Pitch Shifter for Out-of-Tune Synth

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Hello Keyboard Enthusiasts,

I recently picked up a Korg DW-8000. It's a very cool synth, has analog filters and digital voices.

I noticed, however, that when I brought it into a band context, that it was out of tune. Not even the on-board tuning slider could fix this problem.

I have not tried reloading original patches yet, which seem to be available on the internet, and am not that experienced in Sysex. Plus, I'm not sure that reloading the patches would help.

Seems to me one of the easiest things I could do is acquire a small pitch-shifting pedal to run the synth through. Does not need to be fancy. Just needs to do its job and have low-latency.

Any suggestions? Thanks for the help.

-MJ
 

happyrat1

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Simplest thing to do is check the tuning in the keyboard's configuration menus and see f it's off by a few cents or semitones.

Next easiest thing to do is back up your patches and perform a system reset on the keyboard.

If it's still off after that then your pitch shifting wheel/joystick/slider is toast and needs to be deactivated or replaced if you can't live without it.

And finally I've NEVER heard of a "pitch shifting pedal." I don't think they exist. How the hell would that work on a chord anyway?

Gary ;)
 
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http://www.musiciansfriend.com/ampl...1432180-sku^J15583000000000@ADL4MF-adType^PLA

WOW ! I knew these things existed, but I never knew they cost that much. That's about what I paid for my Digitech RP-350 Multi-Effects Processor, with its 30 Tone and 30 Effects libraries (One of which is a pitch shifter.) plus a really beefy expression pedal.

Gary

These are guitar processors, so they would work at the audio level on the keyboard's Mono/L Line Out. They would have, essentially, the same effect on chords as the keyboard's "Tune" and "Transpose" functions. That is, all notes of a chord would be shifted up or down by the same amount, but something tells my that, in truth, these things add a lot of artifacts to the overall sound, not to mention what it would probably do to drum sounds. I still think MJ's best bet would be to invest the $158 in getting the DW-8000 repaired, if necessary.
 
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Fred Coulter

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I was practicing at home. When I decided to play with the auto-accompany feature, I noticed that the chords where about a whole step off from the melody.

I spent about an hour checking every single option and setting. Nothing. I couldn't figure out what the heck was going on.

Then I thought about all the music I had piled on the keyboard. Yep, including on the pitchbend wheel. Remove the books. Problem solved.

Go to bed. Hope brain functions better in the morning.
 

SeaGtGruff

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A MIDI pedal controller might be able to send Pitch Bend events-- and if not a generic MIDI pedal controller, then a MIDI Solutions event processor could be used along with the pedal to do that.

But the first thing to do (after verifying that the keyboard's Tuning parameter is set correctly) would be to check the keyboard's audio output with a free pitch-detecting app. If the app shows that the keyboard really is out of tune from what it should be, you could set the keyboard's Tuning parameter to compensate. Or if the keyboard is so far out of tune that the Tuning parameter alone can't compensate enough then use a combination of the Transpose and Tuning parameters. (And if it's so far out of tune that you need to mess with the Octave setting as well, then it's seriously defective!)

Of course, if the keyboard is out of tune, the best thing to do would be to get it repaired-- or replace it-- rather than just trying to work around the problem.
 

happyrat1

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I just took at look at the manual for this keyboard.

http://www.deepsonic.ch/deep/docs_manuals/korg_dw-8000_manual_2.pdf

Take a look at page 16 Parameter #14 the Auto Bend Function.

Also check Parameters #15 Auto Bend Mode and #25 Detune and make sure they're all turned off.

Also see the section Aftertouch on page 39.

Switch this off and your problem may just go away.

I also noticed that this model has aftertouch. If this is the case, and autobend is turned on and the pressure switches have deteriorated with age I wouldn't even try and get it permanently fixed. Replacement parts will be almost impossible to find.

Run thru the checklist I presented in my first posting and turn off Auto Bend and anything associated with Detune or Aftertouch and see if any of those fix the problem. Likewise see if moving the pitch wheel has any effect on the tuning.

If none of this works, then I would just dump the keyboard on Ebay for parts. If it is the Aftertouch pressure sensor then it's too expensive to be worth fixing.

Gary ;)
 
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SeaGtGruff

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I didn't realize the DW-8000 was so old. Now that I've looked it up online, I see that it doesn't have any Transpose or Octave settings (at least, none that I could see), so that suggestion is apparently out.

I did find the Service Manual for the DW-8000: http://www.manualslib.com/manual/997976/Korg-Dw-8000.html I wouldn't recommend trying to repair things yourself if you aren't qualified to do so, or if you don't have the required tools and parts, but it might be handy to have the Service Manual in any case.
 

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