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Archiving Akai + Kurzweil CD Roms

Posted: Sat Mar 20, 2021 7:57 pm
by FrankD
Hello,

The MachFive area of the forum seems to be the logical place to ask this...

I have a number of Akai S-1000 and Kurzweil K-2000 program and sample CDs. Not using them at the moment, but would like to archive the contents while I still have a laptop with CD Rom drive. What would be the best way to do this? Are .iso disk images the most versatile format?

Possible future uses would be with Kontact and MachFive, or a translator app such as Chicken Shys. I'm also looking at TX16Wx https://www.tx16wx.com/

Related Q... Has anyone tried out TX16Wx?

Re: Archiving Akai + Kurzweil CD Roms

Posted: Sat Mar 20, 2021 9:22 pm
by HCMarkus
I transferred all my old Akai sample discs onto SSD, where I can access using Kontakt. It has been years since I did this; as I recall, no translation was necessary... I think.

Re: Archiving Akai + Kurzweil CD Roms

Posted: Sun Mar 21, 2021 6:10 pm
by FrankD
The Mac finder cannot read Akai format disks, but can make an image of them. Right, it isn't really a translation.

I'm looking to do very much the same thing, save them to an external drive. Do you recall if the volumes are .iso or .dmg?

Thanks for replying!

Re: Archiving Akai + Kurzweil CD Roms

Posted: Sun Mar 21, 2021 9:45 pm
by HCMarkus
FrankD wrote: Sun Mar 21, 2021 6:10 pm The Mac finder cannot read Akai format disks, but can make an image of them. Right, it isn't really a translation.

I'm looking to do very much the same thing, save them to an external drive. Do you recall if the volumes are .iso or .dmg?

Thanks for replying!
Is it possible there is an Import via Kontakt command? I'll check what I've got going tomorrow and get back to you.

Re: Archiving Akai + Kurzweil CD Roms

Posted: Mon Mar 22, 2021 7:35 am
by stubbsonic
The safest approach is to load them into your Kurzweil, then save the .krz, .k25 or .k26 file to a device that you can also mount on your Mac.

I have a scsi card reader that I save to and load from, and a corresponding USB card reader that lets me move objects to/from the Mac. I also use a cheap utility called Blue Harvest (Mac App Store) which lets you remove all the spotlight & other mac invisibles that get added when you mount a storage device from your Kurzweil. Painless to use. Helps avoid problems with Kurzweil reading removable media that has been cursed by the Mac OS file system.

If you have a ton of disks/files and you just want to archive them, I still think this is a safer approach-- though more labor intensive.

note: Blue Harvest from the App Store requires OS 10.15, but there are older versions. You can find them here:

http://zeroonetwenty.com/blueharvest/release-notes.html

Re: Archiving Akai + Kurzweil CD Roms

Posted: Tue Mar 23, 2021 9:23 am
by FrankD
Great info, Stubbs!

Many thanks.

Re: Archiving Akai + Kurzweil CD Roms

Posted: Tue Mar 23, 2021 11:08 am
by stubbsonic
It's worth mentioning (for others who come across this thread) that scsi2sd offers a number of versions of a product that lets you use micro SD's for scsi storage. I have one of the early versions, and it works well. They've made some refinements over the years.

https://store.inertialcomputing.com/SCSI2SD-s/100.htm

Re: Archiving Akai + Kurzweil CD Roms

Posted: Sat Mar 27, 2021 9:24 am
by HCMarkus
Haven't had a chance to test yet. Have been in-session on keys enjoying the vibe at Henson Recording in L.A. Sorry for delay.
I seem to recall no challenges in importing all my Akai sample CDs those many years ago.

My Pal Google: https://www.sweetwater.com/sweetcare/ar ... s-kontakt/

Re: Archiving Akai + Kurzweil CD Roms

Posted: Sat Mar 27, 2021 10:16 am
by stubbsonic
I'm curious whether NI carried that import capability into later versions. Also, whether Apples OS would continue to support it, as well. Doesn't seem likely, but perhaps. I sometimes run across an SDII file and am tickled that I can still open it.