Help me understand memory expansion structure

20 Oct 2006, 01:10

Hello - I've got the Fantom X7. I want to start exploring the X's sampling functions - both my own and 3 party samples, such as the William Coakley piano. Let's say I loaded up my Fantom X with the maximum DIMM cards, so I had 544 megs or whatever of memory. Let's also say that my total sample collection was less than 544 megs - I could store all my samples inside the Fantom without ever needing to worry further about CF cards right? I'd only need to keep using the CF cards if my sample collection was greater than 544 megs - then I'd need to pick and choose which samples are loaded at one time?

Also - I read others state that when loading up from CF that the maching takes a long time to boot up. If the large sample was loaded internally to the DIMM cards - does that speed up the boot time?

Thanks in advance.

Midiguy

Re: Help me understand memory expansion structure

20 Oct 2006, 01:18

You're samples will be stored by CF card and loaded into your internal dimm at startup or you can load them later etc.. Your 512 mb SD Ram chip is your working memory and every sample needs to be loaded into that working memory if you want to use that sample whether it is stored internally or externally (CF card). you don't have a lot of internal storage space.

So you will need CF card to store samples. I have 2 512 cards and a 128 card.
You will also need a 512mb Ram chip to load the samples. check the faqs for the specs.

Yes it takes a long time to load/write big samples. However you can do other things in this time.

It is not great if you want to use huge sample libraries and switch between them live etc.....

Re: Help me understand memory expansion structure

20 Oct 2006, 02:25

Lets imagine the Fantom is a computer. The CF card is equivalent to the computers hard drive, it is where everything is stored when the machine is turned off. The Fantom has an internal memory card of 32 Mb, if you need more, you must purchase an external memory card and pcmcia adapter to put it into the slot on the back of the Fantom.

DIMM modules are used to store samples in short term, volatile memory, and is the same as computer RAM memory. Everything that is not been saved to User or Card memory will be lost when the Fantom is turned off.

I would recommend that you buy a CF card that is as big as your internal DIMM memory. If you have 544 MB sampling ram, you need a 512Mb CF card to store it on. Theoretically you could use line/microphone input and skip-back sampling to fill 512Mb of sampling RAM, then delete whatever you don't like and just store the things you like in 32Mb User memory, but thats just not going to happen, is it?

Since DIMM memory is cleared when the Fantom is switched off, you absolutely 100% need to load any samples you need from User or Card memory to sample memory before the Fantom can use them to create any sounds. So if you decide to use Coakleys piano, prepare to have a cup of coffe every time you turn your Fantom on. It is just a fact of life.

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Re: Help me understand memory expansion structure

20 Oct 2006, 03:48

You can also checkout the Fantom FilesystemMasterClass
below..

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

Results not Excuses

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My Setup

Re: Help me understand memory expansion structure

20 Oct 2006, 11:04

And there's also a tutorial I put on my web site that might help
here. Click on 'Memory and Data Storage'.

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