Author Archives: MacroDX

KORG device not recognized by MIDI driver?

Is your KORG device like NTS-1 or Monologue not recognized by the KORG MID driver and you cannot perform updates or update firmware? You can try the following:

With the MIDI driver you also get utilities to add and remove devices. With a default installation (Windows based systems) you can find them in the start menu under [KORG/KORG USB-MIDI Driver Tools]. Run the [Uninstall KORG USB-MIDI Device] utility. Click Next on the first dialog page and you will get a list of all MIDI devices found on your system. Make sure that under options (click <Option …> button) the checkbox [Delete KORG MIDI device only] is checked. It prevents you from accidentally removing any other MIDI device.

Now check the list of KORG devices. If the same device is listet more than once, it can cause problems if a new device is to be added. It can happen when you have used a device with on different ports I guess. It is best to remove all occurrences of that device if you do not know which corresponds to the currently active usage. Or maybe it´s a legacy device you do not use anymore anyways. You can always reinstall that device at a later time. Simply use the corresponding [Install KORG USB-MIDI Device] utility under [KORG/KORG USB-MIDI Driver Tools].

Once your MIDI device driver usage list is in order, you should have no problems adding a new device. At least it helped me to get my NTS-1 recognized after I removed multiple usages of my nanoKontrol.

monotron Delay CV-Gate mod

The monotrons are sweet little analog toys to fiddle around with. And if you own one you have at least once thought about hacking it, right? Well, so did I and aimed at the monotron Delay. For the standard monotron a couple of resources for modders are available, and especially dinSync´s mod seems to work well for it. But the Delay version appears to handle things a little different…
The main issue is that the gate affects pitch and vice versae.
But only if you look at it from the input side, where you apply external signals to the respective testpoints. From an internal point of view the gate signal is simply derived from the same source as the pitch. So if you apply a +5V gate you are already exceeding the maximum frequency of the oscillator. This results in only a short

Deluxe Electric Mistress v5 rate mod

Preface

I was pretty amazed by the effect an electric mistress can have on synthpads as demonstrated in this video. So I bought one of the latest reissues they released, which happens to be a v5. Here is a very informative resource on Electric Mistresses where I also got the schematics from, thanks to the creator of the page.

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A-110-1 Standard VCO improved

While examining one of my A-110-1s to help answer a forum question I noticed that it was equipped with a TL064 op-amp. A quick look at the schematics revealed that it is part of the waveform generation. I am not an expert but from what I´ve learned, the 064 is usually not the first choice for audio applications. So just for fun I replaced it with a TL084 I had lying around.

A-110-1 with TL084 for IC2

A-110-1 with TL084 for IC2

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