Resurrecting the orange beast

Many years ago I bought a secondhand Waldorf XTK synth. I blogged about receiving the orange beast and setting it up on this website but I never really used it much. About six years ago a change in family circumstances meant that the Waldorf was placed into storage and was only occasionally glimpsed on a loft visit or a root around the garage.

This was a shame as the synth is very good and it cost me quite a lot of money. Happily the XTK has held its value and understandably, seems to be even harder to come by eleven years later.

Having pulled the keyboard out of the garage to protect it from some building work at Bleep HQ a few weeks ago, I noticed the rotary knobs were looking a bit strange. I had previously seen a few knobs on the synth had become discoloured and I kept having to clean them up, but this was no longer just an issue with aesthetics; the knobs now seemed to be crumbling and falling off. 

Having fretted for a short while and begun panic sampling the synth in case it was about to expire, I finally calmed down and asked Google what was going on. At this point I found out that knob degeneration comes to all XT synths and I was not alone. In fact many people seemed to view this occurrence as an opportunity to improve the synth and make their own mark on the design. I found many forum posts with ideas and images of other people's solutions to the issue and whilst many were interesting, they didn't quite work for me.

With trepidation, I began my search for replacement parts on eBay. Initially I found the choice of standard 6mm rotary 'D' fit knobs a bit limited and uninspiring. However, I did eventually find a seller who seemed to offer a variety of colours that I thought might work. I ordered the 2 red knobs simply to check the fit and judge the look. If everything was OK I would order the other knobs at a later date.

Once the red knobs arrived I satisfied myself that these would work and I tried to order the forty two (yes, forty two) orange knobs I would need. I say 'tried' as once I made my selection the seller's webshop said "Out of stock". Bugger. Time for a rethink.

I looked at the synth and though,"What other colours are on this giant orange plank that I could match to?" Then I noticed the blue highlights around the display and the blue lines around the numerical buttons and thought the light blue knobs the seller did have in stock could work.

Having spent an hour or so carefully prizing off the old crumbling knobs I fitted the new ones and stood back. I was very impressed with the transformation and if you compare the look of the synth in my original posts of 2009 to how it looks now I think it looks even better than it did before. Not only are the knobs easier to manipulate but they are now all uniform as one of them was a replacement right from day one of owning the unit.

For a total cost of about £25, I think this a great way to improve this synth. I now plan on continuing to sample this beast and
work it into some of my tunes. The temptation to cash in on its rarity and stick this synth on eBay is great, but I haven't used it much and feel like I owe it some time and consideration.

I came across ANOTHER cache of old synthesizers...

My 'Barn Fresh' SY85

So, about 10 years ago, family life got in the way of making music and I dismantled my set up and put it into storage. As the children grew money became tight and I sold off a good chunk of my gear about 6 years ago. I didn't think too much about the situation at the time and didn't lament the loss.

Just before we moved house a couple of years later, I noticed my remaining gear had suffered whilst unattended and had developed various faults. My old Yamaha SY85 seemed to have suffered especially badly with a flat battery, a broken floppy (not a surprise) and the case was cracked at one end. On the day before we moved I was going to put it in the car to take to the rubbish dump, but the removal men had picked it up and packed it already. Thus the SY85 had a stay of execution and 'accidental' moved house. The broken keyboard lay forgotten in the garage for a few more years...until lockdown started.

Bored one day I began tidying the garage and came across the dead, smashed up SY85. On opening up the beast I remembered it had a rather splendid SYEMB06 memory unit from Sector101.co.uk and it might be worth a closer look. Having hacked through a few forum posts and a YouTube video or two I decided I'd have a go at resurrecting it.

My nemesis: "Disk Not Ready !"

So far I've replaced the battery with the usual battery holder swap out and, after a bit of tinkering, I managed to reinstate all of the presents via a SYSEX dump. Hearing those present sounds again was magic! I've fixed up the case so it is solid and given it a really good clean.

Unfortunately, despite a new belt the floppy seems toast (how I hate seeing the "Disk Not Ready !" error message). No amount of cleaning seems to help breathe life into it. Will look into some replacement disk options as I have also found a pile of old disks without labels that might contain treasure. I also have some official Yamaha sound bank disks that I seem to remember were quite useful. Having said that, I am sure I could read the disks in my PC and dump them in as SYSEX, but that's missing the point.  I want the vintage experience (complete with compromises and annoyances). I don't want to install an emulator but am weighing up options regarding replacement floppies.

Presets restored via a SYSEX dump

Currently thinking that I will invest in another non-volatile memory module (*checks Sector101 still going* yes! phew) and some additional RAM. I'm not going to fully pimp this board out, but simply expand it so it can hold its head high once again.

Just so happy to hear the old board going again and looking forward to using it to make some music for the first time in 10 years.

I came across a cahe of old synthesisers...

