EIII Dead Voices: How to test and how to resolve?

[ditabeardmemo]

Hi everyone... I'm a new member here, and although I've been lurking here for a few weeks, this is my first post.

I picked up the most recent Emulator III sold on eBay in the United States (I think dvdborn noted it here), and it arrived today. While the unit is in excellent condition, I've come to suspect that at least half the voices are dead. I'm not totally certain of this as I'm barely familiar with the instrument, but I have a creeping suspicion this is the case.

When I sample a sound, the sampling activates properly. When I play the sampled sound, however, it does not trigger every time I kit the key. It triggers normally the first 3 times, then keystrokes 4-12 produce no sound at all. Keystroke 13 only triggers in the right channel, keystroke 14 only triggers in the left channel, and keystrokes 15-16 are normal again.

Can anyone recommend another method to establish with certainty that the voices are dead? Is it possible I'm simply misunderstanding some part of the operation? And if it turns out that these voices are dead, is there any way to salvage this machine?

Thanks in advance to all you EIII owners for your help!

Best,
Brandt
Brooklyn, NY

[Elmbeatz]

Welcome Brandt!

A definite way to find out dead voices/channels is to manually activate only one channel after another. This is done by selecting the master module, then 8 (special) then 2 -> disable outputs. Then activate only one channelö after another and listen if you get sound while playing.
Be sure though that the sample/instrument you have chosen is assigned to ALL output channels (which can be done by selecting the Analog processing module then 9) output channels.

I also have three or four dead output channels. This never bothered me so far, but I surely would like to have all of them working...

[dr.c]

Most of the time (I almost never had any breakdown of channel boards) its a flat cable problem.
Check the four flat cables wich go from the channel boards to the jack board. The crimping of the connecrs is bad.
NEVER swap (interchange) flat cables ! For example, if you consider, on the jack boad, the four connectors as A-B-C-D, NEVER change the A and B cable for example.

Take the cables away from the jack board and put them back. At 99% it will work again

[karlscott]

There must be a company out there that can remake these flat cables, so much faults with these machines are attributed to them must be someone somewhere!!!

[dr.c]

Come on !

You can buy flat cable at Radio-Sack (if I remember, its a 20 conductor, but I'm not sure, (just count the number of rays on the cable) some connectors, a pair of special pliers to mount the connectors, and there you go ! Shoul cost you about 50 bucks all together and after then, you vcan make cables for the whole forum !

Take some extra connectors to train before doing the definitive ones

[Elmbeatz]

Most of the time (I almost never had any breakdown of channel boards) its a flat cable problem.
Check the four flat cables wich go from the channel boards to the jack board. The crimping of the connecrs is bad.
NEVER swap (interchange) flat cables ! For example, if you consider, on the jack boad, the four connectors as A-B-C-D, NEVER change the A and B cable for example.

Take the cables away from the jack board and put them back. At 99% it will work again

Hey, COOL! 
I have to check that out!!!

[dr.c]

I confirm, its a 20 pin flat cable, be DAMN CAREFULL with the polarisation of the cables (red line), BE CAREFULL, BE CAREFULL, BE CAREFULL, BE CAREFULL, BE CAREFULL, BE CAREFULL, BE CAREFULL, BE CAREFULL, BE CAREFULL, BE CAREFULL, BE CAREFULL, BE CAREFULL, BE CAREFULL !!!

[esynthesist]

NEVER swap (interchange) flat cables ! For example, if you consider, on the jack boad, the four connectors as A-B-C-D, NEVER change the A and B cable for example.

Mmm... I have done that once. It didn't help, but it also didn't cause any damage to the EIII as far as I know: the EIII behaved exactly the same way as it did before swapping the output flat cables.
Why isn't this allowed ?

///E-Synthesist

[lubb]

Hi, I have just tested the dead voice through test procedures, Master > 8 Special > 0 Diagnostic, password 1358 > 4 Frequency response test. It requires to connect Mono Mix Out to R Sample input. It tells me tha my EIII rack has 1 channel dead...

[dr.c]

Cable "A", leftmost on the jack board, transports +5V to power the stereo output relay.
The other cables at the same place don't, they are connected to the output boards.

If you swap the boards, dos it change anything ? This must be done !