is there a program that converts AKAI DAT RAM's?

[brok landers]

hi all,

i did not know where to ask this so i do it here:
is there a program that converts DAT RAM's into another format?
i have some very old dats on which i stored some important backups from my samplers (back then),
and i don't have my akai's anymore ... so i was wondering if something like this exists ...

[kritikon]

Extreme Sample Converter? I had a beta copy of that ages ago...not entirely sure if it's even still currently available, but it looked a while back as though it was going to be developed to include most formats. It used to have some Akai formats included, but I can't remember how far back they included. Certainly 3000 and above, and I vaguely remember they had S1000 format conversion capability, but could be wrong.

[brok landers]

Extreme Sample Converter? I had a beta copy of that ages ago...not entirely sure if it's even still currently available, but it looked a while back as though it was going to be developed to include most formats. It used to have some Akai formats included, but I can't remember how far back they included. Certainly 3000 and above, and I vaguely remember they had S1000 format conversion capability, but could be wrong.

hi kritikon,
thanks for answering ... well, i have esc, and it's just great. but it doesn't support DAT ram data (stored on a digital audio tape), only CD roms (in this case akai cd roms)... but i don't have my akai's no more, in that case i could've just loaded the DAT rams, store these on an hd and burn the hd as an akai volume. then i'd be able to load these sounds in esc ...

[kritikon]

But you should be able to transfer DAT data into your DAW. Is it that ESC doesn't support 48KHz or something? DATs are just 48KHz/16bit digital files. So you'd just play back from your DAT into your DAW via optical or S/PDIF or whatever digital jacks you've got on the back of the DAT player.

Maybe I'm not getting what you mean by DAT RAM - I'm assuming you mean you simply digitally recorded samples in the AKAI format onto your DAT recorder direct from the sampler. Or do you mean something else?

[pschelfh]

If it's realy important data, then you're maybe better off buying a S/H Akai. They seem to be very cheap nowadays, just saw a CD3000XL for 100€!!

Peter.

[brok landers]

But you should be able to transfer DAT data into your DAW. Is it that ESC doesn't support 48KHz or something? DATs are just 48KHz/16bit digital files. So you'd just play back from your DAT into your DAW via optical or S/PDIF or whatever digital jacks you've got on the back of the DAT player.

Maybe I'm not getting what you mean by DAT RAM - I'm assuming you mean you simply digitally recorded samples in the AKAI format onto your DAT recorder direct from the sampler. Or do you mean something else?

hehe, yeah, i did that before, recording the DAT ram completeley via digi inputs to my daw. the problem is, that a DAT ram is not only the samples, but there's via digital audio also the information for the program itself stored ... sounds really ugly when you listen to it ... and in between there are always the samples played, so it's data/the sample/data/the sample/end data ...it's no problem to get the samples, but the programs (filters, env's, fx settings, keysplits, etc) is on there too ... and that is what esc can't read ... it's not the same format like akai cd roms, it's another format ...

[brok landers]

If it's realy important data, then you're maybe better off buying a S/H Akai. They seem to be very cheap nowadays, just saw a CD3000XL for 100€!!

Peter.

indeed ... but i have a friend, he still has his s3000xl, i might get him to do that ... i was just thinking maybe some software would exist to do that, so i could avoid going there and do that as his studio .. it's about 200 dat tapes, so it nevertheless would take days toconvert all the data, even though i of course wouldn't convert all the data ... only the important ones ...

[rob_lee]

hi

i still have all my software from my s300xl wrapped here..it says M.E.S.A modular editing software by Akai II for Macintosh so i don't know if this would be any good for what you need.
There are also 3 other floopy disks from the Akai.

You can have them if it's what you need.

best

Rob

[brok landers]

hi rob,
thanks for the generous offer ...
sadly mesa doesn't support DAT rams, and i'm on pc ...
but thanks again!

[kritikon]

Aaah...I see. i surfed around and found out this from an Apple site:

Converting AKAI Files with the EXS24 mkII

The EXS24 mkII can import samples in the AKAI S1000 and S3000 sample formats. The AKAI Convert feature can be used to import:

*

An entire AKAI format CD-ROM disc
*

An AKAI partition
*

An AKAI volume
*

An AKAI program
*

An individual audio file (sample)

But, as you're on PC...


Maybe there's something that can convert from EXS24 into something lke Halion format? It would be long winded, but maybe it's doable? I dunno...maybe Halion itself can do the same thing as EXS24 - it seemed to have been released as a direct competitor to the Logic sampler and included much the same functionality. Anyone know Halion at all?

[brok landers]

the exs can do that since it was released, on pc too ...
but DAT ram is entirely different, audio-based data storage format as the data on akai rom or hd, which is not audio based ...

[kritikon]

I dunno then. TBH, I reckon DATs are now utterly obsolete. I've got around 15 DAT tapes chock full of my old stuff that I can't access any more since my DAT recorder finally died. I've almost thrown away the tapes, just can't bring myself to do it. I suppose I could go find a studio with a DAT and get them to load it all onto discs or summat, because I sure as hell can't find anywhere that even knows what a DAT is around here, let alone fix one.

Actually - that's an idea. Maybe you can still find a studio with DAT and Akai h/w. Get them to transfer it and convert it. Might actually be the only way, as I found nothing else on the net for DAT conversion of Akai to anything else. i think DAT really did die a complete death...(shame, I actually quite liked the format, even though the h/w tended to be a little unreliable).

[brok landers]

hehe, actually that's what i wrote some posts above ...
but better, i'll borrow an akain s3000xl from a friend for a week or so, plus it's external harddrive, burry out my old 7200 powermac to transfer/burn that stuff from the hd ... ahhh, shit, i should've done that back then ... :/