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Forums - Samplers & sampling
Subject: Yamaha A4000 sampler
Original Message 1/21 24-Aug-00 @ 02:53 PM - Yamaha A4000 sampler
Hi,
I have just found out that I've won a yamaha A4000 and I should be receiving it in the next week or so, which is nice.
What I'd like to know is how can I best intergrate it into my setup? Which is a PIII 450, Cubase 3.7, yam SW1000XG and a Yam CS2x connected to that. I would be using the sampler "mainly", though not only, for Drums that have been chopped up in recycle and trigggering it from cubase. Also do I have to buy a separate cd rom player or can I use the one in my PC?
Thanks for any help Ringo
I have just found out that I've won a yamaha A4000 and I should be receiving it in the next week or so, which is nice.
What I'd like to know is how can I best intergrate it into my setup? Which is a PIII 450, Cubase 3.7, yam SW1000XG and a Yam CS2x connected to that. I would be using the sampler "mainly", though not only, for Drums that have been chopped up in recycle and trigggering it from cubase. Also do I have to buy a separate cd rom player or can I use the one in my PC?
Thanks for any help Ringo
Message 2/21 24-Aug-00 @ 03:11 PM - RE: Yamaha A4000 sampler
Balcra
Posts: 6
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Jammy Bastard! - Well done.
You can use your existing CD for ripping audio --> recycle --> SCSI xfer to A4K. You'll need a SCSI card for your PC tho (obviously).
If you haven't already commited to
Recycle take a look at Wavesurgeon (or Mobius which is Wavesurgeon+CD ripping) at www.squarecircle.co.uk. Cheap but good.
Balcra
You can use your existing CD for ripping audio --> recycle --> SCSI xfer to A4K. You'll need a SCSI card for your PC tho (obviously).
If you haven't already commited to
Recycle take a look at Wavesurgeon (or Mobius which is Wavesurgeon+CD ripping) at www.squarecircle.co.uk. Cheap but good.
Balcra
Message 3/21 25-Aug-00 @ 03:50 AM - RE: Yamaha A4000 sampler
You spawny git.
That sampler kicks sonic butt. I guarantee you will be using it for more than drums. It makes good synth sounds even without loading any samples!
You definately need a SCSI card. The CD player is another matter. It depends on what you will be doing. There are very few Yamaha format sample CD's around so you probably won't get that much use out of it for that. For audio CDs you can use any CD player with an audio output. You could burn your own A4K native CD's using an app called A3KDisky and use them but it is not that useful. It can kind of read Akai sample CDs so if you have loads of those then it might be useful.
I certainly wouldn't rush out and buy one yet but I would definately get a SCSI Zip 250 drive.
You will also need to get some memory - you will soon run out with the standard RAM.
That sampler kicks sonic butt. I guarantee you will be using it for more than drums. It makes good synth sounds even without loading any samples!
You definately need a SCSI card. The CD player is another matter. It depends on what you will be doing. There are very few Yamaha format sample CD's around so you probably won't get that much use out of it for that. For audio CDs you can use any CD player with an audio output. You could burn your own A4K native CD's using an app called A3KDisky and use them but it is not that useful. It can kind of read Akai sample CDs so if you have loads of those then it might be useful.
I certainly wouldn't rush out and buy one yet but I would definately get a SCSI Zip 250 drive.
You will also need to get some memory - you will soon run out with the standard RAM.
Message 4/21 25-Aug-00 @ 10:39 PM - RE: Yamaha A4000 sampler
if you are buying a hard disk buy an IDE,its so so much faster.excellent sampler btw,something to build your studio around.
Message 5/21 26-Aug-00 @ 09:17 PM - RE: Yamaha A4000 sampler
Hi,
Thanks for the info.
I have a some more questions that I need some advice with.
At the moment I don't have a spare PCI slot as both are taken up, 1 by Sw1000 and the other by a modem. Is there any way to get around taking the modem out for the SCSI card? Or am I going to have to sacrifice the modem?
Also will it be a problem that my current hard drive is not SCSI, but a normal IDE, or doesn't it matter?
Sorry for the basic questions but I'm really not up with the technical stuff, and just want to make sure I getting the right thing. Thansks again Ringo
Thanks for the info.
I have a some more questions that I need some advice with.
At the moment I don't have a spare PCI slot as both are taken up, 1 by Sw1000 and the other by a modem. Is there any way to get around taking the modem out for the SCSI card? Or am I going to have to sacrifice the modem?
Also will it be a problem that my current hard drive is not SCSI, but a normal IDE, or doesn't it matter?
Sorry for the basic questions but I'm really not up with the technical stuff, and just want to make sure I getting the right thing. Thansks again Ringo
Message 6/21 28-Aug-00 @ 04:06 AM - RE: Yamaha A4000 sampler
If you dont't have scsi,that means you have to buy a scsi card and scsi hard drive.... thats a lot of money...
