Yamaha Motif XS6 Synth - Now with Conclusions, and Motif XF "Coda"

[saturnalley]

by the way Craig, I meant to say "well articulated" --to us, the time you take to lay it all out, is very beneficial. You may be experiencing Diminishing Returns from your efforts, but all I can say is--you've created quite a Resource for XS users.

[Anderton]

by the way Craig, I meant to say "well articulated" --to us, the time you take to lay it all out, is very beneficial. You may be experiencing Diminishing Returns from your efforts, but all I can say is--you've created quite a Resource for XS users.

 

Glad you're enjoying it! I'm not quite sure what you mean by "diminishing returns" -- it's true that with a lot of Pro Reviews, at some point people have already made up their minds and what follows doesn't really matter. I get that sense from the VL2 Pro Review; I think it's a great unit, everyone who's bought one has chimed in and said it's great, so even though I still want to post some examples of harmonies, they may not even be relevant at this point because people almost universally agree it's a wonderful little box.

 

But the other thing to remember is that Pro Reviews stay up for a long time. Months from now, people will discover this for the first time, and get a really comprehensive overview of what the keyboard is about. So while some people may have already said "That performance thing is really cool, that settles it, I'm going to GC tomorrow," there are plenty others just picking up on what's happening here and waiting to find out, for example, about how well it does or doesn't do sampling (which is something I want to find out for myself).

 

After putting this much time into the keyboard, I'm almost feeling obligated to buy it just so I can take advantage of all the stuff I've learned

[Anderton]

Well you gotta hear some examples, right?

We'll start off with a new agey-piano sort of deal, because what you'll hear is what you'd sort of expect to hear from an arpeggiator...it gives us a good starting point of reference.

Next up, a trip to the world section of arpeggation with a little Salsa piano.

Now it gets interesting: Synth bass arpeggation, but I'm tweaking the Gate Time and Velocity parameters in real time.

And now for some reggae type guitar. Again, I'm tweaking the Gate Time and Velocity parameters as it plays, which is what brings in the harmonics and slides.

Finally, there's some strummed guitar, again with real-time tweaking.

FWIW, I didn't put a lot of time into these, so don't think I slaved over them...from turning on the XS6 and computer, to recording the examples, cutting them to size, and rendering them to MP3 in Wavelab, took about 35 minutes. Imagine what these would sound like if I'd actually PRACTICED them to make them more expressive!

We could go on...maybe I'll do five more arpeggiation examples tomorrow, then move on to the next feature. I guarantee you I'm NOT going to do examples of all 6633 patterns!

[RaGe]

Craig,
I am interested in the Motif as keyboard for live performance but also as a"scratchpad" if you like for songwriting purposes. I can never seem to find the muse in front of a computer screen.
Would you be able to touch on how well is Cubase AI implemented and how easy or not it is to start a project on the Motif and tranfer it on a DAW running a full version of Cubase? Are the arpeggios transfered as audio or MIDI? Any complementary info will be much appreciated. Thanks for a great review so far.

Regis

[RaGe]

Oh wait, I think I got things mixed up. I thought Cubase AI was the sequence software that is inside the XS, it looks like it's rather a version of Cubase that can be integrated in Cubase 4.
Would Athan or Craig shed some light on this?
Thanks.

[Anderton]

The Motif XS has an onboard sequencer, and we're working our way toward covering that very soon...Cubase 4 AI is a custom version of Cubase 4 that has all sorts of integration features with the Motif XS, including things like transport control, control surface support, and song interchanges. This actually sounds very promising for what you want: You can create the core of the song while sitting at the Motif XS, then tweak/edit/augment in Cubase AI 4 when the time is right.

[Athan Billias]

Cubase AI is the version of Cubase software that comes bundled with Yamaha products. It has more features than LE ( for example it has the HALion One softsynth with waveforms from the Motif series included in it). It also supports Studio Connections so you can open the Motif XS Mix/Voice editor directly inside Cubase AI and save your XS settings with DAW project.

AI functions are Advanced Integration functions that bringing added functionality and ease of use between Yamaha hardware and Steinberg software. The AI extensions are downloadable from www.yamahasynth.com Yamaha and Steinberg are working closely together to add these special integration functions for many products. You can install these AI functions into Cubase AI, Cubase Studio or Cubase 4. In fact if you have two versions of Cubase installed, the AI extensions will appear in both.

