Emax

Hi everyone:

I recently purchased a new copy of the Northstar "Max 3" CD-Rom for Emax II. As usual, I planned to copy the banks from the CD-Rom onto Compact Flash cards, as I do not own an external SCSI CD-Rom drive to run directly with the Emax. Unfortunately, EMXP refuses to recognize the CD-Rom. The program simply hangs up on the "PLEASE WAIT" screen when checking the CD-Rom drive for a compatible disc.

I did notice that the disc is a CD-R (green surface), and not a professionally manufactured CD-Rom (clear/reflective surface). Could it be a faulty burn? I also could not create a .dmg file from the disc in the OSX Disk Utility.

Any help would be much appreciated!

Best,
Brandt

Same issue here.

I guess the Northstar guys were using some sort of copy protection!

I am gonna try brute force to grab the content of it.

i have the north star3 in e2 format from sd2

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Adam 
  To: emax@yahoogroups.com 
  Sent: Wednesday, August 10, 2011 10:39 AM
  Subject: [emax] Re: Problems with Northstar Max 3 and EMXP?


    
  Same issue here.

  I guess the Northstar guys were using some sort of copy protection!

  I am gonna try brute force to grab the content of it.



  


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Actually, it isn't copy protection. E-Synthesist solved this problem when I e-mailed with him a couple of months ago.

Per E-Synthesist: "Interesting. It is the first time this particular subcode of the disk validation error is reported to me. EMXP is checking certain locations on the CDROM to ensure it's really an E-Mu CDROM. One of these validations is a "signature check" which expects "Designed by S&M" as a signature literal, but on your disk another signature has probably been used. It seems like a minor problem which can easily be fixed in EMXP."

"The signature string is "Phase 3" which is unique for this particular Northstar CDROM, so I will disable the validation of the signature string in the next build of EMXP (it seems the signature can take several values...). This EMXP version will be uploaded asap and will be approx. the same as the one you received but of course without that DEBUG message."

OP: Are you running the latest version of EMXP? If so, and if you're still having this problem, E-Synthesist can surely provide a workaround for you as he did for me!


--- In emax@yahoogroups.com, "Adam" <fake@...> wrote:

>
> Same issue here.
> 
> I guess the Northstar guys were using some sort of copy protection!
> 
> I am gonna try brute force to grab the content of it.
>

ok, do you know why i could not copy these CDs?
all CD readers, PC and Mac fails because of read error.

Northstar confirmed there are no copy protection on their MAX1-2-3 CD's.

They say, the problem is that i don't have a compatible CDrom for the Emax II.

But:

-My EIIIXP can import the original Elements of Sound EMAX CD, but fails to import the Northstar CDs 
-3 macs (Toast, Disk util) and 1 pc (Nero, Isobuster) claimed that the discs have read errors on them. Most of the time they can't even access the disks: it starts to spin up, then spin down, and doing it in an infinite circle.

I am pretty sure the discs are not OK.

BTW i would buy an EMAX compatibly CD-Rom,but it is almost impossible. I am sure, that even if i did so, it would not read those disc.

I wish they were generous and sent me the image files via net. After all, these CDs are expensive!

At 02:37 PM 8/13/2011, you wrote:

>Northstar confirmed there are no copy protection on their MAX1-2-3 CD's.
>They say, the problem is that i don't have a compatible CDrom for the Emax II.

>But:
>-My EIIIXP can import the original Elements of Sound EMAX CD, but 
>fails to import the Northstar CDs
>-3 macs (Toast, Disk util) and 1 pc (Nero, Isobuster) claimed that 
>the discs have read errors on them. Most of the time they can't even 
>access the disks: it starts to spin up, then spin down, and doing it 
>in an infinite circle.
>I am pretty sure the discs are not OK.
>BTW i would buy an EMAX compatibly CD-Rom,but it is almost 
>impossible. I am sure, that even if i did so, it would not read those disc.
>I wish they were generous and sent me the image files via net. After 
>all, these CDs are expensive!

Are there scratches on your CD? Any indication of damage?

Translator www.chickensys.com can make images (we call them Virtual 
Drives) and is very forgiving with disk read errors. Most "imagers" 
stop and abort when they find an error and don't allow you to make 
the whole image, even though there is valid data further downstream 
on the disk. Translator was designed to get as much as it can off the 
disk. With sampler CD's, mot of the disk space is filled with audio 
info, so any errors there manifest themselves as glitches in the 
audio, which can be repaired or covered over.

Emu CD's really only need the first 512 bytes of the disk to make it 
valid. The FAT comes next, then the bank directory is about 4000 
bytes into the disk and doesn't take that much space. So you really 
have to wipe out that area to make the disk unreadable.

The older versions of Translator had a Emu Disk Repairer of sorts 
that would look through a disk even though the boot sectors and/or 
Bank directory and find Banks throughout the disk and export them 
out. I'm fairly sure it worked on E3/ESi/EOS but not Emax.

Anyway, if you are interested in that, let me know. Or regarding the 
Phase III CD, I can perhaps repair it for you. Contact me at support 
_AT_ chickensys.com.

