Jurassic Studio Tour

 As you all know my old studio was gone because of the divorce. With the help of my good friend Ron Boots I was able to build a new studio again in our new apartment in Rotterdam where I live with my girlfriend Sonja. She didn't plan for me to move in so there isn't much room. The studio is actually 2 x 3 meters, but I'm very happy with it. Here is a small tour of my new studio. I managed to save some equipment from my old studio and bought some used and new stuff to start all over again. Here is a nice overview of my desk. I'm still using Cakewalk Sonar from Bandlab and a Native Instruments Komplete master keyboard. Since the studio isn't very wide I build in as compact as possible. Most stuff is modules and eurorack modular. as you can see.

Behind me are some more synthesizers with keys. On top is the Nord Wave that I used a lot on the collaboration album together with Ron. So I had to keep that since there were still sound in there from that recording. Then there is a HydraSynth that I like a lot since it has a polyphonic after touch keyboard that also is nice to use with the Deckard's Dream I build.  The the Alesis Andromeda, still one of the nicest synths to look at in my opinion and 16 voices of analog. The the Roland V-Synth. I used to have one of these in the past that I upgraded to a V-Synth GT later, but actually the old one sounds a lot better in my opinion. And of course it is cheaper as well. And last but not least the Korg Kronos. This one is also from the old Apollo studio since I used that on the album with Ron as well. Oh and by the way the new studio is called 'Jurassic Studio'. You will know by know I guess that I'm working on an album inspired by dinosaurs. Called PalaeonTology. Hopefully finished this year. I think I'm about at 50% on that now.

Here is a close-up view of my main tools. As you can see I'm a trackball person. I think that is way better than using a mouse. I also still have my Genelecs. I'm so used to this sound that I couldn't switch to other monitors only newer Genelecs. But the heart of my system if this (old) Euphonix/Avid Artist series set that I bought from E-bay. I really love it. It is connected by Ethernet and it integrates perfect with Cakewalk Sonar. I did have to do some customizing to use the Jog Shuttle. But even that runs very smoothly. I actually like this set better than the big Avid console I have in my old studio.

Here is a close-up of the left corner. Here are my newest additions. The Behringer ARP2600 to start with. I really love it. As you might know I did have a vintage ARP2600, but to be honest I like this one even better. Compact, more functionality and the sound is for be the same. On the right is a Midibox SID that I build myself back then. So also from the Apollo studio. C64 sounds all over. And finally the newest machine I bough the Waldorf Iridium. That is really a great synth with so much possibilities that I hardly don't even know where to start. But I'm sure you will be hearing a lot of it on my upcoming albums.

And lastly an overview of what is right in front (and above) of me. Yes a lot of Behringer in the new studio. I really love all their clones. They sound very authentic and no I'm not sponsored by them. If that was only true ;) On the bottom row there is the Deckards Dream with an K-2 , the Pro-1, Neutron and Model-D. And on the top row is some Eurorack stuff. First the new ARP2500 stuff. I think it is soooo great they released this. Then a case with the Roland System 100 modules and the last 2 cased are filled with the Moog Modules from the Sytem-55 series. All in all enough stuff for me to be creative again. And actually more than enough. I hope you like my new studio. It is not as impressive as my old one used to be. But I'm very happy with it and producing music again and that is the most important I guess ;)

Happy New Synth Year!

 I wish you all the very best for 2021! I hope it will be a better year than 2020 and that there will be Electronic Music events again where we can meet in real live. Let's make 2021 a Happy Synth Year! I'm currently working hard on new music, so I hope to bring you some new releases as well in 2021. I spend New Years Eve together with Ron Boots and his wife Monique and my girlfriend Sonja. I also brought the music for the new album (about dinosaurs) along with me and played for Ron what I had so far in his studio. He liked it a lot so that is good news and motivates to continue working on it. He also liked my dinosaur sounds and how I integrated them into the music :) I hope to see you all soon. Stay healthy and Safe!

