Patches and discussion for Ensoniq VFX family

That sounds interesting, because years ago I worked hard to find some solution for XP and newer users. Having used disk image duplication software/hardware for years, I was essentially told to give up hope for that possibility on XP and newer... will check those out soon!

-- Mark

On Aug 1, 2012, at 5:36 AM, Christian Brunschen <cb@...> wrote:

> 
> 
> On Jul 31, 2012, at 6:16 PM, Mark Wiens wrote:
> 
>> Keep in mind that Microsoft, in their great wisdom decided it was not necessary to low level floppy support, including 720k floppy creation in their operating systems after Windows 98.
> 
> Well, programs like OmniFlop and possibly TotalCommander manage work around that, since the actual floppy controllers used are still very much standard. Indeed, if you want to enable low-level access for your own programs, you can use something like the fdrawcmd driver, http://simonowen.com/fdrawcmd/ , which gives access to those floppy controllers even on modern Windows versions including the latest (Vista, 7 and 8) as long as your PC includes a floppy controller.  You can even get a small program from the same developer that lets you create and manage floppy images in various forms, see http://simonowen.com/samdisk/ .
> 
> Either way, as long as you're using a floppy drive connected to a controller on the motherboard of your PC, the software mentioned should allow you to access things as you'd expect even though Windows itself doesn't include drivers.
> 
>> Mark
> 
> Best wishes,
> 
> // Christian
> 
>> 
>> On Jul 31, 2012, at 9:55 AM, Christian Brunschen <cb@...> wrote:
>> 
>>> Sounds are encoded very simply in a .SYX fie; they contain a short header, then a nybble-encoded dump of the sound data as it is stored in memory and indeed as it is stored on floppy; and a brief trailer. So unpacking them should be doable. The details are in the VFX-SD Musicians Manual, http://soundprogramming.net/manuals/Ensoniq_VFX-SD_Manual.pdf in Appendix A.
>>> 
>>> Once the .SYX files have been unpacked to 'raw' sound program files, they need to be put on a floppy. 
>>> 
>>> To access the floppies themselves, to read or write the bare contents of a floppy, there is OmniFlop:
>>> 
>>>   http://www.shlock.co.uk/Utils/OmniFlop/OmniFlop.htm
>>> 
>>> And to access the contents of the filesystem on the floppy, there's the EnsoniqFS plugin for TotalCommander:
>>> 
>>>   http://thoralt.ehecht.com/content-en/Projects/Eintrage/2007/7/30_ensoniqfs_-_a_filesystem_plugin_for_TotalCommander.html
>>>   http://sourceforge.net/projects/ensoniqfs/
>>> 
>>>   http://www.ghisler.com
>>> 
>>> Together these should allow full access to read and I think write to Ensoniq-formatted floppies, including VFX-SD ones. So all in all it should be possible to take the .SYX files and put them onto a floppy.
>>> 
>>> Best wishes,
>>> 
>>> // Christian Brunschen
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On Jul 31, 2012, at 5:43 PM, Daniel Forró wrote:
>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> Jammie,
>>>> 
>>>> SMF is used not only for songs, of course also for SysEx memory bulk dump... It differs from SYX format just in small details in header.
>>>> 
>>>> Daniel 
>>>> 
>>>> On Aug 1, 2012, at 1:28 AM, jammie wrote:
>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> it only does midi song data not sysex data
>>>>>  
>>>>> as i have the soft on a win98 pc and it needs to use the msdos
>>>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>>>> From: Daniel Forró
>>>>> To: Ensoniq-VFX-SD@yahoogroups.com
>>>>> Sent: Tuesday, July 31, 2012 3:57 PM
>>>>> Subject: Re: [Ensoniq-VFX-SD] .SYX on Floppy?
>>>>> 
>>>>> This software works with SMF, not SysEx format, and it's MS-DOS 
>>>>> software.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Daniel Forro
>>>>> 
>>>>> On Jul 31, 2012, at 11:31 PM, <tomlinson6050@...> <tomlinson6050@... 
>>>>> > wrote:
>>>>> >
>>>>> > Hi. Go to www.giebler.com
>>>>> > He sells software that can write sysex data on disks with the 
>>>>> > correct Ensoniq format.
>>>>> > Only problem is you will need an older computer running Windows 95 
>>>>> > or 98.
>>>>> > Bill
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>> 
>> 
>> 
> 
> 
> 
>