| T.R | Title | User | Personal
Name | Date | Lines |
|---|
| 56.1 | | BARNUM::JWALTON | | Mon Feb 11 1985 20:27 | 14 |
|
Hey, checked out the mirage this week-end, didn't get
a chance to hear it....
The keyboard has a REAL strange feeling, like spongie
all the way through the action. But the 3.5 inch disk
goes in and comes out like a flash, the nice thing about
those disks is that the magnectic medium is covered when
it's not in the drive so you can handle it anyway you like
without those pictures of the size difference between finger
oil and the drive head running through your wallet. (???)
John Walton
|
| 56.2 | | NOVA::RAVAN | | Mon Feb 11 1985 20:32 | 9 |
| Maybe it's just a cheap organ action. I was pleased with the DX7
keyboard's action. I'm a pianist, not an oragnist, so I play
keyboards REAL HARD out of habit. This could be a problem for
me; we'll wait and see.
Daddy's in Nashua hasn't called me yet telling me that the Mirage
has arrived. Where did you see it?
-jim
|
| 56.3 | | BARNUM::JWALTON | | Tue Feb 12 1985 11:26 | 9 |
| I too like the DX7 action, the mirage (which was right
below the DX7 on a rack) didn't seem like a organ-ie
more like there was some sponge behind it. Anyway it
probably has something to do with it being velocity
sensitive.
I saw it at Lasalles in watertown square.
John
|
| 56.4 | | STAR::MALIK | | Tue Feb 12 1985 13:49 | 5 |
|
Daddy's in Salem has it. That's where Daddy's in Nashua is
waiting to get it from.
- Karl
|
| 56.5 | | GIBSON::DICKENS | | Wed Feb 13 1985 19:41 | 1 |
| Can anyone verify the price ?
|
| 56.6 | | HELOS::MALIK | | Thu Feb 14 1985 12:42 | 5 |
| Re; -1
Yes, they can.
,km
|
| 56.7 | | BARNUM::JWALTON | | Thu Feb 14 1985 14:50 | 3 |
| re:-1 You want to expand on that??
John
|
| 56.8 | | HELOS::MALIK | | Mon Feb 18 1985 14:29 | 27 |
| Subj; Mirage is in Nashua.
The Mirage has finally arrived at Daddy's Junky Music in
Nashua. Just a demo, but at least we get to try it out.
I went down Friday. It only comes with a few instruments
( 6, I think). Pretty good. The piano definetly sounds like a
piano (though not as good as the Kurzweil). Curiously, it sounds
like an out-of-tune piano. Not badly, just a bit. I can only
assume this was the result of tone-deaf technicians doing the
sampling.
Some of the other instruments it comes with are : bass
guitar, some drums, flute (not very good), & fuzz guitar. I may
have forgotten some others, but in any event, not much of a
selection. The saleman didn't know if others were available.
The salepeople were trying to get it to sample a DX7. They
were having lots of trouble. I got to peek at the documentation
and it's not very helpful. It does refer to an 'advanced sampling
manual', which, of course, does not come with the unit. When I
left, they had not succeeded in figuring it out.
Summary; for the price ($1700), it's definetly interesting.
I may end up getting one, but not before investigating further.
- Karl
|
| 56.9 | | NOVA::RAVAN | | Mon Feb 18 1985 20:36 | 24 |
| Thanks for the pointer Karl; I went down to Daddy's (Nashua) right after I
read your note and took a look/listen at the keyboard.
Agreed, the piano is the best sound on the freebee disk. The #3 sound has
four keys at the bottom that are high hat/cymbal/snare/bass drum. Neat, but
not a knock out. It would make a pretty good drum synth given some good input
though (I think).
I sampled my voice (easy) and got some good results, but voices are easy.
Things that are hard, and would REALLY be worth the effort, are things like
trumpets and strings (good samples of the attack make the difference).
I was distressed at the lack of technical documentation. As Karl said, you
can't learn very much about how to interface this keyboard to a computer by
reading the documentation. The MIDI commands (if they have only the MIDI
commands I say in the doc that comes with the keyboard) are MINIMAL. The
flyer that said "full wavetable computer access/programming" is NOT yet a
reality.
The Ensoniq rep is going to be at Daddy's this Wednesday, the 20th, sometime
after 3:00 p.m. If you have any questions you may want to call Daddy's and
show up when he is there; I'm going to do just that.