Deckard's Dream DIY (Part 3)

 The next board I made was the IO board. This board takes care of the communication of the Deckard's dream with the outside world. The audio and midi connectors are on here, the power connector and also the USB connector. There is small SMD chip you have to solder on here and I was very confused about the orientation of this IC. So I asked on the Muff Wiggler forum and got some advice, but I'm still not 100% sure it is correct. I also read something about the Capacitors being wrongly oriented on the PCB and in the schematics. I guess I will have to be care full and do some measuring before I hook it up.

Another important board is of course the Power Supply. I still need to fix the cooling blocks but further this is not a very difficult PCB to create. The downside is though that it sticks in the same slot on the main PCB as the voice boards and you definitely do not want to mix them up. There is only one slot where the Power Supply should go. I also got the advise on the forum to test all the boards separately and the same goes for the Power Supply. Better test them all first with as less components inserted as possible. Also first test the PSU on the Lab Power Supply where you can limit the current to make sure you don't have any shorts. 

And here is a picture of the Main PCB where you can see the blue slots that will fit the voice boards and the Power Supply. The SMD components on this board were already preinstalled. I wonder why they didn't do this on the IO board. As you can see the rest is pretty straight forward. The only board left is the control PCB with all the sliders and knobs for the front panel. More about this in the next part.

Working on New Solo Material

Now that BorkHavn is finished I started working on new music for my new solo albums. Yes multiple! The last 7 years I recorded quite some music, but never got to finishing it. So I'm slowly starting to open all these projects and begin working on those tracks. One of my solo projects is going to be about dinosaurs so hence the new name for my studio called the 'Jurassic' studio now and the accompanying Jurassic Park T-shirt. My Girlfriend Sonja took this picture for the upcoming Schallwelle sampler release, but I thought it was a nice idea to share it with you as well. I'm also working on the music I recorded a couple of years ago for two planetarium shows. That will be released in the future as well with some new tracks and I have another surprise album planned with old and new material. So lots to come.

During the work on this new music I did encounter a problem though. It turned out I used a Virus TI polar as a plugin and didn't record this as audio because I thought I would never sell it. I only had the midi notes. But because of the divorce I did sell it :/ I had to find a solution for that. So the first new addition to the 'Jurassic Studio' is this used Access Virus TI2 desktop module. Fortunately I did backup the sounds I programmed for it so all projects I used it in are working again. Another nice thing to mention is that I did the artwork for two of these upcoming albums together with my youngest daughter Tamara van Osenbruggen. She is learning media design in school. I'm very proud of the outcome and will share it with you soon. I will try to put more updates online from now on about the progress of my ongoing projects. And do let me know if you have any questions for me. I'd be happy to answer them.

 

Synth.NL Jurassic Studio

 I'm sure you all remember the famous 'Apollo Studio' pictures that still roam the internet. Well that studio is gone :( As you might well know I have gone through a rough period with a nasty divorce and I abandoned everything. After 2 years I moved in with my new girlfriend Sonja in her new apartment in Rotterdam. I did manage to save some stuff during the divorce. Some stuff is put in long term storage like my Eminent 310, V-Piano and Roland Drum Kit and some synths, but I could bring some stuff to the new apartment and build a small studio again. I always name my studio's and  I call this studio my 'Jurassic Studio'. For several reasons. First of all it feels like traveling back in time for me, but secondly I'm currently working on a new solo album about dinosaurs. So now that cat is also out of the bag :) I hope to release it somewhere next year.

So what is still in the studio. Well most importantly I saved my studio computer, where all my recordings were stored and also my software was installed. Then I could take my Genelec monitors. I'm very used to that sound and even though the acoustics in my studio are terrible I know these monitors very well. I could take my Aurora AD converters and also the RME MADI stuff. I'm also happy that I could keep my main reverbs like the Bricasti M7, Eventide H8000 and Eclipse and the Quantec Yardstick. And some of the graphic display units I like to use as reference for my levels. This was my basic recording chain and that means I don't have to sacrifice much in sound quality fortunately. I'm really happy about that.

