Hey
OK. I've had a fun day with my e5 Ultra (32Mb/SCSI), a sickly p2k ( dial really screwy) plus a load a ROMS, ZIPS and CR's.
I learned a few things, first, that earlier I was talking cr&p. oops
Second: Any p2k ROM will work, in terms of loading the samples into RAM, and saving the bank. You'll get "generic" presets - sample mapped with multisamples where appropriate but nothing else.
If you have a a preset that is designed for E-Synth, the preset voice sample will be listed as...
"x001 - yak fart c1" or
"y001 yak fart c1"
(x and y refer to the ROM slots. "s" is used for internal sample RAM)
...and if the ROM is in the correct slot, that preset will run just fine.
So, which slot to use? In my machine, Slot 0 holds the composer ROM from my p2k. and slot 1 holds my XL1 ROM. This took some guesswork - it may not be the same for other machines, maybe...
Now, this is interesting - it appears that the E-synth board and the Composer board are the same, at least the first 16Mb. I found the original E- synth presets on my CD, loaded and flashed em.
They refer to the slot where the composer is, and the presets sound fine. I don't know the patches well enough to comment if they're all 100%, but there are certainly hundreds of useable sounds that do what their names suggest they will. These are full patches with multisampled kits, complex filtering etc etc.
Next up, My XL board. Loaded and flashed the larger preset bank off the CD, which says its for E-synth + the Orbit/Phatt... in one of the installation PDF's it mentions that the boards must be in the correct slots for the presets to work.... proves the point about the X and y sample references...
This works, but less well. The XL1 board contains the whole Audity 2k set on its first half ( 16Mb) In fact, this is how it shows up on the EOS browser. And the Orbit/Phatt, far as I know ( anyone know for sure?) ALSO includes the Audity set. So, there is some degree of compatibility. Many patches sound 100% OK, some need some transposition ( octaves) in the voices, and some are clearly wrong ( mainly higher in the list, which makes sense)
I never liked the P2K OS, and its diddy screen, and with a dead dial, its basically useless to me. I've gutted its ROMS, chucked em into the E5, which has been underused lately, and messed about with flashing patches. I now have a fully functioning E-synth, with much of the Audity/XL stuff ready to go as well - all off a big screen with a peachy OS and dial.... and none of the sample RAM used - result
So, to recap.... to get back e synth patches, just flash the bank from the original CD - no floppy needed.
Valcoun, PM your addy if you like - I'm looking at copying the disk - you got a CD drive hooked up...? I'll accept an EOS 4.61 floppy in exchange.... cos I'm having trouble getting one together....