[sdiy] Simple MIDI-syncable LFO...?

[Richard Wentk]

At 17:57 18/10/2004 +0200, Rainer Buchty wrote:

>To bring this somewhat back on-topic: is there any good resource about
>tape data recording and the various formats/methods used, especially on
>synthesizers?

The old 300bp CUTS standard was as simple as it gets:

http://www.fact-index.com/k/ka/kansas_city_standard.html

The problem with synth hardware is that every synth had a different data 
structure, and reverse engineering it would be an interesting challenge.

The most obvious thing to do would be to write a CUTS to binary translator 
for WAV files - I expect someone has done this already - and then save 
patches over and over changing one thing at a time.

Not quite sure what the overall point would be though, except maybe to 
mount a rescue attempt on old favourite patches that are still on cassette.

>WAV files are more reliable than old program cassette tapes... Plus you 
>don't have to rewind.

I think most of us use disks these days. :-)

Actually I'm surprised how few synths have hard disks built in. They're 
incredibly cheap now and - if you were to build a synth round a tiny 
embedded PC board running Linux - fairly easy to use.

Richard