Korg Forums

A warning for Pa5x users about Micro SD card choice and fitting

1. Korg tell you that a card up to 1Tb can be fitted. However they say that is should be formatted as ExFat. Unfortunately, many larger Micro cards will not allow this mode of formatting. After a couple of tries, I found a SANDISK Ultra would work. It would be helpful if this forum could suggest tried and tested SD cards to avoid a wrong purchase.

2. Beware when fitting an SD cards, as if you accidently miss the slot for it, the card can disappear completely into the body of the machine

For the Price / Value

I chose to go with a 256G Sandisk Micro EXTREME SDXC UHS-1

Link: https://amzn.to/3zU8W2g

If ever I ran out of memory, then I could upgrade - but 256G should be plenty for me. I have a 1TB USB Drive on my KRONOS and I went way too big on that one.[/url]

Hi.
I had a peek into the downloadable documents last night, and remember it was written something about it there.
Page 901 in the latest Performance Guide have some instructions and precautions for installing micro SD cards.

https://www.korg.com/us/support/download/product/0/895/

What use do you give to the SD card? I normally have my sets and MP3s on a USB stick, is it really necessary to add an SD? Thank you

aerox_kid wrote:What use do you give to the SD card? I normally have my sets and MP3s on a USB stick, is it really necessary to add an SD? Thank you

You can lose your stick. The SD card is more or less built in.

yes, SANDISK is the best choice always.

aerox_kid wrote:What use do you give to the SD card? I normally have my sets and MP3s on a USB stick, is it really necessary to add an mSD?

Definitely not , USB drives are faster and more useful for transferring Mp3 files via your computer !

Sundisk is a rather slow writing speed mSD card , the faster Extreme Pro SDXC UHS-II claims Up to 250MB/s and is slower than 110 MB/s in monolithic files.
Faster mSD card in my benchmarks for 2024 is Delkin Devices 128GB Power SDXC UHS-II (V90) with best real writing speed of 245 MB/s for upper mSD port.
Also remember that mSD card is not used for samples and system files by Pa5X OS , it's only for storage purposes , so 128 GB is already too much space !

My only use for the SD slot is to take regular backups of the KORG disk. My amateur playing around allows me to recover from a mistake which overwrites or deletes something I need.

Buzzmcm wrote:My only use for the SD slot is to take regular backups of the KORG disk. My amateur playing around allows me to recover from a mistake which overwrites or deletes something I need.

But it's the same thing as doing it for a USB stick, right?

aerox_kid wrote:

Buzzmcm wrote:My only use for the SD slot is to take regular backups of the KORG disk.
My amateur playing around allows me to recover from a mistake which overwrites or deletes something I need.

But it's the same thing as doing it for a USB stick, right?

KORG DISK is also a very small auxiliary storage media by default in case you don't have connected any mSD or USB drive !
It does not participate in samples and resources that are loaded via KST loading , there are no system files , you can format it any time you like
useful only for system XL report files when loading resources and only for temporary saving of small files !
Advised to never use this space if you have mSD or use external USB drives.

You can create Pa5X resources KST backups only in mSDs or external USB drives , File/Internal resources are not existing in KORG DISK
but in internal Nand on board memory and either mSD nor USB stick resources saving is the exact same.
mSD files storing serve mostly Mp3 & song files that SONGBOOK might have references and must be in a non removable storage media.


Hope this helps

I have a 64 Gb mSD in my Pa4x and a 256Gb mSD in my Pa5x. Neither one is even 10% used up. I use 8 and 16Gb USB's because I've found that the files that are being saved (mp3 and midi) are so small that I could put thousands of them on the USB. I have a computer with a terabyte drive that I've had for long time and it is only less than half full and I put movies and other large files on it. A terabyte for an arranger is so overkill. My Oasys only had a 40Gb drive with it being used for the OS and all the extension upgrades and it was only about half used. Antony is correct. A 128Gb is more than anybody will ever use on an arranger keyboard. Plus you have fast swap-able USB. Storage memory is not a problem with either arranger keyboard. Sample memory is what some people are complaining about. I like the sounds on both keyboards, so I'm not in need of more. If I wanted more I'd probably use a computer.

mstodola wrote:IMy Oasys only had a 40Gb drive with it being used for the OS and all the extension upgrades and it was only about half used.

Kronos & Oasys are using real streaming method from SSD and all System files , factory and custom EXS samples are written in boot solid state disk
so if you exclude them from SSD size calculation then less than 1Gb is enough for PCG files storage !

Pa5X writes nothing in mSD or KORG DISK , all are written in on board Nand memory since it uses indirect samples streaming not from slow mSD but
from internal memory of many GBs that all are written there , so 16 Gb mSD is enough to save Mp3 / song files for a life time ...
Except if you're a DJ and you use only Pa5X ...

AntonySharmman wrote:

aerox_kid wrote:What use do you give to the SD card? I normally have my sets and MP3s on a USB stick, is it really necessary to add an mSD?

Definitely not , USB drives are faster and more useful for transferring Mp3 files via your computer !

Sundisk is a rather slow writing speed mSD card , the faster Extreme Pro SDXC UHS-II claims Up to 250MB/s and is slower than 110 MB/s in monolithic files.
Faster mSD card in my benchmarks for 2024 is Delkin Devices 128GB Power SDXC UHS-II (V90) with best real writing speed of 245 MB/s for upper mSD port.
Kingston Canvas React Plus SDXC 128GB Class 10 U3 V90 UHS-II is my second proposal.
Also remember that mSD card is not used for samples and system files by Pa5X OS , it's only for storage purposes , so 128 GB is already too much space !

Interesting but, the results you quote are for an SD card not an mSD.

For a Delkin 128Gb mSD at £74 then I’ll pass as I’m not buying from the USA.

Delkin are not showing as available on Ancestry UK

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0BG9MDS4J? ... slink=true

https://www.amazon.com/Delkin-Devices-m ... B0BG9MDS4J

2nd proposal is indeed SD , I just recalled my notes and did not noticed that !

Basically any microSDXC UHS-II (V90) is fast for speed of Pa5X mSD upper slot don't bother !

Question related to storage. Where can I find the storage used and free in the Pa5X? I think I am looking at the internal storage with systeminfo.