Vintage PCI Card Creative Sound Blaster Live! CT4760 with daughter board CT4660 / SPDIF IN Out and MIDI ports
This 16bit SoundBlaster PCI card is compatibille with DOS games, doesn’t have real OPL FM chip but FM is emulating.
review from 2001 http://www.3dsoundsurge.com/reviews/Live/Live.html
review from 1999 @ soundonsound.com
download windows xp and windows 7 drivers here:
https://support.creative.com
alternative drivers (windows 7, 10, 11) https://kxproject.spb.ru download
News of the year!
FAST TRACKER 2 IS BACK!
Its 100% clone of old good FT2 for modern Windows and Mac. No shitty DOSBox setups.
It’s beta, but works great!
FT2 download: http://16-bits.org/ft2.php
and… this is not new, but maybe you missed that ProTracker is available too :)
Protracker 2.3d from Amiga ported to Windows and Mac is here: http://16-bits.org/pt.php
I recently purchased a used 2010 HP Z600 Workstation on eBay for less than 300 Euros. It’s a “Mercedes of computers,” solid as rock and was very expensive when it was new.
The Workstation came with 2 Xeon 4-core E5630 80w processors, 8GB of RAM, a Quadro 4000 graphic card (still costing over $100 on eBay), and a Windows 7 sticker.
I discarded the existing 8GB of memory (2GB modules) and added 6 new 4GB DDR3 ECC server modules for just $50. Now, I have 24GB of RAM for only 50 dollars (the machine limit is 48GB) as server memory modules are very cheap.
With 2 2.53GHz Xeons (2.8GHz turbo), this system is faster than current top i7 processors and costs less than a comparable processor. In the 7zip benchmark, I get 30,000 MIPS while an i7-7700K gets the same score. However, it is worth noting that this dual-processor system consumes a significant amount of energy. The processors alone draw up to 160 watts :)
For just $100, I could buy two more powerful 6-core Xeon X5670 processors with 24 threads, which would almost double the performance.
A really cool addition is that this computer has a built-in FireWire port which I use along with Presonus and M-Audio interfaces.
2020 update: I’ve changed processors to 2x 80W E5649, (2,53 GHz with 2,93 GHz turbo) so now i have 12 cores and 24 threads :)
Old Xeon Workstations are cheap and powerful. ECC memory modules are cheap as well :)
This computer accepts and recognizes old PCI 5V sound cards like the Motu 424 or even SB Live or Yamaha YMF724 with a hardware OPL-3 chip. You can use it for old FM trackers or dos games with real opl-3 sound :)
some reviews from the past:
https://www.cgchannel.com/2009/10/hp-z600-workstation-review/
https://www.geek.com/chips/review-hp-z600-workstation-844631/
Here you have omniflop images of my personal lo-fi drum sample collection for Akai S series samplers.
These are in s1000 disk format and it can be used with akai s950 s1000 s1100 s2000 s3000 s5000 and many others devices.
Images contain processed samples from old computers like Amiga, Atari, Commodore and also many other various samples from fairlight, emu, drum machines like dmx, linn, roland, yamaha. But everything was processed in lo-fi style, sometimes i added exciters, compression, distortion, bit crushers, filters.
Use omniflop program to save it to real floppies.
Make own drum kits, use envelopes, akai internal filters.
I recommend to use it on s1000 and s1100 due to much better playback of low-frequency samples than never samplers.
Enjoy :-)
p.s Tell me what you think about it, Post your music results :-)
All samples are recorded, processed by me.
You can use it with no restrictions as components of musical compositions
either private or commercial.
BUT you are not allowed to redistribute, sell. ASK ME FIRST!
DOWNLOAD
(link download fixed)
Yamaha TG500 is a rompler from 1992. Rack version of Yamaha SY85 workstation with bigger polyphony but no internal RAM memory (as default). Current Yamaha Motifs predecessor. Many filters, good effects.
You can buy up to 2 512kb RAM modules here sector101.co.uk and then you can load patches from Yamaha SY85.
More into at vintagesynth.com | sonicstate.com | synthmania.com | deepsonic.ch
pdf manual | patches
Atari ST editor | Windows 3.1 95 XP Editor | Winsysex editor and TG500 addon
And now the best part :) Free 48khz 16bit sample pack of ALL drum and fx waveforms.
Waveforms – it means, no internal effects were used, no layers. Pure samples looped as originals. Every waveform recorded few times in different pitch.
