Looking for advice on getting my sequences from the old 3.5 discs to my Mac. Can I just play them via midi interface and record on Logic or is there a better way. I looked at some 3.5 floppy to USB units but I don't know if they will recognize Roland format. I really do not want to lose all the work I put in as a few of the discs are no longer recognized by the XP80. Any info would be appreciated. Thanks guys.
Saving Roland XP80 sequences to Mac
- Thread starter Snuffy51
- Start date
You need an old PC with a floppy drive unit or a friend/relative/neighbour with one
Copy the contents from a 3.5 inch disk into Dropbox or your Cloud system and try loading then from there onto your Mac.
Copy the contents from a 3.5 inch disk into Dropbox or your Cloud system and try loading then from there onto your Mac.
happyrat1
Destroyer of Eardrums!!!
First of all: If they are .MID files then there should be no trouble importing them to any DAW you'd like on a Mac.
Secondly, EVERY computer in use today, including Apple can access a USB mass storage device which is technically what a USB Floppy Disk Drive is.
Thirdly, Just about any computer can recognize, read and write the FAT16 format which is most probably what was used by Roland and every other keyboard manufacturer who shoved a floppy into a keyboard in the 80's and 90's.
Just buy a USB floppy drive and plug it into your Mac. It should be plug n play.
(Ignore the Robot Check comment. It's an Amazon Link and their scripts don't like offsite links)
Gary
Secondly, EVERY computer in use today, including Apple can access a USB mass storage device which is technically what a USB Floppy Disk Drive is.
Thirdly, Just about any computer can recognize, read and write the FAT16 format which is most probably what was used by Roland and every other keyboard manufacturer who shoved a floppy into a keyboard in the 80's and 90's.
Just buy a USB floppy drive and plug it into your Mac. It should be plug n play.
(Ignore the Robot Check comment. It's an Amazon Link and their scripts don't like offsite links)
Gary
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The files on the diskettes that came with the XP-80 are Roland proprietary SR-JV tone files and MRC sequencer files meant to be read directly from the diskettes by the XP-80's operating system. Any sequences you would have created would also be in the Roland MRC format. The sequencer in the XP-80 is identical to the one in their MC-50 MK-II stand-alone sequencer. They did not have the capability to write to a .MID format. Giebler Enterprises wrote a conversion program for MRC and S-MRC to SMF:
https://rolandus.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/201940399-SMF-to-S-MRC-File-Conversion-Software
Giebler appears to still be in business at:
http://giebler.com/
The one you would be interested in is at the very bottom of their list of converter programs - the MC converter program.
If you can do this, then you should be able to just "play" the SMF conversions from your MAC to the XP-80 via a USB-MIDI Adapter Cable, using the XP-80 as a sound module, but typical of most converter programs, you would probably lose any DSP effects in the process. The MIDI Spec is pretty sparse on what effects messages are allowed in an SMF file.
https://rolandus.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/201940399-SMF-to-S-MRC-File-Conversion-Software
Giebler appears to still be in business at:
http://giebler.com/
The one you would be interested in is at the very bottom of their list of converter programs - the MC converter program.
If you can do this, then you should be able to just "play" the SMF conversions from your MAC to the XP-80 via a USB-MIDI Adapter Cable, using the XP-80 as a sound module, but typical of most converter programs, you would probably lose any DSP effects in the process. The MIDI Spec is pretty sparse on what effects messages are allowed in an SMF file.
Last edited:
Did you have any luck?
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I owned an XP60 for a number of years and did alot of sequences on it. I was trying to find a way that I could move those sequences up to my current setup, which consists of a Korg PA700 and many other synths, but the PA700 is the main sequencer.
I ended up downloading a program that converted the .svq files from the XP60 to a .mid format and then I could update them on the PA700. I also used a USB floppy drive plugged into my Windows laptop to load the .svq programs to the PC for conversion. I also used a CD-ROM disc, as I had archived much of my music stuff onto CD back then. I simply loaded the CD-ROM into the laptop and it worked the same as the floppy drive did.
I used Awave Studio software, in trial mode, until I was finished converting everything over. I believe that I had 30 days to try the software. Since I was finished, I never bought the software and simply uninstalled it. According to their website, it is only available for Windows machines, but maybe you could run Bootcamp and create a partition on your Mac that would allow you to run Windows. Maybe you could run a virtual machine on your Mac to do the same thing.
The Awave Studio software runs around $100 USD, and I feel that is a bit pricey, but it will convert more than just the Roland files.
If you still have the XP80, then maybe you could clean the floppy drive and see if that helps or not. Maybe the drive belt has gone bad inside the drive. They do deteriorate and/or stretch out after a while and would need to be replaced. If your floppy discs were stored well and protected, they may still work. Among the many synths in my collection is an Ensoniq VFX-SD. It is over 30 years old now. ALL of the floppies that I used for it are still readable and I can still write to them. If you took care of the media, then they might still work as well, if you decide to take a look at the floppy drive in the XP80.
I checked another thread about another opst like this in the past, but it offered very little that is not already in this thread.
Maybe some of what I wrote will help a bit.
Grace,
Harry
I ended up downloading a program that converted the .svq files from the XP60 to a .mid format and then I could update them on the PA700. I also used a USB floppy drive plugged into my Windows laptop to load the .svq programs to the PC for conversion. I also used a CD-ROM disc, as I had archived much of my music stuff onto CD back then. I simply loaded the CD-ROM into the laptop and it worked the same as the floppy drive did.
I used Awave Studio software, in trial mode, until I was finished converting everything over. I believe that I had 30 days to try the software. Since I was finished, I never bought the software and simply uninstalled it. According to their website, it is only available for Windows machines, but maybe you could run Bootcamp and create a partition on your Mac that would allow you to run Windows. Maybe you could run a virtual machine on your Mac to do the same thing.
The Awave Studio software runs around $100 USD, and I feel that is a bit pricey, but it will convert more than just the Roland files.
If you still have the XP80, then maybe you could clean the floppy drive and see if that helps or not. Maybe the drive belt has gone bad inside the drive. They do deteriorate and/or stretch out after a while and would need to be replaced. If your floppy discs were stored well and protected, they may still work. Among the many synths in my collection is an Ensoniq VFX-SD. It is over 30 years old now. ALL of the floppies that I used for it are still readable and I can still write to them. If you took care of the media, then they might still work as well, if you decide to take a look at the floppy drive in the XP80.
I checked another thread about another opst like this in the past, but it offered very little that is not already in this thread.
Maybe some of what I wrote will help a bit.
Grace,
Harry