U-220, sysex, midi, windows 10

Same boat, just bought a U-220 and it had a dead battery. Replaced that and it's all Egyptian.

Trying to figure out how to fix it too. It plays the demo music just fine (LOL).

You can download the sysex file from the link below:
http://www.sysexdb.com/binaryview.aspx?IDSysexMessage=1918

64 Factory Presets for the Roland U-20. To load, use any generic SysEx loader on a Mac or Windows computer. Ensure that the U-20 is set to [SysEx Device ID = 17], and [Rx SysEx = ON]. These parameters can be set by pressing [JUMP] [1] [>] [^]

I'm assuming the U-20 patches will be the same for the U-220 since the U-220 is just the rack version of the same synth.

Grab a sysex transfer program like MIDI-OX to do the transfer.
http://www.midiox.com/

I've also experienced the MIDI Buffer Full error when trying to Xfer sysex to Roland gear. If you run into this, check the settings in Midi-Ox by the instructions below:

Many patch dumps are broken up in to smaller blocks of sysex data.
So you can wait between blocks of data by...
View/Sysex...
On the Sysex window menu option Sysex/Configure...
On this dialog there is a box marked 'Delay' on the right.

Increase this value to give the buffer time to clear.
Mine is usually around 50 to 100.
It is the number of milliseconds between blocks.

Hope this helps.

Great post!

Do you know of a method that can be used to convert an .syx file of program/patch names into a .midinam or .ins file so that Pro Tools or Sonar can read them as instrument definition files?

I'm able to export the program and patch names directly from the keyboards to my computer as .syx files but I'm struggling to find a way to convert that data into a format that can be readable for instrument definition files.

Any guidance would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Good question. I use Sonar as well but I've never imported or had to convert from sysex to either of those yet.
I'd have to do some research and get back to you.

Thanks qqquartzzz!

I've tried some apps like MIDI-OX and CherryPicker and they import sysex successfully but they can't export to .ins, .midinam or XML format.

Interested to find out anything you're able to dig up.

Download the original Factory Patches and Timbres here -->
http://llamamusic.com/u20/u-20_patches.html

Detailed installation instructions are here -->
http://llamamusic.com/u20/u-20_info.html#loadpatch2