Setting up ZuluSCSI with a vintage sampler [Akai S6000/S5000]

Interested in using an SD card with your vintage sampler? ZuluSCSI may be the way. It was a bit trickier to get set up and working than I expected, so I walk through the steps I took to install and configure the internal ZuluSCSI with my Akai S6000 - and explain some of the things to watch out for. A lot of this will also apply to other samplers of a similar vintage.
IMPORTANT!! Please see the pinned note. Following on from comments from other folks, it appears that formatting the entire card as exFAT will allow the S6000/S5000 to see it as a single hard disk that you can then format within the Akai's Disk utilities, which is way simpler than setting up multiple virtual disks!! Thanks for the tip. This didn't work when I first tried it with FAT32, but exFAT works great.
Alternatively, if you create an exFAT disk image using Disk Utility on OSX - you can ostensibly rename these to .img files from .dmg. I've only tried this with smaller disk drives, not larger ones - but it appears to work as well.
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[@StephenMcLeod]

*Important Note!* - After some comments from other folks, it appears that the simplest way to set things up for one large hard drive is to format the entire SD card as exFAT. Insert that into the S6000/S5000 and format the disk in the Akai. From there you can add/remove data as you see fit. This didn't work the first time I tried it for some reason - but is way simpler than the faffing about I explained above!

[@TibbyWorcester]

tried this and it didnt work for me 😢 also fyi if you take the rack mount bracket and the side off the s6000 there are a couple of screws to get the floppy cradle out completely without doing the mission inpossible balancing act.😂

[@StephenMcLeod]

@@TibbyWorcester Gosh darnit I wish I had known this!!!

[@andyjackson3891]

Had my S5000 for a few years now, and this is exactly how I work - with one 64GB SD card. Works a treat. AkSys is also worth a look...

[@mark-yj5sg]

What is the issue with the Zip drive method? They hold 100mb/250mb each If you had one fitted all you need do is mount a zip disc, save wav data, eject the disc insert it into a second usb powered zip drive that is connected to your computer (these can be bought on eBay for about £50)

[@egxrkin]

worked on mpc 2000xl zuluscsi 🤝

[@disparity-bit]

Super helpful video! I just got an E-mu ESI 32 and I'm eager to get the ZuluSCSI upgrade installed.

[@StephenMcLeod]

What a nice find!

[@rossawilson01]

I just got an s6000, no idea it was as loud as it is, thankfully here’s a simple fan replacement that makes it silent. I also found the nuts the face plate fixes into had come unstuck. And the cable for it was really short. I almost turned it around and sold it, but I’m pushing through. It still seems like a genuinely useful and fun option as a massive polyphonic sample bank!

[@StephenMcLeod]

Can't beat the sound of a plane taking off in the studio eh!

[@NigelMarston]

I have been considering an S5000/S6000 for a little while. I've held-off buying one because I wasn't sure I had the patience to go back in time with regard to computer interfaces. Now in my mid-50s, I lived through, and worked in electronics design, computers and IT from the mid-1980s which has left me mentally scarred. I remember thinking "one day computers will just work the way we want them to" about 30 years ago and slowly they have evolved, so to go back in technology-time leaves me very reticent. Thanks for the instruction, warning, considerations about this... and especially thanks for the choice "fucks" which perfectly mirrored my own sense of frustration when trying to make old kit work. I am still on the fence about purchasing one but I feel more informed now.

[@fischergreen4134]

Just got my ASR 10 repaired I wanted a 2nd SCSI device as back up for my Zip. I brought a Zulu Mini which is a external driveb. Works a treat and was only £75

[@StephenMcLeod]

I've got one of those as well for my other devices!

[@phillindablank]

Thank you for making this video, I’m sure a lot of people will find this helpful. I was thinking of picking up an s5000 recently and was wondering what I should do in terms of file storage/management, I think you answered my question 😂

[@StephenMcLeod]

ZuluSCSI is definitely the way to go. It just takes a wee bit of setting up. Well worth it once it's done though!!

