The Floppy Disk; The Floppy Disk Formats; File Types And Extensions; The Hard Disk - Generalmusic WK2000 SE Owner's Manual

owners manual
Working with a hard disk and fl oppy disks provides you with a means of building a library of Sounds, Samples,
Performances, Styles, Songs and Song Style that can be loaded into the WK2000 SE RAM at any time. This chapter
introduces you to the concepts of Files, Hard Disks, Floppy Disks and RAM Memory, explains the principal functions by
showing you how load and save Songs, Styles, Performances, Samples and MIDI Files and other fi les compatible fi les.

THE FLOPPY DISK

If this is the fi rst time you are using fl oppy disks, you are recommended to refer to the pages at the end of this
chapter which discuss disk handling precautions, how to insert and extract disks and other general information.

The Floppy Disk formats

WK2000 SE handles 3.5" HD and 3.5" DD disks. These are of the most commonly used type. WK2000 SE is able
to read data stored on disks in one of the following formats: GMX, WK, PK, MIDI FILE, MS-DOS, Atari ST/Falcon,
and Generalmusic CD Series disks. WK2000 SE is not able read Song, Style and Sound data in non-Generalmusic
instrument formats. The exclusive format of musical instruments adopted by one manufacturer is incompatible with
instruments of other manufacturers. To exchange Songs with instruments of other manufacturers, the Song must be
saved as MIDI fi le format data to an MS-DOS formatted disk. Files Data is stored on disks in the form of fi les. Files
identify Songs, Song Styles, Performances, Styles and Samples.

File Types and extensions

The types of File encountered when working in the Disk environment are identifi ed by a name (which appears in
the 8 digit display area) and an extension (shown in the 3 digit display area) which identifi es the type of fi le. In fi le
types that include SONGS in the PK, WK, STYLES and ALL formats, the extension is not displayed. The extensions of
all other recognised fi le types are listed in the paragraph explaining the LOAD function afterwards.

THE HARD DISK

The Hard Disk (HD) is a large internal memory device capable of storing fi les (Songs, Midi Files, Performances,
Styles, Song Styles and Samples). You can think of the Hard Disk as being a large number of virtual fl oppy disks
(partitions) which can be accessed at high speed. The load and save operations are very similar to the same
functions found in the Floppy Disk mode. The owner.s manual refers to the Hard Disk Partition as the equivalent of
the term Floppy disk to differentiate between the two devices.
Access to the Hard Disk
Press the HARD DISK button to gain access to the HARD DISK, then use the DIAL, or the
+/. buttons of the right hand numeric keypad, or specify a partition number on the same
keypad, followed by ENTER. When the partition is open, use the Dial (or +/. buttons)
as navigation tools and work as if you were using a normal fl oppy disk. The Hard Disk
functions are identical to those used in the Floppy Disk (LOAD, SAVE, DELETE, FORMAT
and UTILITY).
Any fi le handling operation concerning the transfer of data to and from the main memory takes place in the [Disk mode]
pages, entered by pressing the DISK button. The principal disk operations are spread across 4 pages.
1 LOAD Loads data to RAM or HARD DISK
2 SAVE Saves data from RAM to Floppy Disk or a Hard disk partition
3 DELETE Cancels fi les from Floppy disk or a Hard disk partition.
4 FORMAT Formatting procedure and total cancellation of a Floppy disk or Hard disk partition
Copy functions for single fi les and for entire Hard Disk partitions, Hard Disk protection
5 UTILITY
and formatting.
NOTE: Access to the Floppy Disk or Hard Disk is not permitted during a DIRECT FROM DISK song playback operation.
WHAT IS A MIDI FILE? A Standard MIDI File (SMF) is a storage format created to maintain data compatibility among different devices
complying with the Standard MIDI File format. This format allows Songs to be exchanged between different instruments and computers.
If a Song is saved as a MIDI fi le on an MS-DOS disk, you can be certain that all the most recent generation of instruments and any
computers will be able to load and read that Song. WK2000 SE reads format 0 and 1 MIDI fi les , and saves MIDI fi les in format 0.
GENERAL MIDI (GM)
To facilitate compatibility between different makes of instruments, MIDI fi les should be in General MIDI standard, a
common platform for sounds and they way they are selected. General MIDI stipulates common standards regarding the
listing of sounds, Program Change numbers for sound selection, the percussive sound confi guration in the Drumkits, the
assignment of MIDI channel 10 to the drumkit track, a minimum polyphony (24) and a maximum number of tracks (16).
In the WK2000 SE, Sound Banks 1 and Drumkit Bank 2 are fully GM compatible. WK2000 SE recognises GM compatible
MIDI Files, thanks to a messages contained in the MIDI File (General MIDI ON). If this message is not detected, sounds
that differ to a Drumkit may be assigned to MIDI channel 10. To ensure correct loading of GM compatible MIDI fi les that
do not contain the .General MIDI ON. fl ag, set the General MIDI parameter to ON in the «Edit MIDI» pages. WK2000 SE
can save GM compatible MIDI Files when the General MIDI parameter is set to ON.
GMX FORMAT
The GMX format is an extension of General MIDI specifi cally created by Generalmusic which renders the fi rst three sound
banks of all the WK Series instruments completely compatible.
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FLOPPY and HARD DISK
FLOPPY and HARD DISK FUNCTIONS
wk2000 se
The fl oppy and the hard disk