Trying to get something working on the Wersi Comet

Рет қаралды 994

Күн бұрын

The demo of the things that I got working starts at 5:45.
I was frankly not optimistic about this organ. Last time I touched it the power supply went "**POP**" and everything started malfunctioning. I considered it a 'winter project' but because the summer weather has been best suited for amphibians lately, I decided to dig into it already now.
It turned out not to be as bad as expected. But it is still a big project so there will be more videos on the progress in the coming weeks.
The music that plays while I tinker with the beast is "Black coffee in bed" that was a minor hit for the English band Squeeze in 1982. I play it on the following assortment of synthesizers:
Organ: Roland D-20 (with Quadra/Fx effects processor)
Bass: Elka EM-44
Solo: Roland JX-8P
Melody: Siel DK-80
Harmonies: Korg Poly-800
Rhythm: Roland CR-1000

Пікірлер: 31

@patrikknoerr9777 3 ай бұрын

Well that turned out nice. What a sweet sounding beauty.

@zloboslav_ 3 ай бұрын

Great news and great work! :)

@johnny.storm-wolf 2 ай бұрын

What a cool organ, looks like it was both fun and a challenge to get it working!!! What intrigues me the most is the transpose function it has, Im a very lazy player and this has been the single thing that put me off getting more organs / vintage gear, the inability to do key transpose haha, this is very fascinating!!! The only organ I have is a Yamaha C-605, its brilliant, but like most, no transpose sadly, wish there was a way (there probably is) to build a synth for the voice clock but Im too lazy to do anything haha. Thanks for sharing! That string with chorus section sounds thick and sweet!!!

@organfairy 2 ай бұрын

I mostly use the transpose function on my organs because some sheet music is written in a different key than what is played in the recording. When I do my cover versions I play along with the CD, tape, record, or stream as practice before recording it and the transpose function makes it possible without having to do it in my head. Transpose was rarely found in the 1970's - Wersi was one of a very few organ companies to have this feature, and my oldest other organ that can do it is my Technics SX-C600 from 1984. The reason is technical: Before everything got microprocessor controlled it was difficult to make a tone generator that was both stable and transposable while being of reasonable cost. Wersi was quite expensive if you bought them ready to play, but most people bought them as a kit which almost cut the price in half. I don't know about Denmark but in the UK my Comet would be £3600 assembled and £1900 for the kit.

@verkehrsteilnehmer-berlin 3 ай бұрын

5:00 the reason is, they developed the CX 1 and 2 as independent rhythm unit and they didn't change it for equipping analog organs with this. It was easier simply to connect it to the lower manual.

@organfairy 3 ай бұрын

I had a suspicion that this could be the reason. Another reason could be, that the accompaniment could work independent of the glide/slalomatic functions.

@verkehrsteilnehmer-berlin 3 ай бұрын

@@organfairy With the digital organs, the accompaniment used the usual organ tone generator

@organfairy 2 ай бұрын

Yes, and in the Prisma DX-5 that I have myself everything is taken from the same 16-note tone generator - which means that sometimes I run out of notes, if I use auto accompaniment and play some big chords.

@verkehrsteilnehmer-berlin 2 ай бұрын

@@organfairy Prisma was cheap, the drawbar sliders are in the wrong direction, DX 10 with 20 voices was way better.

@organfairy 2 ай бұрын

Wrong direction...... maybe, or maybe not. It depends if you see them as a mixer or as drawbars. On Elka X-30 there are sliders next to each other that works in opposite directions because some of them are drawbars while others are volume controls. I find that confusing. On Hohner GP-180 the sliders are working as drawbars, but since they are almost vertical, they don't in any way feel like drawbars so zero being in the top is to me counterintuitive. I think they should work like drawbars if they look like drawbars - like on Elka X-1000 an this Wersi Comet - but work like mixer sliders if they look like that.

@BarryWarne 3 ай бұрын

Danish summer looks a lot like summer on west coast of Canada : ) . . those Wersi's look interesting and we never see many of those at all in Canada. Very cool looking console. Always loved those particular buttons with the single red LED.

@organfairy 3 ай бұрын

Does it rain that much in Canada? We might brake our record for rain this summer.

@nicole_local 3 ай бұрын

Very nice work! I wonder what the tone generator was being used for in the drum machine.

@organfairy 3 ай бұрын

It's used for the automatic bass and arpeggiator. Wersi used a completely separate system for their accompaniment section. It will come to life when I get the lower manual working in one of my next videos about the Comet.

@marcbrasse747 3 ай бұрын

Well done! So many failures however seems to say a lot about the low quality components Wersi used. I own a CX 5, the standalone sample playing version of the CX2, which I soldered together myself. It has however always been quite dependable. The last time I tried it out everything still worked except that it does no longer retain user programmed sounds on the long term. Must be the battery cell which is of a rather strange black potted type. Any tips?

@organfairy 3 ай бұрын

It's not just Wersi. I had a couple of Elka organs from the 1970's and gradually they started failing, and couldn't stop failing. Most of the problems were ICs and it seems like those had a life span of roughly 30-40 years. I have read somewhere, that the early integrated circuits had problems with migrations - basically the layers of silicon inside starts to contaminate each other causing gradually shorting of the gates over time. The strange battery you mention could possibly be a rechargeable battery. Wersi used those in many of their products, and the leaked one I took out of the Comet drum machine was also an 'Accu', as it says on the diagram.

@marcbrasse747 3 ай бұрын

@@organfairyThe original migration problem only affected very early chips like the SAJ 110 used in many divide down oscillator chips of organs and the 4000 serie chips used very widely in the Yamaha CS series. On later 4000's this was taken care of and these ares still available. If you ever need a few SAJ 110's chips let me know. I know a guy who still has plenty. But in the end all parts do off course degrade. So the 30 to 40 year life expectancy you mention is still applicable for these improved chips. Interesting to learn about that Wersi accu. I was already wondering if it works like that. Then switching it off for longer periods will indeed have the effect I encounter. It still saves everything perfectly but then loses the data again on the long term if I do not use it again soon enough. So no real defect at all! Which is good news! I should however check if it still does not leak. Thanks for the tip! 🙂

@organfairy 3 ай бұрын

Rechargeable batteries tend to loose their capacity with age so they don't store as much energy as they used too. This can affect the amount of time they can run the RAM.

@organfairy 3 ай бұрын

The ICs I replaced in the Elka organs were mostly of the early 4000 types so it corresponds with your knowledge. I have some SAJ110 myself. I don't know if they work but they have never been used. Some years ago I bought a box of mixed items from a former Wersi enthusiast - amongst those were my Wersimatic II and some stock of old organ components.

@marcbrasse747 3 ай бұрын

@@organfairy Same here. I got a few SAJ’s myself but still have to use them. No idea if they are actually OK.

@macbit_chbe7988 3 ай бұрын

Sehr interessant! Hat diese «Comet» ein «Magic Fingers»-Modul? Grüsse von Edgar, Bern (Schweiz)

@organfairy 3 ай бұрын

(Does this Comet have a "Magic Fingers" module?) Yes, but I am not sure that it is working. I haven't figured out what it actually does though it looks like some sort of sequencer.

@organfairy Ай бұрын

I have found out what the problem was.