Emax

Jammie,

I have a DSS1 too and I'm using *used* floppy disks which had been 
formatted for DOS before. So far I have had no problems at all with 
re-using them on a DSS1...

One day I hope to support the DSS1 also in EMXP, but I haven't 
started any reverse engineering or analysis yet.
Your suggestion to use the normal MIDI ports instead of fast RS422 is 
only feasible for small chunks of data. I unloaded a sample of 150000 
bytes once via normal MIDI SDS data dump at 31.25 kbaud from the Emax-
II: it felt like it took hours ! Moreover the bank load/unload 
protocol on the Emax only works via RS422, not with normal MIDI. Even 
if it would work, it would take at least 3-4 minutes to transfer 
banks in that way.

I was also thinking about your suggestion to take an Apple 
communication board and add USB support to it. But that probably 
sounds much easier than it is... perhaps an idea for the hardware 
guys among us ?

I also agree with your remark that creativity increases with 
decreasing sampler memory. I'm still surprised about my DSS1 and the 
sound disks supplied with it. It's amazing how many different 
sounds/presets are fitted into one 256K system. Even the Emax library 
is not "that memory efficient".


///E-Synthesist

--- In emax@yahoogroups.com, "jammie.emma" <jammie.emma@...> wrote:
>
> --- In emax@yahoogroups.com, "Niklas Noren" <niklas627@> wrote:
> > it is great that someone is spending there hard time making 
software
> for us to use its a pity that there is not a program like this for 
the
> korg dss1 but i have to deal with a dos program to make images of
> disks ive created and only then you have to have blank non formatted
> dd disks for it to write the image to which are getting impossible 
to
> get most are formatted to ms dos or windows format 
> 
> at least emxp works with the xp o.s. 
> 
>  a good program that i found for dumping samples to the older 
samplers
>  is sample wrench xe it works very fast 
>  i make single cycle waves with various mathematical programs for 
>  making waves then i use these as oscillators and use the synth  
>  section to make the waves sound like old analogs you can get loads 
of
> these multi sample single cycles on 1 disk they make fat 
basses /pads
> strings and by layering you can get very fat lush sounds for vary
> little sample memory 
> 
> i developed this style of sampling because i used the mirage and the
> dss1 which have 64k 8bit memory for the mirage and only 256k 12bit 
for
> the dss1 emax1 memory is double of that of these instruments and is
> compressed to 8bits.
> 
> i find you are more creative with less memory because it makes you a
> better programmer of patches i find today's soft samplers have no
> character because some one records the hole performance of the sound
> and its replayed as is no performance by the player .
> 
> cant you do bank dumps just by midi it would be cheaper and the
> interfaces are cheap and with your program skills you could write a
> utility to perform it then you would not have to bother with the rs
> interface .
> 
> or you might be better off getting an old mac one and putting an usb
> interface to that card atleast it will have the external clock 
> does any one know what chips are used for the mac one i could
> prototype one if you want to write the software for it as long as i
> can get the schematics for the ic of the mac interface.
> 
> jammie
> 
> does any one want the matrix 12 15 type filter switch for there 
emax 
> i have some prototype boards working with a mirage it sounds sweet
> havind band stop and notch filters at your disposal it still uses 
the
> same filter modulations of the original filter ic but uses a 
resister
> network and a s+hold multiplexer to switch between different filter
> responces the circuit works with any low pass filter 4 pole filter 
> the switching of the multiplex is done by voltage control
> potentiometer and an led to tell you what filter response its on  
>   
> > It's great to se that emxp still developing.
> > 
> > But there are 2 things that I would love to see in future 
versions of 
> > emxp.
> > 
> > 1) sf2 conversion to emax format.
> > 2) emxp develop to be an eos-link version to emax.
> > 
> > cheers/
> > niklas
> > 
> > 
> > --- In emax@yahoogroups.com, "esynthesist" <esynthesist@> wrote:
> > >
> > > Something I forgot to say: the newest version of EMXP supports 
the 
> > > Sound Designer for Emax file format now (version 2.06).
> > > But you still have to copy the files between your PC and your 
Mac 
> > in 
> > > order to transfer the banks to or from the Emax, just like with 
the 
> > > Sound Designer for EII files.
> > > 
> > > FYI: 
> > > 
> > > 1/ Sound Designer for Emax files are almost the same as EMX 
files, 
> > > but they contain additional bytes. EMXP allows direct copy 
between 
> > > EMX (.EMX), Sound Designer for Emax (.EMS), Emax Banks (.EB1) 
and 
> > > Emax floppy disks. But all other conversions are also possible 
in 
> > an 
> > > indirect way by using the .EB1 file as an intermediary.
> > > 
> > > 2/ One interesting technical note: Sound Designer for Emax 
files 
> > also 
> > > contain 8 bytes from the operating system part of the Emax 
memory. 
> > > This due to the communication protocol which requires data 
packet 
> > > sizes of 120 bytes and which results in "having to transfer" 8 
> > > additional bytes which do not belong to the sound bank itself. 
> > > Unfortunately these 8 bytes differ between the OS versions. I 
did 
> > > some tests though and it seems that the Emax doesn't care about 
> > these 
> > > bytes... So EMXP is filling them with blanks. I assume this is 
OK 
> > > since Digidesign must have the same problem if they wanted the 
> > saved 
> > > banks to be portable across many Emax versions. Anyway, if in 
the 
> > > future some instabilities may occur on the Emax, I will add an 
> > option 
> > > in EMXP which can replace the 8 bytes by the ones which belong 
to 
> > > your Emax OS. 
> > > 
> > > 3/ On the EMXP website (http://users.skynet.be/emxp) you can 
also 
> > > download the modified emax operating systems which make bank 
> > transfer 
> > > between the Mac and the Emax possible. Use is at own risk (but 
it 
> > > works fine in my setup).
> > > 
> > > 4/ I'm wondering how many Emax users actually have a copy of 
Sound 
> > > Designer for Emax. Perhaps Wayne and I are the only ones :-)
> > > 
> > > Have fun.
> > > 
> > > ///E-Synthesist
> > >
> >
>