-jim
|
| 56.10 | | HELOS::MALIK | | Tue Feb 19 1985 13:18 | 14 |
| Your welcome, and thanks for the pointer to the Ensoniq
rep on wednesday. I'll be there.
I played with the instrument more last night. It's a
confusing amalgam of nice and missing features. I'm hoping the
rep can enlighten me about future planned functionality.
I noticed a small but irritating bug/oversight last
night. I was using the internal sequencer; recorded a pop bass
line, using the pitch-bend wheel here and there. Then added
some piano chords, NOT using the wheel. When I played it back,
the piano chords would bend whenever the bass did. Dumb.
- Karl
|
| 56.11 | | SAUTER::SAUTER | | Tue Feb 19 1985 20:09 | 4 |
| re: .10--I wonder if it has the same problem when driven by an external
sequencer? If so it may be in violation of the MIDI specification,
depending on how it permits two patches to be played at the same time.
John Sauter
|
| 56.12 | | GALAXY::MALIK | | Tue Dec 17 1985 16:02 | 10 |
| By now, the Mirage is old news. But, if anyone is
interested, I just tracked down their Malvern, PA phone
number (not listed in their ads) -
It's (215) 647-3930.
They have a customer service department that will
answer your questions.
- Karl
|
| 56.13 | I'm soooooo confused... | DONJON::CROWLEY | ere lies David St. Hubbins....and why not! | Fri Jul 10 1987 12:12 | 15 |
|
Not sure if this is the right note for this, but here goes....
My problem is trying to get the built in sequencer of the mirage
to synch with my TR-707. I've followed every step both manuals
list for running the mirage off the 707's clock and visa versa.
When I start the sequence, the 707 plays perfectly, but the Mirage
plays its sequence about as slow as a turtle in a mud puddle.
I've been pulling my hair out trying to figure this one out.
Any suggestions? (On the hookup, not on pulling my hair out! :^))
ralph
|
| 56.14 | I was in the same boat | CASV01::SEDER | | Thu Nov 03 1988 16:16 | 14 |
| I realize it's almost a year and a half since you asked, and you
probably have already figured it out, but, if not....
I have the Mirage DSK and a TR-626, and I usually use the TR-626
to drive the Mirage sequencer.Have you tried writing the Mirage
sequence WITH the drum machine playing? Sometimes,either because
of the meter of the drum machine or the timing of the sequencer,
they won't sync. I know this sounds like stupid advice, but if I
follow the directions, and it still doesn't work, I start looking
for stupid things (external clock=off,wrong MIDI connections,etc)
and that's where I find my problem. (note: The TR-707 should start
the Mirage sequencer the way you have it set up).Good luck!?
PJ
|
| 56.15 | | IAMOK::CROWLEY | No we're not gonna do bloody Stonhenge! | Fri Nov 04 1988 13:12 | 9 |
|
Well, thanks for the reply, but the Mirage was sold about a year
ago, and the 707 about 10 months ago. That really seemed to
fix the problem! :^)
Ralph
|
| 56.16 | Perfect loops in just 5 minutes... | WEFXEM::COTE | $37K, look like ya sister tonite... | Thu Feb 02 1989 15:45 | 19 |
| Here's how to get a perfect loop on your Mirage, everytime...
Note! It only works with fairly static sounds. Nothing that has
a pronounced 'attack timbre' (ex: 'chiff' on a flute) will work.
1. Load Masos
2. Set input filter and sample rate accordingly
3. Set User Multisampling (66) to ON
4. Take sample
5. Turn Loop Switch ON and play note. Listen for a change
of pitch when the loop starts. Adjust sample producing
instrument to match pitch of loop.
6. Resample and verify
7. Set wavesample start point to equal loop start point.
Now when you play the note you'll play ONLY the looped
portion. No ticks, no pops, no nuthin. Perfect loop.
8. Adjust VCA to create envelope.
Edd
|
| 56.17 | Intermittent disk drive | HPSTEK::RENE | scales and scales | Tue Feb 28 1989 15:21 | 23 |
| Here we go again. Loading from disk is becoming intermittent.
It will not boot unless it warms up for 10 minutes or so. After being
on for a few hours it will refuse to load any sounds from any disk.
