Good morning,

First off, I want to thank PaulD for all the very helpful input. It's nice to have somebody like that on board. Next, I want to say that I'm no expert, not even close. Just an ol' accordion player that now plays GEM keyboards as a hobby and for relaxation. Most of my quotes come from reading the manual and/or practical experience. And I'm about to quote the manual again....I'M NOT TRYING TO GO AGAINST WHAT YOU ARE SAYING!!!

(In case anybody wants to read the same manual I'm quoting)

http://gem.generalmusic.com/en/products/genesys/genesys.html

Page 2 of the Genesys_Working.pdf:

The Genesys contains an internal re-chargeable battery which is used to retain the contents of its memory while the unit is switched off. If the unit is left switched off for more than about 3 days, the battery will discharge completely and the contents of the memory will be lost.

Page 45:

The SONG PLAYER can play a song in any of these formats from any available device, Floppy Disk, Hard Disk, CD, SCSI device or from the instrument's internal memory, (which is called RAM in the SONG PLAYER and DISK menus).

This is the RAM that I was talking about and so I guess that answers SK880's question...Yes, you can load songs into the keyboard's RAM.

Page 54:

Changing the sound in any track is simple. First, make sure the song is playing and then select SINGLE mode in the PRESET FAMILIES section.

MAKE SURE THE SONG IS PLAYING...That's my whole point. If you are going to play directly from disk, you can't make any edits before the song starts. And the only edit I'd be interested in making before the song starts is the instrument selection. Yet if you load the song into RAM first, then select SINGLE mode and change the instruments, then STORE the procedure, the changes stick when you start the song. And how long does it take to load a song into RAM from a floppy, or hard drive, or CD-ROM?...The same amount of time it takes my WK8 now....A while! So playing directly from floppy didn't turn out to be the revelation I had hoped for. Unless of course, all my midis are redone in Calkwalk selecting the correct instruments to begin with...Then direct play off of floppies would be great. That's a lot of work on my part. I'd better get busy.

And this nit-pickin' on one certain topic doesn't mean I don't like the keyboard. I'd love to have a new Genesys sitting on my keyboard stand right now....I just can't afford it. Definitely looking forward to the compact model.

mike