Every so often, I receive panicked messages from Kronos owners inadvertently deleting, overwriting or jumbling up their sounds and onboard data. Unfortunately, for some, it's permanent and irreversible. This could mean disaster if your data represents hours, days or even years worth of work or when it strikes right before a performance. Here are some tips to help avoid this from happening.
Backup Regularly
Make sure you backup your Kronos regularly and save these backup files in at least 1 other storage device other than the Kronos' internal SSD. It's a good idea to upload these files to cloud storage such as dropbox or google drive as well. Save All does not duplicate custom sample data saved in individual folders so make sure you have a backup of those as well by copying KSC, UserBank.KSC and Folders containing the sample data.
Never Load PCG's Blindly
Always open and inspect a newly downloaded PCG file first before loading into your Kronos. Not only could it potentially overwrite your current sounds, setlists, wavesequences and drum patterns in conflicting locations, it could also alter your Global settings such as pedal polarity, velocity curves, switch assignments, tuning, midi etc. If you don't have a backup PCG, you can lose your data FOREVER.
Be Aware of Apple Mac's Useless Garbage Files
When creating, downloading or transferring files from a Mac, be aware that you will get unwanted files with file names with an underscore as a prefix ( _filename) with 4 kilobytes as their file size in the USB drive you're storing to. Ignore or delete these files and locate the actual files that you want to load once you've inserted the USB stick to your Kronos. These files are often the culprit when mistakenly loaded in the Auto Load section of Global Mode and samples fail to load.
Save Your Volatile Data Before Powering Off
Sequencer Mode and Sampling Mode data have to be saved prior to turning off your Kronos. When saving songs, go to Disk Mode and select Save Seq. If you recorded audio too, save region data as well. Sequencer Data is saved as .SNG files, if there are accompanying audio tracks, these are saved in a separate folder containing region data. Do not relocate or rename this folder.
Sampling Mode data is also volatile and will be lost when not saved in Disk Mode. Here’s the procedure when using these samples as the basis of your programs.
-In Sampling Mode, load Audio files or record samples from an audio source. -Assign samples to keys and name your MS(Multisample). -In Disk Mode select Save Sampling Data and select Sampling Mode only. This creates 3 items: a folder containing samples (.ksf), a KSC file and a UserBank.KSC. Make sure that all three are always together in your HD. -Go to Global Mode, KSC Autoload tab and add your newly created UserBank.KSC then press Autoload Now. -In Program mode, create a program based on your new samples by selecting your newly selected MS in the OSC section.
Take Care When Initializing Program or Combi Banks
Be especially careful when initializing a Program or Combi. When doing so, you’re given the option to initialize the entire Program or Combi Bank. This could be disastrous if you do not have any backup files.
External Software Can Erase Your Stuff
Be mindful as well when using editor software or linking to iOS devices that can rewrite your programs, Combis and setlists. Wiping your data can be as easy as a press of a button. Backup, backup, backup!
It Takes a Few Seconds To Write Data
When saving data in Disk Mode, give it several seconds before you shut off the Kronos to ensure that the data has indeed already been saved.
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