Vintage Synth Explorer Forums

Hi.
I bought a sequential circuits multi-trak a few weeks ago which has been fine until yesterday when switching on the digital display counts from 1 to 6 and i can't get a peep out of it apart from a couple of patches that contain a bit of white noise. Troubleshooting in the manual describes this problem but rather unhelpfullly just states that if this happens there may be a memory problem?!
Anyone one know of this problem, its cause or more importantly a solution. Really hoping it won't need a service as have had it less than a month. Oh, the joy of old gear.
Any thoughts appreciated.
cheers

dead battery

Most likely the memory is scrambled because the battery needs to be replaced.

I had the same thing happen with my Six-Trak a little while back. Once the battery was replaced, I reinitialized it and everything worked fine.

I agree. The Multitrak counts off when the battery is dead.

The white noise on some patches worries me. Are the patches scrambled with random parameters? Are you hearing chorus noise?

You can get a basic patch by holding down record and pressing 8.

There are lots of Multitrak links in a recent thread. Look through those.

micahjonhughes wrote:The white noise on some patches worries me. Are the patches scrambled with random parameters? Are you hearing chorus noise?

Nah - he said that only some patches have white noise.

The memory gets scrambled when the battery goes out, so some patches will have the noise cranked, while most won't sound at all.

Most patches are inaudible because there are more random combinations that won't produce sound, than there are random combinations that will.

Thanks for the advice, I was hoping it would be that and by the sound of all your experiences, it sounds positive.
will try it out. Do you reckon i'll have to go to wine country or could i pick one up closer to home, i'm in the uk.
many thanks.

the noise is normal, mine did the same thing. Start it up and then transfer the factory sysex patches, you will be able to use it normally until you turn it off

erroland wrote:Do you reckon i'll have to go to wine country or could i pick one up closer to home, i'm in the uk.

A local tech should be able to replace the battery for 25-35 quid.

I recommend you have whoever is doing it just to install a suitable battery holder instead of the normal solder on battery. The multitrak commonly has a problem where it drains the battery VERY quickly (several months in my case), so when it dies, you can just pop in a battery yourself and save some money. get used to backing up your patches also

My multi trak is doing the same thing, powers up counts down 1-6 but no sound, running it thru 2x12 Fender amp no sound except some ground hum which I can fix . have ordered 2 (one for spare) BR 2/3 A batteries and single battery holder to solder in . ( Just bought this from an auction house for $ 32.00 has original box and form insert . hope to get it kicking Lol