Sequential circuits samplers

Greetings,

I just acquired a Prophet 2000 in decent shape.  The previous owner 
tells me he had it for ten years, eight of which the p2k was in 
storage.  He says the OS is 4.2. The memory has not be expanded at 
all (but that doesn't matter to me). I cleaned out the insides which 
weren't too bad, and replaced what appears to be missing mounting 
studs underneath the left and right extremes of the keyboard assembly.

The drive looks like it was replaced because there's about a half 
inch gap above the drive between it and the case.  I didn't remove it 
to get a closer look because it works now and I didn't want to upset 
it!  The previous owner doesn't know the history of the drive accept 
that it was like that when he acquired it.

It appears relatively clean overall; the thru/out switch was frozen 
so I put some contact cleaner to it and was able to switch it the 
thru.  The overlay looks very clean and the buttons and knobs respond 
well.

The original manual came with it in its original binder along with 
three disks.  They're old, but two of the three work, however the one 
I wanted to work has errors!  That would be the one with the piano 
patches.  I believe I've read here or elsewhere that I can use dd/dd 
disks, but I'd like to have that confirmed if someone is willing to 
here.

Anyway, the internal sounds don't seem right to me.  About 4 or 5 of 
the twelve make a sound when selected, the rest are fundamentally 
silent.  Does this sound like there's an issue?

When I was fooling around with the sounds I could load from the 
disks, it seemed that some had been messed with as if the mappings 
were off.  Not all of the sounds, just some.  Some of them did not 
play in the top octave of the keyboard, and one the lower octave.  Is 
this ringing any bells?  Any problems of note here, other than my 
unfamiliarity with the board itself?

Can anyone perhaps give me some things to look out for technically or 
otherwise based on what I've written here?

I used to have an Ensoniq Mirage back in the day, and have always 
wanted a p2k.  Now that I have one, I'd like to make sure I have it 
for a while.

Thanks!
Rich

<<Anyway, the internal sounds don't seem right to me.  About 4 or 5 of 

the twelve make a sound when selected, the rest are fundamentally 

silent.  Does this sound like there's an issue?


When I was fooling around with the sounds I could load from the 

disks, it seemed that some had been messed with as if the mappings 

were off.  Not all of the sounds, just some.  Some of them did not 

play in the top octave of the keyboard, and one the lower octave.  Is 

this ringing any bells?  Any problems of note here, other than my 

unfamiliarity with the board itself?>>

best way to check it's working properly is, paradoxically, to let it boot 
normally with no disc-sounds loaded. what you're hearing is probably a 
consequence of the upper and lower transpose limitations of the machine- at different 
sample rates, it can shift a given sample only so far up/down the keyboard. 
also, discs designed for machines with less memory or with longer samples don't 
necessarily fill up all the sound locations in the machine. so even a working 
factory disc might leave gaps in the memory or memory locations- you could check 
all their sizes and see if they add up to.... er..... (scratching head- 
y'know, I used to regard myself as a power-user of the 2k...) 128 or 256 blocks. if 
there's an empty sample location, try setting it up to record into and see 
how big you can make it.
sounds like you got a good deal though.

duncan/r.m.i.

Thanks.  With regards to the discs and the sounds on them, I've 
gotten far enough along in the manual where what's happening with the 
discs seems like normal operations to me.

What doesn't seem normal still are the internal voices. Granted, I 
haven't read far enough into the manual to understand what's going on 
with those, but like I said only 5 or so of the 12 presets have any 
sound associated with them.  The sounds are loaded into memory after 
I turn on the p2k without a disk in the drive, so nothing should be 
messing with the memory.

There is no internal battery and from what I understand the internal 
presets are set in ROM.  Yes?  Is this a separate ROM from the one 
the OS resides on?  Am I making sense here?  Anyone else's internal 
presets seem odd?



> 
> best way to check it's working properly is, paradoxically, to let 
it boot 
> normally with no disc-sounds loaded. what you're hearing is 
probably a 
> consequence of the upper and lower transpose limitations of the 
machine- at different 
> sample rates, it can shift a given sample only so far up/down the 
keyboard. 
> also, discs designed for machines with less memory or with longer 
samples don't 
> necessarily fill up all the sound locations in the machine. so even 
a working 
> factory disc might leave gaps in the memory or memory locations- 
you could check 
> all their sizes and see if they add up to.... er..... (scratching 
head- 
> y'know, I used to regard myself as a power-user of the 2k...) 128 
or 256 blocks. if 
> there's an empty sample location, try setting it up to record into 
and see 

> how big you can make it.
> sounds like you got a good deal though.
> 
> duncan/r.m.i.

toorglick" wrote:

> There is no internal battery and from what I understand the internal 
> presets are set in ROM.  Yes?  Is this a separate ROM from the one 
> the OS resides on?

