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I finally got a Roland MT-32 (fuck yeah old school PC music!) at a good price and apparently in 'full working order', but it's pretty damaged. I'm having words with the seller but I'd much rather get it repaired somehow than just return it, because getting one of these has been a bit of an odyssey!

Anyhow, essentially it makes a very loud buzzing noise (a bit like a 25% duty cycle pulsewave through distortion) that is completely unaffected by me changing the master volume that utterly drowns out any useful sound even on full volume. Sometimes it won't even turn on properly at all, with just a dim light in the display and some really intense harsh noise.

I posted an example on my Soundcloud, though I'd recommend you turn down your speakers before listening:

http://soundcloud.com/stevenosurname/mt-32-test

I've tested all the gear, and I'm sure it's the MT-32 - this happens even when nothing else is plugged in. There is some hope in that the rest of the unit still seems to be perfectly functional - you can hear me playing the sound module at about 0:39, underneath the noise, and I'm pretty sure this would have been avoided if the unit was properly packaged. 

Is this a problem with the electronics that could be easily fixed by a local electronics bloke (not myself...I have used a soldering iron before at school, but I failed to complete either of the very simple circuits given to us, so I can't trust myself on this one!), or is my Roland MT-32 dead for good?

Any help would be massively appreciated!!!!!

Last edited by Stevens (Jun 8, 2011 3:41 pm)

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Abandoned on Fire

Have you opened the unit up and looked at the insides yet?  I'd be pretty confident in saying this is a grounding problem.  Look around the power plug (on the inside) and see if anything looks suspicious.

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egr wrote:

Have you opened the unit up and looked at the insides yet?

Just had a look - there are no obvious signs of damage to the power plug area (or any of the compnents for that matter), but this is coming from someone who has little electronics experience.

egr wrote:

I'd be pretty confident in saying this is a grounding problem.

Having seen similar problems on other forums, I think you're on the right lines. Everything else works just fine so I'm still optimistic it can be pulled back into action! Thanks!

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I have same trouble with my MT32, but only if i change the reverb level. It's not yet solved, i guess, it well be not. sad

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England

Wow, I had an MT-32 back in the day.

There were some gremlins with the way its DAC worked, but I'm not sure if that wold be your problem. See:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_MT- … y_problems

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You should try an experiment with circuit-bending, maybe i will too... be careful. smile

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It ended up being a rather boring problem actually - the previous owner had used an incompatible adaptor. Luckily it was easily fixed, and I now I can incorporate some Sierra style magic into my tracks...

Csuszpajsz, I hope you find a way to fix it!