Tom Oberheim SEM Pro Repair - Synthchaser

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In this video we have a look around inside the new Marion Systems Tom Oberheim SEM Pro. And thanks to the kindness and generosity of Tom Oberheim himself, we're able to repair a problem this one is having with an envelope randomly getting stuck "on". The birds in my area love Oberheims (remember the OB-Xa Hummingbird?), and a Red-Tailed Hawk comes to check out the repair job.
Parts, service and synthesizers available on my website. I buy broken synthesizers!

[@jaycee30865]

Long live Tom. He is indeed cool. Firmware. Damn.

[@paulcrandall2534]

Kudos to Tom Oberheim. What a gentleman and a hero. What a cool story and a great outcome. You won't find that kind of service and dedication from any other company. Except maybe Bob Bradshaw. I called up his company, Custom Audio Electronics, and he answered the phone. I was having an issue designing my own line out box for my guitar amp and he actually spent the time and helped me work through the problem to figure it out instead of pushing me to buy his line out box. He pioneered custom rack designs and built all the custom racks and guitar systems for all the guitar legends from back in the day. Such a cool dude to talk to.

[@toomuchtoofast4533]

Great vid as always. Synth chaser is a class act. Also good to see Tom O being considerate and generous to his customers! We have to keep these synths alive for years to come..

[@alphabeets]

Mr. Oberheim is indeed a great guy… and a legend.

[@Manmademadman]

Great troubleshooting followed by Phew--- I'm glad this had a happy ending. Also verified: Tom Oberheim is a COOL dude, and has helped me with many a troubleshooting on Oberheim synths, even updating firmware when I found issues with the Two Voice Pro.

[@leeselectronicwidgets]

Tom is a legend, and a lovely person!

[@catalinbadalan4463]

Thank you Mr. Oberheim!

[@jrodohio]

Tom is a class act.

[@melodikmusic]

Fantastic!

[@deantiquisetnovis]

Gotta love Tom Oberheim! The other great company is Sequential / Wineceountry Production. They are always helpful when I run into problems with my Prophet 600.

[@SacSynths_Jack_Z]

Really enjoyed seeing the circuit layout, thanks for sharing!

[@samplethesilence202x]

So is the programming on the MSP430 proprietary? I just wonder how this kind of problem would get fixed many years from now unless Tom makes a bunch of them already programmed and stockpiles them for someone else in the future to have available as replacements.

[@ScottFromCanada]

Great work! Makes me a bit nervous about my SEM Pro. I wonder if there will come a time when things like that can't be fixed.

[@user-rv8wb1nl1b]

love it when you get a free socket with a chip !

[@Cubik303]

Interesting video! I would like to take a look at that chip's code and see what it is actually doing!

[@fmoll8748]

when the custom chip showed up, i got the spooks. my guess is with the quantities made of these „new old“- synths, in case of problems you can’t hope for someone knowledgeable to come around, figure out the program itself and dishing out replacement chips anytime soon/at all. benefits of full analog circuits, from an amateurish view. anyways, as always great video and interesting to see you working on sem and modern circuits. thank you and greetings to the hawk as well!

[@AdamTheAd-vanc3d]

I'm just wondering if the envelope control is part of the digital interfacing via midi and for chaining more sem modules where added say on a TVPro Anyway just a thought. Perhaps it has some sort of digital gate array function .

[@nel766]

would love to see the removal of the chip, would be very interesting.

[@kristianTV1974]

In the most well intentioned sense, there are hundreds of videos out there on KZbin that will satisfy your request. Look up Dual Inline Package (DIP) unsoldering and soldering. Hope that helps! :)

[@nel766]

@@kristianTV1974 thank's kiristian

[@AdamTheAd-vanc3d]

First here for once. Looks intresting :-)

[@midimoog]

Any clues why this digital chip failed? The board seems so well engineered.

[@catalinbadalan4463]

Could be internal flash corruption? In any case, we will never know.. :)

[@midimoog]

Thanks. Searched the web and indeed there seems to be quite a few cases of flash corruption on the MSP430.

[@NyakzOTSD]

Does anyone have a firmware update for a Oberheim Two voice pro? Please.... Thanks

[@sawsquaresinetube]

Is the signal path still analog even though the envelop control is digital?

[@Synthchaser]

Yes, it is.

[@sawsquaresinetube]

Also, Tom is a really cool dude! He confirmed that he autographed my SEM himself personally and was very cool about it. Very awesome!

[@sawsquaresinetube]

@@Synthchaser great thank you, and awesome to know! Thanks for the insight!

[@lockyp204]

Whatever happened to the Marion systems/oberheim eurorack modules? Never happened 🤷‍♂️😕

[@jaycee30865]

Gone. Had one. That’s when I emailed Tom myself. Tones were decidedly meh. Not worth effort.

[@jaycee30865]

Eurorack: never mind. Don’t know. I’m thinking of a 1 rack space synth unit Marion had. Meh.

[@pedrogomis]

Blown away by Tom generosity for sending a chip that was failing?

[@585585MC]

0:48 I tell you a secret. You can see the trace on the oscilloscope even without shouting a +130db sound in the mic with a loudspeaker.

[@deantiquisetnovis]

Gotta love Tom Oberheim! The other great company is Sequential / Wineceountry Production. They are always helpful when I run into problems with my Prophet 600.