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ChromaTalk Archives: February 2015

Re: CC+ firmware 218 offers MIDI Syncable LFO/Sweep & Microtonal Tuning

Go to first message in thread, January 2015.

Thorsten Thiele · Sun, 1 Feb 2015 09:54:35 +0100

Hi David,

what a wonderful gift! I can remember your problem in the beginning of the midi-sync project beeing implemented in CC+ that the chroma defines the sweep rate in time not in frequency. I am very very happy with midi-sync in the chroma and the microtuning option is interesting too. What a challenge to play to turkish strings... I would have the chance to burn the new firmware in an EPROM next week. So it would be kind of you to send it to me in advance.

Warm greetings from the cold north of germany, Thorsten

Eric Frampton [21030501] · Sun, 1 Feb 2015 14:47:15 -0500

Hi David - Just wanted to add my voice to the choir in saying THIS IS GREAT! Thank you for continuing to support it!

David Clarke [21030085++] · Sun, 1 Feb 2015 21:11:56 -0400

Just as note - while the title says "Microtonal Tuning", the implementation is such that it is really able to do "arbitrary note-by-note tuning." I make this distinction because if you're like me - when you think of 'Microtonal Tuning', you may think of 'alternate' tunings across a keyboard.

While the new firmware will certainly do that - it doesn't actually have to implement a whole new 'scale'. Instead, the user could (for instance) duplicate part of the keyboard. So - instead of:

C1 -> C2 -> C3 -> C4 -> C5

you might have:

C3 -> C4 -> C3 -> C4 -> C5

This would allow you to have access to the same 'note' on different keys. Why would you want this? Well - you could use it to selectively 'fatten' the same note, just by hitting two keys instead of one.

Or - instead of having an exact copy - maybe you'd detune the copy a bit - so you can normally play the clean note - and then when desired, have it detune - or play the detuned note in concert with the non-detuned note.

Of course, some of these things could be done with split patches with different amounts of transpose or with different pitch offsets or with an external MIDI mapper - but if you use a split patch, then you've got at least two instruments defined - and if you're using polyphonic patches, that will drop your per-instrument number of voices in half. If you did it with a remapped keyboard, then you don't 'lose' any extra polyphony. As well, with a custom key map you could have more than the 2 sets of frequency relationships that you'd otherwise be able to get from two overlapping patches.

I'm sure others could think of inventive things to do with the mapping (e.g., have 8 keys all assigned to the same frequency - so it would sort of like being in a 'stacked' mode - but unlike a mono mode today, instead having all voices start/end their notes at the same time, the user could add/remove more portions of the same note at different times with the different keys.)

I just wanted to mentioned some other ideas in case people might have thought that the microtonal tuning ability would only give an opportunity of using alternate tunings across the whole keyboard.

David Clarke

William Santana [21030244] · 0800 To: Rhodes

This is truly great news. Would you be willing to send a bin. file way? Muchas Gracias.

David Clarke [21030085++] · Wed, 4 Feb 2015 08:07:26 -0400

All - just a quick note to let you know that the Rhodes Chroma site has now been updated with the information for the 218 firmware.

The firmware image is available here: The Chroma CPU Plus (CC+): Firmware - 218 (December 2014)

There have also been corresponding updates made to the User's Guide.

Unrelated to the 218 firmware there have also been a couple small maintenance updates made to: The Chroma CPU Plus (CC+): Installation Instructions and Alphanumeric Display

(Chris Ryan [21030691] - thank you for incorporating the changes).

David Clarke

David Hobson [21030506] · Wed, 4 Feb 2015 08:59:37 -0500

David,

I do not have a way to program an EPROM.

What should I do to make the upgrade happen for me?

Thanks.

CC+ arrived, looks great, except for....

Bob Grieb [21030025] · Wed, 04 Feb 2015 20:37:10 -0500

The tapper is going crazy. It was OK with the old CPU bd. Taps a lot more when we are not playing keys, it seems. It does tap when it is supposed to, but also when it's not. Nothing is touched and the tapper is tapping maybe 3-4 times/second.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Bob

David Clarke [21030085++] · Wed, 4 Feb 2015 22:57:25 -0400

Bob - the 'tapper' code in the CC+ plus is unchanged from the original Chroma CPU, and so generally we'd expect functionality to be the same.

It is expected that the CC+ will draw a lot less power than the original CPU board, and so just as a general comment - if not already done - it would be recommended to check/evaluate the overall power supply voltages and adjustments after the CC+ is installed.

