Questions about SampleCell I

[auahz]

Hello everyone,
some time ago I was lucky enough to get hold of a SampleCell I card and I'm now building a retro setup with my Performa 600. I have two questions about the SC1 card:

1. The card came with a piggyback card and according to this thread, it was needed for compatibility with Quadras. Was this the only purpose of the piggyback card? And what was the purpose of the mentioned even older non-Quadra-compatible piggyback card?
2. I know that the SampleCell 2.0 Editor also supports the SC1 card, but for true authenticity I've been searching for SampleCell Editor 1.x for a while now, but it seems to be non-existent on the web. Does anyone have the old SC1 disks and could upload them? Those would be worth preserving in my opinion.

Thanks in advance!

[CMW]

Hi auahz,

I wasn't aware that the older Piggybacks weren't compatible in Quadra machines. Thanks for bringing that to my attention.

The piggyback is used to integrate SC into Pro Tools. That is, if you have both Pro Tools and SampleCell (with piggyback) installed, the outputs of the SC card will be seen directly in PT. It saves the trouble of having to reroute the audio yourself, which makes it a lot easier to use the card with software like Vision and Turbosynth. Basically, seamless integration within PT.

I have a SampleCell 1 card w/ the original piggyback and was planning to use it in a chassis. I hope that it will work with a PowerMac 7100. I've not been able to test it yet, though. Fingers crossed. (It probably isn't compatible.)

Worst-case scenario is that I'll have to use it in a II series Mac! I'm not sure whether the newer piggyback is backward compatible with II series Macs or not - the Performa 600 is very similar to a IIvx - so you might actually need the older piggyback.

Here is an image of the original piggyback on an SC1:



vs

The newer style mounted on a Disk I/O card:

http://archive.digidesign.com/suppor...ionubuspp.html

[auahz]

Hi CMW,

Originally Posted by CMW

The piggyback is used to integrate SC into Pro Tools. That is, if you have both Pro Tools and SampleCell (with piggyback) installed, the outputs of the SC card will be seen directly in PT. It saves the trouble of having to reroute the audio yourself, which makes it a lot easier to use the card with software like Vision and Turbosynth. Basically, seamless integration within PT.

That's interesting! Do you mean it's like TDM, so you can directly record the digital output of SC in a PT track without the need to connect cables from the SC output to the PT interface and record it analogously?
I thought this was first possible with the introduction of TDM in 1994, because I was also confused about the absence of any type of connector on the piggyback card (because I only know "the TDM way" of PT integration).

Do you know if the SC1 cards shipped with the piggyback card or were they an optional add-on?

Originally Posted by CMW

I have a SampleCell 1 card w/ the original piggyback and was planning to use it in a chassis. I hope that it will work with a PowerMac 7100. I've not been able to test it yet, though. Fingers crossed. (It probably isn't compatible.)
I'm not sure whether the newer piggyback is backward compatible with II series Macs or not - the Performa 600 is very similar to a IIvx - so you might actually need the older piggyback.

I just ran the "Test SampleCell" routines in SampleCell Editor 2.03 on my IIsi, Performa 600 and PowerMac 7100/80 with my SC1 + newer piggyback. They passed on all machines, but only on the Performa I get random noise and clicks after loading samples onto the card (but since it works on the other machines, I guess it's a problem with my P600). I don't know if my 7100/80 test is applicable to your chassis project with the older piggyback, but maybe there's hope

Also thanks for the image, I don't remember seeing an image of the original piggyback card before.

[CMW]

Originally Posted by auahz

Hi CMW,



That's interesting! Do you mean it's like TDM, so you can directly record the digital output of SC in a PT track without the need to connect cables from the SC output to the PT interface and record it analogously?
I thought this was first possible with the introduction of TDM in 1994, because I was also confused about the absence of any type of connector on the piggyback card (because I only know "the TDM way" of PT integration).

Do you know if the SC1 cards shipped with the piggyback card or were they an optional add-on?




I just ran the "Test SampleCell" routines in SampleCell Editor 2.03 on my IIsi, Performa 600 and PowerMac 7100/80 with my SC1 + newer piggyback. They passed on all machines, but only on the Performa I get random noise and clicks after loading samples onto the card (but since it works on the other machines, I guess it's a problem with my P600). I don't know if my 7100/80 test is applicable to your chassis project with the older piggyback, but maybe there's hope

Also thanks for the image, I don't remember seeing an image of the original piggyback card before.

auahz, I think you're correct about the TDM. You'd just need to connect a mixer of some kind to your main interface and the outputs of the Sample Cell will be assigned there. I just looked at an old advertisement I have from 1991-92 (year they came out), and the picture shows the Sample Cell with a piggyback. I'm glad to hear that the cards worked in both of your machines. Now I don't feel so bad, haha!

http://akarchive.digidesign.com/supp...allGuide50.pdf

The above guide includes the most complete information for Pro Tools Nubus systems, despite having Pro Tools 5.0 TDM Guide as the title. It's a wealth of information. I never looked at it until someone passed the link along to me. Just search the document for "Pro Tools III."

Also, I think that the Audiomedia II card has a DSP chip built into it. Apparently Waves made some plugins specifically for it. I'm not sure if they were included with Sound Designer or not. if you have one of the original Pro Tools 442 audio cards from 1991, you can actually use the program Deck to get 16 tracks - quadruple from a card that normally gives 4 tracks on its own in Pro Tools! It also doubles the amount you can get from an Audiomedia II card - from 2 to 4!

https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews...design-session

[John_Toolbox]

Not sure about the Nubus SCI cards... but with the PCI SCII cards, the piggyback card hooked to your TDM ribbon cable, and allowed a direct digital output into the pro tools mixer without any unnecessary da/ad conversion. No perceivable latency, it was a very cool setup for the time. iirc the sample cell TDM inputs did not count against the IO limitation of your TDM cards.