NoteIt's Wall Archives

NoteIt's Wall Archives
Here you will find the archives to the Wall through November 29, 1998.

Ask Buzz , a former factory authorized service representative, also visit his site. I would like to thank Buzz for offering his time and knowledge. Six-Trak, MAX and Prophet 600 users please share with The Wall what you asked and what you learned from Buzz.

The Wall

Mac Users?

Paul G. would like any information about using a Six-Trak with a Mac.

Steve Pescatore (pescator@dg-rtp.dg.com) responds, there are a couple of programs that I recommend (...) MidiControl is a generic editor (...) it is severely lacking in a lot of ways, and only works about half of the time. SuperLibrarian seems pretty neat, but i haven't played with it much yet, since it's crippled shareware... so crippled that i can't tell if it would be of any use to me or not (kinda defeats the purpose of shareware, eh?) If [using] HyperCard, then HyperMidi seems to be the best option. it's programmable, sends any sort of message, and has a good interface - HyperCard. If (...) a die hard programmer, (...) look into the MidiShare Operating System - it looks fun, but I simply don't have the discipline anymore to use something with a 400 page manual when I'm not at work.

Atari STe Users?

Philip Kerr (philip.kerr@wmcmail.wmc.ac.uk) would like to know of an editor for the sixtrax that run's on the Atari Ste?..

Cubase Mixer Maps?

Andrew Rocha, drew201@ix.netcom.com, writes, I recently got Cubase, and I'm getting into programming mixer maps, I'm having trouble with this continuos controller deal, I'm really interested in learning how to make this work, any info I could get would be much appreciated. Thanx.

Assigning Voices on a Six-Trak in Multi-Mode?

I (name and e-mail with-held) would like to know HOW do to set-up patches in multi mode? (like channel 1 = patch #2, channel 2 = patch #12, etc...) I can't figure it out! I don't have a sequencer which will send voice number.

This is an excellent question! I have never been it asked/ or seen it posted because most people are using a computers. I went through the manual and this is NOT covered. What you have to do it put the Six-Trak into sequencer play and also turn-off the MIDI clock.

Here is how to do it:

1. Put into mode 4 (omni off/mono on)- [TRACK REC+4]

2. Make sure that your basic channel is 1-11 [Parameter 36, then value]

3. Now go ahead and sequence a short pattern- maybe only a note or two so that the Six-Trak knows what patch will be assigned to which track. Repeat this step for each track.

4. Now turn the speed knob fully to the left- this will disable the MIDI clock. (now the Six-Trak is waiting for a start signal, but since it never gets the start MIDI signal the sequencer will not start playing, and you will be able access/assign each of the patches).

I would like to thank Duane Balvage (dbalvage@ptdcs2.intel.com) has suggested yet another way (and easier too!).

1. Press TrackRec + 4 to put it in multi/mono mode (mode 4.

2. Select the first sound that you want, then push STACK A, then TrackRec then, whichever track you want it on. (the tracks are arranged Track 1 = base MIDI channel, Track 2 = base + 1, etc).

3. Go OUT of STACK mode (press STACK A again) select the next sound, press STACK A again, TrackRec, and the track you want it on. Keep doing this until you run out of tracks.

4. Congrats! you have just assigned six different sounds to six different MIDI channels! Much easier than dealing with the onboard sequencer!

Now if you have a computer (or just a keyboard which can send program information) put it into mode 4, and enable program change (Control Record/ Select 1)- this is a toggle set-up.
With the computer/ or with the sequencer along you would probably also like to enable the wheels and parameter changes- Control Record/ Select 4.

Owners' Comments

Jonnie Philips (image@kudos.com) writes, I have a six-pack too. It works quite well and I want to do so much more. I wish I bought two of them but I think I will be doing just enough with 1. I saw a guy in L.A. using 1 and he was really jamming... If you really like the smooth sounds, you should get at least 1.

Steve Pescatore (pescator@dg-rtp.dg.com) comments, Let me put it this way: I think after last night's drum synth-ing session I'm seriously considering selling my tried-and-trusted HR16B (Alesis dm) and buying another max (actually probably a six trak) to do all my drum sounds on.

