RammWiki:Test4

Flake's EPS-16 PLUS hard drive is the hard drive that Flake used with his Ensoniq EPS-16 PLUS sampler. It holds a copy of the sampler's operating system and, in folders, instruments, banks, songs, sequences and effects, together with the remains of files that were deleted. This page describes what is stored on the drive, how the storage is organised, and what each kind of file is used for. Files that were saved on the drive later by another user are not covered.

Subpages:

• Files by folder: every file in the folders, with its size, contents, state and a recording
• Deleted files and loose parts: deleted files that are still complete, and data that no longer belongs to a file
• Recovery: what can be loaded on the sampler again, in five groups by where its data comes from
• Songs: the songs, played with the banks that name them
• Sounds: single samples, exactly as they are stored

Glossary

The words used on these pages, in alphabetical order:

Bank

A file that lists up to eight instruments and a song, so that they can be loaded together.

Block

The unit in which the drive stores data: 512 bytes.

Block table

The table at the start of the drive that says, for every block, whether it is free and which block of the same file comes next. Its technical name is FAT (file allocation table).

Effect

Settings for the sampler's effects unit, for example reverb or delay.

Emulation

A program that reproduces a device's chips, so that the device's own software runs on a computer.

Envelope

How a sound's volume, pitch or brightness changes from the moment a key is pressed until it is released and fades away.

Instrument

A playable sound: samples with their settings.

Key range

The keys on which a wavesample plays.

Layer

A part of an instrument that assigns wavesamples to keys. Several layers can sound at the same time.

Loop

A part of a sample that repeats while a key is held, so that a short recording can sound for as long as needed.

MIDI

The standard way for electronic instruments and computers to send notes and control data to each other.

Output bus

The path a sound takes out of the sampler. BUS1, BUS2 and BUS3 feed the effects unit, which sends them on to the main outputs; AUX1 leads to the output expander and bypasses the effects.

Patch

One of four combinations of layers that the two patch select buttons choose while playing.

Root key

The key on which a wavesample sounds at the pitch at which it was recorded.

Sample

A recorded sound, stored as a series of numbers. The sample rate says how many numbers make up one second, for example 29 762.

SCSI

The connection through which the sampler talks to the hard drive.

Sequence

A recorded performance on up to eight tracks.

Slot

One of the 39 places for entries in a folder.

Song

A set of sequences with the order in which they play.

Wavesample

A sample together with its settings: key range, root key, volume, filters, envelopes and loop.

At a glance

Drive	Quantum GoDrive GLS 127S (it gives its name as QUANTUM GLS127S), a 2.5-inch hard drive with a SCSI connection
Size	249 821 blocks of 512 bytes (127.9 MB)
Name stored on the drive	DISK001
Operating system	EPS-16 PLUS operating system 1.30, with saved global settings
Folders	the top level and 49 folders below it
Files in the folders	424: 409 complete, 3 partly preserved, 12 lost
Complete files in the folders	292 instruments, 60 banks, 26 songs, 7 sequences, 23 effects and the operating system
Deleted files that are still complete	67: 61 instruments, 2 banks and 4 effects
Other data	parts of further instruments, songs and sequences, and audio that belongs to no file (see Deleted files and loose parts)

The EPS-16 PLUS and its hard drive

The Ensoniq EPS-16 PLUS is a sampler: a keyboard instrument that records sounds, keeps them in its memory and plays them from its keys. A recorded sound is called a sample. When a key is pressed, the sampler plays the sample faster or slower, which makes it sound higher or lower, so one recording can be played across many keys. The EPS-16 PLUS also has a sequencer, which records and plays back what is played on eight tracks, and an effects unit for reverb, delay and similar effects.

The sampler's memory is emptied when it is switched off, so everything has to be saved and loaded again: from 3.5-inch floppy disks, which hold 1 600 blocks of 512 bytes (819 KB) each, or from a hard drive connected to the sampler's SCSI port. Flake's drive holds 249 821 blocks, as much as about 156 floppy disks. The operating system, the software that runs the sampler, is also stored on disk; the drive holds a copy of it.