So are there any synthesizers left. Yes !! I have kept both the Korg Kronos and the Nord Wave. Especially since I used them on the BorkHavn album with Ron Boots, so I needed these to finish the album here. I also still have the Alesis Andromeda but it is currently under the bed since I don't have room to put it. I kept some DIY stuff like the SamichSID, SamichFM and MIDIbox SID and I'm currently building a Deckards Dream. I will post more on that project later as well. I also bought some new gear. Not much budget so I started out with some Behringer Modules. The Model D, K-2, Neutron and Pro-1. And I just pre-ordered the new ARP2600. I must say. Having owned all the originals in the past. I'm not disappointed. They sound really good. So what is next? I still have a lot of recordings I made during the last 10 years. I plan on finishing them now and releasing them. So expect much more to come! I know it has been quiet for a while, but I'm back :) Keep an eye on my Blog, Twitter and Website and even better subscribe to my newsletter here: https://www.synth.nl/newsletter-subscribe

Best Wishes for 2018 and New Music Coming

Hi, first of all I'd like to wish to all the very best for 2018. Happy New-year ! I know some of you wonder if I'm still alive. Well the answer is yes, but the last years I have been very busy with both RenderFarm.NL and Virtiso. By now I have sold both of these companies and I'm a free man again. In the end it gave me too much stress and I almost suffered another burnout. So I decided it was enough. I'm still involved in the background with my first company BIT BV, and will continue to do so. No plans at this moment to start something new. The good news from this all is that I had time to completely rebuild the studio last year. I sold a lot of my vintage synthesizers and bought new stuff equipment back. I also bought some synthesizers I had as keys back as modules without a keyboard. I took all cabling out and completely redid everything. On of the new additions it the Roland V-Piano you see me playing on here. I really love this thing. The 88 keys weighted keyboard is so nice to play on. I will show more of the new studio is later posts. I also got asked a lot if new music is coming. Yes there is! I'm currently working on 2 solo albums, and also a collaboration album again with Ron Boots and also another one with Remy Stroomer. I recently also finished a single track for a sampler CD that will be released soon. I will update you all on this in time as well. I hope to release at last one of these albums in 2018. I'm working on it. Thank for you interest and let me know if you have any questions.

New Studio PC

I told you I'm currently rebuilding my studio. The first thing that really needed an update was my studio PC. I ran on a quad core2duo with 4 Gbyte of RAM and Windows Vista 32 bits for a long time, but it started to crash on me. I wanted to upgrade to Windows 8.1 anyway and get more inputs in the machine. I had two RME PCI MADI cards in there and a UAD2 quad card. So time for an upgrade :)

Here is a picture of some of the parts that went in there. I decided to use the same ASRock X79 extreme6 motherboard that I use in my render servers for the render farm and also the same Hexacore I7 processor. I put in 32 Gbyte of RAM and a OCZ Vertex 4 SSD to boot the OS from and run my applications. I got a new UAD-2 Octo card and the quad will move to my mastering PC that still had an UAD-1. This one is no longer supported and doesn't run moders plugins anymore. And finally a RME PCIe MADI fx card with 3 MADI inputs and outputs giving me 192 channels of digital audio in and out!

Here is the finished result. After this I started installing. Unfortunately it didn't work out as easy as I had hoped. The Windows 8.1 installation went like a breeze. Also the RME card drivers installed easily, but when I wanted to install the UAD-2 card every time Windows crashed with a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD). Not nice. First I replaced the power supply since the old one was only 430 Watt. The new one is 700 Watt, but this did help unfortunately. Then I moved the UAD-2 to another PCIe slot and that did the trick. Then it installed and also worked! After this I had trouble again with the RME card. I used the WDM and had digital artifacts on my audio signal. I switched to ASIO and then everything was fine. I don't really understand why, but to be honest I don't care :) ASIO works fine and I was using that on my old PC too. Now I have to install all my software and see if I can open my old projects that I'm still working on. But the first step is made in the studio upgrade.