I have tried using one of those disk head cleaners (similar to a
cassette head cleaner kit,,,but it's a 3.5" floppy). Sometimes it
works sometimes no. There is no clear pattern to the problem.
I've brought it in for service before, and they said they cleaned
the drive..that's all. That was about a year ago. Are there any
other parts of the drive that need periodic cleaning besides the
head?
How long does it take for a disk drive head to wear out? What
are some other possible causes for intermittent read errors on
a disk????
I've had the Mirage dangling outside the window ready to toss it
to the ground below...but I always bring it back in 8^).
PLEASE , I'd APPRECIATE any help anyone can give !!!!!!
Frank_who_is_sick_of_seeing_'ud'_or_'dE'_in_his_Mirage_display!!!!!
|
| 56.18 | run diagnostics | SUBSYS::ORIN | Cuckoo Nest escapee | Tue Feb 28 1989 18:17 | 30 |
| < Note 56.17 by HPSTEK::RENE "scales and scales" >
-< Intermittent disk drive >-
> the drive..that's all. That was about a year ago. Are there any
> other parts of the drive that need periodic cleaning besides the
> head?
Not usually.
> How long does it take for a disk drive head to wear out? What
> are some other possible causes for intermittent read errors on
> a disk????
Depends on how heavily it is used. If it is temperature sensitive, it
is probably not worn heads. Sounds more like an electrical problem
caused by aging or defective components. It might be in the power
supply or the head stepper motor control circuitry. Did the previous
repair place run diagnostics for several hours over a temperature range?
Intermittent read errors are normally caused by dirty heads or cheap/damaged
disks. If the drive itself has an electromechanical problem, it will
probably continue to deteriorate as you described. Running diagnostics is
about the only way to really tell. You may have to send it to Ensoniq.
good luck,
dave
|
| 56.19 | hot/cold/dry/damp | HPSTEK::RENE | scales and scales | Tue Feb 28 1989 18:58 | 19 |
| Thanks, Dave
I originally sent it to Daddy's in Salem. I talked with the
tech who did the work and all he said he did was clean the drive.
he didn't run it over any temp range with diagnostics running.
Since I am of the power supply pursuasion, I checked the power supply
and monitored the voltages during seeks/etc. No voltage droop seen.
Inn the 4 years I've owned the Mirage it has never been abused, but
it has seen some (non-operating) adverse temperature/humidity
conditions.
Are 3.5" drives standard as far as power requirements (+12
and +5) and signal orientation at the signal connector? If I could
get a 3.5" drive and just switch the two.... possible??
thanks
Frank
|
| 56.20 | call customer service | SUBSYS::ORIN | Cuckoo Nest escapee | Wed Mar 01 1989 14:00 | 18 |
| < Note 56.19 by HPSTEK::RENE "scales and scales" >
-< hot/cold/dry/damp >-
> Are 3.5" drives standard as far as power requirements (+12
> and +5) and signal orientation at the signal connector? If I could
> get a 3.5" drive and just switch the two.... possible??
They vary with design and manufacturer. Ensoniq tends to not be very
cooperative about sending new parts to owners. The old adage "contains no
user serviceable parts" applies. The service center at Daddy's may only
be qualified to clean the heads, which of course you did yourself much
cheaper. I would give Ensoniq customer service a call. Ask for Joe Paschall.
Ensoniq Customer Service: (215) 647-3930
good luck,
dave
|
| 56.21 | I'm depressed... Mirage, she be sick... | WEFXEM::COTE | The fool screams no more... | Mon Mar 27 1989 12:48 | 19 |
| My Mirage has developed a MOST annoying glitch. At apparently random
times it will stop sending data from the keyboard. No NOTE-ON or
NOTE-OFF messages appear at the MIDI OUT port, yet the SGU portion
will continue to respond to data arriving at MIDI IN.
Reloading a SAMPLE (not the OS) resets everything till next time.
The problem is independant of LOCAL ON or OFF selection, leading
me to wonder if the keyboard is not becoming logically disconnected.
(It won't even generate sounds from it's own SGU during the glitch,
yet I can run it from an external controller.)
The unit WILL generate controller (PB and MOD) wheel messages that
appear at the MIDI OUT port, par usual...
Any ideas?
Edd
|
| 56.22 | Hardware problem? | DYO780::SCHAFER | Brad - back in Ohio. | Mon Mar 27 1989 14:00 | 5 |
| Almost sounds like you've got a connector hanging on the edge ...
