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Roland Format Information |
Roland S7x Series/XV-5080
History
Abut 10 years after the introduction of the S7x, Roland resurrected the S7x sampler technology within their line of rack-mounted synth products. This is the XV-5080 - a combination of the popular JV-2080 technology with the older S7x sample playback engine. It saves a .SVD, .SVP, and WAVE combination on the standard DOS disk format. (Note: Roland's newer units are called Fantom, which are similar to the XV-5080 only more advanced (sort of). We deal with it separately - go to the Fantom Series for more details.) Synthesis and File Structure
Although the Roland can store any of these objects separately, a Patch does not have to be in a Volume - it is helpful to think of the organization as a hierarchy. Most commercial CD-ROM's put everything in Volumes proper. Interestingly, the wavedata information sampled with a Roland S-7x series sampler is treated with a Frequency Emphasis boost, which pumps up the high end. When the Roland plays the sound out of its outputs, its internal hardware filters compensate for the built-in frequency emphasis, making the sample sound normal again. What this means is that if you transferred normal 16-bit wavedata from any other source to the Roland, and then played it through the Roland, it will sound duller since the outputs would be de-emphasizing the high end. Conversely, any Roland data you play through another medium will sound tinny, since the frequency emphasis is not being filtered. The solution is to mimic the Roland input filters on the way in to the Roland, and mimic them again on the way out. Translator contains a high quality De-emphasis (and Emphasis when importing into Roland) Filter that mimics the Roland samplers behavior. The Roland imports the older S-50/550 format, but does an AWFUL job importing Akai. The XV-5080, however, can import Akai sounds, wi ht better results. |
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Translating and Building to Roland S7x Format Roland S7x information exists on a proprietary disk format, so anything you want accessible to a Roland S7x has to be on a media it can read, such as and SD card, a Roland-formatted Virtual Drive (image), ZipDisk, or other. This requires you to drag anything you want to convert from the right and drop it on the left, onto the Roland disk you want to contain the destination files. By dropping the source files on the Roland disk/image, Translator knows that you intend to convert to Roland S7x format. Names are 12 characters with a unique 3 character Category string (e.g. STR=String, BRS=Brass, etc.) Categories are separated by the Name by a colon (e.g. STR:HighString). All file objects (Volume, Performance, Patch, Partial, Sample) use the Category naming system. A Performance is a Bank format, built to load multiple Patches into the same or separate MIDI Channels. A Patch is an individual Instrument unit, containing a single keymap of Partials. Although a Partial is not referred to within Translator (it doesn't need to be for simplicity's sake), it consists of 4 Zones of individual Samples. You create Key Ranges by applying the same Partial to consecutive note numbers in the Patch. Each Zone in the Partial can have a velocity range, which enables velocity splits. A Patch can be at most 32mb, however be aware of how much memory your destination sampler has. Some S7x samplers max out at 16mb. Samples are 16-bit and mono only. Stereo samples are implied by two discrete Sample objects with -L and -R at the end of their names. Since there are restrictions on Patch-level programming and only 4 Zones in a Partial, sometimes multiple Patches must be created to imitate incoming source material. Patches like this are prefaced with an asterisk (*) and a Performance is created, which can play multiple Patches at one time. Parameter Tolerance can be used to reduce the need for multiple Patches; higher tolerance allows the Translator conversion engine to average programming needs and while the final result will not exactly match in the incoming source, it will be less complicated to deal with. 0% Parameter Tolerance means no averaging will take place, 100% tolerance means the first claim to a parameter will apply to all further ones. |
Translating Out of Roland S7x Format Since a S7x Patch/Sample will always be on a proprietary disk or image, you will always be converting out of that. Most times it will be under Proprietary Devices, but if it is a floppy image file, it will be represented just as a regular file, as an IMG or OUT or SDK or other extension. A S7x Patch is at most 32mb, so it might be too big for a destination whose maximum is less than that. Use Maximum Destination Size under Preferences-Data Processing to manage optimum sample preservation when converting to smaller destinations. The S7x is a dual-mono sampler, so when converting to stereo sample compliant destinations, Translator will combine a -L and -R pair to a stereo sample - only if the loop points are equal, or the sample sizes are equal, and if the are treated equally in the keymap. You can force -L/-R combining (ignoring the objections) with the Combine Unconditionally parameter, or turn off loop combining completely with Combine L R Samples checkbox, in Preferences-Stereo Management. In special cases where you are converting to a closely-related formats (e.g. S7x to XV5080 or S7x to Fantom), Translator has special routines where no translation takes place but substitutes the like-structures into the new format. This preserves the original organization plus preserves the original parameter values so no interpretation has to take place.
