A channel about my various experiments and hacks on a number of things. I'm not an engineer, so I don't know what I'm doing...but that's what makes it fun!
You are connecting high voltage for the old backlight to the LED! It can damage the LED! Just add 2 wires from pin 1 to pin 16 and pin 2 to pin 15 so the LED backlight gets 5 volts. Series resistors are already on the PCB. Remove the old backlight wires.
To answer your question about the jumper, it's due to one of the final board revisions. This surprises me a bit because the white ones were the final batch. It should have had the latest board revision which didn't require the jumper wire. These were manufactured by Gibson after they bought Oberheim. They may have thrown an old board in, or it may have been transplanted from a black one.
Enjoying your vids, but man, you really need a quality solder vacuum. A Hakko is a game changer. It will significantly reduce your stress level removing components
Great vid! For those who are looking for the entire factory library (including the catalogue) just copy paste this into google search: Korg DSS-1 Factory Library for Gotek Flash Floppy HxC owners
As a Gen xer, although I've never owned this sampler, it was reasonably well known about, at least back in the 90s. It was definitely a sales flop, being expensive, not an Akai, physically massive etc. But these were great sounding machines, no doubt. The Roland S-50/S-550/S-330 are from around the same time. I owned a Roland S-330, great sounding, lofi, crunch and warm, all in a 1RU format!
@18:00 You're calling the connections "bottom" and "top" in relation to the camera (and you), when the text on the board is upside down. That might confuse some people.
It shares much of the same dna with the DW8000. Not sure if the filters was the same but they kinda used the same tech making the Wavetables for the DW8000. One funny thing is some of the sample disks from the DSS-1 is converted from 12 bit to the 16bit format of the M-1 and T-series, hence some people bashed the M1 somewhat because not all samples was "true" 16bits but its also some of those gritty sounds that gave the M1 some character even it was fully 16bit digital. The DW was a great hybrid Synth btw. I kinda wish if Korg ever will make a new showstopper Synth to replace the KRONOS, that they would re-introduce a true Analog filter section. I remember the DWG Wavetables never sounded as good in the M1/T3 nor in the Kronos. That Analog filtering is what makes the difference.
I had a DW6000 and absolutely loved it. I also had a Roland Juno 6 but felt it was a one trick pony, everything had that same sound. The DW 6000 really is a true underrated synth. Loved it!
Love these videos on those old synths from mid 80s, I remember this when it was new as 1986 was my into to the synth world and all the magazines like SOS and E&MM at the time... there was basically this, the Sequential Prophet 2002, the Roland S50 and the Mirage as well as the Akai S series which was becoming more and more prominent. It was big technical evolution because us normal guys could just about afford these keyboards as opposed to the previous generation of Emu/Kurzweil samplers... Adding those Gotek drives and have access to libraries sounds like a great idea.
I DO NOT understand why we had no compact & cheap keyboards (or sound module) which could use custom user sounds (like SoundFont format etc). It could be hot device, since we all want our custom keys, and favorit sounds. And of course nobody will carry such monsters from 80th. This is the Real secret.
It was quite new stuff and expensive tech back when this was new. Synths has always been like at least 5 years behind current computer stuff for many years until the last 5-10 years where they have caught up. The main issue in the 80's was memory was EXpensive and too small so first romplers an samplers had like few kilobytes .. take the M1 that came in 89 .. think it had like 512kb rom samples and that was a very decent size for that time having both a bunch of drum 1shot samples and multisamples of a variety of sounds. Today you can actually buy a programable rom card that goes in the M1 and can be filled with your own samples via an usb cable from your computer. Then you can use your own samples in a M1/T1--3. It will show up as a rom card sound but is actually an EEprom chip that you can reprogram as much as you like. You are still bound to the same amount of card memory as the original rom cards, but people could theoretically make a card with a switch .. like the gotec usb where you could switch between eg 16 different virtual cards. Or you could go the cheap way and use an Amiga or PC tracker software sampler. But actual Keyboard samplers was way too expensive for the avg Amiga Demo maker.
Yo! This one evaded my attempts to uncover all the looked-over , disregarded synths w analog filters after I got the jx-8p which like dss1 looks like total snoozefest of early digital crap. Now everyone has realized this about the jx8p, I wonder if DSS-1 can possibly be found at non inflated prices…?!
You can find it, depends on where you live. I for one am selling one of mine since I don't really need two of them. The main issue is the shipping charges since this thing is big and heavy!
