Memory Card

[rentadrummer]

Sorry, I know we've been down this road before but it's the first time I've had hands on experience with the card.
A few weeks ago I installed the TDW-1 expansion card but before doing so I backed up the original 50 TD-10 kits to a memory card. At this point I wasn't worrried about losing any settings so after installing the TDW-1 I experimented with the memory card and reloaded all of the original sets and then found that there is no "unload feature" to restore the TDW-1 sets. Unlike a computer, the TD-10 doesn't read from a backup disk but needs to have the files installed. I just want to make sure that I'm not missing some secret password in the Roland manual since the only ways I've found to restore all of the TDW-1 kits at one time would be:
1) Back up all of the TDW-1 kits or any installed user kits to a second memory card
2) Copy the individual TDW-1 kits one-at-a-time from ROM and overwrite the kits installed from the original memory card
3) Reinitialize the TD-10 which restores all of the TDW-1 kits but also erases any customized settings.
Is this correct?

[This message has been edited by MacDrumster (edited September 08, 2001).]

[dr. kildrum]

I had to read your post a couple of times, but it sounds like you are pretty much right. If you have made changes to the new TDW-1 kits that you don't want to lose, overwrite kits you can live without on the memory card (currently holding a copy of the original kits with all of your changes to date) or buy another memory card.

I have a combination of stuff using sounds from the original factory kits and the TDW-1 factory kits (often combined) on my memory card. But keep in mind that the only reason for the memory card is to store your combinations, personal settings, and creations. Remember ALL the original versions of both the original 50 kits AND the TDW-1 kits reside in memory, so no matter what you put on the memory card, (or even if you lose it), you will always have all 100 factory provided kits in ROM. Use the card for augmented kits, or kits you design to taste. If you need more than 50 of those (in addition to the 100 unaltered kits), you'll have to buy another memory card to store them on.

I have stuff in all 50 slots on my memory card, but really only play with about three customized kits, (and I have several slightly different versions of each). If you really need more that 50 "personalized" kits, I don't know of a cheaper alternative than another $100 card.

Cheers.

[rentadrummer]

Thanks, Doc. I knew you'd be the one to post an answer to this.
I doubt that there would be a need to store more than 50 custom kits and I understand that all of the original 100 kits are available in ROM. Probably the best use of the card is for backing up custom kits. I just think it would be a nice feature, and more convenient, if the TD-10 could read from the card itself without installing the kits. That way if you backed up the original TD-10 kits, or any custom kits, and were trying to find something on the card you could listen to it first without copying anything to the TD-10 and overwriting another kit.

[Boingo]

Originally posted by dr. kildrum:
If you need more than 50 of those (in addition to the 100 unaltered kits), you'll have to buy another memory card to store them on.

OR... use software to back up the excess kits. There's VkitTrans (need Lee's latest), MidiOx, SysEx97, Soundiver (not free), etc.

The added advantage is you can swap kits with other people through cyberspace.

Assuming you have a soundcard with a game port, the only expense is a midi cable.