What the files are

Kind of file	What it holds	What it is used for
Instrument	One or more samples and the settings that make them a playable sound: which keys play which sample (the key range), the key on which a sample sounds at the pitch at which it was recorded (the root key), volume, position between left and right, filters, envelopes (how the sound starts, holds and fades) and loops (a part of a sample that repeats while a key is held). A sample together with its settings is called a wavesample; the wavesamples are arranged in up to eight layers. An instrument can also hold the settings of an effect.	It is loaded into one of the sampler's eight instrument places and played from the keyboard, from the sequencer, or from another device through MIDI.
Bank	A list of up to eight instruments and one song. Each of them is given by the name of the disk, the folders on the way to it and its slot (its place in its folder). For each instrument, the bank also holds a volume and a position between left and right. A bank can also hold the settings of an effect.	Loads a whole setup in one go.
Sequence	A recorded performance on up to eight tracks: the notes, how hard each key was struck, and the movements of wheels and pedals, with the tempo and the length in bars.	Plays back a part. It is similar to a MIDI file.
Song	A set of sequences and a list of steps that says in which order the sequences play and how often each one repeats. A song can also hold song tracks, which are recorded over the whole song, alongside the sequences.	Plays back a whole arrangement.
Effect	The settings of the effects unit: reverb, delay, chorus, distortion and others.	Loads an effect on its own, without an instrument.
Operating system	The software that runs the sampler. Its last block holds the global settings, written there when the user saves them.	The sampler loads it to start working.

How the drive is organised

The drive is divided into 249 821 blocks of 512 bytes, numbered from 0. The sampler always reads and writes whole blocks.

Blocks	What they hold
0	not used by the sampler's file system
1	the name of the drive (DISK001), its size and the drive's model name
2	the number of free blocks
3–4	the top-level folder
5–1 474	the block table: for every block of the drive, whether it is free, which block of the same file comes next, or that the file ends there
1 475–1 641	the operating system
1 642–249 820	folders and files

Folders. Every folder takes two blocks and has 39 places for entries, here called slots. In a subfolder, the first slot points back to the folder above. An entry holds the name of a file or folder, its type, its size, its first block and how many of its blocks follow each other without a gap. Banks find their instruments and songs by slot numbers, not by name: a bank stores the slot of each folder on the way and the slot of the file.

Files in pieces. A file does not have to lie in one piece: the block table links its pieces. On this drive, many files lie in several pieces, and the files of one folder are spread across the whole drive:

Where each folder's files lie on the drive

LAGER

STUDIO

LIVE

DEMON

MISSCOTTA 1

top level

Deleted files

block 0block 125 000block 249 820

Each mark is a stretch of blocks that belongs to a file of that folder. "Deleted files" are the deleted files that are still complete.

Deleted files and the later owner. After Flake, the drive was used by a later owner, who saved files of their own on it; these pages leave those files out. Files were deleted on the drive both before the later owner saved files on it and afterwards: one of the later owner's files lies over the beginning of a deleted file in LAGER/SYNTS, and one of the later owner's own files is deleted. When the sampler deletes a file, it only marks the file's entry as empty and its blocks as free. The data stays in those blocks until a later save uses them, which is why the drive still holds deleted files, some complete and some in parts. The drive does not record when a file was saved or deleted, or by whom.

How the space is used

Every block of the drive belongs to one of these kinds of data:

• Files in folders, complete: files that have an entry in a folder and whose data is all there.
• Deleted files, still complete: files without a folder entry whose data is all there.
• Incomplete files and loose parts: the blocks that remain of files whose other blocks are missing, instrument parts without their file, and audio without a file.
• Free space: old copies and unidentified data: free blocks. Nearly all of them hold copies of data that is also in the files above.
• System area and folders: the drive's first 1 642 blocks (drive name, free-block count, the top-level folder, the block table and the operating system) and the two blocks of each folder.
• Files saved later by another user: not covered on these pages.

Kind of data	Blocks	Size	Share
Files in folders, complete	122 377	62.7 MB	49.0 %
Deleted files, still complete	38 646	19.8 MB	15.5 %
Incomplete files and loose parts	24 526	12.6 MB	9.8 %
Free space: old copies and unidentified data	21 000	10.8 MB	8.4 %
System area and folders	1 740	0.9 MB	0.7 %
Files saved later by another user (not covered here)	41 532	21.3 MB	16.6 %
Whole drive	249 821	127.9 MB	100 %

The drive from its first block to its last

block 0
0 MB50 000
26 MB100 000
51 MB150 000
77 MB200 000
102 MB249 820
128 MB

Files in folders, complete: 62.7 MBDeleted files, still complete: 19.8 MBIncomplete files and loose parts: 12.6 MBFree space: old copies and unidentified data: 10.8 MBSystem area and folders: 0.9 MBFiles saved later by another user (not covered here): 21.3 MB

Each stripe shows the kind of data that takes up most of that stretch of the drive (about 500 blocks per stripe). Below the stripes: block numbers and the position on the drive in MB.