If i were you i would get a internal zip drive for the a4000 and even an internal ide harddrive ( you can get 10 gig one for 60bucks) zip drive is another 75 bucks, i bet it will be much cheaper then getting a scsi setup, you can get an internal zip for your pc or if you wanna save it for another ide device you could get a external usb zip drive, and use the zip disks to transfer the samples between. This way you wouldnt have to switch the pci cards and it could be cheaper too, but you cant upload your samples straight from the pc, you have to put them on the zip disk and then load them up to yamaha, you can use midi dump always,
takes a long time, but still can use for drum hits, etc.
Eddie
If i were you i would get a internal zip drive for the a4000 and even an internal ide harddrive ( you can get 10 gig one for 60bucks) zip drive is another 75 bucks, i bet it will be much cheaper then getting a scsi setup, you can get an internal zip for your pc or if you wanna save it for another ide device you could get a external usb zip drive, and use the zip disks to transfer the samples between. This way you wouldnt have to switch the pci cards and it could be cheaper too, but you cant upload your samples straight from the pc, you have to put them on the zip disk and then load them up to yamaha, you can use midi dump always,
takes a long time, but still can use for drum hits, etc.
Eddie
Message 7/21 28-Aug-00 @ 12:16 PM - RE: Yamaha A4000 sampler
Hi Eddie,
Thanks for the reply. I think I'll take your advice and get one of the USB zip drives and an internal one for the A4000, that way I can still keep the modem in, plus save a bit of cash. Thanks again Ringo
Thanks for the reply. I think I'll take your advice and get one of the USB zip drives and an internal one for the A4000, that way I can still keep the modem in, plus save a bit of cash. Thanks again Ringo
Message 8/21 29-Aug-00 @ 06:07 AM - RE: Yamaha A4000 sampler
Nospam!
I think you are getting some seriously incorrect advice here....
I am very surprised to hear people suggesting internal IDE drives. As far as I know, you can't use IDE hard-drives inside Yamaha samplers! I imagine that goes for internal Zip drives too. The sampler is based around a SCSI bus system and not an IDE one. This info is based upon my experience with the A3K but I am pretty sure that the internal bus architecture between the A3K and the 4K is much different. My apologies if it is.
Have you guys actually done what you are suggesting?
You almost certainly want a SCSI card if you are going to get the best out of your sampler. Breakerbox told you that you would need to get a SCSI hard-drive too, but his is only true if you want to use that particular hard-disk to store A4K native volumes. But you probably won't need to do that. A SCSI 250MB Zip drive is more flexible and much cheaper.
The main reasons you need a SCSI card is so that you can transfer samples from your PC (NB - via an editor only) to your A4K. For instance, you might edit and loop a sample in Wavelab and then transmit it to the sampler directly. Or if you have a load of wavs you got off the net - you can just transmit each sample to the sampler without having to load each and every wav onto a floppy (bearing in mind that a floppy does 1.44MB max!). Bear in mind that the floppy drive is the ONLY drive which both your PC and your sampler can both read from or write to (this is because Yamaha allows the sampler to use DOS format on this particular drive and this drive only.
You only need a cheap SCSI card which will set you back c.£50. It is an essential purchase. External modems are also very cheap these days.
Also you CANNOT transfer samples using Zip drives as suggested because the A3K has to format the Zip disk in it's own way to be able to use it and will not read Windows/DOS/Mac formats. The opposite is also true - Windows will not read A4K formatted Zips either. So obviously you can't use them for transfers!
FYI my setup consistes of the sampler connected to my PC via SCSI and MIDI, plus a 250 MB SCSI Zip drive also attached to the sampler on the same SCSI chain.
That way I can use Zip disks to store my samples (with loop, filter settings etc), programs and volumes. For looping and editing of samples I tranmsit them from the sampler to Wavelab and back. I also have a SCSI CD but I never use it as I don't have any Yamaha native sample CDs.
To answer your question - tt doesn't matter that you current PC internal drive is IDE. I think that this question comes from a lack of understanding on the nature of the interface between the sampler and the PC. In most set-ups, your sampler is NOT supposed to be accessing your hard-drive directly. The A4K has to have an A4K formatted drive (ANY drive other than the floppy) to read/write to/from. If you formatted your PC's internal drive so that the sampler could use it(it would have to be SCSI) then Windows would NOT be able to read from that drive anymore!
The SCSI connection to the PC is not ususally used to access your hard-drive but as a means of transmitting samples to audio editing software (Soundforge, Wavelab etc). You can still use your PC's drive to store lots of samples in the form of wavs or other PC formats.
