Best USB Memory Stick Strategy?

[knolan]

Hi -

I have to say that I find Roland's approach to storing patches to be incredibly stone-age at best, and even worse for the GAIA. Surely in 2010 they can come up with a better solution than allowing only one set of 64 patches per USB stick. And surely a few dozens of lines of code would allow for access to indivudual patches and not just a whole set?

Does nobody else think this is a crock? Roland should be ashamed of themselves on this; and frankly I'm surprised there has not be a chorus of complaints against it on this forum.

In any case - might anyone suggest a good strategy to store patches?

I'm wondering what's the minimum USB Stick capacity needed to store the entire contents of the GAIA? I'm considering searching ebay for a lot of cheap USB sticks - say 128 MB in size and wonder if that capacity will suffice?

I haven't got my GAIA connected to a computer - does that allow for better storage (I can't find anything in the manual about storing directly to computer)?


thanks,
Kevin.

[Rigil]

There doesn't seem to be any way round this until the Roland sound designer program is released.

What I have done is bought a couple of 2Gb memory sticks. Then I keep one permanently in the back of the Gaia and create new patches with the USB memory button on.
Then select the best individual patch and transfer that to the Gaia User Patch area by switching the USB memory patch button off again.

I store the rest on computer, dating the name of each file. ( I even thought of storing a sound sample for each patch, but time implications might become excessive).

But I must agree, it is archaic. But hey, this is meant to be represent an analogue synth.
Although, I really miss not being able to give the individual patches their own names.

[knolan]

Rigil -

Thanks for your reply - that's an excellent strategy - thanks most sincerely for sharing it. I will definitely implemet that system for sure.

Cheers!

Kevin.

[knolan]

Rigil

I attempted what you describe but can't get it to work and wonder if you might provide more details?

I purhcased a set of 3rd party programs for the GAIA and put them on USB stick and want to copy just one of them to the USER bank. So my starting point is a little different to what you describe. Is this possible?

When I select the USB bank and program I can play it. But as soon as I switch off the USB bank to try to copy it into the USER bank, the sound is lost - I thought it might remain in internal (manual?) memory but instead the GAIA sets to the most recently selected USER bank program.

So I'd be grateful for any thoughts you have on getting individual 3rd part programs from USB stick to Internal USER memory.

Thanks,
Kevin.

[knolan]

Sorry -

Ignore the last post - I just figured it out. For those interested - Rigil has come up with a very neat way of transferring individual programs (patches) from USB Memory to USER Memory. The steps are:

1. Go to the USER Memory Patch location you wish to store the sound in.
2. Be sure it's note locked
3. Select the USB Memory Patch of interest
4. Press the 'Write' button. While it's flashing, switch off the USB Bank button
5. Press the USER Patch location you wish to store the USB sound in (you can even chance banks while the write button is flashing)
6. Press the 'write' button again and the individual USB Bank Patch will be written to the selected USER Patch location.


Thanks Rigil - that makes the GAIA incredibly more versatile, manageable and usable - I'll feel free to make new programs to my heart’s content, sure in that knowledge that I can build personalised banks of favourites for different use.

Cheers,
Kevin.

[Rigil]

Kevin,

I have now started to list each patch that I create on an excel spreadsheet. That way I can keep a track of what is on the usb memory stick.

I am using similar categories to those on my Korg Trinity.

For instance,
A1-A8: keyboard / electric piano / organ
B1-B8: pads
C1-C8: synth leads
D1-D8: moving sounds
E1-E8: arpeggio patches
F1-F8: woodwind
G1-G8:mallet
H1-H8-sound effect

Using two lists, ( one for the gaia patch bank and one for the usb patch bank ) I find it helps me to remember where each patch is stored.

Organising 64 patches without a menu screen is quite tricky and I find that it is so easy to accidentally overwrite a patch by mistake.

As soon as I get more than about 32 decent patches, I will share them with anyone who is interested. I'm up to about twenty really useful sounds at the moment.

Rigil

[knolan]

Rigil -

Thanks once again - again that's an excellent strategy. I like to be well organised and you've put all the thinking into how to manage the GAIA - really appreciate it.

You've literally improved my work 'envornment' for GAIA and I've been exploring GAIA with far more freedom over recent days (and loving it - its a 'silky' smooth synth). Being organised in creating programs is THAT important (to me) - it frees you up to make new sounds safe in the knowledge that you won't wipe existing ones or run out of space. So thanks again for pointing the way.

I'll likewise be deligthted to share a bank of programs when complete (give me a few months on that) - but will be only too delighted to share some.

thanks again,
Kevin.