Messages

1

News / Re: Diskimages

« on: November 29, 2013, 12:05:50 AM »

Hello Miro,

I have a couple of Roland S-330, S-50, and now W-30 samplers.  I obviously can easily rip disk images from the W-30 using your software SMFW30.

My question is what is the best way to rip the S-330 or S-50 images for you?  Would you like me to just use SMFW30 and send them to you that way?  I'm not sure if they will get corrupted in any way.  Please advise on your preferred way of converting the S-330 disks and I'll be happy to post or send whatever you need.  I have a lot of material that is fresh and from around the net.  ( Stuff I've sampled in myself for example ).  However, I can send anything you like of course.

I have several disk that are in pairs too.  For example I have one of my favorite S-50 patches called "Liquid Stacks" that I used SMFW30 to convert from the S-50 CD Rom.  I had to save to W-30 format and then use the W-30 to convert to S-50 format in order to work properly.  I also have an S-50 conversion done directly from SMFW30 that does not work because of the "fingerprint" being wrong or so you mentioned something like that.  I also have an S-330 working version of Liquid Stacks as well.  Perhaps sending you images disks of all three formats using the same set "Liquid Stacks" or other patch might make things easier.

Example:

S-50 - Liquid Stacks Disk
S-50 - Liquid Stacks Disk ( Converted by SMFW30 - not working )
S-330 - Liquid Stacks Disk
W-30 - Liquid stacks Disk

Please advise and I'll be happy to help.

Thanks!

Jim

2

General Discussion / Latest Version?

« on: November 23, 2013, 01:42:06 AM »

Hello Miro!

I'm curious what the latest version is and whether there is an update history to show changes. 

I "think" my SMFW30 version is 2.1.

Does this sound correct?

Thanks!

Jim

3

Bugs / Re: Same static when exporting as Ricochet

« on: November 23, 2013, 01:37:25 AM »

Sounds great Miro!  I think there would be a lot of interest out there for Roland S-50, S-330, and S-550 disk creators.  Extracting wav files is pretty easy with some of the other editors out there, but the converting, importing, and creation of S-series disks is still pretty much done only with SMFW30.  You have a great niche there and I'm hoping you can release an update in the near future, but these old S-Series samplers fade into dust.  The HxC Emulator has also been instrumental in keeping the W-30 for example a bit more current.  From my experience, I actually find the S-50 to be the most fun to use.  It's a bit simpler than the W-30, but what the W-30 has is the sequencer and the ability to convert different formats.  All of the S-series samplers are similar but different in their own way. 

Keep up the great work and I hope perhaps a new release can rejuvenate the SMFW30 crowd!

Thanks!

Jim

4

News / Re: Forum Update!!!

« on: November 23, 2013, 01:31:24 AM »

The forum looks great Miro!  Well done!

Jim

5

News / Re: New Update

« on: November 23, 2013, 01:30:50 AM »

Hello Miro!

I've been busy with music projects but still keep an eye on the forums from time to time.
I actually picked up a used Roland W-30 for $5 bucks yesterday and it still works!  I had
a broken floppy disk drive and one dead key, otherwise all works well.  It even as the SCSI
chip in it which is cool.  I can fix the dead key, plus the floppy drive as you know can either
be replaced or fitted with the HxC which I have. 

In any event, I'm curious about the following:

SMFW30 - I have added some new disk image fingerprints from S330 and S50 which were not recognized before.

I use both the Roland S-330 and S-50 more than my W-30 ( although that may change with a second W-30 ).  The S-50 I always
had issues using with SMFW30 so I had to resort to creating a W-30 disk in SMFW30 and then having the W-30 convert it to S-50
format.  That worked great, but obviously it would be more of a time saver to just have SMFW30 create a working S-50 disk.

Thus, I'm wondering since you are tinkering with the S-330 and S-50 footprints that this might mean you are making them more
compatible.

I've always felt having a Roland W-30 editor is great, but if one could squeeze in the S-50, S-550, S-330, that would probably
bring in more users. 

Thanks Miro!!

