Let's see your KEYS/SYNTHS!

[coldbrightsunlight]

oooooooo

Price is too much for me to buy, but I'd looooove to try the Osmose. sounds so interesting and new!

[behndy]

also just got in a GS Music E7 -



'm not the most experienced with analog polysynths. had a Super 6 and just could NOT get along with it. was mad quiet which was beyond frustrating. excited to dive into this chunky little buggeriboo.

[Heraclitus Akimbo]

also just got in a GS Music E7 -

Looks cool!

[behndy]

oooooooo

Price is too much for me to buy, but I'd looooove to try the Osmose. sounds so interesting and new!

it's pretty amazing. i'm a shite keyboard player, i have like 4 chord shapes sort of down. but even with my minimal skills it's so much more like playing an instrument than a sequencer. i'm SKEERED of the Haken Editor. i'm sure if i put the time in i could suss how it works well enough, but it doesn't look event the slightest bit fun or interesting. for more design stuff, the Reason Objekt is baller for a physical modeler with a good interface.

also just got in a GS Music E7 -

Looks cool!

it's NEAT so far. lol. thought mines was busted, realized the new audio cable i was using with it had an intermittent side. so the stereo spread was... interesting. NOT in a good way. much better with a new cable!

[Pepe]

I have heard great things about the GS Music E7. Congratulations!

[Pepe]

Since yesterday the Roland alpha Juno-2 that I acquired in June is completely repaired. The last thing that I replaced was the faulty slide potentiometer that refused to work in stereo under 75% of the maximum volume.


[open in new tab to see the picture in higher resolution]

I replaced the big electrolytic capacitors and the tantal capacitor of the power supply board as well as the almost 40 year-old and already leaking button cell battery. I also soldered in a new luminous foil for the display. This is almost invisible at daylight, but it is very helpful in the dark as you can see in the pictures.

I cleaned the contact points on the long boards of the keybed with a special eraser that was recommended in a German synthesizer forum and I cleaned the rubber contacts with luke warm water and a toothbrush. After this procedure all the keys worked properly again.

Of course I disassembled the whole synthesizer to clean every part. I removed most of the traces of the tape residue and now it looks pretty good again. The keys were all extensively polished with my favourite plastic polish.


[open in new tab to see the picture in higher resolution]

The only remaining flaw is that the aftertouch only works a little bit if you press on the keys with the full body weight. Sadly this is very common in most of the alpha Juno-2 units. There is a way to repair this, but it includes to remove the complete felt strip under the keys and maybe I will get that done by a repair shop one day.

This is how this instrument looked before the cleaning and maintenance. It was a very, very tough job to get rid of all that tape residue, especially at the parts that you can see in the second picture.

[01010111]

yessssssssssssssssssssssssssssss.

what do you think of the motorsynth? I’m really tempted to pick one up, but at the same time I don’t know if it’s sonically any better/different from a minilogue and a nice overdrive. Is the motor gimmick a gimmick, or, is it worth it?

[behndy]

what do you think of the motorsynth? I’m really tempted to pick one up, but at the same time I don’t know if it’s sonically any better/different from a minilogue and a nice overdrive. Is the motor gimmick a gimmick, or, is it worth it?

ugh. like. not to be rude but... fuck that thing. it sounds cool, but nothing amazing compared to almost every other good synth i've used. the UI is... not good. and those fuck. ing. MOTORS.

not only are they a gimmick, they are SO damn loud. and i got the new upgraded version that is quieter? can't imagine how shit they were before.

granted, a big part of my annoyance is waiting years for something i bought then being at most meh about it before the ear splitting sounds of the mototrs (ESPECIALLY when it's any higher octave stuff). furking grating on the ears.

do not recommend. they were overpriced before, almost Teenage Engineering over priced now.