In terms of the tapper itself, a key item to review will be the "program modified" decimal point on the display. Select a patch such that the LED goes off. Make note of what is shown in the small DATA READOUT LED display.

Now wait for the phantom tap to occur. When it does, look to see if the "program modified" decimal point is now on. If it is, then the Chroma thinks it saw some parameter change. By comparing what was in the DATA READOUT LED with what is now in the DATA READOUT you may get an idea as to 'what' it thinks has changed. Continuing to watch the small DATA READOUT space while the tapping is occuring will let you know what buttons/settings are of concern - and then you can look more closely at those (e.g., a ribbon cable might have been nudged during the installation - or perhaps a panel button is just now a little sensitive).

If the tapper fires but the "program modified" LED doesn't light, then we'd want to see if the big Program Number LED is changing.

If the tapper fires but neither the program modified LED comes on, nor is there a corresponding change in the big or small LED displays on the front panel - then focus would be on the electronics around the tapper itself on the I/O board (e.g., an electrical behaviour vs. a logical behaviour being interpreted by the CPU).

Best regards,

David Clarke

Eric Frampton [21030501] · Wed, 4 Feb 2015 23:36:02 -0500

I’m running into a similar behavior on #0501. Ever since I re-assembled it, when it’s cold it’ll start acting as if various buttons on the bottom row of the left-hand membrane panel are being pressed (most often Link Unison). The tapper will fire (sometimes rapid-fire), and the corresponding LED will blink. The odd thing is, if I physically disconnect that membrane panel, the unit will act the same way. Odder (?) still, when I raise the front panel to troubleshoot the I/O board, the problem always goes away as long as the panel is raised - which makes troubleshooting challenging.

Assuming the membranes are all connected, and with the front panel closed, if I tap on it it’ll act like random left-hand membrane buttons are being pushed. Then if I knock hard enough, it’ll usually freeze the whole machine up, requiring a power-cycle to reboot.

PSU voltages are spot-on.

My machine never ran with the original CPU board in it while I’ve had it, so I can’t speak for pre/post CC+ behavior.

Wonder if this is one or more microscopic trace cracks, or if there’s something on the edge of getting grounded out in the way the I/O board is mounted?

e

Paul DeRocco [21030230] · Wed, 4 Feb 2015 20:45:07 -0800

I suppose there could be some silver ink residue in one of the tail connectors, or some other metal fleck from somewhere. I'd try blowing or brushing it out.

Bob Grieb [21030025] · Thu, 05 Feb 2015 08:04:57 -0500

Hi,

I ended up fixing the issue with the tapper by adding an additional ground wire from the CC+ board to the I/O board. On the CC+ there is a thick trace near one of the flexes, which is connected to ground. I used an ohm meter to buzz it to pin 10 of the HCT245 data bus buffer. The wire was added from there to a gnd on the I/O board pretty close to J2. My unit had a ground wire from the same pt to the old CPU bd, as it was one of the first 50 Chroma's. Anyway, that fixed the issue, so I think it's a "signal integrity" problem involving some extra gnd noise causing data bus misreads every so often. The extra tapping was perhaps just one symptom. Probably other things would have been affected as well. +5V digital measures 5.02 IIRC, so that's fine.

BTW, my unit has a brand new I/O board, populated mostly with new LS chips, and it worked fine with the old CPU board. No extra tapping.

Bob

David Clarke [21030085++] · Thu, 5 Feb 2015 19:58:00 -0400

... I ended up fixing the issue with the tapper by adding an additional ground wire from the CC+ board to the I/O board... My unit had a ground wire from the same pt to the old CPU bd, as it was one of the first 50 Chroma's...

All - following up on this, there are some considerations to keep in mind if your Chroma used to have one of the original, white ARP CPU boards with the dedicated wire on it - as shown here:

oldcputhumb

More specifically there is a consideration if you're installing a newer CPU board (be that a newer/green 'original' CPU board or a CC+) when the Chroma uses one of the old ARP I/O boards that was originally connected with a separate ground wire to the CPU board.

The consideration here is that while the schematics show a dedicated ground to a buffer on the CPU board called 'Buffer Digital Ground' - this wasn't present on the original ARP CPU boards, and instead it was implemented with that separate wire that connects the CPU board and the I/O board.

