Xpantastic!

Hi Bakis, mine had similiar issues which turned out to be to due to old 
capacitors... its been fine since it was recapped (around 3(ish) years ago) 

> hi everyone, 
> 
> new member here, my Name is Bakis. 
> 
> recently bought an Xpander and have the following problem: 
> 
> works and sounds great...  ...apart from voice 5, 
> which, after its shipping to me, does not pass the auto tune test.
>  
> sometimes the 'PW' section of it fails, sometimes the Res section 
> fails, sometimes all the sections of voice 5 fail (except the vca section of 
> voice 5 that never fails). 
>  
> even if i activate the problematic voice, after its 
> been automatically shut off by the Xpander OS, it sounds a bit different from the 
> others in filter tone and tuning (of course, as it cannot be tuned,) and very very low in volume. 
> another weird thing i noticed: when i direct voice 
> 5 in its 'direct' output 5, then, from this output, i can hear all of the 
> xpander voices (together with voice 5) but very low in volume. 
> all the other direct outputs work as they should, 
> for all the other voices.
>  
> i performed software reset, re-sitted all ribbon 
> cables and all of the chips in the voice 5 section of the xpander voiceboard 
> without success,
> i also performed all the tests for the xpander 
> (memory, vmemory, etc...) and all are ok, afaik. 
> plus i re-sitted chip U106 which is responsible for 
> the panning output section of voice 5 (after studying the service 
> manual). 
> 
> also, i swapped both CEM3374 and CEM3372 of voice 5 with another working voice chips (voice 6) and 
> still the fault appears on voice 5. so, both the CEM chips are Not the 
> problem... 
> 
> 
> and i swapped ALL of the chips of voice 5 with 
> the chips of voice 6 and still the same problem appears on voice 5.  
> 
> so ALL the chips in the voice 5 section are ok for sure. 
> 
> 
> and, after hitting tuning many many times and hitting tuning 
> while the machine was at various different presets, i noticed that thing:
> when the machine was autotuning and it was in a preset 
> that was very complex with lots of modulations and vco modulation as well, 
> then voice 5 failed in the vco tuning as well, (and, at one time, vco 1 
> failed!). 
> when the machine was autotuning, while it was in a simpler 
> sound preset (some brass or synthlead...), then the voice 5 only failed in PWM 
> and maybe Res... but it passed vco tuning....!! 
> so maybe its a problem in another board of the machine 
> (like the CPU) and not in the voice 5 board ?
>  
> maybe this indicates that i should re-sit the chips in the 
> main CPU /memory board as well?? do you think i should take the time and re-sit 
> all the chips in the CPU board? would it make sense?
>  
> (do you think a 'HARD Reset' may fix the problem? how do i do 
> this?) 
> 
> is there anything specific i should check? 
> everything seems connected.... i cannot resit ALL the chips in all boards 
> obviously... but maybe i should resit a specific chip from another section of 
> the xpander boards....? any ideas / help?
>  
> i really do not want to break anything inside the 
> Xpander (i do not want to use a soldering iron, after all, everything seems in 
> place), but i can remove and easily re-sit a specific chip or two, if needed of 
> course....
>  
> btw, the seller is very honest and he insisted that 
> the machine worked fine (all 6 voices) before shipping, and i believe 
> him.. 
> 
> thanks for all your help in advance! 
> 
> best regards,      :-)
> Bakis. 
> 
> 
> Bakis Sirros - Parallel Worlds / Interconnected / Memory Geist  
> 
> [Doepfer_a100] group owner  
> 
> www. parallel - worlds - music. com  
> 
> www. facebook. com/ pages/Parallel-Worlds/192093934136476  
> 
> www. myspace. com/ parallelworldsmusic  
> 
> www. myspace. com/ interconnectedmusic  
> 
> www. myspace. com/ memorygeist
> www. DiN. org. uk
> www. musicamaximamagnetica. com
> www. vu-us. com