Akai Deep Impact troubleshooting

[iamtheelvy]

I've just recently managed to get my hands on an old Akai Deep Impact, seemingly in good working condition (lots of bartering and pedal trades involved...).It's been working fine for a couple of weeks, but has just started developing an issue where the effect is not engaging. It powers up and changes patches fine, and the On/Off switch LED lights up, but the effect itself does not kick in, and no lights happen on the Input Level monitor. Most of the time it stays in bypass, but occasionally there is just no sound. 

 

I know these are prone to glitching. Any current / previous owners have any advice on what to check? I've had a quick look under the hood and there doesn't seem to be anything loose...

[iamtheelvy]

As an update, I've tried it on an individual power supply and it seems a lot happier with that. Power supply I was using should be putting out enough, but maybe only just?

[NoirBass]

These always work best on their original PSU.

[Quatschmacher]

Still baffles me why anyone would use one of these over the far superior FI. Is it something about the lower resolution of the old oscillators that people like (like the lower resolution versions of the original DX7 and PPG Wave)?

[iamtheelvy]

37 minutes ago, Quatschmacher said:

Still baffles me why anyone would use one of these over the far superior FI. Is it something about the lower resolution of the old oscillators that people like (like the lower resolution versions of the original DX7 and PPG Wave)?

Can’t quantify it, but I’ve used the FI for quite a while. I do like it, but I like the DI tones a lot more. The option of changing preset settings just on the unit is a definite bonus too.

[Quatschmacher]

36 minutes ago, iamtheelvy said:

Can’t quantify it, but I’ve used the FI for quite a while. I do like it, but I like the DI tones a lot more. The option of changing preset settings just on the unit is a definite bonus too.

One of the design goals of the FI I was to make sure the original DI patches were preserved. I think this speaks for itself:

 

 

You can adjust preset values using the FI’s onboard controls too. And on V4 it now covers the whole parameter range (not just the coarse 0-9 of the DI and FI I and v3).

[iamtheelvy]

Fully appreciate the recreations of the DI settings on the FI, they were my main reason for buying it in the first place. However, the DI just seems easier to vibe with - less options means it's easier to be happy with a setting perhaps?

 

And by Preset, I meant the 'Preset' option on the Parameter knob, the option missing from the FI.

[Quatschmacher]

20 minutes ago, iamtheelvy said:

 

And by Preset, I meant the 'Preset' option on the Parameter knob, the option missing from the FI.

That feature is on the FI too! Press and turn the encoder to select any patch. (Clicking the encoder moves up through the banks.)

[iamtheelvy]

6 minutes ago, Quatschmacher said:

That feature is on the FI too! Press and turn the encoder to select any patch. (Clicking the encoder moves up through the banks.)

Isn't that just cycling through the banks rather than changing the preset sound that's allocated to a given patch?

[Quatschmacher]

Just now, iamtheelvy said:

Isn't that just cycling through the banks rather than changing the preset sound that's allocated to a given patch?

It cycles through all 99 presets. 
 

What exactly does that control on the DI do? Does it just cycle through the 9 stock (unmodified) presets? If so, you could easily replicate that on the FI by copying the 9 stock DI presets to a second bank.

 

(I fleshed out an implementation to copy patches directly on the pedal and hope it might get added in a future V4 update.)

[iamtheelvy]

10 minutes ago, Quatschmacher said:

It cycles through all 99 presets. 
 

What exactly does that control on the DI do? Does it just cycle through the 9 stock (unmodified) presets? If so, you could easily replicate that on the FI by copying the 9 stock DI presets to a second bank.

 

(I fleshed out an implementation to copy patches directly on the pedal and hope it might get added in a future V4 update.)

No, it selects which of the 9 preset modes is allocated to a given patch. So on the DI I have patches 1, 2 and 3 as variations of preset sound 1 which I could set to those positions by selecting the ‘Preset’ control and changing to ‘1’ then tweaking the other parameters. 
 

I think the only way to do that at the moment would be to set up the files on the computer with three of the same presets, download to the pedal and then tweak from there. If future versions can copy these directly on the unit it’d be great because it frankly makes me lose interest as soon as you have to plug into the computer to change anything.

[Quatschmacher]

7 minutes ago, iamtheelvy said:

No, it selects which of the 9 preset modes is allocated to a given patch. So on the DI I have patches 1, 2 and 3 as variations of preset sound 1 which I could set to those positions by selecting the ‘Preset’ control and changing to ‘1’ then tweaking the other parameters. 
 

I think the only way to do that at the moment would be to set up the files on the computer with three of the same presets, download to the pedal and then tweak from there. If future versions can copy these directly on the unit it’d be great because it frankly makes me lose interest as soon as you have to plug into the computer to change anything.

I can understand the reluctance to use editor software. However, it’s relatively straightforward and something you might only do once in a blue moon, by the sounds of it.