I was going to make this a Facebook post, but then I saw that it was getting a little long and decided to make it a Blog post instead. Besides, it's been a while since I got to say… “Hi everyone!” Hope you all had a great Summer! Masterjoda75 was paused a little for the summer because my Studio gets super hot and that affects some of my gear. Mainly my Mac, as it is older and tends to overheat and my DAW and plugins don't end up running properly. So my goal is to try and save some cash and get a better computer. (even now, on a cooler day, the fans on my Mac are blasting!).
Of course, it never fails… SOMETHING FAILS! And I have to look at the possibility of spending money to get things back in order. And that means I need to dip into the computer fund to fix stuff. Setting that back even further.. Grrrr… If you are a synth nerd and want to read about my troubleshooting journey with this system read on. If not, you can skip on over to the page break, to get the “long story short” of it..
So here's what happened. The other day, while I was taking a break from work, the kids and I noticed that the light in my studio started dimming and flickering. Next thing you know it started happening throughout the whole house. Before you know it, the house electricity went Wonky. Some lights worked, some didn't, some things powered up with full power, some were running at low or no power. It was really strange. So the rest of the evening was spent chilling waiting for things to come on. Candle power!
The power wasn't restored properly until some time later that night. All seemed well until the other day when I was working on a track and noticed my Modular rig was acting a little strange. Lights started coming on from my modules that shouldn't be coming on. Modules were going into calibration mode and pitch issues were happening. I would power down the unit and it would work fine for a little while, and then it would happen again. I immediately thought of the power issue; thinking maybe my power strip got damaged. So I unplugged my modular rig and moved it to a different room with a different outlet. And to my horror, the same issue happened.
Here's an example of what I was looking at…
Anyone unfamiliar with this system just sees a bunch of lights. But the issues were… The green light on the left shouldn't be on. The red lights shouldn't be on. The amber lights on the silver module to the left of the purple module should only have one light on, and the orange lights to the right of the purple module shouldn't be on. Yikes!! That's 4 modules malfunctioning!! This system has been slowly built up over time. Each one saved for. So yeah, that's a lot of money right there.
My first thought was power. All of these modules get their power from a single ribbon cable (see below) that is connected to the case. So my thought was maybe the power supply from the case got damaged. But the question was, did it cause damage to the modules? So I had to troubleshoot each module at a time. The good news is… The Sampler (the module with the big screen) seemed to be unaffected. And that is my most expensive module. So I left that one and the module to the right of it plugged in. I pulled everything else and started with my BEEHIVE Oscillator module. This module was the first one I noticed with the issues and it generates the initial waveform sound for the system..
Notice only one light on there. And that is how it's supposed to be. Not more than one light, like the image before. I left it in there, powered up, for a few hours. No issues. Usually, it would start malfunctioning after around 30-40 minutes. Even that's weird.
Well, the good news was. It didn't seem that the module was damaged. And that's good because I love the sound of this particular module and I got it used at a really good price! So for me, this confirmed that it must be the case, which is supplying the power. So I jumped the gun and ordered a replacement case from Amazon.
But to double check. I hooked up all the modules again, to see if the issue cropped up. And it did! Ok, so it's a repeatable issue. Since I had installed the one module alone (with the other 2 that were working), and it was working fine, I figured I'm going to remove 1 or 2 of these modules at a time and see if maybe it's a module that got damaged. And maybe that module might be causing this issue. So the first module I removed was the IO Instruments Euporie Filter module (the blue one). I then powered up the system and waited, and waited. Hmmmm… no issues. Did I find the culprit on the first try? Only one way to find out.
So I reinstalled the blue filter module and half an our later BAM! Note there are 2 lights on the silver module below? There's only supposed to be 1 light on at a time! I think I found the problem!
Removed this unit again. And waited… and guess what? No issues. So it looks like my poor filter module is the one that got toasted and was causing issues for the rest of the system.
Well… Financially, it could have been worse. I could have had several hundred dollars in damage of modules or a bad case (which I will be returning). I got this module used for a hundred bucks. I mean, yeah, a hundred bucks is a hundred bucks. But it could have been a LOT worse! I did one final test, by pulling one of my unused modules I had packed away and plugging that into the socket where the filter was. Just to make sure it wasn't a bad socket. Also, to finally rule out an issue with the case. As of right now, it is still plugged in, powered up, and there are no issues with my modular rig. Crazy how this one module was causing grief for everything else even though it wasn't even patched to anything. Never a dull moment around here! Read on for some final thoughts..
So for any of you who decided to skip my story of woe.. The bottom line is, I had a power surge at the house and my modular rig started malfunctioning. Turned out the issue was a damaged filter module that was causing the problem. And luckily that was it. I removed the module and the system seems to be working properly again.
I'm an electronic musician, who uses technology and electronics to make music. And of course, those things aren't cheap. I enjoy creating music to share it with people. But I also sell my music to help fund my art. If you would like to support my art (like helping me by a new Mac :-) ), the best way to do that is to purchase my music from my website. It's a pick your own price system. So maybe you can drop a few more bones than your typical album price to help me fund my art? Sorry, I feel weird asking for money that way… But I do have 2 great albums out that I'm quite proud of. So it's not for nothing! Click below to check out and purchase my music:
https://jodaproductions.com/music
I also have my music up on all the major streamers like Apple Music and Spotify, but honestly, I literally get pennies for plays. Purchasing my albums from here is the best way to go. All the money is mine, and I don't need to pay royalties/fees!
If you've come this far, that is super awesome! Thanks for taking the time to read my Blog! I gave you all a peek into my mind when it comes to troubleshooting. And once I get all this modular business squared away, I'll be getting some fresh music up real soon. Make sure you follow my social media pages and definitely like and subscribe to me on YouTube. That's where I'll be releasing new stuff next. And that is absolutely FREEE!! Thanks!
-Joda
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