While we’re working from home due to the virus and have all of the synths and all our recording gear in the same place, we took the opportunity to make this video about the restoration of two Prophet 10s we’ve restored recently. One of them proved to be one of the most arduous restorations we’ve ever done due to massive damage to its microprocessor system. It was a long road to get it working, but when it was done, we celebrated by MIDI chaining the two of them (which we had also both retrofitted with MIDI) and making some fantastic and massive PROPHET 20 sounds! Check out this video for a recap of the restoration process and some demos of the synths’ powerful sound.
Thanks for sharing
Great work, but have to ask, where do you get the large quantities of the DIP ICs to support wholesale chip replacement? Many of these chips have long ago gone to SMT. Please share your sources.
The large majority of ICs in these are still available in DIP from regular electronics suppliers like Digikey and Mouser. Most of what we are replacing is CMOS and TTL logic, and op amps, most of which are still in production. Each voice only has a few more rare synth-specific chips (the Curtis CEM family chips) but these have now been reissued by a company called ALFA. However, we don’t mass-replace those because they cost a lot more than the more basic chips that make up the majority of the synth.
Thanks for the response. I’ve been repairing vintage synths since the early 90s, and my experience is that many of these TTL and CMOS chips are no longer available in DIP packages, even at Mouser and DigiKey. Or maybe I’m really bad at searching their online catalog(s)….. ;-).
I would suggest holding on to the replaced chips (if not destroyed by removal…) that were not verified bad, i.e. replaced in an abundance of caution. We might need them in the future!
Again, excellent work on those P10s. They are monsters!