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Roland S5x Series
History The S50 came in keyboard format only, and used a regular 3.5 floppy drive, which was a step ahead of the ill-fated Quick Disks that the S10/S220 used. As Vintage Synth Explorer says, "It's too bad that such a nice looking and well designed synthesizer is home to a tiny 512k-WORD sample memory (756k-byte sample memory). And with 15 to 30kHz variable sampling rates at a 12-bit resolution, the sound quality is almost nice." The S50 was hugely expanded by the rack mount S550, which doubled the memory and add as an option SCSI. The S550 was complemented by the lower-priced sister the S330 and keyboard workstation (with sequencer) W30. Synthesis and File Structure Key ranges are developed by assigning the same Tone to consecutive note numbers in the Patch. Samples are essentially arranged in segments, with one large pool. Tones can specify two areas of the sample data pool, and you can layer them or split them as velocity splits. Sample data is 12-bit in storage and in memory, with the exception of sample data written on SCSI media, which is 16-bit. A S5x floppy disk, or floppy disk image, is a DS/DD disk size and holds 32 Patches, 32 Tones, and 0.75mb of sample data. The S550-series doubles the sample data space to 1.5mb and uses DS/HD disks. The S550 SCSI disk format provides up to 80mb of 64 "Areas"; an Area essentially holds the content of a S550 floppy disk, except it is in 16-bit data format. (Interestingly, the S550 CD format -there is one - is slightly different than the SCSI HDD format, but is the equivalent of the HDD format.) And interesting facet of the S5x (and S7x) disk format is that it uses a 9-sector geometry, in contrast to the Ensoniq and Akai 10-sector geometry. Using the standard 9-sectors enables floppy disks to be access - although clumsily - on any computer, PC or Mac. |
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Translating and Building Roland S5x Format Roland S5x information exists on a proprietary disk format, so anything you want accessible to a Roland S7x has to be on a media it can read, such as a floppy disk, floppy disk image, or on the S550/W30, SD card, a Roland-formatted Virtual Drive (image), ZipDisk, or other. This requires you to drag anything you want to convert from the right and drop it on the left, onto the Roland disk you want to contain the destination files. By dropping the source files on the Roland disk/image, Translator knows that you intend to convert to Roland S5x format. Again, note that SCSI only existed on S550's and W30's; otherwise it's on floppy disk and /or images you'll convert to. The Performance on a S5x is really the entire contents of the S5x memory. A Patch is an individual Instrument unit, containing a single keymap of Tones. A Tone consists of one or two sections of sample data. You create Key Ranges in a Patch by applying the same Tone to consecutive note numbers. A tone can either split the two sections of sample data, enabling velocity splits, or layer them to play simultaneously. Samples are 12-bit and mono only. A "stereo" sample can be imitated by layering the two samples in a Tone and panning them hard left and hard right. Usually they are denoted by -L and -R in the name. Parameter Tolerance can be used to reduce the need for multiple Patches; higher tolerance allows the Translator conversion engine to average programming needs and while the final result will not exactly match in the incoming source, it will be less complicated to deal with. 0% Parameter Tolerance means no averaging will take place, 100% tolerance means the first claim to a parameter will apply to all further ones. Since the S5x is very limited in memory, Translator rudely takes the first parts you give it and ignores everything else once the sampled data space is filled up. You can adjust this via the Maximum Size in the Preferences-Special option panel. This cuts down individual samples as they come in so all of them can possibly be allocated, instead of taking everything as it comes in. |
Translating Out of Roland S5x Format Since a S5x Patch/Tone will always be on a proprietary disk or image, you will always be converting out of that. Most times it will be under Proprietary Devices, but if it is a floppy image file, it will be represented just as a regular file, as an IMG or OUT or SDK or other extension. 12-bit samples will be converted to the destination sample bitrate automatically. In special cases where you are converting to a closely-related formats (e.g. to S7x, or in between S330 and W30), Translator has special routines where no translation takes place but substitutes the like-structures into the new format. This preserves the original organization plus preserves the original parameter values so no interpretation has to take place. |
and created the S50. This was 12-bit, and although was only 1.5mb, it innovated a television monitor output plus a mouse input, where it was far easier to edit sounds. This was so successful it continued on to the 16-bit S7x Series.