SNG files from Voyetra SPG...

OK, so I figured I would post this to help others. I was a Voyetra User from the beginning and my company was actually a Voyetra Dealer back in the day when they were a small company and BEFORE they were bought by turtle beach.

So making a full working DOS Voyetra system these days can be challenging (Legacy Hardware, VAPI interfaces, VAPI drivers, etc), but the conversion of SNG to MIDI is quite easy as explained before, however I will add some detail that was overlooked.

No original DOS MIDI Hardware is needed at all when launching sequencer Plus Gold, if you attempt to launch any of the batch files, it will error and not load SPG without the hardware...but the main executable will still work without MIDI hardware

On any DOS PC or virtual machine, create a directory SGP directory and copy all the files from the diskette drive image I have attached (version 4.02) or use your old Voyetra floppies.
To launch Voyetra, DO NOT run "SEQ.BAT" or any other BAT files as it will attempt to call and load old driver files that look for your old MIDI hardware, instead...
run "SPG" which launches SPG.EXE

It will sit there for a good minute and appear frozen then it will say "VAPI DRIVER NOT INSTALLED... hit a key for Demo" You are now good to go, you cannot play a song, but you can load and convert your songs in Demo mode. Hit "f" for files, use "M" to toggle mode, load your file while in "SNG Mode" and then simply hit "F" for files, and "M" to change to "MIDI Mode" and then S to Save the file in MIDI mode

This is great! Just found this thread searching for a way go bring my old SNG files back to life. Installed DosBox, then SPG (thanks Vincent). Just converted two of them to see if it worked, it did. Will convert some more this weekend.

Thanks everyone!
Tom

Ciao Geoff. Ho una piccola selezione di file SNG creati con il software Voyetra, molti anni fa, quando ero giovane. Non ho più usato il software Voyetra da quando sono apparsi i computer windows (non più dos). Adesso sono vecchio, ho settantaquattro anni. Mi farebbe piacere riascoltare quei 13 files: potresti riconvertirli per me, per favore?

HI Geoff. I have a small selection of SNG files created with Voyetra software, many years ago when I was young. I haven't used the Voyetra software since windows (no more dos) computers appeared. Now I am old, I am seventy-four years old. I'd like to listen to those 13 files again: could you convert them back for me, please?

Sandro

Hello Alessandro,

Yes, hopefully I can do this, but untill I get them I cannot be 100% sure, re versions, or corruption to file, etc.

The best way is to put your .sng files into a .zip file, and attach that to a message here. If there are a few files only, and things work, then I can do this in a day or so.

Geoff

Hello Alessandro,

Looking forwards to seeing your .sng files - 13 should not be a problem, maybe take me an extra day or so?

I'm just 73 by the way, so a tiny bit more young! I still do various things with older computers, including floppy disks, so keeping working DOS machines is VITAL! Voyetra is installed on a pentium 1 at present, but there's a fully operational 486sx as well.

Geoff

Ciao Geoff, scusa per il ritardo nella risposta, Faccio il nonno a tempo pieno e non ho sempre il tempo per accendere il mio Mac. Ti allego lo zip con i miei 13 files SNG, e ti ringrazio già da ora per il tuo aiuto.

Hi Geoff, sorry for the late reply, I'm a full time grandfather and don't always have time to fire up my Mac. I'm attaching the zip file with my 13 SNG files, and thanking you already for your help.

Alessandro,

Thanks, got your attachment. I'll look into it asap.

Geoff

Alessandro,

Just to let you know that I've tried to unpack your .zip file, and there's a problem, but I should be able to get around this.

I've got 12 .SNG files out, these were created between 27/7/92 and 25/2/93. These may well be fine, I'll sort these out first. From 30 years ago!

But, your directory seems to contain some other copies (?) in a MACOSX subdir, and I suspect you've created the .zip on your MAC, so my DOS version of PKUNZIP isn't totally happy. I may need to use something else (JZip ?) to get the rest out, - I'm sure everything else is there.

I'll get Voyetra fired up and see what happens there.

Geoff

Alessandro,

Well, I wanted to hear what was happening...

I've done 6 or the files, should be in a .zip attached.

I saw from one (AMOREDI) that you were using a Yamaha TG55. I looked at my Yamaha MU90r and I see that that has a TG300 mode, that may not be exactly right but maybe it's near enough. I set my box to TG300, and played AMOREDI, it seems to work perfectly, sounds OK, so if any of the voices are not perfect it's not enough to make anything sound too strange.

So, the midi conversion is fine, everything is good.

I'll keep going.

Geoff

Grazie Geoff del lavoro che hai fatto. I midi escono con gli strumenti non esatti e la resa non è quella che era nel 1992 ma ci posso lavorare sopra con il mio Garage Band e cercare di riaggiustarli sonoramente.
Se riuscirai ad estrarre anche gli altri files te ne sarò grato.
Vuoi che ti rimandi il file zip fatto con un pc windows?
Ancora grazie


Thank you Geoff for the work you have done. The midis come out with the instruments not exact and the rendering is not what it was in 1992 but I can work on it with my Garage Band and try to readjust them sonically.
If you can extract the other files as well I will be grateful.
Do you want me to send you the zip file made with a windows pc?
Thank you again

Alessandro,

Thanks for the note.

I suspect that the instruments are set for the devices you were using back then (TG55 ?), and now you're using something different? That will sort out as you wish.

The .zip is OK. I've used jzip, this does the unpack OK. The files in the __MACOSX directory are mac admin files, they can be deleted as they are nothing to do with midi. The actual .sng files are all fine. I will sort the rest, and all will be done.

Geoff

Alessandro,

Another .zip file attached, that has all 12 of your files converted.

You said there were 13 files, but there were two copies of the file AMOREDI, one marked as 'copy', both files have the same size, date and time, so I assume that one is just an exact copy of the other. Hence the 12 files done.

There was a problem with one of the files, MYLOVE. I tried a number of times to save this with the default options, and the computer locked up at the final step. Finally I changed one ot the final default settings 'verbose' (meaning everything in the file) to 'midi-only' (just the midi data) and this saved fine. Maybe there is some text data in the file which is not accepted?

Please check all the files and make sure they are all OK (apart from instruments maybe?)

Geoff

Alessandro,

I've tried only a couple of your files, the biggest ones.

Two of the files seem to be very similar.

Amoredi - 26,075, 25/02/1993

Sbamore - 24,363 09/12/1992

Time-wise, both files show as 3m 16 secs. Although Sbamore is the smaller file, and was made earlier, it seems to have at least one extra instrument?

Listening carefully, I think I can hear something that may be a percussion instrument that is making a partial sound, but not sounding fully. This may be something on the TG55 that is NOT supported by my MU90r?

Geoff