For all later Chroma implementations, the CPU circuit boards matched what the schematic shows - namely P9-2, -3, and -4 are the general digital ground signals and P9-1 is a dedicated ground line that goes from P9-1 directly to pin 10 of Z2. The CC+ implements the circuit from the schematic (as do the later 'original' green CPU boards) - meaning that the ground connection for Z2 comes from the P9-1 ground.

(Note - this shouldn't have been a concern in Bob's case, as Bob reports using a new I/O board which should have presented the desired grounding from the I/O board).

David Clarke

Go to next message in thread, May 2015

Firmware Upgrade and EPROM Question

David Hobson [21030506] · Wed, 4 Feb 2015 23:24:30 -0500

Hello,

I do not have any way of programming an EPROM so that I might upgrade my firmware to the latest version.

How can I make the firmware update happen for me?

Thank you,

David Hobson.

William Santana [21030244] · Wed, 4 Feb 2015 22:30:22 -0800

Hey David, I could burn one for you. Aren't you in the NW?

David Hobson [21030506] · Thu, 5 Feb 2015 13:31:16 -0500

Hey William, Thank you for the response. For some reason this went into my spam folder.

I live in Pennsylvania. But I would be willing to take you up on your offer.

Do you have the EPROM chip, or would I have to provide the chip? Also, can I just upgrade the existing EPROM from the CC+?

And the obvious question, How would you like to be reimbursed?

Again, Thank you for your reply.

David Hobson.

William Santana [21030244] · Fri, 6 Feb 2015 20:20:47 -0800

I will do a run of firmware 218 EPROMS. If anybody needs one give me a shout so I know how Many EPROMs to get.

David Hobson [21030506] · Sat, 7 Feb 2015 23:39:46 -0500

Hello William.

I will be needing 3 EPROMS.

Any idea of the cost?

Thank you for doing this.

Al Tutlys [21030645] · Sun, 8 Feb 2015 08:29:20 -0500

Appreciate your help , put me on that list & let me know the exact particulars. Thanks, al Tutlys

William Santana [21030244] · Sun, 8 Feb 2015 19:34:17 +0000

The EPROMs are ordered. I found a source from a reputable dealer inside the U.S. for refurbished ST M27C256B-12 EPROMs. Once they arrive, I will test all programmed ICs against their checksum as is the standard course with my burner setup. Send me $20 via Paypal at [email address removed].

Delivery time should take 1-2 weeks at most.

William Santana [21030244] · Sun, 8 Feb 2015 13:14:47 -0800

If you are ordering multiple EPROMs, just add $5 on top of the base $20 price for one. So, if you need 4, then send $35. W. Santana.

William Santana [21030244] · Sat, 14 Feb 2015 10:02:18 -0800

The EPROMs have arrived for the 218 firmware upgrades. I have 22 remaining. $20 for 1. add $5 for each additional EPROM. Add $15 for outside U.S. destinations.

William Santana [21030244] · Sat, 14 Feb 2015 22:21:02 +0000

Hey David,

I have the EPROMs here. I have had several requests for EPROMs so I bought a batch. If you would still like one, just send me $20 and I will mail one out to you.

Happy Chroma programming,
William Santana

William Santana [21030244] · Sat, 14 Feb 2015 22:26:46 +0000

I will be needing 3 EPROMS.

Any idea of the cost?

As I am going through the emails, you need 3 now so, $30 total.

William Santana [21030244] · Sat, 14 Feb 2015 22:29:25 +0000

Appreciate your help , put me on that list & let me know the exact particulars. Thanks, al Tutlys

Let me know if you are in the U.S. or not. Basically, it is $20 for one EPROM and that covers, cost of part, programming and shipping. $35 if it is going outside of the U.S. $5 for each addition EPROM.

Buddy Casino [21010137] · Sun, 15 Feb 2015 09:34:45 +0100

Hi William,

I would like to have one of those EPROM's I'm living in Zuerich Switzerland. So I will send you 35.-USD via PayPal. O.k.? Do I need your home address for the money transfer?

Cheers, Buddy

P.s. Is there more then one needed to up date the software, since other guy' order a couple of them?

William Santana [21030244] · Sat, 28 Feb 2015 16:24:46 +0000

218 firmware EPROMs

I am sending out a batch of orders in the mail today. I just wanted to give a another notice that I have more 218 EPROMs in stock if anyone else needs them.

