Patches and discussion for Ensoniq VFX family

On Dec 18, 2008, at 8:08 AM, dgilewsk wrote:
The primary thing to note is that the song file format is proprietary  
and essentially[1] a locked box. I've had success in transferring  
song files as SYSEX dumps, no problem there at all. I haven't  
(lately) tried doing a playback and a multi-channel record on the  
other end, so I won't speak to that. It can be done - I recall having  
done it back in the '90's with my Mac 512K - but I can't give you any  
modern pointers on that. So:
> A: what recommended music interface-Cake walk? etc?
Any 1-in 1-out will do fine; you probably don't  actually need more  
than that.

> B: what recommended minimum computer requirement RAM/CPU
> speed..probably based on interface software:
Like I said, MIDI itself is not a big deal; nearly anything's faster  
than a 512K Mac at this point ...
> C: MIDI dump the songs to music interface software or do some of
> these packages accept VFX-SD format?
SYSEX dump will just plain work without pain. I've used this to back  
up all my songs and patches and I'm much happier knowing I have a  
bunch of current-technology backups I can use if needed. I did SYSEX  
dumps for loading files at Different Skies '07 and it worked great.

  --- Joe M.

[1] The Giebler software seems to know how to transform dong files  
into Type 0/Type 1 MIDI files, but you have to have a floppy  
controller that's compatible on your PC, not a USB one, and it has to  
be a PC.