Pa Resource Manager - FAQ

Installation

1. I downloaded the complete setup (PRMSetup.ZIP). What am I expected to do now?
2. I downloaded the executable and help (PRM.ZIP) file. What am I expected to do now?
3. I downloaded the empty database (PRMEmpty.ZIP) file. What am I expected to do now?
4. A message appears, telling me that the file it tries to install is not newer than the one I already have. What should I do?
5. How do I uninstall PRM?

Usage

1. How can I import styles into PRM database?
2. What is a bank and how can I make one?
3. How can I move styles to my Pa?

4. How can I move styles to my Pa (2.4 added features)?

I downloaded the complete setup (PRMSetup.ZIP). What am I expected to do now?

WARNING: I've had problems with PRM 2.4 complete setup, still unsolved. So remember that complete setup will install PRM 2.3 version. You'll need to download PRM.ZIP file and expand it inside your PRM folder, so that PRM.EXE and PRMHelp.chm files will be updated.

PRMSetup.ZIP is a compressed file: please expand it inside a folder, open that folder, locate a file called setup.exe and run it, so that installation procedure starts. 

The installation procedure is very fast and easy. All you have to do is confirm the default installation folder or choose another one.

Wait for installation procedure ending, then remember to copy the empty database inside PRM installation folder (or wherever you like); then click on START / PROGRAM / RicFreak Soft / PRM / PRM 2.3 to run the application.   (Back to Top)

PRM.ZIP is a compressed file: please expand it in a folder and open that folder. You will find two files called PRM.EXE and PRMHELP.CHM. 

All you have to do now is copy those files to your original PRM installation folder. Please remember to save old PRM.EXE and PRMHELP.CHM before overwriting them with this new version: if something goes wrong with latest version, you can restore the previous one.

Now run PRM and look at the top of main window to see if version number is properly changed (to be sure of correctness of the update procedure)   (Back to Top)

PRMEmpty.ZIP is a compressed file: please expand it in a folder and open that folder. You will find a file called PRMEmpty.MDB, an empty (without data) copy of PRM database.

You will need this file if you are a first time installer, because complete setup won't install any database file, to avoid unexpected overwriting. And you can use it to start multiple database copies (don't know, PRM1.MDB for KORG Original styles and PRM2.MDB for self made styles, or whatever), switching between them via the Parameter option inside main window.

I strongly think that you should use one database only, with all your styles inside: sort and filtering options are what you need to work on styles subsets.  (Back to Top)

This is a frequent problem, shared by all the programs in this site. Please refer to Support Page, Setup Messages section.

There are two ways for this task:

First: click on START / PROGRAM / RicFreak Soft / PRM and you will see the Unistall option: click on it and follow the instructions.

Second: open Windows Control Panel (START / SETTINGS / CONTROL PANEL), choose the Add/Remove Programs option, search for PRM inside the list, click on it, then on the uninstall button and follow the instruction.  (Back to Top)

From the style form, click on the [Import from Folder] button. This screen will appear:

First, you need to provide the path to the folder where STY files can be found. This can be accomplished by manually inserting the folder path in the Folder to scan text box, or searching for the import folder with a click on the Search button.

Remember to check the Subfolders box if PRM should explore any subfolder (at any level) of the previously given folder.

Then you have to set the Styles import options, following these rules:

• check the Do not check for duplicated styles, but import everything box if you want import any founded style, ever, without checking for duplicated styles;

• check the Do not check for duplicated styles, but overwrite styles with the same name box if you want import any founded style, ever, but overwriting styles with the same name;

• check the Do not import duplicated styles, regardless their name box if you want not to import already present styles.

• check the Confirm import for each style in each bank box if you want to directly decide what to import. PRM will stop after each bank read completion, will show you the bank content and will let you decide what to do (see the following picture; please note the Family, Group and Author text boxes, for additional informations).

• check the Save bank structure box if you want to save each readed bank along with its styles.

Finally, you can fill the Attach these values to each style text boxes, so that each imported style will have those values attached (as already said, these values can be edited for each bank if the Confirm import for each style in each bank option is checked).

After the import process termination, PRM will ask you for log file display. If you choose Yes a new window will appear, reporting all the import activities. Press ESC to close the import log window.  (Back to Top)

You should be familiar with the bank concept, 'cause it is used by KORG itself. Anyway, a bank is a set of styles (from 1 to 16). When you press one of the styles button on the left of your key board, you are selecting a bank and its styles.

PRM can automate the bank building during the import process, if you checked the Save bank structure box.

So, let's have a look at the style window:

It shows the styles stored inside your database in  1  and the styles grouped in a bank in  2  (forget about  3  now). To make a bank you have to select one or more styles (in the picture the style Soft Beat is selected) and move them to the bank buffer using the  >  button. Styles order inside the bank buffer can be changed; moreover, styles can be removed from the bank buffer using the  <  button.

