SP warm up myth

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Nuzayin
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Joined: Sun Jan 15, 2012 1:53 pm

SP warm up myth

Post by Nuzayin » Mon Jan 16, 2012 10:00 pm

Hi guys

I just bought a SP mainly for live purposes (its on the way to asia).. sadly I found out it requires certain time to warm up before it can be played properly, so here is the situation, lets say if I have the SP turn on for about 4 hours straight, and shut it off for 40 mins during transportation from my house to the live venue for rehearsal, do I have to wait for another 1 hour or so for the sp to warm up again when i arrive the live house? take my curiosity further down the road, say if I have the SP on for about 8 hours, and shut it off for 10 mins, turn in on again, will it still need that much time to warm up after 10 mins off?

I know not all the SP out there that need 1 hour to warm up, pretty much it varies due to temperature, ground issues..even the QC process. I am just trying to figure a way out so it stay as stable as possible for live situation. (not all the bands get to rehearsal for full on 2 hours and then straight up for action, especially when play in music festivals where u have tons of bands take turn on stage, amd its almost impossible to have the sp turned on all the time.)

thanks for your time and wish u all the best!

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thealien666
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Re: SP warm up myth

Post by thealien666 » Tue Jan 17, 2012 5:31 pm

First, there's a difference between warming-up to playable condition (proper keyboard scaling), and warming-up drift (offset drift). The first prevents you from playing the instrument because each note would not play the right frequency until the oscillator (actually the exponential current converter) is up to operating temperature. The second is a very slow and slight final drifts of the whole instrument's pitch, easily corrected with a few slight tweaks of the master tune knob.

I've never seen an analog synth using VCOs needing 1 whole hour to warm-up. At most 20 to 30 minutes will ensure pretty stable operation. But generally, most will be stable enough and in tune enough to be played after about 1 to 3 minutes. Heck, even my 37 years old Minimoog D is playable in under 20 seconds! After that, a few occasional minor tweaks of the master tune knob are necessary to just keep the whole instrument in tune with the 440 hertz reference.

My worst synth, as far as warming-up goes, has to be the Korg Mono/Poly. It takes at least 2 long minutes just to be playable on all four oscillators. Before that, it sounds like it's drunk ! But after that, only 1 minor adjustment of the master tune knob after about 15 minutes of warming-up is necessary just to bring it back to a 440 reference.

As for the Phattys, since I don't own one I can only go on assumption here. I assume it would be playable rather quickly, and from reading the user manual there is an "auto tune" feature that is "on" by default, which will silently make small adjustments periodically (when nothing is being played on the keyboard) to correct for temperature variations. How efficient is this system? I don't know.

TIFWIW.
Last edited by thealien666 on Tue Jan 17, 2012 7:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Moog Minimoog D (1975)
DSI OB6
DSI Prophet REV2
Oberheim Matrix-6
Ensoniq SQ-80
Korg DW8000
Behringer DeepMind 12
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Sir Nose
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Re: SP warm up myth

Post by Sir Nose » Tue Jan 17, 2012 7:30 pm

To answer some of your other questions:
Once warmed up (20-60min) additional time does not keep it warmed up longer once powered off.
After being warmed up and off for 15 min there will still be some warm up time (maybe not as long as from cold but significant). 5 min off after warm should warm back up without much notice.
As stated above, it is easy to keep it in tune with the fine tune knob or using auto tune while it is warming up. The main issue folks were having was the relative warm up of OSC 1 and OSC 2. It really depends on the patch whether it is noticeable or not. It can be compensated for by adjusting the OSC 2 frequency in the oscillator section. Doing both fine tune knob and OSC 2 freq on the fly is a bit much.
If you would be arriving for a show less than an hour before you go on or there are no extra outlets at the venue to plug it into while you are waiting to go on, you could get a battery pack.

Nuzayin
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Joined: Sun Jan 15, 2012 1:53 pm

Re: SP warm up myth

Post by Nuzayin » Wed Jan 18, 2012 1:35 am

Cheers guys, the answers been very helpful, especially the battery kit, i think i will just leave it on backstage.

currently having a cwejman s1Mk2 sit on my desk, it doesnt take more than 10 mins to warm up for the 3 oscillators~ but I have no intention taking it to live because it belongs to a friend XD.

my phatty will be arriving tomorrow~ can't wait to jump on it and fly to mars!

moogslob
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Re: SP warm up myth

Post by moogslob » Wed Jan 18, 2012 12:16 pm

My LP took about 10-15 minutes to be "normal", sometimes up to 35-40 in the winter- I'd always make a beeline to the stage and have it powered up before I even had my amp out of the van- If we had an opening act, or were playing a festival and I couldn't have it up there early, I'd make sure to have it plugged in as the drummer set up his kit- Of course there were a few exceptions, usually me being late, and I'd have to plug and play- If you are stuck in that scenario, just use one OSC and keep your hand near the fine tune knob!
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thealien666
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Re: SP warm up myth

Post by thealien666 » Wed Jan 18, 2012 12:32 pm

BTW, the different warming-up speeds of the separate oscillators is one excellent reason to have an instrument with one knob per function, in order to access fine pitch adjusment very rapidly and easily.

True that on the Phatties you only need to push a switch and then adjust the parameter with a knob, but still I prefer just to have to reach for a knob to tweak it...
Moog Minimoog D (1975)
DSI OB6
DSI Prophet REV2
Oberheim Matrix-6
Ensoniq SQ-80
Korg DW8000
Behringer DeepMind 12
Alesis Ion

Nuzayin
Posts: 7
Joined: Sun Jan 15, 2012 1:53 pm

Re: SP warm up myth

Post by Nuzayin » Wed Jan 18, 2012 1:05 pm

cheers guys, some really helpful experiences and information will definitely help a newbie like me into the phatty-land faster~
LP is such a classic design i must say.. pity that I already got the sp that looks like some ground control to major tom kinda thing~ its all good tho!!!

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