::: Cold Wave Cold Gaze :::

We’ve been listening to a lot of old Talk Talk records lately.  The earlier stuff is straight british new wave while the later stuff is so outside and minimal yet super complex and evolving.  It can take years to parce the development of a band and or artist, especially Mark Hollis‘ descent into an erie drug induced madness and isolation on the later Talk Talk and then his one solo record.

The reversed synth lines in this track remind me of the strange soundscapes that Mark Hollis would use on his more experimental records.  Tucked into an A Ha-esque British synth pop shell.  It’s uplifting somehow, Like the Simple Minds and Tears for Fears stuff of that era always is…

somehow…

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The usual suspects too! Oberheim DSX, Oberheim DMX, Simmons SDS V, Linn LM2, Roland – JP 8, Arp…

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This one is dedicated to Mr. Knapp…

Can i call u that?

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::: IF :::

::: Løøkn frra Raynbow :::

It’s particularly rainy here for January!  In lieu of snow XBS is stuck inside staying dry, which is fine by ME!

We are still lovin’ synth-funk-electro-crossover longtime and we can take this opportunity to post another ‘XBS of the week’…

This week brought to you by : Atlantic Star, Midnight Star, Calloway, and all the other post Zap purveyors of robo awesomeness

Let’s call it a miami disco tribute to Midnight Star and their song Midas Touch!

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All the usual suspects!  (( Jupiter 8 ( still in the shop ) Simmons SDSV, Oberheim DX Stretch, OB-8, Mirage Sampler ( love the mirage sampler )))

I borrowed the a capella for Midas Touch by Midnight Star and threw it on for fun.  I just used the first few verses and chorus…

The vocal version is here:

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Happy Friday…

::: I.F. :::

::: Happy Jam of the Week :::

Well, we spent a few days cleaning out the cave and finishing up some repairs ( i almost got a JP6 done this week to post pics of but it’s being petulant so that will have to wait until it is 100 % happy functional ) so we figured we’d heat up the troops and make some celebratory saturday music.

TGIS!

This one consists of the usual compliment of suspects: DSX, OB-8, Mirage, SDS-V, Linndrum, OB-DX Stretch,

but the bonus is a JP-8 that we’ve been fixing up! ( it’s doing the little chorus line and the sliding fast arpeggio at the end… )

sweet…..

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::: IF :::

::: TR **DR** [[ 909 ]] :::

XBS has been making an effort to do more tech related stuff this month.  In for repair today is a Roland TR-909 in messed up shape.  Someone had tried to refurbish it and made most of it’s age and design  related problems worse!

1, The main drum switches were replaced which is nice but they were installed sloppily and so out of true that the buttons don’t fit in properly.  On further investigation the problem was often the fact that too much silicone was used to glue in the drum switch LED’s so that the switch didn’t fit flush to the switch board PCB.

2, The ribbon cables were re-soldered and rendered non functional because the ribbon cable ends were not trimmed evenly prior to soldering ( anyone familiar with multiconductor cable work knows that the trimmed end lengths of all parts must be exactly correct or else they break off immediately due to imbalanced strain distribution ).

3,  One of the new drum switches was actually bad so it was replaced with one of the original ones that was removed.

On another note, the previous owner did manage to get the Roland TR-909 OS v4.0 chip in and it works which is a huge relief as that would be hard for me to troubleshoot.  Also, the pots and small switches were done well when they were replaced and all seem to be working. =D

Roland TR-909 FIXED! Long View

Roland TR-909 FIXED! Top View

Roland V4 OS Eprom

Cool Backlit View of Switch Board

Nicely Redone Solder Job

Sloppy Solder Job ( Already falling apart )

Used Replacement Switch ( No LED )

Switch and LED

Bad Switch Front ( nice blue LED saved! )

Bad Switch ( trying to save the nice blue LED )

Switch Board in the front Voice board in the back

Assembled, working…

So, I have to say that this is one of the most annoying designs ever conceived by man from a standpoint of repair and maintenance.  The boards barely fit in on top of each other inside the case with some long shaft pots going through the switch board from the voice board.  Everything needs to be taken apart to get to the switch board and that’s the one that gets the most abuse!  The switch board is also where the CPU and OS live, right next to the buttons all the ‘house music’ dudes are banging on.  The ribbon cables are soldered to the PCB on one end and have connectors on the other.  I wish they were connectors on both ends so you could replace a cable or work on a board without having an octopus of cables to be mindful of.  They also barely fit in the case around the boards that are barely in there to begin with.  The drum switch caps are so flimsy i don’t know how they were ever on there solidly in the first place.  And the OS is pretty clunky and unintuitive to make music with.  Nothing like the OB or Linn ideas in language or execution.  It does sound Great though.  I just wonder how this was designed when all the Roland synths of that era that i’ve been inside are immaculately designed and completely modular for maintenance purposes!  Who knows!

::: IF :::