acces ROM waveforms when installed on E2 synth ?

[chaocrator]

would it be possible at some point to acces ROM waveforms on E2 synth ?

at least drums/percussions in E2 synth are perfectly usable.

also, E2 synth owners have no option to export factory samples, so after Hacktribe installation we get only VA/FM oscillators, and that's all. we have to ask for factory waveforms (from E2S) elsewhere if we need them.

[bangcorrupt]

Yes, this will be possible in the future. When the PCM data is loaded from the flash, it's decompressed and sent to DSP RAM one word at a time. I can hijack this to copy PCM to CPU RAM, then dump it over sysex as a single blob. If I can get a debugger attached to the DSP then I may be able to fix the issue with sample saving and have the factory samples loading like normal.

If you're short of samples until then, check out the carved beats set by @BKLronin.

[maks]

What a great collection of samples! Thanks for making them available @BKLronin !

[BKLronin]

Thank you very much. They were exclusively recorded and synthesised for hacktribe.

[maks]

@bangcorrupt I've just reread this and thought about the implications: would this mean that its in theory possible that you would be able to in the future modify the firmware to send/receive sample data via Midi sysex?

[F-Thom]

Yesterday I cam to the same issue and I found out that it may be another reason that it doesn't work.
Disclaimer: I'm quite a beginner and use codespace for the first time.
I wanted to patch the E2 stock firmware and noticed that patching the firmware didn't work, it patched with the Hacktribe firmware systematically. The reason: the line 47 of hacktribe-tutorial.sh is cloning the main branch and not synth-pcm-dump, even if i choose h right branch before opening the codespace template. Is there here an issue?
Thanks in advance and thanks for everything you've already done on the firmware !

[bangcorrupt]

Good catch. It looks like template repos always create a codespace from the main branch. As a workaround for now, either click Code > Codespaces > Create a codespace on synth-pcm-dump (after switching branches), or edit the clone command in the script to add -b synth-pcm-dump and run it again from the terminal using ./hacktribe-tutorial.sh.

bangcorrupt/hacktribe-tutorial#2

[F-Thom]

Thank you very much for your quick reaction, I could achieve the first step: E2S with E2 sounds.
As next I updated the e2sysex.py script with a very straight implementation (to be improved later possibly):
class E2Sysex:

def __init__(self, port='electribe2 sampler 1 SOUND', midi=None):
    logging.debug('Initialise SysEx')
   
    mido.get_input_names()
    if midi is not None:
        self.midi = midi
        self.inport = self.midi.inport
    else:
        # ADD - try, catch
        logging.debug('Port Electribe not found')
        port = 'electribe2 sampler 1 PAD/KNOB 0'
        self.inport = mido.open_input(port)

    mido.get_output_names()
    if midi is not None:
        self.midi = midi
        self.outport = self.midi.outport
    else:
        # ADD - try, catch
        logging.debug('Port Electribe not found')
        port = 'electribe2 sampler 1 SOUND 1' 
        self.outport = mido.open_output(port)

    self.global_channel, self.id, self.version = self.search_device()

    logging.info('Found electribe')
    logging.info('Global channel ' + str(self.global_channel))
    logging.info('Firmware version ' + self.version)

    self.sysex_head = [0x42, 0x30 + self.global_channel, 0x00, 0x01, self.id]
    
    Where:
    'E2 Name for your input' is the answer of mido.get_input_names()
    'E2 Name for your output' is the answer of mido.get_output_names()

So yes, the names on midi are not the same for input and output, at least for me but I think this may be more generally the case.

Now I'm blocked at the RAM read (read_cpu_ram) where the SysEx is supposed to be send but no answer comes...
SysEx works generally bidirectionally because the Electribe firmware name can be read but the read ram command doesn't work further...

[bangcorrupt]

It will take a long time to dump the PCM data over sysex, it may look like it is doing nothing. I will try to test this later.

Can you post the log output from running dump_extracted_pcm.py ?

Do other sysex functions work? You could test this by editing dump_extracted_pcm.py to get patterns and global settings before reading the PCM data:

...
pattern = e.get_current_pattern()
global = e.get_global()
pcm_decomp = e.read_cpu_ram(0xc3000000, 0xf9b2ea)
...

