#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#% From Cyberspace to Your Ear Part I - Patches Garth Hjelte Computer communication has erupted into a way of life nowadays; it's certainly affected the music industry. Music distribution, promotion, advertising sites all have changed the scope of the music arts. And it's affecting the way we Ensoniq users approach our instruments. Perhaps while cruising the Net you've seen files that are described as "ESQ-1 patches in Galaxy format," or "ASR 3.53 OS in Giebler format," - things like that. So you download it (if it's for your instrument it's gotta be good), but then what? How do you get a file that's laying in your computer to your Ensoniq instrument? Well, this month we're going to look into various ways of getting those patches into your synth. Next month - samples. But First... Getting It Offline FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is easy enough. If you are unfamiliar with it check with your Internet provider and you'll find out how easy it is to grab files from cyberspace and get 'em into your computer. Some providers even decode and unzip files for you and everything (wow). Send to a Friend This may be be slightly off topic, but maybe sometimes you would like to send a sound file to a friend, or perhaps they have some you want and they'd like to send to you. This isn't like FTP'ing - you gotta send it e-mail. And if you are dealing with America On-Line or CompuServe, that means you have to jump through another hoop. Computer files come in two flavors - text and binary. Text is a 7-bit format, and resembles the letters you are now reading. E-mail is made up of 7-bit text files. Binary information is an 8-bit format, and isn't easily read by people. Binary files include executable files (.EXE), dynamic link libraries (.DLL), zip files (.ZIP), and more. Text files are usually .TXT, .WRI, .DOC, and other document formats. But to the online world - and here's the complication - you can only e-mail 7-bit text files, and the majority of files we deal with (especially the sound files we're talking about) are 8-bit, that is, binary. So how do we get around this? UUEncoding and decoding! UU You, UU Me What's UUcoding? (Note: for the Mac, the same type of process is called Binhex.) It's the translation of binary information into text format information. There are some good UUcoding programs like Richard Marks UUCODE, and I use Sabasoft's UUCODE for Windows. For the Mac there's Binhex. They will take in a binary file and spit out a coded text file to transmit. The coded version is usually 80% bigger than the binary file. Then you are ready to send it. Likewise, when you receive a file from the Internet, it's usually in a coded text file format (and most of the time compressed/zipped, to decrease the size of the file). Thus you want to decode it with your UU-Binhex program. Another online problem is that many providers only have small "gateways." A gateway is the maximum allowable size of a packet of information coming through. A small gateway means large files (especially samples) have to be split up in order to transmit/receive. For example, for me to send a demo of my EPS/ASR Tools for Windows program to someone on the Internet, I have to UU Encode my zip file, split it up into 64K packets, import each file into America On-Line (that's my provider), and send them all out. Typically, it takes 15-16 full e-mail message's worth (it's a 301,278-byte file). Then the poor guy at the other end has to put all the UUencoded textfiles end to end using a word processing program, UUdecode it and he's got it. It can get complex. Note: If you are saying, "What's he talking about? I download files off the Internet all the time, and they are in binary format, and I don't have to UU/Binhex anything!" That's true, lots of Internet service providers convert text to-from binary automatically, making it invisible to you. But with AOL, CIS, and the majors, it's still an issue. But if you have a standard Internet PPP account, you'll probably never encounter the problem. But since there's more and more AOL and CIS coming on-line (in droves), please be aware of these "hoops." Mac users will need Binhex to convert files to and from binary. Binhex works in the background of a number of Internet browsing/searching/downloading programs, automatically converting the files as they are downloaded to your machine. It can also be used as a stand-alone utility to convert files that have already arrived, but in the wrong format. Don't let all this text-to-binary-to-text scare you. If you have to encounter it, you'll soon get used to it. And soon, there will be better ways of doing all this. Izzit Disk or MIDI? Once you've got the file, it can be transported from the 'puter to the 'board by one of two ways - either by MIDI communication or by physical media (floppy disks, removable hard disks, etc.). Generally, patches for synthesizers (ESQ-1, VFX/SD, SQ, TS, KT Series) are communicated through MIDI, and samples are communicated through media. That's changing on both sides lately, but that's another story. One If By MIDI... Patches for synthesizers are kept in lotsa format - DataDisk, Galaxy, XOR, MIDIex, Sys-Ex, and many more. It's important that you know what file format the patch file is in