I received my unit, but it seems to have the ‘stuck note’ issue that the others have (and mine was shipped with a SID chip pre-installed). The build quality and finish seem great, but it is a shame the factory QA did not pick this issue with the SID chip before shipping - it is a 400 euro synth after all.
Does that mean I have to patch in the capacitor, or does that only apply to people who used their own SIDs?
p.s. I would also prefer firmware that didn’t emit any kind of tone when first booted up.
One question (Alex): is there a way to initialize all patches, or to choose where to save a patch (say if you make an init patch at 00 and then want to use that as a starting point for all sounds, saving the results at other numbers)?
I don’t know if you want to do customer support-type answers in a forum thread, but since this might be something others wonder about too…
The save to slot idea is already on the wish list and is something I will definitely implement. I also like the idea of a quick greeting tune - short and snappy. Will give that some thought.
@LMLMLM I understand and share your frustration regarding the VCA bug.
It really caught me off guard and has been a big source of stress although I’m relieved to have discovered the solution online which I would never have guessed by myself.
I discarded a dozen SID chips from my batch on the assumption that they had dead VCAs which adds to the frustration, but that’s another story.
I’m happy to reply to requests/questions wherever I can
but for some reason I’m not getting any email updates from the forum in spite of checking the “subscribe to this topic” box (not going to junk as far as I can tell) so it’s probably better to send me urgent requests via email, I get those immediately on my phone.
Thanks to you all for your patience and supporting therapSid
Alex
Got mine a couple days ago. The first one was lost in the mail so the new one had the capacitor fix and works well. I love it! It’s very cool, has a great gritty vibe and massive sound. The knob per function makes it really intuitive and fun. The step sequencer is a nice bonus. Build quality feels solid and and the layout packs a lot into a small footprint.
Well done Alex. I look forward to exploring it further.
Wondering how the TherapSID sounds now with the fix? Is it completely silent when no notes are playing? I’ve just upgraded mine with a soldered SID chip but I’m still getting the stuck notes when I’m not playing.
Care to upload a quick audio example of how it should sound?
Here’s a quick recording of my unit being sequenced by Logic. Single square wave then filter closes and opens with full resonance. I left some silence at the top so you can hear the self noise. As more OSC are added the noise does get worse and does contain some tone. From what I understand the SID chip is prone to noise and many people use a noise gate on the output with there MIDIbox SID and Sidstations. I’m thinking of picking up a used DBX noise gate off ebay and leaving it on the output.
Therapsid sequenced by Octatrack. Theapsid is using all 3 voices. Filter starts fully open then closes showcasing some gritty filter distortion. Some silence was left the beginning to highlight the self noise of the unit. The noise and bleed thorough increases as more OSC’s are added.
Yeah mine gets confused too, missed notes and stuck notes, sometimes it completely locks up. I’ve been thinking it has a mind of it’s own. At least I’m not alone in some of these problems. I’ve noticed it does better when sequencing directly from a DAW rather than using a hardware sequencer/arp. I haven’t had it lock up(yet) when I use a DAW, but from hardware, sometimes it won’t catch all the CC changes and notes, then eventually it just hangs on a note. I sometimes have issues with it not turning on too, anybody else have that? I have to plug it in a few times, then it turns on, it’s totally random when it happens. I also noticed some weird stuff happening with the ipad app, but those may just be bugs in the app.
I can’t comment on if the capacitor fix helps with stuck notes because I haven’t got mine fixed yet, still waiting on the parts, but I do have a terrible amount of oscillator bleed in mine. Alex has been very quick to respond to any issues I’ve had so hopefully he’s able to get it all sorted quickly. The sid chip makes a cool sounding synth.
Yeah from what I’ve read it’s a common problem with SID chips. Other than the noise and bleed mine is great. It’s working well manually playing it or sequencing form Logic or the Octatrack. MIDI clock is also ok.
The noise isn’t an issue when it’s playing but it is annoying coming through my mixer when it’s not doing anything. I just talked to my friend and he’s giving me a older DBX 563X noise gate / reduction unit so I should be cool.
So he creates easy DIY shielding around the filter board. Yes, hum is different thing then noise but maybe we could try this trick too as therapSID uses the same or at least similar caps from what I saw in my tS.
Will try that after I receive my tS back from Alex. It had above mentioned issues too but till unplayable level although the cap fix was already in place when the unit arrived. Anyway, I was at least able to listen to some presets and I was amazed by the punch, sonic character, grittiness and variety of possible sounds. Really cool synth indeed.
I had a good play with mine yesterday. The noise I am hearing is the same as what I hear on your audio TSV and is the noisey SID chip. As I’m running mine through the Octatrack I’ve used it’s noise gate to knock it out at -45db. I also use the one in Live if I’m working through my DAW.
The synth works ok via Live too but on my Octatrack I get no luck. I place trigs (no CC changes) and press play and sometimes they play, sometimes they don’t. They also don’t react to the note length so the notes are held.
So yeah, it’s not playing nice with the OT at the moment. I’m amazed you can get such patterns from yours.
