Faulty Floppies ?

Image
Anything to do with Audio recording, look in here.
Viewable by Members and non-Members.

Faulty Floppies ?

Postby ken horton » 18 Mar 2018 19:23

Like many I have changed my organ several time and usually finish up with quite a few useless floppy disks, I have just changed again and with the newly acquired Roland I went on the quest for disks and have had some terrific help from members who have done a tremendous job in helping me with getting some registration disks, my thanks to all.
But I still finished up with about 20 or so disks which would not format in the Roland, half way through the format it would reject the disk saying it is damaged.
it's not the cost because they are quite cheap but the only option was to bin them. Now this may not be news as I am sure it's happened before but I had run out of my new disks so I ran a couple again in the Roland and again the organ said damaged disks, so I formatted in the computer and then formatted them again in the organ and hey presto they worked !
So don't throw your old disks away until you have tried this. Ken (H)
Image
User avatar
ken horton
Active Poster
 
Posts: 196
Joined: 30 Nov 2013 23:21
Location: Dorset

Re: Faulty Floppies ?

Postby Hugh-AR » 18 Mar 2018 23:21

Thanks Ken. That's very useful advice. Wouldn't have thought of formatting a disk on both computer and organ!

Hugh
It's all about the music ♫ ♪ ♫ Organ: Yamaha AR80 & Keyboard: Tyros 4
Image .. Image
Challenge Winner
2021 May (Joint Winner); July; September
2022 July; August
2023 April; June; September
User avatar
Hugh-AR
Prolific Poster
 
Posts: 7336
Joined: 07 Feb 2015 14:34
Location: Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, UK

Re: Faulty Floppies ?

Postby ken horton » 20 Mar 2018 19:47

Following on about floppies I have not had any need for some time to make a new floppy or copy one but with my new toy ( Roland AT 80 I needed one or two but had got very rusty on the procedures. Now having got some registration disks and in order not to wipe any by mistake when intending to modify them to suit me I thought for safety I would copy a disk first and work on the copy.

Surprisingly the Roland manual makes no mention of disk copying and a quick word with their support department simply said they do not support their products two years after discontinuing them ! but the responder said he could not recall there being such a feature and suggested I got a manual to check, well I did that first ! I seem to recall this was a feature of the Yamaha AR and the EL range, not that you would use it frequently but could be useful to have in the organ, but I was surprised that Roland had left this out.

Having let the dust settle I realized that you only need to copy one set of registrations at a time not the whole disk as no way could I tackle the amount contained on just one the disk, probably Rolland thought that as well !.
Image
User avatar
ken horton
Active Poster
 
Posts: 196
Joined: 30 Nov 2013 23:21
Location: Dorset

Re: Faulty Floppies ?

Postby Hugh-AR » 21 Mar 2018 11:30

Ken,

You are lucky to be able to do that on the Roland .. COPY just one song onto another disk. On the AR if you use the COPY feature to COPY a song (or Registration) it just copies it to another slot on that disk. You can't put it on another disk. The only feature for copying to another disk is DISK COPY where obviously it copies the whole disk to another one.

You may wonder why one would want to copy a Registration from one slot to another on the same disk. Well, I find myself doing that frequently as I get to a point when I am more or less happy with the Registration I have got, but want to try out a few other things to see how they sound. Then if I make a mess of it I can always go back to the original and work from that again.

And another thing. I always COPY what I am doing on a disk onto my computer at several points along the way. These disks do deteriorate with age (no doubt because they are subjected to magnetic fields .. never place them on top of a loudspeaker or near headphones) and I find that the odd disk will say WRONG DISK. FORMAT DISK? when I have spent hours putting something together or recording a song. The only option then is to FORMAT the disc again (in which case you would lose everything you have done) .. or bin it. At least if I have a copy of that disk on my computer I can put the files onto a newly formatted floppy disk and carry on from where I was.

A few weeks ago I found just one box of floppy disks on the shelf in our local Computer Shop, so I bought them. The Proprietor said to me, "I'm so glad you have bought those. They have been sitting on that shelf for five years!". I reckon there is no such thing as a 'NEW' floppy disk.

Hugh
It's all about the music ♫ ♪ ♫ Organ: Yamaha AR80 & Keyboard: Tyros 4
Image .. Image
Challenge Winner
2021 May (Joint Winner); July; September
2022 July; August
2023 April; June; September
User avatar
Hugh-AR
Prolific Poster
 
Posts: 7336
Joined: 07 Feb 2015 14:34
Location: Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, UK

Re: Faulty Floppies ?

Postby ken horton » 21 Mar 2018 13:47

Hugh this is a fascinating subject and as you say but who want's to copy a disk anyway, but here's a surprise I found in the Roland manual.
I always regretted that the edit registration positions that the EL range had where you simply put the piston numbers in the order you wanted them and they changed with the foot switch, well Roland do that but they edit the floppy instead , I think this is because the Roland foot switch will only change registrations progressively left to right but not the other way and you cannot edit the order.

But I have just started making up a floppy as follows..........
I make the first piston a main band registration with all the necessary settings for Lower manual octave shift, + 1 (Roland start off at - 1 ), foot switch, M O C etc. and save, then I copy it to piston 2, then delete the main band and replace it with a solo voice and then save that to piston 2.
Do this for three or four more solo or combined voices in more piston positions and you have a master template that can be used on many tunes.

For a new style you would have to save any new rhythm and BPM individually into each piston and in the case of the first piston change that to whatever type of lead band you required but the basic settings would remain unaltered, and providing you did not save your temporary alterations the disk could be used over and over. I'll let you know more when I have tried it out.

I was prompted to try this as in trying some made up registrations by some professional players they do have some personal likes, one example was leaving the manual percussion button switched on, great for the likes of Chris Powell but it took me some time to find out where all this loud drumming was coming from ! It took longer to alter theirs than make my own ! Ken
Image
User avatar
ken horton
Active Poster
 
Posts: 196
Joined: 30 Nov 2013 23:21
Location: Dorset

Re: Faulty Floppies ?

Postby Hugh-AR » 21 Mar 2018 14:35

Ken,

I was fascinated to read your comment:
The Roland foot switch will only change registrations progressively left to right but not the other way and you cannot edit the order.

On my AR the footswitch can be programmed to always go to one specific Registration Memory when you activate it (eg. to always go to Registration Memory 5); or move on in order from left to right (as the Roland does); or you can program in an order that you want it to follow eg. 5, 6, 5, 8, 5 etc. Mind you, I never do use the footswitch to change Registrations. I find it too difficult as the footswitch is attached to the expression pedal, and I find I get a surge in volume when I move my foot. I know, practice, practice, practice. But I think what really put me off doing it was when I went to an organ concert by Trevor Daniels (brother of Paul Daniels, the magician). He was playing an AR100 at the Colston Hall in Bristol in front of an audience of over 600 people. In the middle of what he was playing, he suddenly stopped and said, "Sorry, I'll have to start that again from the beginning. I accidentally moved the Registration on with two kicks instead of one so I now have the wrong set-up at this point. And you can't go 'back'." if a professional can do that, what chance have I got?

Hugh
It's all about the music ♫ ♪ ♫ Organ: Yamaha AR80 & Keyboard: Tyros 4
Image .. Image
Challenge Winner
2021 May (Joint Winner); July; September
2022 July; August
2023 April; June; September
User avatar
Hugh-AR
Prolific Poster
 
Posts: 7336
Joined: 07 Feb 2015 14:34
Location: Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, UK


Return to Audio Recording

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests