Something strange with my Matriarch's oscilaltors

[Hutch979]

Recently picked up a second hand Matriarch from a guy who really takes good care of his synths, so I know it has been taken care of, not dropped etc. My issue is that the oscillators sort of slightly detune, akin to slightly moving the pitch wheel, whenever I tap the synth, or the table. Can you guys try and do this on yours:

Set the synth to drone and tap on the panel between the osc 1 octave switch and sync enable button. Doesn't really matter where, as long as you tap it, could be a little harder or softer. Mine does this at pretty much every tap. If I tap harder it detunes more. I noticed this on mine when I hit the keys slightly harder.

It was actually worse when I got it, but I ran an oscillator callibration, then a knob calibration and finally I reverted to the older firmware, which greatly improved then problem.

Right now it's not a big issue, I don't notice it since it only happens when I'm quite rough with it, which is not my normal playing style.

One thing that actually completely eradicates the problem is turning the fine tune knob on the back completely down, which is odd.

[pmumble]

I can't reproduce this on mine. Is it happening with all the oscs or just one? I wonder if its the frequency pot.

[Synth.builder]

One thing that actually completely eradicates the problem is turning the fine tune knob on the back completely down, which is odd.

It is possible that the little tuning control on the back is partially broken. A knock to the pot's stalk can damage the pot's wiper or track which can cause exactly the intermittent tuning problem you are getting. If so the pot will need replacing. This isn't a difficult job for a synth tech.

However, you may wish to try rotating the little tune pot very rapidly from one end to the other several times. If the pot is just dirty, quickly moving the wiper over the track may clear the dirt.

Whatever you do, don't squirt pot or switch cleaner into the pot hole. This often causes more problems in the long term.

[Hutch979]

One thing that actually completely eradicates the problem is turning the fine tune knob on the back completely down, which is odd.

It is possible that the little tuning control on the back is partially broken. A knock to the pot's stalk can damage the pot's wiper or track which can cause exactly the intermittent tuning problem you are getting. If so the pot will need replacing. This isn't a difficult job for a synth tech.

However, you may wish to try rotating the little tune pot very rapidly from one end to the other several times. If the pot is just dirty, quickly moving the wiper over the track may clear the dirt.

Whatever you do, don't squirt pot or switch cleaner into the pot hole. This often causes more problems in the long term.

Yep, right on the money. The tuning pot is the culprit. It completely stopped responding, so the issue is no longer present, however now I can't fine tune the synth. It's forever stuck in the lowest position, so C is now detuned to A# or thereabouts. What I did was to just send the center calibration sysex messages, so now it thinks the pot is centered, which fixes the issue. Although rarely sometimes when I turn the synth on and play a C note immediately, it still tunes C to A#, but that happens once every 15-20 startups or so and is fixed by restarting the synth. I guess next time I'll just wait for oscillators to warm up before even touching a note.

[thomasfrank]

Inconsistent power could cause oscillators to behave strangely. Make sure your power supply is stable, and if possible,Block Blast try plugging the Matriarch into a different outlet or power conditioner to rule out electrical noise or grounding issues.