Service woes - Siel dk600

[Steve Ridley]

Maybe I've just been lucky, but I've had success with all the Siel gear 
I've worked on including a couple of late version Opera 6 (same as 
a DK600 but without the facelift) and the Expander (same boards as
DK600 but a few wire links and different  EPROMs).

Mark Glinsky has some schematics, but I don't think they include the 
voice boards, just some of the processor and logic stuff.  Common 
faults include the infamous leaky battery problem, so if you get one 
in for repair, it's worth removing the battery from the main board and
extending it to some dark corner of the side casing where it will do 
less damage, or replace it.  Also, check out the extra components 
badly hand-soldered to the back of the main DCO/Processor/logic 
board.  Saving presets and adjusting keyboard response and split
point are not obvious, so read the user manual if you get alleged 
faults in these areas.

I like these synths and still own one - quite fat for a DCO synth, DCO1
and DCO2 can be finely detuned, only one EG (SSM2056) but velocity
control of attack time is great for pad sounds, two LFO, noise and 
(limited) midi - AND REAL KNOBS AND SWITCHES - not many synths
match this spec so don't just dismiss them and chop them for bits.

If you want SSM2044 VCFs, chop a Crumar Bit 1 instead.  Horrible
things...


Steve Ridley


PS - my spell checker tries to change Crumar to crummier.  Very apt.