[@LisaSchuyler]

Kinda wanted to see you hover that thing on the chairs with you underneath. What tremendous persistence you have to get that drive to work.

[@StephenMcLeod]

You know me Lisa. I'm not stubborn at all.

[@LabRatWarfare]

I see your pinned comment, glad it's sorted! That's crazy the S6000 came out in 1999, I graduated high school that year! 😳Last class of the 90s 🤘🐀

[@StephenMcLeod]

Showing yer age ratty!!!

[@ChristianCawood]

ZuluSCSI firmware creates the image files itself without the need for anything else. All you need to do is create a text file on your Mac using textEdit. In textEdit preferences change format from rich text to plain text. Then in the format menu select Make Plain Text. Now save and name the file exactly the same as the name below. Do not miss out the create part at the start. Copy all. Create 1020M HD1.txt Once you have renamed the file as above and saved just copy the text file onto your SD. The next time you insert your SD into the ZuluSCSI it will blink repeatably while creating the image (be patient) it does stop. The above file command is for a 1GB image. If you need a larger image, just change the 1020 to a larger number like 4080 for a 4GB image. If you are creating files over 32gb be sure to format the SD cards as exFAT or FAT32 for files under 32gb. Hope this helps.

[@StephenMcLeod]

Ah nice one! I couldn't get this to work for some reason when I tried it. Top tip though.

[@ichiban8558]

Aaaah the joys of SCSI. Possibly the most flaky disk drive system ever devised. Who remembers SyQuest drives, DIP switches and SCSI Probe on the Mac?

[@StephenMcLeod]

I thankfully avoided that era. I was a PC bod until about 17 years ago. Oh god. I'm old.

[@ichiban8558]

@@StephenMcLeod A wee whippersnapper...I can remember Photoshop when it was a bundled scanner utility! To be fair to Apple SCSI was fucking light years ahead of anything on the PC, when it worked. It was a groundbreaking technology that basically enabled true desktop publishing and facilitated the entire graphic arts industry for millions of independent graphic designers. The fact that you're using it in 2023 speaks volumes.

[@scottmcdiarmid8196]

SCSI has bee ROCK solid for many decades, you just need to know what you are doing and all the diff formats/connector types. Still used extensively in Datacenter Servers incl the iSCSI protocol

[@atetraxx]

With a zulu scsi you can chain multiple samplers with the scsi port. Even if they are different formats. Just make the 7 different disk images to match the different formats.

[@StephenMcLeod]

Interesting. How would that work, and what benefit?

[@medwaystudios]

@@StephenMcLeod It just works as long as there is no SCSI ID conflict. It means multiple samplers can all share one Zuluscsi. I just got mine and both a S1000 and Emu E64 share it. I'll hook up my S6000 as well.

[@mastercylinder1939]

Wish you’d filmed it, you may have won a prize. Most difficult retro fit of the year.

[@StephenMcLeod]

I was too scared that I'd end up filming my untimely demise.

[@mastercylinder1939]

@@StephenMcLeod lol. You could have gone viral, death by Akai S6000.

[@TroyCadbury]

Great vid as usual. I have just put a ZuluSCSI into my S5000 and found I did not need to use the power connector as termination power thru the SCSI connector powers the card. Also in the S5000 there is a handy screw hole both above and below to secure the bracket for the card (I have the same rabbit hole bracket.)

[@StephenMcLeod]

:'( I've got one set of screws, but it kind of flops around because it's just at the front. I should just glue the damn thing in, but I am sure I would regret that ha.

[@soundmutant]

You can plug an old style pc keyboard into the s6000 display for naming samples,programs and folders. It works a treat.

[@StephenMcLeod]

I've not tried that yet but that's such a cool feature too!!

[@Zen_Mox]

I took a break from trying to figure out the qun mk2 and watched this... Now I need to lie down in a dark room for about an hour....

[@StephenMcLeod]

You gotta reclaim that zen!!!

