Elektron Musical Instruments

hey all, i recently fried the chip in my sidstation while patching my
equipment into my newly aquired patchbay(a ground loop did it i think,
that nasty massive auditory buzzing you get sometimes when plugging
patch cords into sockets).  aren't you happy for me?  while a little
distressed, i am not overly depressed about it.  i emailed elektron, and
explained what happened.  they kindly told me it sounded like my sid
chip was overstressed and died.  the cost to fix it is 45 us dollars +
shipping, while not expensive at all i thought i could save some time
and cash by just picking up an old c64 for 10 or so dollars and snatch
the sid chip out of there.  i am comfortable opening up electronic
equipment and poking around and have fairly decent soldering skills so
replacing a chip isn't that daunting to me.  you really have to only
watch that your grounded and the chip is inserted the right way, and
make sure it's seated properly.  i've allready opened up my sidstation a
couple of times with no hitches, so i guess i've allready voided the
warranty(which doesn't cover what i did to the chip).  has anyone else
attempted this?  anything to comment on?  notice a difference?  i'll
probobly just be picking  up a c64 off of ebay as i'm not feeling to
adventuress in the outside world.  thnx


---


christian

On Mon, Nov 06, 2000 at 10:29:51AM -0600, sophalicus@... wrote:

> has anyone else attempted this?  anything to comment on?  notice a
> difference?

I fried my original sid chip, and replaced it with an r1 scrounged from
a dead c64.  (glad I kept these spares around.  elektron, how about some
better static protection for the sid?)

the case was a pain in the ass to get off, (odd-sized torx screws,) and
the self-tapping-into-soft-aluminum screws had stripped themselves.
(elektron, have you looked into pem-nuts?)

the filter sounds very different than the r4s.  it doesn't open up quite
as much.  I like it.

-- 
  Aaron J. Grier | "Not your ordinary poofy goof." | agrier@...
    "[N]ow would be a great time for record companies to start releasing
       everything on vinyl."  --  David Wolf, regarding mp3 pirating

> the filter sounds very different than the r4s.  it doesn't open up quite
> as much.  I like it.

    Really? I was just about to write this list and say how I can barely do
an effective filter sweep with my SID(stock chip). Are there any good filter
"types" to use to get more of an effect? I've tried turning the resonance up
but it really didn't do much at all. The filter on the SID seems kind of
similar to a weak EQ. No offense to Elektron.... I don't really see the SID
as one of those "filter-tweaking" synths anyway. I'm just curious.

                                Thanks,
                                Inform3r
-----------
http://www.inform3r.com

>The filter on the SID seems kind of
>similar to a weak EQ. No offense to Elektron.... I don't really see the
>SID
>as one of those "filter-tweaking" synths anyway. I'm just curious.

The filter on my SidStation is like the coolest and most wild one around!
Better then most synths i have played!

/Roberth

on 11/7/00 2:13 AM, Roberth Sandqvist at roberth@... wrote:

>> The filter on the SID seems kind of
>> similar to a weak EQ. No offense to Elektron.... I don't really see the
>> SID
>> as one of those "filter-tweaking" synths anyway. I'm just curious.
> 
> The filter on my SidStation is like the coolest and most wild one around!
> Better then most synths i have played!
> 
    The filter itself is beautiful. I was talking strictly about sweeps.
When you say "most wild," are you talking about sweeps, or over all sound?

                                -Inform3r
-----------
http://www.inform3r.com

elektron-users@egroups.com writes:
>When you say "most wild," are you talking about sweeps, or over all sound?

All over sound! Maby not so -wide- as say the Pro1.

Althou beatiful!

Roberth

On Mon, 6 Nov 2000, Inform3r wrote:

> > the filter sounds very different than the r4s.  it doesn't open up quite
> > as much.  I like it.
> 
>     Really? I was just about to write this list and say how I can barely do
> an effective filter sweep with my SID(stock chip). Are there any good filter
> "types" to use to get more of an effect? I've tried turning the resonance up
> but it really didn't do much at all. The filter on the SID seems kind of
> similar to a weak EQ. No offense to Elektron.... I don't really see the SID
> as one of those "filter-tweaking" synths anyway. I'm just curious.

