Daniele Spadavecchia

The Data Disk SQ just arrived and I just started formatting a bunch of colorful old 3'5" disks from the attic and so far it has been very easy! Next few days, I will start recording with it... looking forward to it!

Thanks Rookie. Let us know how it goes!

I appreciated your help and suggestions. I bought mine almost a year ago when I was learning synth, as I wanted to learn to make some 80's electronic music. On one of my synths -the Korg Radias- there is a sequencer but it is step based and hated it because I am a musician and not a programmer. After a little research, I read a lot of happy users and bought one. When I started using it to learn some songs I was after, I discovered how easy and musician oriented it is. Then I started writing prog rock music and thought to use it because of its simplicity. On the other hand, I use Logic Pro 9 and hate to set up midi hardware for external devices. On the MMT-8 I just plug and play/record! Also using virtual instruments is OK when I compose, but their sound is dull to my ear and the virtual instruments drag too many resources slowing the system down for live activity. Finally, I love the idea "one object, one function". Computers are too many things at once, which is very distractive to me and too virtual, as they don't look and feel like musical instruments in my hands.

I am sold on the Data Disk! The idea of going back to tape data loading time doesn't excite me at all... I used to do it when I had a Commodore 64 computer and it would take about 10 to 20 minutes to load a program from tape memory, and 20% of times it would fail and I had to start over! I just found a SQ data disk on eBay for $75 and jumped on it. Can I use any generic 3'5" floppy disk? I have a bunch of them in the attic... By the way, last night it was too late anyhow so I didn't end up saving my experiment on digital recorder through tape out. I only created a 4 track part with drums, bass, ep,, and organ sounds: it was fun, fast and spontaneous, just the opposite of writing and arranging music with DAW. Do you feel the same?

Thanks guys! I don't have the Alesis Data Disk. So you suggest it is worth and plays the songs without the need to load them. Can I do the eprom update myself or how do I know it is updated and how many songs will fit in a disk? Tonight, I will try to record a song with the tape out onto a digital recorder.

I love the simplicity of Alesis MMT-8! I would love to run an entire solo show with it as a sequencer controlling a couple of multitimbral midi synths and a digital piano. I only want simple function machines on stage, no computers. You can save up to 99 songs on it, but I am not sure if its 9,000 to 11,000 notes memory will be enough. So what ways do I have to have external memory that it is easy and fast to load? Originally you could do dump and load Sysex files on external Alesis Data Disk, or tape out/in. I read of somebody using tape out/in with an mp3 player these days, but know nothing about it specifically. Any experiences and opinions with any of these?