NAMM Oddities 2009

Wired stuff. I check it out every year.
link

Roland's Dying Synth

The Juno-106's days are numbered. There was a design flaw that made a critical chip fail over time. The Juno-106 was made between 1984 and 86 with around 40,000 produced. Unfortunately most 106s I come across now have one or more faulty chips that make a voice hang or crackle. The chip was a custom chip that Roland manufactured called a 80017a.

The 80017a was a voltage controlled filter with with a VCA built on a chip. Because of demand for them, pulls go for $70us + on eBay. There is little info on this problem chip, except a basic schematic. (pictured)

What you have is 3 chips on a single chip, a IR3109 and 2 BA662's. This was the exact design that was used on the Juno 60 just in a different package.

There are two clones on the market to replace your dead chips.
D'naab's
Synth Restore

The clones are a little pricey and if you wanted to replace all six voices that would almost be the same price of a beat up 106 but at least you don't have to worry about replacing the chips as the cloned 80017a do not have the same flaw.

SSM2044

Pict from eBay. Here.

The SSM2044 was a popular filter on a chip that was used in everything from a Korg monopoly to a Fairlight. I am getting a couple for a modular project.

If you want to find out more about them check out.
electricdruid's site.

There are a ton of SSM2044 filter chips up on ebay at the moment and the prices keep going up. They stoped making them in the late 90's.

This guy is selling 4 for $13 bucks. I just scored a few. Check it out here.

MOTU Volta

When!!! ARE YOU COMING OUT.

sighs.....

Ton's of old Logic Envroments

I came across this site when I was looking for a logic environment for my Kawai K5000. There is a lot of stuff here. The only problem is a lot of it was done on Logic 5 and 4 which is not compatible with 8. Lucky for me I still have my 7 dongle.
Check it out- http://www.swiftkick.com/

KORG MiniKorg 700s

Picts via Ruten action here.

I have been eyeballing getting two 700s off of Ruten for the last month. I am hesitating because the VCO's were encased in epoxy. Kind of makes it hard to work on. They look like they are in bad shape. Too bad I already have way too many projects right now.

Hmmmm but it is tempting.

Kawai K5000R

Cool video of the K5000 synth. I got one of these right before I moved out to Taiwan. Haven't had a chance to relay play with it yet.