should i make the jump to a card reader?

ok heres the deal.........i have a 2kxl w/an internal zip drive that i use to take my sequences to and from school(where theres 3 2kxl's,one with both a scsi zip drive and a scsi cd drive,the second with a scsi zip drive only and the 3rd with nothing.....just the stock floppy drive).......so the usual situation is i save my sequence at home,take it to school and add keys with all the vintage boards there,save that and take it home to track out/add eq.....whatever needs to be done

so with all that said ,i've been hearing the card reader is leaps and biounds above any scsi drive and the zip is unreliable at times,mine hasnt $hit on me yet but i want to make a change before it does.........so what i'm asking is,would it be smart for me to jump to the cf or am i cool with the zip?how about a cd drive?would that be better than a card reader?

Definitely switch to card reader.
From zip drive it's even easier than from floppy,so go for it.
By the way - nice school you've got there, with 3 mp's...damn!

i've been using zips forever for my 2000xl. i think i'm ready to go to card reader as well. once i get my 500, i will def want the card reader for the 2000xl so i can go back and forth with stuff. i'm just worried about all my old stuff on the zip disks, i guess i should find a scsi zip drive so i can transfer all my old stuff to cards....

CF cards are so cheap now too....

what school you go to?

[quote="peyote"]once i get my 500, i will def want the card reader for the 2000xl so i can go back and forth with stuff.[quote]

Do you mean back and forth between the 500 and 2000XL with the same CF card?
I have both and I couldn't get the 500 to read the 2000XL's card, I think they format differently.
So I just use my Mac with an ext. USB card reader, and a 128Mb transfer card, to bring programs from 2KXL to 500.

enotide wrote:
Do you mean back and forth between the 500 and 2000XL with the same CF card?
I have both and I couldn't get the 500 to read the 2000XL's card, I think they format differently.
So I just use my Mac with an ext. USB card reader, and a 128Mb transfer card, to bring programs from 2KXL to 500.

hmmm i guess that kinda makes sense. zip disks are similar. i have a special zip disk that i formatted on the windows 98 format, and that is the only zip disk that can be read by windowsXP, osx, and the 2000XL

maybe the same thing can be done with CF cards...

Mike Dugan wrote:what school you go to?

i go to hcc town & country in houston tx,majoring in audio production and audio engineering

harlej wrote:Definitely switch to card reader.
From zip drive it's even easier than from floppy,so go for it.
By the way - nice school you've got there, with 3 mp's...damn!

so youre saying i should go for it but how would that work with the mp's at my school seeing as none of them have card readers?how difficult is it to transfer files from the cf to a zip?

does anybody have a link to these card readers you are talking about, presumably they would have to be scsi???

many thanks

Hmmm ....

I wouldn't go to a card reader if you don't have to.
I use zips and I am fine.
My PC has a built in Zip drive, so I back up my files there. Easy to transfer. Can burn to CD or even download to a CF if I need to.

If there is no pressing need to move, then don't move. Technology changes every month. If you try to keep up with every technological change, you will spend all your time doing that instead of making music.

Speaking of which, Jermain Dupri still uses an MPC60 with Floppy Disks !

peyote wrote:i have a special zip disk that i formatted on the windows 98 format, and that is the only zip disk that can be read by windowsXP, osx, and the 2000XL. maybe the same thing can be done with CF cards...

Take ANY zip and/or cf card and format in xp w/ fat/fat 16, your windows xp computer AND 2kxl will be able to read that disc. It's not special. On that disc stick with filenames 8 characters or less and you'll be fine, heed the 8 chracter warning though.

I don't have any problem going from 2KXL to OSX and back, or 500 to OSX. It's just between 500 and the 2KXL, I don't know how to format so they can both read the same CF card.

enotide wrote:I don't have any problem going from 2KXL to OSX and back, or 500 to OSX. It's just between 500 and the 2KXL, I don't know how to format so they can both read the same CF card.

I've had nothing but problems transferring files to my 2kxl from OSX. When I do it, I can't get back out of folders once I have opened them up. What version of OSX are you using and how are you formatting your cards?

Mrock wrote:

enotide wrote:I don't have any problem going from 2KXL to OSX and back, or 500 to OSX. It's just between 500 and the 2KXL, I don't know how to format so they can both read the same CF card.

I've had nothing but problems transferring files to my 2kxl from OSX. When I do it, I can't get back out of folders once I have opened them up. What version of OSX are you using and how are you formatting your cards?

as is stated above once my me and then again more clearly, i think you need for format in old school fat format. i think osx can do that but i forget

I transfer mine no problem got a MCD and using OSX 10.4 and no problems.

Damn. I got a classic white with MCD installed and OSX 10.4.8. It bugs out all the time unless I transfer files in XP. Oh well, thanks anyway.

Peace