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Hello, this is my first post and I want to start by saying how impressed I am with the depth of knowledge here. I would be completely in the dark without this forum. I've learned a lot from you guys over the past few months, so a big thank you! But I am fairly new to this instrument and have a lot to learn.
I have the MODX7. It's my first Yamaha. Wonderful instrument, just starting to perceive the depth of it. Love the sounds and the ability to combine sounds. Still trying to get used to the narrow keys, but that's a minor complaint.
Okay, I want to update the OS to 2.52. I've read through the procedure and backed up my user data to a flash drive. I did an experiment by changing a parameter in one of my user performances, renaming it, and saving it. Then I restored the data from my flash drive to see if it would restore that performance to its original condition. It did. So far, so good.
What concerns me is when I plug the flash into my desktop to view the contents, it shows it as an X8A file, but its size is only 704 kb. Granted, I only have maybe 20 user performances and all of them have only minor tweaks, but this seems like a very small number and I'm afraid I did something wrong when I created the backup. If the backup only backs up the tweaks and not the entire original performance, I guess maybe it could be about right? Still seems awfully small, though.
I'm terrified that I'll lose all the hours I've put into these performances. Any insights will of course be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Posted : 05/03/2021 12:35 am
Hi John,
Welcome to YamahaSynth!
Not to worry, that sounds about right. When it comes to data size Waveforms can be absolutely huge, the Performance and Part parameters that are used to shape the Waveforms into playable programs are tiny in comparison.
If you have 20 User Performances — that is not going to be a large data size. Waveforms, technically speaking, are a collection of audio samples configured into a playable structure that will be referenced as “the Oscillator”. The Bosendorfer Imperial Grand is a Waveform set that recreates all the notes of this acoustic piano, sampled when struck soft, medium, and hard. Every note, in stereo 3 times. It winds up being over 400MB of audio data. Huge!
Sampled audio uses up approximately 10MB for every stereo minute of data (when sampled at 44.1kHz). In sampled based synthesis, this audio data becomes the Oscillator. All of the other parameters are applied to the Oscillator (the Envelope Generators, Filters, LFOs, Effects, etc., etc., and all of these together amount to a set of parameter values. Tiny in comparison. Each Part in a Performance is a couple of KB of data.
The Audio is the big portion of the iceberg that lies underwater - the other parameters are the part of the iceberg above the surface. If you have no User Waveforms loaded then the size will be in the range your instrument is showing.
If you want to review what is in your USER Bank and internal memory:
Press [UTILITY] > “Contents” > “Data Utility” > each FOLDER here can be opened to review and manage you current instrument’s data:
Arps — your *User Arps (256 max)
Library — your installed Libraries (8 max)
Live Sets — your *User Live Sets (8 Banks of 256)
Motion Seq — your *User Motion Seqs (256 max)
Patterns — data in the Pattern Seq (128 max)
Performances — your *User Performances (640 max)
Song — data in the MIDI Song Sequencer (128 max)
Waveform — your *User Waveforms (2048 max)
*Arps, Live Sets, Motion Seqs, Performances, and Waveforms are saved when you save a USER File (.X8U)
The BACKUP File (.X8A) will additionally Save any Pattern, Song and Library data you may have added to your instrument.
Extra Credit:
When you have taken the time to create your own Performance... whether you build it from scratch or tweak a factory Preset, you naturally [STORE] it to the MODX Internal Memory... where it will be safe even between power cycles. But it is always a good idea to SAVE a file — which is the act of writing data to an external storage device.
You SAVE a file to a USB Stick — this saves the entire USER Bank in a file .X8U
I also recommend you “capture” a copy into either MODX CONNECT or to Soundmondo.
The reason I always do this is because I can SAVE individual Performances... these quick Bulk Dump type Saves are useful for most programming (they do not capture any User Arps, or Waveforms) they only document what is resident in the instrument. But for quick, easy single copy, I find saving them here also makes assembling sets of data easier.
MODX CONNECT can be used stand alone, and is another way to quickly backup your Sequence data.
Posted : 05/03/2021 1:38 am
The file is small because all of your User Performances are using built-in samples ("Waveforms" ). As BM mentioned - the samples are big data. Settings are small data. As long as you just tweak settings - all that will be saved is small data. MODX doesn't save factory preset Waveforms (samples) because it never needs to do this. Every MODX in the world already has these Waveforms inside of it. All that MODX needs to save is the location of the sample so when your user Performance is recalled, MODX will "load up" the right samples.
If you start loading AIFF/WAV files into your User area to make custom elements or drum-triggered sounds (or Library import content from other expansion sets into your user area) then you will start to see big data. Until then, expect your save files to remain small. Even if you manage to fill up all 640 Performances with only parameter edits (i.e. no custom User Waveforms).
Current Yamaha Synthesizers: Montage Classic 7, Motif XF6, S90XS, MO6, EX5R
Posted : 05/03/2021 3:36 am
Topic starter
Thanks for the quick responses! It seems my instincts were correct, but it's always good to get confirmation. The additional information is very helpful as well.
Posted : 05/03/2021 3:00 pm