How the space is used

The whole drive

49 %

15 %

10 %

8 %

17 %

Files in folders, complete: 62.7 MBDeleted files, still complete: 19.8 MBIncomplete files and loose parts: 12.6 MBFree space: old copies and unidentified data: 10.8 MBSystem area and folders: 0.9 MBFiles saved later by another user (not covered here): 21.3 MB

Complete files, in the folders and deleted, by number (476 files)

353

62

27

26

Instruments: 353 files, 81.9 MBBanks: 62 files, 0.2 MBEffects: 27 files, 0.1 MBSongs: 26 files, 0.2 MBSequences: 7 files, 33 KBOperating system: 1 file, 86 KB

Errors in the drive's records

• Block 1 530 lies inside the operating system, but the block table gives block 1 642 as the block that follows it. The operating system's entry gives its size as 167 blocks in one piece, from block 1 475 to block 1 641.
• One block of the block table, drive block 90, holds audio instead of the entries for blocks 14 450 to 14 619.
• Block 2 gives the number of free blocks as 84 599; the block table marks 46 198 blocks as free.
• The folder LAGER has two entries for the same folder: TRANSWAVE 01 (slot 16), which gives the folder's 24 files as its size, and TRANSWAVE (slot 11), which gives 0. The folder itself refers back to slot 16. One bank, TOO LATE BK1, reaches one of its instruments through the entry TRANSWAVE.

Old entries in block 1

After the drive's name and size, block 1 also holds five entries in the form of folder entries: the songs OCCA, STRAT*SONG and ** SAXG ** and the sequences SAXBRAS-BA55 and PIANO-FAIRL. They are not part of any folder, and the first blocks they give (186 to 232) lie inside the block table, so they do not lead to files on this drive.

Folders

The top level holds six folders and one file. The sizes count the data that is on the drive; every file is listed on Files by folder.

Folder	Folders in it	Files	Partly preserved	Lost	Size
LIVE	6	5	1	3	1.2 MB
DEMON	7	25	0	2	1.3 MB
STUDIO	9	15	0	5	1.9 MB
LAGER	17	367	2	2	58.5 MB
MAKROFILES	0	0	0	0	–
MISSCOTTA 1	4	11	0	0	0.7 MB
(files at the top level)	–	1	0	0	86 KB

Files by folder

LAGER 58.5 MB

FAXEN
9.5 MB

DRUMS
9.3 MB

ETC
4.8 MB

MISCHINSTR
4.7 MB

GIT LAGER
4.4 MB

SYNTS
4.1 MB

BAESSE
3.5 MB

STRINGS
3.5 MB

TRANSWAVE
01
3.2 MB

ORGELN
2.7 MB

BLAESER
2.7 MB

CHOERE
2.6 MB

PIANOS
2.5 MB

Deleted files
19.8 MB

STUDIO
1.9 MB

LIVE
1.2 MB

LAGER: 58.5 MBDeleted files: 19.8 MBSTUDIO: 1.9 MBDEMON: 1.3 MBLIVE: 1.2 MBMISSCOTTA 1: 0.7 MBtop level: 86 KB

The area of each box is the space its files take on the drive. The three smallest parts of LAGER share one box. Boxes too small for a label show their name when the pointer rests on them.

All folders, with the number of files directly in each one:

• LIVE: 6 folders
  • LIVE BANKEN: 0 files
  • LIVE INSTR: 3 files (1 partly preserved, 1 lost), 1.2 MB
  • LIVE SEQUE: 0 files
  • LIVE EFF: 0 files
  • BANK SEQ: 2 files (2 lost)
  • MEHR SEQ: 0 files
• DEMON: 6 folders, 1 file, 0.2 MB
  • DEMON BANKEN: 12 files, 24 KB
  • DEMON INSTR: 1 folder, 4 files, 0.6 MB
    • DRUM-LIBARY: 1 file, 0.4 MB
  • DEMON SEQ+S: 2 files, 29 KB
  • DEMON EFFECT: 3 files, 17 KB
  • DEMON MACROS: 0 files
  • IC-DIRECTORY: 2 files (2 lost)
• STUDIO: 9 folders, 2 files, 6 KB
  • STUDIO BANKE: 4 files (2 lost), 3 KB
  • STUDIO INSTR: 6 files, 1.9 MB
  • STUDIO SEQ: 0 files
  • STUDIO EFF: 0 files
  • STU INST 2: 1 file (1 lost)
  • STU INSTR 3: 0 files
  • INST 5: 1 file (1 lost)
  • NUR GLAS: 1 file (1 lost)
  • GYDE INSTR: 0 files
• LAGER: 17 folders, 1 file, 2 KB
  • DRUMS: 28 files, 9.3 MB
  • ORGELN: 23 files, 2.7 MB
  • SYNTS: 34 files (1 partly preserved), 4.1 MB
  • GROOVS: 0 files
  • STRINGS: 18 files (1 lost), 3.5 MB
  • FAXEN: 23 files, 9.5 MB
  • ETC: 26 files, 4.8 MB
  • BAENKE: 33 files, 0.9 MB
  • BAESSE: 30 files, 3.5 MB
  • LAGEREFFECKT: 18 files, 92 KB
  • TRANSWAVE 01 (also reached through a second entry, TRANSWAVE): 24 files, 3.2 MB
  • GIT LAGER: 17 files, 4.4 MB
  • MISCHINSTR: 15 files, 4.7 MB
  • BLAESER: 15 files, 2.7 MB
  • PIANOS: 15 files, 2.5 MB
  • CHOERE: 19 files, 2.6 MB
  • LAGERSEQ: 28 files (1 partly preserved, 1 lost), 0.2 MB
• MAKROFILES: 0 files
• MISSCOTTA 1: 4 folders, 2 files, 4 KB
  • MISSC-INSTR: 2 files, 0.7 MB
  • MISSC-SEQ+S: 4 files, 49 KB
  • MISSC-BAENKE: 3 files, 5 KB
  • MISSC-EFFECT: 0 files