so you'll know how to transmit this to your keyboard. Once you have the file in your computer, you'll need a program to extract the relevant data from the file and send it out the MIDI port, SCSI port, or onto the floppy disk. It extracts what's in the file, and then sends it in what's called system-exclusive data. That means it's a specialized MIDI message just for your instrument and it contains all the data needed to add new patches or, most of the time, to replace all the sounds with new ones. Remember, with synthesizers, it doesn't replace the actual waveforms that make up the sound, but the different programs that alter those waves. Let's look at a coupla sys/ex transmitters. MIDIex is a popular DOS utility with many patches online that seem to be in this format. (For the Mac, you'll usually find something else.) MIDIex is fairly easy to use. I made a batch file that reads like this: midiex /I:7 /B:450000 because my PCMIDICard is set to interrupt 7. B stands for buffer, and 450,000 means I have made 450,000 bytes of memory available to send/receive data. I use MIDIex with a Wavestation (non-Ensoniq), but with your Ensoniq board the buffer could be less. (Note: the MIDIex that is at the Transoniq ftp site is an updated version, but doesn't have the "switches" as listed above - however, you'll probably not need them.) Another program of this type is the MIDI Data Filer (or MDF). According to Todd Aiken of the oak.oakland.edu list, "I tried using MIDIex at home with my EPS Classic and SoundBlaster, and it would not recognize my MPU-401 interface at all, but MDF works beautifully. You can find it at ftp.cdrom.com in the directory /pub/garbo/garbo_pc/sound with the filename mdf31.zip. It's only 28k zipped (I think) and it's absolutely free!" There's also a no-frills MS-DOS MPU-401 MIDI Sysex Dump and Receive utility called SYSXUTIL.ZIP on Compuserve in the ENSONIQ forum. It has been tested successfully with ALL sysex messages of any type on ALL Ensoniq keyboards and modules - which may not be the case with other free, generic sysex utilities. While cruising the Net, you probably will find ".syx" files, which stands for Cakewalk system-exclusive file format. CakeWalk has become very popular for sending/receiving system exclusive dumps. It's really quite easy with its smooth Windows interface. You can combine this with sequencing for a great setup. Cubase, Performer, MasterTracks Pro also provide this function. It's usually good to hook up both of your MIDI cables ("Out" of your keyboard into the "In" of the computer, and vice-versa). That way the handshakes can make good. If you find things not working, try unhooking the KEYBOARD OUT with the COMPUTER IN. Sometimes it's the computer's fault, sometimes it's yours. As a sidenote, MIDI system-exclusive patch dumps have come a long way since the beginning. Remember, PCs weren't popular items back a couple of years ago. Ensoniq equipped the Mirage to handle patch dumps from the ESQ-1 by a real "cheat." I have a KORG EX-8000 that required an insane handshaking scheme to get it to dump its data, and even then it was only one patch at a time. Nowadays, it's much easier. If you're daring and want to become a (oh, here it comes) POWER USER, you might want to invest in a synth editor/librarian. Sound Quest makes a great line of Windows ed/libs called MIDI Quest. Not only can you edit any piece of data from the computer, you can also set up multiple SysEx dumps, to load all your sounds to multiple synths before each song. Wow! And in the Transoniq site, there is a superb shareware editor for the KS-32. Plus there are many of the editor/librarians that were first class for the ESQ-1 in its heyday that are offered for free now on the NET (ESQLIB comes to mind - it's available on CompuServe now). Other SysEx programs are Software Forge SysEx Manager (sysexman.zip) and WinSysEx (winsysex.zip). (This one does only dumps TO the MIDI gear. It does NOT record sysex FROM synths etc.) And not to forget the Mac, there are several shareware sysex programs for the Mac - Bulk Sysex Utility, MidiEx Mac, and Flypaper. According to Steve Vincent, "...of the first two, MidiEx Mac seems to work better (on my system at least)." Steve bundled MidiEx Mac into the HackerPatch file "HackerPatch ESQ.MidiExMac.sit" at the Transoniq ftp site for the ESQ HackerPatches. So, Mac users don't have to shell out big bucks for Galaxy or some other librarian to send and receive patches. Hopefully, MidiEx Mac will be the standard, at least in Hacker circles, for Mac transfers. Flypaper for the Mac, by Steve Berkley of epSCSi fame, allows you to save MIDI dumps into an application that you can give to your friends, download, etc. to load into their synths. For example, you can record a SysEx dump of MIDI from your DP/4 into Flypaper, save it into a "Transportable" application (overhead about 48k), and download it to wherever. Steve Berkley says it's available at most major online services and ftp sites. Next month - samples and sites. Bio: Garth Hjelte owns Rubber Chicken Software Company, a sound and who-knows-what-else company that devotes itself to Ensoniq products. He'd like to thank you for reading this article, and hopes that he can read one of yours as well. #%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#% #%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#% From