Kurzweil KSP8 Battery Replacement

After I replaced the battery yesterday in the Sony DSP V77 I realized I had some more equipment that actually did complain about battery replacement. One of them is this Kurzweil KSP-8 also a very nice effects machine famous for its LaserVerb preset. This thing is actually a surround machine but you can also use it as 4 x stereo :) Quite powerful. It was still working fine, but I though let's replace this one BEFORE problems arise. So I opened it up.

Then I stared at the PCBs for a while and was getting crazy because I couldn't find any battery. I did look up what kind of battery it was and it was the same CR2032 that I had in stock so it should be spottable. Well I'm not sure if you are familiar with the abbreviation RTFM, but this was a clear case ;) There is a hatch on the bottom site of the machine where you can easily reach the battery without taking the whole machine apart. Duhhhhh :) Ah well good news is it stopped complaining now and I hope it will for a while. Again I hope this tip will help someone else :) Back to relocating and rewiring equipment.

Sony DPS V77 Battery Replacement

The last time I wanted to use my Sony DPS V77 it didn't work any more. I though it was broken and that made my quite sad since it is a very nice vintage digital effects processor. I was already looking for a new on on E-bay and saw that prices have risen on these machines. So I thought maybe I can repair it. Then I switched it on and off a couple of times and noticed that sometimes it actually did start up, but the display was looking funny. So first I thought it was some kind of memory problem.

Today I had to take it out of the rack anyway, since I started renovating the studio today, so I downloaded the service manual and thought I could maybe find the problem. And one of the options it gave is look at the battery Voltage. So that was the first thing I did and guess what? It was way too low. So if you have one of these and it is acting funny. Check that first! It doesn't give you any warning or anything.

Replacing is it quite simple. The battery is a standard CR2032 and I even had a couple in stock. It is fitted in a nice fixture so you don't even have to do any soldering. After replacing it I measured again and now it was fine. I powered the machine up and directly it gave a correct init procedure again. I changed the preset, switched it off and on again and it came back with the same preset. Problem solved :)

If you ever come across one of these machines on E-bay or whatever do give it a serious consideration. They sound really good for the money. Lots of producers use them as a secret weapon. If you want to hook it up digitally you do need a special break out cable, but you can still buy those on E-bay too once in a while. OK now I'm going to put it back in it's new spot. I'll show you where soon.

Lexicon 480L Reverb

One of my all time favorite reverbs is the Lexicon 480L. I have looked for one in a good shape including the LARC remote controller for a long time and finally I found one on E-bay from the Netherlands. I didn't like it to be shipped so I picked it up personally. I need to find a nice spot for it now. I'm currently working on a small studio rebuild that I will tell you all about on this blog. There is one more reverb I'm looking for and that is the even more classic Lexicon 224. They are even harder to find though. As you can see it even came with 2 expansion cards and a digital break out box. I'm going to find out now how the digital interface works, since that would suit my setup better than the analog I/O interfacing.

Jeffrey visits Apollo Studio Again

Yesterday I was visited by Jeffrey again (AKA Synthex). He bought a Doepfer Dark Energy that didn't track very well, so firstly we calibrated and tuned it. Then Jeffrey finally got to play on the Elke Synthex that worked prefectly yesterday. Unfortunately that is not always the case. After that he recorded some music for a new album on several synths like the Jupiter 8, Minimoog and EMS VCS3. We had a great time as usual and for me it was actually good to have a break from my work finally. When they left I did a little extra work on one track that is taking shape quite well already. Then I exported all the tracks to WAV to Jeffrey can work on it in his own studio. It was nice to be in the studio again and I really must make some music of my own again soon :) Jeffreys father also filmed a bit, so I'm sure there will be a video on youtube soon. I will post it on my blog as well if I see it.

iHeartSynths interview

I recently did a very nice interview with iHeartSynth.com about my studio and my music. I also made some new pictures for them to go along with the interview. One thing I also tell in the interview is that I removed the studio part on my Synth.NL website. I will try to keep you updated from time to time on this blog, so be sure to subscribe or look once in a while. You can find the interview on this URL: http://www.iheartsynths.com/artist-interviews/synth-nl/. I hope you enjoy it.

