Emax se advice needed

grahampreston · Post by **grahampreston** » Fri Nov 17, 2006 9:42 pm

Ok guys so i bought the Emax to sell on, but no ones interested and im kinda fond of it.
Theres 150 discs with it mainly orchestral sounds which is fine.

Three questions,

Theres no hard drive in it, can i fit one and where do i get the bits?

The Floppy drive dont all ways spit the discs out 100% some do some stay half way in..any ideas? OR if i cant get it fixed will a normal Computer 31/2 drive fit in and work ok?

If i want to use sample CD's whats the best way to get the sound from the CD's in to the Emax?

Cheers Guys.

I thought after a Mirage and a S2000 i woulndnt bother again but hay ho !!!!!!

Post by **tallowwaters** » Sat Nov 18, 2006 4:31 pm

scsi cd drive or scsi drive on your computer with which to transfer to emax
hard drives on ebay - seller etroniq (in usa though) shouldnt cost much
disk drive not compatable with any run of the mill 3 1/2". probably easier to fix the one you have rather than put in a new one. sounds like a simple trigger problem.

grahampreston · Post by **grahampreston** » Sat Nov 18, 2006 4:47 pm

Dont have SCSI on my Emax just serial port !

calyx93 · Post by **calyx93** » Sat Nov 18, 2006 6:56 pm

A couple useful links:

http://www.silveriafamily.com/emax/emax_repair.html (might answer your question about the HD upgrade)
http://www.route66studios.com/ (these guys sell replacement floppy drives)

Good luck!

grahampreston · Post by **grahampreston** » Sat Nov 18, 2006 7:20 pm

Hay guys this is all realy helpfull

Now,, say i want to link to my PC via the serial port, what software do i need to say store all my library on PC and then load from there?

Graham

Post by **tallowwaters** » Sat Nov 18, 2006 11:45 pm

emax cant dump samples, it has to be queried from an outside device.

you do know that a scsi port looks exactly like a serial port, right? feel free to call me an idiot if i am being dense here...

grahampreston · Post by **grahampreston** » Sat Nov 18, 2006 11:51 pm

Well Tallow
it sayes in the manual

" RS 422 connector is a high speed communications port which alows data to be transferred to and from an external computer as a very high rate (500K baud)"

Si if i cant store patches on a computer and send the back in, whats this for?? Editing?

calyx93 · Post by **calyx93** » Mon Nov 20, 2006 4:08 pm

It's for transferring samples back and forth between early Macs and the Emax/Emulator II. Apps like Alchemy, SoundDesigner and TurboSynth were popular ones used for more advanced editing such as better graphical editing, looping, additive synth functions, sample rate conversion (for sharing with other samplers) and other neat things. IIRC, this port was also used as the gateway for the OMI sample collection on CD - quite advanced at the time.

http://www.emulatorarchive.com/Samplers ... cdrom.html
http://www.emulatorarchive.com/Samplers ... itors.html

Post by **tallowwaters** » Mon Nov 20, 2006 11:52 pm

well then, sorry for giving out faulty information

so...why cant an emax 2 do that? the midi connections are useless for anything aside from controlling...are you talking about that small port labeled "computer interface"? about the size of a pc'c monitor port? if you are then that would make sense. i have always wondered what i could do with that.

calyx93 · Post by **calyx93** » Tue Nov 21, 2006 8:32 pm

Yep - that's what the "computer interface" is - the same sort of interface that goes all the way back to an upgrade to the first Emulator. It initially was the RS232, RS422 then the RS422 augmented with the more widely-used SCSI port. I'd used it a few times in conjunction with the E-II+HD and Mac Plus running SD and Turbo Synth - at the time (1988), it really was (apart from the internal sequencer) almost like having a Fairlight or Waveterm/Wave system with all the editing and synthesis widgets it provided.

The Emax II can use that interface - you'll just need an older Mac, the special cable and a copy of one of those apps. I think the Emulator Archive might have this for download, but I'm not sure.

Post by **tallowwaters** » Tue Nov 21, 2006 11:45 pm

thanks... now to install that emax2 daughter board.