In these turbulent times it is unsurprising that some of us seek solace in the familiar. For me this has manifested itself in digging out some of my old gear. With lockdown in force, I found myself with time on my hands and a desire to create some music again. There are piles of old digital synthesizers and keyboards scattered around the house; all of which are just collecting dust and going to waste. Some sort of Pavlovian response kicked in last week and I dug out my old master keyboard and plugged in some headphones.

When I fired up the enormous (and very heavy) Roland Fantom X8 it was in fully working order and didn't appear to have suffered during its 6 years in storage. My hands soon fell upon a 1 Gig flash memory card and some old sample CDs. "Well it would be rude not to give it a try," thought I. A few minutes later I had cobbled together a 8 bar loop and begun editing it on the on-board sequencer. I carried on tinkering like this for a few days until things suddenly escalated.

When you have become accustomed to sequencing via a DAW using a workstation is very frustrating. That is not to say the Fantom sequencer isn't capable, but it demands a greater ability to perform than I posses. I am much more of a programmer than a performer. I prefer to bash in a part and then tweak it in an editor. I have been known to step edit as much as play and the fully weighted keyboard on the Fantom, which is completely wasted on me. Consequently, I began to yearn for the power of Cubase and the ability to edit patches on my PC using the Fantom patch utility. 

However, the last time I tried the Fantom with Windows 10 the drivers didn't work and I didn't have time to sort it out. In fact the whole thing was such a mess I just assumed my 'vintage' gear was just too old to cut the mustard with modern computers and packed it all away.

That was 6 years ago and in the interim people have managed to get their old Fantom keyboards running with Windows 10. These kind people have also made all of the resources and instructions needed to do this available on the web. With a bit of determination I was even able to get everything working on a laptop which has no dedicated soundcard. Using Cubase again after all these years was a great experience. My hands instinctively found their way to the keyboard shortcuts and the ease of navigation was a joy to behold after the frustration of the Fantom's onboard sequencer. I am only using MIDI to trigger the Fantom as a ROMpler (with a few samples thrown in) but its surprisingly easy to get a half decent sounding track up and running with just one instrument (albeit one with thousands of onboard sounds). It reminds me of my school days using an Atari ST, Pro-24 and a Roland D-10: such limited possibilities seemed to drive creativity.

I have since added a foot pedal to the set up as, whilst the weighted keyboard is wasted on me, my wife is a 'proper' pianist (i.e. she can actually play the instrument to grade 8 level). The headphones have been replaced by some powered speakers and I have even plumped for a coaxial digital signal to ensure that all of my half finished 4 bar loops and noodling is crystal clear.

But I do get the feeling that the longer the current situation continues, the more likely I am to get some more gear up and running. Maybe I will even finish a track one day.

No hot spot in Hotspot

Before I start this review, I feel the need to say how pleased I am that Neil and Chris continue to release new music. I am genuinely exited by the prospect of a new album and haven't reached the jaded and cynical state that some find themselves when confronted with a Pet Shop Boys album in 2020.

So where does this new year find the boys? Well, my fist impression was, terrible title and terrible artwork but the music is so, so. It's neither the toe curling dirge of "Release" nor the zenith of "Introspective" or "Behaviour"; its a perfectly inoffensive vanilla album.

Ironically there is no hot spot in the track list; it's consistently middling in both production and songwriting quality. "Willow-the-wisp" is that brooding four on the floor track that Neil and Chris do so well and sets the album up brilliantly. They then follow up with "You are the one" which sounds like the bastard child of "Winner" and "The Only One". Placing a track like this at number two completely robs the album of the promise of the introduction and clears the metaphorical dance floor. "Happy People" tries vainly to revive the dance vibes but TR-909 snares in 2020? Really?

"I don't wanna" is one of those octave bassline 80's tracks that wafts in and out without making much impression. "Hoping for a miracle" sounds like a Diane Warren cast off - but one the boys actually wrote this time rather than paying a small fortune for it. The singles "Dreamland" and "Monkey Business" are confident and well executed. I can image Chris smiling wryly at the thought of "Monkey Business" (check out the video if you can). "Only In The Dark" sounds like it was made from the same recipe book that The Human League used to use  - and that isn't a bad thing.

What is bad is "Burning the Heather". When it comes on I break out into cold sweats thinking its 2002 and "Release" is coming back to get me. Then we reach the most contentious moment on the album, the coup de grâce: "Wedding In Berlin". Personally, I quite like it. Some of the descriptions I read before I heard it made me worried. Very worried. Dance beats with cheesy lyrics, all topped off with blasts of Mendelssohn's "Wedding March"? But in my opinion the quality of the groove means that it just about succeeds. 

But to be honest, a lot of these tracks are only just getting over the quality threshold. What makes some song choices seem even more bizarre is that "An Open Mind" and "Decide" were thrown away as extra tracks on singles (I can't say b-sides anymore). I would argue that "An Open Mind" is better than ANYTHING on the album and other recent tracks such as "No Boundaries" would have been preferable to "Hoping for a miracle". But instead of bitching, I am just going to be thankful that Neil and Chris are still releasing music of such terrific quality "An Open Mind" and I won't quibble if I receive it via an album or an extra track on a single. 6/10