Stephen Hague answered some questions a Pet Shop Boys forum apparently, he was asked about the bass: "Exactly how was that famous West End girls bass sound created?" "If I recall, it was a combination of an Oberheim OBX, and a kick drum sound from a drum machine over midi. It was hand played… Everyt...

Yes I saw an interview with Stephen Hague were he said he convinced a 'reluctant' Chris Lowe to play the whole bass part by hand. The reports I've seen suggest the bass on the record *wasn't* sequenced, but instead played by hand. Also, Stephen Hague suggests the bass was a combination of synths, wh...

I've not done a direct comparison but just from memory, it reminds me of the bass sound that the Thompson Twins used a lot on the albums 'Quick Step & Sidekick' and 'Into The Gap'. I think they used an Oberheim OB-Xa quite a lot on those albums. Maybe the Princess bass was layered with an Obie and D...

I would definitely replace those gaskets, they help to prevent dust and dirt getting into the slider pots. When they get old they dry out and become brittle and bits come off, which could end up getting into the sliders!

Hi, how many RAM modules are there? Could still be a dodgy one. I bought mine off eBay and the seller had added extra RAM and it was one of the extra modules he’d added that turned out to be faulty. Fortunately for me it happened to be the first one I pulled out so didn’t take long! I confirmed it b...

I had this same problem with an ESI 4000, in my case it turned out to be a dodgy ram module.

Regards
Dave

Hello!
Does anyone know what that clear coating is that Emu put over the text on the Emax 1 front panel? Mines bubbling and peeling off! Thanks

tim gueguen wrote:Dirty pots maybe?

Aah could be, that could explain the changing parameters. At least that's fixable too!

Hello there! My beloved Jupiter 8 began behaving a little odd the other night. When selecting a patch from memory and then playing it, the sound changes slightly and the dots appear on the display as they do to indicate when a parameter has been altered. It does this without touching anything. I hav...

Yes, Farnell is CPC. Voltage regulators get replaced mainly because some classic synth designs didn't spec them right, or they didn't design a sufficient heat sink. That said they do just fail due to age, again because of the heat. Look, don't automatically replace any component. Inspect, measure a...

Modern tantalums seem more reliable. But they still have very tight tolerances in regards to overvoltage. You can find them in parallel to the backup batteries of some vintage digital synths. The voltage is around 3V and the caps are usually rated for 16V, so not a great danger. Still I don´t trust...

The standard thing, apparently, is to "derate" by using a tant that's rated 50% higher than what the circuit requires. You can go higher if you like, does no harm, just costs you a few cents extra. General opinion seems to be that the Japanese manufactures make the best electrolytics, would that be...

I've had tantalum caps failing on me more often than electrolytic ones -- ARP Omnis are full of those dreadful things which render the Omni unplayable until they have all been replaced. Electrolytic caps tend to "puke" as they say, i. e. some substance leaking out. This, or when they bulge -- then ...

Hi all,

I was just wondering, I'm well aware of ageing electrolytic capacitors and how they eventually need replacing but what about the other types? Do tantalum and ceramic types need to be replaced too? Also are there any other components that should be replaced due to ageing?

Kind Regards

Hello, I wonder if any of our electronics experts on here can help with this? I was desoldering some parts off a PCB and a hard brown residue has been left behind on the board around the holes. I'm assuming this is flux that was used in the original soldering? I've tried some flux cleaner from Mapli...