Converting zip drives to CF or SD Card Drives for Roland Gear
Roland SP-808
Recently I picked up a few used Roland musical items that I rather like but use the zip drive format. I found a Roland VS-840EX in mint condition along with two Roland SP-808 samplers at rock bottom prices. The Roland VS-840 already was an EX version and I upgraded the two SP-808 samplers to the EX software version using OS midi files found online. Both the Roland SP-808EX and VS-840EX are excellent for triggering samples. I use the SP-808 WWAC converter program on my computer to import WAV files. I then use the BR WAV converter to import WAV files into the VS-840. Both machines sound fantastic, especially the SP-808EX. All in all, these are two very capable machines and are both a joy to use even though they are older devices. The SP-808 in particular sounds really good.
Roland VS-840EX
It’s important to note that my main uses for both machines is to simply trigger samples and apply effects. In other words, I like to use them as back track machines that I can use to play along with using my keyboards or guitars. For this the SP-808 and the VS-840EX work very well. Of course one can expand on the SP-808 and create sampled grooves plus one can record tracks onto the VS-840EX no problem. Both however are older machines so you have to expect limitations at times if you want to really use them for their intended purposes. I like to buy used gear and think outside the box a little bit. The SP-808 is a great groove box for backtracks and for the prices they are going in Japan now it’s crazy not to pick up a couple. The VS-840 are also a dime a dozen here too which is great on the wallet.
This week I was researching on some forums that the Roland VS-840EX could successfully be fitted with a Compact Flash Card to IDE converter in place of the zip drive. This allows you to use 1GB flash cards and to operate the Roland VS-840EX in silent fashion. A place where these CF to IDE cards are purchased is from an online vendor called Deal Extreme (An Absolute HORRIBLE company. Read comments about Dealextreme experience! Buyer Beware!) which are based in China if correct. These have been confirmed to work and once my order has arrived I’ll update this article with whether indeed it does. It’s apparently quite simple to swap the zip drive out and attach the CF to IDE adapter. In addition I picked up the SD to IDE adapter as well because both the CF and SD apparently work. These are very cheap from Deal Extreme although the company is very slow to ship I must say.
In addition, I will be installing both CF and SD card adapters into the Roland SP-808EX for testing and hopefully they will work. There are reports of CF card drives that work in the Roland SP-808 but no confirmed reports of exactly which drives or adapters. This is a huge thing if a CF or SD card adapter can be found for the Roland SP-808 Sampler. I’m not expecting it work really as so many adapters have been tried on the SP-808 and it’s been reported the OS firmware is the reason behind all the failed attempts. However, some do work and it is my hope that what I’ve recently purchased will be successful.
Currently I have a ton of zip disks and both 100 and 250 zip drives around the place. So it isn’t an issue of finding zip disks or working zip drives. I also have never really had any “drive too busy errors” because I mainly used the SP-808 and VS-840EX for sample track playback. However, the noise of these zip drives can get to you after a while especially in a quiet studio environment. So it would be really wonderful to get the zip drives out of these boxes.
I’ll update this post after I get the CF and SD card adapters into the Roland SP-808EX and Roland VS-840EX. With any luck I’ll have extra storage and a nice quiet place to work. Although the zip drives and disks work great with these machines and the with the computer, the CF and SD card versions should make the work flow a bit smoother. There are a ton of used Roland SP-808 and VS-840EX boxes in Japan. They are all super cheap too so if this works I pick up some more for the kids and the whole family….laugh. Stay tuned!
I’ve researched on compatibility with SP-808 and CF card reader before, but I could not find a single user who were able to use it without problems. SP-808 is very unique sampler, it uses Zip drive like RAM (!) I think Roland made a big mistake on using Zip drive as a data storage. To make things worse, SP-808 works only with Zip disks, and it cannot sample anything without Zip disk inserted.
I hope your trial will be successful, but I know many SP-808 users have attempted to do the same thing.
If some one find a way to do it, I am sure that SP-808′s selling value will skyrocket on online auctions!
