Little Phatty Red/Nova Musik

[seandrinkwater2]

Hello all.

Had to register a new name on this forum because the old one would not work. Just some fun extra frustration.

SN 08024

I bought a Little Phatty a couple of weeks ago for live use. It arrived on Monday, which would give me about 8 days to program new sounds. Seemed like enough time. The unit is horribly out-of-tune out of the box. I am very experienced with analog synthesizers. I left it on. I left it on a long time. Grounding is not an issue here. I ended up calibrating everything. It worked perfectly for about 24 hours. OSC2 is the culprit, it seems. Started sharp, recalibrated, was fine, now flat.

When I turned the unit on this morning it made a strange brief tone, then the presets were all hosed again. I am going on tour on Tuesday for a week so I have a few questions. I do not have the two hours or so to recalibrate the unit every day, as we will be driving long distances.

Is there something dumb that I am missing? I had some problems with my Nova Musik Voyager Solar early on (unfamiliarity with the OS was part of the problem, which the guys from Moog were very quick to help me sort out, but I did also have to to send the unit back very early on to have an OSC fixed). My faith is a little shaken here, and I need a working unit in 5 days. I play in a kind of cult-popular electronic band and can't exactly afford having a faulty unit on the road.

Should I attempt a firmware update? The unit turns on and reads "2.21S"....does a firmware update address tuning issues? Within the unit it says VERS: 2.2 593/24

Should I try to have Nova Musik rush me a new unit? Will a new unit also be a disappointment if the serial numbers are close?

Should I try to rush the unit to Moog and try to get it back by Monday? Is that even remotely feasible?

Anyone with any advice would be appreciated...
Sean Drinkwater,
Boston, MA

[mico]

Most definitely update the firmware. Get back to us with the results.

[Barely]

Hi Sean,
just listened to your music, great stuff!
To your problem: I'd call moog and ask them personally. I'm sure they will know what to do and can help you faster than the rest.
Good luck!

[seandrinkwater2]

Thanks for listening and thanks for the kind words!

Unfortunately I couldn't get this issue sorted so now I'm using essentially a one osc Phatty for a few dates (with an ensemble pedal for a little extra width/detunage). I retuned osc 2 manually on a couple patches and that seems to be working out okay. I did the firmware update but it didn't address any pitch issues.

I'll call Moog in a couple weeks when I'm back. They were very helpful with the Voyager so I'm sure they'll help me get the Phatty in better shape. My cranky tone was based on not wanting to be forced into workarounds at the last second at such high expense, but I understand that crap happens sometimes.

thanks,
Sean