NV-RAM & Six-Trak Battery

Javier Leon Ramirez (asrc@www.esi.us.es) writes, Is it true that the NV-RAM is obtained only by the back-up battery? In this case: could a 1 to 6 counting when I switch my SIX TRAK due to the fact of not having this battery? and, should I put two aa NI-CD batteries in my Unit or buy a Special one?, I mean the ones that are used in COMPUTERS. A link to Javier's excellent site can be found in the links area

Javier later answered his question and the two of use went back and forth as he answered my questions,.. here is the answer and his answers to my questions,..

Javier answered the question: Ok! after all, the batery used is a simple cell, non recharging. I recomend alkalin ones, that stay longer. If you have a problem like your S-T [Six-Trak} counts from 1 to 6 when you switch it on, try the battery for a packet with two AA tipe cells conected in Serial way. The positive goes to the right and negative to the left.

I had thought that the battery was rechargable,...

Javier responded: I've seen that it is written, that the battery will last 10 years. I'm not sure that they wanted to say it IS rechargeable. One thing more: if you have a look at the schema, you will find that there's a diode (catode to anode) from the power suply to the battery. This configuration only allows to flow current from the battery to the main power system, not in reverse. This is also the reason why the battery MUST be some volts below the main power voltage (5V versus 3V). The static RAMS that are included in the SIXTRAK keep the information if the suply is over 2.5 V. I tested thousand times before conect them to the unit. I don't want it to burn ;-) Other thing is that some SIXTRAK could have rechargeable and some not... who can knows... it seems that each SIXTRAK is different... ,... I tested the connections to the battery and found that no voltage was applied when power was on, so this is not the way to recharge the battery.

Quentin Pond (qpo@scc1.demon.co.uk) adds to the battery discussion,
The 3 volt lithium battery I put into my sixtrak was a Varta code number Lithium CR1/2AASLF this cost me £4.03 in the UK from Maplins (about $6 or $7 US) I am sure you could get this cheaper from Radio Shack. In the same catalogue I have just noticed that a Panasonic lithium Camera battery should also work, code number CR123A, this is exactly the same code number as the battery I removed and should be available from any good camera shop. These batteries are meant for long term use at low current consumption and should last about ten years, they are not rechargeable!!

Justin Rice (arice@taascforce.com) adds yet more information about the battery, and suggests a really easy MOD,
My bandmate and I have two six traks between us, and the battery in his died died. We first tried replacing it with a battery just like it. After we finally got it to solder in place, it only lasted about 4 months. It was very hard to keep the solder leads conducting for some reason. So what we ended up doing was getting a flat lithium 3 volt and similar battery case from Radio Shack. I soldered two wires from the board to the case, and whalah, everything's cool, and now all we have to do is just slip a new one in if the other one wears out. This seems to be safe, anyone disagree? I don't want to fry anything, so let me know. Consequently, mine seems to be about 12 years old and the original battery is still going fine.

European Six-Trak Users

Javier Leon Ramirez (asrc@www.esi.us.es) writes, I would like to contact European (SPANISH BETTER) SIXTRAK users. I can give you a surprise if you visit me and send me a mail.

Six-Trak used in recording?

NoteIt would like to know in what recordings has the Six-Trak/MAX have been used?

Brent A. Borel (808Produkts@Worldnet.ATT.net) writes, I am currently working on new tracks for our 808 Produkts first release. (...) I will be implementing it as background rhythmic bass lines, using the controllers to tweak the resonance and cutoff filters for harmonic changes hopefully with the effect mimicking a 303, I have done this before with marginal success but was using the ASR-10 and editing within it ( yuk! ) With Cakewalk I will have much more control. I will also it for synth drum sounds (..).

Control Volume with Continuous Controllers?

Alex Jacobs (jjacobs@facstaff.wisc.edu) asks if would be possible to control instrument volumes on a six-track through the use of continuous controllers? Would I be able to alter each voice individually? Could all of these actions be sequenced on my pc? Thanx.

