Exchange tips and tricks for the Akai MPC4000
By thinktwice Thu Jan 19, 2006 11:06 pm
I believe that a company called "waveboy" produced effects files for the Ensoniq ASR-10 sampler in the nineties.

I understand that the MPC-4000 has some architecture similar to a PC - it takes DIMM ram for example.

Therefore, is the MPC4000 operating system based on something like C and can it be hacked ?

thanks

Richard.
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By juniorcartel Thu Jan 19, 2006 11:21 pm
fill me in when you find out

By benjamin9999 Fri Jan 20, 2006 12:04 am
i believe it is an intel cpu.

i'm not sure what's in a 60 or 3000, but the 2000 & XL are x86 chips... they use a variant by NEC called the v5x series.

i began disassembly of the 1.2 XL firmware but it would be a long process, but if it was reversed and commented, then it's probably easy to tack on a few new simple features (normalize-sample would be nice, and probably easy, for example).

that's just a 512k image (it's pretty full, there isn't much null space in it).

the 4K image is 2 Mb (i'm not sure how full) so it's even worse.

And, it's not easy to get started on the firmware image without understanding the memory layout of the machine and having first reversed the boot-rom.

the boot rom is probably easy to dump from the XL, but since the 4k it's probably more difficult.

the XL firmware could probably be made into usable code within a years time by one or two hard working people - but i think the 4k OS is probably an order of magnitude more intensive...


....

another biproduct of the work is that we would also learn the details of the samplerengine and other hardware, and with that, all the details needed to develop a true emulation of the unit.
By renegadebliss Fri Jan 20, 2006 12:08 am
thinktwice wrote:I believe that a company called "waveboy" produced effects files for the Ensoniq ASR-10 sampler in the nineties.

I understand that the MPC-4000 has some architecture similar to a PC - it takes DIMM ram for example.

Therefore, is the MPC4000 operating system based on something like C and can it be hacked ?

thanks

Richard.


The MPC 4000 uses a Intel StrongARM processor, which is what many Palm Pilot type devices use. Anyone familiar with StrongARM processors could program the MPC 4000 from scratch to do exactly what they want it to do.

My guess that the MPC 4000's OS is compiled and much harder to backwards engineering since the source code is not available. So it would be much easier to program your own MPC with it, then to hack their OS.


Check the MPC 1000 forum. You'll see that there are 2-3 alternate OS's NOT from Akai available for it. There is no reason why the same could not be done for the 4000.


The real question is does somebody who already has the know how for this type of thing, have the time and freedom to do it.

If they've got those skills, most likely they are a pretty busy person.

Cheers,

Dave
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By alpha80 Fri Jan 20, 2006 1:36 am
I have a related question.

I just bought my 4000 a week ago, very happy so far :D , and I haven't installed AkSys on my computer, due to my concern of Viruses possibly migrating to the MP thru USB...

I have no Tech knowledge, so if this question is f#@king retarded, Flame away 8) , it's fun :D :D :D

But honestly, if anyone can give me a fairly in depth description of possibilities of the 4000's v1.71 O.S. being harmed by hooking it up to a virus-infected computer for AkSys use, it would be very much appreciated.

Thanks.
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By Kalei Fri Jan 20, 2006 2:37 am
alpha: nonexistant.
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By alpha80 Fri Jan 20, 2006 2:50 am
You're telling me it's a rock-solid 100 % NO...

Totally, and completely impossible, in every way ??
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By Kalei Fri Jan 20, 2006 4:41 am
alpha80 wrote:You're telling me it's a rock-solid 100 % NO...

Totally, and completely impossible, in every way ??


No because that wasnt your question. Your question was "can the 4000 catch a virus via ak.sys." and the answer to that is NO, IT CANT.

By MaZe Fri Jan 20, 2006 5:33 am
Let me answer this question in a technical way. A virus is in its essence a malicious form of code that is dependent on altering the OS it is written for. Because this entire thread is about the code of the OS for the 4000 and the fact that no one besides Akai knows anything about it means that there arent any geeks in their studios sitting in front of their machine and thinking about coding a virus for the 4000s instead of thinking about what drum sounds to load....

Also if you are afraid that your PC will transfer a virus to your MPC, you should really get a good virus program for your PC.

Maze
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By feline1 Fri Jan 20, 2006 8:44 am
alpha, it is statisitically much more likely that your small intestine will reach up through your throat and strangle your brain.
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By Blue Haze Fri Jan 20, 2006 2:56 pm
Someone should move this to off topic or something. :arrow:

By drumtrack Fri Jan 20, 2006 3:20 pm
feline1 wrote:alpha, it is statisitically much more likely that your small intestine will reach up through your throat and strangle your brain.

If I ever see your pink ugly face, youll now where to run for!
:lol:
... seriously, do you see pussy?
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By alpha80 Fri Jan 20, 2006 9:10 pm
:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D
Thanks everyone

INFO + HUMOR =

This board is the BIZ...
By smokeme442200 Sat Apr 15, 2017 12:38 pm
Does anyone know if it is just possible to add code to the existing os?? That way I wouldn't have to worry about screwing up the original os, also I would be able to possible bybass the security check they did something very similar with the Korg Kronos hack look it up!