Patches and discussion for Ensoniq VFX family

I've been going through the posts about the floppy emulator for the VFX-SD and wonder how it really works on the initial data transfers.  Is there a way to hook both up at the same time so that you can load in the stuff via floppy into the VFX-SD and then save it to the emulator?

As I have posted before, I use the sequencer extensively for my shows and would like to have everything on one form of media (one bug drive for everything).  

Can someone explain to me how it would work?

Grace, 
Harry

On Sep 18, 2013, at 4:31 AM, "musicwithharry" <musicwithharry@...> wrote:

> I've been going through the posts about the floppy emulator for the VFX-SD and wonder how it really works on the initial data transfers.  

Usually, people would create images of their floppies on a PC with a floppy drive, and put those images onto the storage medium (SD card or similar) that goes in the floppy emulator.

> Is there a way to hook both up at the same time so that you can load in the stuff via floppy into the VFX-SD and then save it to the emulator?

I think in theory, if you were to effectively disconnect the floppy drive and reconnect the emulator, and vice versa, you would do that, but it would be tricky at best. For this sort of question in general, you might be better off asking in the forum about the floppy emulator – for the HxC one, that would be <http://torlus.com/floppy/forum> .

> As I have posted before, I use the sequencer extensively for my shows and would like to have everything on one form of media (one bug drive for everything).  
> 
> Can someone explain to me how it would work?

The easiest way would be to find a PC with a floppy drive, buy a copy of Gary Giebler's Ensoniq Disk Manager (EDM), <http://www.midifile.com/#edm> (or even the package that also includes the software to convert VFX-SD sequences to/from standard MIDI files, http://www.midifile.com/#vfx) and use that to dump your floppies to floppy images in the 'EDV' format. Note that the Giebler tools require DOS or Windows 95/98 to run, and IIRC Windows 95/98 to install.

Alternatively if you have a PC with a floppy drive that runs Linux, you can use the 'fdutils' package to configure your floppy drive to Ensoniq format: double-sided, double-density, 10 sectors per track, first sector number is 0 (using "setfdprm /dev/fd0u800 ds dd sect=10 zerobased"), and then dump the image by just reading it to a raw image file ("dd if=/dev/fd0u800 of=floppy.img bs=512 count=1600").

Or easier still, find someone to dump them for you – I have a Linux PC with a floppy so I can dump floppies to raw images for you if you need.

> Grace, 

Best wishes,

> Harry

// Christian

> 
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------
> 
> Yahoo! Groups Links
> 
> 
>

Thank you for the message.  Unfortunately, the oldest OS that I have is Windows XP.  Additionally, the only floppy I have is a USB floppy and according to the information in our Files section of the group, they will not work.  I suppose that I could sysex each set of sequences and sounds to my Yamaha MDF-II MIDI File Player and save them as Sysex dumps from the VFX-SD.

November will be a time that I am coming into extra $$ so I will likely be getting another VFX-SD for backup (like I said before, I foolishly sold my other VFX-SD).  I will probably also be looking to replace the floppy drive in the VFX-SD I have now, just to be on the safe side. 

I plan to use the VFX-SD (along with my SQ2/32 and my rackmount stuff) on my solo gigs.  I have added a cooling fan to the heatsink on the VFX-SD so that it stays cool inside.

I have also seen the operation for putting a fan in the bottom and am intrigued by that.

I will also probably replace the battery.  I see that many people are replacing the batteries with the flat round 3.3v one and battery holder instead of the barrel one that I see inside my VFX-SD.  Are there any problems in doing this with the voltage or anything?

I have also downloaded the SoundLIB program and put it on my Windows XP machine (Dell Netbook from about 5 years ago with the USB MIDI cable deal), and need to set it up yet so it can talk to the VFX.  I've not had luck just yet, but have not installed the driver for the USB cable, even though the machine recognizes it...

Grace, 
Harry

--- In Ensoniq-VFX-SD@yahoogroups.com, Christian Brunschen <cb@...> wrote:

>
> On Sep 18, 2013, at 4:31 AM, "musicwithharry" <musicwithharry@...> wrote:
> 
> > I've been going through the posts about the floppy emulator for the VFX-SD and wonder how it really works on the initial data transfers.  
> 
> Usually, people would create images of their floppies on a PC with a floppy drive, and put those images onto the storage medium (SD card or similar) that goes in the floppy emulator.
> 
> > Is there a way to hook both up at the same time so that you can load in the stuff via floppy into the VFX-SD and then save it to the emulator?
> 
> I think in theory, if you were to effectively disconnect the floppy drive and reconnect the emulator, and vice versa, you would do that, but it would be tricky at best. For this sort of question in general, you might be better off asking in the forum about the floppy emulator – for the HxC one, that would be <http://torlus.com/floppy/forum> .
> 
> > As I have posted before, I use the sequencer extensively for my shows and would like to have everything on one form of media (one bug drive for everything).  
> > 
> > Can someone explain to me how it would work?
> 
> The easiest way would be to find a PC with a floppy drive, buy a copy of Gary Giebler's Ensoniq Disk Manager (EDM), <http://www.midifile.com/#edm> (or even the package that also includes the software to convert VFX-SD sequences to/from standard MIDI files, http://www.midifile.com/#vfx) and use that to dump your floppies to floppy images in the 'EDV' format. Note that the Giebler tools require DOS or Windows 95/98 to run, and IIRC Windows 95/98 to install.
> 
> Alternatively if you have a PC with a floppy drive that runs Linux, you can use the 'fdutils' package to configure your floppy drive to Ensoniq format: double-sided, double-density, 10 sectors per track, first sector number is 0 (using "setfdprm /dev/fd0u800 ds dd sect=10 zerobased"), and then dump the image by just reading it to a raw image file ("dd if=/dev/fd0u800 of=floppy.img bs=512 count=1600").
> 
> Or easier still, find someone to dump them for you – I have a Linux PC with a floppy so I can dump floppies to raw images for you if you need.
> 
> > Grace, 
> 
> Best wishes,
> 
> > Harry
> 
> // Christian
> 
> 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > ------------------------------------
> > 
> > Yahoo! Groups Links
> > 
> > 
> >
>

