High Frequency Pitch After Stopping Arranger PA4x OR MGII

FlatStanley · Post by **FlatStanley** » Mon May 24, 2021 2:26 am

Friends, I have a Pa4X ORIENTAL MGII Edition.

If I play the arranger for a bit then stop the performance abruptly, there's audio artifacts (from the Drum/Percussion and accompaniment section) likely due to effects reverb, sustain etc. This settles down and all is quiet.

I play the arranger again and and stop after a few minutes. I play fairly loud and all of the sudden there's a continuous HF pitch, something like A key but it's annoying. Recovery is to restart the unit. I have tried different speakers, instrument cables, balanced, unbalanced.. no volume pedal, with pedal.

I have a video.

Thank you in advance, Stan.

Aripearlmusic · Post by **Aripearlmusic** » Mon May 24, 2021 3:10 am

That's a freeze. Most likely caused by an issue in the sounds whether it is in the actual sound selection, corrupted bank, corrupted style, or corrupted sample that remains to be seen.

Korghelper · Post by **Korghelper** » Mon May 24, 2021 3:36 pm

Are you using any custom resources, samples, third party styles etc., or is this using an off the shelf arranger with just the factory resources?

Is it only certain styles, or is it happening every single time? Does it happen in different locations, or just in the one place?

Did this only start happening recently, or is it a new unit?

Did you add any samples or new styles just before the problem started?

Is the noise present in the headphone outputs?

Do you have a total backup from before the problem started?

FlatStanley · Post by **FlatStanley** » Tue May 25, 2021 5:45 pm

Aripearlmusic wrote:That's a freeze. Most likely caused by an issue in the sounds whether it is in the actual sound selection, corrupted bank, corrupted style, or corrupted sample that remains to be seen.

I have had this unit since late last year and never had any issues with it. Thank you for the hint, I will check to see if other responses come in and may be call Korg USA.

FlatStanley · Post by **FlatStanley** » Tue May 25, 2021 5:52 pm

Korghelper wrote:Are you using any custom resources, samples, third party styles etc., or is this using an off the shelf arranger with just the factory resources?

Is it only certain styles, or is it happening every single time? Does it happen in different locations, or just in the one place?

Did this only start happening recently, or is it a new unit?

Did you add any samples or new styles just before the problem started?

Is the noise present in the headphone outputs?

Do you have a total backup from before the problem started?

Answers:

Are you using any custom resources, samples, third party styles etc., or is this using an off the shelf arranger with just the factory resources?

I use a mix of factory samples and 3rd party styles (complete sets actually) from Music Gear, a company in Asia that works with Korg.

Is it only certain styles, or is it happening every single time? Does it happen in different locations, or just in the one place?

All styles, every time I play.. this starts after 10 or so minutes. Any location, any sound..

Did this only start happening recently, or is it a new unit?
Recently. I have had this for a while, I started happening 2 Months ago.

Did you add any samples or new styles just before the problem started?
No, no new samples, no modification of any type.

Is the noise present in the headphone outputs?
Yes, both outputs are effected. The regular outputs (any, L R or any combo) and the Headphones.

Only thing worth mentioning here: I connected to 2 Studio Monitors and to the audio outputs. I haven't tried to connect an actual headphone set to the headphone jack it, but will try it.

Do you have a total backup from before the problem started?
I dont have that but, I should try?

Korghelper · Post by **Korghelper** » Thu May 27, 2021 5:55 pm

If you don’t have a backup prior to the problem, you are kind of screwed. If there’s some data corruption, backing up will only preserve it. But go ahead anyway, then reset your arranger to its original stock condition, don’t load in your backup, and see if the problem is still appearing with only the factory resources loaded. My bet is it will probably still happen, especially if the problem happens even if you don’t load in your custom stuff (you HAVE tried to boot up without loading custom resources, right?), but it’s a necessary step for troubleshooting.

Next step is possibly loading in a completely fresh OS (download a new copy directly from Korg, just in case your old installer has a corruption) and testing again.

If you still have an issue after all that, my bet would be a hardware issue, and that means a trip to the local Korg repair location.

fResH_ · Post by **fResH_** » Fri May 28, 2021 4:17 pm

Contact your supplier, music gear or what they are called. ask for the Operating System and Musical Resources and reinstall everything.