Some of the functions that AI adds for the Motif XS are :

Auto connection and naming of of all Audio and MIDI ports when using the AI firewire driver

Cubase Project Templates for using the XS with Cubase

but our favorite is the Song Import function.

This lets you save a Motif XS song in XS format and then import it directly into Cubase including MIDI and Audio.

The Motif XS also works as a Remote Control to allow you hnads on control of Cubase (or other DAWs) using the buttons, knobs and faders on the XS.

As Craig suggested , it's pretty cool to get started using the direct Perfromance recording in the XS and then import directly in to Cubase to add VSTs and other things to your final production.

The Song Import function makes the old way ( syncing MIDI clock and re-recording the data) seem pretty archaic.

[saturnalley]

Craig: I meant only to hypothesize that the time it took you to explain the ARPS to us might have diminishing returns when it comes to your own personal knowledge or sense of gain--I'm sure that anyone interested in the XS benefited and as you say, can go back to your notes for a refresher course at the right time in their own studies. Looking forward to Page Eight, David

[Athan Billias]

BTW, the Motif XS has a very complete on board sequencer. In fact, there are two.

A Pattern sequencer allows you to create 16 sections of music (each up to 256 measures long) that loop and repeat. It's great for many styles of music that are loop based and also good for being able to create sections of a song and then try out different arrangements with the pattern chain feature. Each pattern section has a full 16 Parts to it. Pattern Chains can be converted into Songs.

A Song sequencer is more like the traditional linear, tape recording-style of sequencer.

You can record either MIDI or Audio (controlled by MIDI in the Integrated Sampling Sequencer). To record audio , you have to have RAM installed in the Motif XS.

There is both real time input quantizing, after the fact quantizing and even per track non-destructive play effect quantizing. In fact , there are all the types of editing functions you typically find in software sequencers.

So it's more than possible to complete productions completely inside the Motif XS, re-sample them as a stereo .WAV file and then burn that .wav file to a CD. The burning of the CD is the only thing you would need a computer for.

But the power of the XS is that you can work any way you want - completely on board the keyboard, entirely on DAW software like Cubase or any combination of the two methods.

[shooi]

Got my XS7 about 2 weeks ago (decision made partly due to the excellent review going on here - thanks Craig!!) and have been working my way gradually around the sounds and the Cubase AI4 integration.

Just a quick question - Craig I know you're going to come on to AI later, but maybe Athan could answer this one - it's probably a quicky.

The arpeggiators on the 'board are fantastic, I'm particularly taken by the guitar ones. So I wanted to record a guitar backing into Cubase, using the arpeggiator that's programmed into the XS voice.

The only way I managed to do it was like this (having looked through some Motifator forum posts) - there has to be an easier way!

1. Select the voice
2. Write down the number of the arpeggiator you wanted to use
3. Go to Song mode
4. Hit record
5. Turn on arpeggiator and enter arpeggiator number written down in 2.
6. Record section
7. Insert memory stick (or, I guess, hook the XS up to the network)
8. Save 'All' file to memory stick (or network drive)
9. Import track from Song in 'All' file from memory stick or network drive into Cubase
10. (optional) Realise you've got the chord progression wrong and either fire up one of the editors in Cubase or start all over again.

I really hope I'm missing something simple here! The XS Editor in Cubase seems to have a 'Arp to PC' button, but the manual very helpfully describes it as something like 'useful if you want to record Arps to a PC' - I clicked it, but it didn't seem to do much. (XS Editor is great by the way - Cubase integration is fantastic!). Is there just a 'turn on Arp and send to MIDI Out' setting in Song mode that I haven't found yet?

Thanks!

[RaGe]

Thank you Athan and Craig for your replies. I am looking fwd to getting my Motif next week. I'd hope for an easier way to incorporate Motif arps into a Cubase project because the process shooi describes will be a workflow killer for me.

