Roland Atelier hum

[KRG]

I recently purchased a used Roland AT90SL which is a delightful organ in all respects but one.</P>


For normal home use I need the master volume control set at about 70% but from this level and upwards the organ produces an annoying level of hum which gets loader up to full volume. At below 70% the hum is not noticeable butappears just as though it had been switched on as you get to 70%. The brilliance control is midway and the expression pedal is all the way back. I have had the dealer's technician to look at the organ and he initially agreed that the hum was unacceptable and it was decided that the amplification section of the organ was at fault.</P>


I was told that they had tried other Roland AT 80 and 90's in the store and that they all had a hum. They brought the amplification section from the quietest of these organs and put it in my AT90 and seemed to think that that was the best that could be done - to me it was no different.</P>


I have never had a noticeable hum on previous organs which have included Technics, Orla and Yamaha and I do not think that a flagship organ from Roland should be any different. The hum is intrusive in quiet passages and there when you come to the end of a piece.</P>


I would love to hear from any other Roland Atelier owners to learn if their Roland Atelier organs do, or do not, have a similar hum.</P>

[geoelectro]

Re: Roland Atelier hum

[quote user="KRG"]

I recently purchased a used Roland AT90SL which is a delightful organ in all respects but one.</p>


For normal home use I need the master volume control set at about 70% but from this level and upwards the organ produces an annoying level of hum which gets loader up to full volume. At below 70% the hum is not noticeable butappears just as though it had been switched on as you get to 70%. The brilliance control is midway and the expression pedal is all the way back. I have had the dealer's technician to look at the organ and he initially agreed that the hum was unacceptable and it was decided that the amplification section of the organ was at fault.</p>


I was told that they had tried other Roland AT 80 and 90's in the store and that they all had a hum. They brought the amplification section from the quietest of these organs and put it in my AT90 and seemed to think that that was the best that could be done - to me it was no different.</p>


I have never had a noticeable hum on previous organs which have included Technics, Orla and Yamaha and I do not think that a flagship organ from Roland should be any different. The hum is intrusive in quiet passages and there when you come to the end of a piece.</p>


I would love to hear from any other Roland Atelier owners to learn if their Roland Atelier organs do, or do not, have a similar hum.</p>

[/quote]</p>

First, all organs will make noise at the fullest volume. Now, I said noise, not hum. Are you hearing hum (60hz, 120hz) or noise? Also, IF what you were told by the tech that others sounded the same is TRUE, then it sounds like it is normal. If you get enough volume at 70% and no hum/noise, then I guess that's the best setting.</p>

I have a Yamaha FX-1 and it has noise at full volume as well. I set it at about 50% while the external speakers are set at about 70%. At that volume, no real noise is noticeable. However, occasionally I like to crank it up and I clearly hear the background noise.</p>

There are two things to look out for on that model. Sticking keys if it has the earlier version keyboards with bad keyweight glue, and bad capacitors on the main board. The capacitor problem can cause anything from low volume to static to no audio on one or both channels.</p>

George
</p>

[andyg]

Re: Roland Atelier hum



I'll be able to check three top Rolands this week including an AT90SL. I'll let you know what I find, but none of my students has the volume control above 70%. That's plenty loud enough for where the organs are.</p>

Andy
</p>

[afuller5]

Re: Roland Atelier hum



KRG,</p>

I have a Roland Atelier AT-90, the first generation of the Roland organs. Mine does not exhibit the phenomenon you describe. I do hear a slight hiss as the master volume control is up around 80% and higher. However, it is dependent upon the expression pedal; that is, the further the expression pedal is depressed, the louder the hum. Even at 100% master volume with expression pedal "closed" (at minimum volume), there is no hiss/hum from the organ.</p>

I did notice that at high volume levels when releasing notes there is an echo/ping/pong ringing type noise for a few seconds after the keys are released. With a little detective work, I determined that this is cause by the reverb. When set the reverb "slider" to minimum ("off'), this did not occur. This may also be dependent upon the type of reverb selected. It could be that the hum in your organ is related to the reverb. I have experienced background hum with older organs that use the mechanical spring reverb. I do not know if the electronic reverbs can create background hums, but on my Atelier the background hiss is not affected by the reverb.
</p>

Just for information, I keep my master volume set at about 55%. I do not experience any background hiss/hum. I also don't expreince the above effects of the reverb at this volume setting.</p>

Best of wishes in getting the problem sorted out.</p>

Allen</p>

P.S. I wish I could afford to upgrade to an AT-90SL.
</p>

[KRG]

Re: Roland Atelier hum



Many thanks to those who replied to my original post.</P>
<P mce_keep="true"></P>


Purely by accident I have solved the problem by doing the following. I decided to record the "hum" so that I could show the dealer what I was concened with and used my laptop and a microphone costing about £1 to record the noise. Trying to record a noise at this level was very difficult due to background hiss from thehigh recording levels. You could, however, discern a change in the noise. I did not think that it would work but then decided to make a direct recording using the line out sockets from the organ. Strangely this produced nohiss when the volume was changed. The organ sounded fine. I left the laptop connected to the organ for a few hours and really enjoyed playing without the hum. I have now disconnected the laptop so that the organ is back to just the organ and lo and behold the silence continues. </P>


I have no idea why using the line out (aux) sockets should have solved the problem and even less idea why the problem should remain solved when they are again unused but the AT90 SL now plays like the superb organ I expected it to be.</P>

[afuller5]

Re: Roland Atelier hum



KRG,</p>

Glad the problem is solved. Sometimes these computerized instruments do strange things. I have on rare occasions had the keyboards on my Roland organ to be about a half-step out of tune with the pedals. Powering down and powering up again fixed the problem. I guess this is the equivalent of rebooting a computer.</p>

Best Wishes,</p>

Allen
</p>

[andyg]

Re: Roland Atelier hum



Sounds like all is well. Just to let you know, all three Rolands I tested were completely hum-free.</p>

Andy
</p>