[01010111]

what do you think of the motorsynth? I’m really tempted to pick one up, but at the same time I don’t know if it’s sonically any better/different from a minilogue and a nice overdrive. Is the motor gimmick a gimmick, or, is it worth it?

ugh. like. not to be rude but... fuck that thing. it sounds cool, but nothing amazing compared to almost every other good synth i've used. the UI is... not good. and those fuck. ing. MOTORS.

not only are they a gimmick, they are SO damn loud. and i got the new upgraded version that is quieter? can't imagine how shit they were before.

granted, a big part of my annoyance is waiting years for something i bought then being at most meh about it before the ear splitting sounds of the mototrs (ESPECIALLY when it's any higher octave stuff). furking grating on the ears.

do not recommend. they were overpriced before, almost Teenage Engineering over priced now.

That makes me sad. Thank you for the honesty, though. It looked like a fun thing, but from a practicality standpoint it really seems underpowered with a bad ui. I was wondering if the sound quality somehow offset those things, but it sounds like that’s not the case.

[behndy]

not to me? i'm not the deepest butt at synth design, but it was SO frustrating to move around. even remembering where the menu and preset buttons are is a chore. it's such an unintuitive UI and layout that if i stepped away for a week it took almost a half hour for it to click to kind of remember how they want to do things

it didn't feel like the sounds that came out of it where near special enough to justify the hassle of programming it, and i don't know how small your music area is, but i'm never more than 5 feet away from the furthest piece of gear, and good GOOGILY the (not in a good way) ear splitting WHINES that come out of that box.

[Dr. Sherman Sticks M.D.]

Since yesterday the Roland alpha Juno-2 that I acquired in June is completely repaired. The last thing that I replaced was the faulty slide potentiometer that refused to work in stereo under 75% of the maximum volume.


[open in new tab to see the picture in higher resolution]

I replaced the big electrolytic capacitors and the tantal capacitor of the power supply board as well as the almost 40 year-old and already leaking button cell battery. I also soldered in a new luminous foil for the display. This is almost invisible at daylight, but it is very helpful in the dark as you can see in the pictures.

I cleaned the contact points on the long boards of the keybed with a special eraser that was recommended in a German synthesizer forum and I cleaned the rubber contacts with luke warm water and a toothbrush. After this procedure all the keys worked properly again.

Of course I disassembled the whole synthesizer to clean every part. I removed most of the traces of the tape residue and now it looks pretty good again. The keys were all extensively polished with my favourite plastic polish.


[open in new tab to see the picture in higher resolution]

The only remaining flaw is that the aftertouch only works a little bit if you press on the keys with the full body weight. Sadly this is very common in most of the alpha Juno-2 units. There is a way to repair this, but it includes to remove the complete felt strip under the keys and maybe I will get that done by a repair shop one day.

This is how this instrument looked before the cleaning and maintenance. It was a very, very tough job to get rid of all that tape residue, especially at the parts that you can see in the second picture.

man thats really beautiful dude great job
i love bringing these older type things back to glory

[Pepe]

Thank you! Indeed, it is really satisfying to repair and overhaul vintage gear.

[Dr. Sherman Sticks M.D.]

how are the sounds on it?
i've never actually heard an alpha juno
they seem pretty rad tho

u can also use caikote to renew keybeds and button things
its like a metallic paste // liquid that u brush on the old worn out carbon contacts
let it dry // cure and u got some fresh triggers again
made by the same ppl that make deoxit

i've revived a few samplers that way when cleaning the contacts didn't do the trick

[Pepe]

Thanks for the tip with the caikote - never seen it or heard from it. Until now I have always used graphite spray.

The sounds are very nice, very Roland-Juno-esque. Pretty much what I expected from it. I have learned that a few presets, especially "Hoover", were used in lots of the dance hits of the '90s. I have to create some own sounds to explore the full potential of this synth. I am not yet 100% convinced if I should keep it, because programming with the alpha-Dial is such a pain in the ass. The sounds have to be extraordinarily good to justify keeping it.

[crochambeau]

Well done on the Alpha-Juno 2! I dig that sound engine (MKS-50 owner here), sometimes simple & primitive is all it takes. They benefit greatly from external control though.