Battery Check (Reminder)

David Clarke [21030085++] · Sat, 7 Feb 2015 15:32:43 -0400

Checking the condition of the batteries in equipment was on my 'to do' list today - so as a reminder, if you haven't done so in a while, it wouldn't be a bad idea to check your Chroma, Expander and Polaris (among other things). Batteries are cheap - CPU boards aren't. A set of fresh batteries is a nice preventative measure.

For the Chroma issue a "Set Split-6" ("Special Funct-6" on your Expander) and view the voltage in the display window.

The Service Manual says anything under 2.5V is bad.

If you wanted to check your Polaris at the same time - that would be LF-D-1. Two or more LEDs in the assignable Control section indicates things are OK.

While you're at it, if you have other things that uses changable batteries too (e.g., ARP Quadra, pinball machines, etc.) - this woudln't be a bad time to check those too.

David Clarke

Brian McCully [21030361] · Sat, 7 Feb 2015 13:39:01 -0800

Yes - excellent prompt! I -just- changed 4 sets of batteries out of two K2000R's and two K2500's, after I got a call from my friend who said that the batteries had corroded in his K2000R and that it was torture to get them out of the tube that is the battery housing design for the K2000R. I also applied a label with the date of the new install, on each/all of the relevant keyboard, modules, etc. Luckily with the CC+ that's no longer an issue for the Chroma (yay!).

Jeffrey D. McEachin · Sat, 07 Feb 2015 14:20:57 -0800

At 11:32 AM 2/7/2015, David Clarke wrote:

While you're at it, if you have other things that uses changable batteries too (e.g., ARP Quadra, pinball machines, etc.) - this woudln't be a bad time to check those too.

I own an arcade with lots of pinball machines (Ground Kontrol in Portland). We've recently switched to using lithium AAs for memory backup, since they're noncorrosive. Think I'll buy some for my Chromas, too.

Jeffrey

Al Tutlys [21030645] · Sun, 8 Feb 2015 08:31:03 -0500

I agree, excellent reminder...ditto on one of the advantages of the CC+!

Midi latency

Buddy Casino [21010137] · Sat, 14 Feb 2015 16:09:41 +0100

Dear Chroma aficionados,

I always enjoyed playing the Chroma keyboard, the wooden keys and all.

I'm running a Grand Piano emulation (Synthogy, Ivory) on my very fast Mac Book together with an Apogee soundcard. (Also considered to be "the fastest gun in town")

But.............I do experience a disturbing delay on some notes when I'm playing faster Jazz type chords with six or more Notes at the same time, using the Chroma as a masterkeyboard.

This doesn't occurre when I connect the computer to other rather cheep Midi keyboards. (with awful plastic keys)

Is there a way to make the Chroma Keyboard respond faster. Or filter out unused Midi messages?

Or is it the fact, that the Chroma's computer is simple ancient and not made for this century's fancy gadget's?

Brian McCully [21030361] · Sat, 14 Feb 2015 08:29:12 -0800

Hi Buddy,

I haven't experienced this with my older MBP or iMac. What Mac OS? What MIDI interface? What's the Chroma firmware? Are the other keyboards connected directly via USB, or through the same interface?

Do you use Midi monitoring to see what the Chroma is outputting. Possibly you can see how fast it's outputting (note on's, plus anything else), and/or notice offsets with large block-type chords.

I use the MIDI Monitor app from Snoize (and I use SysEx Librarian as well)

Are you running the software in stand alone mode, or with a DAW? What host DAW application are you using? Are the latency settings at say 128 (vs 256 or 512)? Do the latency settings make any difference?

In the DAW, can you record the audio and MIDI at the same time and then compare the time offset between the starts of the MIDI notes, and the corresponding audio, when/where there is delay? It would help to quantify the delay and the number of notes you're playing, up to and beyond the jazz/block chords - at the point of experiencing the delay. It may just be a buffering problem in the software with whatever the Chroma is outputting (vs what the cheaper plastic keyboards are outputting). You can try the same test setup with the other keyboards as well.

Does this happen playing other audio plug-ins (other than the Ivory plug)?

- Brian

Buddy Casino [21010137] · Sat, 14 Feb 2015 20:37:11 +0100

Hi Brian,

thanks for your quicke response.

I stumbled across the local off function in the menu of the Chroma "baby"

and guess what? I turned it off, N O latency at all!

Now I'm facing another problem.

How do I play my Chroma patches? Another Keyboard to carry around

But to answer your questions.

I'm using the Plug in on two different computers...........

iMac OS 10.6.8 at home and Mac Book Retina on the road, OS Yosemite 10.10.

