Extracting Octamed files - Please help!

27 August 2006, 22:08

Ok, firstly my apologies if this is the wrong sub-forum, but I couldn't see where else to put it. Also, thanks in advance to anyone who can give me some help with my problem.

Right, so Tezcatlipoca was an Amiga owner for many years and spent a great deal of time composing in Octamed, filling dozens of disks with his rather nifty music. Years went by and Tez moved house many times, gave the old Amiga away, got a PC and began to compose in Cubase, forgetting all about his early Octamed days that had started it all.

Now Tez is about to move house again and, in the usual maelstrom of packing he has just discovered his old Octamed disks, all 34 of them, filled with his old compositions. Problem. The PC will not - regardless of how much I kick it and call it unpleasent names - read an Amiga disk...

...sooo, this is where you lovely people come in. Without spending an absolute fortune, which I don't have, is there any way at all to rip these old music files off the disks and get them up on my PC? I could even bear to loose the samples embedded in them if it meant retaining the notation.

Please help Tez take a walk down musical memory lane!

viddi · 27 August 2006, 22:21

Welcome!

You have to transfer the real disks to adf-images.
But you must have real Amiga-Hardware to do so. (tool: e.g. ADF-Blitzer ; www.aminet.net)

This files can be used (as disks) in Amiga emulators like WinUAE.

See http://www.amigaforever.com/kb/3-118.html for more infos.

If you could find an Amiga with CD-Writer you can burn data on CD and use it on PC.

I`m not sure if there was a hardware interface for the PC which allows to read Amiga disks. I don´t think so

edit: If you like you could send the disks to me and I will transfer it...Might be a bit expensive.

27 August 2006, 22:33

Wow, thanks for the speedy and informative reply, viddi; it's greatly appreciated! Following your advice, and second hyperlink, it looks as though it might be possible to get my old music back by plugging a second floppy into my system and using this adfread thingy.

My only confusion now is - assuming this works - what am I to do with the file format? IIRC, my old music files are in the default format for Octamed (.mod?), which I'm assuming Cubase won't be able to read. I have an old copy of Octamed itself from my Amiga days, so will I need to load that through an emulator, load in the music, then export it in a different format?

Bear in mind that it is not just that I want to listen to these old tracks again; I need to be able to extract as much information as possible in a useable format that I can then put into a sequencer like Cubase, Sonar, or MidiNotate, all of which I use for music production. In an ideal world, I will be able to extract all of the samples contained in these files, if not, I at least need the notation so I can refresh them myself.

"If you like you could send the disks to me and I will transfer it...Might be a bit expensive."

How expensive? Of the 34 disks in total there are only 11 that I'm desperate to convert, the others are superfluous.

viddi · 27 August 2006, 22:40

There is Med Soundstudio for the PC.
It is able to read mods, meds and so on.

Here the link: http://www.medsoundstudio.com/

Or you could use the emu for nearly full Amiga pleasure.

WinAMP can play mods, too.

But I´m afraid cubase is not an Amiga fan

OctaMed is a tracker...

viddi · 27 August 2006, 22:43

Sorry, have to go now. I´m in a hurry.
Will help you tomorrow evening...
or maybe the other EAB-members will...

Bye

Zetr0 · 28 August 2006, 03:31

Heys Tez,

okies lets seeif i can help

there is software on the PC that is free that can play,edit octamed files.

delitracker, winamp as viddi has said as well as medSS (wich i have and love, its like octamed pumped!) it can output to wav, mp3 aswell so you can include it in a cubase mix.

bow lets get to the serious side of getting that data over to the PC.

1)
okay viddi suggest the quickest and safest method... find an amiga that had a CDRW bolted to it... and use it..
2)
if not that you can use an amiga hard drive to store the files straght from the disk, attache the disk to the PC an by using winuae to *mount* the disk from there you can copy to the native PC disk..
3)
Null modem / serial or paralell link. this is a bit awkward to set up but for £15 from ebay its easy to do... and you can transfer from PC to amiga and vice versa.
4)
I save this method to last as there are a lot of problems with it, if you search these problems for *catweasel mk 4* you will see what i mean. there is a product that you can buy for the PC that allows you to attache an Amiga floppy disk drive (amongst other things) from here you can use it to create REAL amiga disks as well copy them to the computer and read them as well.
there is a catch... these cards are nortoiously difficult to setup and get running under XP or any OS infact... as you will see when you so a search for the product *Cat weasel MK4*

what ever you decide Tez, can i make a final recomendation to MedSS its cheap and its a great to make music that way again on the PC!

best of luck...

poohbear · 28 August 2006, 03:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by tezcatlipoca

Wow, thanks for the speedy and informative reply, viddi; it's greatly appreciated! Following your advice, and second hyperlink, it looks as though it might be possible to get my old music back by plugging a second floppy into my system and using this adfread thingy.

I highly recommend the disk2fdi route if you have an old PC in which to install two floppy drives.

viddi · 28 August 2006, 07:15

Hi again!

