Using casette tape interface data with Cubase

  • Thread starter Thread starter Emil Vagabundo
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Emil Vagabundo

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Hi to everyone!
I could have posted this to many topics but I believe someone can know the answer here on tis forum.
Is it possible to use the data recorded on a casette (e.g casette tape interface of a Roland TR 626 drum machine with stored sequences, paterns). I have several very good sequences and patterns stored on a casette but I don not have the machine any more. It would be very nice to reuse them and to avoid programing the same sequences again.Is there a way to run the tape and then record it in Cubase and to make use of it? Or something else? Any advice is wellcomed.
Thanks, Emil
 
Sure you can do this but on very long sequences it is possible that the timing of the tracks at the end may change by a few milliseconds. You'll find this especially if you use a sequence from the beginning of the tape and then another from the end. There is no word clock to syncronize with. As long as you are aware of that and adjust for it you should have no problems.
 
Actually, I don't think you can. You could "record" whatever is on the tape to an audio track, but only as a storage. For example, I can use the data "tape" I/O on my Juno 106 to transfer patch data back and forth between the computer, but that's about it. The sequences stored on those tapes aren't really MIDI sequences (the old Roland drum machines are all pre-MIDI) just patch data.
 
noisewreck you are so right. For some reason I was thinking his data was wave files and I didn't give it a thought that it was data used to populate a roland drum machine, my bad. I need to think more before I speak.
 
I should make some of the things clearer: Roland TR 626 is a midi drum machine! So the data stored on the casette contained: paterns, note numbers, sequences etc. When reloading the machine from the tape interface, the user part of the memory was rewritten by the data received from the tape resulting with new paterns, seqeuences, songs that I had made and recorded for storage beforehand. Of course, with great effort I could find the machine now and reload it and then record the needed sequences/paterns/songs into cubase as midi events and then use the midi data again.(when played as audio, it goes trrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr......)
So, in other words: can the data from the casette be recorded into Cubase as a midi recording (or I don't know what format this would be) so that later the paterns, songs, sequences, note numbers could be used again? Maybe there is some other way, not Cubase?
Am I the only one who has had this kind of question? Has it become a custom to reject old equpiment and to forget the knowledge of previous generations?
Still frustrated, Emil
 
So, in other words: can the data from the casette be recorded into Cubase as a midi recording

no. You would need to load it into the 626, then record the midi as it plays. The tape data formats are proprietary and nothing short of the device will be able to decode it
 
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