Have U gone thru and re-seated things?
-b
|
| 56.23 | Good place to start looking! | WEFXEM::COTE | The fool screams no more... | Mon Mar 27 1989 14:14 | 8 |
| Haven't looked around much at all really...
P.U.S. (Possibly unrelated symptom) Yesterday it just decided to
load a sample without me asking it...
They don't appear to be related...
Edd
|
| 56.24 | The king is dead, long live the king! | GUESS::YERAZUNIS | Beware of programmers with screwdrivers | Mon Mar 27 1989 23:30 | 10 |
| Sounds like either a bad connector, a piece of conductive crap banging
around inside there (i.e. lotsa dust), weak (noisy) power supply,
or maybe a flake-o chip.
In any case, that machine is one sick puppy. :-)
Good excuse to buy an EPS :-)
-Bill
|
| 56.25 | 8vQ | WEFXEM::COTE | The fool screams no more... | Tue Mar 28 1989 20:04 | 11 |
| Well, Union referred me to Ensoniq who referred me to Union...
Actually, neither of them had seen a similar problem. Not surprising.
So, it looks I'll take it apart and look for the basic connector/dust/
cunducto-crap things. After that, it looks like we go in for diags...
Rest assured I'll keep all you S-50 owners apprised so you can know
what to expect when you trade up....
Edd
|
| 56.26 | I thought U quit smoking, Edd? | DYO780::SCHAFER | Brad - back in Ohio. | Tue Mar 28 1989 21:19 | 0 |
| 56.27 | I'm going mad... | WEFXEM::COTE | The fool screams no more... | Wed Mar 29 1989 14:03 | 15 |
| Things seem to be getting weirder...
This morning I booted everything up. Within minutes, the *lights*
blinked and the Mirage went wack-o. As a matter of fact, everything
went wack-o.
Cause and effect was impossible to establish. Did the Mirage burp
because of something else that made the lights blink? Or did the
Mirage burp and cause the lights to blink? I didn't have a power
outage; my digital clocks were all OK...
Possibly Unrelated Symptom: My car overheated and aja urped up a
big hairball...
Edd
|
| 56.28 | Sounds more and more like cat urp in the keyboard | GUESS::YERAZUNIS | Beware of programmers with screwdrivers | Wed Mar 29 1989 17:57 | 12 |
| It's the cat's furballs that are the source of the weirdness. Have
your cat Roto-Rootered and it'll all clear up.
(seriously, I doubt that the Mirage power supply could burp the
lights. More likely the Mirage's power supply is so marginal that
any hiccup on the power line causes the Mirage power to burp.
My advice: take an O-scope and a DVM home and watch the Mirage power
while you play it, run the disk, etc. I bet it doesn't meet spec.)
-Bill
|
| 56.29 | 'urp' ~= 'burp' | ACDC::RENE | Hello, Howard...next door neighbor!! | Wed Mar 29 1989 18:04 | 11 |
| well, Edd, if Aja 'urped' and you said your Mirage 'burped'....
the symptoms may be related. Check to see if Aja tryed to urp
the hairball into the MIDI IN port of your Mirage. I don't know
for sure which parameter in the Mirage you have to set so that it
will ignore MIDI urps.
p.s. A new disk drive ($190 installed at Union) has made my Mirage
quite useable again! I hope you fix whatever the #e!! is with
your Mirage...
Frank
|
| 56.30 | Probwems,,, | WEFXEM::COTE | The fool screams no more... | Wed Mar 29 1989 18:53 | 6 |
| Actually, I'm more concerned over what made the lights blink without
killing all the digital clocks in the house....
Wierdisms on *1* circuit????
Edd
|
| 56.31 | we can check the power supply | ACDC::RENE | Hello, Howard...next door neighbor!! | Wed Mar 29 1989 19:41 | 21 |
| Edd,
The lights on the Mirage always blink at some high frequency
(well not that high cuz it is visible to the eye) , right?
My Mirage will 'turn off' the LED's when it is loading a disk,
sampling, etc... for a few seconds at a time. Also, when I start
playing lot's of keys, it does effect the blinking of the LED's.
