Transferring sequence files out of old sequencers is quite often not very pretty. “I have a lot of sequences made using the Director 553 sequencer software on a Roland S550. Is there any way to covert these files to Standard MIDI type0 or type1 files?”
Wow! S-550? That’s a blast from the past. It’s amazing how many of these are still in service, which is a clear indicator that it was a truly quality product. Anyway, we only wish it could be as easy as converting the files. Unfortunately Roland, as they were prone to do in those days, made the format completely proprietary and as a result there is just no way to convert the files. Actually many sequencers of that time period suffer from the same problem, but since quite a few of them didn’t even have floppy drives no one has ever even thought of doing file conversion on them. The only solution for all of these products is to do a real-time track by track transfer into your newer sequencer. According to Bruce Hendrix, our Director of Customer Support and resident S550 guru, the timing on the S550‘s MIDI port with the Director software is pretty shaky so you will definitely want to do this transfer one track at a time.