You can control the volume using continuous controllers. You can control the volume of each voice independently if the synth is in MIDI Mode 4. Using a computer to control the values of the controllers is really the only way to go!

Six-Trak is receiving all MIDI channels when I don't want it to.

Laheyr@aol.com writes, "I am having problems with the midi channels on a six-traks I have performer 5.02 and a korg X3. It seems the six-trak is receiving on all channels as well as sending. I would to have it independent. How can I make this happen? I have tried parameter #36 for the midi channel but it didn't do anything."

Parameter #36 just adjusts the basic channel number. What you need to do is change the MODE. When you turn the Six-Trak it usually starts in Mode 1, unless you have rev_11 which will remember which mode it was in before the synth was turned off. Mode 3 (Poly mode) allows the Six-Trak work as a polyphonic synth which just responds to one midi channel (the basic channel). For this Mode the key combination is TRACK REC +3. If you would like to have each of the Six-Trak's voices assigned to its own MIDI channel, then select Mode 4 (Omni off/Mono On). The key combination is TRACK +4. You must make sure that your basic channel is assigned to channel #1-11.

Max MAX events

Steve Pescatore (pescator@dg-rtp.dg.com) writes, I've decided that the limit of simultaneous midi messages MAX will recognize before discarding is about 15 or so.

Cleaning the Contacts of the Key-pad on the Six-Trak/MAX

Francois Dion (francois@hyperreal.com) helps all Six-Trak and MAX users giving us details on how the clean the Key-pad contacts. He writes, I have successfully repaired an SCI sixtrack (not a problem after several years of use) by simply using an eraser (Mars Staedler) on both the metal contacts and the ferric pellet on the rubber side. You have to continuously clean the eraser however.

Initial Parameter Values

You can enter the parameter values for the MAX (or Six-Trak) in the event list of a sequencer. But how do you know what the initial values should be? Steve Pescatore (pescator@dg-rtp.dg.com) responds, One of two ways. 1 - I use midi controls to assign fader, buttons, etc. to various MIDI events. Then I'll play with these to get the sound I want, then write the values down. When I'm ready to sequence, I'll type these in to the event list editor. It's actually not as much work as it seems. 2 - I select a preset that sounds close to the voice I would like. I then compose a small little sequence in my sequencer. Then I'll type in - using trial and error - the parameter changes on by one, restarting the sequence to hear my results with each change. This is also not as bad as it sounds, sursprisingly...

Assigning Voices on a Six-Trak in Multi-Mode?

Robert (lanstrad@total.net) askes, "How can I send a SysEx message to a Six Trak (model 610) for "Enable Program Change" (the operation normally done physically by pressing CONTROL RECORD and SELECT 1 ?? I tried "Enable all MIDI sends and receives" which should include this command, as outlined in this site, but it did not work... I use Cakewalk Professional 5.0

Hi Robert, first lets confirm the sysex (I have the the binary posted) but the hex is: "F0 01 7E F7". I don't know about Cakewalk, but you might want to reduce the MIDI dump rate- for example send F0, wait a second send 01 then the rest of the message with the breaks between each part. Other than this the message should work. If anyone has other ideas please drop me a note and I will post it.

Saving the membrane switch assembly on your Prophet 600

Regarding the somewhat delicate and problematic P600 membrane switch assembly for which there are no longer any replacements synth expert, Larry Church (Mintlake@aol.com) offers his advise to Prophet 600 owners, "When pressing the buttons on your P600, try not to contact the switch with your fingernail - use the smooth round part of your finger tip. DO NOT expose your P600 to direct suhnlight as this will soften the outer layer of plastic and cause shorts and premature degredation of the upper layer of plastic on the membrane assembly".

Input MOD for Six-Trak/MAX?

Ryan (dorward@ugrad.cs.ualberta.ca) writes, "I'd like to mod my six-trak to handle (up to) 6 external inputs through its filters. Any ideas how i could go about this?"

Ryan, there is a input MOD posted at Chris Jones' Sequential Circuits Archive.

