More on SMF translation

We’ve had a few people have further inquiries about last week’s Technical Tip (see inSync 5/28/99) on translating old sequence files from hardware sequencers into SMF format. Many of these questions revealed that some further explanation is needed. The reason that saved data from ___________ (fill in the blank with your old hardware sequencer) can’t be loaded and converted by a computer may or may not be because the data itself isn’t recognizable. It could be because the disk it is on isn’t recognizable by the computer. Several people commented that it “should be” (I love this phrase) possible for a program to be written for computers that can interpret the data from the _________ (same as above) sequencer and convert it. The problem is sometimes getting the computer to read the disk at all. Many of the old hardware sequencers had proprietary formats that can’t be easily read by any other product. A quick way to find out if this is the case with your sequencer is to insert one of its disks into your computer and see if it will read the disk at all. If the computer says something like “unrecognizable disk, please format” then you’re probably out of luck. If the disk does show up and you can see one or more files (however unrecognizable they are) on it then there may be some hope. Now you have to find some program that will read and translate them, or pay your favorite programmer to write one.If you have very deep pockets it is technically possible to get someone to write drivers that will allow the disk drive in a computer to read the unreadable disks, but you would still have to get the files translated. It hardly seems worth what it would cost since, as the 5/28 Tech Tip said, the solution is to just play the files from the hardware sequencer into the computer in real time. This is an operation that, while painful, you only have to do once. In a few cases a manufacturer may have already written software to make your Mac or PC read its disks so checking with them is worthwhile before giving up.