Strange behavior OB6 Module

[AlainHubert]

I've had my OB6 Module (serial 566) for about a week now, and it has developed a strange behavior. After it has been powered on for a while, about an hour, it will suddenly go completely silent. Power cycling will bring the sound back but only for a very short time, and it will go completely silent again. After 2 or 3 power cycling off and on, it will eventually be ok again, and remain that way for hours after that.

This has happened 2 times in all. And the first time it did that, I tried a calibration (thinking it might be VCA calibration related) and the procedure got stuck at F11. I had to power down the unit. Tried it a second time and it got stuck again on F11. Again, only solution was to power cycle to reset. The third time it calibrated itself correctly and the sound was back.



It was perfectly okay after that for several days. Until today, when it did the exact same thing all over again.
I've eliminated any MIDI issues by disconnecting everything but the power cord, and have the module play by itself with the onboard sequencer.

Do I have an intermittently defective unit do you think ? Anyone else getting stuck on F11 calibration, and what does that mean ? Defective voice card #1 possibly ? Or a bug in the calibration procedure ?
Anyway, if this happens a third time, I'm going to write an email to DSI about it.

EDIT: I'm running OS 1.2.0

[AlainHubert]

Quick update. It happened again today, after several hours playing it, and switching very rapidly between patches (sliding my finger across number from 0 to 9) brought the sound back. I didn't have to power cycle the OB6 to get the sound back this time.

Also when the module goes silent, it's as if the master volume knob was rapidly turned down (the sound doesn't cut off abruptly).
Sometimes when it's silent, switching to another single patch will very briefly be able to play a note, only to hear it quickly disappear again. Very strange.

[AlainHubert]

Replying to myself again.
I've re-installed the firmware upgrade 1.2.0, since the first time I did it (I had received my OB6 Module with 1.1.4 installed), it didn't complete on its own and got stuck (the module didn't reboot itself, and I had to shut it down after a couple of minutes).

Since doing that this morning, the synth hasn't had any problem, having been powered on for 8 hours straight and working with it all day so far. Woohoo !
So it seems that my problem has disappeared by re-installing the firmware (which this time got completed on its own, by rebooting itself in the end, as it should have the first time).

[AlainHubert]

Final thoughts on this thread. Problem solved by re-installing firmware.
The issue never happened again since then. Must have been a case of firmware update not having been completed properly the first time.

[Jdoo]

Final thoughts on this thread. Problem solved by re-installing firmware.
The issue never happened again since then. Must have been a case of firmware update not having been completed properly the first time.

Thanks for following up.  It hasnt happened to me - but it's great seeing follow-up / closure on stuff.

[Rayrayra]

Has anyone has this issue with update 1.5.5? I'm having the issue of getting stuck at f11 to. Same sound issue also.

[St8kout]

Has anyone has this issue with update 1.5.5? I'm having the issue of getting stuck at f11 to. Same sound issue also.

It just now did that to me too, froze at F11 during Calibration. Just bought it last week and it came with 1.5.5 already installed.
I was afraid to turn it off but all the Google searches said it's okay to do.
I did just start using a Boss expression/volume pedal plugged into the volume jack. Not sure if that is the problem but I powered the OB-6 down and unplugged the pedal. Seems to work again now.

I find that I REALLY need a volume pedal as some patches are way too loud. Got to where I had to turn down the volume before playing any new patch.

On a side note, am I the only one annoyed by the way this forum jumps back to the main index as soon as you post something? I've never seen a forum work like this, and I can't say I'm a fan of it.

[St8kout]

Follow up:
I found that mine hangs up at F11 when my Boss volume pedal is positioned to "OFF." It doesn't hang at F11 when the pedal is in the full volume position.

[AlainHubert]

Follow up:
I found that mine hangs up at F11 when my Boss volume pedal is positioned to "OFF." It doesn't hang at F11 when the pedal is in the full volume position.

When updating the operating system on any device, it's always a good practice to unplug everything except the power cord (of course) and the cable supplying the data update (USB in this case).

[Stormchild]

As of a couple days ago I'm now having this problem too. At first I thought it was just the USB MIDI input cutting out, but switching to DIN MIDI didn't help at all. Initially I could get it working again by power cycling it but it has now gotten to the point where I can only hear sound for about 10 seconds before it craps out again. Very upset and disappointed right now. Since I bought it a couple months ago I've had zero issues with my OB-6 (desktop module), then all of a sudden this started happening for no apparent reason.