[F-Thom]

The log is following:
extracted_pcm.py
DEBUG:root:Initialise SysEx
DEBUG:root:Port Electribe not found => probably my fault
DEBUG:root:Port Electribe not found => probably my fault too
INFO:root:Found electribe => search_device is successful so SysEx generally work
INFO:root:Global channel 0
INFO:root:Firmware version 2.2
DEBUG:root:Getting decompressed PCM from CPU RAM

The function e.get_current_pattern() and e.get_global() don't work either I think the RAM read function is not properly answering.
This is no urgent topic at all, I took the time to check this today but it's more than a year that I didn't try to uprade my Elecribe

[drmindflip]

I joined up here to ask this! I'm an E2 Synth user and I mostly use it for making ambient sequences and textures - I literally never use the 90% of the stock sounds (OSC types 001- 325 never get a look in) but I do get a lot of use out of 326-428 (the Synth and Instrument categories)

My ideal would be to keep those, trash the rest, get those lovely new synth oscs that you've added, and maybe eventually add a few samples. Is this ever likely to be possible?

Thanks for all your inspiring work

[bangcorrupt]

Assuming the samples play correctly when the synth firmware is installed, the dumped file should play the same sounds. If it is mostly set bits then it has probably dumped an empty section of RAM. Changing the volume won't change the data in RAM, but each reboot could if some areas are never initialised. There is probably a bug with the patch preventing the PCM data writing to the correct address. Can you email me the patched firmware you have installed and the wav file you dumped?

[AndrewSosna]

Thanks, sent you an email

[bangcorrupt]

The firmware you sent me matches the one I tested and when I run it I get the samples dumped correctly. The audio files you sent are the correct length but look like unitialised RAM, matching the data in the raw binary files. This is what I would expect to see if the script was run against the main Hacktribe branch, or if the read address is somehow getting mangled during transmission.

Can you confirm that you only have one Hacktribe connected via USB when you run the script?
Are you able to test using a Linux system? Maybe mido interacts with the MIDI drivers differently on a Mac.

[AndrewSosna]

As it appeared, my SD card already contained a folder for Sampler version with e2sample.all so E2 never decompressed PCMs to memory and I was getting empty memory dump. I removed the SD card before dumping PCM samples and everything went fine, I got the proper WAV. Thank you very much.

Two following questions:

1. Is there some document about the structure of this WAV, to make it easier for me to split it automatically, or loading it to Audacity or something similar and just splitting it by silence is the way to go?
2. Now I'm curious, is there a way do the reverse? To update this WAV by replacing samples and pushing them back to E2 flash, basically getting a regular E2 synth version with updated samples?

[bangcorrupt]

split it automatically

I'm working on format definitions similar to those in e2_formats.py, along with a script to read the full PCM section from flash. These will allow parsing the binary to a dictionary, including a list of offsets for each sample. I think there is at least few bytes of zeroes between each sample, so splitting by silence may work, but if you can wait a while I should be able to script it.

replacing samples and pushing them back to E2 flash

I don't know the compression algorithm used, but reversing it could be possible. If I can't get the remaining features from the synth working in Hacktribe I might look at loading custom samples to the synth. In the long run I want to move all the content to the SD card in a single project file, maybe using the flash for alternate firmware apps.

Thank you again for your continued support 😃 !

[Ghillermo]

Hi, iirc the old "turn synth into sampler" header change hack allowed us to get the samples too. What happens if I run the python patch script but just use it to change header on src file (without applying the hack patch) would commenting a few lines of code (and calculating the new hash) do the trick or will it brick?

If we can do this then we'd just export samples to SD, move them to 501 an on and use them.

[bangcorrupt]

It will prompt to install the synth firmware. Also, sampler firmware won't read the multi-sampled synth PCM correctly.

[AndrewSosna]

@bangcorrupt , Could you please tell more about multi-sampling support on E2/E2s?
As I understand the Sampler doesn't support multi-sampling but the Synth does?
Looks like not all but only some PCM samples are multi-sampled on Synth. So, theoretically, what would be the best way to get multi-sampling, I guess the only way is to replace PCM samples on Synth, right? And are there, like, "hardcoded multisample-dedicated PCM slots" on Synth, so that we would be only able to replace those, or theoretically all the "slots" (or does it even work this way, are there "slots" or just a memory area?) could contain multi-sampled samples?

