Another update: After swapping out all new MC4458L's for the old opamps from the damaged board I did not notice a strong improvement but perhaps a bit. However, very careful listening to the signal showed that there actually was a pattern; it wasn't random (at least not fully). Long story short: It's neither the LFO nor the PWM LFO, it's the arpeggiator! Right now it appears as if the instability is caused possibly by a combination of the LFO and the arpeggiator; or more precisely: the two LEDs (with the arpeggiator clearly being the main culprit). What I'm not sure of is: Is this the fault of the power supply; or are the power-hungry LEDs to blame (or are possibly the caps near the LEDs dried out); or is the whole power distribution problematic? I've removed the arpeggiator LED for now on one machine and have a much more stable tuning; the slight pulse is gone. This behaviour was also verified on a second Polysix with both old board a clone board. If you want to try this for yourself here's the setup: After the Polysix is sufficiently warmed up connect it to a precision tuner. Turn arpeggio speed way down. Play a single note and use the master tune knob to get a precise reading. Now turn arpeggio speed to max (so the LED is always on). On my machine this results in a very slight pitch increase, roughly 1 cent. With a strobe tuner it is clearly visible since the strobe starts to move; and it stops again when turning the arpeggio rate down. I find it easier to hear with a square wave. I'd be interested to hear if other Polysix owners can reproduce this. You'll need a very precise tuner for this, though.
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Re: [PolySix] tuning instability?
2016-06-30 by Malte Rogacki
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