Patches and discussion for Ensoniq VFX family

I want to make the leap to transfer my saved songs/sequences to a 
computer so I can use a computer to play them thru a sound card/music 
interface software. Ya I know, where have I been..., but I am 
computer literate,(Degreed Engineer)My VFX-SD is still operating 
fine,  but I know at some point using floppy disk to load and reload 
will result in failure. I have refined my one man band show and am 
ready to gig after a long hiatus if you know what I mean. 

My question to the group is what is the best way to do this :
I have the original manual but it does not really delve into how to 
go from creating your songs to transfer them to play thru a computer.

A: what recommended music interface-Cake walk? etc?
B: what recommended minimum computer requirement RAM/CPU 
speed..probably based on interface software:
C: MIDI dump the songs to music interface software or do some of 
these packages accept VFX-SD format? 



Thanks
Dave G

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.

You might consider the option of simply recording them onto your
computer as mp3 or wav files and playing them back from that.  It is
simple to do and there is plenty of free software such as Audacity and
Audiograbber that will record them.  Simply connect the line-outs of
the VFX-SD to the line-in of your computer and record them in real time.

You would not be able to edit or make changes, but you would have the
great VFX-SD sounds.  You could play them back with any computer or
mp3 player.

--- In Ensoniq-VFX-SD@yahoogroups.com, "dgilewsk" <dgilewsk@...> wrote:

>
> I want to make the leap to transfer my saved songs/sequences to a 
> computer so I can use a computer to play them thru a sound card/music 
> interface software. Ya I know, where have I been..., but I am 
> computer literate,(Degreed Engineer)My VFX-SD is still operating 
> fine,  but I know at some point using floppy disk to load and reload 
> will result in failure. I have refined my one man band show and am 
> ready to gig after a long hiatus if you know what I mean. 
> 
> My question to the group is what is the best way to do this :
> I have the original manual but it does not really delve into how to 
> go from creating your songs to transfer them to play thru a computer.
> 
> A: what recommended music interface-Cake walk? etc?
> B: what recommended minimum computer requirement RAM/CPU 
> speed..probably based on interface software:
> C: MIDI dump the songs to music interface software or do some of 
> these packages accept VFX-SD format? 
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks
> Dave G
>

Orrrrrr.....


The BEST way to do it (as time consuming as it may sound at first), is 
to SYNC the SD-1's clock to your computer with the SD-1 as Master  (i.e. 
set your computer to lock to an external midi clock whilst in record 
mode), assign all the SD voices to separate midi channels and RECORD all 
the songs across. Then having done that, set the tempos in the songs 
back to their correct value, (including mapping out any tempo changes as 
they occur in songs), and CLEARLY LABEL the track name of each part of 
your sequence on the computer so you know exactly what is where and 
where it came from. Then Bob's your deviant Aunty!!

To "record" the SD-1 song as a WAV means that component of your finished 
song is frozen in time, you have NO way of going back and replacing the 
bass patch because  you've suddenly found a better one (etc etc etc).  
Doing what I suggest means you can come back to a composition 10 years 
in the future and pick it up and continue with it as if you never left.

I actually did all of the above when I made the leap from Atari1040 
(remember them?) to Mac years ago, with a whole LOAD of songs in various 
stages of completion.  Thank God I went through the effort of doing it 
properly.  Some of those song's are still alive now, (and on a recent 
CD). So it will take a LITTLE bit longer, but it won't take all that 
long once you're set up and got the hang of it. The other methods using 
sys-ex dumping into a computer and then converting the dump into 
something partially usable will waste SOOOO much time, you'll kick 
yourself you didn't use this "slow" method first 'coz you would've saved 
so much time stuffing around.

been there - done that - trust me!!  ("you can trust me, I'm a musician" 
:-) )

have fun with it all

Soundthinker

On Fri, Dec 19, 2008 at 2:54 PM, Roger Campbell
<roger17@...> wrote:
> Orrrrrr.....
>
>
> The BEST way to do it (as time consuming as it may sound at first), is
> to SYNC the SD-1's clock to your computer with the SD-1 as Master  (i.e.
> set your computer to lock to an external midi clock whilst in record
> mode), assign all the SD voices to separate midi channels and RECORD all
> the songs across. Then having done that, set the tempos in the songs
> back to their correct value, (including mapping out any tempo changes as
> they occur in songs), and CLEARLY LABEL the track name of each part of
> your sequence on the computer so you know exactly what is where and
> where it came from. Then Bob's your deviant Aunty!!

Yes, this is exactly the process. It is very fiddly and extremely
manual, but at the end of it you have real sequences in whatever your
favorite sequencer is. (I'd still recommend saving a copy as a Type 1
SMF in case your favorite sequencer's company goes belly-up.)

 --- Joe M.

--- In Ensoniq-VFX-SD@yahoogroups.com, "dgilewsk" <dgilewsk@...> wrote:
> 
> My question to the group is what is the best way to do this :
> I have the original manual but it does not really delve into how to 
> go from creating your songs to transfer them to play thru a computer.
> 
if u got to convert a lot of SD-Sequences and willing to spend 50
bucks on it , u might wanna check out a commercial solution like this:
http://giebler.biz/product.sc?categoryId=3&productId=11

greetings from germany
michael junck
----------------------
happy holidays!
http:xmas.klangkombinat.de
----------------------

On Fri, Dec 19, 2008 at 3:21 PM, hamageddon <michael@...> wrote:
> if u got to convert a lot of SD-Sequences and willing to spend 50
> bucks on it , u might wanna check out a commercial solution like this:
> http://giebler.biz/product.sc?categoryId=3&productId=11
Does anyone remember the Transoniq Hacker? At one point they actually
published a spec for the sequencer SYSEX dumps - which I somehow
managed to lose during one or another of my moves. If anyone still has
that, I'd be glad to put something together for us Mac folks, who are
out in the cold as far as the Giebler s/w goes.