I stopped using their products, due to lack of support and went back to regular pa serie. But their package is great for middle east music.

FlatStanley · Post by **FlatStanley** » Thu Jun 03, 2021 1:19 am

Korghelper wrote:If you don’t have a backup prior to the problem, you are kind of screwed. If there’s some data corruption, backing up will only preserve it. But go ahead anyway, then reset your arranger to its original stock condition, don’t load in your backup, and see if the problem is still appearing with only the factory resources loaded. My bet is it will probably still happen, especially if the problem happens even if you don’t load in your custom stuff (you HAVE tried to boot up without loading custom resources, right?), but it’s a necessary step for troubleshooting.

Next step is possibly loading in a completely fresh OS (download a new copy directly from Korg, just in case your old installer has a corruption) and testing again.

If you still have an issue after all that, my bet would be a hardware issue, and that means a trip to the local Korg repair location.

================================

My response

I don’t have a backup, but another friend in the post also recommended I call Music Gear (Lebanon) to get that from them. Will try my luck on that..

I haven’t reset the arranger but I will reset it regardless.

So, I took it to a local repair shop and he replaced the main board, truly. I do trust he did that because the owner is a good person, excellent reviews, locally.

Problem recurred 15 minutes after I brought it home. What’s odd is that I tried it at the repair shop for 10 minutes, I couldn’t reproduce the problem. Here’s the video of the bug.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/gk53hxdv6hi94 ... 0.MOV?dl=0

Occurs when I play the arranger for 10 or so minutes, then I stop abruptly. You can hear the normal arranger audio decay artifacts (cymbal etc..) then that audio goes to zero and meantime the HF feedback, what resembles the high pitch key of “A” is very present. If you check the video in the link, you can hear it clearly (sorry for the stupid music..

)

As for loading a new OS, I will try that too by asking Music Gear (MG).

Question I have about the audio distribution:

Could this be an Audio Board issue?

I looked for the anatomy of this 4x (I will ask the repair person too) but isn't the Audio Outs (Outs 1/2 and L/R) managed separate from the mainboard? I am thinking yes but I dont know as I am just guessing.

Thank you for the recommendation..

Stan.

FlatStanley · Post by **FlatStanley** » Thu Jun 03, 2021 1:21 am

fResH_ wrote:Contact your supplier, music gear or what they are called. ask for the Operating System and Musical Resources and reinstall everything.

I stopped using their products, due to lack of support and went back to regular pa serie. But their package is great for middle east music.

Thank you Matthew, I will do that. There's a Gentleman there by the name of Elie Saade, I will call him hopefully he can give me some guidance.

I got this Keyboard from a friend who's a professional player and was using it that weekend I pick it up from, it was working perfect. It worked for me since Christmas, my own Christmas gift to myself..

I am so disappointed but heck, I will continue to drill.

Thanks again..

fResH_ · Post by **fResH_** » Thu Jun 03, 2021 12:54 pm

I saw your video post..

Questions,

does this happend to the internal western styles made by KORG aswell?

Are you playing the stock styles from MG and this problem starts?

Have you tried muting all channels and try playing and stopping with only DRUM, and then only PERC.. This is only to see if it comes from any samples in this category.

Does pressing shift + start/stop help muting this beeping sound? If not does it help to change to Sound mode and then back to style play mode?

Most interesting is to know if this also happens to the KORG western styles like it does to the MG styles.

My first recomendation before going further with soundcard replacement or whatsoever is to get in contact with MG Elie Saade or Jack Syriani.

Korghelper · Post by **Korghelper** » Tue Jun 08, 2021 4:31 am

It worked fine at the repair place, you got it home and the problem started again…

So, two questions.

After you got it home, did you load any data? If not…

Have you had your house’s wiring checked professionally lately? Is your house grounded correctly, do you have any voltage issues?

Have you tried disconnecting from the power altogether and running for a few minutes from an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) computer backup system? The PA4X doesn’t draw so much power that this should be a problem for a decent UPS.

It’s a long shot, but if you had no problems at the store, didn’t load any data and then had problems at home, I wonder what else it could be…