I'm going to start with a list of Gotek Supported Synths & Samplers :
Disclaimer : This list is by no means complete and the information I get is mainly third-hand (aka hearsay), so don't blindly assume that if it says here that the drive is supported, that you will get it working.
Worse still synth specific I can't help you, Gotek and Flashfloppy can, but synthesizers and samplers can't.
If your synthesizer or sampler contains a Floppydrive, chances are you can replace it with a Gotek Floppydrive Emulator with Flashfloppy Firmware.
The physical format of the drive is important, if it is an (ultra) slimline drive for example, or if the floppy drive is built into the housing with only a small slot for the floppy, chances are that in both cases it will not be easy to get (or operate) the Gotek in the place of the original drive.
But if your device uses a 34 pin connector for data and a separate 4 pin cable for power supply,
If your synthesizer or sampler contains a floppy drive you are not there yet, not everything that looks like a standard floppy drive , is actually a standard floppy drive.
There are devices that work with :
- 26 pin connectors as opposed to the standard 34 pin connectors.
- Shugart interface or IBM PC Interface
- different pinout on the interface than the 'standard' (eg power supply over the floppy connector)
then chances are that you are done with at most 1 or 2 jumper settings and maybe an adjustment in the FF.CFG.
If this is not the case, and your floppy drive has a different cable, there are adapters in circulation for both the 26-pin and the Quickdisk version, which still allow connection of a Gotek Floppydrive Emulator.
(Of course you can also just craft an adapter cable yourself, if you're handy)
In case of a 26-pin connection on your device, you can buy this adapter for example, which makes the connection from a Gotek Floppydrive Emulator then suddenly a simple job.
Note: support only in v3.x Firmware
FlashFloppy has developed an alternative firmware that emulates a 2.8 inch "Quick Disk" drive, this model drive was regularly used in the 1980s in synthesizers from, for example, Akai, Korg and Roland.
Tested systems :
Akai: X70001
Roland: MKS-1002, MT-1002, PR-1002, S-102, S-202
(Pin order is reversed from conventional numbering (see table) so pin 1 is GND)
Requires a jumper at position JC in addition to the jumper on position MO)
If you have a drive that contains the standard Flashfloppy firmware, you can just update the Quick support firmware as described here , provided you use the update file located in the alt/quickdisk subfolder of the most recent release.
If the update was successful and the USB stick is removed, the Gotek Floppydrive Emulator will report with qd on the display (instead of the message FF in case of the standard 3-digit display.
If the Gotek Floppydrive Emulator has an LCD or OLED display, [QD] will appear on the display.
Jumper Configuration
The Quick Disk firmware requires a jumper on the MO position. the drive-select position S0 and S1 are no longer in use and therefore do not need to be jumped.
The Roland machines like the MKS-100, MT-100, S-10 require an additional jumper at the position JC.
The cable should be configured as follows:
The cable described below uses the conventional numbering and color codes, but be careful because not every manufacturer uses the convention as described, manufacturers such as Akai and Korg are known to use the numbers the other way around and/ or using cables of a single color.
Make sure you know where your 5 volt pin is, you can still connect the other pins wrong, but this is fatal if you connect it wrong.
All other pins on the Gotek Floppydrive Emulator can be left unused.
Using the Quick Disk Firmware is simple and similar to the regular Flashfloppy firmware.
Drives with the QD firmware only support QD images, which have a .QD file extension.
An empty QD file is included in the Flashfloppy release, you can find it in the alt/quickdisk folder.
FF.CFG will run as normal, make sure you don't change any of the drive related parameters.
In the case of a Quickdisk connection on your device, you can buy this Adapter i built for connecting a gotek to a Quickdisk machine, which suddenly makes connecting a Gotek Floppydrive Emulator a lot easier.
Gotek Supported Synths #1
Some of the most important sources for compiling the Gotek Supported Synths list :
