Korg D12 - advice needed on storage/file management

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tgbusill

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Any ideas on file management/storage strategies for the Korg D12?

I bought one 3 months ago. After not really recording anything for about 7 years (had an old Fostex x-26), I ended up with a tremendous creative burst. Great, but...

The D12's internal hard drive can only store 100 song files. Now I'm at the point where I've maxed out - I've got 100 songs on the drive and can't create another new song file without clearing space.

(As an aside, I'm laughing at myself, because going into my first digital recorder I'd been focusing on the size of the hard drive. I never in a million years thought that # of song files would be capped).

I got the unit with the internal CD-R/RW burner and there are options, but everyone of them looks less than ideal from my POV. I keep running in mental circles trying to figure it out. Here’s what I’ve been thinking:

External hard drive:
Can “copy” or use this drive(s) directly for recording, but the manual says the 100 songs per drive limit applies to external drives as well. Having to buy an external drive for every additional 100 song files scares me, as does the notion that there’s a possibility that the unit will only recognize the 1st 7 installed.

“Backup” using an external hard drive overwrites the destination drive, making the “backup1song” option useless and the “backupallsongs” option great if the 100 songs on the D12 at any 1 time are the only ones that existed.

Removable High-speed drive: (Jaz, Castlewood)
The Jaz would be ideal for use with the copy (I’m assuming the 100 song limit would apply to each cartridge), but Iomega isn’t making them anymore. The Castlewood option look great for using the “copy” function too, but I’m not sure I want to put my archives on media that may not be around in a year. Any experience with Castlewood?

Removable Low-speed drive (Zip):
Can’t use the “copy” function and if I go with either of the 2 backup options, it seems more cost-effective to just use CD-RW’s since the “backup” function overwrites the destination drive anyway.

CD-R/RW:
For each song file, burn the latest version to a CD-RW using the “backup1song” option. Use the 100 song file space on the D12 as a workspace area. When a new song needs to be created, delete a song file that’s already been backed up to a CD/RW. Use the restore function to work on material that’s been deleted from the D12 after the backup’s been burned. The downside here is twofold – cost ($1 per song) and space (do I really want hundreds of CD/RW’s).

I could use “backupallsongs” option periodically on CD-R/RW, but I just see this as mass confusion. For example, I “backupallsongs” tonight (should take about 7 CDs), but them in two weeks, maybe 10 new songs were added, 10 were reworked, so now only 20 of the 100 on the D12 really need backing up….and as the arrangements get worked up I can see a backup taking more than 7 CDs….

For now, I’m settling on the “burn latest version of each song to CD-RW” option.

But…I don’t know. It just sounds stupid <g>

Fortunately, I’ve kept a pretty decent spreadsheet on everything that resides on the unit right now and have made song names on the D12 be date created followed by a letter. I’m in the process of burning audio CD’s just to have copies.

But I am really running in mental circles on this one.

Do I have some kind of blindspot here that I’m not seeing an easy solution?

At this point, I’m so frustrated that I’m thinking of putting it on E-bay and doing better research the next time around now that I know that for my creative approach being able to capture a lot of ideas and manage/manipulate the files is a priority.

I’d REALLY appreciate any help.

Thanks!

Tom B.
 
I have a D8 and have gone through the same thought processes. There really doesn't seem to be an ideal solution.
After all was said and done, I bought a 4 gig external SCSI (about $100.00) and will worry about the next step when I fill it up. Will take a while for me. I watched the D8 forum for a while and the consensus seemed to fall on the ORB removeable drive. But you are right. How long will it be around? And those discs are rather expensive. It's a good thing I don't have a whole lot worth storing for long periods of time. I'm thinking, just make sure you are satisfied with the song, burn it, then delete it. Of course, you could always store to computer through a sound card. That's the only way to get a lot of storage, I think. Get a dedicated 800 gig (?) external hard drive for your music. I don't have a decent computer though, so that's out for me for now. Backup and restore seems to take a long time though. I like using the copy function. Back to Orb. Good luck!
 
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