FIZMO

[djboomstick]

i'm super excited !

today i received the repaired main board for my ensoniq fizmo . it arrived 1 day earlier than expected from TheSoniq.

The seems like a really straight shooting kind of guy . he mentioned having a few more main boards .

how long should covid paranoia keep me from handling the package and restoring my fizmo to working?

not that i suspect The . but the rest of the mail and what ever else was on the planes / trucks / coming from there to here .

how long would you be able to wait

here is some photos from before

E OS on the display = Error Operating System

fizresizeout.jpg

notice the white corrosion looking build up around the solder points and thru holes .

i think that is the result of it being stored outdoors during a time the board had been stolen from me . probably got rained on or worse . that was some years ago now .

fizresizinside.jpg

fizresizeinside2.jpg

i'll post after pictures . . . . after

[vurt]

lovely!
fizmo is one synth id love to grab.

[vurt]

wear gloves and a mask.
remove packaging to bin.

sorted!

[thecontrolcentre]

Run it under the tap. Just to be sure

[djboomstick]

welp , i waited til after dinner i ate a little early this evening

the after pictures aren't as clear because the before pictures were taken in the daylight , what little of it gets in here .

the main board was not repaired but replaced . so its super clean now.

newfizin.jpg

newfizin2.jpg

P 01 = Preset 01 = it's working !!

newfizout.jpg

i had to remind myself to test ALL the knobs and buttons and keys

its nice to hear it again i really missed that preset 01 takes me right to that place , you know that place


thanks TheSoniq !!

[Scotty]

Fantastic to see this come back to life. I have wanted a Fizmo since the first time I saw one all those years ago in Steve's Music on Queen Street West in Toronto. Congratulations.

[CapnLockheed]

Congrats! I've been a long time lover and owner of EM-U/Ensoniq hardware.
I've owned nearly all of it at one time or another.....except a FIZMO.
Few other piles of metal and plastic have made me sport wood like a Fiz!

[Mr Arkadin]

Wait, your Fizmo was stolen and then you got it back?!

[djboomstick]

Wait, your Fizmo was stolen and then you got it back?!

Yea , i got it back after it was stolen

it was stolen along with a few other keyboards and other music equipment , and several less interesting & more commonly burgled items

i did police report , notices to all the local music shop , asking around shady musical acquaintances , searching pawn shops , watching ebay . . . .

it was out of my possession for a few months .

then one day at work my cell phone wouldn't stop ringing . i didn't answer cause the call ID said something like UNKNOWN or UNLISTED or something . then they texted me something like please call back this police dept. number asap

the guy , who lived across the street from me , brought all of my keyboards except a still missing Akai AX-60 to one of the shops that knows me very well .

by the time i got there to identify my stuff the police had the guy , who i would like to name , handcuffed in the back of a police car .

i only talked to the guy one other time . he mowed my lawn one time when i wasn't home . with out asking me if i wanted it mowed . then wanted a payment for mowing it . like lawn care mafia style .


he went back to jail for 3 years on parole violation , possession of stolen property . a career criminal .
i would have liked to have been able to wave his punishment in exchange for the return of the still missing AX-60 .
but , they jailed him on the parole violation and the system didn't really want to know anything about my thoughts and opinions or my other still missing stuff .

i know i'm lucky to have gotten back what i did . but that shit only finished the 3 years for a past crime . he ruined his own second chance and it cost him nothing for what he did to me .

he cost me a working band and a working studio .

the world has moved on

the studio is just starting to be rebuilt 9 years later . it took me 6 years to find a better building than the one i felt compelled to move out of . another 3 so far on remodeling and things like finding out the FIZMO needed a brain transplant .

typing this made me angry about it again , witch wasn't my intention

because i have a working FIZMO

[djboomstick]

mods should delete this post if its not appropriate . it is definitely off my intended topic

but , i just googled the scum bags name and found this horrific info

https://nydailyrecord.com/2013/03/18/ma ... y-of-rape/

seems he got out after finishing his parole violation time and went directly right back in , potentially for life

[Mr Arkadin]

Nice neighbours you got there.

I assume you're using Fauxmo, it's the best thing to happen to the Fizmo. I seriously thought it would never happen given the crappy SysEx code in there and the various aborted attempts by people.

[djboomstick]

not my neighbors anymore , and pretty much every thing has improved since i moved away from there

the actually nice guys are the the heros at the sound source in rochester ny who were awake enough to realize it was my gear put them selfs at risk in dealing with the guy and making the 911 call.

i do know about Fauxmo i'll have to research it some more .
i do have the oem sounddiver editor for it , i dono if it will install anymore .
but it was only yesterday it got the brain transplant . i still havn't tested the more involved stuff like midi , vocodeing & the foot pedals.

i'm just about finished with a sample editing project before i get back to it .
to derail my self again , i'm enjoying cubase 10.5 it think its a really good upgrade since i've gotten used to its changes.

i really wasn't expecting the turnaround time from TheSoniq to be so fast . i thought it would be a repair rather than a replacement and he would have it in his shop still . who would have guessed there was a spare main board in the world

if he has another and a control board some one could potentially build a DIY rack fiz

[Watchful]

I'm riveted by this whole thread, including the backstory. I hope you keep us updated...this is no different than the threads by people who rebuild classic cars. Sometimes, those are utterly fascinating, too, and reading your discoveries here about getting a classic machine like the Fizmo up and running is more entertaining to us than you might think! Great choice of a topic, and please keep the posts coming!

[djboomstick]

Thanks for your interest!

The electribe ES1 project is not done yet . The ES1 is a quirky little guy that is very particular about the sample format it will accept .
there is a couple samples in my set that seem redundant and a couple of very deep sub effect sounds that dont sound as good coming from the ES1 as they did coming from the editor . It’ll be 100 custom usable sounds with no loops when its done.

I took a break from that to test out all the back panel jack connections on the FIZMO.
Headhpones - good
Main left - good
Main right - good
audio in and gain control to vocoder and effects - good
Dual foot switch connector !?! Oh yeah !! thats why i have those insert type cables . . . 2 footswitches on one cable into one jack
I had to get the manual out to set up the second switch .
Works good

Tested all the footswitches i could find while i was at it . I found i couple switches that are for gear i dont own and don’t work with any thing i do own .

I tested basic midi in out and through
They all work .

But FIZMO will route 6 midi channels so there still some internal stuff to check out .

And, an operating system update i can do . The new main board is 1.0 .
I have a file for it here . Need to research OS more .
was there only ever one OS update for it ?

[Mr Arkadin]

I did the update, worked fine. Guess it's the same one that's on the internet, that's the one I used. I've never seen another. Maybe worth asking TheSoniq if it's even necessary (no idea what it updates).