NOTE: As of 11/29/1998 this link is no longer valid.

One voice out on Six-Trak?

Justing Rice (arice@taascforce.com) writes, "My 6-pack recently started freaking out on me. Whenever the 5th light in the multitrak controller window lights (I guess whenever the 5th voice chip is in use), the tone of the synth is totally different than voices 1-4 and 6. It becomes really really buzzy. Do I have a bad chip, i.e. will putting another curtis chip in, fix the problem?? Thanks in advance."

JuNo (juno14@li.net) asks, "I got a six trak and have been doing work on it...it seems that every 4th note will not play, depending on the patch I am using...sometimes its the third, sometimes the fifth...I replaced the battery...I have loaded the factory sound via tape....but I can't seem to solve this particualr problem...Can anyone help me?"

Hi Justin and Juno, I am not a synth repairman so I will provide the following for information purposes only.
Yes, the 5th light refers to the 5th voice. It sounds like you might have a bad CEM. I would open-up the Six-Trak and reseat the 3394. Sometimes just a little dust/corrosion works its way in and interferes with the circuit. If that does not fix the problem (and if you are comfortable with this moving expensive ICs around) I would pull the suspect CEM and trade it with a good CEM. If the problems moves along with the swap, then you know it is the CEM that is faulty. If you have a faulty circuit you run a chance of frying out another CEM. If you are lucky the problem will move then all you will have to do is replace the CEM. If the problem does not move with the chip swap you are going to have to run down the circuit.

Six-Trak "Plop Plop"?

Peter Ahlholm, ollat@hotmail.com, asks the following, "Everytime I switch on my six trak and not playing , it sounds 'plop plop' every 30 seconds. When I'm playing on it sounds ok. But if I stop it will go 'plop plop'again."

Hi Peter, I would guess that there is something wrong with the auto tuning on your Six-Trak. The Six-Trak goes into auto tune if it is not touched and if it receives no MIDI information. Have you tried sending it MIDI information (not note information) and see if it makes that plop plop sound? (Send it a series of controller information for example). The MAX does not have auto tune, and when you tune it, it produces a loud double pop at the start and end of the procedure. You might want to try to force tune the Six-Trak (CONTROL RECORD + 6) and see if you hear the sound.

Hint for using the Six-Trak's arpeggiator

Dave Trenkel (improv@peak.org) gives this hint for using the Six-Trak's arpeggiator, "I run mine from its internal arpeggiator while feeding it continuous controllers from a PC-1600 all the time, worked great."

Prophet 600 membrane repair

Chris Hurst (C.J.Hurst@econ.hull.ac.uk) asks the question that all Prophet 600 owners hope they never have to ask, "Can anyone suggest a method to repair or replace faulty keys on the Prophet 600 membrane control given the difficulties associated with locating replacement membranes?"

Counting Multi-Trak

Sharad Shanbhag, shanbhag@neuro.med.umn.edu, writes, "I've got an SCI Multi-Trak. On power-up, the display counts from 1 to 6, the dreaded memory error. The service manual says to debug the memory system. I checked the battery and it is dead. Will simply replacing the battery cure the problem, or do I need to replace the EPROM or other chips? Is there a source for parts other than Wine Country Sequential?"

After replacing the battery Sharad sent me the following:

In short, replacing the battery fixed everything.

I replaced the dead Panasonic 3V Lithium battery with 2 Eveready 1.5V AA Lithium batteries conencted in series. I used a 2 AA enclosure from Radio Shack. I attached the enclosure to some free space on the chassis near the pitch and mod wheels using some 5 minute epoxy. I ran the leads from the chassis to the battery connections on the circuit board (after removing the old battery!).

Of course, all my stored patches and sequences are gone, but at the unit is functional!

One other tip: the pitch wheel might need to be reinitialized after removing the battery. Simply center the pitch wheel and press the red "Program Record" and "Program Parameter 3" buttons simultaneously.

TOM Drum manual?