Cyber Space to Your Ear Part II - Samples Garth Hjelte Recap Computer communication has erupted into a way of life nowadays; it's certainly affected the music industry. And it's affecting the way we Ensoniq users approach our instruments. Perhaps while cruising the Net you've seen files that are described as "ESQ-1 patches in Galaxy format," or "ASR 3.53 OS in Giebler format," - things like that. So you download it, but then what? How do you get a file that's laying in your computer to your Ensoniq instrument? Last month we covered various ways of moving files around Internet and getting them into your Ensoniq synth. Well, the moving-around part stays the same for samples (although they're often too big for practical e-mailing to many sites - such as aol); now for getting them into your sampler. Two If By Disk If you have a Mirage, EPS, or ASR sampler or a VFX/SD/TS, you have the advantage of a floppy disk drive on your 'board. So you can bypass hooking up the MIDI cords, and place the file on disk and shift it over that way. And with samplers, the MIDI communication side is SLOW, if existent at all, at this point. But here're some more hoops... It is important to note that the Ensoniq disk-format is different than the PC's or the Mac's. It more closely resembles the PC's, but the two formats are still different. This means you can't format a floppy on your PC, save the file onto it and stick it in your keyboard and expect it to read it. Neither can you format the disk in your keyboard and stick it in your computer and expect it to save it. That's where some ingenious disk utilities come into the picture. For the PC, there is the Giebler Ensoniq Disk Manager 1.09 (hereafter called EDM), and EPSDisk 1.3, and shareware utility written by Michael Chen. Both use the BIOS (Basic In and Out System) functions to format, read, and write to Ensoniq formatted floppies. For the Mac, there exists the EPSm, written by the infamous Terje Finstad of tropical Norway. Terje should get lots of credit because it used to be that when you stuck a Ensoniq-formatted disk in a Mac, it would crash it. Terje came up with a format called a B10, which made the Mac compatible with disks that the Ensoniq instruments could read. It's also why you see the COMPUTER option on the ASR on the FORMAT FLOPPY function - they want you to be able to format floppy disks that the Mac can work with. Some quick notes: the EDM now can split files onto several floppies, allowing files larger than 3167 blocks. The EPSm can do that as well. It can even extract a file image from a disk image, extract a file image from a disk, and grab file images off a CD-ROM. Great program. Let me relate a personal experience. Ensoniq operates a forum on Compu$pend - oops, I mean CompuServe - and has a library section for themselves. When their new OS for the ASR 3.53 came out, they simply put it in the library for us to download. Here's how they did it. They took a disk with the new OS on it, and stuck it in their computer/network. They choose the Giebler utility to work with. The EDM read the disk, using its own proprietary system to intelligently read the disk. That's a big difference between the EDM and EPSDisk. The EDM knows where to look for the data on the disk "intelligently," so to speak, and then creates a file. EPSDisk reads all the data, sector by sector, creating a . A disk image is like a byte-by-byte photograph of the contents of the disk. It's not "intelligent" - it's kind of like the "Copy Disk" function in your computer. So now Ensoniq had a PC file that they simply uploaded to CompuServe for public retrieval. When you download the file, you simply do the same in reverse. Use the EDM to write the PC format file to blank floppy (the EDM formats the disk as it's writing the file), and then voila! you can stick the disk in your ASR and you have the new operating system! The EDM comes in a freeware version as well, the EDE (Ensoniq Disk Extractor). This can write to a floppy but not read, and doesn't have all the other cool functions of the EDM. The EDE is available on the Ensoniq CIS library, and other locations. EPSDisk has as its appeal the fact that it's low cost. (It's actually shareware - if you are using it frequently, write a check out to Michael Chen. He'll be glad you did!) It can also special-format disks to 1625 blocks (DS/DD) or 3265 blocks (DS/HD) if you want it to. EPSDisk reads and writes files having the ".gkh" extension. You'll see most of the Internet sites having this as their format (like wozzeck and wmp), although some are using the EDM format now (Sound Management's MIDILINK, the Ensoniq forum, and the software libraries at America On-Line). One note on EPSDisk files: most of the time they are zipped with GZIP, a UNIX zipping program that is different than PKZIP and the rest. (Some quick info on this - PKZIP files often are not very good for machines other than IBM-PC. One of the reasons is that too many faulty versions of utilities and incompatibilities exist. These originated from the PC world. PKZIP files can be decompressed to yield different files without any error messages being thrown up!! GZIP is a new UNIX standard being distributed under the GNU concept. The bottom line may be that