Hi all,

I'm not sure if this topic has been raised before, being new to this forum.
I understand that we can import G1000 styles (.STL), copy them to a floppy and load them into the VA-7 arranger. This works great.
However, when I copied those styles into the STYLES folder on a ZIP disk, the VA-7 arranger does not seem to find anything. The zip was previously formatted using the utility on the keyboard.
I tried renaming .STL to .STH, the arranger found the file but claimed it was an invalid file when it attempted to load it.
Thanks for your advice.
Great forum

Wizboy, you have to load additional styles and songs by floppy, or use the Roland Data Base Manager software to make up your ZIP from your computer..Fran

You must LOAD one style to the VA7 and then
SAVE to the Zipdisk.On a formatted Zip there
is nothing. You better use the original Zip.
You can copy this to a new one on a computer
via an IOMEGA Zipdrive. On my VA this goes
without any problem. Because the copy now has
the same system as the original.

Mart,

How did you copy your disk with your Iomega Drive. I have a G1000 and would like to copy my factory disk and use that copy to work with. I will store the original.
The only way I know is to import all songs and styles through the RDBM.
Please tell me how you made your copy, I assume that what works on a VA works on my G1000 as well.

When you have a IOMEGA ZIP drive you have to
use "Copymachine". You can not find this ?
Try a Right click after a left click with the
mouse.I am sure the G1000 has the same system
as a VA at this point.

well, if you format a zip with a PC, there is nothing. But if you format the zip using the VA-7 utility, it does create STYLE/VARIPHRASE, etc... folders on your disk. That's why I was wondering if I could just drag some styles into that folder.

You CANNOT do it on a pc. You MUST use the RDB manager or load one at a time from floppys. Roland has a proprietary system that the pc will not recognize. You can copy from the SCZI port to a SCZI zip drive connected to the keyboard, if you have one.

Mart,

I think I tried this once and it didn;t work.
Did you format the disk before you started, and if so, on the pc or on the keyboard.

I will try this again this weekend.

Do you have a IOMEGA ZIPDRIVE Arno, and do
you use 100MB ZIPDISKS? Place the ZIPDRIVE
not upright but lay it down. Perhaps that is
your problem.I made 2 copies of my original
VAzip disk and they work perfectly.This is
all I can say about it. Try it again or ask
someone to help you.Everyday I play the VA
and I use one of my copies with all the sty-
les on it, the original Roland styles and
my own styles and also converted and edited
styles.

You can duplicate the factory zip via zip copy on your PC. What you can't do is add or delete any files to the zip,other than via floppy copy using the keyboard. To do this you definately need the RDBM software. You can also copy from a zip that was prepared on the keyboard and copy to another zip drive via SCSI attached to the keyboard..Fran

Hi Fran,
You can load a style from a floppydisk to
the keyboard and save it from there to the
ZIPdisk. I nearly do it everyday and I do not
have or use a RDBM. A RDBM program can be an
extra help for doing things on the computer.
But using and loading from and saving to a
ZIPdisk is perfectly possible on the keyboard
itself.

By the way, software update 2.0 encloses a function called "Music Assistant" which is very similar to the Style Database and allows you to select User Programs directly from the Zip disk, with the following advantages (according to Roland):
- you can transfer realtime User Program management to portable zip disks (which allows you to perform using any VA7-VA76 without having first to reprogram it)
- a speed-up of the response in live playing because you can now select from a vast array of registrations that goes far beyond the 128 internal memories.
The Music Assistan is to User Programs what the Disk User/Style Database functions are to Music Styles: by selecting a User Program on the Zip disk via the Music Assistant you load its settings to the User Program Area of the VA7 and (according to Roland) there is no need to write this User Program to an internal memory slot because the access to the Music Assistant itself is even quicker.

Floppy Styles to Zip...Not having a Zip Drive on my PC.....To copy styles from Floppy to Zip my EM2000 and I assume G1000 & VA's is the same. You can mark up to 20 styles and transfer from floppy to Zip in one go. Some times my board decides it has run out of memory, but by marking just 10 styles at a time everything copies fine.

Graham