Owner's Manual

SuperOS-950 is a replacement operating system for the S950 sampler. It keeps every factory page, every disk format and the full factory capacity (99 looped samples and the full sampling pre-trigger buffer), and adds the features below. Sound disks written on the factory OS load on SuperOS, and the other way round.

It starts from a floppy, a USB floppy emulator or a SCSI disk on an unmodified machine, or from a pair of EPROMs as the power-on system. Starting it from a disk changes nothing inside the sampler: switch off, and the machine is stock again.

Anything not described in this manual works as the factory manual describes.

The Start-Up Display

When SuperOS is running, the first line of the start-up display shows the model, the version 5.0.1 and the installed memory, and the second line reads:

SUPEROS EDITION SUPEROS303.COM

If the version reads 1.2, the factory OS is running.

Pages and Fields

Pages work as on the factory OS. A page is named by its section key and number: "EDIT PROGRAM *04" means press EDIT PRGRM, then type 0 4 with the cursor on the page number (or step there with PAGE). Move between fields with the CURSOR keys. Change a value with the CONTROL knob or the digit keys; switches take ON/+ and OFF/−. Fields marked (ENT) run when you press ENT on them.

Where the New Controls Are

From a USB Floppy Emulator

1. Copy AUTOBOOT.HFE to the USB stick (it takes slot 0), or copy the -DD.hfe file under its own name to any slot. Use the DD image unless your emulator is set up for HD.
2. Select the image on the emulator.
3. Switch the sampler on, or load the disk as described below.

From a Real Floppy

Write -DD.img to a genuine double-density disk (or -HD.img to a high-density disk) with a flux-level floppy writer using the sampler's own native format. Ordinary computer formatting tools cannot make a disk the S950 reads. Erase an HD disk before writing it.

Loading the Boot Disk

Switching on with the boot disk in the drive starts SuperOS by itself. With the machine already running, load it from the DISK section:

From a SCSI Disk

S950 with a SCSI interface board

SuperOS can live on the SCSI disk, so an update is a file copy. The supplied image holds a volume named SUPEROS with the OS file in it, and an empty volume named DROPBOX for section 16.

1. Copy HD00_512.hda to the root of the SD card of an SD-card SCSI emulator and keep that name: the name sets SCSI ID 0, the only ID the S950 uses. For a real SCSI disk, write the file to it raw, at ID 0.
2. Switch the SCSI device on before the sampler.
3. Press DISK. On page *01 move the cursor to Slct,create, turn the knob to SUPEROS and press ENT.
4. Type 0 2, then 1 and 1 again, as in the table above.

From EPROMs

A SuperOS EPROM pair makes it the power-on system, with no boot disk. A boot disk still overrides it until the next power cycle. EPROM binaries are not part of the download; pre-programmed pairs will be offered in the shop.

1. With the sampler unplugged, find the two OS EPROMs, IC11 and IC12, and note which way their notches face.
2. Fit the SuperOS pair: MSB in IC11, LSB in IC12, notches the same way.
3. Switch on with the volume down. The SuperOS start-up display appears within two seconds. If not, switch off and check orientation and seating.
4. Keep the factory pair.

That completes starting SuperOS.

Confirm Before Clearing or Formatting

These actions now ask first. The top line reads PRESS AGAIN TO CONFIRM; repeat the same key to go ahead, or move the cursor to cancel.

Verify After Write

Every floppy save is read back and checked. A bad sector is written again once before any error is shown, so a disk that would have failed at load time is caught at save time.

Saving the Whole Disk

DISK *05 "Clear volume and save entire memory" always saves your sounds. (On the factory OS a sample with a special name turned this into an OS save, which would write a broken SuperOS disk. That is gone.)

Press UTILITY. Page *01 sets which MIDI controller does what; page *02 holds the knob send switch and the AA cap controller.

Page *01: Controller Numbers

*01 SUPEROS *StartCC 13 *PortaCC 5 *LoudnessCC 11 *PitchCC 12 *EndCC 0

Page *02: Knob Send and AA Cap

*02 SUPEROS *FiltKnob OFF *AAcapCC 0

How the Controllers Apply

• Every controller writes all keygroups that receive on its channel, following the keygroup channel offsets (EDIT PROGRAM *16) and omni.
• Type a controller number as three digits, for example 0 0 2. EndCC and AAcapCC at 0 are off; the other fields at 0 answer controller 0.
• CC 1, 7, 64 and 123 (mod wheel, volume, sustain, all notes off) are handled by the factory OS first and never reach these features.
• The assignments are not saved. They return to the defaults at every start-up. The keygroup values they write are saved with the program.

