Xpantastic!

Hi

Unfortunately one of these chips died on my Xpander. If somebody has one for sale please let me know.

Many thanks.

Hi,
Extreamly rare, are you sure that it is the problem. Have you tried swapping it with another
voice?
 
Karl
 

--- On Sat, 12/12/09, schmuckfenster <schmuckfenster@...> wrote:

From: schmuckfenster <schmuckfenster@...>
Subject: [xpantastic] CEM 3374
To: xpantastic@yahoogroups.com
Date: Saturday, December 12, 2009, 1:43 PM


  



Hi

Unfortunately one of these chips died on my Xpander. If somebody has one for sale please let me know.

Many thanks.

Hi Karl

Thanks for your answer. Yes I am pretty sure. Voice No. 4 died completely (no sound at all, the tunig fails immediately). I started swapping the chips and that is the one that does not work (if I swap it with another voice, i.e. 5, then that one no longer works but 4 is fine again etc).

Haven't heard that these chips fail often but here it seems the case. The unit is in very good condition otherwise, I bought it some months ago from US.

Lovely lovely machine I do hope I will be able to use all 6 voices again.

Regards
flo

--- In xpantastic@yahoogroups.com, Karl Schmeer <shire03@...> wrote:

>
> Hi,
> Extreamly rare, are you sure that it is the problem. Have you tried swapping it with another
> voice?
> Â 
> Karl
> Â 
> 
> --- On Sat, 12/12/09, schmuckfenster <schmuckfenster@...> wrote:
> 
> 
> From: schmuckfenster <schmuckfenster@...>
> Subject: [xpantastic] CEM 3374
> To: xpantastic@yahoogroups.com
> Date: Saturday, December 12, 2009, 1:43 PM
> 
> 
> Â  
> 
> 
> 
> Hi
> 
> Unfortunately one of these chips died on my Xpander. If somebody has one for sale please let me know.
> 
> Many thanks.
>

Hi,
Well you are right. It must be the chip.  I have seen them come up on ebay occasionally.
Maybe someone has a spare they can sell you. At least you can turn the voice off for the time being. 
Do a gog search, you might find one at a repair shop somewhere.
 
Karl
 

--- On Sun, 12/13/09, schmuckfenster <schmuckfenster@...> wrote:


From: schmuckfenster <schmuckfenster@...>
Subject: [xpantastic] Re: CEM 3374
To: xpantastic@yahoogroups.com
Date: Sunday, December 13, 2009, 4:21 AM


  





Hi Karl

Thanks for your answer. Yes I am pretty sure. Voice No. 4 died completely (no sound at all, the tunig fails immediately) . I started swapping the chips and that is the one that does not work (if I swap it with another voice, i.e. 5, then that one no longer works but 4 is fine again etc).

Haven't heard that these chips fail often but here it seems the case. The unit is in very good condition otherwise, I bought it some months ago from US.

Lovely lovely machine I do hope I will be able to use all 6 voices again.

Regards
flo

--- In xpantastic@yahoogro ups.com, Karl Schmeer <shire03@... > wrote:

>
> Hi,
> Extreamly rare, are you sure that it is the problem. Have you tried swapping it with another
> voice?
> Â 
> Karl
> Â 
> 
> --- On Sat, 12/12/09, schmuckfenster <schmuckfenster@ ...> wrote:
> 
> 
> From: schmuckfenster <schmuckfenster@ ...>
> Subject: [xpantastic] CEM 3374
> To: xpantastic@yahoogro ups.com
> Date: Saturday, December 12, 2009, 1:43 PM
> 
> 
> Â  
> 
> 
> 
> Hi
> 
> Unfortunately one of these chips died on my Xpander. If somebody has one for sale please let me know.
> 
> Many thanks.
>

Hi everyone

Only was 'lurking' in this group so far. I have fulfilled an old dream and bought an Xpander some months ago and all was fine. Until one voice died. I checked the chips by trial & error and found the one causing it (it makes that voice it is put onto fail the tuning and not sound at all).

By then I did not know yet that the 3374 is so rare...I could not find any and I wrote to many 'vintage repair shops' and scanned ebay, posted in forums etc.

So if anyone has a trusty source that would give me back my 6th voice I'd be highly grateful. For the moment I switched the voice off of course.

To be honest, I also ask myself what actually does 'fail' in such a chip? Is it a physical 'burning' through or just a contact that is lost? No way of trying to repair the chip itself?

Many thanks for any help.

Kind Regards

Hi,
 
Just a thought, If you come across a trashed Chroma Polaris, These have the same VCO,s in them.   
 
 Karl Schmeer
 


--- On Wed, 1/13/10, schmuckfenster <schmuckfenster@...> wrote:

From: schmuckfenster <schmuckfenster@...>
Subject: [xpantastic] CEM 3374
To: xpantastic@yahoogroups.com
Date: Wednesday, January 13, 2010, 3:22 PM


  



Hi everyone

Only was 'lurking' in this group so far. I have fulfilled an old dream and bought an Xpander some months ago and all was fine. Until one voice died. I checked the chips by trial & error and found the one causing it (it makes that voice it is put onto fail the tuning and not sound at all).

By then I did not know yet that the 3374 is so rare...I could not find any and I wrote to many 'vintage repair shops' and scanned ebay, posted in forums etc.

So if anyone has a trusty source that would give me back my 6th voice I'd be highly grateful. For the moment I switched the voice off of course.

To be honest, I also ask myself what actually does 'fail' in such a chip? Is it a physical 'burning' through or just a contact that is lost? No way of trying to repair the chip itself?

Many thanks for any help.

Kind Regards

On Wed, Jan 13, 2010 at 9:22 PM, schmuckfenster
<schmuckfenster@...> wrote:
> To be honest, I also ask myself what actually does 'fail' in such a chip? Is it a
> physical 'burning' through or just a contact that is lost? No way of trying to repair
> the chip itself?

As I understand it, it's a weakness of the fabrication process used to
make the chips. Basically the analogue components etched onto the
silicon deteriorate over time (due to e.g.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromigration) and drift from their
original values. Eventually they drift so far that the auto-tune
mechanism can't vary other component values far enough to compensate.

A bit like CDs & DVDs - they were supposed to last "indefinitely", but
after a decade or three they're not quite what they once were.

I have seen people using small microcontrollers to emulate failed
custom digital chips in old gear; I would expect that, eventually,
people will use small DSPs to emulate failed CEM chips in vintage
synths. In fact, there's probably a business opportunity there for
someone already.

Cheers,

John :^P