Patches and discussion for Ensoniq VFX family

Hi,

I´ve just bought VFX OS 2.10. Suprisingly there is no keyboard callibration problem, but there are few others:

- occassional strange crackles/pops on envelope starts - some of my sounds have crackles/pops when the envelopes are retriggered, not every time, but the crackles are annoying (especially on pads) - can anybody test the Moog Taurus bass sound from the "Lot converted" archive - the legato play makes the crackle on every key press (it is independent on DSP settings, makes crackles even if the effect is off)

- Error 32 - I can´t play any organ sound that use Rotary Speaker FX - the VFX immediately goes to error 32 and needs to be reinitialized, after selecting the rotary speaker effect or sound that use it

- battery low (will be replaced, no problem here)

Does anybody have the same problems? Is the OS 2.30 a solution or do these symptoms indicate some problems with DSP or other chips? Besides above mentioned problems the VFX is stable and works for 12 hours now.

Thanks for help

Tomas

I've never had that problem before.  Sounds like you may have some chips that may be going bad.  I would open it up and clean it out and make sure that the chips are seated correctly.  

I would also perform a hard reset and see what happens.

Grace, 
Harry


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

>
> Hi,
>   
>  I´ve just bought VFX OS 2.10. Suprisingly there is no keyboard callibration problem, but there are few others:
>   
>  - occassional strange crackles/pops on envelope starts - some of my sounds have crackles/pops when the envelopes are retriggered, not every time, but the crackles are annoying (especially on pads) - can anybody test the Moog Taurus bass sound from the "Lot converted" archive - the legato play makes the crackle on every key press (it is independent on DSP settings, makes crackles even if the effect is off)
>  - Error 32 - I can´t play any organ sound that use Rotary Speaker FX - the VFX immediately goes to error 32 and needs to be reinitialized, after selecting the rotary speaker effect or sound that use it 
>  - battery low (will be replaced, no problem here)
>   
>   
>  Does anybody have the same problems? Is the OS 2.30 a solution or do these symptoms indicate some problems with DSP or other chips? Besides above mentioned problems the VFX is stable and works for 12 hours now.
>   
>  Thanks for help
>   
>  Tomas
>

I´ve replaced the battery and the Error 32 seems to be solved ... strange, both rotary speaker DSP algorithms seems to work OK now.

The envelope pops persist ... seems to be an OS problem in my opinion. I have unfortunately no chance to check the same sounds on a different machine (my friend´s VFX-SD broke yesterday .... no sound output at all).

Anyway does anybody have the image of the OS 2.30 EPROMs. Route66 have not responsed to my mail order :( I can make the EPROMs myself, but I do not have the bin files.

Hi

Just seen your post about VFX firmware.

Not sure what VFX you have? Is it an SD?

I used to own a plain VFX which had O/S V1.65.

Used to have a lot of issues with that in regards to midi and an annoying pop on the attack phase on some presets.

Tried loading V2.10 but i think it was for the SD as it didn't boot...

I did copy my V1.65 EPROMS though and i've uploaded it to the files section along with V2.10b.

I never found V2.30 at the time either, but is that for the SD anyway?

Might help you out if you have a plain VFX!

I sold it in the end while it still worked, i have since picked up a SQR Plus as an alternative but its not like the VFX sound wise. Close though...

Cheers

Tried these guys?

http://www.syntaur.com/vfx.html

Not sure why mine didn't boot at the time, maybe an error when i burnt the EPROM's. there wasn't a checksum with the bins so hard to check all was well.

Your right about V2.30 being the last revision for the VFX, there seemed some confusion over the VFX / SD version in my head anyway....

l'll ask about to see if i can get hold of V2.30, someone out there must have it sitting on a hard drive...

I had a clicking / popping issue with mine, looking on a scope the output waveform would be clipped off at the initial attack stage, but only on some sounds. Might of been an address line issue somewhere with the waveform rom or decoding. l'll never know now as its gone.

Very distinctive sound the VFX, one of a kind really.

Good luck!

Hi,

I have "plain" VFX (means no SD, no floppy). R66 is not responding, I´ve asked Syntaur already (having just ordered an ASR-10 analog board), but they do not have VFX EPROMs in their eshop. All my friends around have VFX-SD.

The Rotary Speaker problem came back after few restarts - might indicate some PSU problems (not enough power to feed more hungry algorithms ??? maybe). I do not really need Hammonds anyway, VFX is a Transwave beast for me, but the envelope crackles are annoying (especially on pads and basses).

I got already used to Ensoniq low technical quality (ASR10 with burnt Analog board and SIMMs + occassional OS errors, ESQ1 "starving for fuses", Fizmo where I had to order better PSU to prevent from burning the main board, now looking for TS10 - testing already 3 pieces - all having calibration problems, my previous VFX:SD had keyboard and mainboard issues ... Ensoniq is a challenge :) ... but still clever and unique machines. Hope they survive for few years.

T.