EDIT PROGRAM

*04 *KG1 *Start 0,000 *End 0,000 *Porta 0 *Vel sw thresh 128 *AAcap 0

The cursor walks the page in reading order: KG, Start (Coarse, Fine), End (Coarse, Fine), Porta, Vel sw thresh, AAcap. Choose the keygroup in KG; with KG at 00 an edit changes every keygroup of the program at once. Vel sw thresh is the factory field.

Setting a Value

Start and End read cc,fff: Coarse counts thousands of steps, Fine counts single steps. One click of the knob on Coarse moves 1,000 steps (about a sixteenth of the sample); on Fine, one step. Or type the digits: Coarse 1 6 and Fine 3 8 3 gives 16,383, the last word.

Start Point

StartCC (default 13) sets the Start of every keygroup on its channel. On its own it moves in 128 steps. Its fine partner, StartCC + 32 (default CC 45), adds the remaining resolution: send both, coarse first, for the full 16,384 steps. Most sequencers send the pair for you when you assign a 14-bit controller. A coarse message on its own clears the fine value. With StartCC above 95 there is no fine partner.

End Point and the Sweep

Set EndCC on UTILITY *01 to a controller number (2, breath, works well) and that controller sets the End of every keygroup on its channel, in 128 steps. CC 127 is the whole sample; lower values end earlier.

On a one-shot this changes the length from note to note. On a looped sample it is more useful: the loop hangs off the end point and keeps its length, so moving the end moves a fixed-length loop window through the sample, and each note sustains on the part the controller picked.

• Velocity-switched keygroups move their soft and loud samples together.
• If the end is swept below the Start you have set, the start moves down with it.
• The controller writes the same value as *04 End: it is saved with the program and the sample is not changed.
• A note keeps the points it started with; the controller changes the next note.
• When the replay memory is nearly full (close to 99 looped samples), a note plays the sample's own points instead.

CC 74 is the MIDI standard brightness controller, so most sequencers name it correctly. Values above a field's range stop at the top of the range. The page shows the new value the next time it is drawn.

To record knob moves as MIDI, switch FiltKnob ON on UTILITY *02 (section 5).

These controller numbers are fixed and always on. Each one writes the keygroup value of every keygroup on its channel. Where MIDI defines a controller for the job, that number is used.

Values above the range stop at 99.

Send MIDI clock and every LFO locks to it. There is nothing to switch on. While clock is arriving, a keygroup's LFO Rate (EDIT PROGRAM *13, or CC 76) picks a note value instead of a speed:

• MIDI Start lines every LFO up on the downbeat.
• About a second after the clock stops, the LFOs run free from where they were and Rate means speed again.
• Each keygroup has its own division. The lock does not drift, however long the song.
• Keygroups on the same division share a phase, so Desync only matters while running free.

On the factory OS, attack 0 still fades in slightly, which softens the first transient of drums. With SuperOS, attack 0 is instant; attack 1 keeps the old soft start, so you can compare the two by switching between 0 and 1. Attack 2 and up are unchanged.

EDIT PROGRAM *05 and *07

With the cursor on a Low key or Hi key field, a note from your MIDI keyboard sets the field. The cursor then steps on, so the next note lands in the next field.

EDIT SAMPLE *06, *07 and *08

Press ENT on the Coarse or Fine field of START POINT (*06), END POINT (*07) or LOOP LENGTH (*08) and the point moves to the nearest zero crossing within 64 words. On LOOP LENGTH it snaps the start of the loop. Knob and digit edits work as before; only ENT snaps.

EDIT SAMPLE *07

*07 END POINT *Coarse *Fine *Chop(ENT)_ (0000,100- 1,800) 1,800 *#TONE01

A chop is a new sample that uses the audio of the sample it came from. It takes a directory slot and no sample memory, so a break cut into eight slices uses no more memory than the break.

