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Does the Oberheim Echoplex support MIDI Sample Dump?
Yes it does. If you are very patient, you could use that as a means to save your loops to a computer or or device with midi and mass storage capabilities. (samplers, sequencers, etc.)
Is MIDI Sample Dump a good way to save my loops?
No. Midi Sample Dump is unbearably slow, on any device. "Open-Loop" sample dump (no midi return for handshaking) takes about 70 times longer to finish then the length of the sample. "Closed-Loop" sample dump is about 50 times longer. This might be ok for the short samples used in a typical sampler, but very few people have the patience to do this with the longer samples used in looping. People seem to want it until they discover how inconvenient it is, then they start saving their loops by recording direct to DAT or hard disk. If you have it on hard disk, you can even use an audio sequencer program to play it back and control the echoplex to record it in real time, which is much more convenient as a way to back up and restore loops.
So why is it even available in the Echoplex?
Reviewers of other looping products complained about the lack this feature, so it was included in the Echoplex development. Be careful what you wish for.
If
one was going to do a sample dump anyway and wanted to use something
other than a computer with hard drive, what would you recommend? Would
an Alesis Data Disk work? I know that a floppy will only hold 1.44 Meg.
If the memory being dumped exceded 1.44 meg, what would happen? Would
the Echoplex stop the dump and wait for another floppy to be inserted?
Is the Echoplex capable of splitting the dump into multiple parts?
I'm not very familiar with the Alesis data disk. 1.44MB is obviously not a great deal of time, so that would be a problem. As far as being able to use multiple floppies, that is more up to the Alesis than the echoplex. It has to be able to tell the echoplex to pause while the disk is being changed. I don't think the Sample Dump Standard defines any thing like "multiple parts" so this would be a bit of a kludge no matter what.
First of all the Alesis would have to be able to use the "Closed Loop" or handshaking aspect of the Sample Dump standard. From the user's perspective, that means you have two midi cables connected, Midi Out of the plex to Midi In of the Alesis, and Midi Out of the Alesis to Midi In of the plex. What actually goes on then is the echoplex sends a packet of sample data out and waits for an acknowledgement to come back from the Alesis before sending the next packet. The Alesis would then have to know that it is running out of space, pause before sending an acknowledge for a packet, tell the user to change the disk, then send the acknowledge to start the plex again. If the Echoplex has sent a packet a packet and not received an acknowledgement, it should just sit there and wait for it. The echoplex is smart enough to know if it is in "closed loop" or not. If not, it just sends continuously until it reaches the end of the memory.
Loading it back would have to be a similar thing, where the Alesis would pause the data transmission while the user changes the disk, then starts it up correctly. So it is really up to whether the Alesis can manage this. Most likely it doesn't.
For portability, a better option would be to use a sampler with expanded memory, or with a hard drive. If you are trying to save money, buy a used PC for $50.
On Thu, Jun 19, 2008 at 9:57 PM, Joseph Tufariello
<synchro1@optonline.net> wrote:
>
> How would you go about saving echoplex loops? onto a hard drive