Rediculous load times

[soloist]

Perhaps this has been discussed before but I recently timed my Fantom X6 when loading a 2 minute song (w/ 4 stereo audio tracks) from my CF card, it took 10 minutes and 38 seconds! I love my fantom, I mean, my songs have never sounded so professional, but waiting nearly 11 minutes for a 2 minute song is unbelievable. I am using a standard grade 512MB San Disk CF card; I know that it is probably just that the Fantom is really slow with saving/loading large samples but I am just wondering if there is anything I could do to minimize these loading/saving times (like maybe a faster CF card). By the way, if this is how slow it is with 4 2min tracks I would hate to imagine how long it would take to do 8 4-5min tracks.

[da-man]

I usually make a cup of tea, go to the toilet, read a book, surf the net or play with my kids while I wait for loading and saving.

There is no way to speed it up.

The Fantom is affordable because they have used older computer hardware inside it. If it was the latest and greatest it would have cost double.

I know it is a drag but I always say that problems are possibilities and hopefully you can find a way to use the waiting time productively.

[illiac]

>> I usually make a cup of tea, go to the toilet, read a book, surf the net or play with my kids while I wait for loading and saving.

Haha I will try that next time I'm on stage waiting for samples to load.

If you ask me, this is far and away the biggest problem with the Fantom. It really limits the utility of the audio track feature. But it is a problem even with ordinary samples (those used to make patches), if they become big enough. There are for example some third-party pianos out there for the Fantom. They take on the order of 10 min to load.

And ain't no OS upgrade gonna fix this one.

-illiac

[craigo]

My X8 has 512dimm and 1gig CF. I have filled up about 250mb of samples internally. When I load a song built around looped samples in the audio track it doesn't take more than 10 seconds. This is with all samples loaded at start up. When perfroming in the band I have samples on the pads no sequencers, or audio tracks, as I scroll from one performance to the other my samples are ready instantaneously. When I know I will only wish to practice piano when I switch it off I will choose not to load samples at start up.

I have voice samples in the band which one sample may run up to 1:30 (minute) but there is no load time. Performing using the audio track I talk for about 30 seconds between tracks to ensure all data is there. I don't undetstand this waiting 10 minutes. I guess it's the four stereo audio tracks, I wait about 8 - 10 minutes for everything to be loaded at startup then 10 seconds for each song.

Question do you load all samples (audio tracks) at start up.

Cragglerock X8 - Audio Exp...

[illiac]

I load the samples at "startup", and yes, things are fast once they are loaded, but the question is, what exactly is startup?

The Fantom with 512Mb of memory holds just over one set (45min) of stereo backing tracks. Startup when using stereo backing tracks on every song is therefore once before each set. This is just too close for comfort for my taste, so I've given up on this approach. Now when I need audio backing tracks I play them from an hard drive recorder.

If you are loading only "normal" samples (not audio tracks) it's better in the sense that you're less likely to need to reload between sets. Or maybe not, I guess it just depends on the material you're playing. Whether audio tracks or normal samples, though, the prospect of a power loss gives me the willies at live gigs with the Fantom. I was recently on a stage shared by a dozen other acts, and all kinds of people kept bumping into my (pre-loaded) Fantom while we waited to go on. It was fine in the end but it made me a bundle of nerves.

-illiac

[da-man]

illiac,

so the cup of tea etc... won't work for live situations but juggling will.

2 suggestions for live work.

Sample all your audio tracks into one sample. That will cut down the loading time.

or

why not sample all your audio tracks and then putt the wav file onto a PC and convert to mp3? Then all you need to play your backing tracks is a small mp3 player.

Just suggestions. I have used both of these suggestions. I try to stay away from using samples or audio tracks in a live situation because of the same fears as you. If I have it set to load all and somebody pulls the power plug (it has happened once to us) I don't want to be waiting 10 minutes to play again.

[illiac]

Hi,

Yeah, all my backing tracks are a single stereo pair; that's as small as I can make them. They still take a LONG time to load on the Fantom, especially a whole set's worth. Far too long to recover in case of a power failure.

These days I use an Alesis HD24 to play backing tracks. Zero loading time, instant song selection, very fast power on, fast switchover to second hard drive in case of failure, etc. The only thing wrong with it is that you can't call up a song via MIDI!