[@Zen_Mox]

@@StephenMcLeod in all seriousness, I'm quite excited to see what you end doing with that unit. I looked into the s series earlier this year, but I have limited space... That detachable screen is really cool

[@StephenMcLeod]

@@Zen_Mox The detachable screen is genius!

[@CNTRRNDM]

Great vid, mate...but, to be honest, you could make a video about a vacuum cleaner, and I'd still be hooked😁

[@StephenMcLeod]

Ya charmer!!

[@demoscenes]

This was very informative! Them old SCSI junk bastards can be a pain in the slot to get working at all. Since I have a ZiliSCSI it coul be an idea. Keep it up :)

[@StephenMcLeod]

There's apparently easier ways than my convoluted process ha. But hey, it works in the end sooo

[@Milionbeats]

Hey Stephen thanks for the info i just ordered one for my s6k. Where did you get your screen extension cable? I've orded two Serial RS232 Cable DB9 Female to Female and non of them works. Thanks

[@StephenMcLeod]

Oh dang, I'm sorry to hear that. Mine came with the extended cable already!

[@boydpukalo8980]

Since MacOS clearly sucks, you could have used the ZuluSCSI to create the img files for you.

[@StephenMcLeod]

I couldn't figure it out! But got it working now.

[@tonyisyourpal]

Just installed a ZuluSCSI in my Emulator 6400 - it’s a classic rather than an Ultra so no FAT file systems - being old and gnarly but still a Mac user I used dd to create disk images in the terminal (“dd if=/dev/zero of=/Volumes/YourSDCard/HD5.img bs=1m count=8192 status=progress” should get an 8gb file) then the E6400 formatted them happily. I’ve got older SCSI2SD cards on my Roland DM80 and DM800 and the ZuluSCSI was a breeze compared to those buggers…

[@StephenMcLeod]

Noice! Command line wizard.

[@medwaystudios]

Can do it just in Zuluscsi by making a text file with the size you want. I did it with my e64 and it works great. You can also use Translator Free to make a virtual Emu image, drag a bunch of e4b files into it and put that on the SD card (after renaming it to what the Zuluscsi wants) and you've got a disk full of libraries.

[@djtomoy]

I’m Fat32, 33 in November

[@neillsautoart]

Good day . Sorry if this not in relation to this video . But I just wanted to ask how are the vinyls you purchased in Soul . Looking forward to seeing what you do with them . Keep up with the good work . Really enjoy your frankness with all videos .

[@StephenMcLeod]

Thank you! I've been experimenting with them and will have a video with some of the results soonish. There's so much material in there that it will keep me going for ages.

[@neillsautoart]

@@StephenMcLeod look forward to it . Are you part of any EMOM . If you ever fancy having a trip down to Coventry to attend one of our EMOM nights then let me know . Be cool to have a KZbin celebrity.

[@StephenMcLeod]

@@neillsautoart I'm definitely not a KZbin celeb but thank you! Is EMOM the experimental open mic night for electronic music?

[@andrewverran3498]

Nice, i will have to keep an eye out for one here in OZ.,have you ever owned a Kurzweil K2500RS? cheers bro.

[@StephenMcLeod]

I haven't, but I'd love to!

[@cnfuzz]

Isn't the bandwidth real scsi way larger than read write on an Sd card , is it fast enough for virtual sample streams from the 5000/6000

[@StephenMcLeod]

Not sure about the older SCSI times, but they are something 600MB up/down, so faster than most SD cards, yeah!

[@azurduy117]

Isn't there a SCSI port in the back where you can just connect a SCSI2SD unit?

[@StephenMcLeod]

There is, but those are currently more expensive. It was fiddly to install the internal version but it also made more sense for my space to have that than the external one!

[@aussierob7187]

That’s what I use instead of the USB because I don’t have an XP machine yet and don’t need the digital mixer of aksys as my 16 outs run through a physical mixer and digital recorder already. The external SCSI2SD is also used on my Korg Triton, Kurzweil K2000 and the Emu. I just swap out the SD cards for the different formats. There is a USB cable connection on it also which allows file transfers from my studio PC or MacBook.

