MIDI Time Piece?

[mikehalloran]

Thought about that, but didn't want to advocate it. That's actually what I'll most likely do.

Yes, just be careful. It's easy to do.

The reason for the battery is to protect the memory when the power is off. The memory stays good as long as power is on.

I don't know if there's a capacitor to protect the settings while you do this. Unless it is mentioned in the manual, I wouldn't chance it.

[Shooshie]

Thought about that, but didn't want to advocate it. That's actually what I'll most likely do.

Yes, just be careful. It's easy to do.

The reason for the battery is to protect the memory when the power is off. The memory stays good as long as power is on.

I don't know if there's a capacitor to protect the settings while you do this. Unless it is mentioned in the manual, I wouldn't chance it.

It wouldn't surprise me if there IS a capacitor, because you can run these things without a battery, but you have to set it up each time. Well, with stage power being what it is — unreliable and all over the voltage scale — they need something in there to keep the PRAM alive between dips and surges.

But I'd just as soon change the battery while it's running. The only problem being if it's soldered in there, as with the DX7. That battery is not made for customer replacement. You have to take out some layers of hardware, then get it out with a soldering iron. Hopefully these other devices aren't like that. There are two SPX90II boxes, a couple of TG77 boxes, and a TX81Z. The DX7 is sitting by the door, leaning up against the wall. I haven't used it in many, many years. In fact, except for an odd effect here or there, I haven't used any of the rack stuff in at least 6 years, while the Kurzweil 2600 keyboard gets used all the time as a controller, but seldom for its vast sound repertory. Still, I love the K2600, and won't part with it until it simply gives up the ghost. Already replaced its PRAM battery once.

In fact, I wonder if I've replaced the batteries in those other boxes, then forgotten it. I've replaced them in a couple of MOTU boxes, and even replaced the fan in my 1296. Maybe I replaced the batteries in the others, too. But I sure think I'd remember it. No, I really think those are the original batteries.

[dewdman42]

well I threw down for an MTP/AV on ebay for $150. I vaguely recall selling mine 5 years ago for a bit more than that, so I guess I'm still ahead. hehe. Hopefully its one that doesn't need the $20 chip upgrade, but if so, no biggie. I'm not sure if the new XT will perform better or has some feature I will later wish I had, but I guess this will work just fine and that is about the most I wanted to spend anyway.

now what to do with this old parallel port MTP/AV I have here. I guess I have to buy 8 more synths so I can chain the two MIDI interfaces and use all the ports. hehe

[Shooshie]

Ah yes… that's a great idea. Chain them together so that you can fill your rack with old state-of-the-art MIDI boxes. I mean, S-O-T-A for 1992, of course.

I mean, I stare at my MIDI rack sometimes and wonder "why are you still hanging around here?" My friend across the neighborhood, Jim (his monicker in these pages), has sold most of his old MIDI boxes, if I'm not mistaken. I really am not expecting them to come back in vogue. There are reasons we evolved into better ways of doing things (read: Virtual Instruments), and some of those reasons are sitting in my rack! They were downright painful to use. A MIDI Librarian like Unisyn was not just an option, it was a necessity if you were doing a lot of work in a lot of MIDI units.

I still use the MTP's mapping functions, muting, and other matrix functions. Those used to be essential in my performance setups as a pro music director for touring shows. Some of the things that I did could not have been accomplished without those features. It's complicated to explain why, but trust me, even today they would not work without the Clockworks Matrices that turn the MTP-AV into a big MIDI conversion station.

Shoosh

[MIDI Life Crisis]

I held on to my racks as long as i could but don't miss them. THe ones I really wanted were the Korg WSAD and the VI is better than the hardware. The only outboard synth I have is a v-synth which I barely use, but it serves as a great sample playback/processor when I need it. Even my Pc2/Orch is a glorified controller in the studio when it's not being used in a theater. It's just too easy now to call up stuff from a HD.

[mikehalloran]

they need something in there to keep the PRAM alive between dips and surges.

Yes there is. It's the C2032 battery.

But I'd just as soon change the battery while it's running. The only problem being if it's soldered in there, as with the DX7. That battery is not made for customer replacement. You have to take out some layers of hardware, then get it out with a soldering iron

What version of the MTP/AV came with a soldered battery? The battery holder is soldered, yes, but not the battery inside.

Believe me - mine took a couple of minutes to change once I had the MTP cover off (just a few screws). The only reason it took that long is because I have mobility in my right arm only. There is a trick - it involves pushing the battery down and sliding it out of the housing - otherwise, you can break the housing.

If both of my arms worked, I'd take pictures but I can't change the battery and work a camera at the same time.

[Shooshie]

What version of the MTP/AV came with a soldered battery? The battery holder is soldered, yes, but not the battery inside.

Oh, I was talking about some Yamaha rack gear. Sorry… I tend to drift.

I'm not worried about the settings in the MTP-AV. I can recreate those in seconds, or just load a clockworks backup. But the Yamaha gear, if it's like the DX-7, could be trouble. That battery was the hardest thing to replace!

No, the MTP-AV batteries are fine. Not worried about those.

Shooshie

[dewdman42]

Shoosie, I'm with you about the matrix. I believe the "new" XT has the same feature, and adds MIDI merging and rechanneling, its not clear to me that those two features are supported in the older AV or XT. I doubt I would ever gig with it anyway, but even in the studio it will be nice to be able to quickly reroute my MIDI controller to different MIDI devices.

I used to use an MX-8 for my small time live shows. Ever heard of that? http://www.synthony.com/vintage/mx8.html Mainly I loved that device because I could send one program change to the MX-8 and then it would echo out a set of program changes to all the synths in my monster rack of layered synths, in addition to merging, rechanneling and some other MIDI processing too. I actually have one of those laying around here somewhere and will never sell it, though I doubt I'll ever need it again either. hehe.

I don't know if I will ever really need to use some of my old rack gear either, but I have 4 or 5 keyboards (S90, Kawai, Jupiter 80, Triton), and then a few rack synths that I can't sell for enough to be worth it and have some decent utility if I really wanted to use them (K2500R, EX-8000 and XV-5080). Also have a guitar modeler that needs to be connected to MIDI for working on the computer.

Part of the reason those older rack synths never get used is because its not convenient. its just more convenient to use plugins. Since I have them, I'm gonna rack em, plug em into MIDI and try to make it more convenient. Actually some of the sounds I can get from some of those things is simply not replicated by any software very well. Yea, its a headache to deal with presets and all the MIDI editors are out dated now.. but oh well, I just wanna rack em and be creative.