Korg DW 8000 - Every eighth note pressed is a lower pitch?

Blueowls · Post by **Blueowls** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 9:57 am

Hi all!

I recently got a second-hand DW-8000 and its wonderful! The previous owner erased all the factory patches and replaced them with some terrible "slides" on ALL banks. Thats fine with me, gives me a blank sheet to program my own!

However there is a problem. While playing I noticed something odd; every eighth key pressed is one corresponding key down!

I don't have a soundfile to demonstrate but if we imagine an "N" as normal and "D" as the eighth key the pattern is like this;

N-N-N-N-N-N-N-D-N-N-N-N-N-N-N-D etc.

Through fiddling around I've found out it only occurs on oscillator 1 and only in Poly 1 mode, so I suspect its some effect left over form the previous owner, but for all my twiddling I cannot find out what it is?

Please help!

michelkeijzers · Post by **michelkeijzers** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 10:44 am

I suggest to download the factory default (though I have to admit I don't have that file).

Blueowls · Post by **Blueowls** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 10:50 am

Yeah, I'm leaning towards that too, but do you know what it could be?

synthjoe · Post by **synthjoe** » Tue Feb 21, 2012 4:03 pm

Is it the same thing with all programs?

billbaker · Post by **billbaker** » Tue Feb 21, 2012 6:11 pm

When you say the 8th note are you speaking chromatically (1/2 steps) or diatonically (do-re-mi-etc.)

If it's diatonic (i.e., all B's a 1/4 step flat) I'd guess it to be a USER Scale gone awry.

I don't know the DW8000's op, but there may be a place to correct this (or conversely to enter equally whacked out scales of your own).

If the note (letter) changes in each octave, then I'd recommend a default download if you can find one, or perhaps time in the shop.

CWAG (completely wild-ass guess) there's something wrong in a voltage control for one of the oscillators that comes up in a pattern as each note is triggered - does it show up only in mono or in mono and poly both?

BB

T3owner · Post by **T3owner** » Tue Feb 21, 2012 9:51 pm

The DW-8000 is eight-note polyphonic. If eight keys at random are pressed in succession, a single off-tune oscillator will cause one of the keys to sound wrong, and a pattern will continue with every eight key presses as the oscillators are cycled through. That sort of thing usually points to a hardware problem.

Blueowls · Post by **Blueowls** » Wed Feb 22, 2012 9:33 am

Hi guys, and thank you for all the responses!

last night I did a tape-load, when that didn't work I fully deleted all banks and did it again and still no dice. But as I said earlier this only occurs in Poly 1 mode, so I'm still hesitating as to whether this is hardware, but I'm leaning towards T3owners suggestion that an oscillator is out of whack.

Any other suggestions before I take it in? Anyone know how much such an operation might cost? I'm in Germany.

Thanks again!

Blueowls · Post by **Blueowls** » Wed Feb 22, 2012 9:36 am

billbaker wrote:When you say the 8th note are you speaking chromatically (1/2 steps) or diatonically (do-re-mi-etc.)

I mean every 8th key, as in if I press a key seven times the eight time I press it it's detuned.

T3owner · Post by **T3owner** » Wed Feb 22, 2012 2:00 pm

If you're not aware of them, two websites that cover the DW-8000:
http://www.pallium.com/bryan/dw8000.php
http://www.dw8000.com/

Both the user and service manuals, as well as WAV files that can be used in place of tape loading, are available there.

Bowmoney · Post by **Bowmoney** » Wed Feb 22, 2012 2:24 pm

maybe an arp setting is messed up?

Blueowls · Post by **Blueowls** » Wed Feb 22, 2012 3:19 pm

T3owner wrote:If you're not aware of them, two websites that cover the DW-8000:
http://www.pallium.com/bryan/dw8000.php
http://www.dw8000.com/

Both the user and service manuals, as well as WAV files that can be used in place of tape loading, are available there.

Thanks for the links, but sadly I've already scored these and many others on a search for a solution.

Blueowls · Post by **Blueowls** » Wed Feb 22, 2012 3:21 pm

Bowmoney wrote:maybe an arp setting is messed up?

You mean the arpeggiator? I've been thinking that, but surely it would have been resolved by my tape loads? Or?

Bowmoney · Post by **Bowmoney** » Wed Feb 22, 2012 3:22 pm

yeah good point...i would think it is an oscillator problem...but it is so regular that it seems like a setting rather than a malfunction....

Blueowls · Post by **Blueowls** » Wed Feb 22, 2012 3:57 pm

Bowmoney wrote:yeah good point...i would think it is an oscillator problem...but it is so regular that it seems like a setting rather than a malfunction....

That is what makes this so strange and why I'm hesitating to take it in for what could be an expensive repair. If it was mechanical failure I would expect it to sound a lot more random and "undpredictable"...

To try something different: Does anyone here believe this could be caused by dirt or rust or something physically impacting on something inside the synth? It was quite dusty when I bought it and was the property of a smoker...

billbaker · Post by **billbaker** » Wed Feb 22, 2012 4:35 pm

The impact of dust and smoke are about as random as you could hope to find, so given that the problem is regular and consistent (happening every time and in the same way) I think you've answered your own question -- probably not.

It can't hurt to blow out excess dust and debris accumulated over it's life so far. Go ahead and do that if you haven't yet. But don't place too much hope on that fixing the problem.

T3's confirmation of the 8-osc structure makes my CWAG sound a lot smarter. I owned an Oberheim that did much the same thing - six voices, each oscillator on a separate card. When pitch drift got too extreme it sounded horrible - 3rd grade band awful... You get the picture.

90% sure this is a shop problem now.

On the bright side it should be pretty easy to find. The diagnostic is the hardest part.

BB

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Korg DW 8000 - Every eighth note pressed is a lower pitch?

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