Great!., IBM Mainframe is alive and well although they call it an Enterprise Server now LOL.  Z/0S the Mainframe OS which succeeded OS/390 is virtually a super duper sized Linux.  Think AIX + OS2 + Linux LOL.  If you get a chance to see a 2019 Mainframe (whoops I mean Enterprise Server) it truly is a thing of beauty!!! If I could afford one, I’d definitely have one!!!!  And amazingly Fortran is still in use there are researchers who just won’t switch I’ve seen it with my own eyes.  I’ve written my share of Basic it gets the job done.  And Borland’s Turbo Basic has some particularly nice features.  Most of the original languages have been ported to Linux and are available now.  e.g. Lazarus Pascal (Modern day version of Turbo Pascal) is a very current implementation.  Actually, I have to from time to time drop down to ARM or Intel Assembly.  Of course its usually wrapped in C++ functions using the asm{ } construct, but sometimes its gets down to manipulating things at the register and interrupt level LOL.

You’re right about a good flow chart.  There are some UML diagrams that might be able to capture the flow.  The multiplexing, or even multithreading, would have to be depicted logically as parallel activities.  I Understand why the AWM2 Architecture is depicted the way it is.  Especially since the original diagrams were produced basically 2 decades ago. 

But today’s customers are far more computer savvy than they were back then.  Synthesis techniques have been turned inside out, and upside down, and VST synth models run rampant.  So the AWM2 synth engine could do with a diagram facelift.  With all of the knob con, synth mania, synthtopia workshops, conferences, symposiums etc. out there, synth enthusiasts more or less know what they’re doing and would appreciate a good graphical and logical translation of the DSP processing going on inside these synth engines like AWM2.  Granted such a diagram would not be for everybody, not even for the majority of Motif owners. 

But for that crowd that really likes to get under the hood, the more block diagrams, signal diagrams, software layer diagrams, flow charts, UML swimlane diagrams, UML activity charts, showing the synthesis components and their interactions the better.  I paid little over $3000 for my Motif and $1,600 for my MOX and I feel Yamaha should have made available a complete “logical schematic” or synth engine blueprint as well as a detailed explanation of every parameter that I can change in that synth engine.  The Synth Parameter manual is a good step in this direction but it is incomplete.

I’m not interested in Yamaha’s patent level, or trade secret sauce stuff.  Dave Polich’s Sound Advice is really the only source I’m aware of that attempts to explore and explain in detail the Motif Synth engine.  And his DVD series only has a handful of high-level(but good) diagrams.  Yamaha dropped the ball of this one.  They should have had a 5 DVD set on the XS, and another one for the XF just on the Synth Engine!!!!  The youtube short takes that the product specialists did for Motif XF are okay, but they don’t touch on what Dave’s series did.  And Dave’s series needed to be updated.

Anyway, I am working on some new diagrams for my own benefit.  Maybe once I’m satisfied they somewhat represent reality I’ll post them. 

I’m down with the trial and error thing.  That’s a natural apart of music and all instruments, and good and fun musicianship.  But on the Motif we have wayeeeeeeee tooooo many parameters and configuration possibilities to deal with from a trial and error only perspective.  A good correct , complete technical block diagram , flow chart, signal flow chart, audio path chart would go a long way.  For the kind of money we’ve spent its a small thing to ask for.  And the techies at Yamaha should already have diagrams like this.  They should have been part of Motif’s design phase LOL.

Anyway thanx again

Cheers!

Hey fellas,

While I’m not currently pursuing learning deeper synthesis on the Motif XF at the moment, I appreciate this conversation.