Recorded thru Akai s5000 sampler, then DC adjusted, normalized, denoised, trimed and looped on Windows.
These samples can be used with no restrictions as components of musical compositions either private or commercial. BUT you are not allowed to redistribute, sell or use as application (plugin) component. ASK ME FIRST!
I’ve just found excellent little program for windows and mac
Elektron C6 SysExManager / local copy: mac windows
This software can upload wav and aiff samples to ANY hardware sampler that supports SMDI transfer protocol by MIDI cable! Designed for Elektron.se hardware machines but works with old samplers also!
I tested it with Yamaha A5000 and it works great! It uploads all selected samples one by one!
I’m sure that this utility will work with Akai, EMU or other hardware samplers.
This soft has Turbo Mode which can be set up to 8x.
You must experiment and find maximal value yourself because every sampler has own limit.
My Yamaha accepts maximal available speed Turbo X8 with delay 10ms.
Loading samples this way is still slow, but when you have to transfer short drum samples or just waveforms
this soft is very helpful. Upload 100kb wave to my yamaha sampler takes about 50 seconds.
Keep it mind that midi is prehistoric protocol :)
Update on 19 Dec: I just tested it with akai s3000xl and it works in Turbo x8 mode. It seems that this tool sends data to akai even faster than to yamaha a5000 because there is no significant delay after transfer is complete.
Absolutely FREE, drum & fx samples from my Roland u-220 rompler module from 1989. It is rack version of Roland U-20 keyboard.
Provided sample pack includes additional latin and fx sounds from expansion card number 2. It contains all drum and fx samples with different pitches, effects off, long decay and relase set. Samples were originally recorded at 24bit 48khz by Motu 2408 mk2 interface, then denoised (removed few db of noise floor) and converted to 16bit.
DOWNLOAD U-220 DRUM SAMPLE PACK
Roland u-220 is simple 16-bit rompler, 30 voices of polyphony, 4mb of rom, reverb, chorus and delay effects are onboard.
No control over filter but you can control ADSR envelope and you can stack up to 6 detuned and panned voices, so you can create some fat basses or fat synths. Waveforms generally are not so bad, but related to popular music (very good piano).
download roland u-220 manual
download windows editor
more info about u-20 / u-220 at: vintagesynth.com synthmania.com sonicstate.com
These samples can be used with no restrictions as components of musical compositions either private or commercial. BUT you are not allowed to redistribute, sell. ASK ME FIRST!
more info at vintagesynth.com sonicstate.com
download pdf brochure
Drum machine Korg DDD-5, very nice vintage sound, claps and kick similar to Linn drum.
It’s little brother of Korg DDD-1. 29 sounds. Pads are pressure sensitive
DOWNLOAD DDD-5 SAMPLE PACK Originally recorded at 24bit 48khz. For recording I used Lexicon mpx550 (bypass mode).
Korg DDD-5 was powered by battery for eliminating AC hum.
Trimmed, normalized and converted to 16bit without noise dithering.
These samples can be used with no restrictions as components of musical compositions either private or commercial.
BUT you are not allowed to redistribute, sell. ASK ME FIRST!
Very cheap 12-bit 1987 drum machine, last of TR series. Lots of sounds (if compared to other tr-series)
more info at vintagesynth.com soundonsound.com sonicstate.com
SAMPLE PACK OF ALL TR-626 SOUNDS – DOWNLOAD
samples @ 48khz 16bit, some sounds were processed (exciter, equalizer)
recorded in 24bit by lexicon mpx-550, drum machine was powered by batteries
These samples can be used with no restrictions as components of musical compositions either private or commercial.
BUT you are not allowed to redistribute, sell. ASK ME FIRST!
Boss DR-660 is great drum machine from 1992, it is not just a simple rompler, but it’s very good drum synthesizer (based on samples)
Reverb, delay, chorus and flange effects are onboard. 255 16-bit sounds.
more info at sonicstate.com
download pdf manual and turbo start guide
and the most important part of this post :)
High quality sample pack of all dr-660 sounds – download here (over 60mb zip archive)
There are long decay sounds at two or three different pitches.
It takes me a lot of work to record, denoise and trim these samples, so please leave thanks in comments :-)
These samples can be used with no restrictions as components of musical compositions either private or commercial. BUT you are not allowed to redistribute, sell or use as application (plugin) component. ASK ME FIRST!