Hello, I have a Motif XS with separate monitors hooked up to it. Those monitors are receiving Motif MAIN OUT output. I also have a Cubase rig with Saffire audio interface and transfer Motif XS output via firewire to Cubase. No problems there. However I want to do something else, and that is transfer an anti pattern with ALL motif effects and digital processing in tact to Cubase as a single stereo file. I’m looking for the most efficient way to do that.

Firewire isn’t a good fit because I have to set each Motif channel to a firewire channel and once I do that I can’t monitor in my Motif monitors anymore. Takes too long to set up and switch back.

ALT OUTPUTS isn’t a good fit for same reason: I have to assign instruments to ALT OUTPUTS, and once I do I can’t monitor with my Motif monitors anymore. Furthermore, I don’t believe all etc and DSP is transferred through ALT OUTPUTS?

MAIN OUTPUTS aren’t really a good fit either because I already have motif monitors connected to them so I’d have to physically disconnect them from monitors and connect to audio interface

So unless I’m missing something (please correct me if I’m wrong), the only way to do this quickly is to maybe get a four way toggle that could easily switch the MAIN OUTPUTS back and forth between my Motif monitors and my audio interface? That way I could compose on Motif through Motif monitors, then when ready to transfer stereo file, flip the toggle and send MAIN OUT output to my audio interface to capture in Cubase?

AM I making this too complicated? Is there an easier way? My goal is to : compose music as quickly as it occurs to me in the Motif, then rapidly move the Motif’s stereo output into Cubase as a stereo file as quickly as possible, without having to goof around with channel assignment, monitor latency, etc

Thoughts?

Thank so much

Hi CommandingMotifAuthor,

Welcome to Motifator.

I’m pretty sure that with a Motif XS of over a certain firmware version, you can render your patterns or songs as a WAV file directly to a usb thumb drive, unplug the thumb drive and walk it over to your computer.  You can then copy it from your thumb drive to your computer and import it into Cubase.  “Sneakernet”, basically!

From the Yamaha Synth site:

The quickest/easiet way to transfer your sequences to .WAV. This function found on the XF, and was added with Operating System 1.50.xx and later on the Motif XS, allows you to record from your Motif XS/XF directly to the USB drive plugged into the USB TO DEVICE port. This function is added to the [FILE] function.

Connect your USB drive and select the SONG you wish to record (or PATTERN Chain) (You can record your playing “live” if you wish to simply record a solo piano performance, for example) Simply select the mode you want to work in first, then:

Press [FILE]
Press [F4] AUDIO
Press [SF1] REC
Give the wave file a name and press [ENTER]
Set the required trigger level.

If you set the trigger level to “manual”, recording will begin whenever you press the [ENTER] button. Alternatively, if you set a value between 1 and 127, recording will begin automatically whenever the playback volume exceeds that level. The level set here will be indicated by red triangles in the level meter. For best results, set this parameter as low as possible to capture the entire signal, but not so low as to record unwanted noise.

Press the [ENTER] button.

If you have set the trigger level to “manual”, recording will begin immediately and the displayed status will change from “STANDBY” to “RECORDING”. If you have set a value between 1 and 127 as the trigger level, the displayed status will change from “STANDBY” to “WAITING”.

If you set the trigger level to a value between 1 and 127, recording will begin automatically whenever the playback volume exceeds that level; furthermore, the displayed status will change from “WAITING” to “RECORDING” at that time. If you want to include the currently-selected Song or Pattern in your recording, press the SEQ TRANSPORT [F] (Play) button at any time to start playback. You can also press one of the Number buttons [1] – [16] while recording to change parts if you are going to play along with your sequence.

Via this method you can record a maximum file of 74 minutes continuously (whew!) or to the limit of your drive size, whichever comes first.

Another idea,

If you want a hardware solution to your cabling hang ups, put a small format mixer featuring Auxiliary Sends between your Motif XS and your monitors.

The auxiliary sends will send a copy of what’s coming from your Motif XS to your interface so that you can record it when you need to:

Cable your Motif XS left and right outputs to two channels on the mixer.

Cable the mixer’s Monitor Outputs to your monitors

Cable the mixer’s auxiliary sends to the inputs on your interface.  Turn up the aux send pots on the Motif XS channels.

That should provide a near perfect hardware solution and you can leave it all cabled as it is all of the time.

The only cons are that you’ll always need the mixer on when you want to play your Motif, and, of course, you may have to spend money on a mixer and a few more cables to do it.

Oh thanks so much for this! Yes the OUTPUT TO WAV option is perfect. I need to check that out asap. Must have missed it. Thanks so much I will report back!

Works like a charm! Thanks so much for this

You’re welcome.

You can’t beat sneaker net.