Saving presets and banks

[Hyper5nic]

For the benefit of any people who may need to know how to save presets in the Korg Legacy Collection here is how I go about it. I am using the MS-20 in standalone mode so that it is not a DAW specific explanation.

If you simply want to write over an existing preset or program as Korg call them then select the preset and make changes to the sound until you are happy. Then double click in the tiny almost unreadable preset name screen at the bottom left. You can now type a new name for the preset. Next, if you are simply writing over the existing preset click the Write Prog button at the bottom right of the MS-20 - done!

What I prefer to do (and maybe I am going about this in a long winded way so please jump in anybody if there is a more efficient way) is to save the preset using the MS-20 File Menu and selecting Save Program. This then brings up the standard (in my case Windows) file directories and you can choose where to save the .fxp program/preset to and also give it the file name you choose. Note that you should change the preset display name first (bottom left) before saving the program because even if you give the .fxp file a new name using Save Program the preset display name will still show the old name even though the sound has now been changed and has a different file name. This confused the heck out of me at first and was why I ran away from it at first.

When I have a bunch of my own presets all saved as .fxp files and I want to create my own bank for ease of loading them all at once I open an existing MS-20 bank (File Menu, Load bank, select the .fxb file) and from the MS-20 File menu I select Save Bank As and give it a new name so that the old one still exists and I don't inadvertently write over it. There does not seem to be a Create New Bank command which would make this quicker and easier. Next I select the preset number where I want my first custom preset to be from the display box (bottom left) and then select File Menu, Load Program and select the first .fxp program file you saved earlier. This should now be sitting in position 000 and displaying the new name assuming you choose preset position 000 in the bank.

Next click the right arrow in the preset name display box (bottom left) and select the position/number for your next custom preset. Again select File Menu, Load Program and select the next .fxp file for your custom bank. Continue like this until you have all you custom program files loaded into the bank and then select File, Save Bank As and save it to the new Program Bank name (.fxb)

Then you can load the custom bank up at any time by going File Menu, Load Bank, navigating to the .fxb bank file you saved and clicking Open.

I hope this makes sense and is of use to some people.

Cheers!