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[BLUJAZBOB]

I purchased a Percussion DDM-220 new in 1986, and it has worked wonderful over the years---until yesterday. I was always deleting and changing the rhythm patterns. I got too many sequences at once with several different songs (Since I retired last year!!!), and decided to use tape interface. I used a new cassette, the signal was “found”, and it came back and “Verified” it. But then, when I tried to use it again, no sounds. All the lights come on, and the patterns show all the numbers and beats like they’re supposed to, but there are no sounds for any of the instruments. When I tried to reload the data, it couldn’t find the settings where it would “Verify” again (even though the tape recorder had the same settings untouched). Shouldn’t the tone generators at least work by themselves like they used to?

[voip]

1986.....that's getting quite long in the tooth for a piece of electronic gizmogadgetry. The question is, were there too many sequences that caused the problem, or has something else failed, leading to the problem you now have? Does the demo function on the DDM-220 still play? Does the Tempo LED flash?

Another possible issue is the condition of the tape being used for the restore procedure. You say it was new, but does that mean new, as in manufactured within the last year or two? Does the tape make a squealing sound in the tape transport mechanism when being played? This would mess with the quality of the tones being sent to the DDM-220, leading to problems. I had this issue, not with a DDM-220, but with some old audio cassette tapes, and the playback sound became pretty awful when the squealing started. Something to do with the magnetic particle binder turning into a rosin-like material, like the stuff used on violin bows. There was a thread on here that had some links to restoring tapes:

http://www.korgforums.com/forum/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=123366

Another thing you could try is to playback the tapes into a computer running software like Audacity, and then looking for possible dropouts in the recording made on the computer. If there are any dropouts, these could be "filled in" and the end result might just work - using the computer instead of the tape to upload to the DDM-220.

Another thing to check is the condition of the switches and tape jacks. The contacts might be a bit "noisy" from dirt of oxidation after so many years. Just working the switches back and forth a few times, maybe with a squirt of switch cleaner, might help.

Just some thoughts.

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