Disappointed with my Pa3X + A suggestion

[ismaximum]

Hi

It's almost 8 months I got my Pa3X but still I didn't manage to organize/customize my keyboard as my needs. The problem is that I have nearly 200 styles and sounds and I also bought a USB for about $300 includes styles but I can't load them in my keyboard!

From all these styles I only need perhaps 100 of them but I can't cherry pick them... You load a set and then another set overrides it. Even worst than that, if you load styles one by one to save them in empty places in banks, each style points to a number of sounds, and we don't know which style points to which sound to begin with, the result is you load a style with weird sounds because they are not the sounds that the style is created with.

I know there are third party software out there... but I tried all of them it's not what I'm after. They are only for styles and not sounds and performances!

Anyway, my suggestion for Korg software is:

1. When we load a set, I wish the software to be able to detect which place in Favourties or User banks are empty and it places the new styles in empty places rather than overriding with existing ones. It's the same about sounds. Since the software knows the format of the SET, it's easy for that software to automatically point the each newly loaded style to the right sound as it knows that for example the related sound have been placed in another position due to available free space.
I am a software developer, I know this is not hard and I know this is very essential in software development not to override data carelessly!

The problem is we have a lot of memory to save new styles but we can't efficiently use them!


[These followings are not as important as above but very useful]

2. To be able to play one style before loading it into bank, so that we can decide whether to load it or not.
3. To be able to export and or move/delete only one style with its associated sounds. We want to organize our user banks. We may want to delete one style we don't need them or we have a better version.

I don't know how as a Korg user we can send our suggestion to them, it seems they are totally blocked users to contact them. I tried to communicate with the local distributor as well as those in UK and US but no luck... They UK and US asked me to contact local branch and local branch doesn't reply at all. if anyone knows a way to contact them please let me know.

[AntonySharmman]

I can't cherry pick them... You load a set and then another set overrides it. Even worst than that, if you load styles one by one to save them in empty places in banks, each style points to a number of sounds, and we don't know which style points to which sound to begin with, the result is you load a style with weird sounds because they are not the sounds that the style is created with.

Since you say that you're a software developer, then you can easily understand that a custom third-party
developer set like mine for instance with thousands of parameters , can't be automatically organized by any
software in the earth without my prompt and participation in it , especially in case that I occupy the 90% of free sound
places or modified factory resources !
All commercial USB , flash or any resources , have their own construction philosophy and techniques and totally based
on standalone usage with their own resources and they definitely can't be combined with other custom resources
this will never change by any organizer software !

So If you want to combine resources ,then try only the factory based ones , otherwise you must be an expert ,
loading partial stuff and assigning styles tracks and STS sounds to their new vacant addresses (If you can find enough).

That's why commercial resources must be compact with all required styles and sounds for user needs !

I know there are third party software out there... but I tried all of them it's not what I'm after. They are only for styles and not sounds and performances!

This is not accurate , for example this international one is totally based on standalone sound & Performance resources
http://greekstyles.webatu.com/Pa3XProdu ... alone.html

The only reasonable suggestion to Korg Italy from your part could be to promote and provide various third-party developers
to fulfill users needs when factory resources are insufficient ,as Korg Japan did for Oasys & Kronos !

PS Pete we were in full sync !

[karmathanever]

i's almost 8 months I got my Pa3X but still I didn't manage to organize/customize my keyboard as my needs. The problem is that I have nearly 200 styles and sounds and I also bought a USB for about $300 includes styles but I can't load them in my keyboard!

That is frustrating. The problem with several of the 3rd party styles and sounds is that the vendors do not detail exactly how they were created. They advertise often saying that they work in several keyboards - already you know that is not true.
If you can't load them I would be definitely asking for your money back - "$300" - that is a lot of cash.

From all these styles I only need perhaps 100 of them but I can't cherry pick them... You load a set and then another set overrides it. Even worst than that, if you load styles one by one to save them in empty places in banks, each style points to a number of sounds, and we don't know which style points to which sound to begin with, the result is you load a style with weird sounds because they are not the sounds that the style is created with.

Unforunately that is the nature of professional arranger keyboards - STYLEs are merely sophisticated and speicalised MIDI data so they will NEVER contain the SOUNDs but merely point to them like any MIDI file

Anyway, my suggestion for Korg software is:

1. When we load a set, I wish the software to be able to detect which place in Favourties or User banks are empty and it places the new styles in empty places rather than overriding with existing ones. It's the same about sounds. Since the software knows the format of the SET, it's easy for that software to automatically point the each newly loaded style to the right sound as it knows that for example the related sound have been placed in another position due to available free space.
I am a software developer, I know this is not hard and I know this is very essential in software development not to override data carelessly!

The problem is we have a lot of memory to save new styles but we can't efficiently use them!

You really need a STYLE, SOUND and PERFORMANCE management editor - yes that would be nice - the keyboard itself will never (I doubt) have internal software to auto-load styles into empty slots - there are too many permutations and we would probably all want it to do different things.

[These followings are not as important as above but very useful]

2. To be able to play one style before loading it into bank, so that we can decide whether to load it or not.
3. To be able to export and or move/delete only one style with its associated sounds. We want to organize our user banks. We may want to delete one style we don't need them or we have a better version.

As you are already aware, you can't do this. When I am reviewing STYLEs, I backup my USER areas and then load up banks at a time and run through the styles, noting the ones I want. Even if I had a "preview style player" I don't think it would save me any time. I would then restore my "LIVE" set and load in the newly chosen styles into the BANKS of my choice.
Remember also that a SOUND is a configuration and in itself uses (points to) internal multisamples - you cannot export those, so a SOUND saved from one keyboard could still sound different on another.

I don't know how as a Korg user we can send our suggestion to them, it seems they are totally blocked users to contact them. I tried to communicate with the local distributor as well as those in UK and US but no luck... They UK and US asked me to contact local branch and local branch doesn't reply at all. if anyone knows a way to contact them please let me know.

Editors have been requested many times in the past years and unless a 3rd party developer produces one I really don't hold out much hope.
I do not know of any arranger keyboard which has such facilities.

The Korg arrangers are made in Italy - you could write to them directly. Retailers, and distributors would never be interested as they all have too many other products to worry adout


Cheers

Pete

[ismaximum]

Thanks guys
I understand your points and I know how complicated sounds and their configuration can be. But by looking at the format of the .sty files and sounds (I can't remember the file extension) there is nothing sophisticated around it and it's based on very simple fact that each style defined in a sty file has a number and that number is pointing to the user bank position.

For example, if I have a file namely "Favourite1.sty" and inside the file there is a style called Rock with position number 4 .,.. at the time of loading it, Korg is going to place that style in Favourite 1 and position 4.

It's very easy check to see if there is an empty place it automatically puts it over and if there are no room then warn us as to whether we want to continue or not.

I opened up the file with binary edotors trying to understand the format... and I realized it's that simple that applications like EMC's Style Works XT can change it.

That's all I want, I want to be able to use the most of the memory and user banks I have without hassle.

Apart from this, if this is a difficult task for Korg's embeded software, why Korg doesn't create a useful PC software itself? It's not a high expectation and we can't say just because this is a professional arranger then managing of the memory is/should be difficult.

I tried to contact them whether I can obtain the format of the file so I can work on it myself but no luck so far.

Thanks again

[karmathanever]

I tried to contact them whether I can obtain the format of the file so I can work on it myself but no luck so far.

Some have tried but it is proprietary information so I doubt you will be lucky...

Cheers

Pete