SP808 Wave converter software on windows 10 - instructions

[manneokoko]

After spending many hours building a soundbank for the SP808 with the archaic wav converter software from Roland, I learned a few things on how to make this almost 20 years old software run on modern computers. I better share so others can avoid the headache.

The wave converter software was made to run on Windows 98, but it is still possible to use it on Windows 10. I found that it is usable if you run it in compatibility mode win 98 (right click on the exe file > properties > compatibility) .
It still crashes from time to time, but the trick is that when you browse for files - only browse by clicking the up button, never chose folder in the scroll list, then it will not crash.
If you don not run it in win 98 compatibility mode, then you will be free to change folders as you like but you cant upload sounds.

Sometimes it will say that the sample you try to upload is not a wave file, even though it is. To solve this problem:
1. Export a sample from the zip disc / CF card to you computer.
2. Upload the newly extracted sound to the slot you wish to upload a wav to.
3. Upload the sample you wish and overwrite, now it will work.
4. Continue to upload your other samples, now without error messages.

I don't know why, but this trick works in case you get error message that the wav you try to upload is not supported. For some reason, wavs that are extracted from the SP808 zip/CF will always work and by uploading one of them to your disc/ card the software stops nagging about incompatible files.