Hello. I am very green at this and need some help. I have a USB key (jump drive) loaded with all my christmas tunes. These are GM files with the extention .mid. I placed the USB jump drive in my motif xs8 and clicked file. I am on the file tab and type=all and I see no files. I am to play a bunch of christmas songs as we are hosting this year at my home and thought it would be cool to play the midi file and play along. I know its faking it but it will empress the kids.  I thought this would be a ABC excersize but I can’t even see the files. Please help.... thank you and Merry Christmas all motif people! -Brian

Re: Need help loading midi files on my XS8

Don’t have xs but I think u have to put song or smf in file
salsa

Re: Need help loading midi files on my XS8

Correct. The Motif XS will read the files under the following conditions:

Press [SONG] to enter SONG mode
Press [FILE] to view your USB drive
Set the TYPE = SMF (Standard MIDI File)
Move the cursor up using the UP ARROW
Select your individual File using the DATA WHEEL or [INC/YES] button
At the bottom of the screen you can target a SONG location 01-64
Press [F2] LOAD

Re: Need help loading midi files on my XS8

that was great, Got them loading now but all the GM tracks are wrong. They sound terrible. Any ideas on how to fix that?

Re: Need help loading midi files on my XS8

Absolutely… Many so-called GM files (found on the internet) are poorly prepared when it comes to the rules for GM.

A properly prepared GM file will have not only a GM RESET command as the first event, it will have both the Bank Select and Program Change information on each track.

When a GM file is poorly prepared the author forgets that the person playing the file back may not be limited to just the GM Voice set. After all the device they prepared it on only had GM sounds available. The Motif XS8 has 15 Banks of sounds to choose from - so the proper GM protocols, if not followed will cause Voices from whatever back is current to be selected. The culprit is usually laziness about putting the Bank Select messages - when all you have is a GM set of sounds, they don’t think about a keyboard that might have other sounds. (Clearly a case of only having a hammer and the whole world looks like nail)…

So what can you do? The XS comes with a GM RESET routing built-in… so simply use it prior to playing the file. Here’s how:

Load the .MID to an empty SONG location
Press [MIXING]
Press [JOB]
Press [F1] INIT
Check the box that says “Initialize selected Parts to GM”
Press [ENTER] to execute.

Now when you play your MIDI file from the top, it will start with GM Banks selected for all 16 PARTS and this should straighten out 99% of improperly prepared files.

This is so common - the fact that files are remiss in placing the correct information in the setup measure - that doing a GM RESET first is highly recommended.

If you want to learn more about what should be placed in the set bar of a properly prepared GM File… please see this post: A Short Tutorial on GM Files here in the Programming forum.