CF to SD card adapter

Elektron Gear Octatrack
21

CF cards are actually really good and reliable. It’s used a lot in the professional equipment like DSLR’s, etc.

CF has now been superceeded by XQD cards and CF express cards.
They have superior transfer rates as well compared to SD.

They are more expensive than SD cards, but professionals care about reliability and resilience.
That’s why you see them in many modern photo cameras and production equipment.

So I see it as a plus that Elektron is opting to use CF instead of SD.
Since it provides piece of mind for professional musicians who use these devices for live performances.

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22

Yeah, I would always take CF over SD given the choice.

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23

thanks for all your thougyrs and comments but who did really tried a cf to sd adapter with an OT? lol

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24

Has anyone used an SD card adapter to insert an SD card into the Octatrack instead of using a CF card ? I’m thinking of using a SanDisk 64GB Extreme 170MB/s SD card.

25

Nice, never heard of this before.

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26

Never used one but I think it should work. An Adapter usually mimics to specifications, otherwise it won‘t work in the first place. But I am not shure.

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27

Some adapters may have limitations or compatibility issues, but in general it should work.

An adapter may affect the speed at which data is transferred between the SD card and the device, so you’d have to check if it works in an OT.

Edit, I looked at a couple of adapters and they state around 25 mb/s write speed which should be enough for OT.

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29

I use this one QUMOX CF Adapter Reader For SD SDHC SDXC To CF Compact Flash Memory Card type 1 WIFI : Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

Seems to work ok in my Octatrack.

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30

I’m interested in trying something like this - if only to reduce the likelihood of damaging my Octatrack by bending the CF socket pins. Also, Compact Flash is quite an old format and who knows when replacement cards will no longer be available. The weakness - for me - of the CF to SD card adapters on the market is that all the designs I’ve seen require the adapter to be removed in order to insert or remove the SD card because the SD card connection is on the side of the device. This does not seem to be an issue with most single Micro SD to CF adapters and I have ordered one of these to see how they perform.

31

this one seems to be sold out - any type 1 should work? It does not stick out ?

32

Can you use it with 8 flex track just to confirm that it can handle the load ?
Because loading project is a really great first step, but it’s not realtime.
Being able to handle multiple stream with flex track using an SD card is a different thing and that would prove that it’s reliable :slight_smile:
Thanks a lot if you can do that with 8 different long sample.
And bonus point if you can show us which SD card you have put in this converter.

Willing to buy one, if that work :slight_smile:

33

Hello, yeah sure. I don’t think I have done more than one flex track at once :smiley:Good way to learn.

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34

OK I tried that and it worked without issue. I recorded 64 steps on 8 flex tracks at once and they played back perfectly,

The SD card I’m using is SanDisk Extreme PRO SDXC Memory Card up to 95 MB/s, Class 10, U3, V30 - 64GB

So not really that fast :slight_smile:

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35

Hey thanks you @mattp awesome news then :slight_smile:
That push me to buy one, yes !!!

I had tried years ago a really old CF to SD adapter made for a gameboy advance adapter, and it was not recognized by the OT.
So really happy that things have progressed :slight_smile:

36

Actually thinking about this again I don’t think I have proved anything. In my excitement of trying something new I completely forgot that the whole point of flex tracks is that they record to RAM and not the storage.

What I should have done is sliced up a static track and tried to play it back. I’ll have to try that later in the week. Sorry. :pensive:

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37

Hoo yes you’re fully right !
It’s static track which need to be tested.
And you should see the led activity of the CF interface going red :sweat_smile:

38

OK so I loaded up 8 static tracks each with a loop of 64 steps. I then set each one to a slice grid of 64 and then created random locks on each one.

I started to notice the audio glitching after 4 tracks.

I would say that is an extreme case and I haven’t compared that with normal CF Card I have. I wouldn’t say it was very scientific :joy:

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39

If it glitch and does not crash I guess it’s a positive :slight_smile:
Thanks a lot again :slight_smile:
And sure it would glitch on CF as well at some point !

40

What kind of glitch ? Quick clics at the beginning of slices ?

Extreme case : 8 tracks with 2GB files each, and random locks.

Yep. Please compare.

41

I’m not sure when I will get to redo the test. But I’ll try and make some time this week.