Akai S950

HxC Floppy Emulator Akai Keyboards/Samplers support
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Jeff
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Re: Akai S950

Post by Jeff »

pinky_blue wrote:I've also updated the firmware and this has not solved the problem.
Can you post a picture of the whole emulator ?

pinky_blue
Posts: 7
Joined: Sat Jul 12, 2014 6:49 pm

Re: Akai S950

Post by pinky_blue »

Hi Jeff,

I opened up the AKAI again tonight to take pictures. I tried plugging in the ribbon cable both ways in the HxC but was receiving the same error messages from the sampler.

Then it dawned on me, what if the ribbon cable was plugged in the wrong way in the AKAI port, rather than the HxC port? Would that make a difference?

I switched the ribbon cable in the AKAI port and then tried saving and sampling in the AKAI…..

….All appears to be working now!!! :D :D :D :D

I originally did a straight swap with the old ribbon cable making sure the red line on the cable was in the same position as on the old one. So I guess the previous owner had it plugged in the wrong way to begin with.

A bit embarrassing but hopefully someone can learn a lesson from it.

Thanks for all of your help! I'll let you know if I have any more problems.

Cheers

Chris

diik0nn
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Dec 02, 2014 1:17 pm

Re: Akai S950

Post by diik0nn »

Hello!

I have been doing as much reading as I can about adding the HxC to my s950.
The one question I do have, is it possible to read the disk images on a computer and convert the sounds to something like a .wav to used elsewhere?
I know there are other methods to achieve this, hoping that the HxC makes it a lot less painful.

Thanks for any advice and help!

Jeff
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Re: Akai S950

Post by Jeff »

diik0nn wrote:Hello!

I have been doing as much reading as I can about adding the HxC to my s950.
The one question I do have, is it possible to read the disk images on a computer and convert the sounds to something like a .wav to used elsewhere?
I know there are other methods to achieve this, hoping that the HxC makes it a lot less painful.

Thanks for any advice and help!
Yes with the help of another software this is possible :
http://www.fmjsoft.com/awavestudio.html#main

diik0nn
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Dec 02, 2014 1:17 pm

Re: Akai S950

Post by diik0nn »

Jeff wrote:
diik0nn wrote:Hello!

I have been doing as much reading as I can about adding the HxC to my s950.
The one question I do have, is it possible to read the disk images on a computer and convert the sounds to something like a .wav to used elsewhere?
I know there are other methods to achieve this, hoping that the HxC makes it a lot less painful.

Thanks for any advice and help!
Yes with the help of another software this is possible :
http://www.fmjsoft.com/awavestudio.html#main
Thank you very much for the info Jeff!

coley0971
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Feb 11, 2016 10:47 am

Re: Akai S950

Post by coley0971 »

I now own two of these beasts (950) what this thing does to drums and breaks is incredible and no software clone/pluggin/emulation has ever gotten close. Pluggins resampled a sound into a psuedo bitrate - hardware samplers actually sample at that bitrate live through its converters. Plus the s900/s950 will let you overdrive the input for even more crunch. Cop one quick before prices get silly!

Centrix
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Sep 22, 2016 2:23 am

Re: Akai S950

Post by Centrix »

Hi all,
I've bought the REV F emulator for my S950. I've read through all the posts in this thread a few times and i seem to have a new problem. When I install the emulator all I get is a loud beep. The display doesn't light up and neither do either of the LEDs. I've tried turning around the floppy ribbon cable. When it is inverted (blue cable to left) then I get the beep. When it is the other way around it doesn't beep but the displays and LEDs still do not come on. I've checked the power by putting the original floppy drive back in. This lights up and the disk spins, but the drive won't read disks anymore, but it does show that it probably isn't a power issue.
Can anyone please help me?
Thanks

Jeff
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Re: Akai S950

Post by Jeff »

It's a power supply issue. Please try the drive on another machine.

OTOFR
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Joined: Tue Nov 15, 2016 6:56 pm

Re: Akai S950

Post by OTOFR »

Hey all,

Just a quick feedback to share with you my experience with mounting The GOTEK Hxc USB Floppy emulator on an Akai s950.

After two days of struggle Its now working like a charm!

