Old Motifator threads are available in the Archive.
opcommander1
Total Posts: 38
Joined 03-23-2011 status: Regular |
Ok, I had my Motif XF for 3 years now, and I haven’t been on this forum for awhile. Today I had to express my opinion, because after playing for my church this morning I became frustrated with the motif. In song mode I program each song in each number selection, example, Song 1 “I Lift Your Name on High” and Song 2 “I think about the Lord” etc. Now each track have my different instrument, I will be playing, my Midi M-Audio keyboard is on midi channel 1 and my motif is on Channel 2. The thing that I dislike is, when I assign a track instrument to Channel 1, for instance track 7 to channel 1 the label for track 7 disappear and goes blank. This is a hinderance, because in the mix of playing I would not know which instrument to mute, and I don’t want to depend on my memory. The next hinderance goes hand to hand and that is the mute button. Now the mute button shouldn’t just work in playback mode, but it should in any mode, because most my songs I’m not using the Sequencer, I am playing the instruments lives. I shouldn’t have to go to mix mode, and be able to mute certain part, it too time consuming. And when I am on my main track, it shows me the label of the instrument on the top left corner, but it doesn’t show me label of the other tracks. Now Performance mode GUI is nice, it show the parts and the 4 faders on the same screen. Plus I can press performance control button to mute certain parts. But I don’t want use Performance Mode because of the limitation of 4 parts. I like my Motif but this problem needs to be address in the next Motif. I had a lot people waiting on me at Church service today and previous times, because of wrestling with the mute and track button. |
Apex
Total Posts: 683
Joined 10-21-2005 status: Guru |
i would like to offer some help with your problem… but I am having a little trouble understanding the complete problem. Please read through your original post and it may help you see what parts confused me.
I do think I can help though… on the surface (based on what I do understand) it seems like a problem that could be solved easily by using multiple instances of the same songs and using MASTER mode like a set list. If it were me I wouldn’t want to have to remember a bunch of tracks numbers to MUTE and UNMUTE. I would set it up BEFORE hand and save it so all I have to select the correct instance.
The last thing you want in church is to have a technical problem get in the way of the flow of the service. Most cases, just like ANY performance that’s not what you want to happen. It’s best to ask ALL questions up front and have many many many sessions with the gear to work out ALL kinks so you can eliminate as many technical hiccups as possible… (even then, you will still run into issues). I’ll be happy to help in any way that I can… I just want to be sure that I understand your issue. Thanks. |
opcommander1
Total Posts: 38
Joined 03-23-2011 status: Regular |
Thank for replying Apex. Ok, let make it as simply as possible, I don’t know if you have an XF. Performance Mode: Let me start here because GUI is really simple, and I can explain the mute button the best in this mode first. When you click on the button “Performed” the first thing you see is your Graphic User Interface. The 4 volume sliders that makes up the four instrument parts, with the parts name. What I like about this mode is, I can click on the performance control button. Next to that button is the row of 16 buttons, four of them are named Part Mute, therefore I can click on one of those buttons and will mute the part. Wonderful, that exactly what I like, because I don’t want to play string all the way through a song, but at certain instances, plus I don’t want to split the part on the keyboard in area or zone, because I want the full range of the string. But the only thing about this mode, its only 4 parts. Song and Pattern Mode: The mute works totally different in these mode, in order to mute different track you have click on the “Mixing Button”, in order for the mute to work. But if you are playing live, I don’t want to click on each track to locate the particular instrument to mute. Master Mode: I am familiar with this mode, it a good mode though but the mute button is inactive. Let say I want to add a song to Master Mode, now nothing is recorded through the “SEQ” I’m am using this mode just to play my 5 parts.
So in song mode I have song named “Lord I lift your name on high”
I go into master mode I set it up on A-1, Zone Switch “on”, Knob Control Assign “Zone”, press F1 because I want name my zone so I can see the label in the GUI. After this I save it and so forth, then I click on the EDIT button and Click on 1, ok the Edit Zone screen pops up. In order to activate these zones I must add a check mark in the “Int Switch” column, and in order for me to add this check mark I must use the wheel. Now here the thing, I don’t want to use the wheel to uncheck a zone to disable it, in order to mute it. Now I know I can go back to the main screen and see my slider, and label name under the slider. But I don’t want use slider to turn my instrument all the way down, I rather hit the mute button to mute that zone/part. Is there a way to do that? Thanks |
stoneb3
Total Posts: 851
Joined 06-05-2011 status: Guru |
This was addressed in OS V1.40. What version is your Operating System? |
5pinDIN
Total Posts: 11891
Joined 09-16-2010 status: Legend |
Good point.