Regis

[Phil Clendeninn]

When you wish to bring a Voice into the Sequencer with its arpeggio patterns already applied you can set the "Parameter with Voice" function to ON. When this parameter is ON, a Voice you select will come into the sequencer MIXING setup with all of its VOICE mode arpeggios, etc. already applied.

the box that says "MIDI THRU ACTIVE"



Now you will be able to record your arp to Cubase AI4
Please remember to reactivate "MIDI THRU ACTIVE" when you have completed your transfer of data. And return to using QUICK SETUP #3: RECORD TO COMPUTER.

The QUICK SETUPS greatly ease the task - because they make the appropriate settings for you. And when they do not they prompt you (as in the case with Quick Setup #4). Hope that helps.

[shooi]

Phil,

That's fantastic! Thanks for such a thorough response. Really appreciated. See, I knew there was an easier way! RaGe, you can relax now!

Phil

[RaGe]

Fantastic!
I am so getting the XS6 this week

One more question if I may (and please bare with me as I don't have the Motif yet): are the arps transferred as MIDI, or is actual audio recorded?

RaGe

[Phil Clendeninn]

The arps are transferred as MIDI, but of course, you can also record them as audio. It is really up to you. Both MIDI and audio are available.

[saturnalley]

Hi Ye Experts

After an hour at the Motifator Site, trying to find out how to simply save to USB and load from, a single sequence, I turn to you for help. I spoke to a nice fellow at Yamaha, who did tell me to use the Mackie control surface option for Cubase to get it to see my XS, but who had to tell me another expert would have to call me regarding the USB thing. He said try saving the pattern in SMF format--no, that's not what I wanted to do.

At Motifator, they say you're supposed to first save the sequence to the XS's internal memory, then to the USB drive in "all" sequenced form. This I did, and reloaded as "allsequences" so I thought. My sequence #4 was not reloaded.

If I'm going to use the in-track sampling (I bought my RAM) I'm going to want to place all data for a song, samples included, in one place--be it external hard drive or thumbdrive. I can't believe it's made so hard (in fact not possible so far) to back up one little sequence one composes on the XS.

I'm glad Sam Ash has 45 day return policy--this little USB debacle is pushing me to the edge --hoping there is a rational procedure for saving and reloading, and thanks for any help,
DD

[saturnalley]

Ok, it's possible, though not by following written directions. Maybe everyone already knows how, but just in case:

1. compose a sequence
2. store it to the XS's internal memory.
3. push the XS's file button, in the lower field select "all pattern", the save button will appear, assuming you have a viable USB drive connected.
4. push Save, input a name, push enter then Yes. In the upper field, your name with the extension .XOP appears.


To confirm that you saved your pattern,
1.select pattern in the lower field
2.To get to the upper field use the arrow up then select, with the data wheel, your new allpattern file, and push enter.
3. using the datawheel again select the pattern number you were working on, the load button will appear
4. using the down arrow, go to the bottom of the page and select the pattern number where you want to load the sequence then push load, and yes.

5. One subtlety: if you load from USB to the pattern currently selected in sequence mode, it loads it in the corresponding flash area underneath the sequence in the works, so that when you go back to sequence mode it'll appear to have NOT loaded it. This is what made me think SAVE was not working, originally. You have to select another sequence then return to the spot you loaded to from USB, then it'll rise up from below to occupy that spot. Seems crazy, but guess it thinks it's being helpful, letting you save your work to another sequence number before it lets the USB data take over the spot. OK NOW maybe I can get something done, or, go swimming.

[Anderton]

Phil, thank you for your comments, and welcome to the thread! For those who don't know Phil, he's been representing Yamaha for a long time and is both a really good player and extremely knowledgeable. Your presence here is appreciated!

I apologize for the dearth of posts this past week, long story but I had to break down the XS6 temporarily because there's construction going on at my house, and I didn't want to be responsible for any damage that might occur to the keyboard. I get to set it back up again this weekend

[U&I]

Why of Why Yamaha ????????????????????????????????/

 

Slight Product Rant Here -

 

Firstly this is a superb review and then some.

Now for a slight rant here.

Us RM1X users who upgraded to the RS7000 really got jipped to some extent by Yamaha I feel (especially at the price my RS7K cost brand new fully optioned on release in Australia ie:$3800 AUD at the time).

