G4 OS9 options for SMDI file transfers for Akai 612

[part12studios]

Hi everyone,

I'm using a G4 with Digital Performer 3 and I own an Akai S612. I don't have the floppy drive system for the S612 and would rather not due to size of the drive (2u space) and rarity of the media.. so a buddy of mine has sample wrench for pc which does the trick, but i figured maybe there were some programs of the PPC generation that could do this as well?

I don't have Peak (yet) but wonder if it or other programs were able to do this kind of function. I do have Unisyn 1.5 but it doesn't directly support the S612, but maybe it has a generic SMDI feature? Studio's in a bit of disarray as I'm remodeling/restructuring it but I had this question and wanted to post it to see what I might want to hunt for while I'm not in there rewiring everything

Thanks!
Caleb

[geforceg4]

i also have an s612 + a g4 with dp3....also with no disk drive unit;)
so i will be watching this thread

[DieHard]

There is an "Eprom" OS Update 1.3e for that unit that may extend it's data saving capabilities...

interface for tapedump of the sample data (instead of saving to disk)

Don't know if you can track down the updated Eprom, but here is some info:
http://fa.utfs.org/diy/akai_s612/update.html

Lastly, here's a guy that also uses SAMPLE WRENCH (PC Based) via Bootcamp, but you need an Intel Mac

https://jimatwood.wordpress.com/2014/07/26/akai-s612-vintage-sampler-review/

[DieHard]

There are ways to load and save samples using SYSEX now that don't require an Atari ST (or an ST emulator)

So emagic Sound Diver on a Mac may actually do it But, don't ask me how
http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,1016.0.html

Maybe you can email the SAMPLE WRENCH author for the commands

UPDATE:  Think here is all the hEX Strings you need
http://www.wiseguysynth.com/larry/s-612/s-612.htm

[part12studios]

yea i'll have to try that out.  i know that Unisyn has a fixed list of supported devices.. which is why i question if it would work, but yea this would be good.

i have pcs and intel macs.. but in my music studio i'm trying to have it be only the OS9 computer for all musical / midi needs..     will keep searching and i will try that program out once i get things hooked up. 

[Metrophage]

I used to have an S612 but had to sell it a while back. IIRC it had really rudimentary I/O and no SCSI. But I did experiment a bit with MSD which did work. Transferring banks via MIDI sample dump on a later polyphonic sampler can be grueling tedium, but since the S612 has little memory, it is not too bad. I used the info from the wiseguysynth page DieHard posted to make a Max patch long ago, but I lost it with my old system.

I did also pursue that v1.3e ROM, but besides being rare, it also includes hardware mods. So one apparently can't just download it from the net. The guy who developed it is not interested in circulating his mods for free or DIY use.

The S612 is a fun box for hands-on sound mangling. I still have a broken one which I might fix someday if I ever get the time. And maybe add CV summers so I can externally modulate the loop slider controls. It does have a lot of potential for mods, but its build is as such that one really does have to completely disassemble it to properly access the good stuff. One of the easiest tricks is using the 13-pin DIN plug on the back to break out the separate voices. Wish I had more time to play with the working unit.

[part12studios]

I happen to own an Amiga 1200 which does have sample wrench for it as well (amiga, pc and no mac version?)..  so that might be something i could try, but i really don't want to rely on the amiga to do this if i can find an OS9 solution and keep all my recordings / samples on the same system.  The amiga is treated as a MIDI instrument..  as it can be an 8 bit sampler..  8bit soft synth or 8-bit real time effects processor..

Also though I came across a classic program i'd forgotten about in my forum surfing on this subject..  recycle!  http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/recycle-20 which i hear has good hardware sampler support as well and this is for OS9..  and it's ability to slice up samples could be handy too. 

@Metrophage yes you are right.. no scsi.. it had an optional quick disk drive.  my buddy was willing to give me his, but honestly given how hard it is to find the media.. and the fact that the drive takes 2U rack spaces.. just not worth it when i could do it over midi.. and yes it would be slow on bigger recordings but seeing it has a max memory of 128kb.. that's bearable..      Also if you needed more motivation to fix up the broken 612 you have..  a guy out there is working on a mod chip you can install (takes some soldering) but it basically opens up a bunch of the parameters to be fully MIDI CC controllable.  I'm not ready to take mine to that level..  i'm also not familiar with CV Summers.. some quick googling showed me a little about it but not much..   this is the chip i was talking about..  some samples in there..  https://www.gearslutz.com/board/electronic-music-instruments-electronic-music-production/1079521-prototype-akai-s612-midi-front-panel-animator.html

[part12studios]

First question would be just see if anyone knows a good program that would work under OS9 to do this.

