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That’s right. We get a lot of calls and e-mail from synth owners in a panic because they just turned on their keyboard or module and all the sounds are gone. They want to replace them as soon as possible for that gig on the weekend or tonight’s recording session.

Many of them ask…..”What Happened”???

What happened was that their synth’s “Internal Battery” died. That’s right… All hardware synths come with a battery that is inside the casing. Most have “Lithium Battery’s” similar to a cell phone or digital camera. Those little round ones that are about the size of a U.S. nickle. They are designed to last about ten years and when they die whatever you have in your synth’s memory is wiped out.

It’s great if you have your data backed up. Of course if you don’t then your in trouble, so make sure you back up your sounds. However, even if you do have your data backed up you will have to replace the battery or else the synth will not hold the data in it’s memory. As soon as you turn off the synth everything gets wiped out again.

What you have to do is open up the synth and take the casing off so you can get inside and replace the battery. That can usually be done pretty easily with just a philips screw driver. Some synths are easier to get inside then other ‘s so if your not quite sure about how that works then best to call a service tech who can go in and do it for you. In general it’s a fairly simple job that you can probably handle without having to pay a tech to do it for you.

Once you have the synth’s casing off then look around for that little nickle shaped lithium battery that I talked about. Simple remove it and then look for the model number that should be on the face of the battery. If the model number is not on the battery then contact the company who manufactures the synth (if they are still in business) and ask them what it is. You can also try doing a search on google or any internet search engine. You never know what your gonna find on that!

The good news it that it’s usually pretty easy to get a replacement battery for most synths. Places like Radio Shack, J&R music or many computer stores carry a wide selection of lithium battery’s. They only cost a few dollars so you can be back up and running without having to go too deep into your pockets.

Once you’ve replaced your battery and put the casing back on then just load everything back in and you will be back in business. Many newer synths can be “re-initilized” from the synths front panel which will get you back to the factory settings. Check your owners manuel to see if your synth can do that.

If for one reason or another you have not backed up your stuff then contact us and we will try to help you out. We have a large inventory of patch data from many vintage synths going back nearly twenty five years and there is a good chance that we have a great collection of sounds that you can use to get you going again. It may not be the same data that you originally had, but it will certainly get you back on track and there is a good chance that you will find a big improvement over to what you had in there originally. After all it’s from “The Patch King”!!!!

The morel of the story is “BACK UP YOUR DATA”. You never know when your synth’s battery is going to die and best to be prepared. There are several ways to back up your stuff depending on your synth. Vintage synths produced during the 70’s and early 80’s usually did it to a data cassette tape although with the advent of MIDI in the mid 80’s that all changed and the newer synths let you use “sysex – system exclusive”. That store’s the sounds on your computer hard drive. More info on how to save and load sounds via midi can be found at another article we have put together called SYSEX MADE SIMPLE. Be sure to check that out if your interested in saving your sounds on your synths hard drive.

If you need any more info please contact us and we will be happy to help you out.

We get a lot of questions about how to “Key-Map” our AIFF and WAV files so we thought we would fill you in at the “Midi Tips” section.

Two of the most popular formats in which most sound companies (including us) save their digital samples is the “AIFF and WAV” formats. AIFF (.aif, .aiff) stands for “Audio Interchange File Format” and was developed by Apple for storage of sounds on the Mac. Windows WAVE: (.wav) format was created by Microsoft and IBM, and it has become a popular standard in saving sounds on the PC. WAV sounds will also work on the Mac, but AIFF will not work with windows PC’s.

Almost all of todays music digital hardware and software samplers can read AIFF and WAV files, but before you can actually make music with them you need to know a few simple things.

AIFF and WAV files are individual samples that must first be set up as “programs” before you can create songs with them. In other words, each AIFF or WAV sample is a different musical note. The samples must be “key mapped” across the keyboard so you will be able to play all 12 notes in a typical octave or all 88 notes over the entire keyboard. Each sampler does this a little differently so we won’t get into the exact steps on how it’s done, but here are a few general tips that should help get you started.

For most instruments we usually sample in “Root” and “5th” of the scale and give you several C’s and G’s to work with. We then sample the same notes across several differnt octaves (C1,G1,C2,G2 and so on). We usually sample five octaves which then fill’s in a typical 61 note keyboard. In most cases that is all that’s needed. If we sampled every single note then the file sizes would be so large that they would not be able to fit in many samplers. Even with todays software samplers which have tons of sampling RAM, it would be a great waste of space and take longer to download if we sampled ever single note. Instruments like an acoustic piano require you sample more notes, but in most cases just sampling the Root and 5th’s are enough to create a realistic sound for instruments such as basses, leads, pads and strings.

Key Mapping also allows you to set up your own custom drum kits where you can (let’s say) put your Kick drum on C, snare on D, hi hat on E and crash cymbal on F. You could also put that kick drum on the C and stretch out the sample using key mapping to have it play across a complete octave (12 notes) by itself. Each note then becomes a different pitched kick drum and if you do that and play two or three notes at the same time you get a super phat kick! You can also key-map two or three different kick drums on that one C to create a fatter kick drum. It all depends on how you want to set up your drum sounds.

To key-map the C and G sounds into your sampler follow these steps:

1. Take the C’s and the G’s and match them to the notes on your keyboard. Start with C1 and map out all the C’s across the range of the keyboard.
You may have to tune the notes up one octave depending if your using a 88 note or a 61 note keyboard.
2. With all the C’s keymap (stretch) the low note down to Bb and the high note up to E. Each sampler does this a bit differently so check your owners manuel on how this is done on yours.
3. With all the G’s keymap the low note down to F and the high note up to A.

That will fill in all the notes over your keyboard and enable you to play songs. If you had a “E” in the mix then you would not have to stretch the C’s and G’s as far. The more notes provided, the less stretching you need to do to fill in the whole keyboard.

In general AIFF and WAV files need to be tweaked in order to get the right sound. The files are just the starting point and it’s really up to you do get the programming together to make a “patch”. Adjustments in the envelopes “release section” and filters “cutoff switch” are sure to pop up in most files (just to name a couple). You should also add effects and modulation to complement the sound of the wavs.

AIFF and WAV files take a bit of programming in order to get the sound the way you want it. We give you a great starting point in being able to create a great “patch” and with a little practice your can do the rest. If you need any additional tips to help you along please contact us and we will be glad to assist.

Now that you know all about key-mapping check out our “downloadable AIFF and WAV files”

Order online and Download Sounds today!

I’ve posted our first article in the Midi Tips category titled “Sysex Made Simple”. Sysex is short for “system exclusive”. A term well known by some and a mysterious hi tech lingo to others.

We wanted to use the blog as a way to answer our most frequently asked questions in detail so I’ve started things off with probably the most popular question….“What Is Sysex and why should I care about it”?

Click HERE to learn all about sysex