SX900 USB Thumbdrive

[guitpic1]

The SX900 supports two(to host)thumb drives right?

I'm thinking of buying two 32 gig drives for my SX900.

Suggestions as to what has worked for others.  I do have the list of drives Yamaha puts out.  Just wondering what some of you have done?

I'm figuring with 4 gigs of internal memory, I'll have 68 gigs total unless there's something I'm missing...

Thx

😊👍

[andres_fprado]

Hi, guitpic1!

Technically, using an external USB hub, you can have even more thumb drives connected to the instrument. The question is whether this is advisable or not... and the answer is a resounding NOT. Let me explain.

When the keyboard powers up, it will enumerate the USB drives, and assign a drive letter to each (although this is not shown to the user, internally Yamaha uses drive letters the same as your computer). The first external drive gets the letter I:, the second J:, and so on. With several drives, there is no guarantee that the drives will get the same drive letter assigned each time. As all file references are saved as complete paths (including the drive letter), you will find that file references will randomly work or not depending on how the keyboard assigned drive letters.

There is also a second question here: what do you want the space for? Instruments and sound samples (i.e., instrument banks created with YEM) can not be stored neither in the internal 4GB nor in external memory: there is a special dedicated memory for samples, which is connected directly to the sound generator and not accessible from anywhere in the instruments interface, which has 1Gb in the case of the SX900. This sample memory can not be expanded in any way.
The internal drive (4GB) and the external USB drives are mostly used for styles, multipads, registrations, midi files, text files, chord files and audio files (wav and mp3). And settings back-up. With the exception of Audio files, all of these are extremely small (<100kB). In most cases, a 16GB or 32GB memory stick will hold anything you want and more, and still be more than half empty! The only case where a large external drive makes sense is if you intend to do audio recordings on your keyboard, and keep them all in the drive, in which case you should look for a big and fast pen drive.

Regards!

[guitpic1]

Thx for the reply

Regarding storage functions, I own a Genos and have had other PSR keyboards.  I know how storage works on Yamaha boards...but thanks anyway.

And your right, not much space is needed.

I'm just trying to find out which thumb drives folks have had success with.

Thx again

[Divemaster]

Sandisc Cruser Blade  16 GB in different colours. Never had any issues.

[Joe H]

I use Kingston 8GB DataTraveler 100 G3 USB 3.1/3.0.  I have had NO problems with these thumb drives. And they work very good for Audio recording on the keyboard.

Joe H

[pjd]

Kingston Data Traveler DTEG2 32GB

Kingston may have replaced this model with a newer one. I will only consider drives for which the write speed is explicitly specified. Flash write speed is slower than read and fast write is critical for audio recording.

Hope this helps -- pj

[hammer]

I have been using thumb drives of all
Sizes and brands with all my Yamaha keyboatds
for 15 years. They all work.  Size doesn't
Matter.

Deane

[guitpic1]

Thx all.

Got a 16 gig to work

Many thx 😊👍

[FrankJaco]

Although it seems that almost all USB flash drives will work, I recommend that you consider a small format flash drive such as the SanDisk Ultra Fit...

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B077VXV323/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_image?ie=UTF8&th=1

As this doesn't stick out far from the USB connector, it can be left on the keyboard even when moving it around. No chance of something hitting/pushing sideways on the drive that could damage the USB connector.

fj

[guitpic1]

Agreed.  Ultra fits are what I use and leave in my Genos

[TiasDad]

I'd also recommend getting a short usb extension lead. Constant plugging in & out of the on board usb slots will soon wear them out and it's far cheaper to replace an extension than an on board usb socket