The Key

G above middle C was not working and I though I must have some dirt under a contact on my DMC-122, so I cleaned and cleaned, tested the key again, cleaned under the contacts... and there's a broken diode on the other side of the G. The G above middle C! ARRGHGHGHGH This is just a standard Fatar TP 8SK, different only from what's on most other boards because there's an aftertouch strip (and I think most other boards include that). I'm going to go to a fixit guy first, but I'm trying to figure out whether or not I can potentially buy a new keybed if this becomes a bigger problem. This thing has been subject to some power variability and some pine needles/dirt and dripping from a leaky roof. Fatar doesn't sell specific keybeds directly, it seems. Are there any MIDI controllers that use the TP 8SK that I could cannibalize? Welcome your thoughts

Did you adjust the aftertouch in the DMC editor, Mitch?

Yeah, similar feelings over here. At least some of the time. I still love the sounds enough to put up with it. I'm not arguing that the NanoKontrol would be a moderately cheap and easy solution, but it'd be even easier for Crumar just to make this available in an update.

Yeah, that's what they say, but if the Mojo is going to be a simple 'do everything' board it doesn't make a lot of sense to say 'oh, also stick a NanoKontrol on there.' The drawbars are just hanging out in EP mode.

I have the DMC-122 and a Mojo 61. I LOVE the sounds on the Gemini. Crumar's physical modeling tends to get a lot more of an instrument's idiosyncracies than the ROMpler sounds. Advantages of the DMC-122/Gemini: - Does just about every sound you can think of. You can't crowdsource sounds like you can on the Nord, so there's one or two missing--no Hohner Pianet for example--but it goes DEEP. Horns, string machines, synth, clav, 8 Rhodes, Wurly, 2 80s EPs, Mellotrons, 2 modeled pianos and a lot more samples - Once you figure out your Setups, it's very satisfying to design the board the way you want, and there's so much room to add Setups. I have 7 presets per Setup and use 3 Setups which means I have 21 presets ready--and there's something like 10 Setups possible after the built-in VB-3 & root one. So I could get up to 70 presets, and tailor different effects to each Setup. Changing Setups is super-easy too--just F1/F2 + EXIT to go up and down - The synth is killer. It's very Prophet-like, poly/mono/uni 3 oscillators, 2 LFOs, 2 filters and has fantastic range and a good 50-something parameters total. - People give it flack for the acoustic pianos, but those aren't really a problem anymore. The new APs, Venice Grand & Venice Grand Open, are really good. - You won't really ever need 2 boards again. You can split or play 20-DB Hammond depending on the song. Disadvantages: - There is SO MUCH homework. I made a giant playlist of my process of testing out every sound and building Setups: - The action is not great for playing organ, or clav for that matter. It's a bit mushy, like a Nord. Not Hammond, not piano, just somewhere in between. If I could get a junker Mojo XT with the new keybed intact, I'd try to drop it in. - There's still not quite enough to get everything on board that you might want. I have trouble finding nine synth parameters only to put on the upper board. I wish GSI/Crumar would put the effects and oscillators in their editor on toggle switches so you could hit a button and switch between 2 oscillators or 2 effects, for instance, and then use the same drawbars for osc waves or speed/depth. - This isn't really a disadvantage, but you may want to get an external arpeggiator/sequencer for the synth as it's pretty much just there for pads and leads. - Crumar, for no reason I can figure out, didn't make STORE assignable in the Gemini. When you make changes to something you want to save as a preset, you have to fire up the web editor. This means you pretty much have to soundcheck and keep the web editor open during a show to adjust onboard EQ and other parameters. Advantages of the Mojo 61: - The action is killer. It's super-springy and just made for percussive hits and even my shitty playing flies across it - Unless you use presets, the drawbars are where they are when you switch back and forth between instruments. You don't have to remember where you put the drawbars for presets. - It's super-basic, but that can be a really good thing. I am playing in a surf rock band, and I pretty much only ever need Farfisa and B3, and so I just pop back and forth between the two. If I had, f'rex, a Stage or Electro with a heavier action for pianos, I'd use the 61 as a bonus board & leave it in B3 mode. - Once you edit all your deeper parameters, you can save them as a Snapshot in the web editor. Disadvantages of 61: - The EPs are killer, best I've heard, but there's no functionality to them except in the online editor. On my DMC I assign clav pickup switches & speed/depth for effects to the drawbars. There is no reason for Crumar not to have done this, but they didn't. You can't switch modeled amps or types of Rhodes without the online editor & you can't assign parameters to the drawbars onboard .- The B3 presets are weird. You had to hit the "Hold" key to manipulate the drawbars once they're set. - Switching between effects is annoying because you have to hold down one of two buttons to page between them. - I think 90% of Mojo users won't have any use for the pipe organ. They should give you the option to overwrite it with the Gemini synth with oscillators & filters assigned to the drawbars, the way they are on the DMC/Gemini. If I had a big stack of money, I might get an external Gemini module as well and use it as the controller both for the 61 and a weighted/semi-weighted board to get better action on both with the Gemini's full range of sounds. I hope that Crumar reskins the Mojo Classic Desktop as the Gemini eventually, the way the DMC is a reskinned Mojo XT. TL;DR - the DMC will do just about anything if you can put up with the homework and the action, the Mojo will do very little but do it well. Also, Crumar just needs to hire some software engineers to make their front-end as good as their sounds.

Can anyone explain what's different about the Mojo 61 keyboard from a standard Fatar? I played the Mojo with one hand and the DMC-122 with the other and the Mojo is WAY springier. Way more fun to play. The keys just bounce right back. I've heard that Crumar modified the Fatar keybeds (juicier springs) or switched to Doepfer's organ-focused keybeds.

Yeah, add me to the people saying that this doesn't make a lot of sense. The drawbars are just sitting there unused in EP mode. The appeal of the 61 is that it's one lightweight board good for playing live; why leave off such an obvious advantage and have people hook up an external module? Crumar should just do a simple update. Clav pickup controls and speed/depth for effects on drawbars 1-6.

I just got (on quarantine temporary insanity, actually) the reverse-key black edition of the 61. I own a DMC-122/Gemini combo and love it. The sounds are incredible. But I wanted something more portable for gigging out if that ever becomes a thing again! A lot of people here have talked about using the drawbars or an external MIDI controller to control parameters like the clav pickup settings, or the depth and speed of the effects. I thought this was going to be just as simple as it is on the DMC-122. With that, you just assign numbers in the MIDI map to whatever the drawbars are already assigned to. So according to the MIDI numbers in the manual, I assigned the clav pickup settings to 12 and 13, the first two drawbars, and the speed and depth of effects 1 & 2 to 16-20, the last four drawbars. They're having no effect at all, and I'm wondering what I'm missing. I'd be super-bummed if this isn't possible, because on a monotimbral board, those drawbars are just hanging out doing nothing in EP mode. Another question: has anyone downloaded the Venice Grand to replace the onboard piano on the 61?