[bangcorrupt]

They both support mullti-sampling but the sampler doesn't implement it fully. The sampler flash PCM section is the same format as the synth, but every sample is in a group of one. On playback the sampler reads and uses the empty key and velocity group data, I was able to map samples by editing values in CPU RAM. I didn't look into it much further, but I think when the sampler loads PCM from flash it assumes each sample is its own group which leads to bugs with instrument indexing and slice data saving. I think some day we should at least be able to load a map file into RAM after booting, hopefully it can be integrated into the existing sample loading.

[AndrewSosna]

Yes, I only have one E2… I don’t have Linux, but I could install it on a virtual machine… or on WindowsAlso I could try with SysEx Librarian, it’s an app that sends SysEx from files and records the response. I was able to send “dump pattern” with it, but i would need a SysEx file. I can also try with Apple native API CoreAudio, I don’t have experience with it but it would be interesting to try. Still I’ll need to read your code and replicate it with Swift and form SysEx messages same way as you do (first time I’m dealing with this stuff)…Before I try the options above, are there any specific requirements when dumping PCM? I mean, maybe i should have removed the SE card before switching E2 on?Sent from a mobile deviceOn 2 Jan 2023, at 17:52, bangcorrupt ***@***.***> wrote: The firmware you sent me matches the one I tested and when I run it I get the samples dumped correctly. The audio files you sent are the correct length but look like unitialised RAM, matching the data in the raw binary files. This is what I would expect to see if the script was run against the main Hacktribe branch, or if the read address is somehow getting mangled during transmission. Can you confirm that you only have one Hacktribe connected via USB when you run the script? Are you able to test using a Linux system? Maybe mido interacts with the MIDI drivers differently on a Mac. —Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe.You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[bangcorrupt]

remove the SD card before switching E2 on

That could be it, didn't think of it. If it loads an e2sample.all from the SD card it won't decompress the PCM from flash, so it will never copy it to CPU RAM. When it shows the sampler boot screen, do you see the loading bar move across the bottom? The first half moves in steps, this is reading the compressed PCM from flash. The second half moves smoothly, this is decompressing chunks and sending them to the DSP RAM. If it shows a percentage loading, then it is reading from the SD Card.

[AndrewSosna]

I’m not at home, will check when I go back, but as far as I remember indeed there was a progress indicator loading, with percentages Sent from a mobile deviceOn 2 Jan 2023, at 18:16, bangcorrupt ***@***.***> wrote: remove the SD card before switching E2 on That could be it, didn't think of it. If it loads an e2sample.all from the SD card it won't decompress the PCM from flash, so it will never copy it to CPU RAM. When it shows the sampler boot screen, do you see the loading bar move across the bottom? The first half moves in steps, this is reading the compressed PCM from flash. The second half moves smoothly, this is decompressing chunks and sending them to the DSP RAM. If it shows a percentage loafing, the it is reading from the SD Card. —Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe.You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[f-galland]

Andrew, is it possible you can share your wav file with the rest of us?

Thanks a lot, glad you got it working!

[AndrewSosna]

I'm sorry, I don't really want to get into copyright troubles, that's why I didn't ask @bangcorrupt to just send me his extracted file.
I could try to help you with extracting your samples by writing a more detailed step-by-step guide, if that would help

[f-galland]

Thanks! It was more of a lazy request trying to avoid risk bricking my electribe xD

I didn't consider the copyright issue, though.

Happy new year!

[richardarnezjames]

DId you ever make a step by step guide for this? I'm having issues extracting the synth PCM file

[richardarnezjames]

I've tried for two days to get this to work and no matter what I get the soft-bricked screen that's says SOFTWARE UPDATE and nothing else. someone email me the the PCM file please.
my E2 Synth's mother board is no. 13, I can't take anymore chances.

staballeyog@gmail.com

[ptowns]

Not sure if this us relevant or of any use...
https://www.chickensys.com/products2/korgcreator/index.html

This is a software for making multisample samples for other earlier korg devices, wonder if its the same?