Gzip is safer and it's free.) You'll see an extension like this: .gkz, .gz, or .gkh.gz - these mean that the the files have been compressed with GZIP. To decompress them, grab the GZIP program off of oak.oakland.edu (/pub/eps/utils/msdos), and use the help function (gzip -h) to find out how to use it, then decompress the file before you use EPSDisk on it. (Trick: with the gkh.gz extension, when you download it, it will show on your PC as .gkh - but it's still zipped up! Rename the filename to .gkz. GZIP doesn't see anything that doesn't have the last digit as z. And then you can unzip it.) Another weird caveat with EPSDisk is that at first glance you don't know what size disk image you have. Remember, a disk image is like a photograph of the binary information on the disk. But what kind of disk? Double-Density? High Density? If it's a high-density disk, then if it's a sample you can't use it on an EPS or a 16-Plus. When you try to write the HD disk image to a DS/DD, you'll get an error every time. So try to read the text files that hopefully accompany the file (they rarely do - a pet peeve of mine...). For the Mac files are usually Stuffed (using Stuff-It), and then you use EPSm to extract the files onto disk. That's easy. Many Ways to Slice Bread There are other funny routes of getting sounds into your sampler. There are many samples in SampleVision format out there. SampleVision is a program for the PC that can communicate with many samplers. (Note: SampleVision for Windows just came out, providing SCSI support as well as MIDI support.) ".SMP" files usually hold just one wavesample, so the format is not good for whole EPS/ASR Instruments. scEPSi is a freeware application to communicate with EPS-formatted hard drives, floppies, or CD-ROMs from the Macintosh. Most users like scEPSi's ability to move files around like the Macintosh Finder - when you move files with scEPSi, it checks for banks that point to the location of the original file, and updates the banks with the new filepath. Also in the "Finder"-like interface is the ability to double click on instruments and view a list of the layers of the instrument in a new window. When you double click on a layer you see all of the instruments listed in a new window. Each individual wavesample can be saved to the Macintosh as an AIFF file. Macintosh users typically use both EPSm and scEPSi, because they do different things. EPSm is mostly a file format converter (for instance, loading .GKH files onto your drive), while scEPSi is more concerned with allowing you to backup your drive, archive folders of instruments and files, diagnose errors, and reorganize your EPS formatted drive. Other features of scEPSi include allowing you to print out a listing of all the files on your disk, print out a listing of an instrument's layers and wavesamples, and even bringing your Audio Tracks over from the drive for editing with a tool like Sound Designer! scEPSi can also save an Ensoniq OS and update it on your disk. Convert 1.4 is another file format converter. Using Convert, you can grab a .KRZ file off the NET (from a Kurzweil 2000), and change it to a .EFE file (EDM file image) or .INS (EPSDisk file image). You can convert .WAV files with it too. SoundVert 1.03 converts .WAV files or SampleVision files to EDM format. GET/SEND EPS, written by a Arno Von Goch, even takes a WAV file, converts it internally, and transmits it through MIDI to the EPS/ASR (there's no disk file transfer though). Sample files are huge; that's the main reason you may not see many on the NET. Think of it - a DS/HD disk full of ASR-10 sounds comes in at 1,638,913 bytes, about 1,238,321 zipped. That takes about 15 minutes to download using a 14.4 modem. But the interest is growing; as soon as a permanent site gets established, you will see lots of samples. Okay, We're Done Hopefully these articles will prove an encouragement to you to get some files from cyberspace and put 'em into your computer. Below are some sites where you might find some files. Things change every day, so keep looking! oak.oakland.edu /pub/eps Samples, Utilities wozzeck.tfo.arizona.edu /pub/ Samples and utilities ftp.trnsoniq.com /pub/vendors/trnsoniq Patches/Samples Ensoniq Forum CompuServe GO MIENSONIQ, Library Patches/Samples/Utils MIDI/MUSIC Forum CompuServe GO MIDIFORUM, Library Patches/Samples/Utils America On-Line Keyword: Patches/Samples/Utils ftp.uwp.edu pub/music Kurzweil Samples ftp.crl.com /ftp/users/ro/sberkley/utilities scEPSi. Flypaper http://www.ensoniq.com/ Patches, samples ftp://ftp.ensoniq.com/pub/ Patches, samples http://www.clark.net/pub/teallen/eps/epssampl.html Patches, samples http://www.midilink.com/users/midilink/ Patches, Samples *Lots of the information in this article was gladly provided by the faithful users and readers of the oak mailing list (oak.oakland.edu). Special thanks to Terje Finstad, Steve Vincent (who wrote most of the Mac info), Steve Berkely, and Todd Aikin.* Bio: Garth Hjelte owns Rubber Chicken Software Company, a sound and who-knows-what-else company that devotes itself to Ensoniq products. He'd like to thank you for reading this article, and hopes that he can read one of yours as well. #%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#% #%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%#%