[A6] Another Andromeda bites the dust

Sun Feb 4 13:25:26 PST 2007

Have you changed anything in the studio?  This might sound odd, but for a couple of years my Matrix-6 would act up.  I noticed it seemed to act up more when I moved it.  I was sure it was internal hardware.  One day I was redoing my studio and I went back to using the original power cord it came with as I no longer needed a longer chord for it.  The problem went away.  The Matrix-6 uses a standard three prong power chord similar to that of a PC and many other synths.  I have no idea why it made a difference, but it did.  I'm guessing it was a better fit when plugged in.  I once had another synth that only seemed to like being plugged directly in the wall.  Put it on a power strip and it wasn't happy.  I know it's a long shot, but you never know.  Try plugging it somewhere else.  Unplug everthing from the synth but the power chord when starting it.  If you changed absolutely anything in the studio, look there.  I hope it's not internal hardware.  BTW, does the A6 have any fuses?

cheers,
matrix
http://matrixsynth.blogspot.com
____________________________
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Steven Wartofsky 
  To: stevie 
  Cc: A6 at code404.com 
  Sent: Sunday, February 04, 2007 9:52 AM
  Subject: Re: [A6] Another Andromeda bites the dust

  Yep, tried that; they checksummed identically.  At this point I suspect it's either hardware, or there needs to be some special way to reset everything to "seriously empty" before flashing anything back to RAM.

  I would assume the bootloader's ok, since all its functionality seems to be fine.  I can reset with soft-button 2 to enter diagnostics mode, and confirm that all the knobs, buttons, ribbon, everything, is working fine at that level; I can reset with soft-button 3 to do a "hard reset" and wipe the user banks to factory default; I can reset with soft-button 4 to "soft reset"; I can reset with button 1 to try to load "Default Pgm"; I can reset with soft-button 7 to try to load the OS.  All of that goes through the procedure.

  But the end result each time is that if I try to boot up the synth, from power off and wait ten (or 15, for that matter) seconds, after each of the above, the screen comes up with the Andromeda logo, does its flip to black and then back to normal, and then flashes something and basically "hangs" on the startup screen (all lights never come on, screen doesn't get to anything I can use).

  I had this problem with the first Andromeda I tried to buy before I got this one, a day after I got it back from the store.  I switched it for a new unit and this one's been fine ever since back then.  But now, it appears to have the same problem.

  I would guess either that a) the flash RAM is faulty in some way; or b) the memory is corrupted and so won't boot up.

  I had the strange experience of being able to upload all 2736 blocks to the synth this morning, over an hour, using a buffer size of 1024 and timeout/delay of 1000 milliseconds between each F0/F7 sysex package, and for once it counted all the way up without any hang.  But then when I hit a button to flash it to ram, it went immediately to "Verify Block 5" and the do not interrupt screen, and I waited another half an hour, and it seemed hung there.

  Now when I power it up, I'm back to scratch.  If I hold soft-reset 7 while powering up, it goes to the screen ready to receive Sysex, but using the same MIDIOX config as mentioned above, it's now doing what it was doing yesterday, getting stuck at receiving Block 1 and not going any further.

  I wish I knew what was wrong; this is the kind of fragility in its design that's always worried me about the A6, and has me thinking maybe I've had all my fun with this synth at this point.  I'll see what it'll cost to get it repaired, but between the shipping costs, the likely damage or disappearance during shipping, the risk that something else will be messed up during repair...... it may be that I'd be happier just spending 500 bucks on an SH-201 or something and using it to control softsynths on my PC, and leaving the A6 behind.  There's just a subtlety to sound designing on it that I'll miss, sigh.  Even if the results are not really spectacular, just well-known to me.  Dimension Pro and Rapture give me just as much flexibility in envelope control, though, and more, really, along with Reaktor, in terms of sound variety than I can ever get from a subtractive synth.

  ARGH.

  Thanks for your patience.

  Steve

    ----- Original Message ----- 
    From: stevie 
    To: Steven Wartofsky 
    Cc: A6 at code404.com ; Siro Mateos 
    Sent: Sunday, February 04, 2007 11:33 AM
    Subject: Re: [A6] Another Andromeda bites the dust

    Dont know if you have tried this already, but maybe you should trying 
    downloading the OS again in case the OS file you currently have is 
    corrupted?

    stevie

    > I'm not sure, but I don't think so.
    >  
    > I managed to upload the entire 2376 blocks this morning with MIDIOX, 
    > slowly, then hit a switch to store to flash RAM; it seems stuck at 
    > Block 5, should I reset and start again or wait a long time, or is it 
    > really messed up?
    >  
    > Steve
    >  
    >
    >     ----- Original Message -----
    >     *From:* Siro Mateos <mailto:siro_mateos at hotmail.com>
    >     *To:* A6 at code404.com <mailto:A6 at code404.com>
    >     *Sent:* Sunday, February 04, 2007 9:38 AM
    >     *Subject:* Re: [A6] Another Andromeda bites the dust
    >
    >     Steven Wartofsky wrote:
    >     > Well, my A6 seems to have just up and died this morning. Have
    >     had it
    >     > since before 2001, now when I turn it on, it just hangs. Have tried
    >     > all the reset options, no luck. Have tried reloading OS, just gets
    >     > stuck at loading block 1.
    >     > Cheesy Alesis manufacture strikes again, or anything specific I
    >     can do?
    >     > It's very strange, I've been _so_ careful with this synth for so
    >     many
    >     > years, not a single shake, odd shock or anything.
    >     > Oh well, on to the world of softsynths and digital, this thing was
    >     > special once upon a time.
    >     > Steve
    >     >
    >     ------------------------------------------------------------------------
    >     >
    >     > _______________________________________________
    >     > A6 mailing list
    >     > A6 at code404.com <mailto:A6 at code404.com>
    >     > http://mailman.code404.com/mailman/listinfo/a6
    >     >  
    >     I think your A6 is old enough to have problems with its lithium
    >     battery... have you replaced it? Anyway, can anybody point out
    >     what can
    >     be expected from an A6 with an exhausted battery? Just loosing user
    >     presets or more severe corruptions?
    >
    >     I hope this helps...
    >
    >
    >     _______________________________________________
    >     A6 mailing list
    >     A6 at code404.com <mailto:A6 at code404.com>
    >     http://mailman.code404.com/mailman/listinfo/a6
    >
    >------------------------------------------------------------------------
    >
    >_______________________________________________
    >A6 mailing list
    >A6 at code404.com
    >http://mailman.code404.com/mailman/listinfo/a6
    >  
    >

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  _______________________________________________
  A6 mailing list
  A6 at code404.com
  http://mailman.code404.com/mailman/listinfo/a6
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.code404.com/pipermail/a6/attachments/20070204/20de2c0d/attachment-0001.htm