Hi,

I'm about to buy a XV-5080 and sell my JV-2080. Before I make the jump though, there are some things that I want/need to know about it.

I know that there is a bit of a limitation in that, when using samples, they must go into one of 128 user presets. That's seems reasonable since these are the only writable preset locations. My dealer mentioned (although he is not sure) that it may be possible to store presets using samples directly on SmartMedia and access those directly. This would eliminate the need for me to be limited to 128 custom presets at, say a live gig.

Any of you 5080 owners care to comment? Are there any limitations when using SmartMedia cards? Are they random access or do I have to write all data at once?

Thanks in advance.

Fernando

One of the fantastic design of XV5080 is that you can directly use patch at smartmedia card (8 banks or 8x 128 patches)

You can save different samples from SCSI to
smartmedia. The samples can be 'randomly access' by selecting certain patch.

Hi Howard,

Thank you for the post. Yes, that's a great feature. When you access a patch which uses samples from a SCSI drive, will the XV-5080 load those samples or do they need to reside in memory already? Will it load them automatically?

My understanding is that with SM cards, the loading is very fast but I'd have to wait for the SCSI drive to load the samples. I plan on only using a SM card for gigs. I plan on getting a 128 MB card so that I do not have to worry about loading at the beginning of a gig or if the circuit breaker blows. I've got power protection on my gear but some places don't have enough juice sometimes.

If the 5080 will automatically load the appropriate samples via SCSI or via SM card when you select a patch, that would be excellent.

Fernando

Hi Fernando,

Sample data, as well as patch data, can be saved to and loaded from SM cards. I'm pretty sure sample data must be loaded into SIMM memory before playing a patch that relies on it, otherwise nothing will sound.

The point of SM is to avoid having to carry the drive to the gig. I wouldn't want to rely on loading sample data from CD on stage.

Good luck finding a 128MB SM card, tho: I don't think they're readily available, as of yet. Biggest/cheapest I've found is 64MB (for $115).

Regards,
Chris

[This message has been edited by feefer (edited 10-11-2000).]

Thanks for the info feefer.

I suppose that a couple of 64 MB SM cards are better than nothing. I may simply hold off and use a Jaz or something until the 128 MB versions are available. While it is nice having a faster load time, I'm used to loading samples at the beginning of a gig anyway.

Thanks once again.

Fernando