From bruce@ashbysolutions.com Tue Aug 21 05:51:38 2001
Subject:Re: Cure For Clicks/pops! (Basic Studio Hygeine!)

All,

A word of caution, not directed at Pete W, or anyone else in particular.

[Actually, Pete, your method of sorting through the symptoms to the
solution was excellent! Ever thought of becoming an engineer? ;^)) ]

When I first got my CX-3, I was between bands, and I had the time to play
with it a lot. As luck -- more like: impatience -- would have it, I bought
an early model, which had a few quirks in the design. To be helpful, I
posted them to the world, and collected the responses that others sent in
return. This is both a good and bad thing ...

Because of these early problems, a floodgate of sorts was opened, and the
CX-3's reliability will always be suspect in some eyes. Having written
code for a living for years, I've learned one thing: It's impossible to
PROVE that you've found the "last" bug in software/firmware.

The CX-3 could stand as the most "technically analyzed" musical product yet
developed. I'll bet that if you take a hard look at other digital music
products, you'll find similar "features." I belong to a list for the
Yamaha AN1x synth, and they've found dozens of strange
issues. (Coincidentally, it's also a modeling product; perhaps modeling
requirements are pushing up against the abilities of current CPU and DSP
abilities?) I have created a patch on the AN1x that actually overloads the
keyboard: If you play a fast two-handed gliss up and down the keyboard,
the gliss will end about a second after you take your hand off the
keys!!! And all this on the FOURTH revision to the software -- probably
the last one, too, as the AN1x has been out of production for almost two years.

Does this mean that we want to trade our synths? Not at all. In fact,
they rarely come up for sale, even though the list has almost 500
members. It's a fine musical instrument in its own right; it just has a
couple of interesting quirks. The same thing could be said about the
Yamaha DX7 (bad MIDI implementation), the V3/V5 (the percussion "warble"),
the XK-2 (the frequency beating), and probably will be on the Nord Electro,
too, once it's in enough hands. In its own way, the B-3 had design quirks
and flaws -- key click and crosstalk, for instance -- that plagued the
designers throughout its design life.

Where am I leading with this? (Yeah, Bruce, what's your point?) Don't
automatically assume that the instrument is broken when a new issue
arises. Like Pete, investigate other possibilities to see if there is an
external cause. Several list members, including this author, are using
CX-3's with good results on a regular basis. The CX-3 had one legitimate
hardware issue -- the key bounce -- and several software glitches that were
corrected shortly after the shipment of S/N 000001. It's entirely possible
that early S/N units that are in stores today have the corrections, and
they are easy to verify. See the CloneWheel Site for details.

Oh, and if anyone wants to get rid of your "broken" CX-3, I'll take it off
your hands, for $300US. ;^)

Regards,

-BW

--
Bruce Wahler
Design Consultant
Ashby Solutions™
www.ashbysolutions.com
CloneWheel Support Group moderator
978.386.7389 voice
978.964.0547 fax
bruce@ashbysolutions.com

At 12:30 p 8/21/2001 +0000, Pete W wrote:
>Hi All (again!),
>I can't believe how dumb I was..... It seems that my CELL PHONE was the
>source of the clicks. I'm very familiar with the kind of interference

{snipped}