The presets appear to be on the OS ROM, because when I upgraded from
3.0 to the 4.3b, the presets changed.
That leads to a question of my own. Can the presets be saved to a
disk? I'd like to put the 3.0 presets on a disk so I'd have them to
play with.
-- Pat

>The presets appear to be on the OS ROM, because when I upgraded from
>3.0 to the 4.3b, the presets changed.
>That leads to a question of my own. Can the presets be saved to a
>disk? I'd like to put the 3.0 presets on a disk so I'd have them to
>play with.
>-- Pat

Yes...you just use the save to disc command. Try it.

TimC

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May I trouble you to describe the presets you have on 4.3b?


--- In prophet2000@yahoogroups.com, "Pat Swayne" <me@p...> wrote:
> toorglick" wrote:
> 
> > There is no internal battery and from what I understand the 
internal 
> > presets are set in ROM.  Yes?  Is this a separate ROM from the 
one 

> > the OS resides on?
> 
> The presets appear to be on the OS ROM, because when I upgraded from
> 3.0 to the 4.3b, the presets changed.
> That leads to a question of my own. Can the presets be saved to a
> disk? I'd like to put the 3.0 presets on a disk so I'd have them to
> play with.
> -- Pat

"toorglick" wrote:

>May I trouble you to describe the presets you have on 4.3b?

I have grandkids at the house now. When they are gone, I will attempt to 
describe them.
-- Pat

toorglick wrote:

>May I trouble you to describe the presets you have on 4.3b?

Well, I'll do my best. I'm neither a music or synthesizer expert, though.
4.3b presets:
1. Organ. The stack light is on when you select this preset, and it appears 
to be 2 voices. If you turn stack off, it is like preset 4 on 3.0, and if 
you turn stack on on 3.0, that one is like 4.3.
2. Electric piano with a long sustain (with key down). Stack light is on, 
and it appears to be 2 voices.
3. Sounds like an electric piano played trough a tube. The sound gets 
brighter when it fades. Stack light is on.
4. Electric harpsichord. It has a long sustain with the key down, that 
brightens as it fades.
5. A sort of xylaphone sound. The sustain sounds bright if the key is 
released, but dull if it is held down.
6. A sort of "ow" sound that has a brighter attack if the key is struck 
hard. Short sustain if the key is held down, none if released. The stack 
light is on.
7. Bells. It sounds brighter if the key is struck hard. The stack light is on.
8. A sort of "oy" sound that brightens as it fades. The stack light is on. 
This one sounds like it would be good in sci-fi movies.
10. An electric piano sound. The stack light is on, and there appears to be 
2 voices.
11. An "ow" sound with a long sustain (longer if the key is held down). The 
stack light is on.
12. A 1-voice version of no. 10. I really can't tell the difference between 
10 (if I turn the stack light off) and this one.

I also did what someone suggested. I put back in my 3.0 rom and saved the 
presets, and put 4.3b back in. Now I can load them from disk. The 3.0 
presets are:
1. Electric  piano
2. Bells. I think this preset sounds more like bells than any of the 
presets on 4.3.
3. A soft of electric piano sound, that is one octave lower than no. 1.
4. Organ (see 1 above)
5. A "backwards" electric piano. It fades in when you strike the key, 
rather than atracking brightly and fading out.
6. A sort of "bwah" sound.
7. Electric bells. More "electric" sounding than no. 2.
8. Sounds like an electric trumpet.
9. A bass electric piano on the first 2 octaves, and bells on the rest.
10. Another backwards electric piano or possibly a backwards organ.
11. Sounds like an electric trumbone.
12. A backwards bell sounds (fades in when the key is struck).
-- Pat

Thank you very much.  Yeah, I have some of those, but not all of my 
presets function clearly.  I wonder if this will mean I'll have 
problems as I get into sampling with it.  I haven't sampled with it, 
yet, because I'm still going through the manual and have just 
finished another project.  I'm a little nervous now.