One of my voices is louder than the others. (when I repeatedly press the same key every 8 note is higher in volume).
Is it just to open up the River and inside there will be 8 adjustment pots for volume - and are they marked ?
Is there an overview somewhere of all adjustment pots inside the River ?
I've done some more checking. I've just started to explore patch making on the River, that is how I discovered this. All patches seems to have the same level set for each voice, one patch may have all voices set to 0 and another voice may have all set to -10.
As I listen more closely there are 2 voices that are too high - voice 2 and 7. When I lower these two with -2 it is fine. I've tested for several included patches incl INIT and also my own patches. I believe this is caused by inproper adjustment of level on the 2 voice cards. I do not believe other Rivers have the same issue with voice 2 and 7, but maybe other voices - if so this may not be fixed by firmware but maybe by adjusting potmeter in the voice card ?
Did you ever figure out how to safely calibrate the volume of the voice cards in question? Mine has the same issue. I opened up the synth and I see a lot of adjustment pots, but after reading about how specific the calibration procedure is, I didn't want to mess around without knowing what I'm doing. Thanks!
Eliot
Hi, I've not opened up The River yet to do this, but I will. Appearantly the VCA pots are marked: https://gearspace.com/board/electronic-music-instruments-and-electronic-music-production/1136256-baloran-river-synthesizer-166.html#post16246342 Please post the results here if you go for it.
Hi,
The level of the voice cards is set with TR502, so don't confuse it with its neighbors. An RMS measurement of the output level could be sufficient to make this adjustment and make it homogeneous for all voices.
https://baloran.com/TheRiver/composant_polyprog5.pdf
In practice, for the few The River units that have undergone maintenance, I have found that the soldering causes more problems than the components. In practice, I have "fixed" many boards by simply re-soldering the through-hole components, especially the multi-turn adjustable ones. I have also had a few SMD IC solder joints made by assemblers that have not stood the test of time. If you open up your The River, take the opportunity to check the voltages. A voltage drift can prevent the instrument from autotuning properly.
https://baloran.com/TheRiver/Test_Power_Supply_Reduit.pdf