The second question would be insuring a solution would work with my MOTU setup for MIDI.   I have a Midi Time Piece AV and MIDI Express each over USB for midi and a 2408 mk2 for audio..  so i need to figure out how to send / receive sysex sds dumps from a particular dedicated out / in port from one of those devices. 

[GaryN]

Didn't you just recently try to sort this out on the Forum? Nothing discussed there worked? D-sound Pro?

[part12studios]

yea that's me.  i saw hardware sampler section and thought maybe it might catch new eyes.  So D-Sound installed but it's needing OMS so I'm going to have to figure that out.  The software seems so old that it doesn't recognize USB.. maybe OMS will fix that.  the software is talking printer ports and clock speeds which I get but my MIDI interfaces are USB and my quicksilver doesn't have any printer / serial ports on it so I'm not sure this software will do the trick.  I'm going to get OMS installed though and dig deeper..

I ran into this problem with my Peavey SP editor.  However IIRC, it too had an OMS version so maybe this is a vital part of the usb midi bridge for this kind of software. 

[part12studios]

OK so I installed OMS and (to those who know I'm sure they are not surprised) it seems that OMS still only wants to talk to serial / printer ports, not USB.  Maybe there is a USB capable version that would see it?

Freemidi saw OMS installed and so did D-Sound but they still don't see the MIDIExpress and MTP AV. 

[GaryN]

If you launch OMS Studio setup and search with both the modem and printer boxes UNchecked, it should find your interfaces.
That is assuming you have OMS 2.3.8 and you used the OMS installer which would have installed an OMS-USB driver in your System folder.

Alternatively, I seem to recall there's a way in Freemidi setup to emulate OMS. Since you're (I assume) using Freemidi with your MOTU interfaces, that would seem to be a better idea. If D-Sound is "asking" for OMS only, maybe it pre-dates Freemidi.

See if any of that helps.

[refinery]

you need to install FreeMIDI 1.48, regardless of whether you are using OMS or FreeMIDI to communicate with it. The FM 1.48 installer will place USB MOTU drivers into your OMS folder as part of its installation. I just tested this to be sure and sure enough, it installs three drivers into the OMS folder: MOTU Device Database, MOTU OMS Driver, and MOTU USB OMS Driver.

MOTU still provides it on their website:
https://motu.com/download/download_matching_downloads.html?product_id=16

[GaryN]

you need to install FreeMIDI 1.48, regardless of whether you are using OMS or FreeMIDI to communicate with it. The FM 1.48 installer will place USB MOTU drivers into your OMS folder as part of its installation. I just tested this to be sure and sure enough, it installs three drivers into the OMS folder: MOTU Device Database, MOTU OMS Driver, and MOTU USB OMS Driver.

MOTU still provides it on their website:
https://motu.com/download/download_matching_downloads.html?product_id=16

Yeah………That's the ticket……

[part12studios]

Fantastic, I'm going to dig into this and try it out now and see how far i get.  Glad to know it is in fact possible because it's seemed like everything i do points to non usb stuff. 

[macStuff]

i also have an akai s612

[part12studios]

i don't have any news to report on this.  haven't had a lot of time to spend on it, but i haven't given up.. just lower priority because i have a working quick disk and 10 disks.  so i've been ok with that..   i also may explore the Amiga 1200 option which has a version of sample wrench that works with the S612..  or even bringing in an old windows xp pc to run the pc version of sample wrench as another option, though those both face the issue of seeing how i can route the hardware with freemidi to send / receive sysex messages.. 

I'm still just amazed that there isn't a more clearly defined mac solution for this.  if the amiga and pc had sysex options, how did mac get left out of this?  seems strange. 

[IIO]

honestly i did never understand your original question. do you need to receive the dump or is it important for you to be able to request the dump from the host computer?

in the first case this an be done with any midi software, and even in the latter case this can be done with 1 line of code from max, supercollider, the cubase mixer matrix or the logic enviroment.

[macStuff]

part12studios;
what do u mean how did the mac get left out? of course it didnt get left out;
just because you dont have the answers in your grasp doesnt mean they dont exist!

old thread:
http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php?topic=3294.0

did you ever try passport alchemy 3.0?
it says it supports s900/s950 doesnt explicitly specify the s612 but im pretty sure i remember reading that it works with s612

[part12studios]

what is MSD?  I missed this in the previous reply.  I've tried a few different programs but MSD isn't ringing a bell.