-304's are 4 par 56 light cans with it's own dimmer box. The LP-608 is the foot controller which can also be controlled by MIDI. I had one LP-304 that the par cans were so badly damaged I turned it into a rackmount unit with plug-ins and now control some specialty lighting such as a Bėker shaped rope light. I also have 4 unmodified LP-304's. The MKB-200 has no MIDI in so the patches cannot be controled by MIDI, but after purchasing a GP-8 I found an interesting hack that can be used to cycle through 8 patches in a bank. By hooking up the EXT CONTROL from the GP-8 to the BANK UP jack on the MKB-200 I can use MIDI to change the patches on the GP-8 and cycle up through the patches on the MKB-200. I am actually a bit short on cords but intend on trying to control the MKB-300 in a similar manner (as there is a EXT CONTROL2 on the GP-8). I also would like to use the GP-8 for some vocal effects as well in the future. The MKB-200 is sent into the MC-50 and then through both OUT chains. One chain controls the rackmount units and the other runs the keyboard units and terminates at the LP-608 which controls the lights. As I incorporate more equipment into each chain this will become a bit more difficult as there will be different units using the same MIDI channel. I had actually forgot about this problem until today when I tried to incorporate the S-550 a bit and remembered a song uses the U-20 channel 5 controlled by the MKB-200 which would also trigger the s-550. Because these are both separate chains from the sequencer one solution would be to program silent patches for the units I don't want to play, but in this particular circumstance I will need both units to play. I think I can still make it work but it will take some time and programming. I have had the S-550 for some time but have had a hard time programming it. I have a purpose for it now though and I think that will make a difference. I plan on sampling all the background vocals and harmonies, and triggering them with the S-550. This will take some time, but I look forward to the final product. At the moment most of the sounds are programmed to respond to channel 1 this is something I will evenutally have to change, but it will take lots of programming. I have had the JV-880 for some time as well but had a hard time envisioning how to incorporate it into the system. I have just recently made another purchase of a MKB-300 and after a few days saw a way to make this work, and work well. The first thing thing I will have to do is program a few patches on the JV-880 to respond to the right channels ( channel 14 and 15, at the moment most patches respond to the first 6 channels). Then I will quickly make a few patches on the MKB-300 to control the JV-880 ( channel 14 will be the lower and channel15 will be the upper zone). Although I am short a couple of MIDI cords I intend to run a cord from the MKS-30 to the MKB-300 to the JV-880. This will allow me to change patches on the JV-880 via MIDI from the MC-50 and still control (play) the JV-880 with the MKB-300, because while it won't respond to any incoming MIDI messages it will pass them along and combine them with anything currently being played (done) on the MKB-300. I will hopefully be able to cycle through patches with a second cord coming from the GP-8, although I will hardly need many different patches. The aJ-1 is also new but will be easy to include as it is not multi-timbral so I have selected the MIDI channel and hooked up the cords and now all I have to do is use it in a song. That time I feel is coming soon. While I don't have enough cords to hook up the RS-5 at the moment, it is my plan to hook it into the keyboard chain after the aJ-1. The only thing holding me back here is just that I will have to re-program all the patch/performances to respond to the proper MIDI channels. So have to buy a few more cords (a few weeks away), but really the big investment will be my time. I have alot of programming to do, mostly on the s-550, but also on the JV-880 and RS-5. I find all 3 machines a bit intimidating, but I think it is important for the next step, the next evolution of the show. I know I won't want to cart all this equipment all over the earth, but I will certainly want to try a few shows. I also have an idea for running video but it won't be synced for the time being, I will instead try to sync to it. Then the next step is to repair the Juno-106 and MKS-30, and then buy more stuff !!! Feb 8 2014 I figured it was almost time to start trying to get the samples ready for the s-550. BUT before I can get to that, I will have to organize my s-220 samples. This project has been a long time coming. I started yesterday had hoped to finish today but I now think it will probably take another 2 days to complete. I am loading samples from the laptop onto the s-220 and making sure they are in the right structure, the right MIDI channel, tuned properly and set up properly. I am also occasionally taking some from disk because, believe it or not it is quicker! This is very tedious because I hook up the laptop to the MIDI in, load the sample via SYSEX (many times I have to guess the MIDI channel) then swap out the laptops MIDI cord for my MKB-200 MIDI cord, to play and test the sounds. Then dump via SYSEX the sample back onto the laptop. Hook-up the laptop back to the MIDI in and repeat. It takes forever. If I had a MIDI merge it would help a bit, but it would still take forever. To break this process up a bit I am making some new samples as well. I have many .wavs all squished down to 1 second or less that have been in a folder waiting to be transferred for probably a couple of years. So really the project ballooned because I kept putting things off. I did make good progress today, but I also found another problem. When I was having trouble with my S-220 drive, I finally realized I didn't need to re-align it, because what it saved it would load. Now I would really like to load the few factory disks that I have and of course they won't load. So do I align the drive? Or do I just re-save the factory disks (I have the whole Roland library on my laptop)? I have to think about this, but I think I should re-align the drive, but then I have to re-save all of my disks ... On a different topic I opened my Juno-106 and was surprized that there were only 2 new chips inside. So that means I have to buy 4 more and a power cord. I was going to order from D'naab, but with our dollar going down the toilet they are getting pretty pricey. I found a place in the States that offers D'naab's chips for cheaper (and the cord too). I imagine they got a deal from D'naab and also had them before both our currencies tanked. So hopefully with my next paycheck I can buy them or at least some of them. Oh yeah then I will have to buy a new stand as well ... Feb 10 2014 As the 10th turns into the 11th I have finished the first part of updating my S-220 sample library. I beleive all my old samples are looped and tuned properly, and all load on channel 4. I also added about 20 new sounds, and as always some turn out to be disappointing, and some turn out beyond anything you could have hoped for! A case in point is what will be the Synth 4 pack. 3 of the 4 samples are awesome. Sharp, Pianolike and Hardline are great synth sounds. The other; Ghost, won't loop quite right, but is still very good. Sparkle, and the Thunder sounds were kinda disappointing. As were the basses, maybe I need to manipulate them a bit more before sampling them. Anyway now I want to assemble them into groups, and then I will post them on my website. Then I will start to delve into the depths of the S-550. It kinda scares me a bit. But first groups! Feb 11 2014 Today wasn't as hard, although I did have to re-hook up the line from the computer (and realized I would need it for the s-550 stuff as well). So I sampled about 6 sounds today and SYSEXed a few lost sounds (oops). This morning I grouped as many as I could and there are about 40 random samples left over. So I think until I re-align the drive that will be enough for now. I'm not looking forward to loading all those samples over SYSEX again, but eventually I will re-align the drive, and it will have to be done. I guess while I had the laptop set up I should have checked out some of the other samples as well, but it just takes too long. The quick disk does seem quicker by comparision! If only I could source more 2.8 inch disks. I have started putting together my web pages and with any luck I will have something up in a week or so. Still waiting for friday to put in my order!   Feb 12 2014 I didn't have much time today, but I didn't really have alot I wanted to accomplish either. I just wanted to update a few things on the s-220 disk page, so I could upload it. I think all I have to do is update the .gifs and the My Library part will be done. The final tally is in, there are 23 groups and 46 random samples. I'm pretty happy with that. There are some very cool samples, some I've always liked and some new ones I can't wait to use. I realized because neither is still active I should upload both lil chips and rolands samples as well. This may take some time if I do a detailed page. I am still debating on whether I should or just have a simple bulk download, and the user can figure it out. I also updated some of the disk packages I made. I will be getting some card stock in a couple of days and might make a few. So with any luck I will start my S-550 samples tomorrow. Feb 13 2014 Almost 10 years! Almost 10 years I have had the S-550, and not been able to make it do what I want it to do. But today I went armed with determination and my manual and turned on my S-550. Nothing happens automatically. In tiny little incremental steps, I sampled something and after page flipping and trying to understand the INTENT of a manual written in Japanese and translated (badly) to English, I created a Tone. So I created another Tone and quickly found out that I was still missing a very crucial step to my plug and play goal. An inspiration led me to believe I needed to set up a Patch. And after finally finding the right menu I thought I had created 2 Patches. I found out they were playing the same Tone. More reading and another epiphany brought me to understand the Patch parameter menu just enough to set and keep the right Patches pointing to the right Tones. OMG I think I did it!! I now had 2 grainy samples for the backup vocals for Submerged. This had taken about 6 hours. So I worked with the computer to find then smoosh down the remaining backup vocals. 28.8 seconds SHOULD be alot after working with the 4.4 seconds in my s-220, but man I ran out of space fast. I had hoped I wouldn't have to smoosh the .wavs too much, especially after realizing there were only 4, but each one was about twenty-some seconds long. So they got smooshed, and they do sound grainy, but with in an hour I had the second block (all 14.4 seconds of it) full. I needed a break so I just saved everything for the moment, I will have to go back and assign the tones to patches. Hopefully later. Luckily I don't have to do any editing or looping, I imagine that could be quite a challenge. I am also glad I have that little TV, it makes things alot easier. I looked at, removed the spider webs from, and then put away all the S-550 samples. The truth is, I doubt that I have any use for them. I mean my favorite sounds are analogue bloops, and all the synth samples (from what I remember) sounded absolutely lifeless. A sampler should be used for things like backup vocals and other acoustic sounds that you can live with sounding digital or unique sounds that could only come from a sampler. Many of the sounds on my S-220 are like the second example. But this is a good start, I am glad I tried this, because I can now use my S-550. The problem is, as I found out with the S-220, is it takes time to build a usable library. And there is a fair amount of pre-planning to sampling any sound. Unfortunately unlike creating sounds on keyboards, this is not nearly as much fun, for me anyway.   Feb 16 2014 I didn't do anything today, but I did in the previous 2. In fact I did alot of interesting things, but I was so tired after doing them I had no strength to write about them. So the 14th I figured I should finish up with the sampler. I still need the manual to navigate the menus, but at least I have a clue of where I need to go. So I finished setting up the samples and suddenly realized that I may not have smooshed them right. So I started to sequence them and found out right away that I was totally right. I ended up re-sampling some of the vocals again. At least this time it didn't take very long, because I sort of knew what I was doing. So I sequenced the backup vocals for Don't Cry and they seemed to work OK. The I loaded up Sad and found the sample was definately way out of time. I decided that I would also sequence my MKS-200 changing hacks. I found that if you send the program changes too quickly the GP-8 misses them, so it took a while find the right amount of time to wait before sending the next program change. Which is ideally about 45 ticks. If this sounds wierd or stupid or just incomprehensible, bear with me. I found that my GP-8 effects unit has 2 jacks on the back to control Boss Micro effects. When you change to a patch it will close or open the circuit depending om whether you want the Boss effect on or off. I was pretty sure I could hook it up to the program up jack on the MKB-200, which if hooked up to a pedal will cycle through the programs within a bank. When I played with it, it partially worked. If I had to programs on the GP-8, one with the ext controller jack on and one with it off, AND if I changed to the program with it on then changed to the program with it off, the MKS-200 would increase one program number. So if I start at 11 on the MKS-200 for Sad I need program 17 so I need it to go up 6 program numbers which meant 12 program changes on the GP-8! I ended up adding 2 bars to songs with large changes and 1 bar to the other ones. It sounds pretty stupid but it is a great thing to not have to manually change programs on the MKS-200! It actually looks pretty cool too because each program change on the MKS-200 sends program changes to devices in each patch, so as it is cycling, the rack and the other keyboards are lighting up and doing stuff. So I then re-sampled the back up vocals for Sad and after a bit of toying with it I now also have grainy backup vocals! I went through the set list making the nessessary changes for the MKS-200/GP-8 and for the S-550. I was hoping I could program a few vocal effects but I still don't have enough cords! I would like to program the delay for Unresolved and a doubler for Dreamfinder. Unfortunately that will have to be later. So hopefully I saved everything and then I took everything down and apart. I wrapped up the miles of cords and moved the keyboards against the wall. I cleaned the rug and moved everything around. I have to go back a couple of months and explain something. I had the first Bėker show in my basement. To make sure I had enough room I moved all of my equipment against the tredmill so that there would be enough space for a small audience. This was all fine except that I am getting much fatter that usual. So I had to re-configure the keyboard area to accommodate tredmilling (that is now a verb because dammit if helicoptering and lawnmowering can be verbs so can anything I add ing to!) I had everything in an embryonic stage when I was just about to place the JX-3P. I heard a rattle, something was jangling around inside, and if it is metal, well let me tell you from experience that is NEVER good. Ask my U-20. So I decided to opening it up. Once open a couple of shards of white plastic fell out. Well they are just pieces of a key that got a little broke, I guess that was OK. While I had it open I found the damage the the cat had done to the circuit board was now corroding! I cleaned that up as best as I could and then thought of the dead keys in the lower register. At first I thought I would just remove a few keys, but realized I would have to remove them all. So I did. and decided to leave it there for the night, because I was dead tired. The next day I tested the dead contacts, I removed the rubber strip and cleaned the conductive bits. I found there was some damage to the circuit board and started soldering wire to jump across the damaged part I then tested again. Unfortunately there are still 3 notes that won't play, but it's better than what it was! I'm not sure whether the conductive material on the circuit board is damaged or if where the conductive material joins to the circuit trace is damaged but something is no longer working or making contact. At any rate it is beyond my expertise and I was just about to pack it all up when I thought those are horrible solder jobs. What I was referring to was the jumpers I had created to jump over the crack in the circuit board that controls the buttons. So I redid most of them. When I checked to see how I had done, I was quite happy to find that now all the patch buttons work again! Unfortunately something is still not right as I have a hard time making the Tape Memory button work and the sequencer section doesn't seem to work either. I knew I would have to remove the board to get a better look at it and I decided that was enough for now, maybe later I will try again. So although nothing is hooked up it is sitting where it should. In the next couple of days I will hook it all back up and see how I have done.    Feb 18 2014 So I hooked everything back up last night. The samples for Sad are a bit woogie, I may try to sample them yet again. But everything is working great. Well there were a couple of things. I had to turn down the RS-5 until I figured out how (if it's possible) to turn off all the extra channels, and how the performance/tone settings work. So an interesting tibit here, you CANNOT change a performance via MIDI on the RS-5!!! So I thought I had everything set up for that but I forgot that the MKS-200 controls channel 4 for 2 songs. That is the sampler in the rack, but also sound #1 from the RS-5. So I was trying to think of a workaround like having a tone with no volume or something when I just thought I would send a CC 7 to turn the volume off and on again. I had changed the location of one of the samples for Dreamfinder so I fixed that as well. Learning lots of new things, and reading the manuals alot. But mostly I just cranked the system and played along. Also my JX-3p seems to be working great, the tape memory button is working right, and the sequencer I realized doesn't work when the MIDI switch is on. Everything seems to be working fine, but I am a bit worried about the MKS-7 it was crackling again. I am going to need a shitload of D80017's. Actually that is the only thing(s) left to fix. The Juno-106 and the MKS-30 which both need D80017 chips (and maybe the MKS-7! Yikes!) Oh wait I want to open the JV-880 and look at the power supply to see if that is where the problem is. The screen is so dark you can hardly see it and the MIDI light flickers randomly. So I wanted to play with the Juno-1 abit, check out the sounds play with the parameters a bit, but ended up getting an interesting idea for a song. So I sequenced what I had for later, and then I was out of time. I had loaded up the EP-11 drum samples but there was no time for that either. Another day perhaps. But aside from a few lights the Beker show is set up and ready for practice. Feb 22 2014 Been having lots of fun just fooling around with the keyboards. There never seems to be enough time. I did start 2 new songs the other day, both use the Alpha juno and the RS-5. One is looking like a fairly long song the other will be probably be shorter. The longer one might use the EP-11 drum sounds! Anyway today I was working on my dream synths, something that will probably never come to pass but it's fun. But I was sort of planning my next project(s). First I think I should sell me Director S package (if anyone would even pay money for it!) because it is just sitting here doing nothing. Next I want to find a day to just play with the alpha junos sounds. I looked up the hoover sound today. It is the most annoying thing, I'm glad I had no idea what it was, I may have thrown the alpha juno in the garbage. Oh yeah have to fix the samples for Sad on the S-550. Then I think it is time to save a SYSEX of the U-20 and see what patches I still use and try to make a hybrid of the factory patches and mine. Or maybe I should see about a memory card. That will be a fairly big project, not as big as the one with the s-220, but still alot of pissing about. I should also open it up and fix that board with the pesky buttons on it. The buttons didn't work and I press so hard I worked one of the screws that held the board in place out. There should be a way to get a slightly bigger screw in, maybe try and get the buttons going again. And not lastly open the JV-880 and check the power supply. I have to work the next several days so it won't be till tuesday. Feb 25 2014 So I made a list of all the U-20 Patches and Tones. Aside from several very similar patches (that I needed for the cover bands I was playing with) there are quite a few interesting patches. After kinda going through them I don't think there are alot that I would get rid of. The tones on the other hand are mostly replicas or very similar to much of the factory tones. For many of the split patches I had to create a tone an octave up or down to work. If there was more memory I would load the factory patches and tones and keep my own as well then try to reconstruct my patches with the factory tones and just add the few of my own where I needed to. Of course that's not possible. I did look into a memory card from eBay but they are over $100 !!! Even the sample cards are around $40, but I guess they must be more rare for some reason. Anyway it might be a while before I get a memory card. I would like to experiment with the sounds a bit more when I have time. This morning I took my list downstairs with my laptop and get a SYSEX of the current performances/patches/tones and put on the factory ones. While it was fun for about 10 minutes I didn't find any of the sounds really grabbed me, so I put back my own sounds. So just a bit of history about the U-20, I did have the factory sounds to start with. Perhaps a bit of modification here and there (it's what I do). But in between gigs a screw came loose in the keyboard and zapped the memory (in truth I am very lucky that is all it zapped!) all the was there was random characters and random parameters! I had a gig coming up fairly soon and this was long before my dependance on the internet as a resource and long before I had a sequencer. I had no choice but to start re-programming my sounds myself! I knew I needed a piano, an organ and strings so those are some of the first tones I made, then I made patches for them. Over the years I added to the tones and patches. One thing I think Roland got wrong here was, instead of 128 tones and 64 patches, it should have been 64 tones and 128 patches! I have almost overwritten all the patch data, but only a little more than half of the tone data. And only about 3 or 4 performances. Anyway while playing with the tones I came across the Acoustic guitar patch (that I think I copyed from the factory patches somehow). While no one would mistake it for the real thing, it does sound pretty good. After hearing some of the arpeggios on the RS-5 and from playing a bit of guitar myself I kinda knew the trick is to play it the way you would a guitar. So I was fooling around with this fingerpicking-like thing ard really liked it. I sequenced it but kept going back to it all day. By supper I had a finished song (except for lyrics) and I'm still just improvising the solo. I was so excited I played it about 6 times. I am also excited about the 2 other ideas I have been working on and another new idea today. So working titles are: Orchard, Opus, Supercollider and Challenge. I already have a few older songs I was thinking of incuding like Away and Exhaust, and for sure Make it Real, Ritual and Summer Burns. I may have to start prepping for a new Bėker album I certainly have enough songs. Mar 4 2014 Bloggetty Blog Blog Blog. I haven't been keeping up very good with this. A few days ago I was playing with the U-20 and another button snapped and went under the top of the keyboard, so reluctantly I opened up the U-20 and tried to fix the 2 buttons. I knew that it was difficult to get at the top panels (because you have to start from the bottom) but I had to remove almost everything. I managed to fix the buttons and put everything back together. Unfortunately I will have to try again because the buttons of the left side of the keyboard mustn't be sitting on the switches properly. Sigh. I also wanted to use the U-20 librarian but keep running out of time. So I finally ran through the Bėker set and my new bits wrok pretty well. The samples are a bit out of time here and there but still livable I think. But the gem here is the GP-8 changing the patches on the MKB-200, that is so awesome to not have to change patches manually. I have also been playing some of the newer songs as well. Well sort of newer. I forget a few parts of Exhaust they others have all come back to me.Except Orchard, that one is brand new. It is SO fun to play, but I still have to make some changes to the lyrics. I also did something horrible. I was watching an auction on eBay for a VP-70 and after some back and forth on it I just bought it. I think it was the blue glowing display, it was just entrancing. So depending on how well it works I will probably start adding more harmonies. I wish it was a true vocoder and had a line in, but it does not. Oh just in case you don't know what it is, it is a Vocal Processor from about 1987. It has 4 pitch shifting units inside it to create harmonies with your voice. It has a vocoder mode, but I'm not entirely sure if it actually vocodes. I am pretty sure it doesn't. But the harmony thing should be pretty cool, even if it is a bit primitive. It will go with my sound. There is also a pitch to MIDI converter. I don't think I could actually use it with the Bėker show, but it will be awesome to just fool around with. So the other side of this is that I can't afford the parts for the Juno-106 this paycheck, and maybe next paycheck. Well they will