[@TibbyWorcester]

@allmyfriendsaresynths did you have to customise an .ini file for the zuluscsi?? replaced my older v5.1 scsi2sd and I'm still scratching my head over my Zuluscsi card just picked up the newer RP2040 version - put the latest firmware on it which was simple enough - formatted my sd card to exfat - used discjockey to create image file - 'settings changed in DJ to get oversized image created' - wacked the card in the S6000 and booted fine and see's the single drive without issue 'same as i did with the previous S2SD'- and so i go into the akai disc utils to format the card and i get a 'scsi error' when its tries to format...anyone else had this issue ...and theres no err log file on the ZuluScsi to say what the issue is.

[@StephenMcLeod]

Oh damn, I'm sorry! I didn't touch the ini file at all :(

[@StephenMcLeod]

exFAT could be the issue? I think I used FAT32. The S6000 can't see exFAT.

[@TibbyWorcester]

@@StephenMcLeod Finally got my Fucker to work after testing different scsi cable/sdcards hda images etc and getting to a stage of wanting to toss the bloody card.all it took was to disable scsi termination on the ZS RP2040 Card by setting the onboard SW3 dip switch to OFF position then go turn ON scsi termination on the back of the S6000 - no other fudging about and the card formatted under the S6000 disk utils perfectly without any error message.

[@joefrost01]

This is probably a stupid question but wouldn’t it have been easier to just buy an MPC One or Live?

[@StephenMcLeod]

Not a stupid question really! I touched upon this a bit in my last video - why I bought the S6000. There are a bunch of reasons, and while the One/Live are awesome (I have a Force!), none of them have multiple analogue outputs, which is the main thing. The S6000 has 16!!!

[@joefrost01]

@@StephenMcLeod ah of course, that said they work pretty well with a class compliant USB audio interface, I plug mine into an ES9 in my modular for fun hardware jams although in my case I’m interested in the ins rather than the outs. It’s a really nice combo with a modular as there are several modular gadgets that can act as MIDI controllers so not only do you get to pack extra synths in a small portable case, your MIDI controllers are in there too

[@StephenMcLeod]

@@joefrost01 Yeah, I do similar with my Force - though using older gear is half the fun!

[@joefrost01]

@@StephenMcLeod it does have a certain charm, I sometimes feel a bit misty eyed about my e6400 Ultra…

[@Jim_KYB]

Shame, sounds way too painful to contemplate doing.

[@StephenMcLeod]

It's a bit fiddly at first but not that complicated! Well worth it once it's in there.

[@tillorrly1128]

Real hard ware hacker use hot glue. If that doesn't work, just use more hot glue. 😉

[@StephenMcLeod]

That is my usual approach tbf ha

[@saren6538]

No hi

[@chrisrichardson2813]

...nice clip ...I've always fancied an S6000 ...plus ...I've been really interested in a ZuluSCSI card for my MPC 2000 ...I've aslo got an MPC 2000XL ...but that's easy with an IDE CF/SD card reader ...so ...good to learn more about the Zulu option ...thanks loads

[@StephenMcLeod]

Ohhh I want an mpc 2000xl... Though I have the 2500. But something about the 2000xl is pretty

[@scottmcdiarmid8196]

drop me a email and I can send you loads or Akai resources. I recently converted all the EMU soundbanks to AKAI Programs using one of the apps I mentioned which is really brilliant resource and ready to go. converts files to programs really quickly

[@StephenMcLeod]

Hey Scott! Thank you. That would be awesome. What's yer address? I think YT strips comments with emails etc so maybe do it in a sneaky sneaky fashion, or you can find me at allmyfas at gmail

[@leepshin]

@@StephenMcLeod I widnae mind a copy of those resources an all...including the link to that "Disk Jockey" you said you'd include the link to.