I have question on Roland VS-840EX. It has really a lot of built-in effects! Can it be used as a effect box?
JVC
January 19, 2012 at 3:46 pm
Buyer Beware with Dealextreme.com. They are accepting orders while indicating the product in stock but it is not. Their style of business appears to be take accept the order, take the money, and then get the product from a supplier. This can take weeks and can also result in not being able to fulfill the order entirely. My order stated above in my article has been sitting in the queue waiting to be processed with a “waiting for supplier” message. The items were indicated as being in stock but then they turn around and now indicate it’s not in stock. There has been no communication from Dealextreme and now after initiating a complaint with Paypal they have paused order processing. Unbelievable.
At this point I will no longer be doing any sort of business with Dealextreme again no matter what their product is or at what price. These guys are not professional in my book. Thus buyer beware and congratulations to those who’ve had a successful transaction with Dealextreme. There also seems to be quite a few problem stories on their forums too. I probably should have looked at that before my order.
I’ll post an update about the result. Right now I’m going for a refund. Dealextreme sucks!
jimdatwood
January 23, 2012 at 5:53 am
I canceled my order with Dealextreme.com and have escalated a claim with Paypal. Dealextreme is a crap company in my book and they have zero communication. They sell items not in stock, avoid communication, and just want your money. Indeed you get what you pay for, but I absolutely would have payed more for the items I was looking for anyway for better service and quality. I only bought from Dealextreme because I couldn’t find the product elsewhere, but I’m sure there are other options available if necessary. I’ll just look harder.
Again, buyer beware with Dealextreme!! If I could give negative stars to these people I would.
Now back to enjoying music.
jimdatwood
January 27, 2012 at 7:28 am
Paypal refunded my money and all is well. I will not be purchasing anything from Dealextreme or DX.com again. You get what you pay for with this company. Again, buyer beware.
jimdatwood
February 8, 2012 at 3:16 am
Hia Jim:
I get a SP-808EX some days ago and I was wondering, what about replacing the 250MB zip drive for a 2GB Jazz drive? I did it on an old Akai S5000 sampler (same time as SP-808EX) and it works fine, the connectors are the same and you can find them easy on eBay. I will try it and tell you.
Greets from Buenos Aires!
Juan Andrés.
Juan Andrés Celasco
March 13, 2012 at 5:43 am
Thanks Juan! I look forward to hearing about your progress. I had a bad dealing with “Deal Extreme” so my original project didn’t work out. I’ve just been using zips for now. – Jim
jimdatwood
March 15, 2012 at 11:44 am
hello,
I have a SP808ex, and ended up making the purchase of the drive Compact Flasch, so do the tests I inform you, greetings from Brazil.
Edwin Camacho.
Edwin Camacho
March 22, 2012 at 3:25 am
Nice post. SImilar issue here: SP-808 was in deep storage for a little while (um…six years to be exact). Hooked the optical to my system and the ZIP loaded all banks and played the samples! Wow. Problem is the drive would not read anything after. Like nothing. Zip=crap. Wasted a day trying to make any of my antique zip drives work on macs and PCs and so forth. No luck. Now I am curious about ditching zip altogether. Problem is that everybody talks about this or that solution while nobody reports success.
It can’t be so hard to find an IDE 40 pin medium that will work with the OS. Please let me know (anybody) if you can find a working solution. I ordered yet another internal 250MB zip (ebay), but who knows.
Contact: studionyc at hotmail dot com. Thanks in advance. Always LOVED the 808, also have the ‘Groove-synth” to go along with it, another blast from the (Roland) past. Keep groovin’
~
Nick
Nick
April 16, 2012 at 9:27 pm
I found an SD Card Converter that works with the Roland VS-840. Perhaps it might work as well with the Roland SP-808? I’m not sure, but I’ll find out this week.
http://jimatwood.wordpress.com/2012/04/25/roland-vs-840-sd-card-zip-drive-replacement/
jimdatwood
April 25, 2012 at 11:49 am