According to the Korg Z1 manual, there are 16 different user groups.
This message is mainly about those user groups, but I think it will
be of interest to fellow members of this User Group and I would be
pleased to have views and suggestions.

There is a user group setting in every Korg Z1 patch. All 256 patches
in the Bank A and B factory presets are set to User Group 1. Do any
members already use the user group setting, or is it just an unused
feature of the Korg Z1?

I was looking into the possibility of making more use of the user
group setting. The Korg Z1 has special keys to find patches in the
same user group (similar to those for program category). Also the
2004 Editor program has the facility to sort patches by user group
and also to find patches with a particular user group number. These
user group options were included in the program for completeness,
without any particular use in mind.

I thought it would make the user group setting more attractive if you
could change the setting for a whole group of patches rather than
have to change them individually. I have done that, and it is now
possible to select a group of patches in the bank editor and press
Ctrl 1 (or 2, 3...) to change the user group settings of each patch
to user group 1 (or 2, 3...). This feature will be included in any
future upgrade of the 2004 Editor.

This new feature may just be a solution looking for a problem.
However, it could be handy on its own for marking patches used for a
particular performance or recording, or for showing patches used in
multisets or by a sequencer which you do not want to move or
overwrite. Any views?

An interesting result of this is that it opens up the possibility of
global editing using the bank editor. Currently it is only possible
to change patch settings for one patch at a time using the patch
editor. I think this is true of all editors. With global editing you
could make changes to any or all 128 bank patches in one operation.

With a tiny bit of programming, similar to the user group feature,
global editing could be extended to include the link arppeggio
setting, for example. Up to now, if you have a new arpeggiator
pattern which you want to use with all your bass patches, you would
need to change the link arpeggio number in each patch individually.
With global editing you could use the new Find tool to select the
patches you want and then change the link arpeggio number in all the
selected patches at a stroke (or with just a couple of keystrokes or
mouse clicks).

With a little bit more programming it would be possible to include a
tool for applying the same group (eg FX) or section (eg MFX)
settings to all selected patches in one go.

I really don't know how far to develop this Global Edit idea. Many
people are happy with the 2004 program as it is, so I might not
pursue it further. This is an opportunity for Korg Z1 users to
influence the way a Korg Z1 program is developed. I would be very
interested to know the views of the Group.

Best wishes



Ian