Hi everyone - I’ve been a happy owner of a Motif XS 8 for 6 years, love the workflow of composing w/it and that with the help of reading these forums, I’ve always been able to resolve any problems without having to post a question here. But there is a first time for everything I guess… so I hope one of the more experienced folks/gurus can help.

I am an amateur songwriter, but I did give in to the temptation of the current large discount for a Cubase 7.5 upgrade from Cubase AI4 and have patiently been trying to learn how to use it in an integrated way w/my XS8 thru the FW connection with my 2013 iMac. I’ve read many of the threads and watched many of Steinberg’s youtube videos but have a few problems and if anyone could offer any help that’d be fantastic! I know BadMister urges everyone to state what they are trying to achieve first: I am trying to do audio editing (largely vocals w/Variaudio 2) and other final midi & audio clean-ups in Cubase to songs that include both Midi and Audio recorded in the XS8. My current song as it is in my Motif includes a couple of midi tracks w/normal and user voices (from the Motif XSpanded downloads), as well as audio recorded directly into the Motif on three audio tracks - bass, guitar and vocals. To move final editing into Cubase, here is what I did: First, I loaded my .XOA file into the Motif (so I have all user voices/audio in there). Then I opened my song w/the Import Motif XS song function in Cubase from a .X0A file. Then I synchronize the Motif XS VST as a rack instrument from the Motif to the computer so the right mix and voices are in the Cubase VST.  After this I change the routing of synchronization in the Motif XS VST so that going forward, data goes from the computer to the Motif. Once I am done with all of this, then I save the project as a .cpr, save the mix as a .XOE from the VST and start working with it. So far so good, everything works well. 

Here are the problems that remain:

1) I would think that this way I can now make changes to the song in Cubase, save it, come back another day and have “total recall” ... i.e open up the .cpr file, then open up the mix from the VST from the .XOE file, and then this would send all the needed voices, mix, etc to the motif thru the FW and then I can continue editing/finalizing in cubase.  Unfortunately, every time I try and do this, the synchronization doesn’t work from the computer to the motif.. I get a time-out error on the cubase screen once it reaches the part where it tries synchronizing voices (global and current go fine every time if I select not to synch voices).  However, because I have user voices, I do need the voices to be sent to the motif as well.  So question #1 is, what do I do to make the voice transfer work?  I’ve tried a bulk transfer from the computer to the motif a few times, and it too gives an error, interestingly also, not for user drums (those do go through!), just for user voices.  I am sure this isn’t supposed to be this way…

2) The second question is hopefully shorter: out of the three audio tracks, one opens in cubase as audio, the other two open as midi tracks, which trigger an audio event. All three audio tracks have been recorded the same exact way in the motif with midi events triggering the playback of the audio samples recorded directly into the motif from my guitar, bass and vocals.  Not sure why then in cubase after using the Import Motif XS song function 2 opens as midi and one as audio?

3) A smaller problem (for which I did find a workaround) is that the Motif XS VST in Cubase would always crash (and would crash Cubase with it) when I try and open the mix from an .X0A file… I did go back and created a reduced size .X0A file in the Motif (the prior one was 1GB) and now this error no longer happens. Still, a problem perhaps something else can be done about?

Not sure if these are complicated questions - as a user, I was thinking these may be issues most users would be facing from a basic workflow perspective.  Any help anyone could offer would be much appreciated!!

May I suggest that you are perhaps over thinking things here and making everything far more complicated than it needs to be. You have just switched from an introductory versions of a program to one of the best DAWs in the world, yet are still approaching this from a workstation perspective. Yes, you can create songs and tracks etc. in your workstation...certainly useful if you are playing live etc, but for recording purposes why not use the features Cubase offers?

Instead of tying Cubase projects permanently to your synth, why not simply transfer any tracks you’ve recorded in that device over to Cubase and leave them there? Look at Cubase projects as self contained. Have all your required MIDI tracks in one project and then use them to generate/render audio files for each and every track. Then when the recording is completed, shut off your synth, and mix and master everything in Cubase. If you leave Cubase projects permanently tied to any work station or external synth, at some point in the future when you come back to that project you could have problems. But if everything is in Cubase and properly stored and recorded, everything will be available. What happens if you change workstations at some point? In short, for general recording, use your work station as a sound generator and record its output as .wav files into Cubase or, if you insist, record some tracks in your workstation, then simply export them to Cubase. Only go in the opposite direction if you want to have a song stored in your synth for some reason. I am not suggesting your workstation is not useful for many things, just that there are better ways to achieve your goals...................frank

Thanks for the quick reply Frank, really appreciate it.

