Korg Poly800/EX800 Users

Hey there,

New user, but I’ve been parlaying messages back and forth via email to Mike and the person building my Hawk 800/ Atomahawk mods over the past few weeks. It’s been a heck of a ride so far (I’m totally incapable of doing these things myself, the last time I soldered was assembling R/C car battery packs in 02). I wanted to shoot some things that have happened and see if I could get any possible feedback/ assistance.

1) error 3 hasn’t gone away just yet, after installing the new boot ROM. however, I acknowledge I did skip a step and didn’t do the chip swap (moving from one socket to the next and doing a check, it’s on Sourceforge forums). Is that a mandatory step?

2) after getting errors 4/5/6 sorted out, I noticed a bizarre noise in my patches. To describe- on note trigger, there’s a bunch of white noise, and I can almost, but barely hear the oscillators. After the ADSR stage or note release, it goes away completely. I made sure the Atomahawk settings and global settings were at the appropriate default (this should be latest firmware 2.66 boot 2.00). I’m sincerely hoping my builder didn’t fudge something up severe.

3) the last octave on the keyboard is sending midi for sure (using global settings to ensure), but isn’t generating sound.

4) sometimes I noticed one voice chip will ring clearly then the next one will be enveloped in the noise.

This synth was fully serviced with replaced patches and internal battery mod early 2016. It was a junker when I bought it fall 2015, about to die. When I got it fixed it was perfect (even got lucky with a new joystick from the repair shop). At this time, I’m hoping nothing fatal happened, and I hope you all can help.

Best,
John

----- Original Message -----

From:

korgpolyex@yahoogroups.com

To:

<korgpolyex@yahoogroups.com>

Cc:

Sent:

10 Mar 2019 21:54:46 -0700

Subject:

[korgpolyex] Install issues and possible further queries


 

Hey there,

New user, but I’ve been parlaying messages back and forth via email to Mike and the person building my Hawk 800/ Atomahawk mods over the past few weeks. It’s been a heck of a ride so far (I’m totally incapable of doing these things myself, the last time I soldered was assembling R/C car battery packs in 02). I wanted to shoot some things that have happened and see if I could get any possible feedback/ assistance.

1) error 3 hasn’t gone away just yet, after installing the new boot ROM. however, I acknowledge I did skip a step and didn’t do the chip swap (moving from one socket to the next and doing a check, it’s on Sourceforge forums). Is that a mandatory step?

2) after getting errors 4/5/6 sorted out, I noticed a bizarre noise in my patches. To describe- on note trigger, there’s a bunch of white noise, and I can almost, but barely hear the oscillators. After the ADSR stage or note release, it goes away completely. I made sure the Atomahawk settings and global settings were at the appropriate default (this should be latest firmware 2.66 boot 2.00). I’m sincerely hoping my builder didn’t fudge something up severe.

3) the last octave on the keyboard is sending midi for sure (using global settings to ensure), but isn’t generating sound.

4) sometimes I noticed one voice chip will ring clearly then the next one will be enveloped in the noise.

This synth was fully serviced with replaced patches and internal battery mod early 2016. It was a junker when I bought it fall 2015, about to die. When I got it fixed it was perfect (even got lucky with a new joystick from the repair shop). At this time, I’m hoping nothing fatal happened, and I hope you all can help.

Best,
John

Hey Mike,

Extended parameter 58 is set to 1, but I’ll check again if I am doing it correctly. Thanks for the bottom octave tip, I’ll check to make sure it is in place, as with FM-800. Once those are in place, I’ll check in about the boot ROM- I’m too fidgety to do that myself. I figure I’d have to do it all over again once I do that, right? Thanks for the help! :)

John

----- Original Message -----

From:

korgpolyex@yahoogroups.com

To:

<korgpolyex@yahoogroups.com>

Cc:

Sent:

11 Mar 2019 06:45:21 -0700

Subject:

Re: [korgpolyex] Install issues and possible further queries


 

Hey Mike,

Extended parameter 58 is set to 1, but I’ll check again if I am doing it correctly. Thanks for the bottom octave tip, I’ll check to make sure it is in place, as with FM-800. Once those are in place, I’ll check in about the boot ROM- I’m too fidgety to do that myself. I figure I’d have to do it all over again once I do that, right? Thanks for the help! :)

John

This makes plenty of sense! Well, I’ll be going in on it after work. Wish me luck. I’ll reply on this thread once I’m done or have other issues.

Also oops sorry, I keep getting extended parameters and global confused. I get it now.

