We archive your floppy disks and hard drives for samplers, synths, and sequencers and then install a floppy drive emulator, hard drive emulator, or both into your gear. This lets you use you vintage gear without the limitation of physical floppy disks, hard drives, or removable hard disks. In the case of SCSI storage you can load banks up to 3 times faster than HD or CDROM. In most cases this will allow for up to 8GB of storage. Our floppy drive emulator options include an OLED display which allows full disk image names to be displayed and data shuttle knob to scroll through disk images more quickly than using a push button, and a speaker which emulates the disk read/write mechanism sound.
SCSI Samplers we can perform HD disk archive and install a SCSI drive emulator into:
Akai, MPC2000, MPC2000XL, MPC3000, S3000, S2000, S3000XL, MPC60, MPC-60 II, S900, S950,S1000, S1100, ASR-10 (requires SP-3 or Straylight Engineering SP-3 clone), TS-10/12, EPS, EPS 16+ (requires SP-2 or ZiN Circuits Ess-Pee-Too clone v1.1), ASR-X, Emu Emax, Emax II, EIII, SP-12, SP-1200, ESI-32, E4000, E6400, Casio FZ-20M, Kurzweil K2000, Roland W30, S550 (requires rare SCSI option) S770, S760, Yamaha A5000, A3000.
Samplers, synths, and sequences we can perform floppy disk archive and install a floppy drive emulator into:
Akai, MPC2000*, MPC2000XL*, MPC3000*, S3000*, S2000, S3000XL*, MPC60, MPC-60 II, S900, S950, S01,S1000, S1100, Casio FZ-1, FZ-10M, Emu Emax, Emax II*, Emulator, Emulator II, EIII, SP-12, SP-1200, ESI-32, E4000, E6400, Ensoniq Mirage, ASR-10*, SQ-80, ASR-X, Korg DSS-1, Oberheim DPX-1, Sequential Prophet 2000, 2002, Roland W30, S550, S770*, S760*, Yamaha A5000*, A3000*, TX16W, DX7IIFD.
*It is not recommended to install a floppy emulator into a SCSI sampler since there is so much more convenience in load time and fewer button presses with SCSI drive emulators, but it can be done depending on your needs, such as the scarcity of ASR-10 and S550 SCSI cards. However, you may want to share disk images with the sampler community, and floppy images are more shareable since they are smaller files.
SCSI Flash Storage & Gotek decision helper and troubleshooter
I want flash storage for my vintage synth or sampler.
I want flash storage for my vintage synth or sampler.
Question: Does it currently have a built-in SCSI port?
Is there a special SCSI option for your sampler that you can get?
Is it easy to find the SCSI option? These are obscure parts now over 30 years old, but sometimes savvy entrepreuers will re-create and sell clones of the SCSI add-on circuits.
After you aquire and install the spcial SCSI add-on board you can install a SCSI flash solution like:
No, they are too obscure at the moment or there never was one made for this model.
Next question: Does it have a floppy drive?
Does it have a floppy drive?
Install a Gotek with FlashFloppy or HxC. Learn as much as you can about these. Note: floppy images don't load any faster then real disks. The section below is to help people that already aquired a Gotek and installed it but can't make it work, possibly because they did not learn everything they needed to know regarding operation, installation, flashing, or configuration, or all of these things. There are two paths: buying one directly from China (for cheap) and flashing it yourself (highly technical), or buing one from a US or UK seller (at a premium) that has already done these four things: 1) flashed the firmware, provided a USB drive with 2) the ff.cgf file and 3) provided disk images with samples, 4) replaced the 2-digit 7-segment display with an OLED. Bonus if they installed a data knob and internal drive-read speaker.
You can't use a flash storage option.
Gotek Troubleshooter
I installed a Gotek in my sampler. It does not work.
Question: Where did you buy it?
Did you flash it with FlashFloppy?
Visit the FlashFloppy GitHub and Facebook Group to learn how to flash the firmware. You might need additional hardware and/or cables.
What does it display when the USB drive is unplugged?
Plug the USB drive into your computer. Is there a file named ff.cfg?
Visit this page and make sure your ff.cfg is set up correctly. This will require you to plug the USB drive into your computer, back up the ff.cfg file to your computer, then edit the file on the drive in a text editor, save it, safely eject, place it back into the Gotek, make sure you are on a valid image file, and then go to the sampler's load function and try to load a sample set.
Are there any .img or .hfe files on the USB drive? And does the OLED display the name of one when the drive is connected?
FlashFloppy requires at least one .img or .hfe file on the USB drive. Make sure the files are present and follow the correct naming convention (e.g. DSK001.img) if you do not have an OLED display. If you do have an OLEF display the image files can be named after the image. If you don't have any disk images try R-Massive. If you want a blank disk, get a hold of a valid image, duplicate the file on your computer, rename it "blank", load that image in the sampler, and then format it. Take it back to your computer, duplicate multiple times, one for each blank image you want. Once you save samples to it, place the drive back into the computer and change the name of the blank image to the name of the sample bank, what you would write on a floppy lable.
Visit the HxC forum and look for a post about your sampler.
Did it come with an OLED display?
Visit this page and make sure your ff.cfg is set up right.
Does the USB drive have a file named ff.cfg?
You should consider buying one from eBay that is already set up for your specific sampler. Please note that some sellers sell Gotek with FlashFloppy but not for a specific sampler, so you might have to figure out the config file setting by yourself. Others will list them for a specific sampler. This means config fils and disk images are included. Many also have OLED and data knobs included. US, UK. If you are local to SoClal you can have Deep Signal Studios setup and install your Gotek.
Visit the FlashFloppy GitHub and FB Group to learn how to flash the firmware. You might need additional to get hardware and/or make your own cables. You will need to solder and you will need to install and run software on the command line. If you are local to SoClal you can have Deep Signal Studios setup and install your Gotek.
Your Gotek appears to be flashed and has a config file. Now check your jumper settings and cabling. Also visit the FlashFloppy Wiki page on cfg files and make sure all of your settings are set correctly. Specifically interface, host, pin02, pin34. This will require you to plug the USB drive into your computer, back up the ff.cfg file to your computer, then edit the file on the drive in a text editor, save it, safley eject, place it back into the Gotek, make sure you are on a valid image file, and then go to the sampler's load function and try to load a sample set. If you don't have any disk images try R-Massive. If you want a blank disk, get a hold of a valid image, duplicate the file on your computer, rename it "blank", load that image in the sampler, and then format it. Take it back to your computer, duplicate multiple times, one for each blank image you want. Once you save samples to it, place the drive back into the computer and change the name of the blank image to the name of the sample bank, what you would write on a floppy lable.