The firmware on the Chroma is 217.

Do you update to 218?

I'm using Abelton live 9 and the Apogee Ensemble sound card. In Abelton I've checked everything, different latency settings, monitoring, sampling rates................

As I mentioned the whole thing works absolutely fine with that Yamaha"trash keyboard" of my girlfriend, hooked up to the Mac with the simplest Midi connection. (one in..............one out)

Bye, Buddy

Jeff Bova [21030407++] · Sat, 14 Feb 2015 11:52:05 -0800

Send midi to your chroma from Live. With local turned off, route midi out of chroma to a Live midi track then send midi out of that channel to the chroma. Control the channels and routing from Live.

Best,

Jeff

Brian Fifield [21030920]Brian McCully [21030361] · Sat, 14 Feb 2015 14:17:52 -0800

Hi Buddy,

I agree with Jeff. But I'm not sure why Local On/off made the difference.

what is the MIDI interface for the Chroma, and for the Yamaha keyboard?

The Chroma CPU Plus (CC+): User's Guide - Configuration Interface & MIDI Support lists P4 as toggling the patch change send, and P17 as the Local On/off toggle. I'm not sure if Local on/off makes a difference as to whether patch changes will be sent - but that is why the MIDI monitoring program is a very useful utility - because it shows what is (and sometimes more importantly - what isn't) being output by the Chroma into the Mac.

Nope haven't updated to the latest firmware yet - very patiently waiting for some EEPROMs.

cheers, - Brian

Buddy Casino [21010137] · Sun, 15 Feb 2015 00:58:56 +0100

No, it only appears on my Chroma.

I'm more of a vintage keyboard guy. The only other synth I have is a Virus Indigo from Access. I tried it with the Virus being the slave and the Chroma as the Master keyboard. With local on I had that same delay. The Midi interface is from EMU systems. Rather simple.......but funny enough it works on that cheep Keyboard without any problem. So it can only be caused by that chroma.

I'm definitely getting one of those Midi monitoring Apps.

Thank for the hint!

Ciao, Buddy

Brian McCully [21030361] · Sat, 14 Feb 2015 21:07:11 -0800

Is there any delay between the Chroma MIDI out directly plugged into the Virus Access MIDI in?

Or ...

if there aren't enough voices on the Access (to replicate this Synthogy Ivory latency situation for big jazz chords plus extra note = delays), do you have another keyboard that has plenty of voices that you can plug the Chroma MIDI out directly into its MIDI in?

Trouble shooting is one small step at a time...

the MIDI Monitor app is free. You just need to download and install it.

Brian

Buddy Casino [21010137] · Sun, 15 Feb 2015 09:54:29 +0100

Yes, the Delay Situation with the Chroma's Midi out being connected to the Virus's Midi in is the same. The best way to check it, is to put my entire forearm on all the black keys. There is no problem when I have set it to "local off" on the Chroma.

A friend of mine suspected a Midifeed back might cause all if this, but I did not connect the Midi in on the Chroma. So.......actually no way to get a feed back if I'm note mistaken

Buddy

Brian McCully [21030361] · Sun, 15 Feb 2015 08:54:46 -0800

Yes Buddy, I'd agree with your friend's assessment as well. This might be something for David Clarke to check out for us. As a cautionary note, we might want to hold off on the firmware update...

David Clarke [21030085++] · Sun, 15 Feb 2015 15:20:02 -0400

... This might be something for David Clarke to check out for us.

Following up to Brian's original suggestion, looking at the MIDI stream would help us better understand what is on the wire.

That said - the first thing we'd want to clarify in terms of the discussion - and this is the most important - is whether we're talking about latency bewteen notes or latency to the first note. (e.g., if you press down a whole bunch of keys at the same time, is it that the notes are seen to be received spread apart - or is it if a whole bunch are played, then they all 'sound' at the same time on the remote MIDI device, but there's a delay between when the keys are pressed and when the sound starts on the remote device?)

I wouldn't expect there to be a significant issue with regard to a latency between keys - but depending on the sort of keyboard algorithm chosen in the Chroma's local patch, I would expect you could have a reasonable gap between when a large number of notes are played locally on the Chroma and when the notes are transmitted if you (for instance) have the Chroma's current patch set to "All Channels Mono."

This delay could indeed be impacted by the Local On setting because that setting directly controls whether the Chroma has to perform the work of local voice allocation and voice redefintion.