• Its own range. A slice is a sample of its own length. Select it and every page treats it that way. The source keeps its full length and is not changed.
• Names. The name field offers a #, the first four characters of the source name and a number. Numbers are never reused, even after a slice is deleted. You can change the six characters after the # before pressing ENT; the # itself stays.
• Chop a chop. Select a slice and chop it the same way. The new slice is named from the slice's own name, # included: ##TON01.
• Play them together. A source, its slices and their slices can be in different keygroups and play at the same time.
• Deleting. Deleting a slice frees its directory slot. The audio is freed when the last sample using it is deleted.

EDIT PROGRAM *14

*14 LFO DEPTH *Aft.tch *Mod.whl *EndLFO *KG1 0 50 0

A transwave is a sample made of many single-cycle waveforms in a row, looped one cycle long. Move the loop to another cycle and the tone changes while the note holds. Because each move is a whole cycle, there is no click. EndLFO makes the keygroup's LFO do the moving.

• The walk starts once the note reaches the loop; the body of the sample plays as usual first.
• One-shot samples never move, whatever the depth.
• Loops shorter than 32 words do not move. At 40 kHz that is a cycle above 1,250 Hz: loop two cycles instead.
• A loop longer than the sample is ignored.
• EndLFO is saved with the program.

S950 with a SCSI interface board

The drop-box lets a computer put a sample or program into the sampler's memory without using the DISK section. The computer writes the file into the DROPBOX volume of the SCSI disk and leaves a note in a reserved block. While idle, the sampler checks that block about every 4 seconds; when it finds a new file it loads it, exactly as a load from the DISK section.

What You Need

Putting the Sampler in Drop-Box Mode

1. Start SuperOS. Starting from the SUPEROS volume on the card selects the SCSI disk for you.
2. Otherwise press DISK and select a hard-disk volume once on page *01 (Slct,create, knob, ENT).
3. Leave the DISK section: press EDIT SAMPLE, EDIT PRGRM or PLAY.
4. New files now load by themselves and appear in memory under their own names.

The sampler only checks when all of these are true:

• a hard-disk volume has been selected since start-up;
• it is not in the DISK or REC section;
• no note is sounding;
• no error message is on the display.

Three Ways to Deliver a File

What Happens

The web editor turns audio files into S950 samples and delivers them through the drop-box. It is a small program that runs on your own computer (python3 web/server.py) and opens a page at http://localhost:8150. It is not part of the firmware download; the editor page on this site has it and the setup steps for the Wi-Fi board and the card.

The page has three steps, top to bottom. Each one says whether it is ready before you go on.

Step 1: Connection

Step 2: The Sampler

CHECK NOW asks the sampler whether it is in drop-box mode (section 16) and waits up to about 4 seconds for the answer. Green: ready. Red: the page says why. With a MIDI cable connected, PUT SAMPLER IN DROP-BOX MODE presses EDIT SAMPLE on the sampler for you. Sending is held off until the light is green.

Step 3: Sending Samples

Programs and Memory

• CREATE PROGRAM: name a program, add a keygroup per sample with its key range and any keygroup value, including Start, End, Porta and AAcap. Bulk edit sets one field on every keygroup. A program on the card can be read back, edited and sent again.
• READ FROM S950 lists what the sampler holds and how much memory is free. UNLOAD SELECTED deletes items from its memory.
• The drop-box panel lists the files on the card: load, listen, export as WAV, delete, or EMPTY DROP-BOX.

All controllers write the keygroups on the receiving channel, following the keygroup channel offsets (EDIT PROGRAM *16) and omni. Assignable numbers are set on UTILITY *01 and *02 and return to these defaults at start-up.

The S950 answers three system-exclusive service messages, kept unchanged in SuperOS. With a MIDI cable each way, your own software can read and write the running sampler's memory: the basis for editors, librarians and controllers. The web editor uses them to press panel keys for you.

F0 47 <ch> <op> 40 00 00 <payload> <checksum> F7

• <ch> is the basic MIDI channel minus one: 00 for channel 1, the start-up setting. With omni on, any channel is accepted.
• Each payload byte is sent as two bytes: its low seven bits, then its top bit.
• The checksum is the exclusive-OR of all the payload bytes as sent.
• Send each message in one burst and wait for a PEEK reply before the next message.
• POKE has no reply; PEEK the range afterwards to check it.

Changed

Removed

Send reports to superos303.com with the start-up display text and what you started from.