New Mutec Word Clock Generator

 I have a lot of digital out board gear that needs to synchronize. For this I use Word Clock. So far I used an Apogee Big Ben to generate and distribute the clock signal, but it has only 6 outputs. This means you have to make a lot of loops and terminate them. Recently I had some trouble with my clocking and it looked like a loose terminator or connector, but go find that :( I could solve it by fiddling around at the cables, but this was only a temporary solution. So I decided this was one of the first things on my list to solve with the studio rebuild.

At first I looked for an extra distributor to replicate the Big Ben's signal, but eventually I chose to replace it by this Mutec iD + iD dp. I already had some equipment from them and it is really good stuff. This clock generator has 16 Outputs! This meant that I could seriously avoid looping the signal though several chains, but that I could attach more equipment directly to this clock generator. Today I decided to remove all BNC wires from the Big Ben and put this one in. As you can see in the picture it is in the same spot now.

And here is what I was left with after the operation. I replaced all cables by version that were as short as possible and removed as much T-connectors and terminators as possible, since they are usually the source of all clocking connection troubles. Where possible I used the internal 75 ohm termination of the equipment itself. Most digital equipment has a switch to select whether you want termination or not.

And here is the good old Big Ben on it way to someone else. I already sold it. It is a good machine and it has helped me trough several album recordings, but for me 6 outputs is not enough. They really should consider making a version with more outputs.

After I hooked everything up again and checked if all equipment was synched to Word Clock again, I did some testing and was curious if I could hear any difference. It might be my mind playing with me, but I had the idea the sound was a bit brighter than before. But the problem is with these kind of things that you can't really be objective. But the most important thing is everything works again and is clocking like new :) More updates soon. For today it was enough of a job :) You can find more information on Mutec here: http://www.mutec-net.com

Clavia Nord Lead 4 in the Studio

You all know by now I guess I have a thing for Clavia synthesizers. I still remember the first time I saw Jean Michel Jarre play the Nord Lead 1 when he introduced it during his concert in Rotterdam. I just had to have one. It was the first virtual analog synthesizer back then. In the mean time Clavia did quite some improvements and just introduced the 4th model: The Nord Lead 4. This time it has an extra effects section, just like they did on the Nord Wave.

In the effects section there is also a drive button, that gives the sound a subtle overdrive effect. I really like that. It has again become a more mature synthesizer than the Nord Lead 2 I was used too, even though I have the impression that the Nord Lead 2 sound a bit more 'raw'. As you can see in the picture on the right there are actually 4 Clavia's in my studio now. I'm doubting if I will keep the Nord Lead 2 but, the Nord Modular G2X en Nord Wave are actually quite different synthesizers. I had to let one machine go, since the studio is full. So if something goes in something has to go out. This time I sold the M-Audio Venom. It was nice for a while, but not special enough to keep. For now I will be making some presets for the Nord Lead 4. Hopefully that will give me some inspiration to start some new music soon. Keep an eye on this blog. More news is coming soon. I'm actually rebuilding the studio a bit and of course I will keep you posted on the blog on this project.

New Synths in the Studio

After a very long time of buying completely nothing, suddenly I saw a synthesizer that has been on my wish list for the collection from day one. Never before I found one for sale in a condition like this one. It is an EMS 'Putney' VCS3. It is quite a rare synthesizer that was made in 1969. That is also the year that I was born, so that makes it extra special for me. It is a modular synthesizer that became famous famous because of its unique joystick, envelope fire button and the patch matrix. The matrix works with little pins and is actually quite convenient compared to plugging in patch cables to modules.

