Hi Alec,

Thanks for sharing. I'm amazed by it all. I left the field of electronics 19 years ago when I terminated my contract with Northrop Corporation and returned home from the Middle East. So, with your background, you will certainly appreciate that I am no longer current after a 19 year absence from the field. I have stayed computer literate and am learning to use the technology built into our keyboards, but like you, keyboard playing is mainly a hobby and form of relaxation for me. Having your technical expertise available to us is special, Alec, and I know I speak for all when I say "thank you" for being here for all of us. In order for me to get up to speed again, technologically speaking, I would have to return to school and at my age, that is out of the question. So I respect your expertise and thank you for sharing it so willingly.

Take care.

Chuck

Hi Everyone,

I have just logged on and cannot believe what I am reading. Does this mean there isn't going to be any more Technics instruments at all i.e: pianos, organs etc.?
What has gone wrong - does anyone know?

As I said in an earlier thread on this subject, I think there could be a merger between companies particularly as the Casio and Yamaha appear to be either copying or following Technic's lead. At our Keyboard Club last night one of the members said they had actually played the latest Casio and thought it was superb "not unlike your KN7 Aud" were his words, but I have to say I cannot confirm that as I haven't even seen the new Casio keyboard yet let alone play it.

Like most of you other Forum members, I have had Technics for several years and have collected approximately 150 professional disks and numerous others of my own settings for both the PR pianos and keyboards so I guess in order to preserve them the best bet would be to save them to a specific SD card. How do others intend to preserve their collection? I'd be very interested to know, perhaps we could have a discussion on this.

Regards to all.

Aud

Hi Audrey,
I ended up copying mine to my computer, then burning them onto a cd rom ( I did a back up of the cd as well.

I learnt the hard way, when I lost the data on quite a few floppies While I had them in storage.

Another possibility if you don't have a cd burner , might be a zip drive ( if you happen to have one. Again, I suppose the zip disk could corrupt, too, so you'd want a couple of copies.

The other option would be the sd card ( fairly expensive option) and you'd require a card reader ie you'd just use the sd card as a storage device, all you'd need to do ( using the computer is copy the files from floppy directly to sd card. The card wouldn't be useable in the kn as such, it's only for storage purposes. Again the problem is, an sd card may eventually fail.

I noticed years back, that some Technics style files are hidden ie the floppy disk appears to be blank when brought up on the computer, I used to be able to remedy that, but I'm going to have to put my thinking cap on.

Maybe they'd actually copy across anyway, but I'm not sure as I altered all my disks so that they did show up.

Just wondering anyone, do CD's get corrupted data due to storage, if so I better do some more copies.


best wishes
Rikki

Gunnar is right. Synth Zone supports resources to synths and keyboards from over 30 years ago that are still in use. Even though the Technics brand is going to go away everyone will still be playing their Technics keyboards for many years to come. This forum certainly won't be changing because of Technics demise. I'm sorry to see the brand dropped but business is like that.




[This message has been edited by Nigel (edited 01-14-2004).]

Hi Rikki,
There have been reports of user recordable CDs becoming either partially or totally unreadable. I believe that this can be due to adverse storage conditions - too hot, too cold or subjected to strong sunlight. Also, some of the cheaper unbranded variety, may not be manufactured to the same standard as the branded blanks. I always use well known, branded blanks for back-up of important data. For short term back-up or data transfer, I use the 'Ten-a- Penny' discs.
See also my posting here : http://www.synthzone.com/ubbs/Forum25/HTML/002156.html

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

Hi Chuck, thank you very much... you don't need to know about all this new technology, just be able to plug it in and enjoy it

Hi Rikki and Chuck,

I learned Basic on the Model I along with assembler and several other computer languages and it's how I've made my living for the last 20 years. My primary language is Visual Basic.

I got my first exposure to computer music with Orchestra 80 a 5 voice digital to analog converter. What is cool is that it was so popular that there is a site to down load the old song files and convert them to midi or you can down load a TRS-80 emulator and play them directly as that are. They sound like organ music on the PR54.

All this shows that progress keep moving forward and while there won't be any more Technics keyboards there will certainly be other replacement that will be better. It will just take some getting use to it. (And of course trade in values will be a lot less I'm sure.)

Take care.
Heather

[This message has been edited by shcox (edited 01-14-2004).]

[This message has been edited by shcox (edited 01-14-2004).]

Heather,

The one good thing about our keyboards is, the initial investment is low compared to the price of the Technic Organs.

I have some frinds here in Florida that paid as high as $69,000. for the F100. Shortly after introduction of this organ, Technics went out of the organ business.
I understand they can be purchased in the $5000 range in Melbourne.

I could throw my 7000 in the trash and only lose a small percentage of what I lost on the sale of my EA5 organ.

If I can get another 4 or 5 years out of this 7000 before a major breakdown it is money well spent for the enjoyment it has given me. Wish I could say the same for the cars and boats I have owned.

Fran in Florida

True words of wisdom spoken by an officer and a gentleman

Hi Bill,
thank you for the warning. I've mainly got cheap throw aways, so I might invest in a good brand for important stuff.
Fortunately all my disks actually work in the kn7 and are on sd card ( I've probably got 10 backups of those ( haahaa)

I thought I might be leaving the forum earlier than I'd anticipated yesterday.
A gum 10foot gum tree branch next door fell on the power lines just after I turned on my keyboard. Crackle sizzle pop ( power lines not kn), as the power slowly faded down. Had a worrying few hours till power was restored. Fortunately everything including the kn & computers were okay. I usually unplug all electrical appliances if a storms coming, but this branch just fell on a nice sunny day. SCARY The power didn't go down totally , just appeared to be at half strength, so it did'nt trip the switchboard protection. I think we call them brown outs , not blackouts.

best wishes
Rikki

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Bill Norrie:
[B]Hi Rikki,