I've used a computer for this before, but I need to have the playback device generate MTC or MIDI clock so that I can synch other gear to it, for tempo-mapped effects and automated patch changes. On top of that, the computer looks geeky onstage and fails too easily. I've had computer parts fail in the middle of two live performanes, ouch. The rackmounted HD24 puts me at ease; a laptop makes me nervous.

-illiac

[Curious George]

I posted the following in another thread, but no one there
answered my question directly.

I figure I will post here because It seems more relevant
in this thread, being that most if not all of you want a
faster way to save and retrieve your samples, songs, ect.
--------------------------------------------------------------------

Does any one know if the new 32bit PC Card adapters
and 32bit CF Cards will work with the Fantom X?

Viking claims its "4 to 6 times faster than a standard 16-bit PC Card Adapter"

The following is a link to the high speed Compact Flash
Card Adapter:

http://www.vikinginterworks.com/products/cardBusCF.asp

[bassman]

CG,

Even if the new 32 bit adaptors are faster, it won't matter. As dboulden and I stated in the other thread, the bottleneck is in the Fantom. Others here have tested transfer speeds for various adaptors and have verified this. These two threads have good info for you.

http://forum.fantomized.info/index.php? ... d=1&page=1
http://forum.fantomized.info/index.php? ... d=0&page=1

There is probably more info out there on this subject. I did a search string of 'compact flash speed rate' and found these. I encourage you (and others) to use the forum's Search function. This forum has a wealth of information that can be accessed that way. It is a true datamine.

Hope this helps. . .

Bassman

[Quinnx.]

Given that even with xp or 2000 (edit: THE 32 bit ADAPTORE) still requires drivers
this would lead me to believe its not using native I/O proceedures
and since you cannot upgrade the FX internal card bus routines
i would have to say it would make no difference since the card would either be forced to fall back to 16bit or it will not work at all.
Let me know if you manage to try one though.



X-Bugs.org
(Become part of the solution)

Results not Excuses




QuinnX universal tranlator below:-
(lets not be misunderstood)

!!!!!! Emphasis not anger
!!?? Confusion or Stupidity
ABC are you getting the point
&*$% Anger (but rarely seen)


Fantom-X6 with Audio Track Expansion (OS 2.0)
Windows 2000
Intel P4 2g
512mb

[Artemiy]

Quinnx:

Roland design their USB interfaces according to world standards only. And this has been checked by me and countyless other Linux users multiple times - USB storage, USB MIDI and USB audio functionality of all Roland gear works 100%. Out of the box Linux comes with standard USB drivers only. Here Fantom-S and V-Synth work fine in USB storage mode, and V-Synth also works in USB-MIDI mode. No additional setup is needed with them.

So, the fact that under Windows you have to install something special is a non-surprising Windows fault.

[Quinnx.]

In not sure, are we talking about the same thing? (slight edit needed)
Maybe i should have been more specific
my reply was speaking directly about the adaptor and not the Fantom.
However, if we are both talking about the adaptor
are you suggesting it should work faster?


X-Bugs.org
(Become part of the solution)

Results not Excuses




QuinnX universal tranlator below:-
(lets not be misunderstood)

!!!!!! Emphasis not anger
!!?? Confusion or Stupidity
ABC are you getting the point
&*$% Anger (but rarely seen)


Fantom-X6 with Audio Track Expansion (OS 2.0)
Windows 2000
Intel P4 2g
512mb

[Curious George]

Bassman, yours and dboulden's answers were to the first question in the following thread:

http://forum.fantomized.info/index.php? ... &page=last

Not the second question in the same thread. The second
question is what I'm asking here again because it was
was not answered with a yea or nay by anyone in the other thread.

Any way, thanks for all your help, the links in your reply in this
thread are very useful. I finally got a definitive answer.
MIDIguru states this:

"The Ultra 2 makes absolutely no difference in load times. This
is with me testing with both non-ultra adapter/non-ultra card
and ultra adapter/ultra card."

That just saved me money and frustration

[bassman]

Curious George,

Good news. I'm glad there was eventually an answer found for you. Sometimes it takes a while to sort out what someone is looking for or really means, but we got there! Sorry for the initial misinterpretation.

Bassman