Hello,

I recently installed an emulator 3.5 "floppy on my VFX-SD. The original drive is still operational. As VFX-SD can not handle two drives, you must install an inverter switch on the cloth (wire order No. 10 (check)) to select either the original drive or the emulator.

Emulator is installed HxC2001 Rev C. All works very well. I made ​​some pictures, but I do not know how to send them. If you are interested, please let me know.

That sounds neat.  That would be perfect for when you are moving the stuff from the floppies to the emulator.  use the floppy and load what you want into the VFX, flip a switch to the emulator and save the stuff from the VFX.  THAT is cool and something that sounds like it might work on a permanent installation too if you configure the switch correctly.  Have them both hooked up and just run a switch to switch between the two...

Grace, 
Harry

--- In Ensoniq-VFX-SD@yahoogroups.com, <yveco44@...> wrote:

>
> Hello, 
>  I recently installed an emulator 3.5 "floppy on my VFX-SD. The original drive is still operational. As VFX-SD can not handle two drives, you must install an inverter switch on the cloth (wire order No. 10 (check)) to select either the original drive or the emulator. 
>  Emulator is installed HxC2001 Rev C. All works very well. I made ​​some pictures, but I do not know how to send them. If you are interested, please let me know. 
>  Best regards.
>

I saw the pics of your installation.  That is pretty slick.
So with this emulator, you can literally store up to the capacity of the SD card and such..  How does it address maybe having hundreds of song files and such?  Are they save like disk images and you have to open up each disk image or does it store all of the songs and sounds in a linear format to where they are accessible at will?

If you have 100 songs and normally on the floppies they are divided up between 20 floppies, will it look that way on the emulator or will it look like 100 songs, alphabetical by name?

Grace, 
Harry


--- In Ensoniq-VFX-SD@yahoogroups.com, <yveco44@...> wrote:

>
> Hello, 
>  I recently installed an emulator 3.5 "floppy on my VFX-SD. The original drive is still operational. As VFX-SD can not handle two drives, you must install an inverter switch on the cloth (wire order No. 10 (check)) to select either the original drive or the emulator. 
>  Emulator is installed HxC2001 Rev C. All works very well. I made ​​some pictures, but I do not know how to send them. If you are interested, please let me know. 
>  Best regards.
>

Hello Harry,

Pictures of each disk can store the same amount of files (sound banks, presets and sequences), a floppy disk 720 KB.

It is not possible to combine in a single image file, the equivalent of 20 floppy disks.

Note that a disk 720 KB = 1,961 KB image.

Sorry.

Best regards.

So basically, each SD card, even though it might have an 8gb capacity (or whatever capacity for that matter), can only hold the equivalent of one floppy disk?

So the only benefit to having the emulator is so that you are saving your data to a more modern media type rather than floppy disk?

Am I misunderstanding?

I know that you cannot load more than what the onboard memory is anyway. My VFX-SD has the upgrade so it's sequencer is fully expanded.

Can we store multiple disk images on a single SD card?  If I have an 8gb card for example in the VFX-SD through the emulator, I should be able to theoretically store hundreds of floppy disks worth of data (sound, sequence, sysex).  Is that correct?

I apologize for my confusion, and to think that I am a computer guy too :)

Grace, 
Harry


--- In Ensoniq-VFX-SD@yahoogroups.com, <yveco44@...> wrote:

>
> Hello Harry, 
>  Pictures of each disk can store the same amount of files (sound banks, presets and sequences), a floppy disk 720 KB. 
>  It is not possible to combine in a single image file, the equivalent of 20 floppy disks. 
>  Note that a disk 720 KB = 1,961 KB image.
>  Sorry. 
>  Best regards.
>

Hi everyone,

Indeed, on the emulator, each image can not contain more information than a physical disk.

SD card 256 MB, I can store the equivalent of 130 floppy disk 3.5 "720 KB

The advantage is that this type of support is less bulky, more recent, more flexible and more reliable than floppy disks with mechanical moving parts, and therefore fragile.

You can not store an image in more information than a floppy disk.

Good evening.

YVECO44

Actually you could store more data than 720k but it would require a FDC controller chip swap and depending on how high you want to go...maybe a tweak to the firmware. All of which I have done in the past

Rish

Life is like MIDI, your either IN, OUT or THRU.

> On Jan 22, 2014, at 3:50 PM, <yveco44@...> wrote:
> 
> Hi everyone, 
> 
> Indeed, on the emulator, each image can not contain more information than a physical disk. 
> 
> SD card 256 MB, I can store the equivalent of 130 floppy disk 3.5 "720 KB 
> 
> The advantage is that this type of support is less bulky, more recent, more flexible and more reliable than floppy disks with mechanical moving parts, and therefore fragile.
> 
> You can not store an image in more information than a floppy disk. 
> 
> Good evening. 
> 
> YVECO44
> 
>