The machine is really in a great state, everything works and I'm so proud :) There is actually one in the London science museum you know :) That was the last time I saw one. The EMS's are actually perfect for creating sound effects and that is what Jean-Michel Jarre has used it for a lot. He made EMS famous together with Pink Floyd I guess who made there famous 'on the run' sequence on it. Well on the right is a nice pictures of the other machine I love for sound effects the ARP 2600.

And here is another syntesizer that I added to the collection. It is a Sequential Circuits Pro One. It is of the same make as the famous Prophet 5. This one is monophonic though. It is supposed to be great for bass sounds. To be honest I never played on one before, so this is new territory for me as well. A very nice feature is that it also has a sequencer on board. I can't wait to play around with it, but first I have to have a go at the VCS3 :)

Synth.nl Apollo Documentary by Thomas de Rijk

In 2010 I was contacted by Thomas de Rijk who was studying at that time at the Willem de Kooning Film Academy in Rotterdam. He asked if I wanted to cooperate in a documentary for his school project. And of course I agreed. He made this very cool documentary about my burn-out and how I got into producing my own music. I think he did a great job! The documentary is in the Dutch language, but it has English subtitles. I hope you enjoy it. I has some nice NASA HD footage (courtesy NASA) and also some nice shot from my Apollo Studio. It took a while before it ended up online, but here it is:) The music you hear is coming from my Apollo album. I hope you enjoy it. Thanks a lot Thomas!

Solar Power for my Apollo Studio

For all of you that always worry about the power that my studio uses. Even though it even isn't so much as many think. (the whole studio is on one 16 Amp fuse). But I have good news for you. The whole studio is solar powered now! I put 13 solar panels on the roof of our garage. They are 250 Watt Peak each so that is a total of 3250 Wp. It isn't even that sunny yet in The Netherlands but they are working hard already. 55 KWh in 3 days time. So from now on my music is totally CO2 free!

Here is the inside unit. It doesn't not only deliver the power to  the house, but also measures it. On the display you can see the power it delivers. I have already seen 2900 Watt during the afternoon when the sun was pointing directly at the panels and the summer still has to start :) I also ordered a network interface for this unit so that I can read it out from my PC. It makes nice graphs from the measurements. The last thing to do now is get the power company to install an intelligent measurement unit as well so I can see how much power we do and how much is coming from the solar panels. And I also have to file some papers to apply for subsidy from the local government here.

Keyboard Jeff visits Synth.nl Apollo Studio

Just before I went on holiday I had a visitor over in my studio. In the picture on the left you see 'Keyboard Jeff' aka 'Synthex' because of his love of the Elka you see him with. Jeffrey is 13 years old and a very talented keyboard player with a unfamiliar musical taste for a boy of his age. He doesn't play dance or whatever, but he likes 80's synthesizer music. I met him at the E-live festival in Eindhoven were he approached me and told me he knew all my music and my videos from my website. Later it turned out he had read my whole website and knew everything from the top of his head.

 He was telling me all the synthesizers that I had that he never played before and at a certain moment I just stopped him and asked if he wanted to play on them for real and offered him a visit to my studio. In the mean time I also talked to Ron Boots about Jeffrey and Ron knew him very well too, because he visited his studio too and Ron told me also that Jeffrey was working on his own music and he let me hear some stuff. I was very surprised it sounded very well actually :) Quite remarkable.

So a couple of weeks ago he came over together with his father took pictures and also filmed the whole meeting. It was fun to watch that Jeffrey just couldn't chose which synthesizer to play. He wanted to play them all at the same time and jumped around from joy in the studio. He also found his way to the big modular wall and amazingly enough didn't ask any question. He knew how to patch the modular from the top of his head. I know a lot of adult and experienced musicians that don't even know how to do that, let alone get something musically interesting from a modular. But he did :)

Then he asked me a question I wasn't prepared for. He asked if we could play some music together and even record it. Normally I don't do that at all unless I know someone for a while. I just don't feel comfortable with these kind of things. His father was filming the whole thing and I get very nervous from that. Normally I even stop playing when my wife walks in to the studio. But since I had some experience now  with playing together with Ron Boots and Remy Stroomer and I agreed to give it a try. At first it didn't go too well, but that is normal. You have to get used to each others style, especially chords and tempo.