6

Bugs / Re: Same static when exporting as Ricochet

« on: October 14, 2012, 02:48:35 PM »

Hi Miro,

Just FYI.  I know the Roland S-50 is a slightly different beast, but I thought I'd report this finding anyway.  It seems when I export to .s50 format using the CD Editor it becomes corrupt when writing and loading into the Roland S-50.  If I export to .S330 format and then Convert to .S50 format using the Roland S-330 all is fine.  Somehow, the CD Editor Corrupts the S-50 file.  Again, I understand that SMFW30 is primarily for W30 and perhaps S-330 samplers, but thought I'd mention this in case anyone expects the Roland S-50 to work with the CD Editor.  For now I'm fine with saving to either W30 or S330 formats and converting to S50 using the converter software from Roland. 

Thanks!

Jim

7

News / Re: New W30 :)

« on: October 13, 2012, 12:10:07 PM »

Fantastic Miro!  That's great news.

Jim

8

News / Re: My W-30 testing New SCSI Gear

« on: October 13, 2012, 12:09:43 PM »

Hi everyone,

I've seen these before here in Japan and I highly doubt they will boot.  I hope I'm wrong though, but you need a lot more than just an scsi to flash adapter.  That Shugart system is not easy to emulate.

Best of luck and please keep us posted.

Jim

9

Bugs / Couldn't Allocate Memory Errors

« on: June 26, 2012, 08:17:36 AM »

Hello Miro,

Everything is working great with SMFW30, but I do get quite a few "Couldn't Allocate Memory" errors which is strange.  I usually have to close SMFW30, open the file I was working on, and then continue.  I always save after every WAV import otherwise, I don't think I could complete an entire bank without SMFW30 giving me that error.  It's not a major problem as I'm able to import what I need, but I was curious as to why I might be getting that error.  I currently run SMFW30 no Windows 7 as admin with no special compatibility settings.  Just FYI.

Thanks.

Jim

10

Bugs / Re: SubTones Problem in S-50

« on: June 16, 2012, 10:09:00 AM »

Hi Miro,

This makes perfect sense.  In fact I'm starting to understand that the Roland S-50 is quite a "unique" sampler altogether.  It's quite quirky on how it handles samples and importing, but when I finally get the samples in, the sound is simply brilliant!!  With your beta CD Editor, I can now get the Universe of Sounds into the S-50 using either floppies or the HxC Emulator so everything works fantastic now. 

When I get a chance, I'll see if I can put together some test images for you.  It's not urgent since I can import now using other methods just fine, but I'll send them anyway in case you are interested.

Thank you very much!!!

Jim

11

How To / Re: CD Editor Export

« on: June 16, 2012, 10:05:13 AM »

With regards to the CD Mode, I am not sure yet.  Yes, I do now have a Roland W-30 CD-Rom device that I actually bought from a guy in Russia along with some W-30 CD-Roms.  I  will probably receive them next week and will then be able to give you more info about the CDs and Modes.  The S-50 and S-330 as you know can't use CD-Roms as they don't have any SCSI connections. 

With my Windows 7 computers, the loading of the Universe of Sounds CD Roms freezes my system when using SMFW30 for export.  However, I found that using Daemon Tools and loading an Image works.  Your new Beta method of loading an image file works great too which I used to export the images I reported above.  Again, as long as I can now either use Daemon tools or the Image loader in SMFW30, it's not a problem not using an actual CD.  I'll check on this though as I'm curious exactly what Mode is used.

I'd say you solved my problem with exporting those image files from the Universe of Sounds CD-Roms.  I have a few other CD-Roms coming my way with the CD Drive next week so I'll update you on what those are.  The guy has a nice collection so I'm excited about checking them out.  In the meantime, having these two Universe of Sounds CD-Roms is fantastic as so far all of the sounds are awesome.

Note that I removed the links above from your forum as I know the copyright issues are strong with these Universe of Sounds CDs.  I don't want anyone to get in trouble.

I'll do some more testing over the weekend with my W-30, S-330, and S-50.  I'll post more info shortly.

Thanks again!

Jim

12

How To / Re: CD Editor Export

« on: June 16, 2012, 09:52:00 AM »

Hello Miro!

Wow!  This Beta is working great so far without any static at all.  Wonderful!!