Go to www.a3kcentral.com and check out the FAQ's - they answer most of this stuff. Also, the manual will definately cover which internal drives are usable. Personally, I wouldn't use any form of internal drive as it just creates noise and are not as flexible.
Out of interest - where are you supposed to fit an internal Zip drive to the sampler? I can't see where the bay is. You might be able to jam it inside the box but how are you going to change disks?!? You certainly can't afford to take the floppy drive out and use that bay, for the reasons above.
Buying two zip drives as you describe will cost you more than getting one scsi Zip plus a cheap SCSI card and you won't actually be able to use that setup!
I think you are getting some seriously incorrect advice here....
I am very surprised to hear people suggesting internal IDE drives. As far as I know, you can't use IDE hard-drives inside Yamaha samplers! I imagine that goes for internal Zip drives too. The sampler is based around a SCSI bus system and not an IDE one. This info is based upon my experience with the A3K but I am pretty sure that the internal bus architecture between the A3K and the 4K is much different. My apologies if it is.
Have you guys actually done what you are suggesting?
You almost certainly want a SCSI card if you are going to get the best out of your sampler. Breakerbox told you that you would need to get a SCSI hard-drive too, but his is only true if you want to use that particular hard-disk to store A4K native volumes. But you probably won't need to do that. A SCSI 250MB Zip drive is more flexible and much cheaper.
The main reasons you need a SCSI card is so that you can transfer samples from your PC (NB - via an editor only) to your A4K. For instance, you might edit and loop a sample in Wavelab and then transmit it to the sampler directly. Or if you have a load of wavs you got off the net - you can just transmit each sample to the sampler without having to load each and every wav onto a floppy (bearing in mind that a floppy does 1.44MB max!). Bear in mind that the floppy drive is the ONLY drive which both your PC and your sampler can both read from or write to (this is because Yamaha allows the sampler to use DOS format on this particular drive and this drive only.
You only need a cheap SCSI card which will set you back c.£50. It is an essential purchase. External modems are also very cheap these days.
Also you CANNOT transfer samples using Zip drives as suggested because the A3K has to format the Zip disk in it's own way to be able to use it and will not read Windows/DOS/Mac formats. The opposite is also true - Windows will not read A4K formatted Zips either. So obviously you can't use them for transfers!
FYI my setup consistes of the sampler connected to my PC via SCSI and MIDI, plus a 250 MB SCSI Zip drive also attached to the sampler on the same SCSI chain.
That way I can use Zip disks to store my samples (with loop, filter settings etc), programs and volumes. For looping and editing of samples I tranmsit them from the sampler to Wavelab and back. I also have a SCSI CD but I never use it as I don't have any Yamaha native sample CDs.
To answer your question - tt doesn't matter that you current PC internal drive is IDE. I think that this question comes from a lack of understanding on the nature of the interface between the sampler and the PC. In most set-ups, your sampler is NOT supposed to be accessing your hard-drive directly. The A4K has to have an A4K formatted drive (ANY drive other than the floppy) to read/write to/from. If you formatted your PC's internal drive so that the sampler could use it(it would have to be SCSI) then Windows would NOT be able to read from that drive anymore!
The SCSI connection to the PC is not ususally used to access your hard-drive but as a means of transmitting samples to audio editing software (Soundforge, Wavelab etc). You can still use your PC's drive to store lots of samples in the form of wavs or other PC formats.
Go to www.a3kcentral.com and check out the FAQ's - they answer most of this stuff. Also, the manual will definately cover which internal drives are usable. Personally, I wouldn't use any form of internal drive as it just creates noise and are not as flexible.
Out of interest - where are you supposed to fit an internal Zip drive to the sampler? I can't see where the bay is. You might be able to jam it inside the box but how are you going to change disks?!? You certainly can't afford to take the floppy drive out and use that bay, for the reasons above.
Buying two zip drives as you describe will cost you more than getting one scsi Zip plus a cheap SCSI card and you won't actually be able to use that setup!
Message 9/21 30-Aug-00 @ 04:24 PM - RE: Yamaha A4000 sampler
yup, dougal you are incorrect...
go read the specs, the a4/5000 have scsi and ide
this is great because i can use only ide and have no scsi headaches...
when i want stuff in or out of the sampler, i use the spdif i/o and i am truely free of scsi hell.
jamey
go read the specs, the a4/5000 have scsi and ide
this is great because i can use only ide and have no scsi headaches...
when i want stuff in or out of the sampler, i use the spdif i/o and i am truely free of scsi hell.
jamey
Message 10/21 31-Aug-00 @ 03:00 AM - RE: Yamaha A4000 sampler
That's pretty useful. Is SPDIF input as easy as a SCSI transmit.
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