Only recently acquiring the KN7000, I still haven't used the SD card to all its capabilities. I have saved some settings on the 8MB that came with the keyboard. I will soon be interested in buying a bigger card and I have been doing some research on them. Reading reviews, I have found that the ATP card is by far the best. Reading on these cards, there are so many types that it is confusing what to buy. There is "Secure Digital" "Super High Speed 60X" "Pro Max 150X" "Compact Flash Card" "Memory Card" Goooooooooooood Grief!!!! What do you buy? Some speak of usage in cameras, others say audio and some say they will work in all situations. Companies that sell them state, "Be sure you order the right card." Well, gee!!! The ATP is supposed to be practically indestructible and waterproof. I would like to consider the 2GB. I don't want to be buying a bunch of cards so one that size should do it. What surprises me, the "Pro Max 150X" is cheaper than the "Super High Speed 60X" why? One would think 150X would be better than 60X. I'm lost - help me out, guys.

Scott

Hi Scott; I going to assume you are only "saving" MIDI AND TECHNICS songs. If so then a 250MB card is enough. This is the amount of "songs" the keyboard will load, from a SD card and play. Any SD card that works with a camer will work in the KN7000. Notice I said SD card the other forms will not work, i.e Compact Flash etc. If you are comfortable with DOS or Windows Explorer there is away around this restriction, but you have to have a computer with you that has a "SD card reader. Dick

Hi Dick,

Thanks for your reply. I have a USB reader/writer and a CD for SD-Jukebox V2.4. I want to eventually bring songs from the computer into the KN7000. Doing this, don't you think I need a card with a lot of memory? Also, I don't understand the high speed reading/writing of cards. I thought speed was purely in a hard drive of whatever and not a card. It is with CD burners. It all is mind boggling at the moment.

S

Hi,

If you want to write audio to the SD card you have to use a Panasonic Sd card writer and these are USB 1.1 (so are the KN keyboards) - so pretty slow. The speed of the card will be governed down to the speed of the writer, so there isn't much point in having a fast card.

If you are just moving MIDI stuff any reader/writer will do and these operations are smaller/faster anyway, so again a slower card will do.

I have a 512MB card with 137 audio files between 1 min. and 13 min. long on it and 200 or so MIDI files. The card is 80% full so I can fit masses more MIDI files if I need to.

Next stop, a cheap I gig SD card I think!

Cheers,

s.

Thanks, Sturgeon -

What is the difference between a "Secure Digital" and a "Memory" card? There must be a difference. These names that are thrown around are very confusing.

S

Memory card could mean MMC - MultiMedia Card. These work in the KN card reader for MIDI and various Technics files, but will not work with audio at all - wrong number of contacts.

If the card says SD on it, it will be ok. If not, probably not.

Cheers,

s.

hello,
I was in the same position as yourself when i first bought my KN 7000 but with the help of this brilliant forum I have learnt so much. You need a secure digital (SD) card as stated on the little flap you raise on the keyboard. Also if you can try to purchase the excellent SDExplorer tool from this site, it is invaluable in transfering and ammending files to and from computer to keyboard.
Have fun and take advantage of the vast amount of knowledge available from the members here, I do not include myself among them.

good luck

Baz

Hi Scott
Here is a link to the SD Eplorer Baz mentioned. He is right; it is very useful for Backup,and reshuffling contents of your SD cards.
http://vision-4-life.net/SD-Explorer.htm

Bernie

Thanks to everyone -

You are a great group. I looked in the Technics manual for the type of card to buy and couldn't find anything referring to it. It was probably staring right at me but I missed it.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL.

S

Hi Scot,
If you click on search at the top of the page,then type in the (search word box)
1gb sd card, you should get some useful information, regarding sd cards.
Fred UK

Hi there - Indeed SDExplorer tool recommended by Bernie is an excellent tool for manipulating files around etc., Audio files though - No

Well worth the cost apart from that - Joan

Thanks, Fred and thank you, Joan. When I fully get to the point of using the SD Card, I will get the SD Explorer tool. Audrey and others have spoken highly of it.

Joan, why doesn't it work well with audio files? Does it not file them alphabetically? Thanks.

S

SD Explorer can only "see" the Technics folders as far as I can make out, but it appears to include audio when making a backup. I haven't tried restoring a backup with it yet , so I don't know if it works properly. It is useful though.

Cheers,

s.

[This message has been edited by sturgeon (edited 01-03-2006).]

Joan and I were two of the first group that purchased Fred's tool. Believe me it is a wonderful time saver and worth much more than it sells for.

Fran in SC

Hi there - Audio files on SD Explorer.

Use the SEARCH feature on this forum and key-in

"Transfering sd card data"

In a nutshell, Fred Mellink and Co who developed this excellent software took it only to a certain point and developed it to work under Microsoft Windows XP only.

They put a very great deal of their own spare time and effort into developing this package and would have developed it further but the demand for it was far less than they had anticipated, and therefore they sadly decided not to develop any further.

However, as said by myself and others, as it stands it is still an excellent tool and very good value for money........Joan

SD Audio files are copy protected and can only be checked in and out to the SD card using the Panasonic card reader and Jukebox software. A maximum of 3 copies of a file can be checked out at any time and and they can only be checked back in on the computer from which they originated. Copies and backups done by any other method will not be recognised by the KN. For this reason when backing up and restoring the SD card it is better to use the Technics Song Manager software.
Having said that, I thoroughly agree with Joan and Fran that for manipulation of KN song files SD Explorer is an excellent tool and well worth the asking price.
It should also be noted that there have been occasional examples of SD cards of lesser known brands on which the SD Audio software will not work. These cards have been labelled as SD, have the correct number of contacts and appear to work with all other applications.

Cheers
Len C.

Fran, Joan and Len, thanks for your replies. If I understand correctly, I am not going to be able to use SD Explorer because I only use Windows 98. If I understand Joan correctly, it is designed to work with Windows EP only. I still funtion well with my old workhorse computer that has Windows 98. What is the old saying, "If it works, don't fix it" - something like that. Hopefully, there is a way around this.

Scott