still be there for sale whan I can afford them. I am hoping that I will have time in the next day and a half (I work a half day) that I can open and fix the U-20 and take a look at the JV-880. I think and hope that it is the PSU I guess we'll see. Mar 5 2014 Well I went downstairs late in the afternoon and ran through the Bėker set again. I watched a bit of the near pass of DX110 and after a bit of chores I opened the U-20. Because I had just done this only a few days before I knew what had to come apart and I had it apart fairly quickly. When I removed the panel the switches are on there was a broken button stuck to it. Horrified I checked all the buttons and made sure none were missing. When I found they were all there I came to the conclusion this button was a broken one from when I replaced the buttons back in 2002(?). This was the culprit keeping the buttons from making contact with the switches. So I put it back to gether and decided to test it. The buttons all seemed to be making contact although some are very stubborn and take repeated and hard pressing to make them work. I quickly realized that the memory had been corrupted though and while not a huge setback it was a pain in the ass. So instead I decided to look at the JV-880. That and the GP-8 were in the rack so tight that I had to remove them both to get the JV-880 out. Once removed I plugged it in and the screen seemed much brighter. So I felt I should test it and hooked it up to the MKB-300. Everything seemed fine, so my first thought was maybe there was just too much equipment running on one power bar. So I plugged the power back into the rack and turned on everything in the rack. Nope the screen was still nice and bright and no random MIDI signals. So I guessed it must have been the GP-8 pushing on the JV-880. I removed the rubber feet from the GP-8 and pushed them both back into the rack everything seems fine now. So I screwed them back in and played a bit, I will be keeping my eye on it but I think the problem is solved. Then when I was playing a bit the MKS-7's bass section kept crackling and going quiet. Because I know it isn't a crappy 80017 chip I played with the bass volume put some cleaner in it, then the main volume, but the problem persisted. I then thought the bass output jack on the back probably has a switch on it to take it out of the mix out, so I put a bit of clener in it and for good measure in the main out as well. That seems to have got it. But again I will keep my eye on it. At this point I thought I should get the laptop to reload the U-20 with my sounds. So I did and while it was hooked up I thought I should try the U-220 librarian. I tried the U-20 patch editor last night but I guess it is in visual basic 2 or 3 and most of the vbx files were no longer supported. I tried to find them but eventually there was a file I just couldn't get. So unless I can get another Windows 98 machine those programs won't work. The u-220 librarian seems to work fine (on windows XP which is what is on my laptop. What will I do when it expires??). So I hooked it up and played around with it a bit. There are a few problems the u-220 has 4 outs direct 1 L&R and direct 2 L&R, the U-20 does not have these. It apprears that the channel aftertouch is missing from the pitch section and the volume section. Also you have to send every change but it doesn't go into the temp memory it actually goes into the patch and timber memory. so you have to send change the patch (or timber) and change it back again to hear the difference. There may be other problems but that is as far as I went. It is great for re-naming patches, and I did create a few new sounds. My favorate is Hardlight which I set up the aftertouch to change the pitch, if you press hard enough you will get an octave higher. I sent a new SYSEX to the laptop and called it a night. I am now waiting for my new toy to come in.  Mar 14 2014 I was going to start with "Absolutely nothing is new..." but that is not entirely true. Very little is new. I am slowly documenting and fixing the patches on the U-20. I am now going to rant. I think the U-20 was an amazing keyboard at the price point it was (about 1300$) in 1987. It has a great sample set that can be expanded a bit. It is missing a few basic samples, who knew at that time that analogue sounds would come back in vogue? So there is no square wave or saw (afterwards I realized this was totally untrue!!). The biggest miss though is a lack of a filter. If this had a filter, well I'm sure this piece of kit would be worth what it sold for. Especially if you could rig it to C1 or C2 or the aftertouch. With a bit of imagination you can make some interesting sounds from the samples within. Where it excels though is in the keyboard and layering. You could layer all 7 parts across the keyboard although you would probably run out of polophony. I've never added the drum kit (although one could), but I do have a few sounds that have all 6 parts in some configuration, with layers and several splits. And the huge plus here is that it has aftertouch! The after touch can be applied to the volume, pitch, or LFO. I personally have not had any problems with this but some say the metal wieghts fall out of the keys. I guess I would do what I always do and open it up and crazy glue them back in. Because I had to start from scratch with my sound set, I have a pretty good set of sounds. But it has taken tons of time! I think if I could get one of those librarian tools to work it would go quicker, but as it is I could easily spend all afternoon tweaking stuff. I kinda wonder with all the retro kits being made would someone think of beefing up the u-20? So now I am really interested in trying to play with the RS-5. It is missing the multitude of layer and splits, and unfortunately aftertouch, but it does have a filter (!) and about 45 multi-effects. The same goes for the JV-880, it has a filter as well, and it should respond to aftertouch, and be crazy splittable. But I am not looking forward to editing with the 4 buttons and a dial and a 24 character screen! I may have to change which controller I use though because the MKB-300 does not have aftertouch, but the MKB-200 does! OK enough rant for today. Oh I almost forgot my stupid recording computer died so I'm not sure what I'm going to do about that. Buy another old computer that actually runs software? Another thing I forgot was that I opened the M-120 mixer and tried to clean the pots. There were 2 that were damaged beyond cleaning spray. They are sealed stacked pots so unless Roland still has them I am SOL. When I have a bit of money I will see if I can order them (and a EP-11 manual!). One other thing is I ordered the parts for the Juno-106. I am broke, but the parts are ordered. Mar 25 2014 My new toy came today!!! I quickly set it up to try it out and ended up playing with it for most of the day. Oh my VP-70 vocal processor came today. So later I booked the venue for the Bėker gig then I came home and ripped apart all the 1/4 inch cables. I replaced the U-20 to where it belonged (it was gigging) and the RS-5, then removed the amps from the old rack and put in the VP-70 and the M-120. I then dropped the keyboard rack ontop and started re-wiring. I also used a mic cable from the M-120 to the other mixer to save a cord for the VP-70. I was only able to hook up one mic, so I decided to use the mic above the JX-3p. I did a bit of sequencing and added the VP-70 to Orchard. It still needs some tweaking but sounds pretty cool. I finally found out what is causing the intermitant MIDI signals on the JV-880, it's the MKB-300. So I guess I will have to open it up to see if there is anything I can fix. Oh yeah I think channel 10 bit the dust on the M-120 because the Juno-1 isn't coming through at all. More fixing. I am tired I will write more about this later.  Mar 26 2014 I spent almost all day downstairs with my stuff. I first played the whole Bėker set, then I looked at some of the new songs and wanted to incorperate the VP-70. So I entered the programming mode on the sequencer. But first I noticed one of the monitors wasn't working! So after a quick check I found one side of the amps pots was the problem. I unhooked it and cleaned the pot and everything was fine so I continued on. I programmed the VP-70 for Make it Real and a new song called Ice Flows. Then I knew I wanted to add another verse to Orchard so I started working on that. I noticed the Juno-1 wasn't coming through so I checked the channel and the cord but it mysteriously started working fine, so I continued on. I stopped to investigate why the MKB-300 was sending intermitant MIDI signals, by hooking it up to the U-20's MIDI monitor. After a bit of research I found it was something I was a bit suspicious of to begin with. The pitch bender was sending wierd little increments and decrements. I opened up the keyboard for good measure and was surprized at how empty it was. I wiggle the pitch bender and the problem stopped. If it persists I will spray some cleaner in the pot. I didn't finish making the changes for Orchard, but I saved it and decided to call it a night. Mar 27 2014 Still waiting for my 80017 clone chips. I checked the tracking today and there have been NO updates for almost a week!!! Apparently they left Austin Texas and decided they didn't want to come to Canada. I will be ordering the next set from D'naab. Not because of the shipping delay (it will be a bit worse actually), but because I need 6 and D'naab will only charge for 5, and the shipping is cheaper. It will be almost a hundred CAN dollar difference. Man our dollar has went down the shitter. Anyway as soon as I have a recording computer I think I am ready to start recording a new Bėker album I have 10 songs in different stages of completion. I will divulge the songlist: Opus (about half done) (J-1,RS-5,MKS-7,U-20) Supercollider (about half done) (J-1,RS-5,MKS-7,S-220,JX-3P,U-20) Ritual (finished) (EP-11,U-20,RS-5,JX-3P, MKS-7) Orchard (almost finished) (U-20,JX-3P,RS-5,VP-70, MKS-7) Away (finished) (EP-11,U20, MKS-7) Summer Burns (finished) (MKS-7,U-20) Exhaust (almost finished) (JX-3P, U-20, MKS-7) Ice Flows (almost finished) (VP-70,U-20, JX-3P) Challenge (about half done) (JX-3P, MKS-7,U-20) Make it Real (finished) (JX-3P, U-20, MKS-7, VP-70) So there it is, I'm going to go play now. Mar 28 2014 I am really tired so I will try to make this quick. I think I finished Ice Flows and Orchard today, now they just need lyrics. While sequencing I realized with this many keyboards it is hard to find the right sound. I spent about 30 minutes listening to MKS-7 sounds, and that was with the soundlist! When I finally fix the Juno-106 and the MKS-30 add another 256 sounds! Wish I had a computer so I could start the recording process. Mar 29 2014 I played the new songs a few times, then I went on the internet and looked at other peoples keyboard collections and just drooled. It is simply amazing what one person can amass. My 8 keyboards are a joke compared to some collections, also most of my keyboards are the less desirable and more inexpensive keyboards, although that is changing. I see that Juno-106's are being sold for 800$ and I even saw a JX-3P and PG-200 combo go for about $1000. Everyone wants ananlogue even (heaven forbid) DCO analogue (which isn't analogue to the purist). So my dreams of a Jupiter 6, MKS-80 and MKS-70 become more expensive everyday! Even a crappy MKS-10 is usually listed for 200$ and there is no way they are worth that. Dream on. Apr 1 2014 Still waiting for my chips to show up somewhere between here and Texas. Went through the set, god I am still so shaky. I played with the new sequences a bit and tried to adjust the VP-70's volume. I think I remembered Lost (Exhaust). There was this bridge after the solo that I couldn't remember, but I did today. It was out 4 bars for a reason I wasn't sure about till later. The second solo dropped 4 bars, so I ( still being afraid to solo) would only have to solo for 12 bars (the first solo would be guitar, 16 bars. This was going to be a rock song!). I had already added the 4 bars so I will now solo for 32 bars, I hope I can do something interesting. So aside from a rippin solo this song is done. That only leaves 3 songs: Challenge, Opus and Supercollider. I should probably get on the lyrics for the other songs, but for some reason it is not my favorite part of song writing. I may sample some vocals for this, but I will have to wait for my new (old) computer. Been watching eBay steady, I want my toys!! I want an A-220 and an EP-6060 but they haven't come up for weeks. I guess that's ok I don't have the money anyway. While I am still getting used to it I LOVE the VP-70! I want to use it more but know I shouldn't. Apr 4 2014 Best news for days. There is a new entry for the tracking of my package from Texas. My 80017d chips are finally in Canada. They will probably take another week to get here. But at least there is some news, there hadn't been an entry since Mar 21, and I was starting to get worried. So soon I will have work to do, and maybe have a fully functional death star, I mean Juno! Apr 10 2014 So my new chips and stuff arrived the same day as my new (old) computer. I don't think I will have time to do much today, but I might be able to start the process. I of course had to set up the power cord and turn on the Juno-106 for the first time in months. I am very excited! In other news I finally wrote lyrics for Orchard and Ice Flows. If the computer already has XP loaded I might even be able to start some recording as well! To the bat cave! OK I managed to make time for this and replaced the last 4 chips. I need to do a bit of adjusting, but everything is working now! I finally have a Juno-106!! I wish I had the money to replace the chips in my MKS-30, hopefully soon.  