Projects and storage

A project is one song: the four tracks' engines and sounds, every pattern, the arrangement, the mix, track and master effects, BPM and swing, the keyboard and every track's chord and arpeggiator. Projects live on the SD card; they are saved, loaded and created on the PROJECT and FILES pages of 0 SETUP. Your current work is also kept by itself on the card (see Your work is kept). The SD card is the only place the Cardenza keeps anything: without a card nothing is saved.

Kept in the project	Not in the project
Engines, sounds, samples (by file name), patterns, song, mix (levels, mute, solo, SEQ), track and master effects, BPM, swing, keyboard (KEYS), chords and arpeggiators	SELECT (an app preference), device settings (volume, key lights, screen, log), LOOP / SONG, REC

Save, save as, new, open

01FN+S

FN+S on any screen (or SAVE in the FN menu): saved at once, SAVED and the name show at the bottom. A project without a name gets the first free one: SONG 01, SONG 02…

02HOLDESC+9G1

0 SETUP PROJECT: SAVE, LOAD, NEW; SAVE AS (type your own name) is in the FN menu of this page.

03CTRL

FILES: the projects on the card; ↑← / ↓SUB choose, ↵OK loads.

The screen and the key lights at that moment

1. 1SAVE: save now
2. 2LOAD: open the FILES list
3. 3NEW: start a new project
4. 4Name · UNSAVED: changes not saved yet

The PROJECT page of SETUP.

• With unsaved changes the PROJECT page says UNSAVED next to the name, and SAVE in the FN menu reads UNSAVED; creating or opening another project asks first (↵OK = yes, ESC = no).
• The FN menu on PROJECT and FILES has NEW, LOAD and SAVE AS. More in PROJECT and FILES.
• A NEW project has the default four tracks T1 DRUMS T2 JUNO T3 DX7 T4 SAMPLER and the default play settings (C major, no chords, arpeggiators off).
• Saving can fail with a message at the bottom: NO SD CARD (the Cardenza started without a card), SD CARD ERROR (the card cannot be written), SAVE SAMPLE FIRST (a sample recording is not saved yet), NO MEMORY. Loading: INVALID PROJECT, SAMPLE MISSING (a sample the project names is not in Samples/), NO MEMORY.
• Projects are plain text files, format 7 (.ccproj); formats 1–6 also load (before 6 they carry no keyboard, chords or arpeggiators, so the current ones stay). Release 0.1.0 opens formats 1–6 only: a project saved by this firmware is format 7. Samples are named by file name, so renaming or deleting a sample on the card affects every project that uses it.
• Writing is atomic: a temporary file is written first and then replaces the old one, so a power cut while saving never leaves a broken project.

Your work is kept

With an SD card in, you can switch the Cardenza off or pull the power at any moment: the working state is saved by itself on the card and comes back as it was at the next start.

• It holds everything a project holds, plus the project's name and whether it was UNSAVED (loading another project still asks first). It opens on T1.
• It is written once the keys rest: 1.5 s after the last key, with no key held, playing or not. While keys keep coming (or a sample plays from the card) it waits 60 s at most. The card is written in the background, so the music and the screen never wait for it, and a key that changed nothing writes nothing. Switching to another app writes it at once.
• It is not a project: only SAVE writes a named project. Save what you want to keep, and before you load or create another project.
• If it cannot be written, the screen says AUTOSAVE FAILED: SD CARD ERROR (or NO SD CARD when the card was taken out) and it keeps trying; your changes are written as soon as the card answers again.
• A sample recording you have not saved yet waits on the card (Session/take-<track>.wav); after a restart it comes back with UNSAVED TAKE IS BACK. A sample the work uses that is not on the card is loaded as soon as the card is back.
• If the device fails to start three times in a row, the next start skips the working state once.
• Not kept: the capture takes and whether it was playing. Without a card nothing is kept at all (see No card, or a bad card).

tip

Settings (SELECT, volume, key lights, screen, log) reach the SD card about a second after you change them; there is nothing to save by hand.

Folders on the SD card

Everything is in one folder, CardenzaSynth, at the top of the card:

<SD card>/CardenzaSynth/
  Settings/system.cfg      device settings (volume, key lights, screen, log)
  Settings/synth.cfg       the groovebox's preferences (SELECT)
  Projects/                projects (.ccproj)
  Presets/<engine>/        sounds you saved
  Samples/                 samples, shared by every app
  Session/                 your working state, a sample recording not saved yet
  Logs/                    the log (log.txt)
  Apps/<Author>/<Name>/    other apps, each in its own folder

• These are the folders of release 0.1.0: its projects, sounds and samples are used where they are.
• Folders of other firmware (development builds' Cardenza/ folder, and CardenzaSynth/Project, Preset, Sample from before 0.1.0) are neither read nor changed. To use those files, copy them into the folders above on a computer: the file formats are the same.
• Each app writes only its own folder and the shared Samples/.

Settings files

The .cfg files in Settings/ are plain text, one key=value per line, readable and editable on a computer:

# Cardenza settings: Cardenza/Synth (storage protocol 2)
keys.select=1

Reading is forgiving: broken lines are skipped and unknown keys are kept as they are (newer and older firmware can share a card). When the device writes its changes it reads the file again first and changes only what was changed on the device, so an edit made on a computer stays.

The log

While LOG on 0 SETUP SYSTEM is ON (the default) and there is a card, the Cardenza writes what it reports to CardenzaSynth/Logs/log.txt: every start with the firmware's version, loads and saves, errors, and the report of a crash. Past 512 KB the file becomes log.1.txt and a new one starts.

When something went wrong (a crash, a sound that stopped, a save that failed), send these two files with a short description: they say what happened. With LOG OFF nothing is written.

No card, or a bad card

The screen and the key lights at that moment

1. 1SD card: READY / NOT FOUND
2. 2VOLUME · KEY LED · SCREEN · LOG

SETUP SYSTEM: the SD card state.

The Cardenza looks for the card once, when it starts.

• Started without a card: after the start animation a notice says NO SD CARD, NOTHING WILL BE SAVED, INSERT A CARD AND RESTART TO SAVE (↵OK or ESC closes it). For the whole run the device does not touch a card, not even one put in later: you can play and change settings, but nothing is kept when the power goes, saving says NO SD CARD, FILES is empty and the guide does not start. Put a card in and restart.
• A card that stops answering during a run: the failed operation says SD CARD ERROR, and the device looks for the card again; settings and your working state are written once it answers.
• SETUP SYSTEM shows the card's state: SD CARD READY or NOT FOUND.