I’ve just received my Motif-Rack ES (eBay) and inserted a PLG150-VL board (into slot 1) that I’ve had for years attached to a SW1000XG card. With the Motif unattached to anything other than my Akai EWI5000 (via MIDI cable) I have the following problem:

When playing normal Motif voices the unit performs in perfect synchronicity with my EWI - there is no perceptible delay in note production, just lacking the benefits of using a wind controller.  When I use any of the PLG-VL voices (any bank, including PLG1PRE3) there is a lengthy delay in note production that gets longer with legato playing. I’m talking about the instrument continuing to play for seconds after I’ve finished playing and put the EWI down. Runs and arpeggios sound after long after I’ve stopped fingering them. This phenomenon occurs only when using the PLG150-VL, NOT when using Motif voices.

Does anybody have any ideas?

Just for the record, I have factory reset the Motif several times and it has never reported any errors, at boot up or during use.

Any help would make me really happy and maybe I’ll finish 2016 on a good note!

Sorted!

The EWI5000 is capable of outputting very high resolution realtime MIDI performance data. I’d completely forgotten that I’d recently done a hardware reset of the EWI and subsequently re-enabled a setting that switches the hi-res data function on. For a device that can’t handle the huge amounts of data that are transmitted by a breath controller in hi-res mode the result is an ever increasing data bottleneck that increases in length the longer you continue playing. This is why the Motif continued playing runs and arpeggios long after I’d stopped blowing.

The problem didn’t exist when playing native Motif sounds because they are not breath controller enabled by default. By contrast, the PLG150VL-VL sounds are and so the data buffers are completely flooded with huge volumes of breath controller data. Simply switching the hi-res function off solved the problem.

I’m deeply grateful to the multi talented software/hardware/wind wizard Ingo Scherzinger of Dynasample who’s article on setting up an EWI5000 for use with wind synths first brought this problem to the fore.  It’s one of those little gems of information that helps you sleep at night! (my subconscious mind recalled it at 3a.m. and woke me up to solve the problem and write this response to myself!)

See: http://www.dynasample.com/downloads/EWI5000_setup_for_use_with_the_XPression.pdf

I hope this info’ helps others should they encounter a similar issue.

Interestingly - my trusty old VL70m is able to handle the high res data without a glitch. Another sign that the VL70m is worth its weight in gold to wind synth players!