Remember that a bank is a logic set: styles are linked to the bank, not stored in it. So, when you delete a style from a bank you won't delete the style from your database.

Banks can be updated, saved, deleted and used to build .STY file, to be used on your Pa. Please refer to Bank menu for a list of available options.  (Back to Top)

How can I move styles to my Pa?

Well, to be honest, this is an impossible task. A style can't be saved to a .STY file, because a .STY file contain a bank, that is a set of a variable number of styles (from 1 to 16), with additional informations.

Hence, the first thing to know is how to build a bank of styles. If you aren't familiar with this task, please learn how to do it.

So, from the styles window, press F4 or click Bank menu and Load bank choice: the following window will appear:

Let's assume that you want to save BANK0003 to a .STY file. You have different roads to follow to accomplish this task.

- From the bank load window

With this option you can only save the bank for DIRECT mode access to a floppy disk (DIRECT FD) or inside your PA hard disk (DIRECT HD, if you have an USB interface and if you have properly configured PRM parameters). After you choosed the bank, click on:

-  To DIRECT FD  button and the bank name will appear into the DIRECT FD white boxes (inside yellow rectangles) on the upper right corner of the window;

-  To DIRECT HD  button and the bank name will appear into the DIRECT HD white boxes (inside cyan rectangles) on the right side of the window;

You can store up to three banks in DIRECT FD buffer and up to nine banks in DIRECT HD buffer (buffer means temporary memory).

When you are done, press the:

- Make button to produce a floppy disk that your PA will read pressing its DIRECT FD button.

- Transfer button to move selected bank to DIRECT HD folders of your Pa hard disk.

If you change your mind about the banks to save, click on the Clear button to erase temporary buffers.

 WARNING 

Latest Pa operating systems (1.05 for Pa60 and 3.05 for Pa80) reads DIRECT HD folders during the boot process. Hence, it will not recognize any external change to DIRECT HD folders and files. Moreover, accessing DIRECT HD styles during PRM DIRECT HD styles transfer may lead to an error.

So, as long as KORG won't fix this problem (probably never!), this is the correct procedure to follow:

1) Turn on your Pa and don't touch anything

2) Transfer up to nine banks to DIRECT HD folders

3) Power off your Pa

4) Wait a little

5) Power on your Pa and enjoy it (and its freshly loaded DIRECT HD styles)

Please remember that if you access your Pa DIRECT HD folders from your PC (via USB), your board won't read them anymore (a read error message will appear) until you turn its power off and back on again.

- From the style window

Click on Load selected style bank button. PRM will go back to styles window and the selected bank will appear in the right part of that window. Now click Bank menu and Make .STY file choice (or press F5). The following window will appear:

where you can choose between different options:

Make as ... to save the .STY file anywhere you like, with the name you choose

Make as A:\... to save the .STY file to floppy disk, with the name you choose

Make as A:\USER01 to save the .STY file to floppy disk, with the name USER01.STY

Make for DIRECT FD - Bank 1 to save the .STY file to a DIRECT FD floppy disk as USER01.STY

Make for DIRECT FD - Bank 2 to save the .STY file to a DIRECT FD floppy disk as USER02.STY

Make for DIRECT FD - Bank 3 to save the .STY file to a DIRECT FD floppy disk as USER03.STY

Make for DIRECT HD - Bank 1 to save the .STY file to your Pa first DIRECT HD folder as USER01.STY

Make for DIRECT HD - Bank 2 to save the .STY file to your Pa first DIRECT HD folder as USER02.STY

Make for DIRECT HD - Bank 3 to save the .STY file to your Pa first DIRECT HD folder as USER03.STY

Make for DIRECT HD - Bank 4 to save the .STY file to your Pa second DIRECT HD folder as USER01.STY

Make for DIRECT HD - Bank 5 to save the .STY file to your Pa second DIRECT HD folder as USER02.STY

Make for DIRECT HD - Bank 6 to save the .STY file to your Pa second DIRECT HD folder as USER03.STY

Make for DIRECT HD - Bank 7 to save the .STY file to your Pa third DIRECT HD folder as USER01.STY

Make for DIRECT HD - Bank 8 to save the .STY file to your Pa third DIRECT HD folder as USER02.STY

Make for DIRECT HD - Bank 9 to save the .STY file to your Pa third DIRECT HD folder as USER03.STY

Note that you cannot select more that one style at a time; this means that building a complete DIRECT FD floppy is a three step process, and reprogramming nine DIRECT HD banks of your Pa is a nine step process. Both are much longer and tedious than the previous.

Remember that .STY files made without the DIRECT options should be loaded inside your Pa USERxx banks to be played, while .STY files made with the DIRECT options can be directly accessed pressing Pa DIRECT FD button or enabling Pa DIRECT HD mode.  (Back to Top)

How can I move styles to my Pa (2.4 added features)?