Yeahh, I almost forgot Catweasel!!! Look at www.ami.ga

Of course, it´s possible to create mp3 or wav with MedSS.
Stupid me

There are no real "data tracks" in Cubase...so wav. is what you need.
You can even convert each Track from your modules and do a brand new mixing in cubase. This will give a flash to your old mods for sure

!

Well, so you really need MedSS!

Okay, see you later. Have to go now!

viddi · 28 August 2006, 07:16

Ahh yes: The conversion is not expensive, It´s for free of course!!!!

I just thought about the shipping costs!

Zetr0 · 28 August 2006, 12:38

thats a good idea viddi!

viddi · 28 August 2006, 14:37

Well, I´m at home again.

@ tezcatlipoca: Just tell me, if you want me to do the conversion.

I can burn a CD or send the images via mail.

Or......you buy an Amiga and find back to real Computer pleasure again!!

01 September 2006, 19:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by viddi

Well, I´m at home again.
@ tezcatlipoca: Just tell me, if you want me to do the conversion.
I can burn a CD or send the images via mail.

Well, it looks as though I may nee to go down that route after all. I have acquired 2 floppy disk drives and have everything properly connected, but neither DISK2FDI or ADFREAD will work. The former just hangs with the drive light on on the PC disk drive. The latter just comes up with 'error or non-AmigaDOS disk', which they sure as hell are!

So, what is the best way to get these things to you?

Paul · 03 September 2006, 12:01

Did you follow the ADFRead 1.0 ReadMe.txt Instructions?

Quote:

Instructions
------------

- Install fdrawcmd.sys from http://simonowen.com/fdrawcmd/
- Insert your Amiga disk in A:
- Insert the PC-formatted disk in B:
- From a command prompt, run: adfread.exe newimage.adf

The read process will take 2-3 minutes, during which the reading process will
be reported. Retries are a normal part of the read process, but failure to
read after 9 attempts will cause the utility to move on anyway.

The resulting newimage.adf file is ready for use WinUAE!

viddi · 03 September 2006, 15:41

If you´re not lucky with the method you´re trying out just send the disks to me. I´ll send you a pm with my address.

Maybe you could put some aluminium foil around the disks. (magnetic fields)

05 September 2006, 15:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul

Did you follow the ADFRead 1.0 ReadMe.txt Instructions?

Yup, I followed them exactly. I always get 9 retries and then a failure for every disk. Granted, these disks havn't actually been used for nearly 10 years, but they certainly did work when I was using them on my old Amiga500.

Thanks for the PM, viddi. I'll try to sort something out soon.

ElectroBlaster · 05 October 2006, 16:25

I can offer some help aswell. I am a registored user of octamed (PC version) and a program called Renoise which allows mods to be saved as midi data

I also have the means to image those disks as I have a catweasel mk4

andreas · 22 October 2006, 01:56

Sounds better. You both are located in the UK

Don't reward the snail-mail for something it does not deserve

27 August 2006, 22:08	#1
tezcatlipoca Posts: n/a	Extracting Octamed files - Please help! Ok, firstly my apologies if this is the wrong sub-forum, but I couldn't see where else to put it. Also, thanks in advance to anyone who can give me some help with my problem. Right, so Tezcatlipoca was an Amiga owner for many years and spent a great deal of time composing in Octamed, filling dozens of disks with his rather nifty music. Years went by and Tez moved house many times, gave the old Amiga away, got a PC and began to compose in Cubase, forgetting all about his early Octamed days that had started it all. Now Tez is about to move house again and, in the usual maelstrom of packing he has just discovered his old Octamed disks, all 34 of them, filled with his old compositions. Problem. The PC will not - regardless of how much I kick it and call it unpleasent names - read an Amiga disk... ...sooo, this is where you lovely people come in. Without spending an absolute fortune, which I don't have, is there any way at all to rip these old music files off the disks and get them up on my PC? I could even bear to loose the samples embedded in them if it meant retaining the notation. Please help Tez take a walk down musical memory lane! Last edited by tezcatlipoca; 27 August 2006 at 22:34.

27 August 2006, 22:21	#2
viddi Moderator Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Germany Age: 44 Posts: 4,007	Welcome! You have to transfer the real disks to adf-images. But you must have real Amiga-Hardware to do so. (tool: e.g. ADF-Blitzer ; www.aminet.net) This files can be used (as disks) in Amiga emulators like WinUAE. See http://www.amigaforever.com/kb/3-118.html for more infos. If you could find an Amiga with CD-Writer you can burn data on CD and use it on PC. I`m not sure if there was a hardware interface for the PC which allows to read Amiga disks. I don´t think so edit: If you like you could send the disks to me and I will transfer it...Might be a bit expensive. Last edited by viddi; 27 August 2006 at 22:32.

