Emax

The big challenge for most Emax users will be to get hands on Sound 
Designer for Emax. As far as I know it's not downloadable anywhere, 
and if I understand it well the software uses a strange "copyright" 
lock: a copied version of the software can not be used because the 
software looks for its original disk (I have no idea if this was a 
commonly known Mac security feature...). As a result, to copy the 
software the whole disk must be copied as a disk image. 

I'm even wondering if SD for Emax 1.12 was the last version ever 
released ? Perhaps Digidesign released a higher version which did not 
require this "hack" of the Emax OS anymore ?? 
I can not imagine that Emu and Digidesign did not cooperate on this: 
Emu should have informed Digidesign that they would stop their 
numbering method with rev 3.2 and restart numbering again at 1.0 but 
with OS indicators added such as "SE" or "Plus". I guess Emax SE 1.0 
is the same as the intended Emax Software Rev 4.0, the one Digidesign 
was actually waiting for... 

Anyway: SD for Emax is checking the Emax OS version by sending a 
SYSEX MIDI message(request to send misc. info) to the Emax. One of 
the return values is a 16 byte string containing a description of the 
Emax OS. This is not the string in the Eprom, but the one saved on 
the disk. By simply replacing this 16 byte string in the OS binary 
(e.g. the OS file produced by EMXP) and copying the updated OS back 
to the floppy disk, the hack is fully operational. It's as simple as 
that. For my Emax I replaced the string "Emax Plus rev1.0" by "Emax 
Plus rev4.0". That's all...

///E-Synthesist 


--- In emax@...m, "Dave Sotnick" <sotnickd@...> wrote:
>
> This is awesome! I had always wondered about that rev 4.0 
restriction
> in Sound Designer. What an elegant way to hack around it, and who 
knew
> it would actually work by changing the ASCII version number string 
in
> the Emax OS EPROM.
> 
> Bravo!
> 
> -Dave
> 
> On Sun, Nov 16, 2008 at 2:04 PM, esynthesist <esynthesist@...> 
wrote:
> > *Newsflash*
> >
> > Today I managed to transfer banks between my Mac Classic and my 
Emax
> > Plus with Sound Designer for Emax 1.12.
> > I just had to hack the Emax OS a little bit :-)
> >
> > *More information*
> >
> > Just like Sound Designer for Emulator II, the SD for Emax 1.12
> > software has a special menu item for sending and receiving 
complete
> > banks via RS422.
> > But... it didn't work until now because Digidesign hardcoded
> > a "version revision" test of the Emax operating system.
> > According to SD for Emax you must have a "rev 4.0 or higher" to be
> > able to use these features. And as we all know, none of the Emax 
OS
> > have this high rev. number.
> > (Well, the software seems to accept the Emax II OS 2.14, but
> > unfortunately the Emax II OS doesn't support the bank load/unload
> > feature)
> >
> > Emu did however add support for fast bank transfer in some of the
> > available OS versions.
> > So I thought: let's hack the OS and increase the revision number 
in
> > it...
> > So I created an Emax Plus OS rev 4.0 :-) and guess what:
> > SoundDesigner for Emax accepts this hacked version as a 4.0 one !
> > ...and moreover the transfer function works 100% !
> >
> > The total transfer time for loading banks from Mac to Emax takes 
25
> > seconds. The opposite direction takes about 40 seconds, which is a
> > bit slow but fortunately this transfer direction is not that
> > interesting...
> >
> > This feature is a perfect alternative for people owning an Emax
> > without SCSI, especially the Emax with rev1 boards.
> >
> > One important note however: this "hack" does not work on all Emax 
OS
> > versions.
> > To be more accurate: although Sound Designer accepts ALL hacked 
Emax
> > OS versions as a "4.0 or higher", some of these Emax OS simply do 
not
> > support bank transfers.
> > Following versions succeeded in my tests:
> > - Emax SE 1.1
> > - Emax HD SE 1.1
> > - Emax Plus 1.0
> > But the other ones do not support the fast bank transfer option:
> > - Emax 3.2
> > - Emax HD 1.1
> >
> > I guess this is not a big problem, because as far as I know one or
> > more of the "OK" versions can also be used on "non OK" Emax 
samplers,
> > right ?
> > E.g. I think it's possible to run the Emax SE 1.1 on a basic non-
SE
> > Emax, right ?
> >
> > It's strange though that the Emax 3.2 does not support the bank
> > transfer option, since Emulatorarchive mentions that this version
> > added OMI CDROM support and I assume that these CD drives used the
> > very same bank transfer method...
> >
> > Conclusion:
> > I you have an old Mac (Classic, Classic II), Sound Designer for 
Emax
> > 1.12 (hard to find, see message 3741) and an appropriate cable 
(see
> > Emulatorarchive), you can transfer banks between the Emax and the 
Mac
> > if your Emax accepts the SE, HD SE or Plus OS.
> > All you need is a hacked version of the OS, which I can put 
somewhere
> > in the files section if people are interested.
> >
> > ///E-Synthesist
> >
> >
>