Hey Mike, classic vintage gear woes! If your X3 floppy drive is dead, try using a USB floppy drive on your PC to copy the .SNG files. Once you have them on your computer, you’ll need a special tool to convert Korg’s .SNG to standard MIDI. There’s no official universal converter, but searching for Korg X3 editor software or community tools like sng-to-midi converters might help. You can also try importing SysEx data into Cubase if you can extract it. If nothing works, recording the MIDI output live from your X3 (if it powers up) is the last resort. Retro gear can be tricky, but the tunes are worth it!

Hi, thank you for replying. As you say there isn’t an official converter for the .sng to midi. I’ve tried every app I can find on the internet but none of them will do the conversion. It seems that the only way to do the conversion is with another X3. I have the .sng files on a floppy and backed up on my computer, but I cannot load them into the X3 because of the faulty floppy. I’ve had some quotes to replace the floppy with the usb floppy in the region of £500 which I cannot afford. I’m still hoping for a friendly X3 owner to do the conversion for me, I would be happy to pay for their time.

Best regards,

Mike.

Hi, thank you for replying. As you say there isn’t an official converter for the .sng to midi. I’ve tried every app I can find on the internet but none of them will do the conversion. It seems that the only way to do the conversion is with another X3. I have the .sng files on a floppy and backed up on my computer, but I cannot load them into the X3 because of the faulty floppy. I’ve had some quotes to replace the floppy with the usb floppy in the region of £500 which I cannot afford. I’m still hoping for a friendly X3 owner to do the conversion for me, I would be happy to pay for their time.

Best regards,

Mike.

Hi Nora, thank you for replying. I will follow your diagnosis advice and see if it resolves things.

Best regards 

Mike

Mike, pretty sure Nora is a bot/spam.

But, I and a few other forum members have various old software that MIGHT be able to convert your SNG files to standard MIDI.  Can you please place them all in a zip file and load them here as an attachment?  We can test them and see if we can convert them for you.

The forums aren't what they used to be, so it may take a while to get a response.  In the meantime, check out the older posts about SNG files and what we were/were not able to help with.

https://midi.org/community/midi-specifications/sng-files-from-voyetra-spg

Hi Jason,

Thank you for replying !

I have attached the zipped .sng files. My former band members and I will be eternally grateful if its possible to convert them!

Thanks for the heads up about 'Nora' the bot! 

Best regards,

Mike

Unfortunately, I am unable to open them with my software  😑 Hopefully someone else will be able to help out.  (Congratulations, though, on providing the first batch of SNGs I can't help with 😋 )

I'm doing some investigation, and did come across this adapter that lets you use a standard floppy drive as a replacement.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/386918416771

Hi Jason,

Thank you for trying!

I did see this adapter and a usb version I asked a synth repair workshop and I was quoted approx £500 to do the repair which unfortunately I cannot afford. If I try myself I would probably wreck the whole synth!

Perhaps a Korg X3 owner would be kind enough to help me?

All the best,

Mike.

Give these a shot.  I'm not sure how accurate they are.  I found a utility on another forum, it only runs on older versions of Windows.  It appears to have converted your files, though I have no way to compare them to the originals.  I've also included the utility, just in case.  It is command line, and has additional options to convert by song number as well, since apparently the Korg SNG file can contain multiple songs.  I just ran the basic conversion on each.

Found on this forum:

https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=327385

Hi Jason,

Thank you so much for doing this! I will try them tomorrow first thing.

I’ll down the utility and see if I can do it.

Unfortunately I’m a computer dummy when it comes to command lines etc, so if you don’t mind I may need to ask you for further help?

Best regards,

Mike

Hi Jason,

I have imported the midi files into Cubase and they have loaded perfectly!

Just trying out the different tracks.

Thank you so much for doing this!

Best regards,

Mike

Posted by: Mike Potter

↑

Korg x3 Workstation

I have a floppy disk with my .SNG files but my X3 floppy disk drive isn’t working.

I have songs on the floppy disk that I want to recover.

Is there any software that I could use to convert the .sng to Standard MIDI (*.mid) so I can load them into my sequencer (Cubase).

I would be grateful if someone could help me out with this,

Best regards,

Mike

Hi Mike,

You're in a common situation—many Korg X-series users run into this when their floppy drives stop working.

✅ Here's what you can do:

1. Recover the files from the floppy disk

Since your X3's floppy drive isn't working, you'll need to:

• Use a PC with a working floppy drive, or

• Get a USB external floppy drive (they’re still available online).

If the floppy is still readable, copy all the .SNG files to your computer.

2. Convert .SNG to MIDI

Unfortunately, Korg .SNG files are in a proprietary format specific to the X3 and are not readable by most DAWs directly.

However, here are a few workarounds:

Option A: Use a Korg X3 Emulator or Hardware

• Load the .SNG files back into a working Korg X3 (yours or borrowed).

• Then export them as Standard MIDI files (.MID) using the X3’s internal “Save as MIDI” option.

• Transfer the .MID file to your computer via floppy.

Option B: Use a Korg X3 File Converter

• There’s no official or widely known standalone converter for .SNG to .MID, but a few developers and collectors have written custom tools or scripts.

• Search for utilities like:

  • X3 to MIDI converter (rare, but sometimes shared on synth forums)

  • Check out old forums like KorgForums, Gearspace, VintageSynth, or even GitHub repositories for user-made tools.

3. Ask the Community

If you can't find a working X3 or converter:

• Consider uploading the .SNG file somewhere (Dropbox, Google Drive).

• Ask nicely in Korg or synth enthusiast forums—some users still own working X3s and may convert it for you.

💡 Tips:

• Be sure the .SNG files are truly from a Korg X3, as Korg M1, M3, and other series use different formats.

• Try not to open or modify the files before conversion—any corruption may prevent loading.

Hi Anna, thank you for replying.

Jason found a utility that can convert .sng to midi.

It works well but with some errors. The errors are consistent so it’s fairly straightforward to reconstruct the midi files to their original 

format!

Best regards, 

Mike.