Yamaha SO8 giving us fits. Drops a 1/2 step at will. Any ideas?

[oldedrums]

I'm a drummer. I keep a full plug and play studio at home and so I own a Yamaha SO8 keyboard so that players don't have to lug their rig over to my place. I'm having some trouble with it. Basically it drops a 1/2 step at will. Doing a factory reset changes it back sometimes. After it's back in tune, it drops again. Sometimes changing the voice sets it straight for a while. Any ideas? Would love to get out of taking it to the shop. Thanks in advance.

 

[SeaGtGruff]

That sounds weird. About the only two things I can think of that might cause that are a problem with the Transpose parameter setting, or (probably less likely) maybe a problem with the Pitch Bend Wheel. If moving the Pitch Bend Wheel after the tones have shifted still allows you to bend the notes both upward and downward, then it probably isn't the Pitch Bend Wheel, since I was thinking that maybe the wheel is getting read as though you've got the notes bent all the way "down."

The Service Manual for the S08 is available from ElektroTanya: http://elektrotanya.com/yamaha_s08.pdf/download.html. When you go to that page, look below the image of the manual's cover page and watch the line of text that says "This file is downloadable free of charge: ...processing..." and wait patiently for the underlined text to change to "Get Manual"-- which will take anywhere from 15 to 30 seconds. Then click on the "Get Manual" link to download the PDF of the manual.

The Service Manual describes a "test program" that you can run to check out the S08. I don't know if that will help, but I guess it couldn't hurt! And if you're any good with electronics and electrical diagrams, maybe something in the Service Manual will help you figure out how to repair your S08 yourself?

PS-- I like your avatar-- Sinbad the Sailor as animated by Max Fleischer.

 

[oldedrums]

Thank you Sea. It's not the bender wheel. I have the manual. I will check the test program feature. The first time we dealt with it we transposed it back up but this change didn't "stick." So is this most likely a software issue that has to be dealt with by a repair shop or is there some way of addressing the fact that this parameter seems to have a mind of it's own.

Pluto, I don't know. I saw a guy in my gym with the same hat, beard and arms and I grabbed the pic on line to show him. He didn't throw a dumbbell at me so I guess it was cool.

 

[SeaGtGruff]

WHAT?!?!? You mean you never saw "Popeye the Sailor Meets Sinbad the Sailor"? You simply MUST watch it! Except after that you are required by law to watch "Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba's Forty Thieves," which has many more quotable lines: "I can read reading, but I can't read writing. This writing's wrote rotten, if you ask me. Hey! This Chinese is Greek to me!" "Abu Hassan!" (Forty Thieves: "Abu Hassan!") "If things get quiet, I start a riot as I go by!" Etcetera, etcetera, and so on, and so forth!

Anywho, it sounds like you might want to have somebody take your S08 apart and check it out.

 

[b3maniac]

See if there is a "calibration" mode to reset the pitch wheel. If so, run the calibration and see if that works. Many keyboards also have an internal battery that needs to replaced as they reach end of life. I'm not sure if that might cause your problem but it's worth checking. Don

 

[oldedrums]

WHAT?!?!? You mean you never saw "Sinbad"? You simply MUST watch it! Except after that you are required by law to watch "Alibaba," which has many more quotable lines: "I can read reading, but I can't read writing. This writing's wrote rotten, if you ask me. Hey! This Chinese is Greek to me!" "Abu Hassan!" (Forty Thieves: "Abu Hassan!") "If things get quiet, I start a riot as I go by!" Etcetera, etcetera, and so on, and so forth!

Anywho, it sounds like you might want to have somebody take your S08 apart and check it out.

Yes, I do know those cartoons. I'm just saying when I saw the guy, I looked up Bluto looking for a Sinbad cell and that's what I found. I was young so I don't recall the excellent script, but now I will go back and check it.

 

[oldedrums]

See if there is a "calibration" mode to reset the pitch wheel. If so, run the calibration and see if that works. Many keyboards also have an internal battery that needs to replaced as they reach end of life. I'm not sure if that might cause your problem but it's worth checking. Don

I brought it in. At first blush it looks like the pitch wheel is not working properly, sending a message to change the pitch when it's not being touched. Oddly it's always exactly a 1/2 step. It'll be out for 2 or 3 weeks and it'll probably cost me $150. So it goes, but thank you so much for the replies.

 

[delaware dave]

Is there a feature on the S08 to disengage the pitch wheel? On my Kurzweil the pitch wheel can be disengaged globally in master mode. This would stop the symptom.