Apr 15 2014 Seems like forever since I had a chance to play keyboard. So I ran through the Bėker set and then tried the 5 songs that were ready to go. I was surprized that Ice Flows and Exhaust were not amoung them. I added Ice Flows to the set but couldn't find Lost (Exhaust). I keep flip-flopping on the name but it is Exhaust on the sequencer which is why I couldn't find it. So I opened them both in the programmer mode and started to come up with some ideas for the solo for Exhaust. I sequenced a few new things, but the structure is still the same. I played through it a few times and I have an idea for the ending chorus. I will have to sample a few vocals. I have a very rough idea of what I am going to do for the solo. I came up with the solo for Orchard this way, just jamming it, but remembering some of the better ideas until the whole thing was solid. I had the system turned up quite a bit so I wanted to really hear the VP-70 and tried Ice Flows. There is a certain technique to singing into the VP-70 so that the voices don't sound too phony, I mean more than usual. I also noticed a wrong note on the sequence and fixed it. Oh after playing Ritual I realized I really need to play the solo on the Juno-106, I just need a patch that is a bit more moog-like. It's too bad you can't put the unit in unison mode through MIDI or turn on and off the portamento. Kinda a pain to have to set the MIDI channel every time too. But I have no intentions of getting the KIWI-106. So I guess I should start working on the 3 last songs. The updated list: Opus (about half done) Supercollider (about half done) Ritual (finished) Orchard (finished) Away (finished) Summer Burns (finished) Exhaust (finished) Ice Flows (finished) Challenge (about half done) Make it Real (finished) Now just the one last thing to check out. The computer is loaded with Vista!!! I don't want to have to re-install windows, so might just see if 1) everything will work ok as it is or 2) see if the other hard drive is still working and set it up as the master. I hope I can set this up in the next couple of days because I am anxious to start recording. I have alot to record! Not just the new Bėker project, but a ton of other stuff as well. And finally I should order the parts from roland for the mixer and the manual for the ep-11! Apr 17 2014 So all yesterday I wrestled with the new computer, loading in programs, and finding most of them don't work on Vista. After all that the old computer actually fired up, so I tried to record Ice Flows. I was fairly unhappy with the sound there was alot of noise introduced and I definately can't use any of these tracks. I did want to try recording in stereo, as almost all the keyboards are in stereo. I think for the most part it was a bitter failure, and I found out there is something wrong with the u-20's stereo jacks, they work fine separately, but together they just don't. So I have a very noisy version of Ice Flows. I like the song, I did think it was a bit longer, it is only 2.30 minutes. Recorded it sounds strange, but I guess it should, the main instrument is the VP-70. It is just disappointing that this recording was basically a waste of time. I would guess that most of the noise is from the Yamaha 4 track that I am using as a mixer, as it is the only different thing in the chain. Mike said he could get me a 2 channel DAC so when I have some extra money I will take him up on it. As far as the old computer goes I tried to make it work today and failed miserably, the best I could manage was extract the new files from the hard drive and put them on the new (VISTA) computer. When I am less disappointed I will burn the files to DVD and zero all 3 hard drives, and re-format with XP. I figured I should see if the SYS 535 package I want to sell actually works. So I hooked up the monitor and loaded the 2 disks that are with the package. Of course neither one actually has the sequencer program on it, just new sounds and a new utility disk. So I will have to make a disk, I will at that time see if the version up at sgroup is hacked or not. If not the only real piece in the package that is worth money is the dongle. If it is them the whole thing is worthless and I can only hope someone wants it for a few dollars. I should throw in all the useless 550 sample disks I have as well. If I really miss any of them they are all up at sgroup. Hopefully when I re-format my computer it can convert 3.5 floppies for me as well. Oh yeah I ordered the pots for the M-120 mixer from roland yesterday, I tried to order the manual for the EP-11 but they don't actually have anything anymore. The guy sent me a PDF of the service notes which was super nice. So I looked through them and started thinking of a retro fix for the old guy. If one could tap into the PORT A and the DATA OUT you could trigger most of the functions of the keyboard. The tough one would be to change the patches as the buttons, and also the filters that change the tones, are on a separate board. I don't know if I would have the skill to do such a thing, but it definately looks like it could be possible. I dream of adding filters to the U-20 too, but that I know would be beyond me. Anyway the pots for the mixer are on the way. I have been watching ebay faithfully for several weeks now hoping to find either another a-880 or a-220, but neither appear. I say another because I have been outbid once on each, it sucks when auctions end while you are working. Oh and while I had the monitor out I thought I would fix the second sample on the S-550 for submerged and found out Wavelab was crashing on the new computer. RRRRRR!! OH and I thought I should learn if you could put the Juno-106 into the mono mode (like pressing poly-1 and poly-2 together) and after a long and exhaustive search I found out my manual was missing the last few pages. And simply the answer is no. RRRRRRRRRR! Apr 28 2014 Again time has just slipped away. I haven't had much time to spend with my toys, but I have a few days ahead. In the mean time I have recieved the parts for the M-120 mixer and added myself to the list for the Organix JX-3P expansion. I have had recently had power dropouts enough to reset the JX and all of the sudden it is playing the notes for the light controller!!! So enough is enough. I won't get it till much later this year, but at least I am on the list. I am almost ready to reset the awful recording computer, but there is much to do before the computer is ready to do any actual recording. I do hope I can fix my submerged sample soon though. I am still villigently watching eBay and the want ads for interesting things to go on sale. There have been several items I almost bid on but chickened out at the last minute. Perhaps it is for the best, I did just recieve a fairly hefty unexpected bill in the mail. Yesterday I went through the 7 new songs. I found out in the process that many things had become unplugged. Everything should be good now, except I need one more MIDI cable to hook up my JUNO-106. The poor thing needs a calibration something terrible, also some of the buttons are starting to be stubborn (why they were working fine a few weeks ago?). Having drooled over the things I could get I have decided pretty firmly what I actually want. I think I will take the plunge on a new JUNO-di, but that won't be for some time yet. And for the right price I think I will get a U-220, as I am looking into some cards, which should give some interesting new possibilities (plus 64 new possible patches!). Well I believe that is all for now. I have about an hour to dream. May 2 2014 I'm afraid I ended up doing a good deal of other things, but as I have a show soon I guess I have to get practicing. I did make the Submerged sample although it is very grainy, I may try one more time. I probably paid too much but I bought 2 U-20 PCM cards and 1 JV-80 card. I was watching an auction for a card I had hoped to get for a good deal, but got too excited and truthfully I am not sure I will be happy with it. But I now own a SN-U110-12 sax and trombone card. On the other hand I also bought SN-U110-06 orchestral winds, which I did over pay for, but I will be happy with it. And finally I put an offer on the Experience II board for the JV-880 and it was accepted. Again it was probably a bit too much, but I think I will be happy with this board as well. Plus it will have patches already to go, unlike the U-110 cards, those I will have to build my own. And someday when I get around to programming the JV-880 there will be more waveforms to pick from. Because there is only 1 expansion slot on the JV-880 I wanted somethning that had a little everything and after some checking this seemed to be a good choice. I also put an offer in on another SN-U110 card although I think it will be rejected. If I do win it, I will have to start looking for a U-220 soon as I won't be able to use 3 cards in the U-20. In other news I have the recording computer ready, now I just need a audio interface. Soon. I went through the set a couple of days ago and I have some serious work to do practice-wise. I also have to get those lights ready and my merch. I hope I have enough time to get everything done. May 8 2014 I finally got a chance to practice today. Still so very rough. I dragged out more of the lights, but I will need a few more things as well. I have been working on a few things here and there as far as merch and stuff goes, but my printer ran out of ink today, so I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I wanted to do up about 10 Beker CDs and 10 programs, but I may not be able to without the printer. I have been slowly adding to the Beker video, I'm still not sure if this is going to work. I guess I have to take it downstairs, even in its poor form and do a few runthroughs. So here I am after a day truly wasted. I was going to go out to get a piece of wood and an end for a plug in, they would be for the extra lighting, but I didn't. So I look have been drooling over others keyboards. One thing I do dislike is how many 'collectors' are very snobbish and cliquey. Almost herd-like. I am so sick of people harping on the JX line. Certainly the JX-3P has some clear oversights, but very few keyboards do it ALL. And yes the JX series is a bit thin and metallic (including the JX-8, never heard the JX-10 but I think I can assume it is the same) but that is it's strength. They are truly unique sounding keyboards!! Even my MKS-30 (when it worked) sounded more like the Juno camp than the JX. I assume it must be the shitty 80017 chips. But anyway I was indulging myself by looking pages of Yamaha GX-1 and CS-80 synths. I remember when the EX-1 came out, I had the record that musician/promoter Claude Dupras recorded on it. Now those were synths! I just read someone saying that they didn't play it they flew it. The GX-1, EX-1, & FX-1 are like friggin spaceships!! I did own an electone organ at one time, I wish I still had it. On the eBay front 2 of the cards are on their way. The JV-880 card might be here as soon as next week. More toys, I can't wait! May 9 2014 I didn't want to say anything because I jumped the gun on a few times on auctions, but today I am the proud owner of a MKS-10. It won't be here for a few weeks but I can wait. I also recieved my SN-JV80-98 Experience II expansion board today. It was way smaller than I thought it would be. So I pulled out the JV-880 and removed the top plate popped the little bugger in and ... nothing. I checked through the sounds and nowhere were there any new entries. I tried some cleaner spray, removed and replaced the board several times to no avail. So I went online, but there was little information. So after several hours of fighting with this I looked through the manual. And on the very last page there was instructions for installing the expansion boards. At the very bottom was something that referred to interal and external sounds. So I checked on the JV-880 and there is was, the board was being recognized all the time! I actually the JV-880 all apart so I put it back together and back in the rack. But because of some web pages saying there were patches I was looking for them and not the waveforms. So again after much digging I found a scan of the first page of the manual. There after the introduction was a line that said the JV-80,90,1000 and 880 will only be able to use the waveforms!! Well I wish I knew that 10 hours ago!! SO after all that I checked out the 28 new waveforms and felt satisfied. I guess I will have to do some programming at some point. So I ran through the set again, still kinda weak. Didn't get the board or light or anything I need, not really sure if I will have the