Help! M50 plays out of tune suddenly

sti23 · Post by **sti23** » Sat Jan 08, 2011 6:13 am

Hello,
I need some help and I can't seem to find any answers anywhere. We have an M50-61 and it has acted up today. The girl who was playing it was playing (I can't remember which patch it was) but she kept down a chord for a few beats and then it would suddenly turn flat. We couldn't figure out why it would do that.

I'm going to check the joystick tomorrow and see if it's stuck or anything. I'll also switch the power to a different outlet.

Does anyone else know what may be the problem and have any suggestions to solve this problem? It was a little embarrassing to hear that during our performance.

Thanks!

useron · Post by **useron** » Sat Jan 08, 2011 9:43 am

There are some tuning and transpose settings into M50 Global Mode P0 Basic Setup page.

Maybe they have been modified.

X-Trade · Post by **X-Trade** » Sat Jan 08, 2011 9:51 am

useron wrote:There are some tuning and transpose settings into M50 Global Mode P0 Basic Setup page.

Maybe they have been modified.

But in the middle of performance? I doubt it!

In my experience this comes from the realtime control knobs. Make sure they are dead centre before turning it on. On some of Korg's cheaper workstations if you hit it or vibrations from soundsystems or whatever can cause the knobs to wobble slightly and send off their current position.

Some patches like piano often have knob 1 or 2 maybe set to transpose part of all of the patch, so if it wasn't centred and it wobbled slightly (physically or electronically) then it could shoot off its current position value and the synth would interpret that as if you'd moved the knob from zero to the position it is in now.

sti23 · Post by **sti23** » Mon Jan 10, 2011 11:10 pm

Thanks guys for all the advice. On Saturday night, it seemed to be fixed. We reset the unit and put a tuner up to the speaker. All came out flush to each chord. But then it would happen again after playing for a little while.

I'm not sure what it is.
Has anyone ever sent their WS back to Korg for repairs or replacement? Is it a difficult process? I think I threw away the box.

Laste7 · Post by **Laste7** » Tue Jan 11, 2011 3:51 pm

Hi,

yes, I had this twice. The first time is about 7 months ago. Within 3 hours I had this failure about two or three times. That doesn't sound much, but during a gig, it is not the best thing.
I went back to the shop where I bought it, they sent it back to Korg with my failure notice. 2 weeks later I got it back and it worked for a couple of weeks. They where not able to find the problem. So they changed the mainboard completly. In December they same problem came, so I went back to the shop, the sent it to Korg. Again, they where not able to find the problem. So they changed another board. Until now, I have no problem. But I have it just back for two weeks.

As I live in Germany, it is very easy with warranty. The shop where I bought it has to do everything for me free of charge for 2 years. After that just for the parts which where changed (again for two years).
In germany you don't need the box to have a right for warranty...

sti23 · Post by **sti23** » Wed Jan 12, 2011 4:31 pm

Wow, you changed it 2 times?
Thanks for sharing.

Anyone else have any problems with this?

This seems pretty crappy to pay over a grand for a WS only to have it fail like this. I'm still making payments on it!

Laste7 · Post by **Laste7** » Wed Jan 12, 2011 7:46 pm

sorry, no, I did not change it twice. It was sent in for repair two times.

billbaker · Post by **billbaker** » Wed Jan 12, 2011 7:47 pm

As in quantum mechanics, the act of observing the problem may be causing it. In order to find out if it's in tune you have to play it, to play you have to touch it, and if you touch it it goes wonky.

I suspect you're experiencing a static ['tis the season] fault that's centering in the joy stick's pitch section.

I've had the same experience, but in my case it can be traced to the gross incompetence of UPS who literally dropped off my triton-ex, crushing the end cap and breaking the struts for joystick deck. Everything still works, but I'm not sure that the components are completely grounded any more.

I occasionally get a periodic sudden de-tune, usually at start-up (as you would if you turned off between sets) with a "fix" of jogging the joystick to recenter - after which no problems until next power-on.

This happens rarely, for which I'm grateful, and near as I can tell is not traceable to a physical fault. So I'm not surprised that it's an undiagnosed problem - if you ground it (proper shop procedure) and take it apart, you won't find anything wrong.

Make sure you're using a properly grounded power supply, and check the power all the way to the wall [including break-out boxes, extension cords, power conditioners, etc.] and make sure everything is doing what it should.

If that don't fix it you might consider prayer...

Or a triton classic.

BB