On the older models (s900 -> s1100), a Gotek often is the only way. As these floppy drives go bad quickly and since they have a rather exotic jumper configuration, finding a working compatible replacement floppy drive is almost impossible.
Just get a few usb thumb sticks. Colour code them, and you’re good to go.
Or better: install a SCSI2SD (together with the Gotek)
You can just back up the usb stick content to your computer. And categorize everything (images) into folders.
Ah, no way! I’ll investigate fully what it does and doesn’t have when I get my hands on it in Thursday (which can’t come soon enough the more I think about it!)
Thanks for the tips, mate - very much appreciated. I’m not too bothered about MESA as I don’t mind editing things on the old S series units. Also, taking advantage of any additional mojo the preamps might have seems like a wise option so I’ll just sample audio straight into it.
Speaking from experience here: SCSI2SD works beautifully and USB floppy emulators are a headache.
I have never had a single issue using the SCSI2SD for my EPS 16+. Got mine from Chicken Systems with a pre-formatted 8 GB card partitioned into 4. They made sure to put my OS on there so the unit boots up with the system every time. Works like a charm. Just gotta abide by the weird directory rules of the Ensoniq stuff.
As for the USB floppy emulators… oh boy. I bought a second-hand EMU ESI-4000 and it had a Nalbantov emulator in there. I really dislike it. Half the time the sampler won’t recognize the “floppy” and I will have to try reloading it. It might take a few tries before the contents are recognized. Then it will try and load the information. That might, in turn, lead to a possible error. Data corruption? Possibly. Either way, it makes progress on that sampler next to impossible. I’ve only managed to use it the ESI-4000 on one session because, luckily, the data felt like being accessible that day.
One question for you folks: I really don’t much about sampling, but I like the sound of the 12-bit samplers, especially the MPC 60 and the S950.
I heard that their sound is a bit difficult to recreate, because of the AD/DA converters, the filter, the pitchshifting and timestretching algorhytms and so on.
I know about VSTs (Akaizer, TAL Sampler, Decimort, Beatskillz X, …), but I would like to know if there viable alternatives in the hardware realm.
The OTO Bim has 12-bit converters and it sounds really good, and it’s one option.
Probably silly, but I was wondering if the Red Panda Bitmap 2 (a bitcrusher pedal) could be used for achieving similar results. What do you think?
Is there any other option? Anything I should consider?
Old school c. 2004?..Roland MV8000 does it all, samples, resamples, downsamples, tracks, rec audio direct, timestretch, bit rush, auto-chop, choke groups, sample mix table
The MV8000 it’s too big for me.
I would like to use a modern sampler, and add a pedal/fx unit/something to get to that sound.
It doesn’t have to be a perfect replica, just close enough.