video finished either. Hmmm. Oh well I have an MKS-10. I have my eye on you next MKS-80, well maybe not next but someday. May 10 2014 Today I just wanted to relax, but I did one badly needed fix. I fixed the sample for Submerged. I actually broke it into 2 samples and although I had to trim the ends of both a bit they are so much better sounding, and they stay in sync as well. It took quite a while to get everything set up on the S-550, then I had to make a small change to the sequence. But because there are literally no markers, I had to play through the whole thing several times to find out where I needed to add the new sample and to make sure everything was right. I had bought a couple more cords and thought I should hook up the GP-8 to the effects loop on the M-120. I did and cranked the EP-11 though it. What a difference!! I used a chorus then a flange effect on the piano and it really brought it to life. In a way I almost feel bad that I have an MKS-10 coming as the EP-11 will be kind of redundant. While I had Submerged loaded on the sequencer I thought about adding a delay to the end solo. Before I even tried it I realized the delay would be added to the drums as well and that just wouldn't work. I created a Delay and programmed the change anyway and tried it. The drums now had some kinda of wierd hip-hop swing thing going on so I changed the program change back to program 11 which is nothing for now. If I fix the channels on the M-120 I will have to take a separate out for the drums and then this will work. I will program a couple of reverbs for the EP-11, but that will have to be tomorrow. May 16 2014 I'm surprised that I didn't have another entry here, but I guess I was too busy getting ready for the show. It was alot of gear to carry up and then back down the 20,000 stairs at the venue. While I was a bit disappointed with the turn-out, the actual show went fairly well. The only real snag was when I realised the S-220 wasn't plugged in. Also because I couldn't get the video ready I totally forgot to bring my MP3 player to do the bits inbetween the songs. I guess this made it a bit more organic. Mike also had problems with his set. But it was an interesting evening. Also yesterday morning I recieved my MKS-10. I played with it for about 10 minutes before having to put it in a rack and continue getting ready. Anyway I didn't get home till late and then had to work early this morning. So I am tired and I have to work earlier tomorrow, but I had to make an entry. I was so tired I just left everything in the van and I carted everything downstarirs today. So hopefully tomorrow night or sunday before work I can look at setting back up in the basement.   May 26 2014 I set up the keyboards last wednesday. It took a while because I wanted to make sure I had room for everything. Plus I had to re-organize the racks. I didn't want the MKS-10 by itself, I wanted it with the other MKS's. I set them up and looked at them. I wanted to play them but I was just too lazy. So I hooked them up on saturday and finally got to play the MKS-10 for a while. It is also in the chain after the MKB-300 so I can use it as a controller. I think I will put the MKS-30 after the MKS-10 when it is fixed so I can use the MKB-300 for those 3 units. After a bit of thinking I decided the MKS-10 will be MIDI channel 5 on the rack side. I really have to find a current map. I know I have one that has the current set-up plus some future considerations. But where? So I found the key to the sounds on the MKS-10 are the effects. It's too bad the chorus and the phaser sound best at different positions on the rate dial. I hate having to manually move the dials. The chorus really makes these analogue sounds come to life. The phaser sounds very cool at the right speed. And both tremolos are also very cool. Just to try it I doubled the tremolo piano from the MKS-10 with a piano from the JV-880 and what a massive and cool tone!! The MKB-300 is becoming much more fun to play. I also played a bit on sunday, nothing too serious, just playing around. But this morning my first SN-U110 card came in! It was the orchestral winds. There were a few tense moments because I couldn't seem to get the U-20 to recognize the card. I was in the timber edit mode, but it turns out just hitting the a/card button doesn't do that! You have to cursor over to the I (internal) in the timber number and value up till you get to the right card number (in this case 6). So there are 7 samples? Well there are 7 separate new tones and many variations of them. Although I'm not entirely sure I don't think the variations are new samples. But I do like them, there is Oboe, Bassoon, Clarinet, Bass Clarinet, French Horn, Tuba and Timpani. The French Horns made me think of Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd right away. It will take a bit of programming, but I do plan on making use of them. I still wish there were 128 patches and 64 timbers rather than the other way around. I guess with all my stuff I have no need to use the U-20 as a multi-timberal instrument, at least not in the sence that I need to use all 7 channels at the same time. I expect the other card to arrive tomorrow. I bought 4 more in a set deal. Unfortunately it had another Sax and trombone card that I will have to get rid of. But It has the Ethnic card I have been after and a Guitar card and the String card. I wasn't overly impressed with the String card (from the demo on YouTube), the Ethnic cards sounded really good, but there was no demo for the Guitar card so I guess we'll see. Oh neither the String or the Guitar card are the later stereo cards. I am still thinking about getting a U-220. I just passed on one that sold for about 40$, but with the shipping it would have been over 100$. I keep watching. May 27 2014 Today is all about making new sounds. I went downstairs with a timber/patch list for the u-20 and just started playing with stuff. I made 5 new timbers and 4 new patches, but I am running out of patch room! I fooled around down there until I was frozen. It is extremely cold down there today. So while I warm up I figured I would do a bit of typing and also check to see if the other card is here. Not yet. Well the rest of the day evaporated, a bit of keyboard playing, some bass playing, and still no card. May 28 2014 Got the second u110 card today. This one is Sax and Trombone. There are about 20 tones, and for sure there are mutliple samples. I like some of the velocity switching tones where the instrument sounds like it is being overblown. Glad I didn't pay 80$ for this though, just not enough variety. So I have 4 more cards coming and one is another Sax and Trombone card. Wish it was an Orchestral Winds instead. I think I will be getting rid of both Sax and Trombone cards eventually. But I am looking forward to checking out the other 3 cards although aside from the Guitar card I kinda know what to expect. So I meandered through some keyboard adventures as I checked out the cards some more. Came up with 2 quick ideas for the future. I then jotted down the tones on each card. I think I will set up some web pages for them with links from the u-20 page. There are 34 tones on the Orchestral Winds card (6) and 20 tones on the Sax and Trombone card (12). I assume the samples are longer on the Sax card, they are a bit more sophisticated from the sound of it. There are some cool velocity switching sounds, but I have never been a big fan of saxophone, so this card doesn't mean much to me. The trombone sounds are OK. And there are supposedly some trumpet/trombone sounds. I am not convinced. Before I forget I should back up all the sounds on the U20,JX-3P,JUNO-106. I may lose the batteries on these any day now! Jun 2 2014 Got the set of 4 u110 cards I orded today. So I got the Orchestra Strings, Ethnic, Electric Guitar, and another copy of the Sax and Trombone card. I quickly plugged them in to see what they were like. I started with the strings card. It was pretty much as I thought. Useless to me. Some single violin sounds all with vibrato, and some cello sounds. Really the only sound I liked was the Pizzicato sound. I guess the harp sounds weren't too bad. I was excited about the Ethnic card so I tried this next. Again I had heard it before, so there wasn't much surprize. It is a good card and one I think I will keep. I then plugged in the Electric guitar card. There was no sound source for this in the internet, but I had read the description on the old Goecities site. The jazz guitars might be ok but I didn't like them and would have very little use for them. The Overdrive and distortion guitars are quite good. Although they would be difficult to use. I also found out how crappy I am because there is little sustain on most notes. I sounded like a 3 year old doing scales. When playing the OD sounds the first song I though of was Daft Punks Aerodynamic. While not quite the same sound a close approximation was at hand. There are 74 different tones on this card, but there are about 20 different feedback tones. All with different pitches from the guitar tone. I think that was excessive. Really I would have preferred the feedback tone by itself so I could tune and layer it with other tones myself. So while I really like the palm muted OD sounds, the artificial harmonics, and many other things. I didn't like the Jazz guitars and I'm just not sure I would utilize this card much. I am kind of on the fence on this one. I guess I don't have to decide for a while. I am going to sell the cards I don't need (the 2 sax cards and the strings card) but not right away, so the Electric guitar card may go as well, eventually. I kinda wish there was a way to dump the contents of these cards for future consideration. It is something I will definately look into. I also was looking in to the U-20 schematics. On the Jack board is the DAC and there are filters already there before the line amps and output, I wonder how difficult it would be to use them or add to them to have some filtered control. The cool thing about that would be that it will be an analogue filter. I don't know enough about this stuff to make it happen but it is an interesting thought. I have run out of time today, but I want to document the cards and if I can, get some sound samples. After mostly ignoring the D series of Roland keys I have just realized what an amazing style on synthesis this is. I am VERY interested in a D-550 and a D-110. While most people seem to crap on the D-10,20,5,110 series it sounds like it SHOULD be better having 4 partials rather than 2. There are trade offs as well, but anyway I am seeing d-110 modules for under 100$ so I think I may bite as some point. The only problem is that my holiday is coming up soon and I need to save for that. I hate to pass on stuff for the next 8 weeks, but I may have to.     Jun 6 2014 Haven't done much the last few days. I think without being able to record I have sort of plateaued. I haven't finished any of the songs, fixed lyrics, or even played any of the songs for a couple of weeks. Today I set up the video camera and decided to record me playing a few songs. I wanted 2nd Place for sure and as I kept going I kept playing songs. Mostly new ones but playing them badly. So I played 2nd Place, Don't cry, Summer Burns, Ritual, Make it Real, Orchard, and Ice Flows. I have a couple of ideas to make playing some of them better. I should record the vocals for the sampler for Lost. I should also work on the Heart of the Machine sequences. As always it is just difficult to get started. Usually once I start I can get into it and finish or get close to finishing. I watched the video but it was dark, real dark, and when I lightened it up it looked real blurry. I am debating as to wheather I should post 2nd Place or not. Oh I should mention that 2nd Place is also the debut of the MKS-10. It is JV-880 piano layered with a MKS-10 Piano with tremolo. Very cool sound. I cleaned up alot of the basement as well, I think I am ready to start putting up shirts and posters, but for some reason I just can't find the motivation. My work table is mostly empty also so I could start fixing things. I have literally boxes of cords to fix! Yeah the last couple of weeks I have just felt really blah and I have done almost nothing. Here's to hoping I start something, ANYTHING soon. Jun 15 2014 Shame but I havne't been motivated to do anything. On the bright side I have my recording stuff back, so I should be able to record a bit as soon as I get motivated. But the big news is, and I shouldn't have, but I bought a D-110. Not sure how I'm going to pick it up, as I am sure it will arrive while I am away in July! Jun 18 2014 Wish I had some days off, maybe friday I will try some recording or at least I will just play! Had to practice some music I'm not fond of, but I did get to play some keys and I made 2 new patches on the U-20. Jun 27 2014 I really have been quite busy with other things so all this has kind of taken a back seat. But today my D-110 arrived. After nursing a hangover and dealing with some crap with my neighbour I quickly set it up downstairs. My U-20 is away gigging so I put it above the MKB-200 and hooked it all up. I played with it for about and hour, which is more time than I wanted to spend with it today. Very happy with this purchase. I now need to find time to learn how to use it and program it. But not today, today I relax with the sun and the birds.  