The Audio Aficionado Blog.

Don’t you just hate when you see a piece of gear in your studio just sitting around unused?  I recently admitted to myself that I don’t need my oxygen 8 anymore.   Instead of giving it up, and since I only paid $5o for it, I decided to try to make it into something useful.  The other day I started taking it apart to see what makes it tick and what I may be able to create using it’s parts.  While I don’t have a heavy background in electronics I do have a little experience with circuit bending.  I thought this would be a fun departure from my normal audio work.  Here are some pictures of its deconstruction.

Here you can see what it looks like with the main screws removed and most of the components still attached.

Oxygen 8 spring action keys. When pressed they put pressure on the gray rubber parts which in turn send the midi messages. Notice that the feel of the keys is simply a spring on the back of each key.

Once you remove the rubber under each key you can see that the messages are sent when the rubber is depressed and the two black dots come in contact with the circuit board. I'm assuming that they bridge the gap and send the electrical signal, but I'm curious to know how it detects velocities.

Oxygen 8 components removed and isolated.

Now that I have taken it all apart and marked where all the parts go I can begin planning what to create!  I’ve got a pretty good idea what I want to make out of it’s parts.  If you want to see what kind of contraption I build you’ll have to come back to my blog later and check out Part 2. Thanks for stopping by

BTW, I have more detailed photos of the process.  If you end up taking yours apart and can’t remember where each part connects just let me know and I’ll send you them in an email.

I’d like to say I loved this device.  When I lift my feet while I use it I can tell it would really improve my workflow!  Yes, you read that correctly.  Regretfully, the AlphaTrack has a big problem.  If any devices attached to the computer it plugs into aren’t properly grounded, or perhaps on a different circuit, then the device is rendered COMPLETELY USELESS.

I wrote Frontier and the only solutions the have are to solve the ground problems, wear an anti-static wrist band or using a laptop isolated from power. The apartments in SF aren’t grounded well, I’m not about to wear an anti-static wrist band just to mix, and I tried unplugging the laptop with no success.  Removing external drives on a different circuit isn’t what I call a solution anyway.  It’s pretty astounding they couldn’t isolate the fader and knobs from the circuit to prevent this issue.

To be fair almost everything else about this device seems great.  The way it maps to Cubase 5 is elegant and easy to use.  It even maps to plug-ins pretty well.  I’m sure you can find reviews on the web saying how great the device is.  The controls are great with one exception.  The encoders are also pretty useless.  They are WAYYYYY too finely tuned.  This means it takes about 5 full rotations to go from far left to right panning.  No, the resolution isn’t adjustable.

So in the end this great idea, with mostly great execution, is rendered unusable by a seemingly easily fixable design flaw.  I regretfully go to return it tomorrow.  Goodbye AlphaTrack.  When I wore thick soled shoes you were almost entirely a great device!

Video Demonstration of the Grounding issue below.

-Aaron Brown

December 26th, 2007

Hello Internet,

I’ve made this blog for fellow Audio Aficionados. If you can appreciate a wide variety of music this blog is for you. If you stay up late looking at the blinking lights of your audio gear instead of getting some much needed rest, this blog is definitely for you. Most importantly, if you would rather spend your hard earned cash on a new instrument than a new car then you should feel right at home!

I will be posting a variety of things sound related; Music reviews, gear reviews, being a singer/songwriter in today’s world, recording, etc. I hope to encourage fellow audio lovers to join in and learn a thing or two as well as teach me some things.   If there is one thing I know for sure it’s that there is always more to learn!  With that being said I’d like to welcome you to my blog. With all of the options you have on the internet I’m glad you are here. Thanks for coming.

-Aaron