Certainly converting everything to audio by track and completing the work like that sounds like an alternative, the reason I wasn’t going with it was because while making changes to vocals, etc, I thought that I might get into a situation where I’d have to finetune my midi tracks as well (including the notes played/midi data).  Also, as background, I did the song in the MOTIF a while before purchasing Cubase and I was certainly not planning to keep the song linked to the motif infinitely, just for finishing my edits and then convert to audio followed by mastering it to a final stereo file.

Reading up on this site, I thought that initially I had no choice but to link the computer and the motif, so the motif becomes my soundcard else cubase wouldn’t make any sound while playing back my midi tracks after importing the motif song into Cubase. And because my song has some of the XSpand your world user voices, I have to synch voices b/w the two so that this can happen every time I open the project in cubase… i have to have my motif switched on and synched, else i hear no sounds for the midi tracks. And based on the descriptions I did go through from this site, it all works as it is supposed to except that I am getting this time-out error which I would like to get fixed.

I am also still curious about my second question as well… why three audio tracks recorded the same exact way in the motif shows up in two different formats in cubase.

Any help would be appreciated.  I am happy to post screenshots.  Also, just for the record, the motif, cubase, the motif xs vst software and all the FW drivers are all updated to the latest versions available.

Thanks!

Hi again,
I see no one has been by to offer assistance since my last visit, so will try to offer a few more comments today.

Re: “ I thought that I might get into a situation where I’d have to finetune my midi tracks as well (including the notes played/midi data.
---So simply keep all your MIDI tracks muted, and hidden or in a separate folder, in case you have to go back and change things at some point. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to do that. Never delete MIDI, just because you’ve rendered tracks to audio.

Re: “no choice but to link the computer and the motif, so the motif becomes my soundcard else cubase wouldn’t make any sound while playing back my midi tracks after importing the motif song into Cubase.”
---Certainly you would need to use whatever audio interface you have, but not all interfaces are in workstations. :) My point was simply that rendering your MIDI tracks to audio tracks in Cubase is the best way to go. If you change to a different interface sometime, you are still good to go in Cubase. My suggestion was not related to which device to use as an interface.

Re: “I have to have my motif switched on and synched, else i hear no sounds for the midi tracks.”
---:) Of course not. So once your Cubase MIDI track(s)are ready, render your tracks to audio and then that won’t be a problem when you mix and master.

Re: “three audio tracks recorded the same exact way in the motif shows up in two different formats in cubase”
---Since I am not there beside you to see what you might be happening I really can’t say. And I will also leave comments on the workstation’s capabilities to Bad Mister. :) I can only recommend that in the future, when you are recording, use Cubase and you won’t need to worry about audio export or MIDI problems resulting from first using your workstation for that...unless you must have those tracks in your workstation for some reason.
Make things only as complicated as necessary; not make them complicated and then try to simply them. :) Hope that helps...................frank

Thanks Frank.  Makes sense - I really like the recommendation on keeping and muting/hiding midi tracks while working w/the audio to have a way of changing things in the future if needed. Thanks for the other recommendations too!

Meanwhile, Bad Mister helped resolve all the other issues… a quick summary for anyone reading this thread having similar problems:

- The time-out issue during VST synchronization: the issue was some kind of illogical data in my way too big .X0A file. Solution was to do a factory reset, reset the right settings for FW, load just the one song I needed (plus all the user voices needed for it), save new, much smaller .X0A file and then everything works fine.

- Why two of my audio tracks from the Motif XS ISS showed up as midi tracks in Cubase: the PC command was missing from the very beginning of those two tracks, because they were originally recorded in pattern mode, then I used the convert pattern chain to linear song option which by default doesn’t move the PC command that calls up the audio waveform… the Motif is fine w/out that in Song mode but Cubase needs those commands to ID an audio track. Solution: make sure PC command transfers either during moving a pattern chain to a linear song (this has to be selected as an option), or add it back later manually in the Edit Track mode as the first item for these tracks in the Motif XS.

- The final problem was that sample library-based waveforms (such as the voices I love from the XSpand libraries) still didn’t make a sound in Cubase. The solution here is to always load the voices from a USB stick first to the Motif XS prior to performing Total Recall w/Cubase ... the XS only has DIMM, where the actual sounds needed for user voices can only be re-loaded from a USB stick, Cubase or the VST can’t load the oscillators into the DIMM.

Problems solved!
FF