Hi Uncle Dave,
Without wishing to tell you how to 'suck eggs'..... I would offer the following, with regard to your first two questions :

1.Bear in mind that a Real Piano's sound can naturally be sustained for quite some time, after the key has been released, by use of the sustain pedal. However, when a string player stops bowing, (on the KN700 - lifting the key) the sound of the string instrument dies away quite quickly. The actual instruments have totally different sustain characteristics, so if Technics have decided to produce as near as possible, a 'natural' sound for each instrument, then there should be little or no sustain on a string sound - particularly on a violin. A Double Bass would have a longer sustain due to the size of the instrument and the fact that the strings are able to vibrate for a longer period of time. When we hear recorded sounds with sustained strings, I would suggest that this is created artificially by using Reverb. Perhaps you could achieve the effect you want, by adding some reverb to the String sound in the Sound Edit facility, but little or none to the Piano.

2. I assume you wish to scroll through the SD files whilst a Sequence is playing ??
If this is the case, then yes, it can be done. While the song is playing, just press the 'SD' button followed by 'LOAD' and you can then scroll through the Folders and Files, without disturbing the playback. When the playback has finished, just hit the 'LOAD' button again and the selected song will load. Then press 'START' or hit a Left hand key, if 'SYNCHRO' is active and the new song will start to play.

With regard to the Panel Memory, if I remember correctly, the data is stored in Volatile Memory. When the instrument is powered down, the data is maintained by a storage capacitor (a kind of short term rechargeable battery), so when the capacitor eventually discharges, the memory will lose its content. There are other types of 'User' memory in the KN7000 which do not lose their data during power down, for example, Custom Panel and and Custom Style. They use 'Flash' memory which, like the SD card, retains data during power down.

Why Technics decided to use different types of memory, I don't know, but they must have their reasons.

There have been quite a few reports of problems related to KN7000 / PC interface. I think most are related to PCs which use Windows XP. I use Windows 98SE on the laptop which is connected to my KN7000 and had no problems. However, since Microsoft are about to cease support for Windows 98, it looks like I may have to bite the bullet and 'upgrade' to XP - much against my will
Best of luck Dave with your new venture.....


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Willum