In working with the file systems in my different gear (or at least trying to set things up so that when I get to use that gear again I can access things) I came across another approach to selecting programs that might prove difficult. To this date I don't know of any sequencer or DAW program that handles this intuitively. The goal: To select a patch name in the drop down menu and get that sound playing on the particular channel The problem: Samplers, especially the Ensoniq EPS/ASR line
Ensoniq used their own file system that has only 40 files in a directory. These files can be samples, bank files, Sequences, or directories, and two of them are the equivalents of the . and .. files found in DOS directories to allow navigation back up the tree. This isn't a big issue for floppy disk based files, as there's not much you can fit on a floppy, (The EPS's memory with full expansion is bigger than a standard 3.5" floppy can hold, so it can part sounds over multiple floppy disks) but when you get a hard disk in place, especially one that is the 8GB limit, it can get problematic. Sub-directories can go as deep as you want them to, but of course each one can hold only 38 files plus the two navigation entries in the directory's FAT table. This means that the machine has to navigate to the proper level of directory and then select the file, then somehow also navigate back out so it doesn't get confused as to what directory it's in. Some sort of running status might be nice, too, so if you're dealing with something in the third Hammond B3 directory and your next file is there too there's no need to make it back out and then return, but this may be too much code to keep it all straight. We can ignore banks and sequences, as they're used mostly for setting up the machine or loading specific arrays of files for a particular song. I can't think of a good program numbering format that would make sense for a patch number that would sort intelligently and keep things in the proper directories. This would also require a "back out code" at the end of the load, which can take a moment with the load time for a sampler. (Though hard disk samples load a lot faster than floppy samples) I've toyed with the idea of using an alphanumeric code, but the question then becomes if such a code monster would work with James' system in QWS. And assuming that it does go that way, with A-Z representing 1-26, 1-0 going from 27-36, and two other characters like the brackets taking care of 37 and 38, plus two more to trigger the . and .. to go back up, (maybe not needed since it'd do that automatically) there's a problem when someone wants to hit directory 37 in the root directory followed by 27,28, or 36 in the next directory down and anything from 27-36 on the next level, as that would look like a normal program number Another possibility is to use negative bank numbers with a map of which directory is pulled up by a specific bank number, but that could get difficult in figuring out which bank to load. Any thoughts on this? I'd like to have a good clean suggestion for James to implement. I have three of these samplers in my rig, and it'd be a lot easier if I could select what I needed like any other patch. To unsubscribe or change list options, see http://lists.andrelouis.com for archived list posts, see http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]
