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XW Keyboard Perform issue


Ivan Allan

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Hey fellow XW owners,

 

Understand that I am NOT a keyboard/synth player, but a seasoned guitar player of over 35 years. And it may be that this problem is because of my noob status with the instrument. I purchased this synth to use in my classic rock band for some 70's - 80's songs that include dominant keyboard parts which I am capable of playing by ear.

 

Now, I have preselected sounds I wish to use and written them down for easy access. The other night after playing one song, the keyboard sat for a while while we went over other songs. When we returned to it... and selected the next sound we wished to use, every sound in the perform list was the same on the lower half of the keyboard. I powered it off and on a couple of times... same thing. I could scroll thru the name of each sound, but nothing changed. When I changed to TONES the sounds returned, but were numbered differently so I could not select the ones I wanted.

 

We are going to use this synth to perform live, so we have to be able to quickly and seamlessly change from one sound to another.  It may be something glaringly obvious that in my ignorance I am overlooking. Hopefully...  But I can find no solutions in the user manual so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Or is if is a faulty unit, I wish to know that now as well.

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Ivan Allan

 

 

 

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It may have been a power spike that glitched out the performance memory of the keyboard.  How stable is the electricity mains at your venue?

 

Only possible solution at this poiint is to go to the setup menu and perform a system initialize and then restore any user performances from backup if you have them.  The preset performances should return on their own after an initialize.

 

One last piece of advice is that you should hook up your keyboard thru an Uninterruptable Power Supply or a Line Power Conditioner at future venues to avoid this happening again.

 

Gary

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no special advice here, other than asking if u backed up the data to your computer using the data editor so you can load up your saved data?  The XW boots up quickly, so I guess I'm going to shut it down if not in use for a while.  Good to know... pls let us know if you recovered your info after an initialize and if there was an issue we haven't addressed.

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Thanks Gene,

 

I will be sure to get back to you to iron out my ignorance as it surfaces... no doubt on a regular basis. lol  I only wish that a UPS was reccommended on the first page of the manual in bold type when I got the synth if it so quickly becomes an issue. That would have saved me a lot of grief.

 

Thanks,

 

Ivan Allan

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Actually almost any synth keyboard is susceptible to power spikes and brownouts and it's almost never mentioned in anyone's manual.

 

Keyboard makers make keyboards, not UPSes so they'd just as soon never publish anything negative about their products in their literature.

 

Same way as with PCs.  If you buy a Dell or an Acer or a HP you'll never see anything in the manual even suggesting that you get a UPS, but common sense tells you it will save your data from corruption in the event of a brownout.

 

Synth keyboards are basically custom computers with custom operating systems so it's really no surprise that they fall victim to erratic power just as badly as any desktop.

 

It's not a perfect system but it's a typical example of Caveat Emptor.

 

Gary

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Ahh I agree to a point gary, but that common sense is also predicated upon a basic level of knowledge pertaining directly to a synthesizer and it's inherent suseptibility.  I have used several modelling amps over the last 12 years in the exact same setting, that also rely on a central processor and have never even considered a ups as necessary.  So in my estimation, it is proprietary knowledge that makes a UPS essential to a synth. Something I wish at least the dealer would have mentioned.

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"Essential" is the operative word here.  The truth is that about 80% of the North American population lives in large urban areas with relatively stable mains current.

 

Now of that remaining 20% the occasional glitch only becomes mission critical for a gigging musician whose live venues have seriously crappy power.  That translates to something like 0.000005% of the general population.

 

For myself, with home studio work, living in a large urban center with relatively short runs to both Niagara Falls power station and Pickering Nuclear Reactor and underground cables to the home my power tends to be solid as a rock, excluding the occasional ice storm or midsummer meltdown or the odd drunk driver smashing up a utility box.

 

Even so, all of my computers do have battery backups, but I only use them with my keyboards when I'm performing a critical firmware upgrade.

 

Otherwise, 99.999999% of the time I'm flying commando so to speak :)

 

Gary

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Having played out in many crappy venues, let me tell you I needed a regulated filtered power supply between me keys and the old mains. I used a Tripplite box when I discovered serious problems on several gigs. Have to watch stage lighting systems apparently fluctuations in voltage and wireless interference with alot of spots on a stage can really screw with your AC. My keys would suddenly change sounds randomly, I'd lose loudness levels and get strange crackling and humming (aside from our vocals). Once I started using a heavy-duty isolation transformer/filter with huge caps in it for smoothing unfiltered AC most of this went away although not always. Some venues were so poor, I wasn't even getting 110V AC from the mains-I had to bring a multimeter with me and one of those hardware store AC socket testers to see if there was a defect in the wall outlet, or reverse polarity or no ground which can be dangerous-you become a complete circuit if holding a steel mic in one hand and touch metal on your keys with the other especially if your hands are wet from that bottle of Mad Dog 20-20 between sets and stuff isn't grounded right. This accounts for my bald spot and memory lapses as more than once I did this, Really makes for some exciting anticipation before a gig. I should be in the Thomas Edison Electric Hall of Fame. :P 

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Ivan,

You could just install 6 D battery's, that way if the power goes out at all the Xw will resort to the battery as a back up, or at least it does for me on my Xw-G1 and should be the same on the P1.

So if the power goes out your on Battery"s and when the power returns the it's going to run off the main power.

As for what Gary said referring to: "perform a system initialize and then restore any user performances"

you don't need to restore any user saved setting's as when you go to do a system initialize, you can choose to restore only the system sounds and settings and keep all user setting as i have done this 2 times and all went ok.

I have the XW-G1, but i think the G1 and P1 are the same as what i listed above.

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