I found that when I export to Roland S-330 format everything works great.  Note that with the S-330 I can convert to S-50.

I also was able to save to S-550 format and then successfully use the S-50 special SYS-505 program to convert load to the S-50.

I haven't test on the Roland W-30 just yet. 

The only problem I have found is that exporting images to Roland S-50 format does not work directly.  It actually corrupts the S-50 memory on loading with garbled ascii characters.  This isn't that big a deal though because I can easily convert from S-330 or S-550 formats to S-50 using the S-330 or conversion software.  I believe the W-30 can do the same.

I also noticed that the audio quality was very high with either these samples or the conversion process with the SMFW30 Beta. 

What's great is that I can now export the image files from the CD-Roms using the CD Editor and then put them all on the HxC Floppy Emulator so that I can just load them up rather quickly without making floppies.  Now that I know the images work, this is easy to do.

Thanks so much for this Miro.  I'd say the new beta works great.

Jim

13

Bugs / SubTones Problem in S-50

« on: June 16, 2012, 01:08:32 AM »

Hi Miro,

This may be a problem exclusive to the Roland S-50, but I finally figured out my Subtone problem.  It seems SMFW30 creates spacer tones in all banks regardless if there is a WAV file there or not.  When I import 5 wavs for example, I notice that the remaining banks are filled with 0.0 and not --- tones.  This prevents me from creating subtones.  If I DELETE these "dummy" tones, I then notice that the entire Bank A and B are both deleted and not individual tones.  Thus it seems SMFW30 is creating spacer tones in all the empty banks.  I also notice that I cannot load individual tones from a newly created SMFW30 disk for some reason.

What I need to do to get subtone functionality back is the following with SMFW30.

1.  Import WAV files and create my S50 sound disk.

2.  Load ALL into the S-50.  ( Cannot load individual tones ).

3.  Save ALL back to either the same disk or a new one.  ( This allows me to now load individual tones ).

4.  Then load each tone one by one.

This will allow me to have pure 100% empty tones that don't have wavs.  After I create my patches and edit tones, I can then create subtones.

Just FYI.

Thanks,

Jim

14

How To / Re: CD Editor Export

« on: June 11, 2012, 08:27:05 AM »

Excellent Miro!  I'm sorry to hear you're still experiencing issues with your Roland W-30.  If you ever see a Roland S-50 I highly recommend it as well.  Although I like my W-30 very much one of the things that drives me crazy is the constant "whine" that the W-30 emits.  The S-50 is ultra quiet and I find "everything" I sample on the S-50 will work on "every" other S-Sampler.  The Director S software makes for some great simple sequences, but of course one can midi it up to an external sequencer.  The S-50 can also be connected to a mouse and external monitor which I really find useful in making the entire sampling, editing, and performance process more intuitive.  Ever since I bought the S-50, I've really enjoyed it and find myself using it much more than the W-30.  I use the S-330 as well and it easily converts disks to S-50 and visa versa.  All of the samplers are great including the W-30 of course, but that S-50, although simple looking, is really fun to play.

Jim

15

General Discussion / Re: sound repository

« on: June 10, 2012, 01:30:19 AM »

Hello!

I think a sound repository would be great, but I think it would be better to have fresh sounds and not a rehash of all the existing floppies.  There are already some great sites and Yahoo Groups with existing floppy data.  The main problem is it's not easy to create new images for most users just yet and until then, it likely will amount to one or two people giving away all their hard work.  From my experience, that kind of repository doesn't work real well.

On the other hand, what I think would be more fun is to create a one disk "Instrument Set" and possibly have a contest for who could come up with the best composition or song with just one disk.  I love trying to pack a drum kit, bass, guitar, synth, and other SFX sounds onto one floppy disk.  Then use the sequencer to try and create a song with that one floppy.  It's a challenge and much more fun than just collecting sounds I feel.

I'm considering a website to do this and of course some really FANTASTIC prizes for the winner, but right now it's still an idea.  A Roland W30/S50/S330 song contest with one floppy set would be interesting and could generate more interest about programming tips and tricks with the S Series Samplers.  Plus it would be fun to hear what others are actually doing with their samplers.

Jim