For quite a few months now there have been ongoing questions and discussions about the relative merits of the SD Card and how to use it. Below is one method of organization that I find to be the easiest to implement and gives direct random access to any file saved in Technic format and therefore very fast loading.

Notes on Setting up the SD Card

The SD Card has an extremely versatile menu system that probably goes unused by most players. I found that the factory default setups were not the best for me, but then it might be adequate for you. It depends on how you use your keyboard.
The good part is that you can you name, arrange, and load songs into the available 99 folders in such a manner that you have almost instant random access to them (max of 1980 songs). Also, you can group them in any manner that you want and change this grouping at anytime, without actually moving the files or reloading them into the card.
I started out, as I guess most of us have , by naming folders according to what I was going to put into them, ie: Big Band, Latin, Waltzes, ETC. The problem with this is – how many folders called Big Band are you going to need? Will you have 10 songs, 30, 50? In order to find them it would be good to have the folders all together in one group instead of spread all over the place on the card. Not practical!

Here is what I ended up with for songs saved in Technic format.

FILLING THE CARD

[*]Save your songs in any order without regard to style, era, or other distinguishing features. This will come later. Start with folder No.1 and fill it with the first 20 songs,( any 20 songs). You can name the folder if you want to, but since it is generic, you don’t have to. Be sure to name each song with a long file name. Keep a list (index) of what you are doing. Write down Song Name, folder No. (01 thru 99) and song location (01 thru 20).

[*]Proceed to folder No.2 and add 20 more songs. Be sure to update the index!

[*]Do this until you have saved all that you want. You can later just add to the folders as you develop new songs. You can do this without regard to what kind of a song it is. Just save it with all of the goodies: panel memories, sound memories, sequenced or not, ETC.

THE MENU SYSTEM (There are three menu systems to use, depending on your needs)

[*]By folder -- (slow – requires that you scroll through the folders and switch pages to find the songs.). This is the factory default method. Not very good.

[*]By Alphabet – Allows you to find any song by the first letter of the name. This is also slow as you have to scroll down the alphabet list, letter by letter, and if there are more than 10 songs starting with the same letter, you must switch pages to see them all. In addition, there are 52 slots, 26 Upper Case and 26 Lower Case, so there is a lot of scrolling.

[*]By Number – This is the fast way! SetUp: Press the SD button to get the load menu. Go to SD Preferences and under “Song Select Method”, select By Number. This will make “By Number” the default method. (Note: you can select either of the other two methods at any time on the load menu if you want to temporarily “hunt” for a song).

[*]Here is where your index comes into play. If you use music, just write the four digit song location at the top of the song sheet. If you play by ear, just refer to your written index to obtain the song location. In either case, when you press SD >LOAD, type in the four digit number, press load again, and you have your song. The typical load time is about three seconds.

GROUPING

[*]By using the Favorite Songs selection on the SD Menu, you can group your songs into any combination. There are 40 available banks that can be named with anything that you want and that can hold up to nine songs each (360 total songs). Since I play a great deal of dance music, I have chosen to have 5 songs to a set (max nine). The banks are named Set 1, Set 2, Set 3, ETC. each with 5 songs that I have selected that go well together. These selections can be later changed at any time in a simple action that doesn’t require moving or otherwise changing any actual song files.

[*]I also play dinner music so I have banks named Dinner 1, Dinner 2, ETC. that contain songs more suitable for listening rather than for dancing. Note that you can put anything anywhere in the Favorite Songs menu and have quick access to your grouped songs. And you can easily change it if you want. You could name the banks Big Band 1, Big Band 2, Latin, Rhumba, Irish, Waltzes, The 30’s, The 70’s, Balads, ETC. --You get the point.

Setting up the Favorite Songs Menu is a little tricky at first but very easy once you have done it.

Example:

[*]Press SD > Favorite Songs

[*]Press Bank Naming – Name the bank and press OK

[*]Select your first song

[*]Press and Hold the SET button and select a song slot. You will see the song name appear.

[*]Repeat steps 3 and 4 as desired.

[*]Be sure to press OK when you are through with this bank in order to save what you have selected.

[*]Go on to the next bank and repeat steps 2 through 6.

Final notes: I watch several things to get the fastest load times.

[*]I place my setups (rhythm, voices, variations) for each song or style in Panel Memory “A” and use the foot switch to advance through the variations. I only use bank A because it is the one that appears after a load. If you choose to use the other banks (B, C, 1-10) then you have to cycle through the bank select to find them – this is slow.

[*]For uniformity, even if I am going to use a particular generic KN7000 style for a song, I copy it to memory A and then the variations to Panel Memory A. This way I can always use the foot switch to advance through the set up and do not have to fumble with the MSA buttons, ETC., plus allowing for more than the 4 MSA choices and voices.

[*]I never use, save, or load the All Custom Styles (20 styles) except during the original set up for a song or style. It takes forever to load in a live play situation. If I am going to use a style from the Custom area, I copy it to memory A, make my Panel Memory setups and save only the necessary file parts.

I hope that this gives you some ideas. If you have any questions, send me a private Email.
Walt

Walt,
Thanks so much for the detailed tip. It sure is a great alternative for loading songs. I have overlooked the numerical system, thinking it was not practical, however after reading your system, it may be the best way to search and load from the SD Card

I have another tip that some members may not be aware of:

For even faster song loading, remove the "Completed" message that appears after each song load. Believe it or not for your 7000 to display this "Completed" message may use more time then the actual song load. You don't really need to be told that your song load is "Completed", so get rid of that extra time consuming step.

To Remove the "Completed" Message
1. Press Customise
2. Press Display Time Out
3. Select "Completed" Message
4. In the Time Selection use "OFF"
5. Click "OK"

You won't have the 'Completed" Message, but your songs will oad even faster.

SeeYa,
Larry Hawk

Larry,
What is really good about what I describe is that it doesn't take any planning when you save or add files to the card. You just add them in any order and they are there to be accessed.
You are right about removing the "completed" message. I did that so long ago that I forgot about it.
Regards,
Walt

Man • • • I wish I was that organized. What a great idea. Maybe the old man can get his act together yet!

Thanks guys for the great tips. Tips, baloney! Great thinking minds!! I suppose to run a successful TV store you had to be organized. Walt, I wish you were still around here.

Grandpa Doug

Thanks, Walt and Larry for these suggestions. I have never even looked at the option of loading SD files by number, but it should make finding files much easier. Also, I've previously heard about turning off the Completed message, but have never been game to do it - but I have found I can start playing as soon as the message is displayed without waiting for it to go away.

The suggestion to copy generic KN7000 styles (as well as custom styles) to memory is something I now do for all my songs. I got the idea originally from Larry Gosmeyer's tutorial on how he sequences songs, and it has two very important benefits. The first one is that once the style is in a memory position it is easy to change (eg change instruments, levels or notes in any part of the style). The second benefit is that it provides stability for when you upgrade to the next KN board. I have some files I saved on the KN6000 where I did not save the styles to memory, and they do not play the same on the KN7000. So for every song I save I now make sure the styles I use are in the memory settings.

Mike

[This message has been edited by Mike Daniell (edited 07-13-2003).]

always good to be reminded of the old tricks One point Walt, the kn saves where ever you are when you save, so Bank A is not really a default on load, and there is no need to cycle banks after load.

If you have 13 songs in 13 Banks you could save exactly the same file 13 times to come up ready to play in each of the 13 Banks. Don't have to be on panel memory 1 either, any bank or any panel memory can come up on load, so it's much more flexible in that respect.

Hi Walt,
my compliments for the good work you did. Good to have clear and detailed procedures for all those advanced features on the keyboards (We love it and we hate it at the same time, curious creatures we are ).
May I remember our members at the useful free program 'KN7000 SDCARD TOOL' (THKMC-site), that special is written for handling the SD Card with USB and the computer(through cardreader!!).
I think it would quit well support the procedure you described. It makes it easier to use the computerkeyboard to type the longnames of the files and maps, instead the naming-procedure on the KN7-display. It helps a lot too with (re)naming (and file-linking) at the favoritesbanks. You can also print out the content of the SD-card, so writing will not be needed.
The only thing needed is a cardreader! I myself cannot without such accessoire anymore.. . Technique evolves very quick..
Greetings,
Cees

[This message has been edited by cees (edited 07-14-2003).]

Alec,
Good points.
Bank A is default for me (not the keyboard) because I choose to only use bank A as a starting point for each song.
I do this for uniformity.
Also, some of my song setups utilize more than eight panel memory positions and since the keyboard (footswitch controlled) steps progressively through the panel memories (A1 thru A8, then B1 thru B8, ETC), I like to have more than one panel memory available when developing a song.
Again, I do this for uniformity. If all my saves are the same, it is much easier to not make mistakes during live play before an audience.
Another thing that I do is to use a "safety net" footswitch setting in my last usable panel memory position.
In the last position that I am going to use, I set the footswitch to take me back to A-1. That way if I am not paying strict attention to where I am in the Panel memory during live play, I don't have the embarassing result of suddenly jumping into some unwanted strange rhythm that was not intended. It only had to happen to me once or twice before I figured out how to protect me from myself!
Walt


[This message has been edited by Walt Meyer (edited 07-14-2003).]