For those who might not have updated the OS, or did update but are still looking only in the Owner’s or Reference manuals, here’s what you could be missing:
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opcommander1
Total Posts: 38
Joined 03-23-2011 status: Regular |
Thanks to both of you, I don’t know what version I am using, trying to locate it. Both I know I never had updated my OS. So I will update my os with the latest version of 1.50. I read the manuel that you have posted and did a command f to search for mute, it seems that this might have been address. I will check it out. Thanks |
opcommander1
Total Posts: 38
Joined 03-23-2011 status: Regular |
Firmware Version 1.12
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5pinDIN
Total Posts: 11891
Joined 09-16-2010 status: Legend |
You should definitely update the OS. Otherwise, you are missing out on many new features, including several new effects. Be sure to follow the directions in the files that come with the update. Especially, make a backup “All” file before updating the OS.
XF OS Version 1.50 download:
Once you do the OS update…
The Readme PDF for the Voices/Performances doesn’t say so, but the Performances load by default to USER 2. |
opcommander1
Total Posts: 38
Joined 03-23-2011 status: Regular |
Thank a lot!!! I will definitely update my OS once I come home from work today. Thanks |
DMLKeys
Total Posts: 23
Joined 03-13-2015 status: Regular |
Just unwrapped my new XF WH. Not even sure how to download and update (excuse my confusion). I just thought it’d be updated since it’s new. Could it need updating? Sorry again for butting in. |
Apex
Total Posts: 683
Joined 10-21-2005 status: Guru |
Lol of course I have an XF. Lol don’t be silly |
Apex
Total Posts: 683
Joined 10-21-2005 status: Guru |
The biggest problem I see in what you posted was when you wrote that you have to go into the mixing section to mute parts while in song or pattern mode. THIS IS INCORRECT. You get access to the mute switches and stuff the same way you do in performance mode. Just push MUTE (below the performance control button) then you can mute the individual parts as needed. |
5pinDIN
Total Posts: 11891
Joined 09-16-2010 status: Legend |
An XF WH is probably already up to date, but to check…
Press and release [UTILITY] to enter the Utility mode.
Read the Firmware Version on the display, ignoring the second decimal point and anything after it. The most recent is 1.50 - if yours is earlier, see above for the update download. |
5pinDIN
Total Posts: 11891
Joined 09-16-2010 status: Legend |
Strange - pressing [PERFORMANCE CONTROL] when my XF (with OS 1.50 installed) is in Song/Pattern mode doesn’t do anything. |
Apex
Total Posts: 683
Joined 10-21-2005 status: Guru |
Sorry I wasn’t in front of my keyboard. You don’t have to push performance control. Just push the mute button. I corrected it in my earlier post. |
SSquared
Total Posts: 165
Joined 01-29-2014 status: Pro |
opcommander1, I’m still a little confused on why you would need to handle muting across tracks. Perhaps there is something else you misunderstand on how the tracks work which is causing you to fiddle around with muting. Or maybe you have a complicated need that isn’t fully addressed (as you originally suggest). Don’t worry about what MIDI Channel your Yamaha is on. Focus on track MIDI Channels and their Int/Ext MIDI switch. It almost sounds like you have set all of the Track Receive MIDI Channels to 2 (other than your M-Audio MIDI Channel 1). I’m just curious if this is the situation or if you have assigned different MIDI Channels to the tracks. Unless you need layer combinations of ALL tracks available, you should place voices on separate MIDI Channels. In other words, in your five track example above, do you need layer combinations of ALL five tracks? Do you require the possibility of organ and piano? Organ and brass? Brass and strings? Trumpet and piano? If the answer is YES, then your situation is a bit complicated and will require you to hand mute. Perhaps someone can offer some easier suggestions. If you actually don’t need these to be layered, then set the track MIDI Channels to be different. Say, Organ on channel 3, brass on channel 4, etc. When you click on Track 4 (your Trumpet) then ONLY the trumpet will sound. Click on Track 3 (your Organ) then ONLY the organ will sound. If you want things layered, like piano/strings (Tracks 1 and 2), then, yes, place these tracks on the same MIDI Channel (channel 2, for example). Now you have some options. You can select either Track 1 or 2 and use the Mute button. Or, another option is to edit the string voice and use the Assignable Function buttons to turn on/off elements of the voice. How comfortable are you with editing voices? In the Pattern or Mix Modes you can actually create/edit the assigned voices and this will NOT effect the original voice. At least that is how it is done on the MOXF, I don’t have the XF but I assume the XF is the same. So, now, select your string patch and edit each Element. You can assign each element to only be turned on when Assign Function 1 is pressed. Mute/Unmute using Assign Function 1. This, of course, will also effect the piano as well, so you may need to set the piano track to NOT respond to the assignable function buttons. I hope this makes sense, or someone else might be able to explain it better. The main thing I’m curious about is your track MIDI Channel assignments. If they are all assigned the same channel then this is where I would first look to resolve this. As a side note, if you want to use different voices for your M-Audio, see if your M-Audio can send program change messages so the track voice can change when you press a button on the M-Audio. You don’t want to have multiple tracks on MIDI Channel 1 and switch/mute to decide which one to use. |