Thanks again Diki, I have been using a bag but will use a case from now on. Can you help with a way to make/access a midi file playlist please

You CAN play an SMF playlist, but it has some drawbacks. If you select a MIDI file from its 'My Songs' folder then press the Quick Menu button, one of the options will be 'Play all songs in folder'. Press that and as soon as one file finishes, the next one will start.

But here are the drawbacks... for starters, you can't reorder the folder without renaming the files. They play in alphabetical order from wherever you start.

Secondly, the SMF will not call up the Keyboard sounds. The Performance is the thing that does that, and there's no way for one Performance to move automatically to the next one. You CAN move from one Performance to the next while it's playing, but it doesn't change the 'resource' (the SMF or audio file). You have to stop the song, THEN select the next Performance which then loads the resource.

The exception is playing styles, where changing the Performance will change the style while still running (unless you use a Perf. Lock to 'hold' it).

Can you explain why you want to move through a set automatically?

Maybe I phrased my question wrong, I do not want automatic. Sorry to refer to other brands but on both my Ketron keyboards I have the root directory with midifiles in alphabetical order. From this directory I have made up my own lists like fast, slow, Country etc, and arranged in the order I might use them on a gig. I constantly switch between midifiles and performances and try to have one or the other lined up in advance. So although they are playlists in order I can select my next song or performance randomly .
I am using Songbook Pro on my ipad to select performances and it works perfectly, allowing me to make up any amount of playlists and select any performance easily.
Scrolling with the wheel through over a hundred midifiles is not the fastest when maybe dancers are waiting on me pressing the next button lol. All I can think of would be to have similar genre midifiles on a few usb sticks but again this would not be fast enough during a gig.
I have in the past used a third party midifile player like vanbasco where my playlist are on my laptop screen and songs are easy to select at random but I think the BK9 must have a much easier way of jumping between performances and songs.

The best way I've found to have speedy access to hundreds of Performances randomly is to use the Numeric function. While the Perf. List is being displayed, press the numeric button. You can now enter the exact number of the Performance and pressing Enter will jump it to that entry (but it doesn't change to it, so good for cueing it up).

It can also be handy if you don't know the EXACT number of the song, where if you know roughly where in the List it is, it can jump you close enough to not need to scroll too much to find the song. That's my preferred system.

Using Songbook, StageTraxx etc to call up Performances by MIDI has one real drawback. If you like your Performance List in alphabetical order so if you're selecting by hand they're easy to find, you can't use MIDI because each time you insert a new Performance in the middle of the List, it means the codes for all the subsequent entries are now changed..!

So pretty early on you'll have to decide if alphabetical is important or not.

For me, alphabetical and using Numeric to ease cuing up the next song works best. But if you're using MIDI you'll not be able to keep alphabetical. You'll just have to rely on the external program for that and hope it has some sort options.

On the whole, I would NEVER use the actual My Songs and My Audio folders. The Performance List is really the beating heart of the whole system.

Here's one more little tip to help with live editing:

I'm one of those guys that like to tweak MIDI files and styles on the gig, while playing. Once you master the Makeup Tools, it's pretty simple to do some basic stuff like adjusting the bass guitar level, or make a snare a bit louder, or adjusting the overall volume of a style or sequence, etc.

Your problem comes when you want to save those changes quickly.

If, like me, you tend to have multiple folders of different collections of SMF's in the My Songs folder, or lots of different 'work in progress' style conversions in different folders in the My Rhythms folder, if you edit a resource live on the fly, there's quite some considerable time spent trying to navigate to the correct folder where the original may sit so you can 'replace' it.

So what I have done is to keep ALL my data in folders within the main folders, and then as you get to the point of creating a Performance to use live, save the resource (style or SMF) to the root level of each folder, and THEN create the Performance.

Now, after you've tweaked that sequence or style, you only need navigate to the root 'My Songs' or 'My Rhythms' folder, and do a save, upon which the 'replace original file' dialog presents itself...

Easy peasy, and that way you don't end up with endless duplicates and complete confusion on the gig trying to save your quick edit.

Finally (for now!) there one important thing you can do if you are considering using audio backing tracks at some point in the future.

Be aware, there is NO WAY in the BK series to permanently adjust the volume or EQ of an audio file. The Mastering Tools EQ's and compressors ONLY work on the MIDI side of things.

So before you do a ton of work on styles and sequences, it helps to load up a few CD tracks of stuff you're completely satisfied with the balance and overall sound. It also helps to not use modern music or 'remastered' CD's that have had their dynamics crushed to death and are crazy loud.

But use those CD tracks as the volume and EQ balance reference for your system, then balance the styles and sequences to THAT by using the Mastering Tools EQ's and compressors to match as closely as you can.

By doing this, you won't be faced down the line with having to EQ and adjust all your audio files to match somewhat unbalanced style and SMF balance.

On the gig, you can use the Balance knob to reduce the volume of an audio track, but be aware, you can't increase its volume without increasing the Master Volume of the whole arranger. So I tend to shoot for a balance knob at about 2pm for audio files, in case I come across one that's just a little to quiet.

I like a fairly dynamic sound (live band feel) from my styles and sequences, so I tend to turn off the Mastering compression, and just use Mastering EQ (in small amounts) just to match the overall MIDI tone balance to the audio files.

Do this as early as you can in the process and you'll save yourself a ton of work down the line if you start to use pro audio backing tracks...

Hope these help.

Diki, I am running out of words to say thank you once again. After twenty odd years gigging the exact same keyboard it is a bit of a steep learning curve. My plan was simply to half the carrying weight of my keyboard.
I am pleasantly surprised with the quality of the Bk9 and finding new delights every other day. For instance some of the one touch sounds are better than I expected so I will get round to saving them as favourites or something. Also many of the styles are better than expected . I remember trying the G70 when it came out and I was greatly impressed with the authentic sounds but stuck to Ketron through many models but always reverting to the tried and tested SD1.
All in all one happy new member and I am very grateful for you help and hope you don't get fed up with me asking so many questions.