Message 8/21
Date: 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!