Vintage Synth Explorer Forums

Couldn't get an answer to this on the rest of the Internet, so I'm asking here:

Does the difference in electrical frequency between the U.S. and U.K. affect synthesisers?

What I mean is, the Roland D-550 that I'm hoping isn't lost in the mail, or that the person actually got my payment, or...anyway, is a U.K. machine. According to what I learned, England's electricity is on a 50Hz cycle, whereas here in the U.S., we use a 60Hz cycle. Will that affect things like envelope speeds (attack time, decay time) and LFO rates? Maybe even affect MIDI timings? (That one's a little less likely, methinks.) I ask because electric motor speeds (shavers, toothbrushes) are affected by that, and for some reason I can't help but wonder if these are too.

Just wondered. It's not like I usually set those parameters to extremes anyway, so I can always compensate for the things.


And why the h**l is there a difference? Can't we all use the same settings? Why do we even use different currencies? I'm sick of exchange rates! Those anti-globalisation people sure are goofy...

to the best of my knowledge, the only real difference is how you plug it in (which is gonna be tricky without some kind of step converter). Once electricity passes through the internal power supply board, the power is stepped down from there. My opinion is that the circuits themselves (besides the power-supply) function with the same ratings regardless of their origin...

Yeah the frequency isn't accurate enough to tune a musical instrument on, once it's through the power supply the AC voltage is split into various voltages, like +15, -15 and +5 for the digital stuff.

You're lucky you live in the 110VAC part of the world, if we get voltage selector switches wrong there's usually big explosions, you just end up with something that won't work until you switch it back.

Yeah, thanks guys. I already have an voltage converter, just was wondering about the electrical cycle difference. Good to know I won't set attack time to 15 seconds and it comes out at .035 milliseconds...