Anyone with advice on using Ableton Live with the XF?

What would you like to know? It works just fine..

Can u tell me about setting it up to work with the XF?
Are u using the FireWire board?

No, I’m using usb midi.

I cannot tell you much about the FW inside of Live, but I can tell you that the Motif functions very well there. If there is anything specific, you will have to be a little more clear as to what you are trying to do or just a general question, .. ok.

I don’t have the FireWire yet.
I wanted to record the audio from the XF to ableton and probably not the midi.
So can I do this ?

Absolutely. Any DAW that can use an ASIO driver can use the Yamaha Steinberg FW Driver, including Ableton Live.

Go to OPTIONS > Preferences… > AUDIO > Select ASIO as your DRIVER TYPE > select Yamaha Steinberg FW ASIO as your Audio Device.

Thanks again Bad Mister!

I met you a number of years ago when you visited Ford Music in Altoona, Pa and really enjoyed your presentation.
Even then you were so knowledgeable and had such an ability to explain things in a manner that anyone could understand.

I use Ableton Live with my XS - Once you figure out Live’s querks it’s like an XF on steroids… Live’s sync to external clock is exemplary. And each pattern in Live can be triggered by a midi note in XS’ pattern change - brilliant...Needless to say I tossed Sonar like a bag of dirt.

Yep, the motif works very well in Live.
I have only one issue, and it’s the same in Logic..

In the Motif Utility, I keep the midi setting on Auto, which should allow me to play in Performance mode (Arps) without the meter running, but sometimes (Often) I have to hit the space bar to start it running and then I can stop it and play. (Rehearse) ..
I just can’t locate what it is? I’m sure it must be something very obvious that I am overlooking?

Other than that, it’s very much at home there.. and sounds very good also.

I just got a motif xf8 and am wondering if I’m going to need to buy a firewire card for it.
I would like to output audio tracks to my computer daw (ableton 9 on win7pc) besides using the midi. It seems really expensive to only have audio channel outs through a 250$ addon card. Do I have any workarounds?

djmast04 - 22 March 2015 03:48 PM

I just got a motif xf8 and am wondering if I’m going to need to buy a firewire card for it.
I would like to output audio tracks to my computer daw (ableton 9 on win7pc) besides using the midi. It seems really expensive to only have audio channel outs through a 250$ addon card. Do I have any workarounds?

Welcome to the forum.

You’ll need some form of audio interface. There are certainly less expensive ones than the FW16E, although they don’t have the same capabilities.

For another approach, see MrMotif‘s post in this thread:
http://www.motifator.com/index.php/forum/viewthread/474129/

While half of my ‘boards have digital audio outs, those are all different. Then there’s the other half which has only analog outs. So, never mind the hassle, everything goes to my Ableton Live through an analog mixer. K.I.S.S. at work.

djmast04,

Stuff to think about:

-- You’re on Win7, does your computer even have a FW port?

-- Compare $250 to the cost of buying an audio interface.

-- You can drive up to four mono signals at a time using the analog outputs of the XF.  While that’s not as slick as having 16 mono signals it’s not bad.

-- FW16e has only two audio inputs available for mike and line sources into the DAW and no phantom power or XLR jacks for the mikes. How often will you need to use microphones or other external audio sources?

The pluses of a separate interface are (maybe) more input channels, better mike pres, phantom power, etc. However if you keep the monitors connected to the interface, then the interface must be on to hear the XF. If the interface is bus powered, that means the computer must also be on to use the monitors.

I use my FW16e with Live on a Mac but I have yet to use all 16 channels at the same time. The real advantage is that the FW16e is a single cable solution and my monitors remain connected to the XF.

Thank you all for your replies!!

I do have Firewire on my desktop. But I now realize that I can use the output from XF8 with an audio interface. So I’m not spending 250 on the firewire card

Currently I have a Focusrite saffire 6 which has 0 non-preamp 1/4 inputs (i didn’t realize this until i bought the motif lol) I also have a Pyle PAD20MXU mixer with USB interface that I don’t use at all. It has 2 RCA Stero inputs. My monitors are KRK Rokit 5 with an XLR input and a 1/4 input and I have Sony mdr-7506 headphones with a 1/4 adapter.

I’m going to reserach audio interfaces that will take the 1/4 outputs from motif as well as mics and other inputs. I’m ok with recording only a couple of tracks from the motif at a time.

But I do want to be able to listen to the motif without Ableton or lag (otherwise why own a motif?). I may have to use the digital spdif out or the headphone out and hook that up to monitors in a hardware manner somehow through a mixer or an interface..not sure

Thanks again!