Korg Forums

muddskipper · Joined: 28 Sep 2012 Posts: 1

Hey Everyone, thanks for reading, any help is much appreciated:

The left channel of my Electribe MX SD keeps cutting out after a few minutes of use. It seems to happen most often when I trigger multiple instruments to start simultaneously... but seemingly only on patterns that I have programmed. It's not totally predictable, as far as I can tell, but happens frequently.

This occurs in the headphone output, as well as the L/Mono output, but only when used in stereo (if there is nothing plugged into the R output, it works fine). The channel doesn't go entirely dead, but volume drops and bits of digital artifacts can be heard.

I thought it might be a tube issue, but the fact that it works in mono seems to indicate that the outputs and whatever controls that channel CAN work ok - some facet of the stereo set-up is messing up.

The fact that it seems to only happen on patterns that I program might indicate that I'm doing something wrong that way. Can you overload these things? I don't use much of the tube gain and I tried re-leveling the instruments.

I've tried multiple headphones. I haven't been using this unit live - I got it secondhand on eBay, but in seemingly very good condition, but I'd really like to use it out if I can get it to act reliably.

Any help or advice is much appreciated!
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neotechtonics · Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2012 9:21 am Post subject:

check that your patterns havent been saved with the pan hard-right. if you suffer from "knob jitter" the pan could be wigging out just before or during the save.. i've had problems with this in the past where i've gone back to a pattern i saved and something has changed itself during the save.

seeing as it works fine in mono it could possibly the tube circuit.. i'm not sure how it handles the audio when operating in mono. check that your tubes are seated properly.. it could be a fault with the one tube. if it persists then hopefully its just the tube which is an easy replacement... if its a circuitry problem... well.. thats not so good.

you might want to try swapping the tubes to see if the problem then changes to the opposite channel.

check the thread on changing tubes for guidance on getting them out and in.
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KORG GEAR: EMX1-SM -- EMX1-SD -- KAOSS PAD3 -- MICROKORG -- KAOSSILATOR PRO -- NANOKONTROL1
OTHER GEAR: Roland SP404, MC303 -- Akai MPC-2500 SE -- Zoom R16 -- effects pedals -- DJ-gear -- Access Virus B

nermterg · Joined: 11 Dec 2014 Posts: 8

I have the same problem. I already tried putting new tubes in and making sure they are in securely. When I turn the power off and right back on, it works normally for a few minutes before fading out a bit and then sending no audio at all to the left channel. Sometimes it works fine for hours, but currently I can only get a few minutes.

I plan to just buy an Octatrack anyway, but if there is a fix for this issue I would appreciate it.
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My Gear: Octatrack, Emx, Esx, KP3

nermterg · Joined: 11 Dec 2014 Posts: 8

It seems to only start happening after I have been working for a while, so perhaps it has to do with the heat the tubes are generating?
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My Gear: Octatrack, Emx, Esx, KP3

thesigma · Senior Member Joined: 17 Nov 2011 Posts: 409

You could have a bad solder joint that is going intermittent when it heats and expands. Or a chip that fails after it heats up. Or something else...

slug · Senior Member Joined: 03 Aug 2007 Posts: 371

Hardware fault, needs service.

nermterg · Joined: 11 Dec 2014 Posts: 8

Update:

I had my friend do the 'tube bypass mod' on this ESX, on the off chance that it would fix this problem. As far as we can tell, it worked. We left a pattern playing for quite some time and the left channel never cut out. Also the noise level is reduced, as you would expect with this mod.
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My Gear: Octatrack, Emx, Esx, KP3

sauce · Posted: Sun May 24, 2015 6:41 am Post subject:

nermterg · Joined: 11 Dec 2014 Posts: 8

Dochuki · Joined: 29 Aug 2019 Posts: 2

Hello, I have the same problem.

When I hard pan a drum or synth to the L or R output it only sounds on the R part. This was not happenning before and sometimes it works until the L output stops to work. On the 3/4 Outputs it works fine but clearly i want the L/R outputs for the effects....

Today I have changed the valves to a new ones and at first it seemed that it was going well. But nothing, after 5-10min it started to sound bad a few seconds until the L output stopped working.

I have done the calibration with a cable (without the 2.2M resistors) and shows 0999 all the time even though I adjusted the valves with a screwdriver, the number doesn't change. I will try to make a cable with 2.2M resistors but i dont think that gonna solve nothing, it happens adjusting the valves to the max and to the min.

I heard that this is a common problem, but I didn't find a solution. I don't want to do the valve bypass MOD but if there's is no others solution...