Garth Hjelte
Sampler User

Hi!

The disks are absolutely new. Just opened them before using.

I happen to be a customer of you too, so i do have Translator (Version 2.9 build 123).
I inserted the Max 1 (not to confuse it with Phase 1 which is made for the EIIIx series), then
Create Virtual Drive -> New. The IMG file it made was readable with Disk Utility for OS-X 10.6.5. So i burned a CD.

Then i checked it with EMXP, but EMXP didn't recognize it.

i am pretty tired now :(



--- In emax@yahoogroups.com, Garth Hjelte <garth@...> wrote:

>
> At 02:37 PM 8/13/2011, you wrote:
> 
> >Northstar confirmed there are no copy protection on their MAX1-2-3 CD's.
> >They say, the problem is that i don't have a compatible CDrom for the Emax II.
> 
> >But:
> >-My EIIIXP can import the original Elements of Sound EMAX CD, but 
> >fails to import the Northstar CDs
> >-3 macs (Toast, Disk util) and 1 pc (Nero, Isobuster) claimed that 
> >the discs have read errors on them. Most of the time they can't even 
> >access the disks: it starts to spin up, then spin down, and doing it 
> >in an infinite circle.
> >I am pretty sure the discs are not OK.
> >BTW i would buy an EMAX compatibly CD-Rom,but it is almost 
> >impossible. I am sure, that even if i did so, it would not read those disc.
> >I wish they were generous and sent me the image files via net. After 
> >all, these CDs are expensive!
> 
> Are there scratches on your CD? Any indication of damage?
> 
> Translator www.chickensys.com can make images (we call them Virtual 
> Drives) and is very forgiving with disk read errors. Most "imagers" 
> stop and abort when they find an error and don't allow you to make 
> the whole image, even though there is valid data further downstream 
> on the disk. Translator was designed to get as much as it can off the 
> disk. With sampler CD's, mot of the disk space is filled with audio 
> info, so any errors there manifest themselves as glitches in the 
> audio, which can be repaired or covered over.
> 
> Emu CD's really only need the first 512 bytes of the disk to make it 
> valid. The FAT comes next, then the bank directory is about 4000 
> bytes into the disk and doesn't take that much space. So you really 
> have to wipe out that area to make the disk unreadable.
> 
> The older versions of Translator had a Emu Disk Repairer of sorts 
> that would look through a disk even though the boot sectors and/or 
> Bank directory and find Banks throughout the disk and export them 
> out. I'm fairly sure it worked on E3/ESi/EOS but not Emax.
> 
> Anyway, if you are interested in that, let me know. Or regarding the 
> Phase III CD, I can perhaps repair it for you. Contact me at support 
> _AT_ chickensys.com.
> 
> Garth Hjelte
> Sampler User
>

At 03:35 PM 8/14/2011, you wrote:

>The disks are absolutely new. Just opened them before using.
>I happen to be a customer of you too, so i do have Translator 
>(Version 2.9 build 123).

BTW, please update, newest is b135.

>I inserted the Max 1 (not to confuse it with Phase 1 which is made 
>for the EIIIx series), then
>Create Virtual Drive -> New.

No, you'd go Create Virtual Drive->PLEXTOR CDS-335 (or whatever your 
CD/DVD drive name is). That creates an image out of your CD.

>The IMG file it made was readable with Disk Utility for OS-X 10.6.5. 
>So i burned a CD.

So this would be a blank Emax CD, since it is "New".

>Then i checked it with EMXP, but EMXP didn't recognize it.

Translator should recognize it though. If it didn't, zip it up and 
email it to me.

Or, were you trying to make a blank Virtual Drive that you could 
transfer the Max 1 Banks onto?

I don't understand - your original issue was that you have brand new 
Emax CD's, and you put them into your SCSI CD-ROM Drive hooked up to 
your Emax II, and your Emax doesn't recognize them? Does that CD-ROM 
Drive accept other CD's? Just not the Max 1 CD's?

Garth Hjelte
Sampler User

it sounds like to me that he has the e3x format emax cdroms for esi range of samplers becuse they do not work in emxp but do work in translator but dont trans late to e3 format that emxp can read as i had the same problem what i had to do was load it into the e4ultra sampler then save as e3x format via the e4 then i could read it with emxp

when they did the esi which is basically a e3x they changed it slightly to e3x/esi format 

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Garth Hjelte 
  To: emax@yahoogroups.com 
  Sent: Wednesday, August 17, 2011 1:42 PM
  Subject: Re: [emax] Re: Problems with Northstar Max 3 and EMXP?


    
  At 03:35 PM 8/14/2011, you wrote:

  >The disks are absolutely new. Just opened them before using.
  >I happen to be a customer of you too, so i do have Translator 
  >(Version 2.9 build 123).

  BTW, please update, newest is b135.

  >I inserted the Max 1 (not to confuse it with Phase 1 which is made 
  >for the EIIIx series), then
  >Create Virtual Drive -> New.

  No, you'd go Create Virtual Drive->PLEXTOR CDS-335 (or whatever your 
  CD/DVD drive name is). That creates an image out of your CD.