Jul 1 2014 I am so disappointed. I was bidding on an a-880 MIDI mixer and was outbid, by alot! So I will have to put all my ebay purchases on hold as very soon I leave on vacation. So that is probably the end of this buying spree. I do hope to check out some pawn shops and the newspapers for used gear while I am away, but I don't have much hope for anything I am interested in. I have been quite busy and have literally done nothing keyboard realted in the last week. I doubt that there will be much change as I have 3 days left (that I don't work) before the trip and I'm sure I should be doing something to get ready. Anyway a quick look at rack2 says that I have room for 3 more 1U devices. SO my plan will be to build yet another rack. I think long term I may actually have to build 2. One will house the remaining synth gear I intend to buy (u-220,mks-80,mks-70 maybe a d-550) along with the VP-70,D-110, and JV-880. The other would hold the M-120 mixer, GP-8 effects plus what ever other mixer I purchase (I am leaning toward a M-12E) a MIDI mixer either the A-220 or A-880, and some other effects units. When I aquire all this stuff I really think I will have to stop buying stuff no matter how hard it is. Because at this point I will really have to try to really use the gear. And I mean PROGRAM!! I may have to breakdown and buy soundquest because I will just have too many units to putter with menus. Oh and the current old rack? Well I think I will keep the modified LP-304 in there, and build a rackmount 220V breaker box unit. Anyway just some thoughts. Aug 1 2014 Missed a couple of updates. I have been back from vacation for almost a week and I bought a A-880 MIDI mixer and according to the tracking it should be here monday. I also bought another enthic card for the U-220 I WILL own, and the card has already arrived! I started recording some of the new Bėker songs starting with some of the very old ones. I kept the version of Ice flows that I recorded before. I tweaked the EQ and silenced a bit of noise in a few places. I recorded 2nd Place earler this week and Make it Real yesterday. Today I recorded Summer Burns, although I think I will have to redo a few things, but I will listen to it a bit before I decided anything. I ran through Exhaust and Orchard. I have decided to make some more changes to Orchard. Nothing monumental, just things that make more sence to me. The solo for Exhaust is still very loose but I may start to record that tomorrow, maybe. I just found a note that had another older song called Where I Am included with these recordings and maybe I should just record it all. Even if it has 16 songs. So in no particular order the track listing is this 1. Opus 2. Supercollider 3. Where I Am 4. Away 5. Exhaust 6. Ritual 7. Make it Real 8. Summer Burns 9. 2nd Place 10. Ice Flows 11. Orchard 12. Challenge 13. Snow Angels. It alot of music but I think it is nessessary. So far the 4 tunes I have recorded are under 4 minutes the shortest being Ice Flows which is 2.31. Aug 5 2014 Doh! Monday was a holiday, so my A-880 arrived this morning. Or actually after lunch. Anyway I wanted to test it really quick because it smelled moldy. I haven't opened it up yet but I hope there is no corrosive damage inside, because this was somewhere very damp. It took me a minute or two to figure out HOW to test it. And after hooking up the sequencer I still had to print out the manual because I wasn't sure if it was doing what it should. When I quickly went through the manual and tested a few things it seems to be working fine. But I don't actaully have enough MIDI cables to hook it up! I haven't had time to do any recording lately. I am learning songs for an upcoming gig, and other things are keeping me busy.  Aug 6 2014 It seems like I just can't motivate myself. I forced myself to record the main tracks for Exhaust. I'm not sure if its me or just because I have to move everything back into time but the timing seems to be ... well ... bad. So I have most of the keyboards done, but not sure if I am happy. I worked on the solo as I didn't really have it ready, I had some ideas but nothing permanent. Now I do, if I can remember it. I listened to Summer Burns and the timing seems very poor there as well. I have to get a new card so I am not having to piss with moving things around to get them in time. Then if my parts are still out I guess it's just that I suck. Aug 8 2014 Damn I forgot to set the camera up again. I did all the u-20 parts today for Exhaust and figured I'd do the vocals and see what happens. I have to say I am VERY happy with the way everything is sounding. The backups need to be re-done but the vocal take was almost flawless. I am also quite happy with the solo. I wasn't sure if it would sounds really dumb but I know now it sounds great. So I am gigging tomorrow night but hopefully I can redo the back up vocals and fix a couple of lines in Summer Burns and also the VP-70 tracks in Make it Real. If I can get those fixes I may even try to move on. There are 3 options: Orchard, Ritual and Away. Any will do although it might be interesting to hear Orchard finished. I will have to record drums for Where I Am yet and really work on finishing the last songs. Checked the spare firewire card and it is the dreaded VIA. I'm pretty sure I bought both of them at radio shack so I'm almost certain the other one will be VIA as well. So I will have to find out the kind of card I need and see if I can get a TI firewire card, and this should end my timing issues, hopefully. Aug 9 2014 Feeling burnt out so I am just relaxing, but I hope to do a bit of work on the recordings before heading out to the gig later today. I the mean time I pulled out the other Firewire card and it too is a VIA chip, so I looked into gettind a TI chip one and may have a winner. I guess I'll have to buy it to find out. Also was looking at the wonderful things on eBay and have been eyeing another mixer (amoung other things) I think I have decided on a M-12E. Just because I will need the EQ but don't want a 6 rack space monster. Unfortunately after counting the channels I need so far I will only have 5 spare channels!! Even with the other 12 channel mixer! Well I can't buy one right away anyway so I will think about it. Aug 11 2014 I'm so pissed off! I had about 30 minutes so I thought I would quickly redo the VP-70 parts for Make It Real. Then the computer kept crashing for no apparent reason. I am out of time and the computer is about to get smashed. I did learn 1 thing though. The VP-70 WILL have to be an octave higher to sound right. Aug 12 2014 I tried the computer again this morning and it was the same result so I opened it up and tried re-seating the firewire card and the video card, and pushing on anything that looked like it could come loose. Believe it or not it actually worked. So I got right to it, and even with my extremely sore throat Fixed the vocal parts and the VP-70 parts on the 3 songs. I remixed them and quickly listened. The VP-70 parts in Make it real were a bit too loud, everything else sounded good. Later in the day (because it was so hot) I went back downstairs and recorded Orchard. I was just going to do the keyboard parts but ended up finishing it. Mix is a bit rough, but not bad. One quick insight, maybe it was just me, but it seemed like the timing issues with the firewire card didn't seem as bad today. So I now have 6 mostly final versions of new songs for the new album!! I really only have 2 songs left that are finished an instrumental called Ritual and a sad piano song called Away. The other 4 I have to finish writing. So I guess i should get to it! All in all a good day. Aug 14 2014 It was another busy day, but this time I managed to squeeze in some recording. I recorded Ritual, because although I like Away it won't be near as exciting to record. It took awhile to find the S-550 sample disk with the right sounds on it. Of course it was in the last box. So I had to fix the sequence to play the right channel and notes, then I recorded it. Then the drums. The EP-11 was next and was quite quick. The U-20 strings were next but I had to record it again because the level was a bit too hot. I recorded the RS-5 bass next. Then the JX-3p sounds. Here I had to pause because I had to be sure about using the Juno-106 for the solo. The only othe option was the RS-5. I settled on the Juno-106. It is still a tricky solo,even after playing it for several years. I got it on take 9. I used the pipe organ from the Juno-1 instead of the JX and I think I will in the future. Then it was just a matter of mixing it. I also tried a quick remix of Exhaust, but I never grabbed it. I was just about to remix Orchard when I remembered I wanted to record a couple bass notes with the JX. I did that and made another mix. I added delay to the VP-70 parts, but listening to it realized I added way too much. Listening to the songs though, I think they all sound pretty good. So only Away and then I will have to do some writing! Some finishing! Aug 15 2014 I lazily went downstairs and recorded the drums for Away. After a short debate I recorded only piano from the JV-880. It took a few takes, but that's all the keybaord I am doing. I would have sang but my throat's still sore, it will probably be a few more days before I am ready to sing. In the mean time I worked on Challenge. I think I have the basic structure finished. It looks like it will be about six and a half minutes long or so. It took most of the day. So now I will have to program some decent drums and probably lastly work out some lyrics. Another good productive day. Seems like I just needed to feel good about the recordings, as I feel I have been on a roll here for almost 2 weeks. Maybe not everyday was dedicated to this project, but many were. And although the writing process is longer and I have three more songs to finish I still feel like the end is in sight. Then it will be on to the next project. Oh and I may have a venue for the last Drama Compendium show... Aug 16 2014 Today I started trying to sequence the drum parts for Challenge. I spent a few hours on it and made it to bar 71. This is just before the first chorus. The next chance I get I should be able to finish it even though the song ends at bar 215 or so. It is tired and pedantic work. When I returned to turn everything off I did noodle a bit, but no time today. Aug 19 2014 Although it took most of the day I finished the drums and the arrangement for Challenge. It now sits at about 285 bars and a little over 7 minutes. Unfortunately I have some hard days ahead, the last 2 songs I am working on are long and complex, so was this one. There was a moment when something strange happened and I thought I lost all my work, but I loaded it again and luckily it all seemed to be there. The drum programming isn't hard, it's just dull, and time consuming. I often wonder if I had a couple of MIDI pads if it would make this easier. I have an idea it would just make things more complicated. The only thing I am a bit unsure about is the end of the solo, where it goes back into the chorus. It might be a bit jarring. The instrumental part should be interesting to work out solos for. My plan is the first half will be on the juno-106 working as a mono synth (I seem to be getting my milage out of the Juno 106 this way, I guess because I don't have a mono synth!) the second I will play on the EP-11. It's funny that I keep going back the the EP-11 as well , but it does sound nice in the mix. Besides the second part is more Major sounding and I think the EP-11 works well for that. Plus I have the GP-8 to add some chorus or something. The trick here will be switching sides as the Juno is on the left and the EP-11 is on the right! I have a very rough melody for everything (if I remember it), I'll have to spend some time on some lyrics soon. I really like the idea of the chorus melody switching from major to minor and back. I also have an idea for an intro, which came about because I really wanted to song to be about the 7 minute mark, and it was about 20 seconds short. So I played with this idea of having a spacey kind of intro. I could be fun to have in a live situation. I sequenced the program changes so I could do it. In the end while playing with the song I accidentally adjusted the BMP from 130 to 125 and it seemed to groove a little better. I did try it at 120 but it was too slow. Anyway the tempo change added about 30 seconds to the song! At this point the intro isn't nessessary, but it might be fun, I guess I could record the intro and make a mix with it and one without. Not sure wheather I will continue with Challenge or even start recording it, or work on Supercollider, but onward I go. I listened to Opus and Supercollider. Opus has some great ideas with this huge sounding intro, but it is only one third written. Supercollider also has a big intro, but the ideas are sort of just thrown together and will need some thought to get them to work together. Supercollider is only about half done. Because it will be a longer piece I think I should