How long did they blink for? This may be related to an earlier
reply when you said that the Mirage loaded a sample without you
telling it to. I don't think it is a utility power problem If I
understand what you have said so far.... I have checked the power
supply in mine and there are actually two supplies in the Mirage.
One for the logic and one for the disk. The disk uses +5 and +12
and the logic uses +5, +12 and -8 (i think, but I don't know why
you would need -8 unless they post regulate down to -5.2 for ECL).
The power supply is extremely simple and cheap. Very easy to fix
if it needs to be. If you want to look at it sometime, bring it
in to MRO1 and we can go into our lab and check it out.
Frank
|
| 56.32 | Eyeball blinkies!! | WEFXEM::COTE | The fool screams no more... | Wed Mar 29 1989 20:53 | 7 |
| I know the blinking you speak of, but it was the *room* lights that
blinked!!!
Check it out right hear at MRO??? I'll be in touch...
Edd
|
| 56.33 | Curses, foiled again? | WEFXEM::COTE | The fool screams no more... | Thu Mar 30 1989 01:23 | 8 |
| Hmmmmm....
I just pulled a piece of tin-foily substance outta the power supply
area, and I experienced no glitches for the rest of the session.
Don't ya just love intermittant problems?
Edd
|
| 56.34 | | HAMER::COCCOLI | gilli chudda | Thu Mar 30 1989 03:02 | 5 |
|
I fixed an 8530 the same way!!!
Want a job in field service Ed?
|
| 56.35 | "Swap it out..." | WEFXEM::COTE | The fool screams no more... | Thu Mar 30 1989 11:55 | 5 |
| > Want a job in field service Ed?
...already have one, thanks.
Edd (Engineer III)
|
| 56.36 | | HAMER::COCCOLI | gilli chudda | Thu Mar 30 1989 21:35 | 7 |
|
Oops......sorry Edd
Rich (Engineer III)
|
| 56.37 | Does Your Mirage Do MoTown? | DRUMS::FEHSKENS | | Fri Mar 31 1989 14:50 | 10 |
| Aha - It's your @#$%^&* Mirage that was responsible for the
"maintenance hold" that cancelled my flight from Detroit to Worcester
Wednesday afternoon, resulting in my being put on a flight to Logan
(conveniently located only *two* concourses away in the sprawling
Northwest terminal - uh, the flight, not Logan) from where (Logan,
not the flight) we were (eventually) bussed back to Worcester. The
lights on the plane blinked too...
len (who hit Detroit twice in 6 days).
|
| 56.38 | Edd finds a bug in Mirage... | WEFXEM::COTE | The fool screams no more... | Sun Apr 02 1989 15:18 | 34 |
| Nope. Not the tinfoil...
The sucker failed thrice on me in 5 minutes this morning. Feeling
adventurous I ripped out the keyboard and found a bug in the Mirage.
A mosquito to be exact. Quite dead. And LOTS of dust, ashes, cat
hairs, etc. I blew out much of this goop and then completely
disassembled the keyboard to find the same thing on the keybed
circuitry. It didn't fail during a short test but that doesn't mean
squat to me at this point.
WARNING - If anybody else should happen to remove the keyboard from
their Mirage there's a possible gotcha concerning the ribbon cable
to pin connector on the keyboard. The keyboard has 12 pairs of pins
that the connector is pressed onto. The connector itself has *13*
pairs of sockets. This isn't readily apparent until after you pull
the connector off. There's also no key-slots to tip you off. I didn't
have much choice but to guess as to which side the extra sockets
go on. I connected it up so that the extra pair was on the high
end of the keyboard...
: : : : : : : : : : : : (pins)
| | | | | | | | | | | | | (sockets)
<--- low keys high keys --->
It works OK, so I either got it right or it doesn't matter.
I'm starting to lean towards power supply problems. For quite sometime
now the Mirage will occasionally fail to execute the bootstrap
procedure on powe-up. It just sits there with no indication it's
even turned on save for a bit of transformer hums. Power cycling
it usually convinces it to load. This is happening more often lately.
Edd
|
| 56.39 | Nyet... | WEFXEM::COTE | The fool screams no more... | Mon Apr 03 1989 13:45 | 10 |
| Still in failure mode...
I discovered that I can induce the failure by wiggling the 6 wires
that connect the transformer to the power supply board. I tightened
the connector butthat didn't help. The wires a fairly heavy gauge,
so I'm fairly sure there's no internal breakage.
