A digital Real-time arranger built in Italy by SIEL members (now pushing up the daisies) founding the famous ROLAND EUROPE around 1987. The machine is a kind of real-time arranger with different tracks like bass, drums, accompaniment , digital DSP FX - that, I do personally hate a LOT.
The most interesting aspect of this machine today is probably the L.A Synthesis based on famous MT-32 by Roland, still very appreciated by retrogamers. You can find a dedicated page I made some time ago, ROLAND MT32
I was really not looking for that kind of machine, but that CRAIGLIST still offers some good bargains.
I stumbled upon this PRO-E in Catania that southerns part of Sicily that I love, mainly because I spent some time helping some Kennels and
stray animals, some of the worst situation I ever seen in Italy is there.
But back to the PRO-E: the seller claimed 8 keys were not playing and some buttons were stucks.
Finally it arrived...
Stickers was set on the keys that were not playing. I did not realized these were all in a row. At the beginning a suspected of classic "cleainng under the contact strips" but I don't think the dirt is so disciplined to go under 8 notes in a row.
So I just opened it, a couple of screws under the hood, very easy operation. The upper part lift, just pay attention to 2 flats.
After a good cleaning, of course, the 8 notes did not play at all, also I tried to make contact manually and installed new contact stripes, but resistance was in OHM tolerance. It was clear that a data line was interrupted somewhere on this board. I also noticed that someone tried a repair before as the two ribbons going the the keyboard (F1 and F2) were inverted. Also some pencil on the graphite. How cute ^__^
After a long tracking with continuity multimeter, I finally found a broken track. I cannot explain what really happened, no corrosion around. Luck enough there was enough track left to make a simple solder junction. Ok now working!
Switching ON, a warning message appeared on the display that the battery needed to be changed. It's located on the central arranger mainboard (left one is for LA sound generation).
Good news: it's not soldered, bad news: the battery cannot be removed without unscrewing the main board and the card slot, since it's stuck against the PROE back side. Wow, nice one Roland! It's a standard CR2032 if you wonder.
Data were gibberish, so I had to make a reset holding WRITE while turning on.
Sound was ok, but I also had some troubles pushing the buttons, so I decided to replace the tact switches.
There are more than 80 tact switches, a hell of a job. Sometime I do wonder why I am so masochist, considering the low value of the machine :( but now it's perfect and buttons smooth!
All working now, so it's time to test all that LA synthesis sound, I do like some pad sound and very grungy drums, The compact 37 keys also is pretty nice, even if the weight is around 8kg.
(INFO the rom r15179945 - r15449121 - r15179917 the same other chips: r15239106 gate array, CPU intel p8098 + motorola mc68hc11)
GET USER MANUAL
we're looking for the service manual - schematics, if you have it, please do contact us.
Built web creator