work on it next. The last song that I have to work on will be a bit of an experiment. There are only 2 parts for Snow Angles but I hope to be able to use the melody to differentiate parts as the second idea will only come at then end and fade out. This one will rely on a good strong melody and some fancy word writin. Which will probably be harder for me than the other songs, but won't require much in the way of sequencing. I am still watching ebay, but nothing has really interested me much. I want another mixer and a U-220, but I guess neither is pressing. Everything else will require saving. Alot of saving. Or in the case of the EP-6060, a lot of patients. Aug 20 2014 Today I started the gargantuan job of piecing Supercollider together. The sequence had the big intro a second intro part, a verse part with a bridge, and a part I knew I wanted before the solo. I also wanted to incorperate my EP-11 drum samples so there were about 24 bars of that as well. Most of this was sequenced with huge spaces in between. I also had an interesting bit from a separate sequence called Fragile that I though I might include. So I ran through the intro and quickly realized the next part was just way too slow. Also the intro was in A flat and Fragile was in A, so I decided a tempo change and key change were in order. I tried the intro at the new tempo and realized that wasn't going to work, so I left the intro as it was and on bar 52 the tempo changed to 120 and the key changed to A. I made a temp sequence outlining the parts to the existing rough drums until they stopped and just kept going. I also created a quick instrumental part. After this I thought about using the EP-11 samples, but decided to re-program them as they were badly out of time. Right after I programmed that I realized I would have to change back to 100 BPM for the EP-11 part and back again for the ending chorus. So I decided to insert the last chorus in between the instrumental and the intro (outro). I sequenced some guide tracks and although I played with it a bit more, that's really all I am doing with it for the time being. I played through it a couple of times and now I hear a few things that need to be trimmed and or fixed but it can wait for now. Also I think I will play the whole thing in A now. At the moment the song clocks in just under 13 minutes but it should shrink just a bit when I make my fixes. I also did a sort of guide track for Snow Angels. And I ordered some more quick disks and they arrived today. So I took a break and went back down stairs (because it is raining). I ended up making some of the changes I wanted to make and some I didn't think I would make. I chopped a huge chunk from the instrumental and even though I extended a few sections so they were the right length Supercollider is only just under 12 minutes. I played through it a few times, then played Challenge, then just played with the Juno-106 for a while. I am just scratching the surface of this synth. Well truthfully many of my synths need deeper examining. Even with the oscillators not callibrated it still sounds awesome. I am glad someone had some time to program a wealth of cool sounds into it, some are pretty exotic so I doubt that many are factory sounds. It would be nice to get a factory sound tape or wav. My only niggle is, I wish you could program it to be mono. Because it says it will record button pushes in the exclusive mode I hooked it up to the sequencer and tried, but the poly/mono buttons don't send anything. Also I see something is broken, the VCF slider control for the bender isn't working. When I open it up to do the calibration I will look at that as well. Anyway it was fun to play with. So I spent almost the whole day playing keyboards, it was a day well wasted. Aug 21 2014 I wasn't really going to do anything today, but I ended up sequencing the drums for Supercollider. Really what I did was fix what was there. It actually went fairly quick, and I ran through the song several times. When I started to hum melodies though I realized I may have to make a few changes yet. Some space to breathe between singing different parts. I also played through Challenge and I am still a bit unsure of the way the end of the instrumental goes back into the chorus. I am anxious about recording this stuff, and really want to push ahead, but maybe it is better to sit on it for a few days. Or even better I could start working on lyrics. I am starting to dread lyrics, partly because I know I'm not very good at it, but also because they seem to be so important to some people. While I am still a music first person, I am getting a huge appreciation for good lyrics. Or after listening to several hours Tangerine Dream wondering if i could do without them. Truthfully, I loved listening to Pheadra and Rubycon, but I could never write music like that. The production is SO far ahead of it's time it sounds contemporary. I could easily imagine them playing these songs with current equipment, I cannot imagine them making it with the equipment from 1972. I also just finished listening to I Robot by Alan Parsons and hear so many things that they would have had to manufacture specifically for thier recording that are now easily available today. Anyway that style of music is out of my league. Aug 24 2014 Today I took video of my playing Supercollider and Challenge. The point was to have something to write lyrics to but I have an idea it will be more for the archives than anything else. Especially after doing that I added 24 bars to Supercollider. I have a couple of small things to do (aside from lyrics). I have to add a program change to Challenge for the solo. I also have to add a few chords for backing to the solo section of Supercollider. But I have no time now. Aug 26 2014 I started lyrics for Supercollider, although I think it might be Supernova. I am a bit worried they are too dark! I went through Supoernova once added the backing for the instrumental. and that was it. I was going to play Challenge but I didn't feel like it. Aug 27 2014 A friend had lent a mic to me that he felt was excellent. I assumed for vocals so I finally hooked it up and tried to record the vocals for Away. I played with it a bit to get the right settings and recorded 2 takes. I was surprized at how sensitive it was, but the character wasn't good for me. It had little in the bottom end (even though I had the buttons set for flat) and an exaggerated high mid area. I tried to EQ the vocal, but it sounded aweful no matter what I did. So I decided to leave it for the moment. While listening to the song I thought I should add a track of bass so I did that. And then I decided to record some of the new stuff. Even though I don't have lyrics for either song I know the arrangments aren't going to change. I decided to start Supernova. I recorded the drums and all the sequenced parts, and ran out of steam. I'm almost finished the lyrics for Supernova, but there are a few parts I am having trouble with. Later I remixed Orchard. I found out it needed some serious tweaks, but I think I am happy with it now. So unless it makes any of the other songs sound bad I think I have mostly final mixes for the seven songs. I am also trying to fix my monitors, I have a wall of them ATM.   Aug 28 2014 I wasn't sure if I was going to anything today or not. My plan was to visit Micheal today. As it turned out he was just driving home, so I had about an hour and a bit. I went downstairs and opened up Supernova. But something was wrong. Because I now have had many experiences with this, the program had tried to use the other audio card. It took a few minutes to figure out how to fix this but fix it I did. I managed to get the 2 bass parts recorded before I had to go. When I returned I was anxious to add the Juno-1 intro part and almost finished the intro before supper. After supper I finished all the keyboard parts except the solo part. I was hoping this could be an epic ripfest, but the chords are VERY major so I will have to stick with mostly happy notes within the chords. Anyway it will have to be a bit more subtle, and more melodic. So this monster clocks in at 12.34. I almost have all the lyrics for it, there is just one block that I have words for but I don't like them. I quickly remixed Exhaust. I hope the next recording day I will redo the vocals for Away and maybe start the vocals for Suprenova. Then Challenge will be the next song to complete. Aug 29 2014 Lazy day. I redid the vocals for Away and looked at Orchard. There were 3 vocal takes so I fixed a few places I thought were weak by looking at the other 2 takes and taking the best one to replace a few phrases. There was another take for the VP-70 so I added that as well. I ALMOST started the vocals for Supernova, but didn't. I grabbed the new mixes of both songs and turned everything off. Aug 30 2014 Woah! And I thought yesterday was a a lazy day. I shouldn't have but I bought some more MIDI cables and instrument cables. I went downstairs and plugged them in so the A-880 and the Juno-106 are now in the MIDI chain. I then traded a couple of the longer instrument cables for the new shorter ones. I had one really long cable and I was just trying to figure out what to do with it when I looked at the ends. This is a 8 pin chord!! And 25 feet by the looks of it! I guess I can try and unload it on eBay later. I wanted to play with my stuff all wired up for a bit but it just seemed to arduous to turn everything on. So there it is. Sep 5 2014 Haven't done much. I did work on the recording for Supernova, in that most of the 16 tacks so far had compression on them and was making the computer unbeleivably slow. So I mixed most of the single tracks to remove the compression. I am seriously thinking about rewriting all of the lyrics. I learned something very cool today. My aJuno can also be a mono synth!! I found it by accident but read the manual and it explains it. Whoever had this set the chord to one note (C) and when the chord button is pressed it is now a mono synth. Although I may be wrong, but the way it looks in the manual, is that if you send a CC of 126 (mono on) it should turn on the chord button. I looked at the manuals briefly. Then I started thinking about an editor. I had downloaded this program called CTRLR but didn't really check it out. It has promice but there is a catch. So it is basically a MIDI program to handle CC and SYX. It is general enough to handle any synth, but here's the catch: there are hardly any editors programmed. So it is likely that a U-20 or D-110 editor could be made, but I would likely have to program it myself. There is a Juno-106 and a PG-300 panel. There is a not so good looking JX-3P panel to work with the organix expansion (called a JOX-3p panel) also a MPG-80 and a panel for JV/XP synths. I want to check this stuff out although I am not really looking forward to learning the language and protocol of yet another program, but it might be worth it to get a D-110 editor (and a U-20 editor and a MKS-7 editor and a ...) Sep 11 2014 Well! I guess I am just not happy with Supernova/Supercollider so everything has stalled. No recording. No playing either. I don't want to look at all the memorial stuff today, so maybe I will try to record Challenge. Or work on something, we'll see. Oh and on the CTRLR front this looks impossible! I can't figure out most of it. I have to look for the newbie instructions. Plus I have to try out the few panels I already have. If they dont work, or work well, then there is no point. Oh I guess I should make another equipment map because it has changed a bit and is a bit complex. So quickly, the MKB-200, is the head, at the top and can control any device in the chain, the problem here is that if there are 2 devices with the same MIDI channel it will play both. for the time being I will either make a silent patch (as I can send the program changes separately) or sent a CC7 (volume) of 0. A A-220 or 2 would fix this. Then is the true heart of the system the MC-50 sequencer! From here there are 2 outputs, the rack and the keyboards. We'll continue down for the moment. Then is the new A-880 MIDI mixer which routes the MIDI down 1 of 2 MIDI paths. 1 will be the effects chain as I only need to send PG changes sporadically, the other is the rack. All MIDI channels are in pink. The A-880 will have MIDI channel 16 I will reserve this channel as I may include the keyboard path as well through here at some point. For now the GP-8 is the only unit in the effects path, but this will change. The rack is actually 2 racks and 1 controller. After the MKS-7 and the 2 samplers the MIDI signal is sent to the MKB-300 which merges the incoming signal with whatever is played by the keyboard. This way I can send PGs and CCs from the sequencer and play the following RMs with the controller. So these can be played from the MKB-300, the JV-880, D-110, MKS-10 and the MKS-30. Although at this time the MKS-30 is still broken. The last route goes through the keyboards and terminates at the LP-608 which is the light controller. The EP-11 has no MIDI. Well it looks like all I did was make this entry and the MIDI map below. I guarantee the next good day for anything won't be till the 14th or 15th. Oh well.  