Maybe a faulty solder joint between the connector and the board???
Edd
|
| 56.40 | We have a winnah!!! | WEFXEM::COTE | The fool screams no more... | Thu Apr 06 1989 12:23 | 19 |
| TA-DAAAAAAA!!!!!
Thanks to a couple tips from Frank Rene and Uncle len, I ripped
the power supply board out again last night and using a 20mm
ocular from my telescope did a *real* close examination of some
of the solder joints.
Two of the joints on the connector that connects the supply board
to the transformer looked a little funky so out came the soldering
gun...
The unit has yet to fail on it's own and I can't induce it to
do so either, a feat I was 100% successfull at before the re-solder.
Looks like I can continue to proudly wave the 8 bit companded flag!!
Thanks guys....
Edd
|
| 56.41 | Good. | DYO780::SCHAFER | Brad - back in Ohio. | Thu Apr 06 1989 15:33 | 4 |
| Could we say that "the fool screams no more"? Seriously, glad you got
it fixed.
-b
|
| 56.42 | Argh, he got meeeee.... | WEFXEM::COTE | The fool screams no more... | Thu Apr 06 1989 15:39 | 5 |
| Nice shot, Brad. Bullseye!!!
:^)
Edd
|
| 56.43 | Ain't but one way out... | WEFXEM::COTE | The fool screams no more... | Sun Apr 09 1989 13:25 | 6 |
| The pin connection I outlined in .38 appears to be the ONLY correct
way to go. Just for giggles, I connected up the connection in the
only other alternate fashion and it did very odd things. Possibly
musically useful, but odd none the less...
Edd
|
| 56.44 | Old dog, blah, blah, blah... | WEFXEM::COTE | We're gonna have a wing-ding! | Mon Jul 24 1989 12:33 | 11 |
| Hmmmm.... After all these years, I found one of my main bitches
about the Mirage was easily solved...
When booting up a factory disc with the OS on it, the Mirage comes
up in OMNI (yuck-o) MODE and for OS V3.1 and up, LOCAL ON. Everytime
I booted I had to re-set them both to OFF.
Little did I realize you can write the parameters to disc using
function 14 and be done with them forever....
Edd
|
| 56.45 | A useful tidbit for us dinosaur owners, eh? | MARLIN::DIORIO | Cellulite Heroes never really diet | Mon Jul 24 1989 12:40 | 7 |
| < Note 56.44 by WEFXEM::COTE "We're gonna have a wing-ding!" >
-< Old dog, blah, blah, blah... >-
Thanks for the info Edd... should come in handy.
Mike D
|
| 56.46 | | WEFXEM::COTE | We're gonna have a wing-ding! | Mon Jul 24 1989 13:45 | 3 |
| I would assume you could also store MIDI channel, PB info, etc....
Edd
|
| 56.47 | I'm not a midiot!!! | GIDDAY::COOK | | Fri Sep 22 1989 03:45 | 23 |
|
Now that the Mirage club is back in action again, I have a few
problems/questions of my own maybe someone has got ideas on.
1. After about 30mins , my Mirage has a really annoying high pitch
noise not that noticable with some samples but awful on some. I should
get off my back and hack at it with some freezo stuff. Anyone else had
similar experiences. I think I might mod the power supply as it
seems to a major source other problems like rebooting randomly
approx once a month. ( It does even right to the dumpfile).
2. Has anyone had any luck trying to stick a couple of 5 1/4' drives
on the mirage?
3. When you use the sequencer driven by say a TR505 clock , you cant
sync the mirage to the drum machine on overdubs.
4. Has anyone tried adding extra memory.
BC
|
| 56.48 | | WEFXEM::COTE | Another day, another segue... | Fri Sep 22 1989 11:42 | 7 |
| Re: Random re-boots.
Yep, power supply is a real possibility. I had the same problem and
it turned out to be a cold solder joint. The whole mess is documented
in here somewhere...
Edd
|
| 56.49 | Flickering display? | ELMST::KOMISKY | | Fri Sep 22 1989 23:58 | 3 |
| The twin digit display flickers badly on my Mirage. It was bought in
the last four months at Lasalle's. Has anyone else seen this problem?
|
| 56.50 | Sounds normal to me | DDIF::EIRIKUR | | Sat Sep 23 1989 00:40 | 5 |
| Is this a new problem? When I first saw a Mirage, I noted the flickering.