Rout the output back into the input for a more noticable resonance effect!

 //Daniel

I don't really see the SID
>> as one of those "filter-tweaking" synths anyway. I'm just curious.
> 
> Rout the output back into the input for a more noticable resonance effect!
> 
> //Daniel
> 
    If the output goes to the input, how do I hear it?

                                    -Inform3r
-----------
http://www.inform3r.com

On Tue, 7 Nov 2000, Inform3r wrote:

>  I don't really see the SID
> >> as one of those "filter-tweaking" synths anyway. I'm just curious.
> > 
> > Rout the output back into the input for a more noticable resonance effect!
> > 
>     If the output goes to the input, how do I hear it?

Split the output into two with a Y-connector!

You could also use a mixer, but this often gives other effects (phasing
etc.), but can be cool to try out as well.

 //Daniel

On Mon, Nov 06, 2000 at 06:49:54PM -0500, Inform3r wrote:
> Aaron wrote:
> > the filter sounds very different than the r4s.  it doesn't open up quite
> > as much.  I like it.
> 
>     Really? I was just about to write this list and say how I can
> barely do an effective filter sweep with my SID(stock chip).

> Are there any good filter "types" to use to get more of an effect?

lowpass, or lowpass + bandpass usually do the trick, depending on the
effect you're going after.

> I've tried turning the resonance up but it really didn't do much at
> all. The filter on the SID seems kind of similar to a weak EQ.  No
> offense to Elektron.... I don't really see the SID as one of those
> "filter-tweaking" synths anyway. I'm just curious.

for the sid, it's all about distortion characteristics of the filter...
it tends to "shred" the sound more than anything else, sounding like
some kind of synthetic lifeform struggling to scream.

-- 
  Aaron J. Grier | "Not your ordinary poofy goof." | agrier@...
    "[N]ow would be a great time for record companies to start releasing
       everything on vinyl."  --  David Wolf, regarding mp3 pirating

> > I don't really see the SID
> > as one of those "filter-tweaking" synths anyway. I'm just curious.
> > 
> > Rout the output back into the input for a more noticable resonance >>effect!
> > 
>>If the output goes to the input, how do I hear it?

>Split the output into two with a Y-connector!

>You could also use a mixer, but this often gives other effects (phasing
>etc.), but can be cool to try out as well.

If you have a mixer with aux send/return it's fun to 
filter the sidstation's noise with itself . I like to use a
vocoder in the micro modular on the second aux
send/return and mix the two with themselves and each 
other very slowly. It makes for some crazy evolving
ambient adventures that take on a life of their own. 
I have a patch on my sidstation that's all filter with no 
oscilators that I use for this, but if you turn on one or 
more of the oscilators the noise the sid generates can
add alot to the trip as well. 

casey

just want to let everyone know my sidstation is up and running again. 
 the c64 i saved(from some other evil ebayer!), is in pretty good 
condition.  when i touched the power led leads they fell off, but i 
was as gentle as i could handling it(sawing it open!!).  well, i did 
do a little bit of that...just cause someone had superglued one of 
those tabs on the back to the bottom half.  it appeared someone else 
had attempted to get at that tab once before as there was a 
substantial stress fracture and a medium sized piece of the plastic 
gone around that area, but they were thawarted.  all else went well, i 
found the sid chip #6581 1384, plucked it out put in my old sid chip 
from the sidstation into the c64, and closed it back up.  just for 
anyone wondering i'm not gonna junk it, i think i'll just clean it 
up, see if i can't get it running.  i didn't getting anything else 
other than the c64 itself, so i'll probobly save this for a rainy day. 
 as for a difference in sound, i honestly can't tell between the old 
and new.  the filter sounds as grainy as it did before.  

---

christian