Yamaha FB-01 Repairs? Not totally Amiga related...

[Iggy]

While we are talking about unrelated Amiga Yamaha's check out this f**ker

I always like the model, but the one you've pictured actually looks nice.
The early models look the the bast*rd progeny of a muscle bike that was raped by a steam calliope.

Oh, and I downloaded the FB-01's service manual if anyone has trouble finding it.

[XDelusion]

Well, as fate would have it. Opening it up, pushing down the chips, and blowing it out seems to have done the trick. It works now, and works with the Amiga, though I'm still trying to figure out how to access all eight instruments instead of just one.

[commodorejohn]

Rock on! As for the eight instruments, the FB-01 (along with some of Yamaha's other early multitimbral synths like the TX81Z) uses a rather awkward system of "performances" or "configurations," where a "performance" specifies which of the eight parts have how many voices assigned to them, which of the stereo channels they come over, and some other assorted parameters. This is all detailed in the manual, a PDF of which can be found here. It's kind of irritating and awkward, especially when its contemporary the MT-32 has such a perfectly nice, no-nonsense multitimbral mode (well, except for that thing with MIDI channel 1 being disabled by default,) but eh, it is what it is. (At least they fixed it with the introduction of the V50.) I suspect that most games probably assigned one voice to each of the first 8 MIDI channels and sequenced them separately.

[commodorejohn]

Oh, and by the way, there's a patch librarian/editor for Windows/Linux here, and one for the Amiga here. Some patches can be found here and here.

[Ral-Clan]

Unless you really need an integral keyboard, the FB-01 is a very useful tone module and makes a lot more sense than buying a DX9/21/100.  It sounds exactly the same but has multi-timbral capability.

I had one and only sold it because I got a TX81z and didn't need two 4-op boxes (anything the FB-01 could do could be taken care of by the TX81z).

[XDelusion]

Oh, and by the way, there's a patch librarian/editor for Windows/Linux here, and one for the Amiga here. Some patches can be found here and here.

GREAT links, thanks!

[commodorejohn]

No problem. Glad to welcome another into the wonderful world of FM synthesis

[Plaz]

The digital to analog circuits are in the upper right corner of that picture. The transistors, caps and 8 legged op-amps would be suspects.

Try this link instead to the manual. And it was very slow to download for me.

http://tinyurl.com/FB01Manual

Edit: Looking through the schematics C2 and C3 catch my attention as 47uf/16v non polar dielectric capacitors. Regular caps fading after 20 years, non-polars even faster.

Plaz