Hi all

Two sort of inter-related problems here.

I cannot for the life of me get my ES6 to format a USB stick or Smart Media card… before you all jump up and down, the USB drive is 2Gb and I used Win 11 to format the drive to FAT16 as I can’t do it in the ES6.

If I insert the USB drive into the synth and press ‘File’, the synth will recognise the drive and I can scroll through the various file formats in the menu eg. All, All Voice etc.  However, if I try and format the drive, I get “unknown error -1” which doesn’t really explain anything.  The same goes for formatting a Smart Card (same error).

So - problem #1: I can’t format a memory card.

Problem #2 is a bit weird and might not even be due to the synth.  I have been using the Auto Sampler from Chicken System’s Translator v6 to create a library of sounds from an old synth I wat to import into the ES6.  Auto Sampler will sample various notes and then export the library into various formats… in this case, I exported it as Motif ES All Voice format (there are others such as Motif All Voice, XS and XF All Voice)… anyway, I end up with a .x0v file which I copied onto the above USB drive… the synth recognises that there’s space taken up on the drive by a mystery file but the synth doesn’t see the x0v file… there’s nothing listed in the directory.

This might be a Translator problem as I can see library files (.W7A files) on the drive but not .x0v files…

So - problem #2: Can’t recognise x0v files.

Is there a place where I can download someone’s working x0v file so I can test if it’s recognised by my ES6?  I haven’t contacted Chicken Systems yet (next job on the list) ... if anyone has an .x0v file they’d be willing to send me, that would be really helpful.

OK, that’s enough… this post is already way too long.

Thanks for your help :-)

Hi Tekhed66,

On your Motif ES, are you still able to write (save) files onto the same USB stick or SmartMedia card?

With regards to your unrecognised file:
I’m sorry, but the .X0V file type is not among those compatible with the Motif ES (refer to pages 269-270 of the Owner’s Manual). Instead, it is an “All Voice” file format associated with the Motif XS.

- H -

Regarding the USB, your ES will not work with any USB drive just because is low capacity (below 4gb e.g) however usb drives below 4gb can be formatted in Fat16 and the ES will recognize it. So if you have a 2 gb drive, you can format it in windows commnand. Follow thi link below for further instructions. Also includes instructions for downsize your drive if this is above 4gb.

https://www.instructables.com/Format-USB-Flash-Drive-to-FATFAT16-not-FAT32/

Regarding the Smartmedia, I remember i got that error once when tried to use a higher voltage card, (5v e.g), so make sure you are using a 3v card and the card is not damaged, make sure your computer recognize and read it.

In regards to the file format, as Henry said before, X0V is a XS format. I use to use Translator 7 and it converted successfully XS to ES format, so maybe you can try it out…