Ok, so my global 58 was set to 1, there’s still so much noise, it didn’t fix much, there was improvement when I just played with the presets, but there was still significant noise (I turned noise off, and fiddled with cutoff). I did take a look at the install of the Atomahawk, two resistors were upside down. Is that crucial? How do I add photos to this stream btw? I never use Yahoo groups.

Also how do I

Disregard the last part.

 

Ok, so my global 58 was set to 1, there’s still so much noise, it didn’t fix much, there was improvement when I just played with the presets, but there was still significant noise (I turned noise off, and fiddled with cutoff). I did take a look at the install of the Atomahawk, two resistors were upside down. Is that crucial? How do I add photos to this stream btw? I never use Yahoo groups.

Also how do I

Cool, I got this late so I’ll look and check if everything is zeroed out after work.

 

I think I am getting a lot closer in fixing up the patches, thanks for all the help thus far Mike!!

But I do have more questions/ guidance/ suggestions- So I tried zeroing all extended parameters out. Right now, on original parameter 18 (I think that's the whole or double mode), when I set a patch to whole mode, I'll hear the FM-800 or some sort of  fixed pitch oscillator running in the background. Again, everything is zeroed out on the extended parameters. Nothing crazy is going on like the second DCO being able to act as an LFO or something right? 

I plan on posting some audio/ video on Instagram, I will make sure to send a link to this thread.

Awesome, thanks for that tip

Here’s a couple links for audiovisual examples:

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bu9_OkhFh9e/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=1q95g5dgwap81

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bu9_0CbFPYI/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=33zcnhbvufpl

Will definitely be posting pics tonight after work!

Did you load the default patches available for download?

https://sourceforge.net/projects/hawk800/files/Patch%20Library/

I had issues getting my HAWK to sound right until I loaded up all those patches to all 4 banks...  sounded a lot like what you are experiencing.

After I loaded those patches, I could get it to sound right.

I did- in the first bank, those good patches (11 & 15) I was able to tame the sounds, and get some unique textures. I love the SLFOs. Everything else sounds rough. I’ll be taking pics of the install tonight.

If you haven't loaded up Banks 2,3 ,,& 4 yet,  I would go ahead and do them too.

May not make a bit of difference, but I think I recall I had to load all the banks up to get that noise to stop.

----- Original Message -----

From:

korgpolyex@yahoogroups.com

To:

<korgpolyex@yahoogroups.com>

Cc:

Sent:

14 Mar 2019 11:27:35 -0700

Subject:

[korgpolyex] Re: Install issues and possible further queries


 

I did- in the first bank, those good patches (11 & 15) I was able to tame the sounds, and get some unique textures. I love the SLFOs. Everything else sounds rough. I’ll be taking pics of the install tonight.

OK, so I tried submitting stuff on Friday, but I don't know if it loaded (tried to upload eleven pics). So here is try #5?

Small edit- I can't hear the oscillator, only the noise I previously mentioned.

 

OK, so I tried submitting stuff on Friday, but I don't know if it loaded (tried to upload eleven pics). So here is try #5?

Here's the attachments of the install. Orientation is technically upside down- I have the keybed on the table.

Through further exploration and play, it seems that something is really up with oscillator 2. when in double mode with osc 2 volume down, everything is cool. Once I turn on any volume for that oscillator, I can't hear it, only that particular noise I have discussed. Again, everything is zeroed out.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BvnmxKalRW_/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Here is video link of proof.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/3z6nmrgta80l8b3/AAAs9TDW4WQtS-okr7AQg1JBa?dl=0

Here's the install. if these are too close up, let me know, I'l fix appropriately. 

John

No real rush, I am having a second set of eyes go over it with me this weekend, so I can actually learn to solder better as well. 

 

No real rush, I am having a second set of eyes go over it with me this weekend, so I can actually learn to solder better as well. 

Thanks Mike, I will definitely be looking into this today. I'll take another set of pictures and send em along soon.

New pic set here!

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/n5ejai5fzbhagao/AAD6UqB-ytkLfB76KlXFTo0ia?dl=0

New query- what parts of the board are controlling cutoff and resonance? maybe that is part of the problem? Are there trimmers I may need to reset before reinstalling? Apologies in advance for reviving this dead thread once again. 

 

New query- what parts of the board are controlling cutoff and resonance? maybe that is part of the problem? Are there trimmers I may need to reset before reinstalling? Apologies in advance for reviving this dead thread once again. 

 

New pic set here!

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/n5ejai5fzbhagao/AAD6UqB-ytkLfB76KlXFTo0ia?dl=0