dpx-1

[massimo]

Hi all,
owner of an E3 rack here.
I have been offered an Oberheim dpx-1, said to come with a huge library on diskettes. Problem is, the owner says the 5 1/4 drive currently doesn't work, as there is a disk inside that the dpx refuses to spit.
My interest is mostly in being able to play E2 sounds on it, without carrying the E3 to gigs.
What is practically the problem of a dpx with a broken 5 1/4 drive? Can I expect to find the E2 library in 3 1/2 disk format? What else should I check? OS version? I believe I read that newer versions allowed user to tweak the filter cutoff frequency.

best regards
thanks in advance
Massimo

[Elmbeatz]

I would not expect to meet a big part of the (REALLY huge) EII library on 3.5 disks.
This would mean that someone would have converted thousands of disks to the dpx - pretty unlikely..

You should be after OS versions 2.1 (very common) or 2.2 - these have the filter update and some other useful updates.

Concerning the not working drive: you could also build in an HxC device..

[massimo]

Hi Elmbeatz,
thank you very much

do you mean that the original E2 library came in 5 1/4 disks and that one of the practical uses of the dpx was to convert those into 3 1/2 disks thanks to its double drive? Should the guy claim the whole E2 library is actually on his 3 1/2 disks, should I assume the conversion is lossless?

thanks
best regards
Massimo

[Elmbeatz]

Of course the library came on 5 1/4 disks, as no version of the ORIGINAL Emulator II didn't have any 3.5 drive.
THE purpose of the dpx was, that musicians didn't have to take their heavy Emulators and prophets etc. out of the studio on tour, only the DISKS.

Saving the 5 1/4 disks to the 3.5 drive was only good for back-up reasons, as these disks could ONLY be loaded on the dpx, NOT on the original samplers.

The conversion is lossless, but you need to know that the dpx is a 12bit device, while the EII is an 8bit device - so it still has to convert the disks to it's own format. I wouldn't hear a difference in playback though, maybe the dpx even sounds better.

Well, if the guy tells you he's got the whole E-II library on 3.5 disks, then he should come up with (literally) THOUSANDS of disks    I really doubt that....
BUT - as I said - you could still build in the HxC floppy emulator to have quick access to all these banks.

[massimo]

Again, thanks

I'm afraid I do not know what the HxC floppy emulator is though...

best regards
Massimo

[esynthesist]

The HxC is a floppy drive emulator. See http://hxc2001.free.fr/floppy_drive_emulator/
There's also a video link on that site showing how this device replaces the 3.5 drive in the DPX-1.
The SD card can hold hundreds of EII "disks" at once.
I haven't heard of anyone replacing the 5.25 drive in the DPX-1 by the HxC, but there's a chance that it works too because this drive probably behaves exactly like the 5.25 drive in the Emulator-II, for which the HxC works fine too.

As an alternative, you can use DPXTOOLS (on http://www.emxp.net) to convert .EII files to DPX 3.5 floppy disks. Of course you will need (a) a Windows PC with internal floppy drive, and (b) a library of EII banks in .EII (=SoundDesigner for EII) format. A pretty huge library can be created by buying the original CDS3 OMI cdroms at quparts.com (e-mail them, they are not on their website...) and then use CDS3TOOL to extract the EII banks from these cdroms into .EII format. Perhaps Rob at www.emulatorarchive.com is still selling his EII cdrom too, which contains all E-Mu factory banks immediately in .EII format.

[massimo]

This forum is such a phenomenal resource!
I feel privileged to be a member,
thank you for your help

best regards
Massimo

[Elmbeatz]

DPX-tools is really a great tool. (AS EVERYTHING E-SYNTHESIST CREATES !!!)
It takes some minutes to get into the workflow though, as it has no graphical user interface.

[gertie]

just picked up a dpx with 8 outs and a cd rom port 

[Elmbeatz]

just picked up a dpx with 8 outs and a cd rom port 

congrats. got one, too.

[gertie]

is the cd port of any use? i dont think ive ever seen one of these cd drives for sale...except for a link posted on here last year ... ive got os 2.2 on mine

[Elmbeatz]

is the cd port of any use? i dont think ive ever seen one of these cd drives for sale...except for a link posted on here last year ... ive got os 2.2 on mine

it's not of any use.
also got 2.2
and I also got the harddisk connector. Fully upgraded DPX so to speak.

[esynthesist]

I would love to investigate the RS422 feature of the DPX in order to make some software which can send banks to the DPX from a computer, but I haven't found a DPX with RS422 port yet.
So once Elm or Gertie are getting bored of their DPX, they can always send it to me as a gift 

(On the other hand, I don't think a lot of people have a DPX with RS422 port, so even having software available for it would not help many DPX users out there...)
 

[Elmbeatz]

 

DPX tools is all we need.