Some background history. In the early 1990s I encouraged developers on
the SGROUP mailing list to create what became known as the SAMDISK
(SDISK, SMAC, etc) utility. My intention was not to propose anything
fancy, just something to allow a track by track copy of the contents of
a floppy disk for the Roland samplers to a single file, so it could be
transferred via modem and of course the Internet. Then with software on
the user's computer, to be able to re-create that entire disk. This was
a way for someone on one side of the global to be able to share their
samples they created with others. The method until then, was to
actually mail blank floppy disks to a user on the SGROUP list, they
could make copies and postal mail them back.
SAMDISK worked fine, as their were versions created for the Mac, PC and
others. Years later, I saw somewhere on the Roland web site they had
adapted the SAMDISK format. I didn't ask for too much in the ways of
features for this utility initially because at the time Roland wasn't
releasing the file format of the disk or how the samples were
constructed either. I figured if I made my proposal too lofty, it might
not ever get done. I even called Roland to ask for info at the time,
and was told the software development was done in Japan so they didn't
even have source code to give my any pointers to pass on to developers
in terms of file formats, length and purpose of the fields.
Of course, I thought at the time it would have been nice to be able to
extract specific samples from a Roland floppy disk, and do something
with it, but what? In the early 1990s, many computers didn't have a
sound card provided at the time of purchase except for the Mac. The
concept of the Digital Audio Workstation was still very early and very
expensive. I was very surprised at how the developers on the SGROUP
took this concept and ran with it. Not only were versions created on
several platforms to do as I hoped, they took it further to be able to
actually extract a sample right from the floppy disk. I have really
only used the SMAC for the Macintosh version.
This brings us pretty much up to date. I still have my Roland S-330 in
my studio along with about 200 floppy disks in Roland S-330 format.
Many of them are samples I personally created and wish to archive them
and put them in a modern generic universal format such as WAV and/or
AIFF. Others contain samples I tweaked in some way, and some are from
the old Roland Library when I bought my Roland S-330 that you were
allowed to copy from the authorized dealer.
With 200 floopy disks, this can be a big project. I also realize that
configurations and settings unique to the Roland S-330 will be lost in
the transfer. Please, I'm not asking once again developers on the
SGROUP to create another project such as the Roland S-330 OS soft
emulator. Really, I'm not. :-)
What is the most up to date version of the SAMDISK utility regardless
of platform to use that will do the best job of extracting samples?
Mac, Windows? Which name and version software?
If I recall correctly, the SAMDISK would create an image file, then you
use the SAMDISK to open that image file and extract the samples, is
this correct? I'm asking because I figure I might as well archive the
image file. It is kind of amazing to realize that all 200 Roland sample
S-330 floppy disks will easily be able to fit on a single CD-ROM
(samples and image file), which costs less than what I paid for a
single floppy disk at the time I bought the sampler. :-)
Thanks in advance,
David A. Roth
david(a)roth-music.com
NJ/NYC
First-time poster, late to the party. A friend just gave me her old
SP-700 (maxed 32MB). I feel like an archeologist, pouring through
the SGroup archives, deciphering the cryptic manual, and playing Dr.
Frankenstein with SCSI peripherals that haven't been out of the
closet in years. While I suspect that I may have enough of the right
hardware puzzle pieces to make it all work, my question boils down
to: is it worth pursuing at all?
That is, are there any interesting sounds out there that are uniquely
available in Roland S-series format? (Unusual, weird, or otherwise
special?) If there aren't, I should prolly remain content with my
E6400 Ultra, K2500X, and the few soft sampler progs I have so far,
and just try to ignore the SP-700... right?
Bonus question: Am I right in thinking that, using the SMac utility
program (or something else?), I can make images of the several ZIP
disks of S-format samples that I got, and burn them to CD-R's that
the SP-700 will read?
Extra-bonus question: Anyone have a 600MB SCSI HD they'd like to
part with for next to nothing? (I'm in So Cal.)
Cheers,
Hoagie Hill
http://www.seamonstersounds.com
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