Vintage Synth Repair

I've been offered to buy an OBXa in a mint cosmetic shape but I've been 
told that it has one missing voice board

What are the chances to make it play ? can I "fool" the system by using 
some kind of jumper or short to make it "think" it only has one less 
voice that what it should have ?

Or that the OBXa can work with just any number of voice cards you'd put 
in it ? In other word, can I just take out or install as many cards as 
I wish and it will still power up and play ? Are those card installed 
one on the top of the other (modular build) ? 


Any help will be much appreciated !!

Hello from a new list member.

> Or that the OBXa can work with just any number of voice cards you'd put
> in it ? In other word, can I just take out or install as many cards as
> I wish and it will still power up and play ?

As far as I recall the OB-Xa came in 4-, 6- and 8-voice configurations.
This obviously depended on the number of voice boards installed. Don't
remember if the recognition was automatic.

I think the voice boards were attached to main boards (one upper, one lower).

And you might want to have a look here:

http://www.lazyblueoctopus.com/html/oberheim.html

-- 
Malte Rogacki gacki@...
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Don't forget to TURN ON THE SYNTHESIZER. Often this is the reason why you
 get no sound out of it." (ARP 2600 Owner's Manual)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

It will run fine, just 1 less voice. The s/w scans for faulty cards during self-test and disables non-working (or missing) cards. 

Good Luck!

mw (aka lazyblueoctopus)

-------------- Original message -------------- 
From: Malte Rogacki <gacki@...> 
Hello from a new list member.

> Or that the OBXa can work with just any number of voice cards you'd put
> in it ? In other word, can I just take out or install as many cards as
> I wish and it will still power up and play ?

As far as I recall the OB-Xa came in 4-, 6- and 8-voice configurations.
This obviously depended on the number of voice boards installed. Don't
remember if the recognition was automatic.

I think the voice boards were attached to main boards (one upper, one lower).

And you might want to have a look here:

http://www.lazyblueoctopus.com/html/oberheim.html

-- 
Malte Rogacki gacki@...
----------------------------------------------------------
"Don't forget to TURN ON THE SYNTHESIZER. Often this is the reason why you
get no sound out of it." (ARP 2600 Owner's Manual)
----------------------------------------------------------

There is a switch to turn of one voice or several. Open the synth look to 
the left of the front panel PCB and there it is (A 8 pin DIL/DIP switch). In 
otherwords you can run it in any number of voices you wish.

Best regards,
Syn


>From: "gil_we" <gil_we@...>
>Reply-To: vintagesynthrepair@yahoogroups.com
>To: vintagesynthrepair@yahoogroups.com
>Subject: [vintagesynthrepair] Making a OBXa with a missing voice card play
>Date: Mon, 19 Mar 2007 16:08:14 -0000
>
>I've been offered to buy an OBXa in a mint cosmetic shape but I've been
>told that it has one missing voice board
>
>What are the chances to make it play ? can I "fool" the system by using
>some kind of jumper or short to make it "think" it only has one less
>voice that what it should have ?
>
>Or that the OBXa can work with just any number of voice cards you'd put
>in it ? In other word, can I just take out or install as many cards as
>I wish and it will still power up and play ? Are those card installed
>one on the top of the other (modular build) ?
>
>
>Any help will be much appreciated !!
>

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