What's the use of al the ROM banks on my TI?

You can "flash" the ROM banks using the Virus control app, but for general day-today use stick with the RAM banks since you can store to those immediately as you are working with a patch.

I am new to the Ti2 and just updated to version 5.03. yesterday. How do I install the downloadable patches from the Access site? Are you saying that I do that from Virus Control? What do you mean "flash" the ROM banks? I want to understand the distinction between Ti2's RAM and ROM.

I tried to download the video installer and yet I cannot open it and get the message that it is empty and I need to load (videos) it first.

Is there a video on either of these that I can watch?

Thanks Michael

mcintalker: Well, simply put, the ROM memory is "protected" and the RAM memory is not. For example, RAM memory will be erased if the internal battery dies while the unit is not powered and also you can store individual patches in RAM from the unit itself or the VC plugin, but the ROM memory can only be written one bank at a time, and the procedure is a little more complicated. Once you install the Virus SW suite, you have a utility called Virus Control Center (VCC) in which you can select a .mid file of a bank you downloaded and burn it to a ROM bank of your choice.
Hope this helps.

Thanks flabberbob. I understand the difference, as a concept. I didn't realize that the ROM could be user controlled (haven't owned a synth that allowed that before!) or changed. I have downloaded several banks of presets, though I have not created a Virus library yet. That is what I want to know about. My library drive is an external usb3 unit. Can I simply extract the banks to a Virus folder there and tell the VCC where to look ?

This is my question. What to do -how to go about getting the banks of presets accessible. Now I need to understand the practical uses of the RAM vs the ROM storage, also.

I will be using my Ti2 in my studio on my own songs and instrumentals. I have no plans at this point to take it out to do live gigs, though I suppose that could change. I am guessing that using ROM is safer and more convenient (if slower to set up), even in a studio setting.

Thanks Michael

ROM banks are most useful for patches which would most probably never change, such as sounds you want to use again and gain. An example was to create patches covering soundbank constellations know outside the virus world, where instrument numbers refer to standards like GM. For exampe you could reserve one bank for GM and another for GM drums, so the virus can play standard midi for rehearse.

Zitat von mcintalker

My library drive is an external usb3 unit. Can I simply extract the banks to a Virus folder there and tell the VCC where to look ?

I think VC (the plugin) always looks in <your_personal_SW_folder>/Access/patches (exact path depends on OS), so you have to copy all the patches there. I recommend frequently backing them up to a portable drive, though.
This is for the studio usage. For flashing ROM, you can tell VCC (the utility) exactly where to look, so it doesn't matter where you put them.

Yeah I noticed that VC doesn't really seem to be very configurable in terms of where the directories it uses are located. If you are using Mac OS X, you can create an alias from some other directory structure to the hard coded ones VC uses. This is how I organize all my patches, samples, sysex dumps, etc (all under their own folder hierarchy, and I just symlink from there to the Access directories, keeping all the rest of my Elektron & Nord gear together in one place).

Also, there is no official word that I've seen regarding how flexible the ROM storage space is, only the note about battery and the RAM. I would suggest sticking to the pattern of using the RAM banks for your more fluid "sound design" space, and ROM for static presets. ROM memory works differently than RAM, and can only be written to so many times (really should be referred to as EPROM, as true ROM is writable only once). Again, I have no idea what the real limitation is, but do think it is good practice to treat them differently.