Later on we did play some very nice things together Jeffrey's father told us. I actually never know what I'm playing until I hear it back ;) Most of the recordings didn't work though unfortunately because Jeffrey kept switching synths faster that I could keep up with assigning channels to the recording software. I did manage to record one jam though that turned out quite nice and there are two nice ones on film. I'm planning to put a video on youtube from this. Please keep in mind that these will be fully unprepared improvisations and there are mistakes in there for sure. But it was a lot of fun. Eventually Jeffrey's father had lot of trouble getting him back home, but I think we all enjoyed this day :)

Replacing Yamaha AN1X Battery

This weekend is the Swingungen Party in Hamm Germany where some artists play that I know very well. I'm going there as a visitor to see them play, but two of them asked me to bring some equipment since they can't bring much because of their limited space in transportation. One of the synths is the Yamaha AN1X. Of course I wanted to test the synths before I bring them and when I switched on the Yamaha it gave the message 'Battery Low'.

So this morning I went to the local electronics store to get a new battery. And then I started to see how to open up the AN1X. It turns out you have to put it up side down and then remove ALL the screws on the bottom. There are a lot I can tell you. I didn't count them but more than 30 for sure. I think Yamaha was afraid it would fall apart during playing ;) Well once you have it open and lift the cover you can easily see the battery and replace it. It is nicely put in a battery holder and takes a second to replace.

After you have replace the battery it has lost all it's settings and you need to do a factory reset and then put your sounds back into it. So if you didn't make a backup now is when you are screwed ;) But luckily I had no sounds in there that I had an emotional connecting with. After this I tested the whole synth and played a little on it and I must say it is a very nice synthesizer. One of the better Virtual Analogs out there I think and it is small, light and build as a tank so you can bring it a long on tour easily I guess :) Maybe I'll see some of you at the Garden Party next weekend!

RME Fireface 800 Repair

Yesterday evening is was working with Remy Stroomer in my studio on our upcoming collaboration album. When we done and still talking about all kinds of stuff suddenly a loud bang occurred in the studio, followed by another one and it smelled very burned. So something broke down, but I could see right away what. Then suddenly I saw that all the lights on my RME Fireface 800 started flickering and it went dark. I immediately cut the power from it and unscrewed it from the rack. It was very hot to start with, which wasn't a good sign. When we opened it up. The first thing I noticed was an capacitor that seem to have exploded.

It was already late so I called it a night and started looking further this morning. Since we heard two bangs I suspected there must have been another capacitor that exploded. The first thing to look at was the power supply. And I found it quickly. I expect that the first capacitor that blew was in the 48 Volt circuit of the microphone input I used last week, since that input was already acting funny. Probably after that one blew it also took one out on the power supply that feeds the 48 Volt to the input. And my suspicions were correct.

After this I de-soldered these two broken capacitor and some other ones that looked suspicious and drove to the local electronics store. Unfortunately they didn't have two of the capacitors that I wanted to replace as a precaution, but they did have the rest and most important the replacements for the exploded ones. After carefully screwing the main board and power supply back in place I first put power on the power supply without the main board attached to it. I could measure some stable voltages on the connector so I reapplied them and everything seemed to work based on the led sequence that I'm used to when it powers on.

I left it running on the bench for a while and nothing got abnormally hot or anything so I decided to put it back in place. And guess what :) It worked perfectly again. It is always nice when you can repair something like this yourself. Feels very satisfying and of course saves an expensive repair from RME. If they would actually repair it in the first place. My experiences with them are not that good actually in that sense. OK I guess I can take a cup of coffee now to reward myself :) Back to music!