I've got one and i love it. It's my dream to have an usb substitute for the floppy, but i'm asking how can i transfer the original floppy disks to the usb key, for i don't know if they're compatible with Windows system, to copy them through a PC
Good question. Either you would need a floppy drive for your PC and then use one of the many apps to convert it to a disk image that is compatible with the Gotten USB format, or find a way to transfer the DSS-1 presets into your PC with a librarian type of app. Either way it's a bit of a challenge for sure. Try the Facebook Korg DSS-1 forum, it's been quite helpful in the past.
You can use the free OmniFlop software to rip your floppies as .dsk files using a cheap PC USB floppy drive, then you use the also free 'Korg DSS-1 CopyQM DSK to IMG and HFE v0.1' software to convert these files into compatible files for use in a USB drive like the Gotek.
Just a thought, Regarding the scratches. Can you get a grey coloured Sharpie to touch them up? Even if it is the wrong shade of grey, it might make them less noticable. PS: I got a pack of coloured Sharpies off of eBay, they are quite cheap, so no real loss if it does not work.
Watched the whole thing bro. Am never going to get a dss1. BUT, I do have an eps16+ And they are not that far apart. Every few years, i have to strip the keybed for a good clean. (It doesnt get used much) i am trying to find a way to get my library off my syquest 135 scsi to put on thumb drive so i dont lose 30 years of samples. 😓🤔 Any tips? 🇦🇺🍻👍
Nice work! But what about the jumpers on the Gotek, did you need to set them in a particular way for this machine? (I've a mixed experience with theses Goteks, on a Yamaha SU700 it was perfectly fine but I've never achieved to make this to work in a Akai S1100)
I have a DW-8000 with the opposite problem. My main output jack doesn't work, but my headphone output is fine. Do you think the op amp that you replace also has something to do with the main out as well, or is there perhaps another separate op amp the main out?
Good question. When I was looking over the circuit board that deals with the front panel volume control, the op-amp that I replaced was the only one that I saw on that board. I am not sure if that opamp controls both the headphone, and the main outputs, in which case replacing it would address both. When you say that your main out doesn't work, what does that mean exactly?
@@kayslabs I get no audio at all out of the main outputs. No crackling or intermittent signal, just silence. But i can get audio from the headphone output.
@@dessiplaer Then I don't think the opamp is at fault. Could be a broken trace, or some wire that is not making the connection between the VCA and the output. Have you checked the plugs PCB, to make sure that you don't have some broken solder somewhere in there?
If I may give you an advice, DON'T put circuit boards over your keyboards (panel and keys), watching your previous videos I noticed that you tend to do that. As you already know PCBs are full of pointy solder joints on the bottom, where the components' pins are, one bad move and you would end scratching your precious instrument. And if the device is not yours but one you're repairing for another person, that's gonna be a very, very big problem. If you have to do that, put something like old newspapers underneath the PCB so that it doesn't touch the surface you're putting it on, and you're good to go. Preferreably don't use plasticky things like bags, bubblewrap, etc as plastics often tend to build electrostatic charges which are bad for ICs.
So good, I love the dw8000, im legit sitting next to it in the studio... Korg really should do another fullsize run of the dw8000, multi timbrality would have been really the only thing i would want added, along with sick surface controls obviously.
Sounds like you need to replace the Yes button switch. It's fairly easy to do. You will need to buy a TACT SWITCH 12*12MM 7.3MM THROUGH HOLE SPST from a place like Tayda or Mouser.
I watched your two videos about this repair, I also have a DW8000 and I love this instrument, your step by step was very interesting and instructive, I also do my repairs and I say that I am not a 'mega technician', I am like you, I do my trials and errors and try to find someone to blame for some defect. Congratulations on the video
too bad the digital oscillator/analog filter concept wasn't explored a little longer. it had a brief window in the mid 80s, then affordable sampling came along and that was that. this was really the last period of real synthesizers.
Great work - had one of these from a fire damage sale and it had issues different to yours but still took a while to get it there. Having a 2nd working unit to reference is invaluable. And yes the keyboard assembly/disassembly was a royal pita. But I now have two working so can stack or run them in true stereo for that huge Oberheim sound.
Nice work! I just recently reacquired my Oberheim Matrix-6 keyboard and installed all of my old patches on there. I'm running through a Boss Super Chorus CE 300 and a Bigsky reverb unit and my OB-6 is getting a bit jealous. Thanks for this great and informative upload!
You should have used solder wik that sucks the solder up. That way you could have replaced the LCD's in a flash. even if they where not defective. But you also should have removed all those wires prior to that. to prevent all that damage. These displays almost never fail, it's the wiring or the drivers (IC's)
Interesting video - congratulations on the repair. I suspect that another problem that may arise with equipment of this age is the electrolytic capacitors - it is best to preemptively replace all of them so that they do not spill and cause more damage in the future....