Ensoniq VFX SD - USB Floppy Drive Emulator Installation

[@HankCoffey]

ATTENTION - At the time of this video, I did not know that HxC firmware could read IMG also. Supposedly since 2017. So just ignore the software section of this video. It's no longer relevant.

[@ET2carbon]

So what's the current relevant information?

[@HankCoffey]

@@ET2carbon I started using FlashFloppy instead of the HxCFloppyEmulator. I don't keep up with hardware tech anymore. There could be something better now. Video is old.

[@ET2carbon]

@@HankCoffey ok thank you

[@HankCoffey]

@@ET2carbon No problem

[@revrocks]

I put one of these USB drives in my Ensoniq VFX-SD, which I’ve had since the early 90s. Prior to doing so, I did SysEx dumps of all of the floppy disks I accumulated of sounds and sequences into an app on my iPad call SysEx Base. I then simply copied everything to a USB thumb drive giving me access to everything in one place.

[@HankCoffey]

Cool!

[@ET2carbon]

Subbed. Thanks man

[@Johnsormani]

I wouldn't advise to get the dust out with that can of cold air. At least spray carefully from a distance and not from upclose since if you hit a circuitboard you might introduce cracks in the printed circuits from the cold. It's also possible to introduce static electricity this way

[@HankCoffey]

The compressed air is made for computers. As long as the can is strait up and down, it won't blow freezing liquid. I seen a video of a guy disassembling his ASR-10 and blowing that frozen liquid on everything. I felt bad for the guy, he didn't know what he was doing, and thought he was doing something good.

[@Johnsormani]

@@HankCoffey Yes I understand, and you used it correctly. I just wanted to give a general warning to the viewers to be careful ( just as careful as with a compressor btw) . Especially with US old-fashioned printed circuits like Moog had and many other niche manufacturers who made their circuit boards locally ( you could see it :-) ) Most people can't differentiate between what you were doing and the ASR guy was doing and so these kind of mistakes happen, which can be easily prevented

[@aloharay]

good job pushing through and getting it to work

[@HankCoffey]

Thanks Ray, I got it working!

[@judithserrano2340]

thanks for help

[@HankCoffey]

No problem Masum

[@raidmarji]

Many thanks for these great info. Can I send the Sequencer OS as SysEX?

[@HankCoffey]

Thanks Raid, I am not sure about the OS as SysEx, Maybe?

[@yanivbenari7905]

killer - i hope its not that different for ASR 10 and SD 1 which i'm gonna try emulators on

[@HankCoffey]

Should be the same on SD-1. I install one on a TS-12 in this video kzbin.info/www/bejne/a2rMfGWqba6Dbdk That board is closer to a ASR. It plays ASR samples.

[@yanivbenari7905]

​@@HankCoffey Awsome thanks

[@adamstraker1153]

Hey Hank, great tutorial mate, I plan to do my VFX SD too, I cannot get the OS disk image anywhere, are you able to point me in the right direction please??

[@HankCoffey]

You can do a Google search for Ensoniq VFX SD OS. There is a link to the OS IMG file on the vintagesynth forum. I don't want to link any files here.

[@StormproductionsIl]

Thank you for this video. It is vary helpful. Could you please share you .hfe image of the 2.10 OS, and/or point me in the direction of where to get it? I don't have an old machine and a USB connected floppy won't work, so i can't figure out a way to convert any of my floppies ... thank you in advance

[@HankCoffey]

I don't want to post external links anywhere on my KZbin videos, it's bad for the algorithm. All you have to do is Google search for the IMG. I just google searched Ensoniq VFX SD OS 2.10. Someone posted a link to it on the VintageSynth forum. You will have to convert it to hfe yourself. If you just absolutely can't find it, email me at the address in my video descriptions.

[@HankCoffey]

As far as my actual hfe file, I have the keyboard in storage. It's not on my computer.

[@acidzydeco]

Wishing we could swap sound payches via internet!

[@HankCoffey]

I'm going to try to go through all my patches this week. Put them all on the USB drive. Send me a email.

[@acidzydeco]

@@HankCoffey I want to share my piano programs to see what you think

[@acidzydeco]

@@HankCoffey a person I know had the last vfx update before SD-1... Had MEGA PIANO waves. I don't think ensoniq spent much effort in programming a patch to represent these MEGAPIANO samples.

[@HankCoffey]

@@acidzydeco you can upgrade a VFX SD to SD-1. SD-1 had the piano waves you're talking about. But yeah, I know what you're saying.

[@erikberrones2635]

How do i get sequencer os key?

[@HankCoffey]

I found it by doing a Google search. There is a forum post with a link to download it. You can also try searching on a site called R-Massive. I don't have the file now. So I can't give it to you.

[@mr.lumbergh]

Is there a way to add the patches and sequences to a blank disk image directly? I've gotten them to save and they can be read by my SQ80, but without the actual patches obviously it isn't much use. Thank you for this video btw, it helped me get this far...

