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ChromaTalk Archives: October 2000

chroma problem

Kevin Bayer

my name is kevin and i'm a fairly young user of the rhodes chroma. i've recently had a problem with it that i can't figure out. i don't have the dual foot-switch pedal and was messing around with other pedals to get it to work. everything was working fine and that was about 3 weeks ago. about a week ago i went to play it, and (just to note: it's hooked up to a kurzweil k2000) when i played it all notes worked fine except for the middle A. when i turn it off, the A will play and be sustained and then will not play again and i can't for the life of me figure out how to fix it. when the chroma boots i get a "err 036" and i've tried set splitting and everything. let me know if you know anything. thanks a lot, kevin

David Clarke [21030085++]

my name is kevin and i'm a fairly young user of the rhodes chroma. i've recently had a problem with it that i can't figure out. i don't have the dual foot-switch pedal and was messing around with other pedals to get it to work. ...

This shouldn't cause a problem, as you can successfully use the Chroma without any pedals installed (and it is pretty smart about being able to use different sorts of pedals anyway ...)

everything was working fine and that was about 3 weeks ago. about a week ago i went to play it, and (just to note: it's hooked up to a kurzweil k2000)

Ok - just for clarification then - you have a midi interface on your Chroma, and you've got your K2000 hooked to the Chroma's midi. Correct?

Are you hooking up both midi-in and midi-out on both units - or just using midi-out of the K2000 to go into the Chroma's midi-in?

Any idea which Chroma midi interface you're using? (Chroma Cult? JL Cooper Chromaface?)

when i played it all notes worked fine except for the middle A.

Is this when you play it from the K2000, or when you play it on the local Chroma keyboard (or both)?

when i turn it off, the A will play and be sustained and then will not play again and i can't for the life of me figure out how to fix it. when the chroma boots i get a "err 036" and i've tried set splitting and everything. let me know if you know anything.

The "Err 036" message is a problem, as it indicates that 3 of the 8 voice boards are failing the auto-tune routine (and hence are no longer available for voice assignment). This generally shouldn't cause any 'stuck' or 'hanging' note problems - it will lessen the number of voices available though.

After the Chroma has warmed up for a while, you can attempt to do a new AutoTune to see if any/all of those three boards will pass.

To figure out what's going on I'd recommend that you:

  1. Completely disconnect the K2000 (perform all tests just on the Chroma)
  2. Completely disconnect any/all pedals and footswitches from the Chroma
  3. If you have an externally connect midi interface (i.e., on that attaches via the DB-25 real panel connector) - then disconnect that as well.
  4. Create a 'scratch' patch (by holding down the Param select button and by pressessing each of the 50 program buttons one at a time).

Now press (and release) each key on the keyboard - one at a time - starting from the lowest key and working up to the highest key. Make a note of any keys which do not sound as expected or otherwise or behave 'funny' (i.e., note is sustained indefinitely, doesn't sound, etc.)

If everything works OK to this point, you can start reconnecting things back on to the Chroma and repeating the tests until the problem occurs again.

With your observations from the suggestions above, I'd guess that the members of the list will be able to help you get to the bottom of your difficulties.

Regards (and good luck),

David Clarke

Jeffrey D. McEachin [21030073+]

This shouldn't cause a problem, as you can successfully use the Chroma without any pedals installed (and it is pretty smart about being able to use different sorts of pedals anyway ...)

It's not that the Chroma is SMART, it's that other synths are so damn STUPID! I just wrote a piece of code to read the pedals on the JP6, so I'll show you how easy it is -

Startup code:

Read PedalState
Store InitialPedalState

Pedal code:

Read PedalState
XOR PedalState, InitialPedalState

That's it! The XOR will output a 0 if the pedal is released (the position it was in at startup), and a 1 if it is depressed. It's mindboggling that ALL computer-controlled synths don't do it, it's so simple.

JDM

Ray Hannisian [21030829]

Kevin Bayer wrote:

... when i played it all notes worked fine except for the middle A.

Kevin,

I once had a similar problem that was merely a sticky trigger.

A steady stream of staccato, FF sixteenth notes with both hands on the offending note cleared it up for me.

Sincerely,

Ray Hannisian

David Clarke [21030085++]

It's not that the Chroma is SMART, it's that other synths are so damn STUPID!

You're right ... I was just being kind to the other keyboards ;->

Dave

More on Kevin's problems in Chroma Problem Still (November 2000)