[linux-audio-user] Linux and hardware samplers

[Brian Redfern]

Yeah, it all depnds upon the sampler itself, my asrx pro supports import
of .wav and it uses .aiff as its native audio sample format, so when I
sample into it, and then save them onto the zip disk, they're just a bunch
of .aiff files on a dos formatter zip disk, so I can open it up on any
machine with a zip drive and any linux editor that supports .aiff
format. I use audacity both under linux and macosx to do all my work, but
the fact that the asrxpro in particular supports open formats makes my
work a lot more productive than if I were using an asr x keyboard, which
has its own proprietary sample format (and thus patent issues, etc...), my
korg electribe s also supports .aiff import, so I just use my smart media
reader to write .aiff file onto its card, but frankly at this point I
actually do my best work within csound (though of course it takes longer
to get going with), so using csound and for more manual stuff, once I
have muse working right with my sblive card, I won't have a need for the
hardware anymore (except my midi keyboard/knob-bank controller).

http://www.brianredfern.org

On Mon, 21 Apr 2003, James Greenwood wrote:

> Interesting - basically it sounds like you are able to transfer data
> relatively easily because the sampler can read a standard filesystem like
> DOS via its SCSI drive.  But it's still a two-stage process because you
> have to save files to disk, then import them from disk at the other end.
> 
> However all I can currently do is make an image of an entire drive
> (i.e. or Zip disk) for backup purposes, because the sampler uses a
> non-standard filesystem.
> 
> Reading your post gave me an idea though - my sampler has the facility to
> import data from Akai an formatted disk on the SCSI drive, so if there is
> any Linux software that can save data in this format then maybe I could
> import it into the sampler?  Having said that I doubt if there is because
> it's another proprietary filesystem, albeit a more standard one.
> 
> Does anyone know of Linux software that can save sample data in Akai
> format?  
> 
> I suppose I could consider installing a Windows partition on my PC as
> there must be plenty of Windows software that can achieve this :-(
> 
> James
> 
> Brian Redfern wrote:
> > The new roland smaplers all have direct usb connections, but it depends
> > upon whether its just treated a a standard usb storage device, or whether
> > they use some proprietary driver system, I believe its the former. But I
> > do interact with a hardware sampler all the time, I use a usb zip drive to
> > open files from my asrx pro. I still do a lot of midi work, so I use
> > rosegarden to sequence my asrx and then make up samples with various
> > programs under linux and then dump them in aiff format onto a dos
> > formatted zip disk and then sneaker-net it to the scsi zip on my asrx.
> > 
> > For better integration I'd need to add a scsi card and then I could share
> > the scsi zip with the asrx, in my sampler's manual its goes over how to
> > setup the scsi terminators properly to share the scsi between the computer
> > and the sampler, and in that case you just mount the zip drive as a dos
> > drive and copy your aiff files over.
> > 
> > In terms of software like emagic sound diver, there isn't much in the way
> > of front ends for hardware, I'm working on learning enough C to write an
> > alsa/gtk app that can work like the sound diver front end for my
> > adrenalinn stomp box.
> > 
> > http://www.brianredfern.org
> > 
> 
> -- 
> James Greenwood | jamesg at ukshells.co.uk
> 
> Work is life, and without it there's nothing but fear and insecurity
>         -- John Lennon
>