Old gear maintenance

[IK]

Hi all.

What with all the COVID lockdowns with reflections on life and times, I've started thinking about returning to music production after many years away (made music between 1992 - 2004).

I kept all my gear and have been very shocked to see how much some of it is worth (mainly the Roland MKS 70 and my little Waldorf 4 Pole).

I've always been an electronics tinkerer from a young age, building PCs and what not and indeed I replaced the firmware ROM on the Roland about 6 years ago during another brief flirtation with returning to music.

Can someone advise on any guides and materials for cleaning up the controls and internals of old gear.

Last time I used the gear it all still sounded fresh, but I feel it would be a nice reintroduction by giving it all a bit of love.

Any tips welcome.

Thanks and nice to be back.

[zenguitar]

Welcome back to the SOS forums IK

The MKS70 is a classic, and it has its fans here. I've coveted it for decades.

One of the better things about the internet these days is that service manuals for classic gear are freely available. They take away a lot of the hit & miss elements of stripping things down for cleaning and servicing.

On the other hand, all the traditional techniques and materials for stripping, cleaning, and servicing consumer electronics still apply. And its a lot easier to source and buy the consumables online. We really do have the best of both worlds.

My speciality is guitars, but I've also serviced quite a few keyboards/synth modules over the last few decades. The broad principles are the same. Take it apart, give everything a thorough clean, apply lubrication where required, and put back together properly.

Super Servisol 10, and/or Caig De-Oxit and Fader Lube are your friends. And never under-estimate the value of the camera on your phone for keeping records.

And above all, you have places like this to ask if you have doubts, concerns, or questions.

Andy

[IK]

Cheers Andy.

Thanks a lot.

[ef37a]

http://www.vintagesynth.com/roland/mks70.php

^ Seems to be a manual there to download. Not serviced that sort of gear but I advice "If it ain't broke" as a basic principle. There is a lot of rabid re-capping advised, in general this is not necessary, electrolytic caps last much longer than is generally thought. Similarly there are those that slag off the common op amps, NE5532, TL072 etc. There is very little chance that swapping these for 'exotics' will make a blind bit of difference and can do harm, other ICs can for example draw more current and put a strain on power circuits.

Best then IMO to test first. Signal levels and frequency response can be checked with a DAW as can the noise floor. Only if these parameters are found wanting would I get deeply involved.

Dave.

[James Perrett]

For stuff that hasn't been used for many years I would take a look inside for bulging electrolytic capacitors and cracked mains suppression capacitors (especially those made by Rifa). If all looks good I'd power up via a lamp limiter (a 100W or so incandescent bulb in series with the live connection) and see if things work.

As Andy says, a spray with switch cleaner/lubricant is likely to be all that needs doing for most gear. Switches and connectors seem to be the source of most problems unless you are unlucky enough to own something that has well known issues.

[The Elf]

While you're about this...

Consider upgrading your MKS-70 with Fred Vecoven's software ROM and maybe adding the PWM mod (and Wilkinson screen). I can honestly tell you these mods have turned my MKS-70 into the synth it always should have been - it's truly amazing!

In addition to PWM, my MKS-70 now has four envelopes (the two new ones are lightning fast!), four LFOs, arpeggiator, 32 banks of patches in a virtual cartridge system and an operating system that actually works, unlike the one came from Roland! At the very least swapping the ROM is a doddle - the PWM, screen and cartridge mods need a bit of wirework.

[IK]

Thanks all

@The Elf those mods sound very interesting.
Does the new ROM change the texture of the MKS70 which I always thought had a beautiful sound quality for pads, but not very strong for bass.

I'm very close to buying a Behringer Pro 1 (which why on earth didn't SOS review) because it sounds awesome in this regard.

I don't need it. I have an original Access Virus A rack that does great bass and an EMU 6400 which I used to use as a synth, but there's something about the analogue nature of the Behringer (not just the sound but the editing) that appeals.

[The Elf]

@The Elf those mods sound very interesting.
Does the new ROM change the texture of the MKS70 which I always thought had a beautiful sound quality for pads, but not very strong for bass.

Not at all. You get all of the old sounds (which I also love for those gorgeous pads) and all the potential for the new ones.

For bass the JX synths had far too sluggish envelopes. Fred discovered how to not only cure this, but add his new super-fast envelopes *in addition* to keeping the old ones - you have a choice of which of the four to use for any patch but if you have old patches it will retain the old ones.

Basses are now just as good as the pads.

It really is a zero-downside upgrade.

[Folderol]

For bass the JX synths had far too sluggish envelopes. Fred discovered how to not only cure this, but add his new super-fast envelopes *in addition* to keeping the old ones - you have a choice of which of the four to use for any patch but if you have old patches it will retain the old ones.

Basses are now just as good as the pads.

It really is a zero-downside upgrade.

That is so rare these days! It seems the guy is a musician first

[IK]

@The Elf so maybe I don't 'need' another synth?

This is something I must hear.

Off to search YouTube.

PS. What are you using to edit sounds? Did you fork out for an expensive PG800 / 1000?

Thanks again.

[The Elf]

What are you using to edit sounds? Did you fork out for an expensive PG800 / 1000?

I replaced my old PG-800 (the 1000 is for the Roland D-50/550) with a Retroaktiv MPG-70. That programmer has controls for all the new features of the V4 MKS-70/JX-10, including the PWM upgrade, that the old PG-800 obviously lacks. The new programmer has some clever features, including a generic patch generator. Clever stuff.

(In fact I also have the new Retroaktiv MKS-80 programmer arriving very soon...)

[IK]

Woah the Retroactive kit looks amazing....Need to save up for that though.

Just watched this video and the update module install does indeed seem like a no downside purchase.

[The Elf]

Woah the Retroactive kit looks amazing....Need to save up for that though.

Yes, it isn't cheap, but when you start to learn what it can do it you can see why. It's not just a simple programmer - there's a lot to it. Coming soon is the ability to save entire dumps into the programmer to get around Roland's shared Tone nonsense.