How to make sd2 files with missing resource fork work in DP

[James Steele]

If the firmware and eProm chips are at least 2.0.1 and 1.3.2, all of MOTU's classic USB MIDI interfaces work fine—even over Monterey 12.3 on the M1.

I’ve seen credible reports here on this board, however, that MTP/AV will NOT work on Mac Studio, regardless of all those factors.

[Black-Man]

You are confusing Not Supported with won't work and that's a mistake. MOTU doesn't want to spend resources on support which is why current drivers are not listed.

But we aren't MOTU.

If the firmware and eProm chips are at least 2.0.1 and 1.3.2, all of MOTU's classic USB MIDI interfaces work fine—even over Monterey 12.3 on the M1. Download the correct driver for the MIDI Express XT USB—this is the one they all use. Follow the instructions. You'll have to pay attention to Security settings and follow those instructions, too.

Unfortunately, older firmware will not work — but those haven't worked in a decade or more.

I confused the OS versions. That's the problem when you've used the old cheese grater for so long - can't keep up. Mac Studio is on 12.3. There is a driver for Micro Lite and 12.3 but it doesn't work for MIDI outbound. Funny... MIDI works fine with the 828es.

BTW... I used the SoundHack on my older Mac to add the resource header back to the old SD2 file which were corrupted thanks to iCloud. Converts to AIFF as well. Strange thing about iCloud. I've been using DropBox for years to exchange SD2 files - no corruption of the resource header but iCloud breaks SD2. Go figure.

[Black-Man]

An update to the sd2 file corruption. I used SoundHack to successfully edit the SD2 resource header. It converts them to AIFF. I edited the DP 7.24 project file (using VIM) to change .sd2 to .aif. I was able to load the project into DP11 and all the audio files are intact. I was so excited... and then I hit the play button and nothing happened. I looked down at the mixing console. Faders were literally missing on a lot of the tracks. Just.... gone. A blank gray space.

Luckily I can manually rebuild the project in another project window since I now know the order of the sound bites in the tracks. But so painful...

Another thing I don't understand. These SD2 files were corrupted by pushing them to Apple's iCloud but I've been using DropBox for years to exchange files with an audio engineer with NO issues. Hence my complacency w/ regards to thinking the cloud was safe.

[erikhuber]

I am resurrecting this topic because I am in a real bind trying to salvage some old SD2 audio files, and the tools referenced in this thread above are either defunct (eg. Audaptor) or not compatible with the newer M1 based Macs (eg. SoundHack).

Any chance someone reading this has newer information on SD2 file conversion tools/apps that could work on a newer Mac? Or alternatively, if you might have any kind of tutorial or walkthrough in terms of manually editing the SD2 file headers???

Thanks in advance - I appreciate it very much.

[stubbsonic]

I don't have any SD2 files here to confirm & test, but it looks like Audacity (freeware) might be able to open them. If opening the audio file directly in Audacity doesn't work, definitely try opening with this process:

In Audacity, from the file menu, choose Import/Raw Data...

See if that works.

There's another option under Tools that says, "Sample Data Import..." But I don't know anything about that.

One thing I'm not clear about is whether you can redefine the sample-rate without it resampling the data. It looks like in the Track section, where there are the three dots " ... " There's a rate parameter which doesn't appear to change the data, but just the definition. After that, perhaps it will just export as it should.

[cuttime]

I think DSP Quattro will do this, and there is a demo to try.

[mikehalloran]

I have a number of old files from projects created in DP 2.71–4.61 and have no problem importing them directly into DP 11 using Automatic Conversion to .wav.. There are a number of utilities that can convert the files including QuickTime.

That said, this can be quite tricky till one finds the correct tool and procedure. If you want me to take a look at one of your files, send mm a PM and I’ll tell you how to get it to me.