Patches and discussion for Ensoniq VFX family

I think I have been using the MidiMan UNO for the 1x1 stuff without a problem....

Bob
El Segundo, CA



-----Original Message-----
>From: Steve Wahl <steve@...>
>Sent: Jun 20, 2008 3:47 PM
>To: Ensoniq-VFX-SD@yahoogroups.com
>Subject: [Ensoniq-VFX-SD] Beware cheap chinese USB MIDI cables on ebay...
>
>This is a heads up to all of you.  If you know of a better forum I
>should be posting this in, let me know.
>
>Having recently put some softsynth software on my mac laptop, I wanted
>a usb - midi interface that I could just put in my laptop bag and have
>with me.  There are a bunch of cheap, 1x1 usb midi adapters available
>on ebay for around $20 after shipping.  I could not find much
>information on whether these worked well or not, using google.  So I
>thought I'd try one.
>
>I hooked it up to my VFX-SD and things were NOT working well.  I tried
>it with my Macbook laptop and with my windows XP desktop machine.  In
>both cases, the symptoms were the same.  A single note would play
>fine, but chords would not, no matter how much time between pressing
>each note.  And there were stuck notes, etc.
>
>So the short story is: you may get even less than you pay for if you
>try to use one of these with a VFX.
>
>I looked at the output with Midi-Ox, and I think I may have a clue to
>the problem.  The rest of this message is pretty much pure speculation.
>
>It looks like this device does not handle running status correctly.
>And at least my VFX-SD seems to send running status whenever it can.
>
>	Running status is a midi feature that's been around from the
>	begining of midi.  Status bytes have the high bit set (decimal
>	value is greater than 127), other bytes don't.  For example, a
>	note on message looks like A0 45 40 (in hexadecimal).  A0 is a
>	status byte that says "this message is a NOTE ON message for
>	midi channel 1." 45 is the note number, and 40 is the
>	velocity.  If more note on messages need to be sent for
>	channel 1, the sender is allowed to send just more note
>	number, velocity byte pairs, without sending the initial byte,
>	so: A0 45 40 47 42 would be two note on messages on midi
>	channel 1, one for note 45 velocity of 40, one for note 47
>	velocity of 42.
>
>This midi interface doesn't seem to react to anything unless there's a
>status byte.  So, Note-On,  Note-off, Note-On, Note-off works, but
>Note-On, Note-On, Note-off, Note-off doesn't.
>
>I've heard that these interfaces are rip-offs of the M-Audio midisport
>uno; I found this info in the linux alpha drivers section:
>
>   - usb-audio: work around broken M-Audio MidiSport Uno firmware
>     
>     The firmware of the M-Audio USB Uno MIDI Interface has, at least in
>     hardware revision 1.25, a bug that garbles its USB output.  When it
>     receives a Note On MIDI message that uses running status, the resulting
>     USB MIDI packet has a wrong CIN (4 instead of 9) and a wrong length
>     (2 bytes, the status byte is still missing).
>     
>     This patch adds a workaround to track the CINs and the MIDI messages of
>     received USB MIDI packets to detect whether a packet with CIN 4 is a
>     correct SysEx packet or a buggy running status packet.
>
>That suggests that this is probably a bug-for-bug-compatible clone,
>and that a workaround is proably already in the other platforms'
>USB-MIDI drivers, if only they could be convinced to see this device
>as a midisport uno. :-(
>
>Anyway, buyer beware!
>
>--> Steve
>
>-- 
>Steve Wahl    steve@...
>
>One day, the light bulb in the fridge burnt out, and I thought to myself,
>"At least now I know it's off when the door's closed... Or do I?"