Dear all,

This posting was previously marred by Smilies when I tried to re-edit the text. It seems that I may have discovered a bug in the Synth Zone Forum driver. Even though I checked the option to "Disable Smilies in This Post", several pairs of a colon plus a close bracket were still interpreted as Smilies, when they should be just left alone. So, I am using curly brackets { } instead.




Hi Joe! I received your email and after some tinkering and thinking has figured out a method that does not require connecting the KN2600 to an external floppy drive or USB drive via its back USB port. Here is a way to store/retrieve data with floppy disk using what you have already acquired with your digital keyboard ---- the 8MB SD card and the CDROM. You do need to outlay a small expense (between $15 to $25) for a SD card reader/writer. Install the device driver on the CDROM (though you may skip this if your operating system already recognises and works with the SD card reader/writer). Then install the Song Manager.

Now you are almost ready to be in business. Please allow me a few moments of reflection. Personally, I do not employ this method because I use only SD cards, even though I don't mind having the option of using floppy disks on KN2600. I suppose that we have finally come a full circle, from the first Technics keyboard to come with a in-built floppy drive to the first keyboard to drop it leaving a vestigial protrusion. That's evolution and devolution for you. In any case, I have swallowed my pride and perhaps even my better judgement in finding you a possible solution whose suitability you must ultimately assess for yourself. I have endeavoured my best to answer your questions and would bear no responsibilities whatsoever for any mishaps or consequences, however benign or severe. One never knows precisely when and how Murphy's law(s) will strike. Without further ado, here are the ten steps to "fudge" a tenuous but palpable link between the KN2600 and the storage medium whose fate cannot even be saved by its superior incarnation, the 240 megabyte superdisk, which is identical in size and appearance.

(1) Save whatever data to the SD card following the instructions on pages 140-142 of your KN2600 operating manual.

(2) Take the SD card out and plug it into the SD card reader/writer, which should have been connected to and detected by your computer.

(3) Insert the floppy disk into the floppy disk drive of your computer.

(4) If you want to save any Standard Midi Files (SMFs) on the SD card to the floppy disk, load Windows Explorer. Select those SMFs, right-click your mouse and select Properties. In the Properties menu, deselect the Hidden Attributes of ONLY those files that you want to save to the floppy disk and click OK. You can skip this step if you have done this before, or if the file is not hidden.

(5) Load the Song Manager if you have not done so.

(6) Choose the type of files you want to save: Technics and/or SMF. You can save either or both types at once by clicking on either or both of the small yellow folders.

(7) If you have chosen Technics, find the drive corresponding to the card reader in the Browse for Folder menu. For example, if you are running Windows XP, it appears as Removable Disk {E:}, assuming that E drive has been assigned as such. Click on the successive subfolders until you have E:\PRIVATE\TECHNICS\KN7000\. You will see a series of Technics folders that you have created with your KN2600. For example, the first one is TFLD001. Choose the one that you want to copy to the floppy disk. Click OK and you will see the files listed within the Technics panel of the Song Manager.

(8) If you have chosen SMF, locate and click the SD_SOUND folder under Removable Disk {E:} in the Browse for Folder menu. If you have performed step (4) correctly, you will see only those files that you want to save to the floppy disk.

(9) On the top menu bar, select Copy to SD. In the pull-down menu, select Copy to the SD CARD in the SD CARD Reader/Writer. In the Browse for Folder menu, select the floppy drive, which usually appears as 3.5 Floppy {A:}. Clicking OK will trick the Song Manager into treating the floppy drive as a SD CARD Reader/Writer drive.

(10) Sit back and watch your floppy disk being filled up with the same kind of file structure that you see in your SD card.

There you are. To copy data from the floppy disk to the SD card, apply Steps 7 to 10 whereby the role is reversed such that the Removable Disk {E:} become 3.5 Floppy {A:} and vice versa.

Kind Regards,
====
KHAI
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[This message has been edited by Khai (edited 01-12-2005).]

Dear Joe,

Did you get the results you want on your floppy disks, or find even better ways yourself?

Khai

Have you actually copied from card reader to floppy and what version of song manager are you using

I used Song Manager version 2.00, Copyright (C) 2003.

The ten steps are a verbatim description of what I did to copy from a SD card (reader) to a floppy (drive). I only did it because I read the posts of Phil Lynch and Joe Baron, and decided to respond to them, and also since I am on holiday. It was an exploratory experiment that turned out to be working.

Khai

[This message has been edited by Khai (edited 01-12-2005).]

I can't do it with version 1
Would it please be possible to zip up version 2 and send it on to me
Thanks.

Dear Johnnie.c,

There are at least three obstacles to overcome:

(1) For security reasons, members may not attach files to any posts in the Synth Zone.

(2) Your email address is unavailable from your current profile.

(3) The law prohibiting any infringement on copyright may demand that even in this instance, official clearance from Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd be secured first.

Khai

Hello Khai,

Although I don't have a KN2600 but a KN7000 I still like to try out the version 2 of SongManager. My partner and I have developed a tool which is so much easier and more powerful than SongManager 1 that I like to see the differences of version2.
You can read about our tool at site:
http://kn-sdexplorer.has.it

you can use the email address in my profile

Kind Regards, Fred
http://www.kn7000.net/Fred_Mellink

------------------
Kind Regards, Fred

At first I was confused because I could not understand why it was that I could not find the menu with these instructions so I sent Alec Pagida an email asking him if he had any idea. He kindly replied and told me that the KN2600 had a more up to date version of the Song Manager programme that was designed to copy from floppy to sd card because the KN2600 does not have a floppy disk drive unlike the KN7000. I also asked him how I could get this new version and he gave some instructions it is just a simple matter of overwriting a couple of files and told me how to upgrade it and get a new help file which has the copy from floppy described in the help file also he told me how to revert back to the old Song Manager if you want to do it.
Khai-Wei kindly sent me the files and it worked fine just as Alec had explained. If anybody would like to upgrade the Song Manager that came with their KN7000 just leave your e-mail address and I will send it on along with the instructions that Alec supplied me with.
Incidentally Alec said that copying from sd to floppy through song manager like this was a waste of time if you had a card reader, you don't need song manager at all for that. He said you only need song manager to fill a sd card from floppies or pc backup.