PRM 2.4 added support for configurations. A configuration is the name I choosed for the whole set of styles that your Pa can manage: 19 banks of standard styles, 3 banks of DIRECT FD styles and 9 banks of DIRECT HD styles: a total count of 31 banks, that is 496 styles (to be honest, banks of styles can be stored inside the flash card too, but I ignored this option. Maybe, in the future...)

So, another way of moving styles to your Pa is building a configuration and moving it to your board. Let's look at this picture:

This window will let you manage the whole set of styles that can be loaded inside your Pa as a single entity.

First, there are three important zones in this window:

• the upper part, wich is very similar to real Pa styles selection board. This should be used to select banks (and styles) destinations (let's call them slots);

• the left-lower part, where configuration content, bank content and styles name can be specified; please note the Data transfer process message box (where messages about data transfer progress will be displayed) and the Bank board and Direct boards indicators (to have a fast and punctual view about your configuration, free slots ecc.);

• the right-lower part, where banks and/or styles can be viewed and selected in a treeview fashion.

So, how can you define a configuration? Just type a description inside the Configuration box, and double click a bank in the right tree (banks are written in black): the bank name will appear inside the Bank box, and all the styles linked to that bank will populate the sixteen Styles boxes with the styles names. But, if you prefer, you can move single styles from the tree to the desired place simply dragging and dropping them (styles are written in blue). In both cases, style names can be changed (without affecting original styles name) simply typing inside the Styles boxes. Moreover, you can use the Tree menu choiche to load the tree with styles grouped in banks (default) or with styles only, without bank grouping.

When you are ready with first slot, you can select another slot (using the upper style selection board), store another bank in it, changing its content and so on. Please note that each used slots is now turned to red inside Bank board and Direct boards.

When you are done (that is when you have moved data to the desired slots), choose the Save option of File menu (or press F8) and your configuration will be saved to PRM database.

Configurations can be loaded, modified, updated, and deleted; banks can be renamed and deleted, and styles can be renamed, but their original name (both for banks and for styles) can be restored.

There's no need to move data to each slot. A configuration can store just a single style.

Ok, now one (or more) configuration is ready: how can I move these data to my keyboard? Well, it is absolutely easy: just click the Transfer Data option of File menu (or press F5). Here is what will happen:

1. PRM will duplicate all data of resource folder to a temporary folder.

2. PRM will start reading all the styles and banks of your configuration, and moving those data to the temporary folder (activity messages will be showed inside the Data transfer process yellow box).

3. When the build process is done another window will appear, asking where configuration data has to be written:

You are free to decide which data will be written and where (of course, PA hard disk options will be disabled if Pa hard disk path is not defined).

With the USB card, you'll need only a floppy disk for DIRECT FD styles; if you haven't the USB card, you will need 8 floppy disks:

• 5 floppy disks for Standard Banks (#1 to #5)

• 1 floppy disk for DIRECT FD banks (#6)

• 2 floppy disks for DIRECT HD banks (#7 and #8)

Now click on Ok button to start moving data to selected destinations.

When the process is done leave your PC and directly use your board:

• for Standard banks: press Disk button, go to Util 1 page, press Restore Data button, press Enter or Exit buttons in order to restore data from floppy disks or from hard disk, press Enter to confirm the restore process and wait until the process completes (wait until DISK IN USE led will go off).

• for DIRECT FD banks: nothing special to do, just use DIRECT FD floppy as usual

• for DIRECT HD banks: if data has been written directly to your Pa hard disk, you should turn it off and on again, or those data cannot be accessed; if data has been written to floppy disks, you have to follow a three step process: load first three banks from floppy #7 to user slots, then save them to Pa hard disk folder named !123; then load three more banks from floppy #7 and save them to !456 folder; then load three more banks from floppy #8 and save them to !789 folder: your DIRECT HD banks have been correctly loaded, and can now be accessed as usual.

Just to give you an idea about the time needed for moving a configuration to the keyboard:

Without USB card

On PC side you'll need about 1 minute to prepare configuration data and about 8 minutes to write data to floppy disks (1 minute each). 

On Pa side you'll need about 5 minutes to restore data from floppies, and about 6 more minutes to load and save user banks to DIRECT HD banks. 

Total needed time for 31 banks of styles is something between 20 and 25 minutes.

With USB card

On PC side you'll need about 1 minute to to prepare configuration data, and only few seconds to move those data to Pa hard disk (but you'll still need 1 minute for DIRECT FD floppy).

On Pa side you'll need less than 1 minute to restore data from hard disk, but you'll have to power the board off and on again for accessing DIRECT HD banks.

Total needed time for 31 banks of styles is less than 5 minutes.