well, i took the unit in and the quote is about $600-700 for repair. this is more than my
friend and i have, so we're going to pass for now.

turns out the unit DOES work...makes sounds...but only triggered through MIDI. and
possibly only intermittently. the main problem is in the keys. there was water damage
some years ago, and they'd all have to be removed and cleaned.

so screw it, we're going to put it on a stand with a MIDI keyboard and trigger it and see
what kind of fun we can have.

as for the cassette interface, i'm at a loss. the light comes on, the signal seems to be
going in...but the banks don't seem to light up in response to any received information. i
may take a look inside and see if there's any more cleaning that can be done back there.

--- In oberheim@yahoogroups.com , "chthonic" <chthonic@...> wrote:
>
> --- In oberheim@yahoogroups.com , Charles Massey <cmassey@> wrote:
> >
> > Sounds like you don't have enough level out of the tape deck to make
> > it work. You must come out of the HEADPHONE jack, which you probably
> > already know. They were designed to work with portable cassette
> > players so you could take them on the gig and the interface worked
> > well providing you had enough output level. Sounds like you are very
> > close to making it work.
>
> yeah, i'm using the EAR jack on an old portable 1980s radio shack thing i got mint in
box
> just for this type of application.
>
>
> > > so here's a question i should've asked in the first place: if the
> > > battery dies and is replaced,
> > > does that literally mean there should be NO SOUNDS in the OB-8
> > > that they MUST be
> > > reloaded from the tape, almost like samples or is the tape just a
> > > bunch of presets
> >
> > There should be some sounds. You should be able to grab a few knobs
> > and dial in a "sound" manually. If it won't do that, I'd suspect
> > other problems. The oscillators and filters, etc should all work even
> > without the PROGRAM loaded in. All the cassette data is, is the
> > settings of the knobs for each patch.
>
> i was afraid of that. this means i'll have to take it to be serviced after all, which i was
> trying to avoid.
>
> had i thought of this in the first place, i wouldn't have bothered with the whole cassette
> thing. presets are nice to start from, but i have enough understanding of this kind of
> analog synth to get to any sound i want from nothing. of course, i'm afraid it may be
> unfixable, that the years-old moisture damage may have shorted out the circuits that
> actually make sounds - this happened with some other gear we had.
>
>
> > Hope this helps and good luck with the old girl! I sold my Xpander
> > and miss the sounds of it in my music already.
>
> thanks, you've helped a lot by letting me know my next step (repair shop). i've never
> played one, always wanted to since i was a kid. will come back and let the group know
my
> findings once it's been looked at.
>