  >The IMG file it made was readable with Disk Utility for OS-X 10.6.5. 
  >So i burned a CD.

  So this would be a blank Emax CD, since it is "New".

  >Then i checked it with EMXP, but EMXP didn't recognize it.

  Translator should recognize it though. If it didn't, zip it up and 
  email it to me.

  Or, were you trying to make a blank Virtual Drive that you could 
  transfer the Max 1 Banks onto?

  I don't understand - your original issue was that you have brand new 
  Emax CD's, and you put them into your SCSI CD-ROM Drive hooked up to 
  your Emax II, and your Emax doesn't recognize them? Does that CD-ROM 
  Drive accept other CD's? Just not the Max 1 CD's?

  Garth Hjelte
  Sampler User



  


------------------------------------------------------------------------------



  No virus found in this incoming message.
  Checked by AVG - www.avg.com 
  Version: 9.0.901 / Virus Database: 271.1.1/3839 - Release Date: 08/16/11 19:34:00


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

not exactly.

i bought the Max1-2-3 CD's from Northstar. These are EMAX II CDs.

but i dont have a compatible cdrom drive for the EMAX II right now.
(the oldest thing i have is an Apple CD300i Plus, which does not seem to work with the Emax II)

for this reason, i wanted to use EMXP to grab the image of the discs. 

but EMXP could not do this. i could hear it trying to spin the disc. it spins it up, then stops. the spins up, then stops. in an infinite loop.

i suspected that the discs have read errors, especially that when i tried to copy the discs with a cd copier software, all software reported READ ERRORs. these refused to make a copy of the Northstar discs! (now, how am i going to backup these if it was normal?)

since i have other emax format cd-rom titles such as the Elements of Sound, i wanted to verify this disc-error theory. i took an EIIIx with an SCSI cdrom which was happy to read the Elements of Sound discs, but it refused to recognize Northstar discs. 

I am gonna further investigate this. But anyone who knew a good, working SCSI CDrom drive (emax compatible) please let me know!

Doing now so. It takes ages. At 74%, and since block  42236 it is nothing but "Failed reading block X in sector Y.

gotta stop it, because it is running so slow.... now lets see EMXP and Magiciso

Hi Adam:

As I mentioned in one of my e-mails, definitely give MagicISO a try. It worked for me after numerous failed attempts using other disc imaging software.

Here is what E-Synthesist told me at the time:

"FYI I'm using the free MagicISO utility on my Vista laptop to create ISO images of my Emax cdroms (as a backup mechanism). If a tool like MagicIso is not accepting your northstar CDROM either, then there's definitely a problem with the disk."

"If it does accept the disk however, then I suggest you create an ISO image of the CDROM, change the extension of the resulting image file from .ISO to .EZ2 and copy this file to the \images folder of EMXP. If this file can also not be accessed by EMXP either (choose the "Emax HD/CD image" option), then there's a problem in EMXP and I might have to look deeper into it. In that case I might need the ISO image - but let's first wait for that second copy or yours !"

Best of luck,
DBM


--- In emax@yahoogroups.com, "Adam" <fake@...> wrote:

>
> Doing now so. It takes ages. At 74%, and since block  42236 it is nothing but "Failed reading block X in sector Y.
> 
> gotta stop it, because it is running so slow.... now lets see EMXP and Magiciso
>

BTW: I have added some compatible Emax-II SCSI cdrom drives to the "Flash Memory and Accessories/Other Drives" database in the group's database section.
I'm using all of these with my Emax-IIs:
- Teac CD-532S
- Pioneer DR-U12X
- Apple CD300 (basic version)
- Plextor PlexWriter 12/4/32 PX-W124TSe
 
Besides these, there are of course also the Iomega ZIP 100 and 250 alternatives, and the SCM PCD-50B PCMCIA card reader, and probably other devices too...

///E-Synthesist

--- In emax@yahoogroups.com, "Adam" <fake@...> wrote:

>
>  not exactly.
> 
> i bought the Max1-2-3 CD's from Northstar. These are EMAX II CDs.
> 
> but i dont have a compatible cdrom drive for the EMAX II right now.
> (the oldest thing i have is an Apple CD300i Plus, which does not seem to work with the Emax II)
> 
> for this reason, i wanted to use EMXP to grab the image of the discs. 
> 
> but EMXP could not do this. i could hear it trying to spin the disc. it spins it up, then stops. the spins up, then stops. in an infinite loop.
> 
> i suspected that the discs have read errors, especially that when i tried to copy the discs with a cd copier software, all software reported READ ERRORs. these refused to make a copy of the Northstar discs! (now, how am i going to backup these if it was normal?)
> 
> since i have other emax format cd-rom titles such as the Elements of Sound, i wanted to verify this disc-error theory. i took an EIIIx with an SCSI cdrom which was happy to read the Elements of Sound discs, but it refused to recognize Northstar discs. 
> 
> I am gonna further investigate this. But anyone who knew a good, working SCSI CDrom drive (emax compatible) please let me know!
>