Eventide Dsp4000 cards and updates

[rdraudio]

Eventide.com

[jono_3]

Thank you for that, but they no longer offer updates, upgrade cards, or support for the DSP4000.

[AcousticsWizard]

How much did you pay for yours? it seems these are popping up all over the place up here north of the border.

I have one on layaway at Long and Mcquade...

But before I decide to pick it up or cancel the layaway, I need to know how good do these compare to the current H7600 or H8000? Is the sound the same? Or is it darker... what about the effects...are there crazy effects in this? How good are the converters? Can I find thge old flash card for this?

Hopefully the last guy updated it till the final update.

Please do share your experience so far and please post some sound clips if you dont mind... if its easy for you to. Thanks

[jono_3]

Bump. Anyone know where to get an upgrade card or want to get rid of theirs?

[oldgearguy]

Originally Posted by jono_3

Bump. Anyone know where to get an upgrade card or want to get rid of theirs?

What exactly do you mean by 'upgrade card'? Most of the H3000/3500/etc upgrades were in the form of EEPROMs.

[jono_3]

I thought that some came in the form of a PCMCIA card, but if they're EPROM's thats what I would be looking for. Particularly the newest broadcast presets.

[rdraudio]

Yes there's more programs on the cards. After 15 years with the unit, I still gravitate towards about 8 basic programs. Not sure if there are eprom sets though...

[italo de angelis]

Originally Posted by jono_3

I thought that some came in the form of a PCMCIA card, but if they're EPROM's thats what I would be looking for. Particularly the newest broadcast presets.

The DSP4000 series had a number of PCMCIA cards adding new presets libraries. Eproms chips were only available as OS upgrades, not presets libraries.
The only Eprom which added OS upgrade AND new presets was the UltraShifter.
Unfortunately all of this stuff is no longer available from the company. They may only repairs broken 4000s these days.

The H3000 was completely based off Eproms, for both OS and algorithms/presets upgrades. No PCMCIA cards for the 3000.

I

[Wavestation1]

Originally Posted by italo de angelis

The DSP4000 series had a number of PCMCIA cards adding new presets libraries. Eproms chips were only available as OS upgrades, not presets libraries.
The only Eprom which added OS upgrade AND new presets was the UltraShifter.
Unfortunately all of this stuff is no longer available from the company. They may only repairs broken 4000s these days.

The H3000 was completely based off Eproms, for both OS and algorithms/presets upgrades. No PCMCIA cards for the 3000.

I

Aargh... just found out from the Yahoo Group that I need OS 2.300 to be able to do MIDI timed delays.

Yes I did read reviews before buying the DSP 4000 but they didn't state what OS they were using, so I guess they must have had the latest OS. I'm a bit surprised that the last version of the H3000 could do it but the new model replacement could not. Possibly there wasn't much interest in syncing up things to a sequencer back then.

You know, there are guys out there in the community that are burning all manner of OS versions on EPROMs for people to buy at a reasonable cost, so it would be good if Eventide could release the OS to one of these folks.

Or maybe somebody on here with OS 2.300 for the DSP 4000 could help out in getting some duplicates made. I would have thought that just about every 4000 owner with any of the standard/early OS versions would love to get this update.

[TheLastByte]

I do have around 3 DSP4000 Cards that I bought when Eventide were blowing out the DSP4000/4500 series in 2001/2 and they are the GTR4000 Card, Broadcast Card (done by - Jay Rose & INFX, Radio & TV) Plus the Mastering Algo card. They were around $500 bucks each and Eventide blew them out for around $199.00 USD Each.

We all knew in 2000 that the DSP4000's were coming to an end as the fully ramped up DSP4500 with Sampling and all RAM/ROM Presets came out for sale at around $5000 bucks.

Then came the ORVILLE

I have no idea how you could copy the cards, you'd need an old PC or Laptop PC with PCMCIA card reader and software - they seem pretty un-bustable and are pure RAM with no battery slots!

See tech notes on Eventide 4000 series!
Cheers

[AudioGaff]

Not so unbustable after all. True, you can't just simply copy them, but I found ways to reverse engineer them many years ago and now no longer need the cards.

[TheLastByte]

Originally Posted by AudioGaff

Not so unbustable after all. True, you can't just simply copy them, but I found ways to reverse engineer them many years ago and now no longer need the cards.

Great - Could you please send me a PM with the requisite details!
That would help many!
Cheers.
TLB

[TheBrightSide]

Can you load a sound in from the card and then save it as a new preset in the unit?
Then you wouldn't need to keep the card.

[TheLastByte]

Nope, you can only Load the card into the DSP-4000 and then the Algo/preset from the card stays in their until the unit is turned off ......then you need to re-insert the card again - that's the old PCMCIA Eventide copy protection standard!

(Though you can take the card out while the unit is still on - to save Presets - though for those to work the card needs to go in again - make sense?)

[AudioGaff]

Great - Could you please send me a PM with the requisite details!
That would help many!

Nope, sorry. I'm quite sure that would help many. It took me a decent amount of time to understand and reverse engineer those presets. I have no plans to just be giving them away nor how I did it.

[TheLastByte]

Well.....Obviously it can't be that hard - so I'll send mine off to be done & liberate the world! Obviously Eventide don't seem to concerned out their IP, and as I have 4 Cards, I doubt there will be too much trouble! I needs back up copies in case they get lost - Fair use! I'd say VSIG and a PCMCIA Desktop Slot and some simple code alongside another card reader/writer and you'd be done! Sorry I asked for your secret sauce! Italo would know!

[TheBrightSide]

Now come on. This placed is filled with people who share their knowledge which took years of hard work to accumulate.

[SP2016]

Originally Posted by TheLastByte

Can we get back on topic now - or do you need to go again?

Get a life....
And then think first before you post a reply.
Try to keep it technical and you will see that people on GS are really nice and helpfull.
Grandfather used to say "You harvest what you planted".

[italo de angelis]

Well...
hacking those cards algorithms takes some work and it's not about reinserting the card that the protection works. But you all know there may be some ethic or legal issues there. So I won't comment or add anything to that. Everybody takes his chance and consequences.
Now, for the thread starter...
unfortunately Eventide doesn't sell upgrade/update eproms anymore. The advent of flash memory has worsened the scenario...even though they still sell H3000 eproms kits (at astronomical prices favoring the black market copiers!). If your DSP4000 is running on OS V.2.158 then it's in very good shape and you don't need any update.
V2.300 was the only NON FREE upgrade for the 4000 and featured an eprom and a ROM card, introducing one voice of Ultra Shifter and some modules on which Tap Tempo delay and lfo rate can be controlled.
MIND YOU! You'd need Vsig to create or modify any factory preset to add these functions to it as they live inside the algorithm.
Honestly...tap tempo works much better in the later units, Orville/7000 and newer ones.
So...I wouldn't really go crazy on finding 2.300...unless it comes very cheap and you are willing to do some Vsig work....
or just sell the 4000 and jump on a newer unit for serious extra DSP power and functions.