I just wanted to find out if this is happening to others:
Every once in a while I’ll create a patch and save it to a particular location e.g. A1/P2
When I try to access that patch in the normal way, position 2 in bank A1 will fail to light. Sometimes the patch will still play but the light will not show at the patch’s position. If I try to back up the unit, the file in that position will fail to copy over. All other files appear to be unaffected, but that patch position is effectively lost at that point. To regain the use of A1/P2 as a patch location, I have to Initialize the patch (i.e SHIFT + MANUAL) and save that initialized patch to A1/P2.
The last post I made ( Global Patch Bank Initialization ) was partly prompted in response to a situation where two of my created patches had become corrupted, and I was looking for a way to format or initialize the entire patch bank back to its factory state. The current global initialization process (SHIFT + MANUAL - hold for 5s) only appears to deal with the controls but not the patch memory / storage.
My concern now is that the memory in my S6 may not last that much longer if it is starting to show signs of corruption after only 6-7 months of use. I do use this synth pretty much daily, but I’d hope for a slightly longer lifespan for what I expect is a SSD / Flash drive - even with daily use
Ultimately, I think that having a user-serviceable way of formatting and/or physically replacing the patch memory within the s6 would be helpful if this is a more widespread issue.
As I was writing this, I started to think much more about potential causes outside of defective memory. Mounted drives are suddenly and rather unceremoniously unmounted either when the USB cable is disconnected, or the synth is switched off whilst still connected to a computer. Taking a little more care to check that drives have been unmounted first from a connected computer before switching the synth off / unplugging the USB cable would help avoid potential data corruption. I can’t say for certain if this is what’s causing my issues, but I’m sure there must have been at least one occasion when it hasn’t been formally disconnected from the PC. I’ll be a little more vigilant about disconnection and see if the issue persists.
I’ve never had this issue, though my S6 is an early production. Plus there’s too many other synths vieing for my attention. I’ve just done a swap, to put my own patch creations on the upper, and factory ones on the lower (black button flashing) bank. It’s played from a stage piano, where the pre-set buttons access Bank A. I don’t like the factory patches, so my own are more important for playing.
You can’t transfer patches between upper and lower banks, without loosing one or the other, Why? Because the patch has to be in buffer memory in order to save it. You always loose one or the other patch. If you are that bothered, you can do it on your computer, BUT you cannot drag & drop single patch files around to new locations. Only make an entirely new patch folder to over-write on the S6. Hope that helps.
If you think that sucks, please remember, this synth runs rings around just every synth on the market, or ever. Its sound is simply gorgeous. It’s like the voice of god.