As described by others, I have the same issue where it stuck at F11 during calibration if I attempt that after the sound has stopped working. Having done the power cycle thing several times I now also have an additional problem where switching patches has no effect. It's stuck on whatever patch is loaded at startup. Changing patches doesn't change any of the lights on the front panel, and none of the controls work either.

I'm using the latest firmware (1.5.5), which was installed when I received it. According to the support page:

Unlike on computer, the OS on your instrument can never become corrupted, so re-installing your current OS won’t fix a hardware problem, and is not recommended.

It seems a bit bold to me to claim the OS "can never become corrupted", but for now I'll assume that's correct and there's nothing to be gained by reinstalling the firmware. I've already contacted support, so I'll wait for their advice. Really hope it's not going to take weeks or months to get this thing fixed.

[Stormchild]

I find that I REALLY need a volume pedal as some patches are way too loud. Got to where I had to turn down the volume before playing any new patch.

You can avoid that by using the "PRGM VOL" knob to set the relative volume of patches, then save the patch. You can't overwrite the factory patches this way, but you can save them to one of the user slots.

On a side note, am I the only one annoyed by the way this forum jumps back to the main index as soon as you post something? I've never seen a forum work like this, and I can't say I'm a fan of it.

Just noticed that too. Definitely very annoying and doesn't make any sense for it to do that.

[Stormchild]

Update:

While troubleshooting the problem I had turned off local control. Turning that back on fixed the inability to load presets and switch to manual mode. I've never seen another synth that disables those kinds of global controls when local control is off. Usually that only turns off the performance and sound design controls. I can imagine why they did it this way but it's very unusual and that's what tripped me up. Unfortunately the original problem is still happening.

I was able to confirm this is not a MIDI issue. I noticed that when the audio stops working, I can press record on the OB-6 sequencer and it registers the notes I'm playing. So the problem is definitely that it just stops outputting audio. It's very unlikely my audio interface is the problem, since it continues to receive audio from other devices and outputs audio to both my speakers and headphones. Next time it happens I'll plug my headphones directly into the OB-6 but I'm 99% sure there will be no audio from the headphone jack either.

I tried resetting my global settings. Didn't help.

There are a few things I find very worrying about this:

1. I bought my OB-6 over two months ago and never had this problem until a couple days ago. It always worked flawlessly, and literally nothing about my setup has changed. I hadn't even rebooted my computer for about 50 days when the problem first occurred. Restarting multiple times didn't help (of course, because it has nothing to do with my computer).

2. The OP (AlainHubert) reported this problem almost three years ago in firmware 1.2.0. My OB-6 shipped with 1.5.5. This makes me think Sequential has never been found a way to reliably reproduce it, and if any attempt was made to fix it with firmware it was probably a shot in the dark that obviously didn't completely solve the problem.

3. It occurs seemingly at random. I've been troubleshooting this all day by occasionally tapping some keys on my MIDI controller to see if the OB-6 is still alive. Sometimes it keeps working for hours. Sometimes it has to be power cycled every few minutes. A problem that occurs at random intervals for no apparent reason is usually due to faulty hardware.

[tarekith]

This happened to me one time with my OB-6 module as well last year, for no reason it just stopped making noise.  I tried everything that night to fix it and was resigned to sending it back for warranty the next day.  Woke up the next day and it worked fine and hasn't ever done it again in hundreds of hours of use.

Weird!

[Stormchild]

Sequential support got back to me and suggested I reset the tuning calibration table (Manual + 3), then run the calibration again from scratch (Manual + 0). Don't know why that would help but it seems to have worked! My OB-6 has been running for about six hours now and it's working perfectly again. If anyone else runs into this issue, give that a try.

One upside to this situation is I finally looked into how to back up my patches and it was much easier than I expected. I've only created about 20 patches so far but I use them all the time and didn't want to lose them.

Don't know if Sequential staff read the forum but I really appreciate the quick and helpful response from support.

[KidGoesting]

Same problem here. It should not happen to a 2999 machine.

[Beevolver]

OB6-key owner for 3 weeks and have gotten sudden silent behaviour while playing for 5+ times on 1.55 aswell as 1.66 firmware. Ths machine have been properly warmed up. Resolved by selecting another patch and back again. Disturbing if working a patch or live. Happy to know reason/theory and solution.

Ps. Ob6 is the best sounding synth i have ever encountered. Marvellous sound.