Pls follow these instructions:

1-If you have the possibility to do so, load and save a few prg and sample on the original floppy drive to be sure that all capacitors are working fine and there is no dry joints.
2-Open the beast and replace the original floppy drive by a GOTEK Hxc USB Floppy emulator (black version looks great!). Do not power the s950 before step 5
3-Take you USB stick and format it FAT32
4-Drag and Drop the latest firmware of HXC USB into the stick(https://hxc2001.com/download/floppy_driv ... rmware.zip)
5-Put the stick into the s950 and power it up while holding the two buttons on the GOTEK EMULATOR.
6-Power Off the s950 and put the usb stick into your computer
7-Keep the firmware on it and just drop the INDEXED version of the .CFG file (HXCSDFE.CFG) and some proper floppy img named DSKA0000.HFE , DSKA0001.HFE, DSKA0002.HFE etc, you have to name them that way to scroll from 000 to 001 etcs.. I took the .HFE models from the Quick Install Disk Images (SDHxCFE_Akai_S950), and the .CFE In the indexed subfolder there: https://hxc2001.com/floppy_drive_emulat ... l#download.
8-Put the stick in the S950 and enjoy life!

I love you all,

Lukas

nutjob
Posts: 18
Joined: Wed Mar 14, 2012 10:59 am

Re: Akai S950

Post by nutjob »

I've just installed a rev F HxC drive from Lotharek, with resistor mod. Latest firmware (v1.8.2.40)

I have confirmed that pin1 on the motherboard goes to pin1 on the drive.
I am replacing a working floppy drive, so the system is ok.
I've downloaded the quick install images and placed an s950 .hfe and the corresponding .cfg file on a blank SD card.
The SD card is read and the .hfe file can be selected - it shows track/side counter display.

My s950 does not complain about there being no disk (which it will do if there is no .hfe selected)

I can see no files on the disk, nor can I write to the disk. There's no error - just nothing happens - the tracks don't advance.

I have tried making a new .cfg file using the latest HxCFloppyEmulator software (v2.1.6.0) - with settings for single drive emulation and AKAI S950 HD interface mode. Same results.

Any clues most awesome Mr Jeff?

nutjob
Posts: 18
Joined: Wed Mar 14, 2012 10:59 am

Re: Akai S950

Post by nutjob »

Incidentally - if I make a .cfg file with HxCFloppyEmulator and save it to an SD card, when I load the .cfg back into HxCFloppyEmulator, the setting for HFE file interfacemode is not recalled.

nutjob
Posts: 18
Joined: Wed Mar 14, 2012 10:59 am

Re: Akai S950

Post by nutjob »

ID0A jumper set, all others clear.
SD card works fine in other HxC installations.

nutjob
Posts: 18
Joined: Wed Mar 14, 2012 10:59 am

Re: Akai S950

Post by nutjob »

I was expecting there to be data on the s950 images in the quick install floppy images library. (is there data on them?)
Once I format one of these images on the s950, all is good and I can save data to it and recall. Cheers!

andyfox
Posts: 6
Joined: Sat Nov 09, 2019 1:48 pm

Re: Akai S950

Post by andyfox »

Hello,
I am reading all this thread, since I am trying to find the problem on my Akai S950.
It has been working for years with the HXC internal floppy replacement.
Suddenly, one day it started not booting up, LCD dead, so no boot.
Sometime it was working, sometimes no.

So... It has been fixed by the technician, he said was a power supply problem.
Now, I have another problem, EVERN WORSE if possible: the HxC is not working properly as before. :(

Basically the problem is, I can load the HFE images I did with my sounds but as soon as it's starting loading the samples, it returns the error:
"OPS bad data"

I tried inverting the ribbon cable HxC side, bad idea, since it starts a beeeeeeep as soon as powed on.

I've read someone in the thread replaced the cable, and also inverted the cable on the board of the Akai.
This can be quite tricky for me, since more than just 2 screws needs to be removed.
Moreover, the tech guy said he only removed the power supply to fix things.
Everything should be the same as before, same SD Card, same HFE images, everything was working..

Can you please help me? Thanks so much.

Andy

Jeff
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Re: Akai S950

Post by Jeff »

This appears to me to be a power supply issue.
Sometime a bad contact in the power supply connection on the emulator can generate this issue. Can you try to reconnect the psu connector on the emulator?

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