Has Yamaha actually bothered to think of releasing the Newest Motif Technology into an RS9000 with a Proper bloody Synth engine and Multisampling Facilities and most of the Features mentioned here.

I am Imagining a unit much like the RS7K with the New Sreen and Full synth Editing and effects engine etc with Pitch Bend/Mod Wheel/Expression Ribbon.

Add good Foot controller input, multi-output support, all the usb / fire wire features and a kick ass 30 or so knobbed interface that doubled as a host software controller and I'd buy one in a flash.

The RS7000 is still hands down the BEST sequencing unit I have ever used in my humble opinion (prefer it too the QY700 and that's saying something).

Give me lots of Ram, all the editing Goodness of the new Motif all the insert, master and standard FX busses etc in an RS7000 style case with PROPER Synthesis Programming and you'd be on a winner.

The RS7K has garnered something of a cult status in certain circles for good reason and many of us feel we where dumped like a sack of {censored} and left in the dark after the OS upgrade by Yamaha.

This synth sounds great and sadly my experiences with Yamaha (particularly Yamaha Australia) after the RS7K fiasco have really put me off buying their products again no matter how good they are.

And I've bought a lot of them in the past ie: A3000, RM1X, RS7000, AW16G, DX7IIFDe, SY85, TG77, QY700 etc over the years.

[Anderton]

Well...I'm back. Finally, the dust has settled enough around the construction zone called "my house" (actually I'm still not able to sleep here yet!) that I can set up the XS6 again. So in honor of being able to get back to the Pro Review world, let's look at the sequencer, starting with playback.

The Sequencer is part of what Yamaha calls Song Mode - logical enough, as we're dealing with songs as opposed to Patterns, which is another possible. The attached image shows the basic Song screen. The Motif XS comes with three demo sequences (one rock, one cinematic, one funk), so we can use those for playback without having to create a sequence - although of course, we'll get to recording as well.

Now let's look at what the screen offers. This is a 16-track sequencer, and you can store up to 64 songs. Toward the top, you see the sequence title and a measure counter. This is not for display purposes only; for example, if you cursor over to the measure number, you can scroll to a particular measure and press the play button to start from there. This is in addition to using the various transport buttons (e.g., fast forward, rewind) and one of the two location points to jump around to specific places within a song. Note that there is a "chase" function you can enable in the Seq Setup screen (under the "Other" tab) so that the sequencer "grabs" previous controller changes and applies them starting at the point of playback. (This defaults to off; personally, I think it should default to on.) You can also use the SF and F buttons in a numeric mode so you can enter the number of a particular measure and go to there.

Next line down, you can transpose the sequence, set time signature, and tempo. Interestingly, you can tie time signature to individual measures, allowing you to change time signatures within a song. I haven't found a way to change tempo continuously over the course of a sequence, but you can sync the tempo to an external source that does include tempo changes. Furthermore, the Song Scene function (see later) lets you set five different discrete tempo changes if that's all you need.

Below is the main track view. Although this shows all MIDI tracks, you can sequence audio tracks as well (you get these via the sampling function and creating a Sample Voice, which I guess we'll cover after the sequencer...this keyboard never ends, y'know?!?). Note that black lines within tracks that indicate where MIDI data resides; you can zoom in or zoom out horizontally to see more or fewer measures. However, you cannot zoom vertically, so don't expect "piano roll editing" on this screen.

The Scene buttons call up different "scenes," which you can think of a type of snapshot automation for level, pan, effects, and some other settings. You can call these up during playback, but I'm pretty sure you can embed scenes into recordings...we'll find out soon enough.

The Play FX, Track, and Chain tabs are sufficiently complex that each deserves its own post.

[Anderton]

Now this is something really novel. If your a software jockey, you can think of this as basically a whole bunch of MIDI Plug-Ins (hmmm...Cubase is really strong on MIDI FX, I wonder if there was some kind of cross-fertilization going on here?).

 

Referring to the screen, you'll see the 16 tracks, as expected; the interesting part is that you can apply various processes to each track on playback, individually and non-destructively. However, if you do like what the play effects do to a song, you can apply them permanently using the oddly-named "Normalize Play Affect" function, which has nothing to do with normalizing the audio.