Brian, lunbboys@valnet.on.ca, writes, "I need to know where I can find an owners manual.Any help would be appreciated."

Brian, there are several places that offer photocopies of the manual. I would start your search in the SCI Parts area of the site.

Switching the Six-Trak's arpeggiator's voice

Frank passes this great idea along to other Six-Trak users, "I'm not sure if this will help anybody, but I just discovered that if your triggering this synth's arpeggiator via some external source, you can switch the patch that the sequencer itself is playing if you hit the stack 1 button prior to the patch switch. Otherwise it only changes the patch that the keyboard triggers, but continues the sequencer with the original timbre. I'm not sure if this is documented in the manual, so I figured I would mention it."

Multi-Trak vs Six-Trak?

Paul Riva, ritek1@msn.com, asks writes, " I just recently bought a MULTI-TRAKS, and was wondering what the major differences between the SIX-TRAKS and MULTI-TRAKS were. Also, how can I append all four sequences together? (while drum machine is playing) without the drum machine It works just fine, but everytime I use the midi function, only one sequence plays and not the others. I have followed all the manuals instructions and still can't get it to play multiple sequences WITH THE DRUM MACHINE CONTROLLING MY SYNTH. (I have a DRUMTRAKS)thank you."

Multitrak and Continuous Controllers?

Umair Haque, ebisho@po-box.mcgill.ca, asks, "Does the Multitrak respond to continuous controllers for all parameters and does it use the same template for this that the Sixtrak and Max do? Please help! i don't know which one to buy!"

Selecting Basic Patch?

Biblio90@globetrotter.qc.ca wants to know, "How can I find the basic patch sound for my six-trak? Please? Thank you very much."

Biblio, the Six-Trak's basic patch can heard by holding down RECORD and then pressing SELECT 8. This will edit all parameters to 0 except the following:
#10 Sawtooth 1 (on)
#19 Cutoff 127
#28 Filter Keyboard 2 (full)
#32 Amp Sustain 15
#34 Voice Volume 15

And for you MAX owers you have two,..

Erase, SOUND SELECT 37- This is an unfiltered sawtooth.

Erase, SOUND SELECT 38- Same as above but with a pulse wave.

Editing software for the MAX?

Paul Riva, ritek1@msn.com, asks, "Does anyone know of a software program that you can program a MAX with? I've tried Sixpat and Winsysex and have really had very little luck with these programs. Sixpat was o.k but it's more for a six-traks than a MAX. Or, would anyone want to trade a six-traks for a multi-traks(mint)??? just so I can edit parameters on my damn MAX. I know that this request is kinda stupid, but, I had to ask anyway....... :-) "

Paul, I know of one other program- UniSyn works well with the MAX. There are other programs librarians/editors but I no first-hand knowledge.

Replacing Commodore 64 software?

Ron Wilson, writes, "I have a Six-Trak and the SCI Drumtracks drum machine, both of which work very well. They are connected to a Commodore 64 which I keep for no other purpose. Please tell me that software is available for either a Gateway Pentium II or a Packard Bell 486".

Ron, there are many good programs that will work well with the Six-Trak and the Drumtrack. If you are looking for something that will record you're looking for a sequencing program. Cakewalk, Cubase, Cubasis and PowerTracks Pro are all nice programs. If you are editing the voices on the Six-Trak look at SixPat or UniSyn.

Tuning out on Six-Trak?

Bev Painter, stanza@ihug.co.nz, asks the following, "I have a problem with my Six-Trak. OSC #2 seems to be tuned just slightly higher than the other OSC's, so when I play chords I often get an annoying slightly out of tune effect. Auto-tune doesn't fix the problem, and the master tune and course/fine pitch parameters change all the OSC's at once so OSC #2 is still out of tune relative to the others. Is there any way to tune each OSC individually?? Or does anyone know some way to fix this problem? Thanks in advance for any help."

Peter Ahlholm (ollat@hotmail.com) writes, "I have exactly the same problem with my sixtrak.,..I think it also causes bass sounds in Unison mode to come and go.PLEASE HELP US!!!!!!!"

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