[Linuxsampler-devel] Fw: [linux-audio-user] Linux and hardware samplers

[Alexandre P. <av...@al...>]

I think you mght be interested...

Begin forwarded message:

Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2003 20:02:42 +0100
From: James Greenwood <ja...@uk...>
To: lin...@mu...
Subject: [linux-audio-user] Linux and hardware samplers


Hi,

I want to get Linux and a hardware sampler talking to each other
more effectively.  Specifically the following:

  1. Transfer individual samples between the PC and sampler
  2. Access and back up project files saved by the sampler
  3. Possibly create a hard-disk partition in the PC which the
sampler
     sees as a SCSI drive

The sampler is an Emu ESI-2000 and the interfacing would probably
have to be via SCSI because that's all it offers.

For the 1st aim, I did find out that the sampler supports SMDI, a
protocol for transferring samples over SCSI supported by various
sampler manufacturers including Emu and Yamaha.  Is there any Linux
end-user software that implements this protocol?  Or another way of
doing it?

The only Linux software I have found so far that supports SMDI is
OpenSMDI, which implements the SMDI protocol as a free shared
library for Linux and Windows.  From what I can see there is no
front-end on the Linux version:

     http://home.t-online.de/home/chrisnowak/opensmdi/

If there is no alternative, I wonder how hard it would be to create
a simple command-line interface using this?

For the 2nd aim I want to read ESI's file system to access
individual projects or 'banks'.  Currently, all I've managed to do
is save banks to Zip disks, and then use the Unix 'dd' command to
make images of entire Zip disks.  But I can't mount the Zip disks
(or disk image files) from Linux, or access individual files or
'banks' within them, because the sampler uses a propietary file
system. 

I believe aims 1 and 2 are both necessary because the SMDI protocol
is fairly limited in the sample parameters it supports, so in order
to capture all parameters (such as filter settings) and cleanly save
whole projects in one go, you have to use the sampler's 'Save Bank'
facility rather than transferring individual samples.

So is there any Linux software that can read this proprietary file
system? The only free (as in beer) software I have found is a
Windows program called ESi-Win.  Apparently it lets you transfer
individual samples over SCSI to and from ESI samplers as well.

    http://www.simplydata.co.uk/ESi-Win/

This software actually solves both aims 1 and 2, but it's
Windows-only.  I
briefly tried to run it under Wine, but it didn't work straight
away.  Has
anyone got it working under Wine?  Has anyone seen it running at
all?

Both OpenSMDI and ESi-Win seem to be projects that progressed to a
reasonably functional alpha or beta level but are no longer
maintained -
presumably because their authors sold their samplers.  I'm beginning
to
reluctantly wonder if I should do the same... although it seems a
shame to
do so purely because of issues with file formats etc.

Anyway the final problem arises because, even if I solved all the
above, I am still reliant on the Zip drive to save and restore banks
directly from and to the sampler.  This is not good from the point
of view of reliablility and cost, especially as I undertand Iomega
don't make the SCSI version of the Zip drive any more.

To solve this without buying an expensive SCSI hard drive, I
wondered if it is possible to create a partition on an IDE drive in
the PC that the sampler sees as an external SCSI drive?  (Preferably
with no possibility of the sampler overwriting other partitions on
the drive ;-) 

The sampler has an option "Ignore SCSI device with ID x", which
according to its manual is intended to allow both a PC and the
sampler to be masters on the same SCSI chain and share a SCSI drive.
 But in the setup they describe, the shared drive is a separate box
in the middle - can it be done without this?

From what I understand about SCSI, doing this would at least require
a SCSI card that has the capability to be 'SCSI target' to another
master device, as well as being a master device itself.  So, for
what it's worth, my SCSI card is an Adaptec 2906 and I'm not sure if
it has that capability or not.

What about other options?  I could get rid of the sampler altogether
- then to get the same number of outputs I'd need to upgrade my
soundcard - but anyway, what Linux software is there that could
replace a hardware sampler while probably retaining a sampler-like
way of working? 

Finally, I suppose I could upgrade the hardware sampler.  I guess
that more modern hardware samplers integrate better with PCs in
general. But are their protocols and file formats any more open and
therefore potentially more inter-operable with Linux, or are you
just as locked in by proprietary formats and protocols as before?

Any thoughts, suggestions, ideas welcome.  I can't be the only
person who's wants to do this!

Thanks
James

-- 
James Greenwood | ja...@uk...

If you put in the work, the results will look after themselves
        -- Nick Leeson's mother


-- 
Alexandre Prokoudine
ALT Linux Documentation Team
JID: av...@al...