Others have commented on it.
Eirikur
|
| 56.51 | Does the fwoppy go cwick cwack!! | GIDDAY::COOK | | Sun Sep 24 1989 23:52 | 24 |
|
I think the mirage light flickering is normal, I scoped the output
to the display and it looked like the segments are multiplexed.
Whats interesting is the amount of ripple on the input side to the
5 volt regulators , about 800mV. I added a bigger cap 5600uF and it
seems to be a bit better but it is still what I would think , too high.
My mirage is an Australian 240Volt version so I'm not sure that
mine is the same as the ones in The U.S. But the mains filter is a cheap
and nasty design , choke is noisy and if you drop the earth to the
mains, the case floats between active and neutral. I took out the
filter and replaced it with a sealed vt220 type filter. It seems quieter
but the power supply is still working too hard , 5volts/ 0.9Amp from a
7805 regulator. I think I will just replace the power supply with my
own version, transformer and all.
I read previosly about a mod that helps the sig/noise ratio but
disables the volume control. Can anyone tell me basically what the mod
was. I noticed that the volume control tracks run from one end of the
motherboard to the other with a voltage drop on my machine of about 1
volt ( not good!!! ).
B.C.
|
| 56.52 | | WEFXEM::COTE | Another day, another segue... | Mon Sep 25 1989 11:16 | 3 |
| My display flickers; always has. I consider it normal.
Edd
|
| 56.53 | It works!!!! | GIDDAY::COOK | I didn't do it!! | Sun Oct 22 1989 23:19 | 16 |
|
The end result to mirage problems:
Replaced Mains filter.
Replaced 5V regulator with Lm350 (more grunt)
Replaced 5v filter cap with 5600uF
Replaced rectifier diodes with heat sinkable brige package.
Used heat sink compond and more screws on heat sink for regs.
After a couple of weeks of running, no more noise!!
By the way has anyone got any details on the scsi port on the
mirage. Is it possible to run a hard disk???
B.C.....
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| 56.54 | More Mirage Questions | GIDDAY::COOK | I didn't do it!! | Mon Feb 05 1990 01:58 | 8 |
|
Does anyone have any data on midi implementation on the mirage
dsk-8. It responds to program changes by loading a new sample but I
cant work out how to change the program/parameter number. It has
changed before when accidently dumping dx7 sysex up it's bottom.
BC
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| 56.55 | H/W hackers weekend, Pt. 2 | DCSVAX::COTE | To play, turn bottom up... | Mon Oct 01 1990 18:43 | 25 |
| ...t'was fix-it weekend in Edd's studio this week.
My Mirage had been acting a bit strange. When I hit C5 on the keyboard
I'd often get 2 notes or more. All C5s, the first would have the
correct velocity, all others would be 127.
So, I took the keyboard apart. Removing the keys reveals two strips
of rubber cups. Each key uses 2 cups, one near the back of the key
and another closer to the front (player side) of the key.
Under these cups are some interlaced PCB "fingers". Those of you with
bouncing keys on your HR16s know what I'm talking about...
With the key removed if you press just the front cup, you'll get a
rapid series of 127velo note ons, probably in time with the keyboard
scanning rate. If you press just the rear cup, nothing happens until
you press the front. Then you'll get a note on of a velocity
proportional to how hard you press it.
The rear pad MUST be pressed any time the front one is pressed or
you'll get rapid note-ons. My problem was caused by a bit of oxidation
on the PCB, and I was getting a "bounce" situation just like on the
HR16. A pencil eraser cured the problem.
Edd
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| 56.56 | I've seen that too! | VLNVAX::ACDC::RENE | | Wed Oct 03 1990 19:49 | 7 |
| Edd,
That used to happen from time to time with my mirage too!! I basicly
lived with it since I was driving it from another keyboard. I figured it
was some sort of software confusion. HA!
