Re: [AH] OB Xpander design history/ stories?

From Brian Willoughby
Sent Fri, Nov 30th 2018, 19:43

I haven=E2=80=99t opened a Matrix-12 in a while, and I can=E2=80=99t =
remember whether the CPU is in a socket or soldered to the board. Of =
course, the EPROM chips are in sockets, but they may be the only ones.

My point is this: If the CPU isn=E2=80=99t in a socket, then I=E2=80=99m =
not =E2=80=9Cupgrading=E2=80=9D my Matrix-12. I certainly would not =
recommend de-soldering the 6809 on a Voice Board just in an attempt to =
make a few shortcomings slightly less so.

Brian Willoughby

p.s. Does anyone have a full copy of the Matrix-12 Service Manual as a =
PDF? What I have is missing a lot of pages. It=E2=80=99s possible to =
glean some information from the Xpander Service Manual PDF, which is =
more complete, but there are a lot of differences between the two. Last =
time I asked, lots of folks sent what they had, but it seems that nobody =
has the missing pages.

p.p.s. Looking at the Xpander Service Manual, there are 147 sockets on =
the Voice Board. I think that must mean everything is in a socket!


On Nov 30, 2018, at 11:05 AM, Andrew Scheidler <xxxxxxxx@xxxxx.xxx> =
wrote:
> While it wasn't really "aggressive" or "phat", I really miss my =
Xpander.  With all the LFOs, Envelopes, Ramps, etc at your disposal it =
was more like a modular  than any other synth I can think of.  And to =
make all that potential useable, it had a wonderful GUI (with multiple =
displays, "soft" knobs and excellent graphics on the panel) that was =
well worth the space it occupied.  It is a marvelous synth to get "lost" =
in.
>=20
> If an upgraded brain could be transplanted into these synths, they =
would probably triple in price overnight...  they were way ahead of =
their time in the mid 80s :-)
>=20
> Drew