27 August 2006, 22:33	#3
tezcatlipoca Posts: n/a	Wow, thanks for the speedy and informative reply, viddi; it's greatly appreciated! Following your advice, and second hyperlink, it looks as though it might be possible to get my old music back by plugging a second floppy into my system and using this adfread thingy. My only confusion now is - assuming this works - what am I to do with the file format? IIRC, my old music files are in the default format for Octamed (.mod?), which I'm assuming Cubase won't be able to read. I have an old copy of Octamed itself from my Amiga days, so will I need to load that through an emulator, load in the music, then export it in a different format? Bear in mind that it is not just that I want to listen to these old tracks again; I need to be able to extract as much information as possible in a useable format that I can then put into a sequencer like Cubase, Sonar, or MidiNotate, all of which I use for music production. In an ideal world, I will be able to extract all of the samples contained in these files, if not, I at least need the notation so I can refresh them myself. "If you like you could send the disks to me and I will transfer it...Might be a bit expensive." How expensive? Of the 34 disks in total there are only 11 that I'm desperate to convert, the others are superfluous. Last edited by tezcatlipoca; 27 August 2006 at 22:50.

28 August 2006, 07:16	#9
viddi Moderator Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Germany Age: 44 Posts: 4,007	Ahh yes: The conversion is not expensive, It´s for free of course!!!! I just thought about the shipping costs! Last edited by viddi; 28 August 2006 at 14:32.

05 October 2006, 16:25	#16
ElectroBlaster Junior Member Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Exeter, Devon, UK Age: 49 Posts: 1,705	I can offer some help aswell. I am a registored user of octamed (PC version) and a program called Renoise which allows mods to be saved as midi data I also have the means to image those disks as I have a catweasel mk4 Last edited by ElectroBlaster; 05 October 2006 at 17:17.

27 August 2006, 22:40	#4
viddi Moderator Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Germany Age: 44 Posts: 4,007	There is Med Soundstudio for the PC. It is able to read mods, meds and so on. Here the link: http://www.medsoundstudio.com/ Or you could use the emu for nearly full Amiga pleasure. WinAMP can play mods, too. But I´m afraid cubase is not an Amiga fan OctaMed is a tracker...

27 August 2006, 22:43	#5
viddi Moderator Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Germany Age: 44 Posts: 4,007	Sorry, have to go now. I´m in a hurry. Will help you tomorrow evening... or maybe the other EAB-members will... Bye

28 August 2006, 03:31	#6
Zetr0 Ya' like it Retr0? Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: United Kingdom Age: 49 Posts: 9,768	Heys Tez, okies lets seeif i can help there is software on the PC that is free that can play,edit octamed files. delitracker, winamp as viddi has said as well as medSS (wich i have and love, its like octamed pumped!) it can output to wav, mp3 aswell so you can include it in a cubase mix. bow lets get to the serious side of getting that data over to the PC. 1) okay viddi suggest the quickest and safest method... find an amiga that had a CDRW bolted to it... and use it.. 2) if not that you can use an amiga hard drive to store the files straght from the disk, attache the disk to the PC an by using winuae to mount the disk from there you can copy to the native PC disk.. 3) Null modem / serial or paralell link. this is a bit awkward to set up but for £15 from ebay its easy to do... and you can transfer from PC to amiga and vice versa. 4) I save this method to last as there are a lot of problems with it, if you search these problems for catweasel mk 4 you will see what i mean. there is a product that you can buy for the PC that allows you to attache an Amiga floppy disk drive (amongst other things) from here you can use it to create REAL amiga disks as well copy them to the computer and read them as well. there is a catch... these cards are nortoiously difficult to setup and get running under XP or any OS infact... as you will see when you so a search for the product Cat weasel MK4 what ever you decide Tez, can i make a final recomendation to MedSS its cheap and its a great to make music that way again on the PC! best of luck...

28 August 2006, 07:15	#8
viddi Moderator Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Germany Age: 44 Posts: 4,007	Hi again! Yeahh, I almost forgot Catweasel!!! Look at www.ami.ga Of course, it´s possible to create mp3 or wav with MedSS. Stupid me There are no real "data tracks" in Cubase...so wav. is what you need. You can even convert each Track from your modules and do a brand new mixing in cubase. This will give a flash to your old mods for sure ! Well, so you really need MedSS! Okay, see you later. Have to go now!

28 August 2006, 12:38	#10
Zetr0 Ya' like it Retr0? Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: United Kingdom Age: 49 Posts: 9,768	thats a good idea viddi!

28 August 2006, 14:37	#11
viddi Moderator Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Germany Age: 44 Posts: 4,007	Well, I´m at home again. @ tezcatlipoca: Just tell me, if you want me to do the conversion. I can burn a CD or send the images via mail. Or......you buy an Amiga and find back to real Computer pleasure again!!

03 September 2006, 15:41	#14
viddi Moderator Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Germany Age: 44 Posts: 4,007	If you´re not lucky with the method you´re trying out just send the disks to me. I´ll send you a pm with my address. Maybe you could put some aluminium foil around the disks. (magnetic fields)

22 October 2006, 01:56	#17
andreas Zone Friend Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Germany Age: 50 Posts: 5,857	Sounds better. You both are located in the UK Don't reward the snail-mail for something it does not deserve

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