Frank
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| 56.57 | Mirage EMail List on USENET | AQUA::ROST | Your friendly neighborhood sadist | Tue Dec 18 1990 12:19 | 26 |
| Path: ryn.mro4.dec.com!hollie.rdg.dec.com!pa.dec.com!news.crl.dec.com!
deccrl!bloom-beacon!mintaka!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!usc!
zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sdd.hp.com!hplabs!hpda!hpcuha!hpcuhd!johnny
From: johnny@hpcuhd.HP.COM (Johnny Klonaris)
Subject: Mirage Users Mailing List
Date: 13 Dec 90 20:48:07 GMT
If you're a Mirage owner and would like to keep in touch with other
Mirage owners, this may be of interest to you. I'm setting up an informal
Mirage users mailing list (unless there's one out there already that I
don't know about). Since I don't want to spend a lot of time on it, it
will simply be a list of names and addresses (and possibly some other useful
info) so that we can keep each other informed about whatever and possibly
trade samples (public domain only, please).
If you're intersted, please send me e-mail (johnny%hpda@hplabs.hp.com)
You might want to include:
- Which Mirage you have
- Whether you have the capabiity to download samples
(we're talking computer, modem, and MIDI i/f - the software is trivial)
- Whether you have the capability to upload samples
(same as above with a bit more sophisticated s/w)
But mostly I just want your e-mail address.
-jk
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| 56.58 | New Mirage Owner | ROYALT::ORSHAW | Associate FTSG membership pending..... | Mon Sep 30 1991 14:32 | 23 |
| Ok, I'm the new owner of a mirage!! Who still has one out there?? I
need lots of guidance.
Some info:
it is Ensoniq Mirage dsk-8
serial number is in the 11000 range
the only OS disk I have says 3.2 on it. Is there a later version?
I have a disk formatter disk (fmt-2 ver 1.1)
I have masos. What is masos??
The drive is in the front and all the keys are black.
I have no manual and no idea how to use the thing other than to load
sounds off the disks. I have an atari-ST and I've written software to
dump samples from a dx7 and a kawai k1. I'd like to get (or write) the
software to dump samples to/from the mirage but I don't have the midi
implementation specs for it.
Any help/info would be appreciated.
THanks,
Jim
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| 56.59 | | MANTHN::EDD | We could be heroes... | Mon Sep 30 1991 14:51 | 19 |
| > the only OS disk I have says 3.2 on it. Is there a later version?
I'm using 3.2 also, and know of no later OS revs. Fortunately, 3.2
supports local off.
> I have masos. What is masos??
MASOS is an alternative operating system that allows you to roll your
own samples much better than the "standard" OS. There's a pretty good
manual that comes with MASOS.
> The drive is in the front and all the keys are black.
That's where the drive is supposed to be. ;^) As to the black keys,
that sounds like a hack...
Edd
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| 56.60 | Atari reads mirage disks | ROYALT::ORSHAW | Associate FTSG membership pending..... | Wed Jan 22 1992 18:59 | 15 |
| I couldn't be the first one to discover this.....
I can copy my mirage disks using my atari st. I copied a disk with no
operating system on it and one with the operating system. The mirage
reads both disks (and boots from the one with the OS) just fine. I
haven't tried yet, but I assume it will copy my masos disk as well.
What a relief!! I needed backups of those.
Since we know the atari can read raw data from mirage disks, does anyone
know the mirage disk format?? Perhaps the atari could do some
interesting modifications to my samples.
How about the scsi port?? Anyone got any info??
Jim
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| 56.61 | | RGB::ROST | Ashley Hutchings wannabe | Wed Jan 22 1992 20:02 | 6 |
| Re: .60
The Mirage disk format (also SQ-80, EPS, VFX-SD) was published in the
Transoniq Hacker a few months back. E-mail if you need a copy.
Brian
|
| 56.62 | some progress | ROYALT::ORSHAW | Associate FTSG membership pending..... | Fri Jan 31 1992 15:51 | 20 |
| Ok, now I've got the mirage disk format (Thanks, Brian). I was able to
write a quick little program to read the mirage disk "directory". I've
got most of the disk figured out except one piece.
The sounds are stored with the program parameters on sector 0 (1024
bytes). Then the wave sample is stored (64k). I'm trying to figure out
the actual contents of the 1024 byte program parameter sector. I
believe the program table dump is there but thats only 625 bytes. That
leaves 399 bytes for other stuff. Anyone have any ideas??
My goal in all of this is to write a mirage patch librarian. Current
plans are to load the samples into the mirage in the traditional way
and dump everything over midi. Being able to read the mirage disk
directly would be a good shortcut.
BTW: I didn't see any way to dump mirage sequences over midi. Is that
possible??
Jim
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