Ghost In The Machine (The Source)
Posted: Sun Dec 08, 2013 2:52 pm
Hi everyone. I've owned a moog source for the past 15 years or so. It's fine most of the time, but sometimes I feel it has a mind of it's own and I need to figure out what's going on. I'd expect such a beautifully sophisticated piece of electronic engineering to have a mind of it's own, but what it did the other night just confused the hell out me, so that's why I'm here.
I was recording some stuff on Wednesday night, all was fine. It sounded like how I'd left it the last time I played on it (about 2 months ago ashamedly). The 16 memory banks were all sounding as I remembered. I had some really good programs saved on there from over the past 10+ years.
Anyway, I came back the next day to add some more overdubs to the track I was working on, and it sounded like crap. I went through all 16 programs, and they all sounded broken. I actually thought one (or both) of the oscillators must have exploded or something over night as it was cooling down (it''s very cold here at the moment and as you probably already know the source gets HOT after a few hours of work). I was very sad because this used to be my brother's synth before he died, so I'd been looking after it since then and had taken great care in using it.
Now all it had to offer was a selection of ear-piercing whistle noises and broken computer sound effects. One of them sounded cool and very usable, but I was still gutted (English for extremely disappointed) that my moog had died for no apparent reason. I tried it again yesterday hoping that the analog-synth-faeries might have restored it to how I left it a few nights ago, but it was still broke.
I tried playing with the controls to see if I could identify which part had actually failed so I could look into getting it repaired, and as I was messing with the filter, a very familiar thick juicy moog sound crept back from the grave and put a smile on my face.
Turns out that it's not broken after all. Well at least not in the way I thought. It's like someone had turned it on overnight, found the 16 most evil sounding programs imaginable and stored them for me to find the next day as some sort of practical joke. Now, I know this didn't happen, so do any of you have a better idea of what might have gone on?
I was thinking the memory must have somehow reset back to the factory preset, but if that were the case then every bank would be the same raw sound, surely? These are all different.
One time a few years ago I turned it on, hooked it up to the amp and left it to warm up for a few minutes, and after a while it started to play itself without anyone touching it. Sounded like computer language. I think it was a slow random step-like sound if I remember correctly. Anyone know what was going on there?
I know very little about the internal workings of analog synthesisers as you can probably tell, so any help is much appreciated. Any tips on how to take better care of it are also welcome.
Cheers
I was recording some stuff on Wednesday night, all was fine. It sounded like how I'd left it the last time I played on it (about 2 months ago ashamedly). The 16 memory banks were all sounding as I remembered. I had some really good programs saved on there from over the past 10+ years.
Anyway, I came back the next day to add some more overdubs to the track I was working on, and it sounded like crap. I went through all 16 programs, and they all sounded broken. I actually thought one (or both) of the oscillators must have exploded or something over night as it was cooling down (it''s very cold here at the moment and as you probably already know the source gets HOT after a few hours of work). I was very sad because this used to be my brother's synth before he died, so I'd been looking after it since then and had taken great care in using it.
Now all it had to offer was a selection of ear-piercing whistle noises and broken computer sound effects. One of them sounded cool and very usable, but I was still gutted (English for extremely disappointed) that my moog had died for no apparent reason. I tried it again yesterday hoping that the analog-synth-faeries might have restored it to how I left it a few nights ago, but it was still broke.
I tried playing with the controls to see if I could identify which part had actually failed so I could look into getting it repaired, and as I was messing with the filter, a very familiar thick juicy moog sound crept back from the grave and put a smile on my face.
Turns out that it's not broken after all. Well at least not in the way I thought. It's like someone had turned it on overnight, found the 16 most evil sounding programs imaginable and stored them for me to find the next day as some sort of practical joke. Now, I know this didn't happen, so do any of you have a better idea of what might have gone on?
I was thinking the memory must have somehow reset back to the factory preset, but if that were the case then every bank would be the same raw sound, surely? These are all different.
One time a few years ago I turned it on, hooked it up to the amp and left it to warm up for a few minutes, and after a while it started to play itself without anyone touching it. Sounded like computer language. I think it was a slow random step-like sound if I remember correctly. Anyone know what was going on there?
I know very little about the internal workings of analog synthesisers as you can probably tell, so any help is much appreciated. Any tips on how to take better care of it are also welcome.
Cheers