 

Anyway, here's what you can vary for each track:

 

* Quantize value and strength

* Swing ("swings" the velocity and gate as well as timing)

* Transpose all notes in a selected track, plus or minus 99 semitones

* Clock Shift - this lets you "lead" or "lag" the track for different feels

* Gate Time - raises or lowers the gate times of all notes in the selected track

* Velocity Rate is like a compressor/expander in that you can change the velocity values by a percentage. So for example, to compress, you could cut all notes by 50% then add velocity (using the Veloctiy Offset function, which adds or subtracts a constant value). By multiplying (you can go up to 200%), it "expands" notes. As values can't go over 127 or under 1, you can also use this function as a limiter. For example, add 60 to all values, and anything over 66 hits maximum velocity, and values below that are bought closer to the maximum velocity.

 

So...is this cool? You bet it is, and all the cooler because it's built in to a keyboard. It also has another characteristic I appreciate with advanced functions: You can ignore it if you want, or just duck into the screen as needed. In a lot of ways, what Yamaha has created here is a "channel strip" for MIDI data. I would love to see something like this incorporated into MIDI sequencers, perhaps as a "MIDI data channel strip" MIDI plug-in.

 

The other thing I really like about this is that it encourages you to just lay down tracks, knowing you can fix them later. Maybe you don't really need to quantize parts after all; but you won't know if you're forced to quantize as you record. With this "MIDI Plug-In" approach, you can deal with these various quantization, swing, and velocity issues after you've had your creative moment and recorded a bunch of tracks. Very, very cool, and an idea well worth stealing for sequencers in general...uh, I mean, an idea worth "being inspired by," of course!

[Anderton]

The Track Out screen (first image) is pretty obvious: You can set each track to a particular MIDI channel, and determine whether it goes to the internal tone generators, the external MIDI output port, both, or neither.

The Track Loop screen (second image) lets you enable looping for each track independently, as well as set the loop start and loop end points. In this image, track 12 is set to loop (you can tell by the little loop symbol) from measure 1, beat 1 to measure 5, beat 1.

If you enable a track for looping, a loop symbol also appears next to the track name in the main Track View screen. Which brings up an item for my wish list: It would be helpful to see in the Track View screen the area that was being looped, perhaps by changing the looped portion of the track to a different color, drawing brackets, or whatever.

[Anderton]

I just got the August issue of Keyboard magazine (www.keyboardmag.com), and there's a review by Stephen Fortner of the XS6. We're pretty much on the same page about it, but it's interesting to see what he picked up on as being significant...check it out.

[U&I]

Anyway, here's what you can vary for each track: * Quantize value and strength * Swing ("swings" the velocity and gate as well as timing) * Transpose all notes in a selected track, plus or minus 99 semitones * Clock Shift - this lets you "lead" or "lag" the track for different feels * Gate Time - raises or lowers the gate times of all notes in the selected track * Velocity Rate is like a compressor/expander in that you can change the velocity values by a percentage. So for example, to compress, you could cut all notes by 50% then add velocity (using the Veloctiy Offset function, which adds or subtracts a constant value). By multiplying (you can go up to 200%), it "expands" notes. As values can't go over 127 or under 1, you can also use this function as a limiter. For example, add 60 to all values, and anything over 66 hits maximum velocity, and values below that are bought closer to the maximum velocity.

 

 

 

Do you also get the midi harmonize and midi delay with +/- feedback note (in semitones) number of repeats + gate (ppqn clock divisor) or repeats also on top of those other midi FX ?

Also is realtime Loop Remix Implemented Also.

If Not I am more tempted to score a second hand RS7000 + MotifES Rack I think than something like this.

[Anderton]

Do you also get the midi harmonize and midi delay with +/- feedback note (in semitones) number of repeats + gate (ppqn clock divisor) or repeats also on top of those other midi FX ?

 

 

Not that I've found.

 

 

Also is realtime Loop Remix Implemented Also.

 

 

What exactly is your definition of "real time loop remix?" By my definition (i.e.,I can create loops and remix them in real time, like the way I use Ableton Live), the answer would be yes for eight channels at a time. But I need to know if that's what you mean...