ensoniqunpacker - a packer plugin for TotalCommander

what's this?

ensoniqunpacker is a packer plugin for the file manager TotalCommander by Christian Ghisler. it allows you to explore the contents of different ensoniq related disk images (ede/eda/edt, gkh, mode1-cd and plain 1:1 images). you can extract any file from a valid image and save it to an *.efe file (instruments, banks, songs, effects, sysex, ...) or just copy the whole content with all subfolders to another location.

you also can extract all samples from an efe instrument or listen to them with TotalCommander.

the plugin is read only. you cannot add/remove/modify any file or folder. this is a feature which was implemented into another plugin: EnsoniqFS for TotalCommander (see other project page).

for a more detailed description see below.

installation

if you have installed an older version of ensoniqunpacker before, please uninstall it (see below). otherwise TotalCommander may not recognize all new features of the plugin.

for installation simply open the "EnsoniqUnpacker.zip" inside TotalCommander by pressing [enter] on that file. TotalCommander will ask you whether to install this plugin and do all necessary steps automatically.

do the same with "EnsoniqUnpackerEFE.zip".

uninstallation

delete the folders "EnsoniqUnpacker" and "EnsoniqUnpackerEFE" in your TotalCommander plugins folder (normally "TotalCommander/plugins/wcx"). if it is not possible to delete them, then they are in use by TotalCommander. you need to restart TotalCommander. as long as you do not open any new archive, you will be able to delete these folders.

to remove all setup data you further need to:
- choose "configuration/change settings files directly"
- in the file "wincmd.ini" search for "[PackerPlugins]"
- delete every line containing "EnsoniqUnpacker.wcx"
- delete every line containing "EnsoniqUnpackerEFE.wcx"
- save configuration file.

how to use

(a) the image file reader

after you made it through the installation steps, it is really easy to use the plugin. in TotalCommander navigate to a folder containing either an ede, eda, edt, gkh or other ensoniq formatted cd oder disk image.

for ede/eda/edt/gkh just press [enter] on that archive and the content of the archive will be displayed. if the archive is broken, you will get an error message.

for other ensoniq images (cd image or 1:1 disk image) you need to navigate to that file and press ctrl+pagedown. the archive will be opened if ensoniqunpacker can handle it. i do not recommend to add those archive types (which probably are *.iso, *.bin or alike) to the associated file types for ensoniqunpacker, because in most cases these files do not contain ensoniq data but other types of pc formatted media. They should be handled by other software.

instead, if you know that a file contains ensoniq data, just use this ctrl+pagedown shortcut. It will also work with the above mentioned other file types.

once you opened an archive, you can navigate through it (if it contains subfolders), select files (and folders) as you are used to in TotalCommander, and copy (extract) your selection to another place.

all files will be saved as *.efe, which can hold any filetype used by ensoniq (instruments, banks, songs, sequences, O.S., effects, sysex and more).

you might wonder why the EFE files have such strange numbers at the end (like "AS-1 BANK 1.[30].efe" or "STREO VIOLNS.[03].efe"). this is due to the following facts: ensoniq can store files with identical name but with different type in one directory. if you copy these files to a dos/windows drive, they all would have the same name (which is impossible there). so they get a type tag and you can copy all files even with identical name to your dos/windows drive. the original filename will be stored into the efe header. you do not need to rename the files if you want to use EnsoniqFS to copy them back to another ensoniq drive.

two additional info files will be shown in the root folder of every diskimage. they contain statistics of the image (such as disk label and disk layout) and a complete tree view of all files (including names, sizes and types).

(b) the instrument file reader

the instrument file reader is responsible for opening efe instruments. if you press [enter] on an efe file, TotalCommander will show you all wavesamples contained in that file. these wavesamples can be copied out of the instrument in windows wave format (pcm, 16 bit, mono) or you can quickly listen to them by pressing F3 to start the built-in TotalCommander file viewer.

the "info.txt" file contains information on all wavesamples in an opened instrument: layer names, wavesample names, sample sizes, sample rates and key mapping.

known bugs

at the moment the following issues are known:

• empty directories are not shown (this is no bug, this is by design)
• opening instruments is not possible on filesystem plugins (e. g. EnsoniqFS),
  for this, there will be a lister plugin which works in every environment

planned features

no plans to extend the functionality. see my other projects for write support and an extended instrument lister plugin.

license

everyone is allowed to use, abuse and distribute this software freely except for commercial use. if you distribute this software, the author has to be named clearly. This software MUST NOT be sold without written permisson of the author. the source code may be freely modified, but the original author must be clearly stated (give credits!). if you modify the source code, please let me know about it, I possibly want to integrate your changes into the official version.

disclaimer

this software is provided "as is". although the author tested the software, there is no warranty of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. use the software at your own risk. the author is not responsible for any damage to your person, your equipment or your data arising out of the use of this software.

history

v1.23

• released 06-11-12
• changed the treeview info file structure for better overview
• added detailed file type descriptions to treeview
• put the name of the disk image in the info files
• speed increase
• different naming scheme

v1.22

• released 06-10-23
• added extra infofile with whole tree view of disk
• changed info file names to contain the name of the disk image name

v1.21

• released 06-10-22
• fixed some bugs in "info.txt"/key mapping display
• made "info.txt" more resistant against malformed wavesamples

v1.2

• released 06-10-21
• added lots of wavesample properties to "info.txt" inside of instrument files
• changed wavesample names inside of instrument files
• efe instrument detection is now somewhat weaker (detects more files correctly)
• fixed: closed all files in case of an error
• included autoinstall from zip function

v1.1

• released 06-10-15
• added support for ensoniq instrument wavesample browsing

v1.0

• released 06-10-11
• reads & autodetects ede/eda/edt, gkh, mode1-cdroms, plain images
• allows to explore these disk images with TotalCommander
• allows to extract or view files
• no writing capabilities

downloads

here you can download some files associated with this project:

EnsoniqUnpacker.zip (12 kb)
EnsoniqUnpackerEFE.zip (11 kb)
source code v1.23 (126 kb)