Deleted files and loose parts

Besides the files in its folders, the drive holds:

• 67 deleted files that are still complete: 61 instruments, 2 banks and 4 effects;
• 7 deleted instruments of which a few blocks are overwritten;
• parts of instruments without their file: 28 groups of layers and wavesamples, the header of an instrument named STU TIER T 7, three single wavesamples and seven effects;
• 20 stretches of audio that belong to no file;
• seven complete sequences and parts of further sequences, and most of the blocks of the song SCHNULZG **, whose entry in LAGER/LAGERSEQ points to another file.

All of it is listed on Deleted files and loose parts.

Recovery

Everything that can be loaded on an EPS-16 PLUS again falls into five groups, by where its data comes from. Only the first group consists entirely of data exactly as it is on the drive. The groups and every file in them are listed on Recovery.

Group	Files	What it means
1. Original	476	Every byte is the file's own data: the complete files in the folders and the complete deleted files.
2. Extracted	25	Complete sequences cut out of the remains of two songs and out of free space, unchanged.
3. Injected	62	Parts without their file, held together by a newly written file header: groups of instrument parts, single wavesamples, audio without a file, sequence track data and effects.
4. Inferred	21	Known files with missing parts, filled in: rebuilt headers, copied blocks, rebuilt settings, two songs and six sequences.
5. Substitute	1	A lost file, replaced by a complete file of the same name and size from another folder.

Global settings

The sampler stores its global settings in the last block of the operating system file when the user saves them. The other 166 blocks of the operating system on this drive are identical to the factory disk of version 1.30. Its last block holds these settings:

Setting	On this drive	On the factory disk
Touch (how the keyboard responds to how hard a key is struck)	SOFT 4	MEDIUM 2
Transmit (MIDI channel used to send what is played)	BASE CHAN (the base channel)	INST CHAN (the instrument's channel)
Multi controllers	ON	OFF
MIDI channels of tracks 1–8 in multi mode	1–8	9–16
Click (metronome)	ON, in quarter notes, also during playback	REC (only while recording)
Click output	AUX1	BUS3

All other settings are the same as on the factory disk, among them master tune +0, bend range 2, MIDI base channel 1 and MIDI in mode MULTI. AUX1 is the output bus that leads to the socket for the OEX-6 output expander, an add-on with six extra outputs, and bypasses the effects. BUS3 feeds the effects unit, which sends it on to the main outputs.

Sounds

The instruments and the songs that banks name were recorded on an emulated EPS-16 PLUS: 412 instruments, with one note for each wavesample, 47 recordings of songs played with the instruments of their banks, and 45 of sequences that the songs do not play. The recordings are on Files by folder, Songs and Recovery; how they were made is described under About the recordings. A few examples:

Recording	What it is	Sound
B-30 ORGEN (LAGER/ORGELN)	instrument, 1 note	▶️0:06
WAVE STACK 1 (LAGER/STRINGS)	instrument, 5 notes	▶️0:32
DEMON SONG 1 with the bank DEMON BANK 1	song	▶️1:33
7-8TEL with the bank 7-8CHTEL	song	▶️2:49

Single samples, played exactly as they are stored (without envelopes, filters, loops or effects); more on Sounds:

Instrument	Folder	Wavesample	Sound
B-30 ORGEN	LAGER/ORGELN	1: UNNAMED WS	▶️0:02
WAVE STACK 1	LAGER/STRINGS	1: UNNAMED WS	▶️0:05
DOOM NR 2	LAGER/FAXEN	1: CHAOS   WS	▶️0:08