[@HankCoffey]

With this VFX, I had to load patch banks from sysex files on computer. Thru midi cables. Then, I saved the banks to blank hfe images. You will probably have to do the same thing with the SQ-80. Download all the patches you want in sysex. Load through midi. Save to USB.

[@mr.lumbergh]

@@HankCoffey It looks like I spoke a bit too soon... None of the HFE images I created are recognized by the synth. I did get it to read a virtual disk called "SQ80DEMO.EDS" that shipped with the drive by going through the procedure you outlined in the vid to export and create the image from a file, but none of the blank HFE images are recognized, either new ones I made in the software or the "Blank.HFE" that also shipped; I get the "not an Ensoniq disk" error when I try to read or format them from the synth itself. I know that the formatting shouldn't be done in the synth itself but gave it a try out of desperation. This thing really is frustrating isn't it?

[@HankCoffey]

@@mr.lumbergh yeah, Ensoniq is REAL picky on reading anything. I just put the new big screen Gotek in this VFX. It started throwing errors everywhere. It was fixed by changing a small setting in the flashfloppy cfg file. I went from HxC to Flashfloppy. Like I probably say in this video, my older Ensoniqs will only read Ensoniq EPS DD format. So the HFE or IMG has to be made from a EPS DD image. Good luck, lol. If you have 1 file that works, you can get it to work. There is just a imagine format or drive setting issue. If your 1 EDS file works flawlessly. It's a disk format issue.

[@HankCoffey]

@@mr.lumbergh I just re-watched a section of this video. From 5:50 on I am explaining everything that I'm answering here. SQ-80 is even older than this VFX. So it's going to be real picky. You're going to have to get the formats and settings just right for it to work. So to clarify.. the SQ-80 can't even mount a image that isn't a EPS DD disk. So it can't format something it doesn't even recognize. The file on the USB stick HAS to be created from a Ensoniq disk image.

[@oliverkhalif3626]

do you think it s the same process for Ensoniq plus 16 ?

[@HankCoffey]

It should be, yes. The 16 plus might read the Ensoniq HD format also.

[@richardst-aubin4527]

thanks for this, question: did you have to change the jumper settings to have it work in your vfx-sd? cause I installed mine, and now my vfx-sd doesnt boot normally & the digits on the gotek stay on red..

[@richardst-aubin4527]

I copied the jumper setup from your ts-12 installation, it works , boots fine, but I'm having the "disk not ready" issue, another question: did you have to format your usb key into a special format?

[@HankCoffey]

@@richardst-aubin4527 no, but the hfe disk image files have to be in Ensoniq EPS DD format. You can't just create a standard image. It's a real pain getting Ensoniqs to read stuff. Once you get it, it works

[@HankCoffey]

@@richardst-aubin4527 USB key is FAT 32 on the computer. HFE files go on the USB key. HFE image files HAVE to be created as Ensoniq EPS DD. I say this stuff in one of the videos.

[@richardst-aubin4527]

@@HankCoffey thanks for the reply, so I actually ended up installing the flashfloppy firmware, made my own usb-a cable, everything works now! thx

[@ricardotomashenestroza8893]

Hi Hank !! My Ensoniq SD1 floppy drive stopped working and I can't load O.S 3.0 which is what my firmware uses, and that's where I discovered this video of yours !! The question is, is there any way I can load Sequencer 3.0 via SysEx?? I don't have any problems with the sounds because I have them all in SysEx, but I don't have a way to load the Sequencer, thank you very much if you can help me with my problem

[@HankCoffey]

Hi Ricardo, I think the problem would be finding the Sequencer OS as a SysEx dump. Unless you have access to a 2nd SD-1. I am not 100% sure if the OS can be loaded via sysex. I haven't tried it. I would probably find a replacement drive. Or, get a new Gotek with Flashfloppy Firmware. As the pinned comment of this video states, Flashfloppy reads raw IMGs. So you don't have to mess with the whole conversion process. The Flashfloppy cfg file settings have to be set a certain way or the VFX won't read it. Messing with these old Ensoniq boards is a real pain in the az. If you want no headaches, just put a floppy drive in it. But then, you have to be a rocket scientist to even make the properly formatted floppies. So, maybe Flashfloppy is the way to go. If you can find the floppy IMG. I've upgraded all of my Goteks to Flashfloppy. If you look online, someone will have the factory floppy IMG for the SD-1. People can't find the VFX SD img. I google search and find it in 30 seconds. You usually find the links posted on forum threads. Found by google search.

[@ricardotomashenestroza8893]

@@HankCoffey Thank you !!!

[@amdtechinformatica2980]

estes teclado da ensoniq era um tanque de guerra

[@HankCoffey]

Sim, eles são muito bons.

[@amdtechinformatica2980]

Eu sou apaixonado neles

[@dimensionstudioslondon]

Hi does it work in the regular vfx

[@HankCoffey]

The original VFX doesn't have a floppy drive. So it's firmware wouldn't support one. If the main board has a spot for a floppy ribbon cable, it might be possible to change the firmware. But then you may be missing required buttons. I don't know enough about the original VFX to answer.

[@dimensionstudioslondon]

Thank you I may just stick to regular Sysex dumping