Hi Chris,
don't worry, the old presets are still there. What happened is that with the Kore64 installed the Exp1 and Exp2 buttons takes you to the new programs starting from id 3200.
Enter #641 from the numeric keypad and you'll get the drum kits programs. Starting from #769 there are the fm pianos, pads and pipe organs...

Thanks a lot. You're right, everything is there!!

To me, program organization is the big flaw of an (otherwise excellent) instrument. I just won't get it into my head that it isn't possible to select - lets say - "Voice" and get all voice programs to scroll through at once. Makes it impossible to find the right sound if you do not know your instrument perfectly - who does?. Quick Access helps but is nothing more than a workaround. I do understand that it would be a big deal to fix this in an OS upgrade as it would completely revolutionize the structure of the workstation. Still, why they didn't think of that in the first place stays a mystery for me.

Simultaneously press Enter and 1 on the numeric keypad, for example, type Guitar in the search bar. click OK. All guitars are turned over by holding the Enter button and click "+" or "-" .

Ok thanks, didn't know that (although a little complicated). But one essential question:
Does it show me all instruments that are saved under Category "Guitar" or all instruments which have "Guitar" as a part of their program name?

It searches the "guitar" from program names. The search is not case sensetive.

br,
jukka

Some details on using the search string feature:

http://kurzweil.com/knowledgebase/pc3k7 ... rface/328/

That said, yes the category system on the PC3/K is lacking. In short the category system only works for the MIDI Base 1 and Base 2 banks. Beyond that, there is unfortunately no correlation.

This clearly seems stupid now, but all this stems from the fact that the PC3 platform, as a whole, started out as a very different product at a very bad time in our company years ago, (just out of bankruptcy and fighting to stay alive with only a few engineers on staff). The PC3 was going to be a much simpler product and more of an update to the PC2 line (not K2 line). As such it was going to only have a few hundred sounds, almost no programmability etc - for which the existing built-in category system would have covered well.

But as luck would have it, shortly following this same period, we had renewed investment and interest in the product (and company) and soon it grew into something much much greater and deeper than initially spec'd. Production however was already underway so "turning the boat around" was not an option, and as such the category tool was essentially broken in the process to accommodate all the newly added programs (hundreds) and other functionality. The choice was literally add more sounds and break the cat. system or not expand the sound set at all. All things considered this was the lesser evil.

At this point to go back and make it all work as it really should is just not in the cards (a TON of work to do and would potentially affect the thousands of PC3 series users already having built their material around the present layout). FWIW, newer models (Forte, Artis, PC3LE, SP4/5) do not suffer the same issues in this regard as they were developed AFTER the PC3 platform.

Having said all that, you do have a few other methods for mining/organizing sounds in the PC3.

1) realize the MIDI banks buttons above the slider are organized to a good degree. So using your ex, the STRINGS bank will take you to a bank of 128 string only presets. The Orchestra bank similarly, and so on.

2) Search String (mentioned above) - the PC3K support the ability to do a textual matching search just like any computer - details below:

http://kurzweil.com/knowledgebase/pc3k7 ... rface/328/

3) though not ideal for every situation, do not overlook the Object File lists included in the most current OS update package. Within the download is a folder titled "Object Lists" which contains Excel and PDFs listing all Programs, Setups etc. Using any computer, mobile device, etc, searching things by common name can be useful. Certainly easier to get a birds-eye view.

4) also do not forget about the free Desktop Editor Software from SoundTower - it offers not only programming options but better searching/sorting tools as well:

http://www.soundtower.com/pc3k/index.html

5) for organizing/storing/recalling your own faves, the most popular method is QA Mode (Chpt 8 in the PC3 Musician's Guide). Details below:

http://kurzweil.com/knowledgebase/pc3k7 ... _mode/329/

Hope this info helps.