the Akai sampler thread

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I just hit up an s2000 thread like 5 times today - figured I 'd just start a thread for Akai owners.

hooked up my S5000 to my PC w/ an Adaptec ATA-2940 SCSI card.
Flip on my sampler and it finds the internal hard drive without a problem.
flip on my pc. hit Ctrl+A and enter the SCSI config screen. I enter the SCSI utilities menu and it scans for SCSI devices. Finds the ATA-2940 SCSI at device #7 and nothing else.
scan for new drives from the S5000 and POW! it crashes.
reboot - exit and save the SCSI config and am prompted with a "BIOS not installed!" error but lets me continue.
loads PC's BIOS.
enter XP and check devices under computer, and there's Machine_A [s5000 HardDrive] im able to play samples from the s5000 HD from the and drag and drop transfer from the S5000's HD to my PC HD. Yay! but the 5000 still doesn't see my PC's HD, so im not able to send files from the S5000 to the computer, which is mildly irritating. scan and ....CRASH!

now when I don't enter windows but have the PC on the S5000 doesn't see anything - not even the hard drive inside the s5000, and it doesn't crash. I'm thinking that's because my PC's BIOS loads after the SCSI cards BIOS, some sort of resource conflict with the devices. that or SCSI works only 1 way in a chain.

im not too put off by having to move files from the sampler to my PC from the computer, but I would like to avoid losing hours of work because of a crash. Other than the obvious answer of not scanning for disks on the S5000, anybody have an idea how to fix this?
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Abend Wrote:anybody have an idea how to fix this?

Get an Emu. Xyxthumbs Wink
youre using mesa for the transfering i guess?

make sure your scsi card drivers are all ok/update etc..

and also make sure your asapi layer is up to date too

http://www.adaptec.com/en-US/speed/softw...70_exe.htm
Wilshy Wrote:
Abend Wrote:anybody have an idea how to fix this?

Get an Emu. Xyxthumbs Wink
Lol
I use two samplers in my studio (the third one is still coming, it will be a Casio FZ-1 sampler/synth keyboard, which will replace my Kawai K4...)

So. 2 sampler now, an Akai S1000HD and an E-MU E6400 Ultra.

Im on mac, so the transfer between the the E-Mu and the Mac is simple, zip-drive in the mac (MDD), and scsi-zip on the E-Mu.

The transfer to the Akai is more funny Grin

I've a scsi card inside my mac, but I just hate it! Freezing, hard to set up...etc, you know what I mean...
...so believe or not, I still use MIDI sample dump., and save the stuffs to the Akai's HD. If I record something with the Akai, I usually route the E-Mus zip to the Akai, save the stuffs to the zip, put the disc to the Mac (IDE-ATAPI zip, not internal SCSI), and load the samples with CDXtract.

MIDI SDS, zip drives, sampling from records its fun, but SCSI, its just HORROR.

Anyway, take look to E-Mu systems facebook page, they've asked the fans about the future!

Vote for the promised USB card for the EMU Grin
hi.
You have to boot your sampler and PC simultaneously. If it doesn't work, set all the desktop SCSI settings to default, flip the 5000/6000 SCSI Termination switch to ON, and reboot both at the same time. You won't see a BIOS not installed! message if it works.
thought I'd elaborate on all this SCSI stuff, & share some other things i've found. Mainly, I got irritated with s5000/6000 user comments about the USB card and wanted to share the alternatives . All in all I spent about $40 [SCSI Card, SCSI Cable, MIDI Cable]. the only thing I can't do, is update my S5000 OS from the PC.

with a SCSI Host Adapter, SCSI cable, & an internal hard drive you can drag & drop files from the Akai to the PC and vice versa. I didn't actually install the hard drive, but I know whoever did install it used an IDE harddisk w/ a SCSI adapter. It's convienant & faster than USB , but there's a problem. A SCSI host Adapter has to be assigned a SCSI ID# from 0-7, 0 being lowest priority, 7 being highest priority on the SCSI bus. In this situation, there are two SCSI host adapters. the two hosts can't use the same ID so naturally one device will have to be assigned a lower ID# than the other. the bus is being used by two hosts to connect to the SCSI device [internal HD] Neither Host recogonizes the other. so one might think "if I give the S5000 priority over the HD, and the HD priority over the PC SCSI Host Adapter, I could access the HD from both the PC and the S5000", which is true, but again, the hosts don't recogonize each other....from the manual...



When a disk is ‘seen’ by a SCSI initiator, the disk’s directory is loaded into its RAM disk cache. The
directory (also referred to as the FAT or File Allocation Table) is where all the information about the
data stored on the disk is held. If the directory is damaged in even the slightest way, it is almost
impossible to access the data on the disk.
Under normal circumstances (i.e. a single initiator hooked up to one or more drives), any changes
you may make to data on that drive automatically update the directory in the initiator’s RAM so that
it knows about the changes and can deal with the data correctly. However, in the case where there
are two initiators sharing the same drive (as shown above), if changes are made to the disk by one
initiator, the other initiator’s directory cache is not updated and so it doesn’t have the latest and
current directory. And that’s where the problems start!


Sounds like scary shit, doesn't it?
It's not. As long as you don't move, delete, edit or modify any files on the S5000's HD while it's being shared w/ the PC there won't' be any fatal errors. Before I found this out I crashed my S5000 several times. Data & disk are fine. In fact, you can verify the drives data via the PC in the SCSI setup on bootup. JUST DON'T MODIFY THE CONTENTS OF THE DRIVE! Copy & paste instead.
The only major setback with PC->S5000 transfers is getting the sync to initiate correctly. Sometimes it takes a few tries.

I couldn't accept the idea that Midi/Sysex was incapable of controling the S5000's programs like the USB card allowed,especially after reading the s5000's limit of 1 string at a time.

http://www.dhoop.de/php/download.php?v1q...nnd8v1=875

luckily I stumbled across a device map for Cubase SX while trying to program my controller. I'm not sure if it writes all automation yet - I only installed the instrument panel and tested the control. I hope it does...

USB is a wise development. It's reliable, can pass device information & data, has none of the above mentioned risks AFAIK, can transmit MIDI...

but my sampler didn't come with one,so I improvised.

edit: thought a bit more about it at work. I think you can access programs & sounds stored in memory via USB only.
fuckin hell

i'm all chuffed because mine's reading floppy disks ok Oops
Hovver Wrote:fuckin hell

i'm all chuffed because mine's reading floppy disks ok Oops

you can get a lot of mileage out of programming an instrument /w virtually no sample time. I've got a bunch of 8-bit mono samples & Creating programs/multis with them has been pretty rewarding. I use my sampler for ripping vinyl & bouncing audio as well, and thats when the HD comes in handy.

since the first time I connected my synth to a sequencer I've been kinda hooked on all the possibilities. i couldn't find much helpful info about control w/ sysex or SCSI, but I knew if a Kenton Control Freak could control my synth with sysex, then my sequencer probably could do so also.

here's info on how to make your own SX panel.
luckily somebody had already mapped my synth & sampler.

I thought I'd share my findings so that no one else has to waste the amount of time I did reading 15-25 yr old articles about standard MIDI implementation, sysex messages in hexadecimal, or SCSI device interfacing ever again Smile
i have no experiance with the 5000 and scsi purley because of the usb card Smile

any other sampler though nightmare unlesds you have the right cables and decent cards

I have a ide zip disk for reading all my emu and akai zips

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