Voice Issue

[OleOlson]

Hello dear Oberheim team,

sorry to bother you again. But it seems to me that my TEO-5 unit has an issue with one voice, or more exactly the modulation routing to the oscillator levels of it.

I tried to create a patch where I use one of the envelopes to modulate the level of osc2 from 0 upwards, kind of fading osc2 into the patch, what worked pretty well - but it sounded non modulated every 5th note. First I calibrated the synth, but this did not help.

Then I did a little test on osc2 alone:
- Basic program
- Filter totally open
- only osc2 acitve (level initialy 0)
- env1 modulating osc2 level positve

The first 4 notes play like expected, getting modulated by the env, but the 5th stays silent. Time between notes doesn't matter as the 5th note also not plays after minutes of waiting. The problem also occurs on all osc (osc1, sub, osc2, noise), and with env1 and env2.

Therefore I guess my TEO has a defect in the routing of the 5th voice to the osc levels. Could you pls confirm that this is not a normal behavior or tell me where I'm understanding something wrong here.

With best regards
Oliver

[camillomuc]

For me this looks like a hardware issue.
But to be sure: Try to calibrate several times. Often one calibration is not enough

[kpatz]

Does that fifth voice ever sound, even if you don’t modulate anything?  Start from an init patch (Basic Program), turn off Osc1, turn on Osc2 and play 5 consecutive notes.

Sounds to me like a hardware issue, but since all the control voltages are digitally generated, I’d be surprised if a fault would only manifest when using the mod matrix.

[OleOlson]

Does that fifth voice ever sound, even if you don’t modulate anything?  Start from an init patch (Basic Program), turn off Osc1, turn on Osc2 and play 5 consecutive notes.

Sounds to me like a hardware issue, but since all the control voltages are digitally generated, I’d be surprised if a fault would only manifest when using the mod matrix.

The unit is already back on the way to Thomann. But as mentioned it's not oscillator related and seems to be more in the voice and as far as I remember, in Basic Program the 5th note was playing when only ocs2 was active.

Now it seems that I just have to fight with Thomann also a bit - requested a new totally functional unit and sent a video proof, but they try to handle it as repair. And they say, that the B-Stock, which I returned before due to a dead LFO2 frequency knob, wasn't faulty when they tested it.

As good as the TEO-5 sounds, my experience with it overall is a more and more unpleasant one - since 3 months trying to get a fully working unit - and now even have to struggle with one of the main european retailers that tells me between the lines that I'm a liar. 

Really not what I was looking for.

[OleOlson]

Quick update:

Thomann reacted quickly and acknowledged the defect. The unit was replaced with a new, pre-tested device.

Happy to report that there are no voice issues and no wobbly pot caps — everything now feels exactly as I originally expected. Solid and tip-top.

Thanks as well to Oberheim support for the fast ticket response and for confirming that my previous unit indeed had a voice-related problem.

Seems like I was simply unlucky twice, as the TEO-5 is generally considered very well built. In any case, I’m now very satisfied and glad to finally focus on enjoying the great sound of this synth.

[Thomas Campaert]

Hello,

(Un)happy to report I have the exact same issue. The first 4 notes are being modulated by the envelope, the 5th one stays silent. In UNISON mode this doesn't happen. I'm also sending my unit back.

[OleOlson]

Hello,

(Un)happy to report I have the exact same issue. The first 4 notes are being modulated by the envelope, the 5th one stays silent. In UNISON mode this doesn't happen. I'm also sending my unit back.

Hey Thomas,

I later figured out it's not a hardware issue, it's a bug in the beta - as also the new unit showed the behavior after upgrading to the beta firmware. So in case you also run the beta, try it in the stable firmware version before sending it back.

I reported the issue over a support ticket to Oberheim and they are aware of it now, so hopefully it gets fixed in the next firmware release.