As an example - if you set a patch with Parameter 3 (Keyboard Algorithm) set to "All Channels Mono" and then you press down a whole bunch of keys then you'll actually see the big PROGRAM NUMBER LED go out for a period of time. If the 'latency' we're talking about is related to the behaviour of that LED (e.g., MIDI data delayed until that LED is showing again), then the behaviour is related.

David Clarke

Buddy Casino [21010137] · Sun, 15 Feb 2015 22:11:41 +0100

Hi David,

I try to be as precise as possible, although I'm a musician and just starting to understand what's happening in and around the good old Chroma.

Following up to Brian's original suggestion, looking at the MIDI stream would help us better understand what is on the wire.

That said - the first thing we'd want to clarify in terms of the discussion - and this is the most important - is whether we're talking about latency _bewteen_ notes or latency _to the first note_. (e.g., if you press down a whole bunch of keys at the same time, is it that the notes are seen to be received spread apart - or is it if a whole bunch are played, then they all 'sound' at the same time on the remote MIDI device, but there's a delay between when the keys are pressed and when the sound starts on the remote device?)

If I press down as many keys as I can reach with my flat hands, the whole cluster is heard with a noticeable delay. That is with "local on"

If I play my jazz voicings (6 to 8) keys, then my musical ear would tell me.........that guy is dragging, and slightly behind the beat. Just a hair....and sometimes there are 'ghost notes' I certainly didn't play, cause with local off I don't hear that sort of thing.

Now, I checked Midi thru.......out The latency seem to be less. But I can still tell when playing 12 notes at a time.

I wouldn't expect there to be a significant issue with regard to a latency between keys - but depending on the sort of keyboard algorithm chosen in the Chroma's local patch, I would expect you could have a reasonable gap between when a large number of notes are played locally on the Chroma and when the notes are transmitted if you (for instance) have the Chroma's current patch set to "All Channels Mono."

Y E S, when put parameter 3 to 15.......then there is also. N O!!! Latency. Set to zero, then I hear severely

How that ever comes about, anyway I'm glad we found out with you help.

Buddy

Buddy Casino [21010137] · Sun, 15 Feb 2015 22:44:16 +0100

Ah ha,

I was listening to the other synth over my headphone, not hearing the Chroma. Now I noticed, that P3 set to 15 is appeggiator mode. Then it's clear why there was no latency.

David Clarke [21030085++] · Sun, 15 Feb 2015 21:00:41 -0400

... I try to be as precise as possible...

Thank you for the additional data.

If I press down as many keys as I can reach with my flat hands, the whole cluster is heard with a noticeable delay. That is with "local on"

This 'overall' delay can occur, based on what you're otherwise asking the Chroma to do (e.g., the keyboard algorithm, how much processing in the patch, etc.).

As you've noted, this behaviour can be mittigated by the type of algorithm being used - and can be completely addressed by setting 'Local Off', which thus prevents the Chroma from actually trying to 'do' anything with the key data, other than just sending it out.

If the desire is to primarily use the Chroma as a master keyboard (controlling other modules) then certainly using Local Off would be an appropriate approach.

If I play my jazz voicings (6 to 8) keys, then my musical ear would tell me.........that guy is dragging, and slightly behind the beat. Just a hair....and sometimes there are 'ghost notes' I certainly didn't play, cause with local off I don't hear that sort of thing.

I wouldn't expect there to be some notes that were selectively delayed and certainly the bigger concern here is the comment about the 'ghost notes.' The Chroma shouldn't ever be sending notes that you didn't otherwise request.

... Now, I checked Midi thru.......out The latency seem to be less...

For the CC+, while the MIDI Out/Thru configuration item ([Set Split 36][P3]) does appear in the configuration menu it is only present to mirror the Syntech menu structure. This setting doesn't actually 'do' anything for the CC+ so it would not be expected you'd see an operational difference between one setting or the other.

I'm pleased to hear that using Local Off addressed the concern there - but if you later find there is a behaviour occuring that should be investigated, please do not hesistate to let us know.

David Clarke

Buddy Casino [21010137] · Mon, 16 Feb 2015 08:00:05 +0100

Hi David,

if you don't mind my various questions....... After all that parameter changing I've done yesterday, something strange happened. Now I'm missing notes when I play the keyboard of the Chroma. It is every eight's note, so I play 7 keys and the eight's doesn't make a sound. But not from the beginning. I tried set split 50, and set split 31 I turned the Chroma off for a while, at first it behaved as usual, then it took 5 minutes, and there it was again. In the beginning I thought that some individual notes were softer and had different timbres.

