G2 more variations

[ian-s]

Seems a few G2 owners would like more patch variations. I generally feel that 8 is enough but can see how more could be useful, especially for compositions (variations on sequencer patterns etc).
Here are my thoughts on how it could be implemented on the current hardware without much pain; I suspect that all the firmware code is in flash memory.

Press the [Shift] key, one of the 8 VARIATION LED's blink indicating which 'variation bank' is selected. While holding down shift, press a button from 1-8 to change bank. A new variation will not be active until you press the second digit (which of the 8 variations in the new bank you want).
Changing variations within a bank is performed exactly as it is now but you have 8 banks of 8 or 64 variations. Managing banks on the editor is easy, just add a dropdown or similar. The midi CC70 (I think) can handle up to 128 variations so no problem there.
If not done already, variations should be compressed (unused variations/banks take no additional memory).
The textpad buffer overrun bug should probably be addressed first . And creating those new modules should take precedence.
Do any of the G1 users remember how long it typically takes between minor version upgrades?

[huffcw]

I really like this idea!

[mosc]

I think this is an excellent suggestion also, but I'm not so bummed by only 8 variations. Still, you suggest a way it might be done in a way that is compatilbe with the current system.

As for upgrades, when the G1 was new, software upgrades were coming out pretty frequently, every few months. Then they just stopped cold.

I know they are in the beta test phase for the OSX stuff now. I expect there will be an synth upgrade and an editor upgrade soon when they get that nailed down.

[blue hell]

[mosc]

I'd trust Jan's memory about this better than my own.