Elektron Sidstation - Manual (Page 10)

SIDSTATION
Owners Manual
10
Care instructions & important notes
To ensure many years of troublefree operation some advice about taking care of your SidStation
could be in place:
• Never use any aggressive cleaners on the casing or display. Remove dust, dirt and
fingerprints with a dry soft cloth. If needed, damp the cloth slightly with water to remove
more persistent dirt.
• Never use sharp objects near the display to avoid scratches or damage. Also avoid applying
any pressure to the display itself.
• When transporting the SidStation from one place to another please use the box within which
it was shipped (with padding) or use equivalent packaging.
About the memory
The data contained in the SidStation memory may be corrupted or lost during a repair, upgrade
or after a temporary malfunction. To be sure that your sounds (patches) are preserved in these
cases, please use the SYSEX patch dump feature to transfer the data over MIDI. No liability is
assumed for lost data by Elektron.
About noise
The SID6581 chip is designed unlike any other chip. This design has given the SidStation a
unique sound. The price to pay for this special design technology is that the noise-level
unfortunately is quite high. We have done all we can to help to keep the noise-level down, and
compared to the original Commodore 64 it is very silent. What is left is the noise generated by
the SID-chip itself. Some people find the noise level irritating, whereas others appreciate it as a
part of the unique qualities of the SID chip.
There are several different sources of noise. The most distinct source is the oscillators that
never keep totally silent, even when the envelope is done. This means that after the sound is
supposed to have died out it can still be heard in the background. Using the gated envelope will
cure this bug, but will introduce other strange SID effects (see the oscillator section for details).
Another source of noise is that the address and data bus leaks noise into the audio output. To
restrict this problem we have put the SID-chip on an isolated address/data-bus. However, we
still have to write data to the chip, so there is some noise from this source. To locate this type of
noise, pump up the volume, vary the update speed from low to high, and you should note a
slight pitch change in a part of the background noise.
For best results we recommend using a noise-gate.