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Restoring my Matrix-12

2010-07-11 by Joigaloid

Hello!  I have an Oberheim Matrix-12 that I would like to restore.  It spent a lot of time in storage (which caused a few problems) but there are a couple of functional problems I'd like to fix before attacking the cosmetic problems.  

The first issue is that I've noticed some notes were being dropped while playing.  After checking a few things with the tuning page I noted the following observations:

VCO Tuning:  Voice #6 fails
PW Tuning:  Voice #6 fails
Res & VCF Tuning:  Voices #6 and #12 fail
VCA Tuning:  Voice #6 fails

After tuning, the Matrix turns off the two failed voices.  I can always turn on voice #12 manually and get sound from it.  If I manually turn on voice #6, I get no sound from it.  All other voices are fine.

My guess on the above is that I've lost the Curtis VCO chip for voice #6.  The failure of voice #12 is more subtle, but it seems likely
I've lost the CEM3372 which performs all the filtering options.  I am faced with the frightening prospect of trying to locate a replacement 
CEM3374 and likely a CEM3372 as well.  

I will swap out chips between voices, but would prefer to keep swaps to a minimum.  The Matrix-12 has two identical voice boards, I'll have to guess which one is voices 1 through 6 and which one is voices 7 through 12.  Any suggestions?


I will be posting my experiences on this project both on the vintagesynthrepair and on the oberheim yahoo groups. Hopefully, others may benefit from them, and of course, I am open to any tips or suggestions from the group.

-as

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