DPS MESA is available for free download from Akai's site. Use the links below:

DPS MESA PC (1.5meg zipfile)
DPS MESA PC Acrobat Manual (204K PDF) (English)

DPS MESA MAC (580K HQX archive)
DPS MESA MAC Acrobat Manual (145K PDF) (English)

Japanese manuals:

DPS MESA PC Acrobat Manual (153K PDF) (Japanese)
DPS MESA MAC Acrobat Manual (114K PDF) (Japanese)

If you want to check out some screenshots posted to the DPS list by Kurt Landre, here's a selection:

MESA Mixer
MESA Mixer No EQ
MESA All
Press photo of the DPS12 and MESA...

MESA does not support audio transfer from the DPS12 to a computer (boo!), and is simply a computer-based front-end for the automation. It does however give remote access to virtually all of the DPS12's parameters, including the sample rate, assigning inputs to tracks, routing theFX (but not the FX parameters themselves), aux pre/post and extra bus modes and more, and it looks really nice!

It's free, and runs on my aging Pentium 90 so if you have a MIDI-equipped PC, go try it out!

A Cubase mixer map can be found on this page.

This Notator song from Wayne Anthony-Cole will let you control the DPS12's automation functions with Notator. Because NSL only offers a limited "chase" feature, the automation data is ingeniously transformed into NSL "pseudo" events and therefore the automation data is fully chased - so wherever you start in the song, the automation data is always updated to the correct values.

You can grab it from here: dps_nsl.zip (7K)

This Logic environment offers a number of features for DPS12 users. Firstly, there is a full mixer page so you can control all the DPS levels, pans, auxes etc on screen, and have them also move throughout song playback so you can see what the automation is doing. Logic will also fully chase all controller values as long as you have enabled this feature in the song settings.

Also included is a mix transformer which offers the useful function of being able to automatically convert any mix to emerge intact from the AUX outs instead of the main outs. It does this by mapping any volume and pan data to aux send data, and then muting the channel levels. This is extremely useful if you want to route an entire mix through an external processor (compressor etc), as it means you don't have to plug it into the main outputs. More details in the docs.

There are two versions of this environment, one for the Atari version (2.5) and one optimised for the PC version (3.5 or greater) Try either version on the Mac - I don't have access to Logic on the Mac so I don't know which would be best - probably the PC version. Both versions are included in the zipfile.

• DPS12 Logic Environment - info, documentation and screenshots
• Download it now (109K)
  

I'll be updating this in the near future to access all the parameters that can be got to through sysex.

 

 Windows 95 DPS12 Midimixer

This can be found here.

 DeepStripper

DeepStripper is a PC program written by Dror Kessler that will read a DPS backup file, and extract all the individual audio tracks into WAV files - a godsend if you want to take audio recorded on your DPS12/16 onto your computer.

DeepStripper: http://mysite.freeserve.com/bh1/dps/DeepStripper_V0_42.exe
QuickStart Guide: http://mysite.freeserve.com/bh1/dps/DeepStripper_Quickstart.htm
System file: http://mysite.freeserve.com/bh1/dps/msvcp50.dll
(you may need this if your system complains)

Currently it's at an early stage of development (version 0.42), but already the core features work - exporting single tracks or all tracks into WAV files readable by all PC software.

To use the program, you backup to CDR the project that you want to import, then use a program capable of extracting a data file from CDR, such as Nero or EZ-CD Creator 4 (there are others as well). Once you have extracted the project data onto your computer's hard drive, you can then load the file into DeepStripper, and extract any or all files that you need.

There may be a possibility of a Mac version at some stage too.