eml 101 help

[skimmy]

me and my freinds recently found what happens to be an electrocomp 101 in our school junk pile and being new to synths we figured it would be a good place to get help here. We plugged the synth into my amp and we can only get one tone out of it and can only get what i think is the (mod?) to speed up or slow down. The keyboard appears to do nothing. sorry for my lack of knowlege on this subject but we have to start somewhere. thanks in advance

[Z]

The EML 101 is not a beginner's synth. Even for advanced users, it can be a bit overwhelming becauuse of its akward layout. I suggest you first start out by looking for an online tutorial on subtractive synthesis and then find one on modular synthesizers.

Congrats on the find! Best of luck learningn it!

[skimmy]

my freind jusr informed me that we do not have the keyboard to main body cable, is there any where we might be able to pick one up or make one? sorry for the triple posts, my internet was a bit screwy at the time

[cornutt]

The first thing to do is to take off the wood piece that goes across the top of the keyboard, and see if you can find the cable tucked away inside there. The cable is wired in at the keyboard end. If not, you'll have to make something. EML used at least three different connectors during the production run, plus some were retrofitted with other connectors.

[skimmy]

Sorry for the prolonged post. i found the kepboard cable ad hooked it up to the main part. when i turn it on the keyboard does nothing yet it hums. depending on the setting of the ocs1 waveform it makes a sort of gritty noise. the only way i can get audio off the eml is too hook the osc1 output to my amp. if i plug my amp to the output mixer i get nothing. any idea what i can do?

[cornutt]

Glad you wrote back. Let's see if we can get this one going. A good EML shouldn't go to waste.

You need to understand a few things about the 101. First, OSC 1 isn't routed to the output unless you put a patch cord in somewhere. Second, there are some things you need to learn about how the keyboard control voltages are routed inside the synth. For the time being, let me just give you a patch that you can use, and see if you can get some recognizable notes out of it. Here are the settings:

Keyboard control: KEYS/OCT full counterclockwise. GLIE full counterclockwise.

Oscillator 2: CONTROL MODE 2 switch to the KB1 position.

Oscillator 3: CONTROL MODE 3 switch to the CM2 position.

Oscillator 4: CONTROL MODE 4 switch to the CM3 position. OCTAVE switch to any position except LO.

Filter input mixer: OSC 2, OSC, and OSC 4 knobs full clockwise. NOISE/EXT full counterclockwise.

Filter: TUNE full clockwise. RESONANCE and MODE full counterclockwise.

Filter control: All three knobs at the 12 o'clock position, pointing at the "0".

Envelope 1: ATTACK full counterclockwise. DECAY at about the 2 o'clock position. SUSTAIN full clockwise. The switch next to the sustain knob ON.

Modulator: Knob pointing at the OFF position.

Amplitude shaper (aka VCA): Switch in the ENV 1 position

Output mixer: AMP SHAPER full clockwise (caution: may be loud), EXT full counterclockwise.

Plug the output cord into one of the HI output jacks. No other patch cords.

See how that does and write back on this thread.

[skimmy]

thanks for the help but it sill d nothing. i opened it up to take a look and resoldered 4 broken points on the osc4 control mode knob. is there anything else i can try?

[cornutt]

Hmm. Let's take it a bit at a time. You said you got something when you plugged the amp cable into the OSC 1 out jack. Switch that oscillator's CONTROL MODE 1 switch to the CM2 position. Then put in a patch cord from the OSC 1 out jack to the FILTER MIXER ESC in jack. Plug your amp cable into the FILTER MIXER out jack, and see what you get.

[skimmy]

OK, i tried that too but got nothing. they keyboard responds when i switch it to env1 but tey keys dont change he pich just the attack, ect.

[cornutt]

Phew... if none of the oscillators are tracking the keyboard, then it's probably time for it to go to a tech. The keyboard CV circuitry is pretty complicated, owing to the duophonic keyboard. There's a lot of things that could be wrong with it.

[skimmy]

Ah, okay. well thanks for all the help and advice. I'm going to open it up again tonight to try and find any more broken connections. for the time being, I've got a microkorg here. Is there a way to run microkorg sounds through the eml's filters? If so how would i go about doing it? thanks for all the help again.

[minime123]

id really recommend taking it to a pro. dont tweak or touch anything inside if you dont know what youre doing!