AKAIdisk FAQs
Does AkaiDisk work with my sampler?
AkaiDisk has been tested with the S900, S950, S1000, S1100, S01, S20, S2800, S3000
and S3200 plus the i and xl variants. I don't know if it works with
other machines unless you tell me! A lot of other manufacturer's samplers
can also read S1000 floppies.
When is
the next version coming out?
I am not going to be releasing any more versions. However, the source code
is freely available and several other developers are working on better programs
than AkaiDisk.
Why does
formatting disks fail?
AkaiDisk can't cope with surface errors on disks. You should only use AkaiDisk
to format disks when you don't have an Akai sampler available to do it. Even if
a disk formats ok it may read very slowly in the sampler. If you must use AkaiDisk
to format a disk, DOS format it first to make sure there are no surface errors.
Why are
my samples 'cut up'?
You are using Adisk 1.0. This version cannot cope when samples are fragmented
on a disk, and it just reads straight through the fragments. Use the version on
this site, or try rewriting the samples to another disk.
Why don't
S900/S950 samples sound good?
If you send 16-bit samples to the S900/S950 they will not sound as good as 12-bit
samples because the bottom four bits are truncated. When recording, these samplers
use heavy dithering to smooth out the quantization noise - You should do the same.
If your sample suddenly gets noisier half way through this is a different problem
-reduce the sample length by 1 and try transferring it again.
Why does
it get the name of my sampler wrong?
Apart from an ID code in the directory listing, each of the three 'generations'
of sampler have the same disk format. As I don't know all the ID codes
(they even vary with the same machine sometimes!) I just check if the disk
is S900, S1000 or S3000 generation.
All the
looping and tuning is lost!
Sorry, it's hard work converting between the WAV and Akai sample parameters, so
this has been left out. Don't spend too much time tidying up a sample if you know
you are going to use AkaiDisk on it - wait until it's back in the sampler!
How do
I copy lots of WAVs to an Akai floppy?
First assemble up to one floppy-disk-full of WAV files in a directory
and insert an Akai floppy disk with enough free space for the files. Now
from a DOS prompt in that directory type the following command (assuming
your ADISK.EXE is in C:\AKAIDISK ):
FOR %f IN (*.WAV) DO C:\AKAIDISK\ADISK /W %f %f
This command can be kept in a batch file to make it easier to use, but each %f
must be replaced with %%f.
How do
I copy lots of samples from an Akai floppy?
There isn't an easy way to do this, but if you run ADISK /L
a log file will be produced with a list of the floppy disk contents. A batch file
or simple program could be written to transfer these samples one at a time.
Can I read
Akai Zips and CD-ROMs?
No. Reading Akai floppy disks is easy because the functions to read the disk directly
are in every PC's hardware. SCSI disks and CD-ROMs are accessed by software drivers,
the details of which are not freely available. In fact, some modern computers
can't even read Akai floppy disks - New PCs aren't as "IBM Compatible"
as they used to be!
AkaiDisk
says "adisk is not responding"
Windows has suspended the minimised adisk program. You need to adjust the settings
in adisk.pif to "don't suspend", and you may need to play with some
other settings!
How can
I make an Akai CD-ROM?
Not with AkaiDisk. As far as I know, the only way to make a CD-ROM in Akai format
is to copy the image of an entire SCSI disk written by an Akai sampler using CD-R
software.
Can I drag-and-drop
WAV files with AkaiDisk?
Not properly, but you can add a right-click menu item that writes individual
WAV files to an Akai floppy. First make a batch file called adisk.bat that
just contains this command:
C:\AKAIDISK\ADISK.EXE /W %1
%1
Go into Explorer | View | Options | File Type| Wave Sound | Edit | New, and
type in AkaiDisk as the action and C:\AKAIDISK\ADISK.BAT
as the application. Of course, you will need to adjust the above if
you put AkaiDisk somewhere other than c:\akaidisk (for example
c:\progra~1\akaidisk\).
My question
isn't answered here!
If adisk.exe doesn't work at a DOS prompt on your PC, or Adisk works but AkaiDisk
doesn't, then you probably have a hardware or software problem of great complexity.
You should probably give up before you waste too much time on this, and use SCSI
or MIDI sample dump instead.