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Synthchaser #072 – Fried LinnDrum Repair

Two customers bought LinnDrums on eBay and sent them in for service/repair. One customer got a good buy, the other got a nightmare! It was a hacked mess of wires and modifications and the circuit board was blackened all the way through from heat. When most people would consider something like that a “parts machine”, our bold Synth Chaser forges ahead. Will he bring it back to life, or has the Synth Chaser finally met his match?

 

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matrixsynth.com’s Oberheim OB-Xa repair video series

For your viewing pleasure, I present Synthchaser #069 and #070…  A 2 part video series where I repair an OB-Xa for Matrix of Matrixsynth.com.

One voice card is dead, and others are failing autotune and sounding really inconsistent from voice to voice. In the first video we take a look at the state of the synth, and troubleshoot and repair the dead voice card.

In the second half, I continue the repair by rebuilding the power supply and voice cards, and get the synth in tune and sounding consistent from voice card to voice card. I also show you a common defect with the voice cards that prevents proper calibration.  Lots of time lapse soldering with looping music.