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introduction

introduction

2008-04-11 by synthland123

hi guys.  
tiitu told me about your group.  im a vintage synth dealer by day 
(see 123synthland.com which redirects) and when there's a night left 
to play synths, im an oberheim xpander lover too.  :)  
ill try to upload these to the files section when i get a chance, but 
in the meantime, heres 2 of my xpander demos. 


http://youtube.com/watch?v=EpnAlSASlBU&feature=related

here's the writeup before anyone accuses me of xpander abuse!:

As vintage synth dealers, we get to play with a lot of fun toys, but 
you already know this... I love the Oberheim Xpander! Here's me 
programming a patch or 2 on the next Xpander we plan to sell. I 
started out with Oberheim's initialized patch. Though the Xpander 
isn't as tweak friendly as an analog synth with 1 fader for every 
parameter, it's still an amazing and deep tool that can be programmed 
pretty quickly once you're familiar with the layout. Enjoy, and email 
me anytime at minime123@...

PS A few people criticized how I was handling this Xpander on a 
forum. This was my reply to them:

-i remember one time when my mother took her car in to the 
mechanic's. she handed him the keys so he could take it for a test 
drive. she almost had a heart attack when he floored it, cause that 
car had never gone that fast with her at the wheel. she didnt 
understand what he was doing, and had a similar reaction to some 
people here. i knew EXACTLY what he was doing - you generally find 
more problems when you push a machine. so...

-im intentionally a bit rough with pots and buttons when i test items 
that are going up for sale because i want to be sure everythings in 
proper working order and is going to perform well for whoever buys 
it, whether they have a gentle touch, or a "not-so-gentle" touch. 
xpander encoders, which are known to go bad (and are also designed to 
click loudly, as you can hear), can respond differently at different 
speeds, so i test them both slowly and quickly. i didnt want to bore 
you guys to death with a slow version cause i cant stand sitting 
there for 10 minutes watching something that could have been 
accomplished in 2, and i wouldnt want to put you through such torture 
either. :) plus, my camera stops recording videos after around 3 
minutes. also, before i bought my 1st xpander, i thought it was going 
to be relatively slow to program without a knob for every feature and 
i wanted to show people thats not the case if you know your way 
around it. i actually made a few bad button pushes there because i 
was trying to move quicker than usual.

-i have owned and used more than 1 xpander heavily for the last 15 
years and havent had a single problem or gotten a single scratch on 
them since ive had them. plus, im not as "rough" with them in the 
studio. so, to those who are concerned that im abusing this (or any 
other) synth, dont be cause im not. you guys might be used to 
decrepit old crap that falls apart when you look at it, but the stuff 
we sell is usually much better off, because we put it to the test and 
fix any functional issues we try our hardest to discover.

-as for rubbing off any print, oberheim already took care of that. 
theres actually a layer of material (im not sure what it is - 
translucent plastic?) above all the graphics. though this material 
itself doesnt look very good scratched up. 

-anyway, thanks for the concern. we would never do anything to harm 
any synths. in fact, we have turned down guaranteed sales because we 
didnt like the buyers plans for our babies (heavy road use of a 
pristine instrument, an "art project" where the instrument would 
essentially be put to death, etc). so relax, people! :) 

and then there's this boring one with one of our arp sequencers...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=IywnPfy4NlU&feature=related

its nice to be a member of this group!

BTW, these files arent opening, does anyone know why?:

XUG_Newsletters.zip 
0ddernmartXpansion.pdf 

thanks
mini

Re: introduction

2008-04-12 by envia94

Hi Mini, 

Thanks, and, welcome to the Xpantastic forum!

I did verify that both of the files open well in Windows XP using WinZip.

Cheers,
Tiitu.

my Xpander fails most of the tuning tests

2008-05-08 by Seth Elgart

I've had my Xpander for a few years now, and when I first got it it 
worked fine. Now, however, the only test it passes is the VCO test. 
All the other tests fail. I opened it up but I didn't see any bulging 
or leaking capacitors or any other obvious damage. I made sure all 
the accessible cables were firmly plugged in, and to my non-expert 
eye it actually looked pretty clean. Is there anything I should look 
at, or should I start looking for repair techs (or should I be 
looking for a new Xpander)?


         Seth

Re: my Xpander fails most of the tuning tests

2008-05-08 by envia94

Chips tend to come up ad loosen during the years. Push all those chips firmly back to their 
places. If you know how to handle the chips you could also remove them one at a time and 
then set firmly back to the position. If this does not help anything, let all condensators be 
replaced and the synth tested by an experienced technician. There are either bad contacts or 
broken chips or too old condensators.

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