KVR Audio

MaxSynths · Post by **MaxSynths** » Tue Nov 02, 2010 2:51 am

I'm about to buy a Roland D-20 for 30€ (I think it's a good price

). The guy says that the instrument do not save user presets; he changed the battery but the synth continue to fail on storing user patches.

Now this is not really a problem for me: the preset sounds are good enough for 30€. BTW does anybody knows (maybe someone which own/owned this synth) if it's possible to fix it?

Cheers,
Max

C00kie · Post by **C00kie** » Tue Nov 02, 2010 9:00 am

Does it remember user presets as long as it's powered on? If so, you can still use tweaked sounds by using sysex midi dumps in your DAW.
If it's not the battery (my first thought as well) then I'm out of ideas.

Looks like a good price indeed... A good friend of mine had a D20, and I liked it a lot.

MaxSynths · Post by **MaxSynths** » Tue Nov 02, 2010 10:39 am

C00kie wrote:Does it remember user presets as long as it's powered on?

Yes, if I understood right

C00kie wrote:If so, you can still use tweaked sounds by using sysex midi dumps in your DAW

Right. I used to control all my MIDI instruments by sysex, so it would be a perfect solution...

C00kie wrote:If it's not the battery (my first thought as well) then I'm out of ideas.

Me too

Maybe a loose contact in the battery holder? I know for example the Behringer V-Amp often has the same problem and the issue is related with the battery holder

Cheers,
Max

mcnoone · Post by **mcnoone** » Tue Nov 02, 2010 10:45 am

Great synth, I owned one for many years.
It should have a floppy disk drive on the right side.
You could save them to a floppy before turning it off.

MaxSynths · Post by **MaxSynths** » Tue Nov 02, 2010 10:59 am

It uses standard floppies (or quick disks?)

Mr Arkadin · Post by **Mr Arkadin** » Tue Nov 02, 2010 12:21 pm

Sounds a bit odd to me. I had a D-10 and as far as I know they're the same. If you have the factory presets then the battery is working. If the battery weren't working I would imagine those factory presets would disappear as quickly as ussr presets because they're all stored in the same RAM.

You can also store all your patches on a memory card if you can get hold of one. If it can't store to a memory card something is up. But jeez that's cheap - I bought my second-hand D-10 (with flightcase) for £300 back in the day, sold for £160 sometime late.

MaxSynths · Post by **MaxSynths** » Tue Nov 02, 2010 12:42 pm

@Mr Arkadin: maybe it's the ROM chip which stores the user presets which is gone (I suppose it works like this: the user presets are backed up into a non volatile memory)?

Didn't know it can use memory cards... with a bit of lucky maybe I can find one on ebay. Thanks for the useful infos

Mr Arkadin · Post by **Mr Arkadin** » Tue Nov 02, 2010 2:45 pm

Well I read one place where there was no ROM reset, now I just read this:

ROM RESET: HOLD TUNE/FUNCTION AND WRITE WHILE POWERING ON

so I'm not sure now - this procedure may only initialise - it may not reload the factory presets as I'm still not sure if they're held in ROM. Anyway the patches are all in RAM, so factory or not they would disappear I'm sure, you would have to reload from ROM (if this is even possible).

Mr Arkadin · Post by **Mr Arkadin** » Tue Nov 02, 2010 2:55 pm

Just had an idea: make sure Memory Protect is OFF. I think it's in the Tune/Functions menu, scroll around until you find it.

MaxSynths · Post by **MaxSynths** » Tue Nov 02, 2010 7:53 pm

Thanks mate, I'll try these tips as I have the instrument

mcnoone · Post by **mcnoone** » Wed Nov 03, 2010 6:09 pm

MaxSynths wrote:It uses standard floppies (or quick disks?)

It uses the quick disks.
You can also use the memory card as stated above though.
I had mine repaired once, were it was cutting out, and not saving my own creations. It turned out to be a loose chip.
You might want to have it looked at.

MaxSynths · Post by **MaxSynths** » Wed Nov 03, 2010 6:12 pm

I'm lucky enough, the local store has some packs of QD for 2€. The only problem is the guy which sell the synth is disappeared...

Maybe he's reading here and changed his mind

tomg · Post by **tomg** » Wed Nov 03, 2010 6:32 pm

mcnoone wrote:
MaxSynths wrote:It uses standard floppies (or quick disks?)
It uses the quick disks.

No.. It's a standard DSDD 700K 3.5 disk. Just cover the hole to use a HD disk.

MaxSynths · Post by **MaxSynths** » Wed Nov 03, 2010 7:31 pm

Oh standard floppies...

Mr Arkadin · Post by **Mr Arkadin** » Wed Nov 03, 2010 7:49 pm

MaxSynths wrote:The only problem is the guy which sell the synth is disappeared...

Maybe he's reading here and changed his mind

Oddly enough when I was after a D-10 a long time ago this happened to me - got to the guy's house and he'd changed his mind after reading the Sound On Sound retro article (he probably thought it would bump up the value a bit - I think it may have).

Roland D-20 (do not store user patches)