Nov 13 2015 While I have been busy with manu things I decided this blog should be less about my recording efforts and more about the keyboards themselves, as I now have a different blog for that. I have mostly been using the MKB-200 and the MKB-300 with the D-110,MKS-10,JV-880, MKS-50 and U-220 (more about these last 2 later). Nothing much, just playing a few songs. So truthfully I haven't spent too much time with my keyboards, but I recently have gotten the itch to do another Bėker show. So I hooked up all of the lights and MIDI cables and stuff a few days ago. While running through the songs I noticed the S-220 samples sounded a little flat, and now I know that they are almost 50 cents flat. And here I was worried about the MKS-7 and it's extremely fallible 80017 chips. So I'm not sure what might be wrong without some testing but I wonder if maybe a crystal is drifting a bit or maybe it is a power issue. I had hoped to look at some schematics but I can't seem to find any free ones. So that kinda ends the Bėker show for the moment as there are some important sounds that I can't use. Since last year I have aquired a few more bits of gear. I bought a big 3 tiered A frame stand at a garage sale, and later the same fellow gave me another MC-50 and a MKS-50. I have played with the MKS-50 and the cool thing about that over the juno-1 is that rather than some global parameters for MIDI and portamento and such, they created the 'patch' which bundles the sound with these paramenters, so each patch can have a unique MIDI channel or portamento setting or what have you. Very cool I really hope I can get a chance to program on this or the juno-1 soon. I also finaly bought a U-220, and found there are some slight differences between that and the U-20. I sent my u-20 SYSEX to it and almost all of the patches work fine. The 2 differences I found were,1: the extra set of outputs,2: the way velocity is set. On the U-20 it is a range beween the lowest and highest velocity that the sound will play, on the U-220 there is one velocity point and the note plays either above or blow that threshold depending on how you program it. It probably isn't a big deal, unless you want to program more than 2 different sounds at different velocities. After I bought the U-220 and reprogrammed it I needed to buy an extra Ethnic card and an extra Orchestral winds card. Because the price was right I bought the Rock Drum card as well. I am kinda running out of room in the basement, but there still are a few toys I would like to have. Unfortunately they are all expensive, but honestly everything is getting more expensive on eBay, as less is available and the old stuff is becoming more and more desirable. I couldn't beleive I saw a MKS-10 for 900$ US !!! I doubt that it will sell for that, but people are getting crazy for it. Even my humble JX-3p which was around 150$ a couple of years ago has suddenly become a 750$US synth! Which reminds me I still haven't installed my Organix MIDI kit on the JX-3p, but I am starting to think I need to send some of the older synths to a pro for tune-ups. I also need to install the new pots for my M-120 line mixer as a 3rd channel has died. But I have put off most of the repairs until I can get my Hartke 3000 going, I made a few wrong assumptions, so I order parts, wait, install them and realize I was wrong, then order parts ... I should have the final parts in soon, then if it doesn't work I will actually have to send it to someone. I don't want to work on more than one thing at a time because 1: I don't have the space and 2: I don't want things to go missing while they are apart. I have been looking for the proper cap for the power button for my MKS-10, but I can't seem to locate one. I guess one possibility is if I replace my S-220 with another I will have something for parts. But I really would rather not go that route, even a S-220 will fetch 150$US before shipping, and I can't think of anyone who would pay that much for this poor sampler. Another thing I really need to take the time to do is get a current SYSEX dump of everything and a tape dump of my JX-3P and JU-106, I think those are the only 2 that won't do SYSEX dumps. Oh and finally save up the 300$ for the D80017 chips for my MKS-30, it has been sitting dormant for almost 10 years !!!! Still so much to do ... Nov 28 2015 I have been playing alot more synth lately, in between working. I had to re-organize my MIDI flow chart and mixer channels and stuff. Soon I should document the settings for the MKB-200 and the MKB-300. Still no fix for the S-220 and the one auction I was watching came and went. But I still play. I even tried to run through a few of the newer songs, but was having a hard time remembering Challenge. Turns out I have a video of it (it says so up above). I also looked at the lyrics for Supernova, they are actually really good. I think where I was having a real problem was the solo section. And I started thinking about a few things, like how new sounds get me excited. The 2 new u-20 sounds I used for the Exhaust solo really made it insteresting. I think I just needed something new and insteresting for the solo sounds, something inspiring. So I want to start programming. It's too bad the S-220 is having problems, I have a bunch of sounds I haven't had time to work with, but until it's fixed they will have to wait. I really need to get some SYSEXs before I go wrecking stuff, maybe I will even do it now. Nov 29 2015 I went to get the SYSEX data only to find I had gotten it from a couple of the synths already, I just needed the JV-880. So I did that last night. After work tonight I decided to quickly get the tape dumps from the JX-3P and the JUNO-106. I realized I still need MIDI dumps from the GP-8, VP-70, and maybe the A-880, but I am too tired now to do any more. Dec 1 2015 Last night I made copies of the most important disks, the MC-50 Bėker play disk and the 2 Bėker sample disks. Dec 12 2015 Today I was playing for a short while, and afterwards I made a few program changes that add delay to the EP-11 or the JX-3P. If I had more channels (when I fix the 2 channels) on the M-120 I can add it to the solo and chord sections of the MKS-7. I want to program and play with this stuff but I just don't have the blocks of time needed. I FINALLY programmed 1 sound off of the experience 2 expansion board for the JV-880, I know I would like to program more. And get more in depth as well, because with the filter I'm sure I could make some CRAZY sounds. I keep wanting to add more stuff but I think that is the problem I actually already have too much stuff to program it properly! (Well and I am short of MIDI cables). Plus I am hearing some wierd crackling from the JX-3P, JUNO-106 and EP-11. I'm not sure what it is but I fear I may neeed to do some serious upkeep and soon. And my poor MKS-30, it has been broken for 10 years! For the sake of 350$! It is so sad. But I keep looking at auctions on eBay, I was giving serious thought to buying a PR-800, because it was 30$ and looked cool!! It would be a friggin paperweight!!! But it does look cool. And the prices keep marching up, and up, and up! I really want a Jupiter 6, but I doubt that I would stop there, and that's the problem. It is getting out of control. My gear aquisition is becoming a disease. Dec 18 2015 I am still feeding my disease. I bid on a MKS-100, but thank goodness I was outbid. I have a very good idea on where to start when looking to fix the S-220. I finally found a service manual for it and First I will check the power coming in,and if it looks good there is a capacitor right next to the crystal that is used for the oscillator that may need replacing. I was also looking at a SBX-10, thinking it would be a cool thing to sync the EP-11 to the MIDI chain but again after looking at the service notes the EP-11 only sends Sync-24 signals it doesn't recieve them. Although I have a good mind to see if I can change that. So even thought the SBX-10 looks cool as hell, it would be worthless. So I have ALL of these repairs piling up and I am waiting for some overly late transistors for my stupid amp. Until that is fixed I refuse to open anything else up. I should be getting a few chips for my M-120 soon as well. And I just thought I should open up the MKS-30 and try the acetone fix, before dropping a pile of money on D'naab chips, just in case. I will have to get at least 1 SIP socket, so I don't have to piss around. But I have to get this amp off of my bench!!! Oh and I bid on a fairly abused A-220. I don't need it, maybe I will get outbid again and not have to purchase it. Arrgg. Jan 16 2016 Today I am feeling quite awful. I returned from my holidays and a day or two later started having tummy issues, I hope it doesn't last long. So while I wasn't feeling good I started playing the keys. I opened the four songs I haven't finished recording yet. I think Challenge is probably ready to go, Supernova/Supercollider just needs a solo and lyrics. Opus is still in an early stage, but could be completed quite quickly and Snowangels I couldn't even check as I don't have the D-110 hooked up ATM. No new aquisitions although I am keeping my eye on a couple of things. I am looking very seriously at a chip that would change MIDI clock signals into Sync-24 signals. My biggest problem would be that I would still have to monkey around in the inside of my EP-11 to make it work because the Sync-24 on the EP-11 is OUT only! I'm sure I could tap into the proper places to accept an incoming signal, but I would have to disable the panel controls. BUT then I could possibly use and sync the drums and appreggio. That could be alot of fun. I found a new way to set the JX-3P to not OMNI, just press POLY on the MKB-300! Easy. Still waiting for chips for my stupid amp, I ordered more from the states so hopefully I will finally have them in a few weeks. Then I can try to start repairing other things. Jan 29 2016 Well I moved the bass amp off of the bench because I installed the power transistors and it still didn't work. So I really wasn't planning on doing anything, but I thought I would just open the Jx-3p and see if the chip I need to replace for the MIDI upgrade kit was in a socket or not. I thought I had some sockets but after looking, I don't, so I figured I should see if I need to order some. Luckily it was socketed. Then I thought I should see if I can fix my repair. There is a crack in the panel circuit board, and I tried jumpering across by using wires connected to the closest solder joint. I retraced the paths to make sure everything was right, then I found a join that didn't seem very good. After playing with it, there was something that was preventing a good solder join there like an oil or something that I can't seem to clean away. So I used a different join and made a connection to the other bad place. I also added a jumper for the ground, just to make sure and finally I can access number buttons 9 to 14! I wasn't going to do any more but figured I could drop in the chip for the MIDI upgrade solder the one wire to the main CPU and leave it at that. I did that and it took literally one minute, so I unhooked the MIDI jack board and quickly looked at what I would have to do to that. After a bit of looking I decided I could probably put this together fairly quickly too. So I had to open 2 paths on the circuit board, remove a resistor and a jumper wire, then solder 10 wires on various places on the board. It actually took longer to put the JX-3p back together. I plugged it back in and tried it out. So number one all the number buttons are working again!! Then I started playing it with the MKB-200. I wanted to make sure the OMNI was off. It didn't seem to be as the MKS-7 was playing as well, then I realized the JX-3P was receiving MIDI channel 3, and ONLY MIDI channel 3! I shut it off and tried the velocity mode, that was cool, then I shut it off and set the MIDI channel to 1. Then I set the MKB-200 to send CC's to the JX. The first one was the VCA level and sure enough I could play with the volume. I then HAD to try the cutoff level, and that worked great too! I played with the JX for about a half hour and decided all was good. I guess I have to open the S-220 now. Hopefully it is something I can fix. Oh and I have 5 80017 chips I can drop in the acetone bath, when ever I am ready to try that again. Feb 24 2016 Progress has been very slow. I opened the S-220 and checked the voltages on the power supply and everything looked great, so my only guess is the capacitor by the cyrstal supplying the sample chip, or maybe even the crystal. Unfortunately there isn't ANYWHERE close that carries capacitors!! All I need is a 10 cent frigging part! So it is waiting. I also opened the MKS-30 and started removing the chips and dropped the chips I had into the acetone bath. Holy frig those chips were hard to remove! I finally just broke the last two out and will have to replace the legs. So I am just waiting for some DIP sockets (I couldn't get SIP sockets), they shouldn't be too hard to modify for the single 12 pin arragement. Then I will see if I have 6 chips that still work. I accidently broke one trying to get it out, so I have 10 80017 chips and 1 clone. Hopefully I can get both of these going soon.
Mar 28 2016 |