does anyone sell theire RME because of tuning issues?

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flowdesigner
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Joined: Thu Aug 25, 2011 4:26 pm

does anyone sell theire RME because of tuning issues?

Post by flowdesigner » Tue Feb 21, 2012 8:42 am

Hey,

My RME is very often not in tune. Im actually consider selling it and buy another one on ebay and hope that one is behaving better. Anyone else done this.
Yes, the temperature is changong a bit in my studio, but I need to rely on my equipment to work properly when I work. I just opened a Live project where I recorded
lots of moog rme last week, and I now hear that the moog is not in tune - and I cant continue like this.
Ive seem on Gearsluts that alot of people are complaining about this


What to do?


Thank you :)

Villa101
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Joined: Sun Nov 06, 2011 5:11 pm

Re: does anyone sell theire RME because of tuning issues?

Post by Villa101 » Tue Feb 21, 2012 12:27 pm

Hey, whether or not you should sell your rme, and buy anew (used) one, is up to you. I bought a second hand myself, and it seems it takes app. 30-60 minutes for this to stabilize the tuning. I use the tuner in guitar rig to check the tuning. I also use a default patch for this task, as other patches seems to fluctuate in tuning. But that really depends on the patch of course.

Regarding Gearslutz, they ever do anything than complain? :roll: :lol:

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thealien666
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Location: Quebec, Canada

Re: does anyone sell theire RME because of tuning issues?

Post by thealien666 » Tue Feb 21, 2012 4:45 pm

Analog gear will always be susceptible to tuning drift to a certain extent. Some equipment are better than others at reducing it, or controlling it. But that's part of "the game" of using analog instruments. Be it a guitar, a piano, a violin, or an electronic analog music synthesizer. Every professional musician tunes his or her instrument before and sometimes even during a performance (or have a tech back-stage doing it for them in the case of guitars). Of course a grand piano doesn't drift as much as a Moog. But it costs over 10 times more than a Voyager! :wink:

If you want to go the lazy way, and use extremely precise, digital, cold sounding synths, you're free to do so. But if you want warm, rich sounding, pleasing to the ear gear, you'll have to work harder than just pressing the record button and play notes.

And you're very lucky that modern Moogs are very stable when compared to the early modular systems. Just ask Wendy Carlos. When she recorded the acclaimed and revolutionary Switched-on Bach album, back in 1967, on a multi-track analog tape machine, she had to tune, and retune the whole Moog before every single take! Sometimes, she even had to stop in the middle of a track, and re-record it because the instrument had gone out of tune during the recording of that track! Because, back then, regulated power-supplies weren't very efficient and the voltages inside the modular would fluctuate and change the tuning, on top of temperature drift ... :roll:

So you see, just having to touch up the "Fine Tune" knob once in a while isn't so bad, is it ? (Edit: unless your RMEs drift is extreme, see last words below) I have recorded several multi-track songs with my 37 years old Minimoog D, and yes I had to make sure it was in tune before each take using the on-board A-440 reference, but like I said before; it's part of the game...and the charm of using such tools. But I wouldn't want to use anything else when I want "that" sound.

I doubt that exchanging your RME for another one would change things much. Maybe some unit might be less susceptible to temperature drift than others, but I doubt it would be by much.

All that being said, it IS possible that your RME might have developed a fault in the temp compensation circuits. I would talk to a Moog tech to see if it's out of specs, first.

TIFWIW.

Al.
Moog Minimoog D (1975)
DSI OB6
DSI Prophet REV2
Oberheim Matrix-6
Ensoniq SQ-80
Korg DW8000
Behringer DeepMind 12
Alesis Ion

flowdesigner
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Joined: Thu Aug 25, 2011 4:26 pm

Re: does anyone sell theire RME because of tuning issues?

Post by flowdesigner » Sat Feb 25, 2012 10:54 am

Thank you for great answer!

Is faulty temperature compensation circuits a known issue with RMEs? Anyone else had problem with this?

Is there an easy way to find out if my RME behaves like it should?



Cheers!

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thealien666
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Location: Quebec, Canada

Re: does anyone sell theire RME because of tuning issues?

Post by thealien666 » Sat Feb 25, 2012 12:54 pm

flowdesigner wrote:Thank you for great answer!
You're welcome.
Is faulty temperature compensation circuits a known issue with RMEs?
Not to my knowledge.
Is there an easy way to find out if my RME behaves like it should?
Based on my personal experience with a regular Voyager, after about 15-20 minutes of warming up, it should stay solid. And of course it can be playable long before that. Just a slight touch of the fine tune knob, to keep it in tune, should be enough during that time.

If it drifts again, to the point of having to constantly touch the fine tune knob even after 30 minutes, it probably has a problem. If it's still under warranty, you know what to do. If not, maybe you could email friendly Moog Support to have them tell you what is acceptable and what is out of specs.

TIFWIW.
Moog Minimoog D (1975)
DSI OB6
DSI Prophet REV2
Oberheim Matrix-6
Ensoniq SQ-80
Korg DW8000
Behringer DeepMind 12
Alesis Ion

flowdesigner
Posts: 65
Joined: Thu Aug 25, 2011 4:26 pm

Re: does anyone sell theire RME because of tuning issues?

Post by flowdesigner » Thu Mar 08, 2012 7:21 am

Great thanks,


How often should I open it up and tune it?

Is there yet some tuning for dummies videos for dummies like me?



Thanks again

steevio
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Re: does anyone sell theire RME because of tuning issues?

Post by steevio » Thu Mar 08, 2012 8:12 am

i certainly wouldnt sell mine,

mine takes about 45 minutes to settle, and its very easy to have a guitar tuner permannetly plugged in to the headphone socket to keep it in tune
but if you read my thread , you'll see a tuning problem which isnt normal, and unfortunately it has surfaced at live gigs, the RME was tuned up and allowed to climatise to the heat in the venue, but by the time i'm ready to play it sometimes goes way out of tune in the way i've described in the other post.

it might be worth checking yours isnt doing the same thing.
Last edited by steevio on Thu Mar 08, 2012 6:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.

flowdesigner
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Joined: Thu Aug 25, 2011 4:26 pm

Re: does anyone sell theire RME because of tuning issues?

Post by flowdesigner » Thu Mar 08, 2012 8:43 am

Thank you! Very helpful

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