In response to our tech tip for the Ensoniq user with Syquest disks to archive (see inSync 2/22/99) a reader writes in about how to archive your samples to CD in general.
“There’s another more generic method for creating CD ROMs for samplers that works with any sampler that can write to a SCSI hard disk. All you do is format a SCSI hard disk with the sampler and save up to 650 MB worth of data on it. Then once you’ve put your library on the disk, you connect it to your PC. You then use a program that creates ISO images of hard drives. These programs read raw data; it doesn’t matter if the disk format is native PC or proprietary. You save the ISO image file on your PC hard disk and use any CD recording program to burn the ISO onto CD ROM.”
“Of course there is a catch with this method: Some samplers have a limit of the size of disk they can address. Older Akai samplers are limited to addressing 512 MB on a partition, so CD ROMs will also have this size limitation. But considering the cheap cost of CDR media, it’s not too much of a concern.”
Editor’s note: The original question arose from a user who was not able to find a program to create ISO images from his Ensoniq formatted Syquest cartridges, but as a general rule the advice above is sound. If anyone is doing this regularly, write in and let us know what software you are using. We’ll post the results and everyone will benefit.