Is one of the voice boards dead maybe?

Should I take the voice boards in and out? Maybe there is just a bad contact. I've done that often in the past with my Emulator II and it worked. But, would a calibration be necessary after that? I couldn't do that myself.

I forgot how to shut off individual voiceboards, to see which one has a problem. I've done that a couple times last year but can't remember how to do it.

Oh yes, there are no error messages what so ever!

Buddy

Buddy Casino [21010137] · Mon, 16 Feb 2015 08:35:16 +0100

Hi Dave,

It's me "a g a i n"

With a little patience I found the reason for that behavior.

Set Split 7 showed me, there is a problem with voiceboard 1, Error message.

I killed it, and no more dead notes.

So I'm gonna replace it and see what happens.

Have a nice day,

Buddy

SysEx

Buddy Casino [21010137] · Tue, 17 Feb 2015 21:40:54 +0100

Hi David,
on my way through the Chroma Universe I just came across the Midi a Dump/ Request function.

I found set split 20 and it works perfectly with the SysEx librarian. Now, how do I dump, or request 50 Programs?

  • Single Program Dump
  • Single Program Dump Request
  • Fifty Program Dump
  • Fifty Program Dump Request

Thnx in advance, Buddy

David Clarke [21030085++] · Tue, 17 Feb 2015 16:49:41 -0400

... Now, how do I dump, or request 50 Programs?

With reference to The Chroma CPU Plus (CC+): User's Guide:

[Set Split 36][P23] will locally initiate a dump of all 50 programs. For instance - if you have a librarian 'waiting' to receive data, this is generally the approach you'd take.

If you want to remotely request the 50 program dump, then that can be requested by sysex as noted here The Chroma CPU Plus (CC+): User's Guide - MIDI System Exclusive (SysEx)

Specifically - send F0 08 00 4B 59 00 33 F7 from your librarian and the Chroma will respond back with the 50 program dump.

David Clarke

Faulty Motherboard Channel 3 - "Err 3"

Thorsten Pörschke [21030734] · Wed, 18 Feb 2015 08:34:12 +0000

Hello

I have a faulty slot 3 at the motherboard, the chroma shows “Err 3” during boot but when I replace the voice card in 3 with a different slot the error stays on slot 3

When I run the set split 31 and then set split 40 I receive the following error codes (as if the whole voice board is missing):

  • C6E0- Oscillator scale factor high end measurement
  • C6E1- Oscillator scale factor low end measurement
  • C6E3- Oscillator offset measurement
  • C6E5- Filter scale factor high end measurement
  • C6E6- Filter scale factor low end measurement
  • C6E7- Filter scale factor computation
  • C6E8- Filter offset measurement
  • C7E0- Oscillator scale factor high end measurement
  • C7E1- Oscillator scale factor low end measurement
  • C7E3- Oscillator offset measurement
  • C7E5- Filter scale factor high end measurement
  • C7E6- Filter scale factor low end measurement
  • C7E7- Filter scale factor computation
  • C7E8- Filter offset measurement

My problem is that I currently have no real equipment to check the motherboard, based on the error and schematics I assume Z12A from the data strobe decoder to be the culpriet, what do you guys think?

Are there any test I can do with a digital multimeter to prove my theory or to narrow down the issue?

Thank you for your help
Thorsten

John Leimseider [21030434++] · Thu, 19 Feb 2015 05:54:49 +0000

I'd look for battery acid damage, particularly around all the connector pins. The last MB problem I had to fix had damage to the key contact board and the MBA... It was sitting in the case, so the battery acid dripped down to both areas.

Chroma Slider Question

David Hobson [21030506] · Wed, 18 Feb 2015 09:34:11 -0500

Hello,

I am wondering if anyone knows whether or not the Chroma Polaris sliders are the same that were used on the Chroma???

Thank you.

David Gowin [21030611] · Thu, 19 Feb 2015 00:37:53 +0000

I would hazard a guess that's a big nope. The time difference between when the Chroma was produced and the Polaris being produced were a few years apart!

(being a lucky owner of one Chroma and 2 Polaris (Polarii?)

Paul DeRocco [21030230] · Wed, 18 Feb 2015 17:00:45 -0800

The sliders used in most Polarises, which had white plastic bodies and gray colored metal frames, were completely different from the Chroma sliders, which had phenolic boards and larger yellowish metal frames. I believe some early Polarises used sliders of the latter type, but I don't know if they had the same footprint as the Chroma ones.

