C O M M E R C I A L S O U N D B A N K S
Here is a repertory including actual and discontinued commercial soundbanks that I collected since 25 years from ROM cartridges or floppy disks.
For each of them you'll find comments about company or sounddesigner and a detailed patchlist. Several of them also include image(s) from the original support.
This collection is not complete, if you have material that is not listed here, I would be largely interested in!
This page is organized in two sections:
1°/ ROM cartridges & floppy disks collection
2°/ Missing soundbanks (I mean the material that I'm still searching for...)
ROM CARTRIDGES & FLOPPY DISKS COLLECTION
Companies/distributers (alphabetical order):
NOTE: cells with peach background color indicate societies which are still selling VFX soundbanks via the web (most of them as sysex files)
| Cesium Sound | Ensoniq | Eye & I Productions | Greytsounds |
| Käng-Kong Productions |
Maartists | Metra Sound | Mr. Magic |
| Rec'Up | Rotation Records | Sound Art | Sound Source Unlimited |
| Syntaur | Valhala | Voice Crystal |
Sounddesigners/programmers (alphabetical order):
Downloadable soundbanks are available in standard Sysex (*.syx), SMF (*.mid) and Midi Quest© (*.pgb) file formats
KEEP IN MIND THAT SENDING THESE SOUNDBANKS TO YOUR SYNTH WILL ERASE ALL DATAS STORED IN YOUR VFX/VFX-SD INTERNAL MEMORY
Click here if you need some help or indications on how to transfer these soundbanks to your VFX/VFX-SD
ENSONIQ
Ensoniq produced and distributed two different series for its own synth:
a) a lot of six original cartridges/floppy disks distributed as the VPC-Series
b) a lot of four original cartridges/floppy disks distributed as the IPC-Series
| Internal ROM soundbank | Patchlist | Download | |
| VPC-100 (internal RAM factory preload) | Patchlist | Image | Download |
| VPC-101 | Patchlist | Image | |
| VPC-102 | Patchlist | Image | |
| VPC-103 | Patchlist | Image | |
| VPC-104 | Patchlist | Image | |
| VPC-105 | Patchlist | Image | |
| IPC-1 "German Collection" (collected by Arnd Kaiser) | Patchlist | Image | |
| IPC-2 "Japanese Collection" (collected by Noritaka Ubukata & Yasuhiko Fukuda) | Patchlist | Image | |
| IPC-3 "Australian Collection" (collected by Rodger Mason) | Patchlist | Image | |
| IPC-4 "British Collection" (collected by Adrian Thomas) | Patchlist | Image |
SOUND SOURCE UNLIMITED
SSU is an american society (Westlake Village, California) which developed complete sounds/samples libraries for a large collection of diverse synthesizers/samplers models.
It gathers a large team of programmers and sounddesigners (see their respective profiles here).
Their products were distributed by Greytsounds™ (Northridge, California - owner: Bob Grey) via their website since the mid 90's.
Sound Source Unlimited (SSU) was then renamed "Sound Source Interactive" (SSI).
Now it has moved to the "Great Sounds" website (Simi Valley, California - owner: Bob Grey) and soundbanks are only available as sysex files (no more ROM/RAM cards).
They also sell their products via their eBay store.
There were a total of 1 double ROM cartridge (banks A/B) and 1 single ROM cartridge for the VFX.
Volume 2 (V102R) is in fact extracted from a VFX-SD/SD-1 3.5" floppy disk (many thanks to the internaute who sent it to me).
If someone owns the cartridge version especially dedicated to the VFX non SD model, I would be interested in a sysex version of it.
| V101R: "Samplers & Synthesizers" (2 soundbanks) | Patchlist | Image | |
| V102R: "Super Stage & Studio" | Patchlist | Image |
SYNTAUR
Syntaur is an american company (New Braunfels, Texas - owner: Sam Mims) created in 1988 which distributed the following Ensoniq VFX products:
a) Ensoniq VPC and IPC soundbanks
b) Syntaur original set (2 soundbanks - certainly programmed by Sam Mims)
c) Syntaur VSD Series disks (essentially dedicated to the VFX-SD and SD-1 models)
| Syntaur Set 1 | Patchlist |
| Syntaur Set 2 | Patchlist |
METRA SOUND
Metra Sound is a german company (Köln) which produced two VFX ROM cards.
