About Memory - Mirage DSK-1 Manual

ABOUT MEMORY

The sound diskettes which came with the Mirage each contain three Upper and three Lower
sounds. Each Upper and Lower sound is composed of 64k of sound data - about 64,000 bytes of
information - plus the four programs and all the individual wavesample parameters which control
the tuning, keyboard range, volume, etc. for each wavesample.
The internal memory of the Mirage consists of
two 64k banks of memory. The Lower bank will
hold the data from one Lower sound off the disk;
the Upper bank will hold the data from one
Upper sound off the disk. The internal memory
only contains one Upper and one Lower sound at
a time. To play another sound, you must load it
from a diskette, which will replace the current
sound in the internal memory. Once a sound is
loaded into the internal memory, you can change
it in any way you wish without affecting the data
on the diskette. The data on the diskette is not
affected unless you save the modified data over
the original. Generally, it's better to save your
changes to a blank formatted diskette, leaving
your factory sound disks intact.
Always remember this: the data in the internal
memory is volatile. That means that when you
turn the Mirage off, it's gone. Any sounds you
sample, or changes you make to the factory
sounds, must be saved to a formatted diskette if
you wish to keep them around for future use.
In many cases, as with the piano and the bowed strings, the same-numbered Upper and Lower
sounds are related, and are designed to be loaded together and used as a single, full-keyboard
instrument. In other cases, the same-numbered Upper and Lower sounds are totally different. A
bass sound doesn't need to cover the entire keyboard; nor does the range of a sax normally
extend down a full five octaves. In such instances, different Upper and Lower sounds have been
placed together on the disk.