Message
Re: CZ5000 Sequence Data
2017-01-18 by smw-mail@...
Here's what I did:
Audio program test:
1. Using the MT cable I connected the red to the audio in and the black into the headphones out.
2. I dumped A/B and C/D to an audio recording program.
3. I played them back from the audio program and successfully verified them.
I saved the file as a MS wav file. I had to trim the beginning of the recording so the file started with the header tone.
wav2cas & Play Cas tests:
1. I booted wav2cas and opened the wav file.
---The data did not look recognizable as midi data; not sure if breaking it down to 7-bit nybbles would help.
---The program said the data was bad; probably because it was expecting TRS-80 or similar data.
2. I saved each of 2 preset "files" from wav2cas as cas files.
3, I booted Play Cas and successfully verified the banks.
Assuming this will work with sequences, what do these tests mean for the task of getting CZ MT sequencer dumps from cassette to midi?
1. You can play the tape into a sound card and save it as a wav file to send to someone with a CZ-5000 to play into a sequencer as midi data to be saved as a standard midi file (or any other format that your sequencer can use). Variations: you can upload the wav file, e-mail it, put it on a flashdrive, CD-ROM, etc.
2. You can load the wav file into wav2cas and save each file [dataset] as a cas file which someone can play into a CZ-5000, etc. etc.
3. You can try to figure out how to convert the data which the utilities show into a standard midi file.
I still recommend (1) or (2). Using the cas utilities might have some advantages over a wav file. The wav2cas program seems to do some analysis of the audio and might (not sure) stabilize it before converting it to cas. Also, if you wav file has several data sets, you can save (and name) each data set.
If you have a zillion files that would take 10-20 years to play into a sequencer using the realtime playback method, it might be worth the time to automate the MT data to midi data conversion with a program that will do the work.
I will play some notes into the sequencer and try the same process. If it doesn't work the way the patch banks did, I will report that.
I hope this helps.