Problem saving songs in Project

hi jsimons,

do you use a usb stick with greater capacity than 2gb?

best,
dan

jsimons: I guess you'll have to check this whole procedure with another USB stick.
Look into this thread to check for USB sticks used and approved by Roland Clan Forum members.

Does this problem appear when you save your songs into the internal memory?

Thank you for your help.

Your replies seem to indicate I might have a problem with my USB stick. I'm using a PNY 4GB stick from Best Buy and it seems to work fine now.

Because - I think I just found the problem.

I noticed that if I turn the keyboard on without the USB stick plugged in - none of the songs (mine or the FGProject examples) are loaded into the keyboard.

All this time, I thought once you save a project with newly created songs into internal memory, the songs and smf files would stay in internal memory even if you turned the keyboard off - they don't! If you turn off the keyboard those things are gone!

However, the next time you turn the keyboard on - it will load up any songs/smf files ------ from the USB stick ---------- as long as the USB stick is still plugged into the keyboard and/or you don't load some other project which does not contain your previously saved songs.

Lesson learned:

Once you have saved a Project with created songs/smf files to the USB stick. Don't ever turn the keyboard on without the USB stick being plugged in, or at least without loading the correct Project from the USB stick.

Otherwise none of your previously created songs will be in the internal memorys current project and If you create a new song and "Save" or "Save As". You will overwrite all your previously saved songs and loose all your hard work.

PS: Also noticed that when you "Save" or "Save As" a project it never saves the smf files to the new project.

jsimons: I guess you didn't save into the internal memory. That's why you didn't see your project when booting the Fantom-G
In order to have your project loaded at bootup, just keep the USB stick attached to your Fantom-G.
Remember that the Fantom-G loads the last loaded or saved project, as long as the memory that it was saved into is attached into the Fantom-G.
So, if you had last saved into your USB stick, keep it attached to your Fantom-G. This will ensure that you have no displeasant surprises when using your data.

Concerning "Project Save" and "Project Save as" commands:
"Project Save": Saves all data in the project you are currently working on. So, no, when using this command, you've got no choice over the destination memory.
"Project Save as": Saves all data of the project you're working on in a different project folder. This is to make copies of the internal data into the USB stick and vice versa. Also, you can make duplicates of a USB-based project into another folder, with a different name. If you use the same name with an already existing project, it will overwrite that project without asking for confirmation. So, you'd better look out for this.

Hi cyclops,

Thank You! I appreciate the help but the problem wasn't that a project would not load. The problem was that I was loosing any/all songs (even the demo songs) except the last one I just finished creating not only in the internal memory but on the USB stick as well.

I'm pretty sure I've found out why. This is what I know so far. Don't know if these things are normal, but they are happening on my FG6.

- Don't ever use the "Save" Project internally option if you want to keep all your songs in the same Project. If you do it will erase all the songs (even the demo songs) both internally and on any Project you save to the USB stick. The only song it will save is the one you are currently working on.

- If you have not used "Save" Project internally, but use the "Save As" option to save the project to the USB stick instead, the new project will contain all the songs including the one song you were working on.

- However, If you "Save As" Project to USB stick and give the project the same name as the one already on the USB Stick, you will loose all your previous songs and demo songs. Only the one you were working on will be there.

- When using "Save As" you can use the default name "FGProject001.prj" etc, or even give it a unique name like "MySongs.prj", your Ok, all songs will be there. As long as you have not Saved the Project internally beforehand.

- Don't ever rename a Project on the computer. The FG6 will not recognize the Project and will not load it.

- When using "Save As" Project option no SMF files are copied to the new Project. So make sure you copy any SMF files the the new Project before deleting the old Project on your computer.

- I really don't understand what's happening. I've been using sequencers a long time (ESQ1, XP-50, XP-80) but have not bought a new one until this one (maybe 15 years or so). I thought technology would have made progress by leaps and bounds by now. However some things are better but other things are much worse.

I quit playing live a few years ago. I guess if I was using the FG6 to play live it might not make a big difference but now my main concern is that of writer/composer. I like the new FG6. I still think in many ways it's still better than the competition. However there are definetly some things I don't like about it.

I was an electronics technician for 30 years. I know how things can get really fouled up when people (engineers) design equipment but never really have to use it. It seems like this is what has happened at Roland. Too many engineers - Not enough working musician designing these things.

Oh well - what are you gonna do!