Dave Smith Instruments SYNTHESIZERS

Hi all!  

Just subscribed.  Glad you're here!

I've had a desktop evolver for a while, and just picked up an MEK used
yesterday!! (yeeha!)   ...going to take a shot at chaning them
tonight, so may have more questions ;)

Meanwhile, here are a couple of questions about the MEK;

1. I'm used to listenning to the output from the desktop Evolver unit
(when not going through the board) via a pair of Grado (good)
headphones.  The output seems dead quiet to me if the machine is not
generating any signal.  Since there's no headphone output, I listen
via the L and R outputs directly.

In the MEK there is a headphone output jack, which I've been using to
monitor on the headphones, but through this output I can hear hiss -
not 'loud' - about what you'd expect from the noisefloor of a decent
audio cassette (am I dating myself?:) - and it's there all the time,
regardless of 'master volume' knob position.  It's even there when the
knob is turned all the way to 0.

The headphones are pretty efficient, and the output from the headphone
is significantly higher than the line out (which I hear no noise from
when listenning to using headphones..whew) but I'm surprised to hear
audible hiss even with the volume turned all the way down...  Anyone
else notice this?  

It's not disasterous (unless it's on the actuall outputs too.. which I
haven't tried through the board yet..) but I'm curious to know if it's
a defect or someting you just 'live with' - anyone else notice this?

1b.  Speaking of noise, anyone else notice 'zipper' noise while 
adusting the master volume control? (try it on a softer patch or
you'll just chew your ears off trying to figure out if it's part of
the patch ;) 

2. Anyone know how to determine which version of firmware or which
'revision' my PEK is/has?  it's S.no. 00012...   

I don't know if they have made any hardware/firmware/OS upgrades since
they started making the MEK, but if so, I'd love to know how to know,
and update.

3. This is fairly lame, but ss there a way to change the 'contrast'
setting of the LCD display?  My display is 'readable', but looks much
better from the wrong angle.  Again, ot a major problem, just
something that would likely be adjustable with a contrast setting if
it were available (as on other synths I have with similar displays)

Thanks for any info!

PS. Yes, of course I LOVE the thing so far!! ;)

Earl

Fyi, here's some other synth gear I have...
Novation Nova
Waldorf Microwave XT
Nord Lead 1
Waldorf Q
MiniMoog
Ensoniq ASR 10
Kork Electribe EMX
The Evolver, and MEK (hopefully soon to be chained)

... and a pile of other stuff.. FX, soft synths, guitars, basses...
blah blah ;)