Korg Forums

Korgestarr · Joined: 07 Nov 2020 Posts: 3 Location: Taree, NSW

Am in process of learning Pa700 which is a great keyboard. Anyway, my main question arises out of the USB connections. Firstly, I am connected to the Pa700 via PC USB to USB Device, and a memory USB stick to the USB Host connection. When I go to Media, the instrument only offers me KorgDisk, and when I hit Enable it stays green, but I see an empty directory on my PC. Also why does the Pa700 not offer to ask me which USB I want to enable, Device or Host.
I have downloaded some Styles from the USB Host memory stick, so I know that works. Could someone clear up the USB questions I seem to have. Thx.
Ray, Taree
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Ray Hall, Taree

romney_yw · Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2020 12:14 am Post subject:

Ray, welcome to the PA700 universe. I hope you get as much enjoyment from yours as I am getting from mine! I've had mine for two and a half years, and I'm still only scratching the surface of its capabilities....

With the USB interface, you are exposing the PA700 as a device to the outside world, so you can share the KorgDisk as you have discovered, and if you had an SD card installed (in the slot under the cover at the back where you change the internal battery), you could choose to share this as KorgSD instead. You can't share both devices at the same time.

You can't share the USB stick to the outside world in the same fashion. I don't exactly understand why, but it's presumably something to do with the keyboard acting as a DEVICE to the connected PC, but serving as HOST to the USB stick. When plugged in, the USB stick is available to the keyboard through the other Media options (Load, Save, Copy, etc.), without needing to be enabled first. If you want to access the USB stick from your PC, you have to unplug it from the PA700 and plug it into a USB port on the PC instead. (Make sure any write operations have completed before you unplug it. Some people suggest that you should switch the keyboard off before plugging or unplugging the USB stick. I'm pretty sure this isn't necessary, and indeed I have seen USB sticks unplugged - from a PA4X - many times in demonstrations by Korg representatives, but it's wise to be cautious....)

I'm not sure what you are expecting to see when you connect your PC to KorgDisk? The USB interface does not give access to the keyboard operating system or any of the factory resources. So you are probably seeing an empty directory on the PC because the KorgDisk actually is "empty". If you use the PA700 Media functions to create a backup, or Save All (User) Data onto your disk, you should then be able to see those files from the PC after you enable the KorgDisk as a device. Or if you copy some downloaded Bonus styles from the PC onto your empty directory, you should be able to see those files on the keyboard once you have disabled the USB interface. You can't do anything on the keyboard while the USB interface is enabled. (Be warned that you should properly disconnect the Korg device from your PC, before you disable the USB device in the keyboard. You can get some strange messages and could lose data if you fail to do this!)

You can use the page menu (top right corner) to create new folders, for example so that you can keep your backups separate from your saved DATA.SETs. You can also protect things that you don't want to change or delete accidentally, and unprotected them again later if you decide you do want to change them after all.

Also beware that the Media functions only show files which are appropriate to the operation. So for example, the Load function only works with .SET folders, so if you use Load to look at a location which doesn't contain any .SET folders, the location will appear to be empty - even if its got lots of other files (backups, MID, TXT etc) in there. This confused me several times until I got used to it! There is a Global setting to display unknown files, but this doesn't work in all situations...

I hope this helps to answer your questions. Do post further questions if there's anything you're still not sure about.

Good luck - have fun & stay safe!
Romney

siebenhirter · Platinum Member Joined: 13 Oct 2011 Posts: 1856

Korgestarr · Joined: 07 Nov 2020 Posts: 3 Location: Taree, NSW

siebenhirter · Platinum Member Joined: 13 Oct 2011 Posts: 1856

romney_yw · Posted: Sat Nov 28, 2020 12:19 pm Post subject:

Hi Ray,

So far so good!

What "User Data" are you expecting to see on your Korg Disk? If you have used the Media functions either to make Backups (.BKP) or to Save data to a .SET folder (e.g. All data or perhaps just the Songbook or user Styles), then you should definitely be able to see those folders/files when you connect your PC via USB. However, as far as I know, you cannot directly access the actual Songbook, or any Styles you have created or copied to the User section of the Style selection page via the USB interface - you've got to save a copy of them to a .SET folder first using the tools provided in the Media section of the interface.... Note that the saved files are copies of the data - if you change the data in the keyboard, the saved files will not be updated automatically. You will have to save the data again if you want to preserve the new information.

You can download a copy of the user manual from the Korg website. There is a separate version of the manual for each different version of the operating system. The OS version appears on the startup screen while the keyboard is booting, or can be found on the Media - Utility page (where you can also make backups of your system). The latest version of the OS is 1.5.0 and the corresponding manual can be found at https://www.korg.com/us/support/download/manual/0/756/4262/.

I believe the older versions of the OS and the manuals are still available, but you have to search a bit harder to find them.

There's also a "New Features" manual, which usefully shows which new features were introduced at each release of the OS (https://www.korg.com/us/support/download/manual/0/756/4256/).

If your PA700 is not already running OS V1.5.0, I think you should seriously consider updating it - the instructions are included in the OS download package (https://www.korg.com/us/support/download/software/0/756/4515/).

I don't know for certain, but I believe that the OS is based on some flavour of Linux - so it shouldn't really appear that different to your PC. Certainly, when accessed via USB, it has a folder/file structure which seems very familiar to me. I frequently access my PA700 using an Android tablet, and occasionally from a Raspberry Pi.....

Hope this helps - good luck, Romney