I have the KN7000 keyboard and have accumulated several full SD Cards. I thought it would be a good idea to transfer them all to a 1GB Card using the KN SD Explorer tool - is this possible or would I still be restricted to 99 Folders?

I would also be interested in other member's views on this.

Regards,

Aud (U.K.)

Hi there - my understanding of the SD card V Keyboard is that the spare capacity of the SD card is immaterial. There is a maximum of 99 folders allowed.

For instance you could have 99 folders with 1 item in each one so that the capacity may be reading 30% usage. You can load more data into each folder BUT not create more than 99.

If you use the BACKUP feature for your various SD cards using SD Explorer you can MERGE them into a larger one providing you are still not exceeding the 99 folders limit.

Joan



[This message has been edited by Joan (edited 04-07-2005).]

Hi Audrey
Joan's right unless Alec has some clever way of creating more folders - anyway what you doing with all those files...chuckle...I thought I'd got more than enough with over 80 folders full of files...are you a secret .cmp collector?
Rog

Hi; What type of files are on the SD card? If they are In the PRIVATE and SD_SOUND folder there should be no problem. Assuming you have a computer with a SD card reader. Let me know. Dick

Hi Audrey,
First, Joan and Roger are correct - 99 folders is the limit for Technics format files.
Unless you have a good reason to transfer all your files to a 1GB card, I would leave them on separate cards. The largest card I use is 128MB and I am finding that as it fills up, the 'Save' times are getting longer and longer and almost approaching Floppy disc save time !!
I just did a comparison saving the same file on the 128MB card and an 8MB card. Using the 'Performance' save option, it took 13 Seconds on the 8MB card and 38 Seconds on the 128MB card - nearly three times as long! The 128MB card I used, is only about 50% full and the 8MB card is about 85% full. So judging by these results and if they can be projected to a 1GB card, goodness knows how long it will take to save a performance on a 1GB card, when it is getting rather full
Loading times from both cards are of course much shorter and more or less the same - around 5 - 6 seconds for the 'test' file.

Just my opinion........



------------------
Willum

Thank you all for your replies to my SD Card question. I did suspect it was something to do with the Technics programming mainly because over the years I have found that Technics had a unique way of doing every-thing on their musical instruments.

As you all know, most of Technics pre-programmed floppies had 10 or more files on them and I followed their lead when making my own floppies. Most of these have been saved to SD Cards for practical reasons and therefore every folder on the card has 20 files to each folder. However, if as Joan says 99 folders is the limit whatever the card size, there is little point in buying a 1GB card. Thank you for that Joan, you saved me making an unnecessary expensive purchase.

Best wishes to you all.

Aud (U.K.)

Audrey, I see Alec didn't respond to your question, but he has covered this topic many times. You are limited to the 99 folders on any SD card, but not limited to 20 files for each folder. If you want to take the extra time to load into custom memory you can gain much more storage: 20x20x99=39600 files. Actually, memory size is more limiting than the amount of folders and files, but with your large SD card, you should have a lifetime of card stuffing ahead of you. I've been editing my archives and loading the SD with custom saves and it's only 512 meg. So far, with over 500 songs saved I've filled 3% of the card and will probably get every single file I have on that card.

Hiya Bud
My limited experience of custom memory is that when you replace styles in custom memory with other styles the original ones are wiped out and cannot be retraced by loading from the SD Card although you have saved them on the SD Card earlier on. Please tell us more...or should I do a search on historic postings?
Rog

Hiya Eddie
Yes I did as you suggest with a group of custom styles one of which I used for a particular song called Get Happy - the custom Style was called Dorsey Band and I had it saved/set both in Panel Memory and on my SD Card in a folder.
Whilst at my keyboard club someone used my keyboard to demonstrate how easy it was to load new custom styles and in the process loaded over the top of Dorsey Band amongst others without my knowledge.
Next time we came to perform that number and I loaded Get Happy/Dorsey Band from the SD Card a completely different rhythm came up which was a bit of a shock at the time - and we had to move on pretty sharpish!!!
Having rediscovered Dorsey Band subsequently I moved it from Custom Style to Memory Bank 'A' where it is safe from accidental removal providing I keep my SD Card locked....
But, of course that takes us straight back to the 20 x 98 storage scenario no matter the size of the SD Card. Then plus only the one set of custom styles in the last folder, and currently in custom style area and I'm not sure the maximum number of custom styles that the KN7000 will hold at the same time.
So I stand to be corrected but I believe the equation should read (20 x 98) + (1 folder of 20 files containing largest number of custom styles which can be held)

[This message has been edited by RMepstead (edited 04-11-2005).]

the point of a large card is audio, I have 150 karaoke compact disk audio tracks on a 512 card to play along with a real orchestra. With 999 audio tracks available on an SD card requiring somewhere over 3GB space, 1G is obviously not enough for the max possible potential of audio play.

