I own an Opus that I absolutely love as a string synth, but find the lack of midi control to limit my use of it in day-to-day composition... I know Kenton had a MIDI retrofit kit ages ago, but they don't have any plan to resurrect that.
Recently, however, I came across the Universal Midi Retrofit (UMR2), by Highly Liquid (http://www.highlyliquid.com/#products), who generally speaking seem to be creating some pretty cool MIDI products. They describe this as being capable of adding MIDI I/O to non-velocity-sensitive matrixed-switch keyboards.
Now, I don't know enough about the innards of the Opus to evaluate whether this is tenable, but was wondering if anyone here did know whether that's a viable option. They have pretty god documentation on the compatibility of the board, and I know Opus Service manuals are downloadable. But I'm not proficient enough to know whether the Opus is a candidate for this surgery. Also, I suppose this goes for pretty much any pre-MIDI Moog synth. Anyone have any idea as to whether this is possible? If so, I'd order this and send it to get installed pretty much immediately!
Thanks!
MIDI-fying the Moog Opus (or any old Moog)
Re: MIDI-fying the Moog Opus (or any old Moog)
The UMR2 works with diode-isolated matrix scanned keyboards.
The Opus 3 is not a matrix scanned keyboard. It is a top octave divider system (TOS) in which the chromatic pitches are generated from ICs, then the pitches are switched in and out using the keyboard contact. Every string machine (and home organ) uses this approach. They were the only way to play chords until polyphonic synthesizers became a reality, and afterwards the TOS was a cheap alternative.
The UMR2 will not work with TOS keyboards. I don't know of a MIDI solution for them. It would require separate relays for each key contact, which can quickly get expensive.
The Opus 3 is not a matrix scanned keyboard. It is a top octave divider system (TOS) in which the chromatic pitches are generated from ICs, then the pitches are switched in and out using the keyboard contact. Every string machine (and home organ) uses this approach. They were the only way to play chords until polyphonic synthesizers became a reality, and afterwards the TOS was a cheap alternative.
The UMR2 will not work with TOS keyboards. I don't know of a MIDI solution for them. It would require separate relays for each key contact, which can quickly get expensive.
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sunny pedaal
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Re: MIDI-fying the Moog Opus (or any old Moog)
in the netherlands there are technicians who can midify the opus3
i think they do it with the help of a doepferkit and extra keyboard contacts, but i'm no technical to be sure.
if you want , send me a pb and i 's email send you the contact
i think they do it with the help of a doepferkit and extra keyboard contacts, but i'm no technical to be sure.
if you want , send me a pb and i 's email send you the contact
Re: MIDI-fying the Moog Opus (or any old Moog)
Ah, I see... I just noticed that the same company offers this product:
http://www.midicpu.com
It's pretty insane, in that it allows you to control, via MIDI, 24 'outputs'. I wonder if it'd be possible to use this to intercept the key registers on the Opus. Of course, the only trick would be that you'd have to daisy chain 2 of them, in order to get 48 notes (so you'd lose one note). But, it seems like it could be an affordable, and less complicated approach, perhaps.
http://www.midicpu.com
It's pretty insane, in that it allows you to control, via MIDI, 24 'outputs'. I wonder if it'd be possible to use this to intercept the key registers on the Opus. Of course, the only trick would be that you'd have to daisy chain 2 of them, in order to get 48 notes (so you'd lose one note). But, it seems like it could be an affordable, and less complicated approach, perhaps.