Can the MPC X read S900/S950 Files?

Not asking for a friend...

it might be able to... but if not, one thing besides trying some kind of akai editor converter on the computer is to load the disk on another model (ie: the mpc 2000 or even maybe the s2000.. or the s20) .. load the disk and resave the SNDs on a new disk.. then load that in the computer.

Nope. It can barely read an MPC1000/5000/ or an AKP key group or drum program. It wont open anything earlier than an S5000/6000 patch, not even the old 'standard' 1000/3000 format every Akai cd came in.

Basically NOTHING translates over except for tuning and the mapping. Panning is totally **** usually and you'll find your patches all the way on the left or right heh. No filter/envelope anything else goes over, even though its the EXACT SAME specs as the MPC5000 sampler heh. Youre better off starting from scratch with the raw sample. I gave up with my old Akai cd's a couple months back. I wiped em all and just re-ripped all of them with Translator straight into WAV files. At least the loop points are intact when they have them that way, the actual program files are useless even if you convert them over to the MPC format. Once I get my SCSI situation sorted Ill probably end up re-ripping them from CD onto my E-Mu but theyre staying out of the MPC unless its from scratch pretty much.

Monotremata wrote:Nope. It can barely read an MPC1000/5000/ or an AKP key group or drum program. It wont open anything earlier than an S5000/6000 patch, not even the old 'standard' 1000/3000 format every Akai cd came in.

Basically NOTHING translates over except for tuning and the mapping. Panning is totally **** usually and you'll find your patches all the way on the left or right heh. No filter/envelope anything else goes over, even though its the EXACT SAME specs as the MPC5000 sampler heh. Youre better off starting from scratch with the raw sample. I gave up with my old Akai cd's a couple months back. I wiped em all and just re-ripped all of them with Translator straight into WAV files. At least the loop points are intact when they have them that way, the actual program files are useless even if you convert them over to the MPC format. Once I get my SCSI situation sorted Ill probably end up re-ripping them from CD onto my E-Mu but theyre staying out of the MPC unless its from scratch pretty much.

Does Chicken Systems Translator work with the Akai S900? I'm not clear on that.

A PC can make an image file of 900/950 floppy disks. The program I used for this is OmniFlop.
The tracker software I mentioned in other threads (OpenMPT) is able to load this images. It takes just any file into the sampletab. As long as this file is an uncompressed file with audio you will get the audio out of it. But beside the audio all other data will become nasty digital noise.
You'll end up with one sample with noise before and behind the samples and need to chop it. Needless to say that all program settings from the 900/950 won't be there too. You only get the raw audio.

peace

peterpiper wrote:A PC can make an image file of 900/950 floppy disks. The program I used for this is OmniFlop.
The tracker software I mentioned in other threads (OpenMPT) is able to load this images. It takes just any file into the sampletab. As long as this file is an uncompressed file with audio you will get the audio out of it. But beside the audio all other data will become nasty digital noise.
You'll end up with one sample with noise before and behind the samples and need to chop it. Needless to say that all program settings from the 900/950 won't be there too. You only get the raw audio.

peace

Bummer...

Yeah, I’m just using the sampler mode and recording key groups off my s950 as I feel the need.

On the other hand, it’s made it far more fun to record a one shot (piano, clavinet, guitar, whatever...) and transpose/LP filter on the s950 and then record it as an instrument into the MPC Live/X. It works well, and keeps the S950 spirit alive and well.

wait.. true.. doesn't the mpc have the auto record sample thing for just that? ^^^

Fre$hBreath wrote:Does Chicken Systems Translator work with the Akai S900? I'm not clear on that.

I think the farthest back Translator goes is the S1000/3000 which is like the standard format just about every single Akai cd ever came in. Another fun thing about converting them into MPC Renaissance format in Translator is the file size of the XPM file. When you make a program from scratch in the MPC Software or the Live/X, it ONLY fills in the data for the parameters you actually modify (I think anyways). Your file size is pretty compact when its like a single key group. Translator creates each XPM file and fills out every single parameter available to it, even if the value is 0. You end up with XPM files that are almost 1MB a piece and it will make a 450MB cd in Akai 1000 format, almost 1GB in XPM format depending on the number of programs the disc has.

I wouldn't recommend Translator at all unless you can borrow a friends workstation like I can heh. Its STILL expensive as ****, still looks like it was developed for Windows 3.1, and cant really be trusted to work reliably from one session to the next. I can make it crash converting certain Akai or Kontakt cd's every time, where CDXtract and Extreme Sample Converter can convert those like a champ. Most of the options in Translators preferences make absolutely no sense to me either, but then again Im not that one that bought it so Ive never read the PDF. I just had someone convert some stuff to me and it took a whole weekend to figure out how to do it right. Any patches that DID have modulation or envelopes, we found out, you have to rip the entire disc to EXS (or Kontakt) format FIRST, and then convert it to the MPC format. Otherwise the S1000 format data gets completely ignored for some reason.

Fre$hBreath wrote:Not asking for a friend...

What happens when you try? (you have both in your signature - assume you've given it a try).

I'm curious about this too. Do you get an error? Or do the files not even show in the browser?

Eyalc wrote:

Fre$hBreath wrote:Not asking for a friend...

What happens when you try? (you have both in your signature - assume you've given it a try).

I'm curious about this too. Do you get an error? Or do the files not even show in the browser?

I have to wait until I upgrade my S900 which won't be long, I should be receiving my new GoTek floppy drive emulator today and my 1.2.c EPROM and S9V2 OS floppy Friday...

Monotremata wrote:

Fre$hBreath wrote:Does Chicken Systems Translator work with the Akai S900? I'm not clear on that.

I think the farthest back Translator goes is the S1000/3000 which is like the standard format just about every single Akai cd ever came in. Another fun thing about converting them into MPC Renaissance format in Translator is the file size of the XPM file. When you make a program from scratch in the MPC Software or the Live/X, it ONLY fills in the data for the parameters you actually modify (I think anyways). Your file size is pretty compact when its like a single key group. Translator creates each XPM file and fills out every single parameter available to it, even if the value is 0. You end up with XPM files that are almost 1MB a piece and it will make a 450MB cd in Akai 1000 format, almost 1GB in XPM format depending on the number of programs the disc has.

I wouldn't recommend Translator at all unless you can borrow a friends workstation like I can heh. Its STILL expensive as ****, still looks like it was developed for Windows 3.1, and cant really be trusted to work reliably from one session to the next. I can make it crash converting certain Akai or Kontakt cd's every time, where CDXtract and Extreme Sample Converter can convert those like a champ. Most of the options in Translators preferences make absolutely no sense to me either, but then again Im not that one that bought it so Ive never read the PDF. I just had someone convert some stuff to me and it took a whole weekend to figure out how to do it right. Any patches that DID have modulation or envelopes, we found out, you have to rip the entire disc to EXS (or Kontakt) format FIRST, and then convert it to the MPC format. Otherwise the S1000 format data gets completely ignored for some reason.

I spoke to the guy from Chicken Systems yesterday on the phone. He says a new version of Translator will be released before the end of the year that will include the S900 and S950 and he also told me that a MAC version of the ASR-X Tools will be released as well...