Their products are now delivered by Sound Art (Dahlenburg, Germany - owner: Roger Person).
| ROMCard I "Traditional" (programmed by Peter Gorges) | Patchlist | Image | |
| ROMCard II "Modern Times" (programmed by Chiccio Malacrida) | Patchlist | Image | Order It |
CESIUM SOUND™
Cesium Sound™ is an american company (Berkeley, California - owner: Nick Longo) which produced an original VFX seven soundbanks set programmed by Nick.
| Vol.1 "Acoustic and Electric Pianos, B3 Organs, Accordians, Basses" | Patchlist | Image | Order It |
| Vol.2 "Electric Guitars, Lead and Analog Synths" | Patchlist | Image | Order It |
| Vol.3 "Drums, Hits, Tuned and Exotic Percussions" | Patchlist | Image | Order It |
| Vol.4 "Pads, Sweeps, Layers and Unique Timbres" | Patchlist | Order It | |
| Vol.5 "Ethereal, Atmospheric, Spectral, New Age" | Patchlist | Image | Order It |
| Vol.6 "Ac. Guitars, Harps, Bells, Chimes, Plucks" | Patchlist | Order It | |
| Vol.7 "Strings, Brass, Woodwinds, Choirs" | Patchlist | Order It |
VALHALA
Valhala is a well-known american company (Ferndale, Michigan) which unfortunately went bankrupt on the early 90's.
They edited two different Ensoniq VFX cards Series: "Studio Series" and "International Gold Series".
I own the International Gold cartridges, but I'm still searching for "Studio Series" soundbanks (it seems that they edited at least two different volumes).
Any informations about it or - best of all - a sysex version of it would be much appreciated!
| International Gold "VX-101" (programmed by Lee Groves) | Patchlist | Image |
| International Gold "VX-102" (programmed by Lee Groves) | Patchlist | Image |
VOICE CRYSTAL™
Voice Crystal™ is an american company (Oakley, California - owners: Mark Wiens & Paul Chasteen) which is selling all Eye&I Productions products.
They are proposing three Ensoniq VFX ROM cards.
| "Volume 1" | Patchlist | Image | Order It |
| "Volume 2" | Patchlist | Image | Order It |
| "Volume 3" | Patchlist | Image | Order It |
ROTATION RECORDS
Rotation Records is an australian company which produced a VFX soundbank rather oriented analog or vintage synths emulations and named "Retro VFX".
| "Retro VFX" | Patchlist |
MAARTISTS
Maartists is an american company (Duluth, Georgia) which distributed at least one soundbank as the Music Pack MR-1 Series.
Many thanks to the internaute who kindly sent to me the patchlist and the image!
| MR-1 Music Pack | Patchlist | Image |
REC'UP
This swiss website is still developing products. They are proposing now five original soundbanks as the "R" Series.
| Rvfx_01 "VFX Revival - Vol. 1" (programmed by Karm) | Patchlist | |
| Rvfx_02 "VFX Revival - Vol. 2" (programmed by Karm) | Patchlist | |
| Rvfx_03 "VFX Revival - Vol. 3" (programmed by Karm) | Patchlist | |
| Rvfx_04 "VFX Revival - Vol. 4" (programmed by Karm) | Patchlist | |
| Rvfx_05 "VFX Revival - Vol. 5" (programmed by Karm) | Patchlist |
MR. MAGIC
Mr. Magic (aka Klaus-Peter Rausch) produced one VFX soundbank named "Stage & Studio".
This product was originally distributed by Käng-Kong Productions (Gielsdorf, Germany - owner: Thomas Klimisch).
The version I got has two "blank" patches (n°2/Bank 1 & n°2/Bank 2). If you own the complete version, a sysex file of it would be much appreciated!
(Many thanks to Klaus-Peter Rausch and Daniel Forró for their contributions).
| "Stage & Studio" (programmed by Klaus-Peter Rausch) | Patchlist |
| VFX Synthesis Description | VFX Famous Examples | VFX All The Web Patches | VFX Video Demos |
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