no, it will have a composer section like all the other technics keyboards.

With all this talk about the new 2600 and other keyboards appearing with no floppy disk accessibility, but only SD card compatibility, I'm curious about several things. Dumb questions I know---but how will styles, songs, etc. be downloaded from the internet onto an SD card for use on the new keyboards? Is there a slot or port on computers for the SD card? Will one's keyboard need to be connected to a computer for data exchange? I'm familiar with using floppy disks, but wonder on a practical level how music data will be handled across the internet for SD play on keyboards.

J.Larry,

I predict the SD will replace the floppy until something else comes along.

At present....use Panasonic reader with computer or for much less cost ScanDisk at $25 US or less. (no audio).

Greatest thing since sliced bread.

Fran in Florida

without a card reader you save the files on your pc, then transfer to the 7k and save on the sd card one by one. With a card reader it is just a lot easier using our card tool or techmanager.

Laptops and pcs are already shipped without floppy drives, my no 1 laptop has no floppy drive built in, but does have an sd drive built in. Future pcs will have flash drive bays, only complicated at the moment by too many different formats requiring several slots.

Floppies were only really necessary up to recently to boot up with no operating system. With boot cds now workable in most bios systems even that reason for floppies existence has gone.

Just a thought - not every KN keyboard user has a PC or even access to one. I wonder how commercial software will be distributed for keyboards with no Floppy disc? Unless there is a large amount of software on an SD card, the proportional cost of the Media would make this method uneconomic - that is unless the cost of SD cards drops dramatically.

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

...maybe why floppies will last a little longer on the lower range machines, I would imagine. If you remember http://www.synthzone.com/ubbs/Forum25/HTML/001431.html I was surprised, and expected this in the next generation maybe after people had got used to SD for a while. I could not wait to dump floppies... useless things now!

I can't see many 8 MB cards advertised widely anymore, only bigger cards. The prices have dropped substantially already since the 7k was launched, I bet 8 M or lower cards would be pretty cheap in bulk eventually, if you could find someone willing to source them - you'd only need a 500k card to distribute a disk, and that size chip might be as cheap as the plastic moulding soon, but no-one would bother marketing it at that margin.

It would be interesting to know the proportion of buyers of this type of product who have pcs or have direct net access.

Go to a net coffee shop and download your latest disk purchase?

TechnicsPlayer,
I have been looking for 8mb cards without success. Do you know any one who is selling them?
Walt

sure, I could give you a few links that sell 8M cards that will cost you more than you would pay for a 64M card

You can still get small SD from Global Positioning Satellite handset makers at exhorbitant prices for example. I researched this when considering whether it could be cost effective to give away demos on a SD card with the book.

Thanks Alec,
That's what I was afraid of. There must not be a surplus or somebody would be dumping them on the market by now.
Regards,
Walt

Hi Walt,
I managed to pick up a new brand of 128mb sd card for just over $30USD plus postage on Ebay the other day.

Arrived yesterday and they seem to work fine.

Just goes to show they are getting cheaper all the time.

best wishes
Rikki