Question re recording music from instrument
Last edited Tue Dec 28, 2021, 05:49 PM - Edit history (1)
My recently acquired Lowrey Jubilee organ has recording capability, with a slot to receive a floppy disk. So, once I locate some blank floppies, how would I go about transferring the recordings to thumb drives or other devices? My laptop doesn't take floppies, so I'm kinda stuck. Experience? Suggestions?
As always, thanks in advance!
(x-posted from musicians group)
UPDATE: Getting lots of helpful information, not surprising with this group, thank you! That said, it's still a bit daunting for this "non-techy" old lady. A friend suggested that I contact the music department at the university, ask if there's a student who might be willing to put eyes and maybe hands on the organ. So, I will be doing that. And, yes, I will let everyone here know how that turns out. Thanks again, so much!
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You will then need a computer with a drive that can read them. This will be the hardest part - not many A: drives these days.
It's all downhill after that; copy the music from the floppy to a computer and use one of several free audio programs to convert/save the organ music to a digital file that can be read nowadays.
Merry christmas 
PS Apparently in various labs and archives around the world is huge amounts of earthquake and meteorological data - all recorded on obsolete media such as wire loop recorders, and there are no working devices to read it!
I don't know what model of Lowrey Jubilee you've got, but a quick google turned this up:
https://www.manualslib.com/manual/1895101/Lowrey-Jubilee-Lc-30.html?page=71#manual
Offhand it seems like they can record performances to the disk .. and even merge in
additional performances (recorded to accompaniment & upper tracks) for playback later.
So what's being recorded is definitely not a simple audio file (not raw or MP3). My guess is
that it's some sort of MIDI being saved. And the manual references being able to
play back its own formatted floppies or something called SMF (a MIDI standard file format).
I'm going to guess the floppies are not "standard" MSDOS format or anything semi-normal
you could read on a PC. You'd need some software specific to Lowrey Jubilee to read the files
off the floppy into your PC (even after you had the physical drive).
Oh my, someone sells a hardware replacement for the floppy drive (to replace it with a USB thumb drive):
https://lowreyorgan.uk/product/floppy-disk-emulator-fde-1000/
Hmmph. The warnings about using only thumb drives they sell you is a big red-flag to me. Sounds
much less than reputable.
But ... the back of the unit appears to have some standard MIDI connections. You might be happiest just
using some MIDI cables to connect to a computer (with a MIDI interface and software) to record and playback.
Or forget saving things digitally and use the aux-out connectors on the back to your tape recorder 
Do have fun!