The 99x20 Technics file load is equivalent to 19,800 songs at 10 to a sequencer, in addition to 5,940 composer style loads, or alternatively in addition to 39,600 custom style loads, but is still not the whole story since add in midi files and a card can hold 20,799 songs, and you could fill the single custom folder to increase the potential custom swap by many hundreds of styles, let alone fill the imexport folder with midis and swap midi files from the pool on one card to increase the 999 potentially playable. For Technics and midi only you would probably only need a 256 for around maximum use.

Roger, everything in memory can be saved whether custom or composer and therefore restored after loading something else. If a custom style could not be restored then it was just saved incorrectly before the new custom was loaded.

Bill, my experience on save is the opposite, a performance save from initial takes longer on a 90% full 8MB card than it does on a 60% full 256MB card, albeit a mini-sd in adaptor, so it depends on the card.

Holy cow!! I have trouble finding files on a full 128.

Fran in Florida

Thanks Alec
As usual when you reply I find that I need to sit down in a dark corner and think deeply about what you have written and so it is in this case - so please excuse me cos I'm off to contemplate, oh and America too...
Best wishes
Rog
It's a bit like someone saying the world is not flat but round!!!
Now I've got to go and look up 'imexport' in Alec's manual...

[This message has been edited by RMepstead (edited 04-11-2005).]

[This message has been edited by RMepstead (edited 04-11-2005).]

Roger, say you want to do a performance save, SD, save, technics, position, page 2, custom, switch yes. Then the entire custom is saved with any sequencer contents or panel memories used with any custom style. If someone alters the custom it can be restored same as before, just as any combination of sections on the page 2 save.

For imexport, read the sd tools section on page 45, export a midi and the folder is automatically created, fill it with midis in a card reader and then import them in the same menu.

Well Audrey, I hope the answers didn't create more confusion about the SD card, and sometimes I'm just amazed that Alec can seem to find out how all this stuff works in such a short time span! Luckily for us, his curiosity saves the day for many of us that end up lost at sea with the new technology. I suppose one just has to find which method works best when using the SD card, like custom save works for me. I find it is fast and efficient since the way I load the files is the same sequence that I used for the original archive files. Music style, manufacturer, tempo, and location index. If I needed a Latin salsa rhythm at 120 tempo by Roland, I can locate the style in a few seconds using my archive notebook and the SD card. A few more seconds to load the custom banks and I have the needed style plus 14 to 19 others that are the same tempo or very close to what I want. It makes style selection fast and easy, but then, I'm not playing before a live impatient audience, either. Pick what works best for you, and learn everything you can about it, until you can do it in your sleep. Same goes for the rest of the keyboard features - learn what you need to learn to do the things you want to do - and leave the rest for Alec.

Well! - what can I say. Thanks very much again to each and every one of you that has responded to this posting, particularly Alec and Bill.

Having carefully read and re-read everyone's contribution, I have learned a great deal about the versatility of the SD Card. One thing I just had NOT thought about and that is to make more use of the Custom section. The Custom Style is one of my favourites and I use this facility regularly and still! it didn't occur to me to use it in the way that has been suggested. Together with more use of the Favourites section,it could well be the answer. I guess I can re-shuffle the cards that I have and make them 'work a bit harder'

Dick - thank you again for disclosing your method of dealing with this problem. The way you suggest does work, but Fred Mellink's KN SD Explorer tool (which works in a similar way) is much easier and quicker to use with the same end result. If you want to know more, email me.

Best wishes to you all.

Aud (U.K.)

'page 2, custom, switch yes'
That's the bit I forgot....doh
Thanks again Alec

you're welcome