problematic linn drum

supercluster · Post by **supercluster** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 1:44 am

So i found someone who wants to sell me there midi outfitted linn drum. i just checked it out, and i couldnt get any sounds out of the thing. tried both channels. do you NEED to run it in stereo to get sounds out of it? doesnt make sense. the other notable problem was that the lights stayed on and didnt blink when buttons were pressed. Also- the play/stop button was always on. (red) all the buttons with led's were constantly 'on'.

anyone have any idea what the problem might be? or how much A fix might be ? thanks!

oh, and its an LM-2.

hfinn · Post by **hfinn** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 2:00 am

Does it have the patches loaded in? If not it won't do much of anything unless you program something...

You don't need to run it in stereo either, as long as you pan the voices the right way.

p.s this should be in the help section...

supercluster · Post by **supercluster** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 2:00 am

i imagine there could be a whole plethora of different problems- i did not open it up.

someone confirm this for me! i'm going to be crying soon!!

Post by **Stab Frenzy** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 3:03 am

Never used a LinnDrum but maybe it's set to midi clock slave and won't go until it gets something in the midi port? Then again, the lights thing sound like it might be dead.

supercluster · Post by **supercluster** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 3:31 am

i hope its not broken, because if i can get it to work.. dirt cheap!

ive read some accounts of people with linn drums that need 15 minutes to warm up. im sending the guy an email to try letting it warm up for a long period of time. eh..

hfinn · Post by **hfinn** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 3:44 am

I never had that problem. How cheap is cheap? I'd say buy it if its cheap enough...

Overgear · Post by **Overgear** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 7:19 am

It sounds like it's not passing the power on self test. When you turn it on, it flashes all the lights and the the numerical displays read "00" on the upper and "0.0" on the lower. It only holds for a second and then clears. It sounds like it is stuck there. Only the pattern light and the lower display should be lit("11") when it is ready for normal operation. If it doesn't reach this state, it won't do anything.

It could be a midi error. You could try to sending a midi panic(or all notes off) command to it. Maybe it just got locked up. You would think this would be corrected by powering it off/on, though.

It may be a slave issue like Stab mentioned. Mine doesn't have midi so I don't really know how that operates. When you sync by CV, you hit the Ext Sync pad above Play. You then hit Play. At this point Play and Ext Sync should be lit but you will not hear anything. Once it receives a sync signal it starts to play. It may respond the same way with midi sync.

I'd suggest opening it up. It may not provide any answers but it only takes a few seconds. Just 3 screws on the front. It could be battery leakage. Lets hope not.

I hope this helps.

atkbg · Post by **atkbg** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 1:26 pm

You! You! You bastard!

Did you get the ESQ-1, too?

Post by **nathanscribe** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 4:46 pm

It could be that the memory's full of c**p through a battery or power supply fault. In that situation, it needs resetting. At work at the mo, and can't remember the procedure offhand, but you could download the manual and have a look. It's in there - just a couple of button-pushes. Linndrums seem particularly responsive to power issues; mine acted weird for a while until I used a reliable supply. Happy as larry now.

It could also be something daft like a bad connection or ill-seated IC. At least the Linn batteries are not on the main board, so if they do leak you probably won't fry anything precious.

If it's cheap enough, you could buy it anyway, and if the MIDI's problematic, you could always remove it and sync the Linn via it's clock jack instead (it wants a 48ppqn pulse).

supercluster · Post by **supercluster** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 8:24 pm

atkbg wrote:You! You! You bastard!

Did you get the ESQ-1, too?

hah.. not the first message i've received like this...

the guy lives less than 5 minutes away from me.

how convenient!

atkbg · Post by **atkbg** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 11:09 pm

Nice!
There's been some interesting things in NOHO lately. Even in Holyoke!
Sorry to totally derail your thread, but is that music shop just north of the Big Y still there?

supercluster · Post by **supercluster** » Wed Jun 11, 2008 2:36 am

hmm.... i never knew about any music shop north of the big y... where are you located?