Patches and discussion for Ensoniq VFX family

At 11:32 PM 4/14/2001 -0400, Suzanne Archibald wrote:
>At 08:38 PM 4/14/01, you wrote:
> >Well, for better or worse, I just got a VFX-SD (no manuals, no disks,
> >blah, blah, blah). I'm about to order a set of manuals if the
> >original owner can't find hers, but what I am wondering is this:
> >
> >1) Would anyone be willing to contribute to a user-written user
> >manual? Basically, I am thinking that this would be canonical free
> >documentation for anyone unlucky enough to wind up without the
> >manuals.
>
>
>It would be a huge project,unfortunately. The VFX series isn't a 'simple'
>synth like many modern synths (romplers). As you've probably discovered,
>many of the 'option' buttons are multi-page, and there are simply huge
>amounts of things that can be changed.
>
>That said, perhaps a set of 'HOWTO's would be in order, just the basics
>sort of thing, and specifics on how to achieve certain things (MIDI
>controller setups, etc)
>
>Remember that the official 'manual' is actually 2 books, the user manual
>and the programming manual (you had to buy it seperately), each fairly
>thick and heavy reading... The user manual still contains a lot of info on
>programming though, so there is probably a bit of duplication.
>
>
> >2) Does anyone know if this sort of thing is legal? It probably is if
> >we don't borrow from Ensoniq docs, but I'd hate to get sued.
>
>
>It would be perfectly legal as long as no copyrights are infringed, which
>means you can't just copy segments out of the official manuals. But I doubt
>that would be what anyone would want to do anyway...
>
>
>
> >3) Anyone have any idea if it's possible to get the source for the
> >OS? I would guess "no", but it never hurts to ask ...
>
>
>There is at least one ex-ensoniq (or current, I don't know) employee on the
>list, so if they want to look into this... But my guess would be 'no'. The
>OS is on ROMs anyway, its just the sequencer OS thats disk-loaded.
>
>The SQ80 crowd however have reverse engineered their OS roms, and have a
>place on the net where you can download custom OS's and even a CGI based
>'ROM builder' which will customize a set of rom images to your options.
>
>Shame we don't have the same kinda people in our crowd, but thats life.
>Besides, the VFX OS is pretty good compared to the SQ80 which had some
>fairly major failings in the official OS's, from what I've seen, and as
>they say necessity breeds invention...
>
>About the only thing that is lacking from the SD-1's OS that I can think of
>off the top of  my head, is the ability to assign the mod wheel to a
>specific CC#, and being able to send Volume messages from the volume
>slider. They are fairly minor, and probably wouldn't warrant reverse
>engineering. Oh, and it would be nice to be able to assign a SINGLE foot
>switch to any of the 5 foot switch choices - I still haven't gotten the
>double foot switch I need for sost.
>
>
>Even if someone had the source, or reverse engineered the OS, it would
>still rely on people having EPROM programmers to be able to rewrite new
>OS's. A luxury not many have...
>
>
>
>To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
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>I think this idea is basically a very good one, perhaps a "user" written 
>manual or how to document would be more usefull than the original, after 
>all, there's no one more educated than those that are fresh from the tech 
>wars and are victorious. Maybe the chore could be split up among those 
>that are willing such that no individual becomes overburdened. I also 
>owned a vfx-sd  when they first were on the market and sold it years 
>later-just recently obtained a used one without os disks etc and as an 
>aging soul, have forgotten how to do a lot of things I used to fly through.
>
>
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