I have not been able to find any threads that address the issue that I am experiencing, so here goes: A few of the voices that I have created in Voice Mode lose some or all of their effects(e.g. Phaser, Wah, etc.) when I bring them into Performance Mode. Why is that, and is there a way to stop this from happening? Cheers, J

Re: Another newbie programming question

Well, actually you can prevent it… it comes as soon as you gain an understanding of how the effects allocation is setup. While a VOICE can bring its two INSERTION EFFECTS to the PERFORMANCE PART, all four PARTS of the PERFORMANCE must share the two SYSTEM EFFECTS.

To understand the Effects processing in the Motif XS or ES, you have to see the difference between the INSERTION EFFECTS and the SYSTEM EFFECTS.

Insertion Effects are intricately interwoven into the VOICE itself. Each Element has the ability to be routed to one or the other (or both, or neither) of the two Insertion Effects. The Insertion Effects can be controlled in real time by assigning physical controllers to key parameters within that effect. The name “insertion” means the signal flow is such that the output of the Element goes directly through the effect. Like a guitar inserted to a stomp box and the stomp box out to the amp. The Insertion Effects give a Voice its personality. Like a Wah or a Phaser or Rotating Speaker…

The System Effects are overall to the Voice. In other words all the Elements go through the System Effects together...or not at all. There is Send/Return situation. The SYSTEM effects are made up of 2 processors: a Reverb and a Chorus (time delay) processor… It is the entire Voice, all Elements together or none at all. YOu have Reverb Send control, and you have Chorus Send Control. There is Reverb Return and a Chorus Return. The name “system” means the signal flow is such that there is a community SEND control for the Voice and a RETURN from the effect which is mixed together. The System Effects are overall and general.

Each VOICE when you place it in a PERFORMANCE PART carries its 2 Insertion Effects, but all four PARTS must share the SYSTEM EFFECTS that are selected for the PERFORMANCE.

For a complete discussion of your processing and the routing and allocation… (and since you own both the ES and XS) you can relate the article to either one, as this part of the architecutre is similar in theory; please see the following article for an indepth explanation and then if you still have questions post back here:

Introducing the Motif ES Effects

So you will find that many of the Effect algorithms (types) are repeated in both the Insertion processors and the System processors. So if you want the effect to be real time controllable via assignable controllers, and you want that effect to be always a part of the VOICE, you would choose to use an INSERTION Effect. So for example, if a Phaser is an important function to your USER Voice, then you should choose the Phaser found in the INSERTION Effect processor, not the SYSTEM Effect processor, because the SYSTEM Effects will be stripped off when the Voice is placed in a PERFORMANCE or it is placed in a MIXING setup.

Effects like general Reverb is best left for the System effect… as it is quite natural (and realistic) for all musical instruments in an ensemble to share the same room acoustics.

Also if a Voice is going to have multiple repeats (echo) once again the System Effect would be the correct choice because again musical instrument in an ensemble would share the same echo acoustics ...

But only the organ player is going to use the rotary speaker (that’s their insertion effect); only the guitar player is going to use the distortion and phaser (that’s their insertion effect) and so on… make sense?

Once you understand this, it becomes easier to not have your User Voice “lose” its effects when you move it to a PERFORMANCE PART or MIXING PART.

Also recognize the reverb as an overall System Effect is very typical ... But often the Chorus (System Effect) process is not something you actually need for every VOICE - so a wise programmer learns to use this for special purposes in the PERFORMANCE mode.

Hope that helps.