+DRIVE - Help Me Understand?

I have a MDUW +drive and I need to understand how it works… I get that there is only 2meg of sample memory so if I make a kit called DR-110 and max out the 2 meg and then save that kit can I create a new kit called TR-909 and do the same?

Does the +drive store those kits and the 2meg of memory used for playing those kits? What I have been doing is sysex back ups and then starting fresh…

thanks…

bri.

Hmmm… I dont make allot of use of it at the moment…
but…

as far as i figured it… you can have sample-banks…
these sample-banks are global… and NOT tied to kits
the kits itself are tied to the romslots in the bank.

So you fill the memory… save this as a bank.
make your kits… make your patterns…

store this is as a WHOLE on the +drive…
or switch the memory-bank… and all the kits and patterns
will make use of the new samples that are in THOSE slots…

and yes… this means that if you have a kickdrum in slot 1
in bank 1… but in bank2 you have a snare in slot 1… your patterns
will sound weird if you switch banks… so your better off
to fill each slot with “the same type o sample” so when you switch banks
your patterns atleast make sence…

I hope that somebody with more uw-experience tell where my
though-train derails… cause i am sure i am missing out on something

Hey Bri, a few things: Only one samplebank can be loaded at a time. We don’t have immediate access to the samples in the other 127 banks. The only samples we can use instantly and simultaneously are those in the particular bank we have loaded. So we can’t just make two kits that use the samples from two different banks the way you’re describing.

There’s a workaround … but first some background, in case it helps:

The basic approach is to create a snapshot (say #009), then go to the samplebank menu, choose samplebank #009, then give it the same name as the snap. Then go back to the snapshot and save it. From then on, the snap and samplebank will be linked to one another, so whenever you load snap 009, the samples you’ve saved in bank 009 will load as well. Any kits and patterns you make in that snap will be able to access the 48 samples in that bank … but only those 2.5 Megs of samples.

The workaround:

It is possible to switch samplebanks, even without stopping the sequencer. So in theory you could save your DR-110 samples to one bank and the TR-909 samples to another. Then, in a single snapshot, you could create one kit that assumes you are using the DR-110 set and another that assumes the 909 set. HOWEVER, between one kit/pattern and the other, you will have to switch samplebanks manually with the requisite bit of menu diving.

I find it helps to allow a moment for the samples to load. If you’re planning to do a continuous liveset that uses this workaround, I’d recommend having a pattern running that uses all internal synth machines while you switch banks, to avoid potential glitches.

Hope this helps.

Still confusing… Anyway 48 slots is more than enough for me to do a set and for each new set I play I will just make one snapshot and make sure not to save to slot 001 as I got burned by that one… When I want to start new I will just do a sysex back up… Otherwise I should just sit down and go thru the motions and maybe it will set in… I do not see myself loading up different sample banks while playing…

Holy shit this forum format sucks… There is no way for me to view your reply dubathonic as I write this…

Quote the post, reply, then delete the quote.

I have barely scratched the surface of swapping from one Snapshot to another but, as I understand it, EACH Snapshot has 2MB of space. So you could build the separate drum kits as you described, then load them into a new Snapshot for each kit. True, it is not easy to simply grab a sound from another kit as it would be if you could just scroll through a menu of presets.

Basically:

  • Load new samples into a new Sound Bank (name it accordingly for example: ‘TR-909’)
  • Open a new Snapshot
  • Load your new sounds into a new KIT (name it accordingly for example: ‘TR-909 Kit’)
  • SAVE your new Snapshot that contains the kit you just built (you could also name the Snapshot something like ‘TR909SNAP’ and use it as a template.

cosmosuave, I’m with you, still too confusing. This topic will probably represent the reason I may end up selling the machine. I’ve even printed out an extra copy of that section of the manual and have it posted to the wall nearby… I’m very tired of losing patterns, samples, kits, banks, machines, slots, globals, snapshots …whatever… it’s simply too complicated of a schema. So far I’ve probably lost at least 40 hours of work put into this machine, I just hate the thought of going back to my RY-30, but at least it never lost a thing. Good luck!!

Cosmo, you can move the reply window to the right or left, and then scroll the main window up or down (which I am doing right now to view your reply and dub’s too)
…just like their machines, the forum requires some study and effort lol! but I agree, most people don’t want this in a forum (yet I don’t mind).

I probably don’t grasp 100% the ins and outs of the +Drive… but I can at least say how I use it, and how I make it work for my music.

First, whenever I have a series of patterns, kits and samples I want to save, I save it to any snap shot (except slot 1, as this will get erased if you do a factory reset). Most of my snap shots are tied to 1 sample bank. For ease of memory, I’ll save snapshot 128 to link to sample bank 128.

Lately I’ve been using longer samples in my songs, so each snap shot will have more than 1 sample bank required.
So what I will do is create patterns on bank A and use sample bank 2 (titled bank A) until I run out of memory, then I’ll start making patterns on bank B and use sample bank 3 (titled bank B) for those samples, until I run out of memory.
The first pattern on every bank after A will be free of any samples. This is so I can load up another sample bank without screwing up the performance/set, as it’ll take a second or two to load. This system seems to workout pretty well for me. The naming convention was key.
Cheers,
Mike

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i am trying to understand whether or not there is a bug in my system:

i have a snapshot loaded (snapshot id 2), and i have a samplebank ‘j002’ selected.
when i go into the sample/snapshot managers, i see that my sample bank is j002, and when i look into the sample bank area of the +drive portion of the global slot, i see that the selected sample bank is j002. great. but then when i edit a kit and choose ‘rom’ machine, i see nothing in the list in terms of names of samples (?!).

does this mean that there is a bug in my sys, or does this have something to do with my settings? all I see where there should be a sample name for the rom slot selection is ‘…’

kinda confusing…
i am able to turn off the machine and reload; same symptom rears its head.

Try renaming one of the files and see if it sticks. Sample names do not always transfer properly with c6.