If you've got a bad slider, it's worth trying to open it up and repair it. Often, the only thing that's wrong is dirty tracks or contacts, or bent contacts. You may also be able to replace the sliders with the Alpha RA300BF-10-20D1-B10K (30mm) or RA4520F-10-20D1-B10K (45mm) from Mouser, if you flatten out the lugs, run wires to the pads on the board, and then hot-glue it into place.

David Hobson [21030506] · Thu, 19 Feb 2015 01:17:22 -0500

Thank you for the response (S)

I will go ahead and take apart the offending slider.

Regards.

Error 1

Tobias Menguser [21010303] · Sun, 22 Feb 2015 20:22:25 +0100

Hi guys,

I played with my Chroma today and was surprised that during the boot process the message „error 1“ came up.

Does anybody know what that means?

When playing with the Chroma I didn’t see any obvious faults.

Best from Berlin,
Tobias

Chris Ryan [21030691] · Sun, 22 Feb 2015 11:33:24 -0800

It’s not an error number: it indicates that channel board 1 has been disabled. See Performance Manual: Diagnostics - Error Messages.

Tobias Menguser [21010303] · Sun, 22 Feb 2015 20:43:41 +0100

Hi Chris,

Thanks for your quick reply.

I didn’t manually disable board 1 and couldn’t turn the channel back on (by pressing [SET SPLIT], [50] (reset). The ‚err 1‘ still comes up unfortunately.

Any other ideas?

Best,
Tobias

Jesper Ödemark [21010135] · Sun, 22 Feb 2015 21:21:55 +0100

The Chroma disables it when it cannot tune it. Try switching places between boards inside to see if it's the board or the socket etc.

Tobias Menguser [21010303] · Mon, 23 Feb 2015 16:42:19 +0100

Ok, I’ll try this out asap as soon as I’ll have time, being in the mottle of a move at the moment..

Howie Shen [21030552] · Mon, 23 Feb 2015 16:37:42 +0000

You don't have to even switch the voice boards around necessarily - often simply re-seating the indicated board (by slightly lifting it up and then wiggling it back down) is enough to reestablish a flakey contact. Every so often I get a similar ERROR message on power-up for any 1 of the boards, and so far 100% of the time reseating it fixes it.

Good luck!
Howie

Tobias Menguser [21010303] · Mon, 23 Feb 2015 19:13:51 +0100

Hi Howie,

Thanks for your helping advice, I’ll try re-seating the indicated board later this week and let you know if this works.

Good luck!

Thanks a lot!!

Cheers,
Tobias

Rhodes Chroma 21030472 update

Craig P. [21030472] · Sun, 22 Feb 2015 22:55:46 +0000

I just received the completed work order for my chroma that has been in the shop for 2 years now. After a hefty overhaul, it's in perfect working order. I am still waiting for it to arrive and will post updates when it does. For now, the registry can be updated to show that it is in working condition. Here is the album of its external restoration as well as the work order. I am tempted to sell but I also feel obligated to keep it due to the way in which I acquired it (found abandoned).

Looking forward to playing this beast real soon.

Looking for early ARP-labeled Chroma PSU assembly

Howie Shen [21030552] · Sat, 28 Feb 2015 23:12:59 +0000

Hi all,

Do any of you have an ARP-labeled PSU that I can buy? Perhaps after upgrading to a new switching PSU you held on to it, or maybe you are thinking about upgrading and can use my offer to buy yours as an incentive? Doesn't have to be working, but has to be an early ARP-labeled one.

Thanks!
Howie

Michael McInnis [21030027] · Sat, 28 Feb 2015 18:29:50 -0500

My tech was selling my old one on ebay. I would guess it might still be there.

Regards,

MM

Michael McInnis [21030027] · Sat, 28 Feb 2015 18:32:58 -0500

I'll contact him. It doesn't seem to be listed anymore.

Regards,

MM

Howie Shen [21030552] · Mon, 2 Mar 2015 00:27:32 +0000

Hi Michael, I believe the one on ebay by New England Analog sold several months ago - is that the PSU you gave them? I actually saw the Buy It Now auction listing, but someone bought it before I could.

Or is it a different one you are referring to?

Much thanks for the response,
Howie

Michael McInnis [21030027] · Sun, 01 Mar 2015 21:10:04 -0500

That was it. Sorry!

Regards,

MM

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