@IIO
yea so it's (as i understand it) not just a straight "sysex dump" which is certainly more common. It's a protocol referred to as SDS in my experience with other programs like C6 (OSX app) and my Peavey SP. However even this (something that is supported by programs like recycle 2.0) isn't enough. The early Akai samplers had "drivers" of some sort to allow proper communication with the hardware. The S700 and S7000 are also ones that worked with programs like sample wrench. I don't know how many other Akai samplers were of this ilk, but i'm sure it wasn't long after this when they moved to 16bit samples that they also implemented SDS in a standard form.
As to the question of how it sends/receives. That's a great question. I've never got to the point of retrieving a sample from the S612 on the mac. My first goal would simply be to push a 12 bit sample from the Mac to it. Then the reverse would be next on the list. None of the programs I have tried so far got me very close to being able to try. As stated below, seems like all of the programs I have tried don't seem to allow me to talk to MOTU hardware I have. they are simpler programs that don't seem to know how to select which of the 24 MIDI IN / OUTs I have. I think maybe they assume I'm just using a serial MIDI interface with a single IN/OUT like my Amiga 1200 has.
@macStuff
true, it it's just been elusive and not widely known information. sample wrench was easy to come cross and learn about and from various s612 resources this again seemed to be the direction people have been pointing. So it just didn't seem that the OS9 solution was widely known.
Thanks for pointing to that link. there was one thing in there i missed last time. MSD? What is that? This might be the silver bullet. The only person so far i've heard who actually used something OS9 based to successfully talk to the S612.
I did try Alchemy but this is a problem i've run into before with some of these older programs. my MIDI setup is using x2 MOTU MTP (networked) and a MIDIExpress (usb). This gives me 24 MIDI IN/OUT. However these programs from what i could see didn't seem to have a way to address selecting one of these many MIDI IN/OUT ports so there doesn't seem to be a way to "see" those devices.
I admit though I've had little experience really messing with OMS and such. Using MOTU gear with Digital Performer has been nice. I've tinkered with that stuff in the past without any success. Having never seen some of this stuff work right in the first place makes for uncertainty to know how close i am to getting things to work right. can OMS non-motu hardware see the various ins and outs of MOTU hardare like this? or were they (understandably) just thinking the typical customer was using a simple hardwired MIDI IN/OUT/THRU box?
In the case of my Amiga 1200, I have a parallel MIDI interface that has no drivers, it's just an interface (1 in 1 out, 1 thru) that (most) amiga software works with just fine without any drivers or settings. I guess they just wrote to hardware and hardware knew to make their devices follow some standard. (the plug and play of a bygone era)
If I had a simple MIDI IN/OUT interface, maybe this would be more successful. Maybe I should be on the look out for another usb MIDI interface that would be specifically for non MOTU hardware. Although this kinda sucks because then i have to plug / unplug various devices to route things or invest in some pricey MIDI Solutions products splitting and merging midi to allow this. Money I'm not really looking to spend.
I'm also considering either giving the Amiga an IN and and OUT to the MOTU MIDI hardware and dusting off sample wrench and also getting an old 700mhz xp dell laptop to run sample wrench.. but this hits another issue I've not had any luck with. routing MIDI info from one non-Mac based device to another device in the MOTU midi interface independent of the mac.. like how to have the Amiga or PC's midi info know to go from itself to a particular device. The Midi Time Piece AVs are cool in that they do have some internal hardware configuration abilities because it has an actual interface (unlike the MIDIExpress which relies on software to do anything custom other than the basic modes it supports).