I’m wondering if I were to take song files from my classic motif8 to an xs8, using a smart media card to a pc then from the pc to a memory stick, compatible to the xs, my songs will then play on the xs won’t they? If so, will they sound the same or is there some change?

The Motif XS cannot read Motif classic song files. Therefore you must save your Motif Classic songs as standard MIDI files, load them into the XS and then recreate the song mix (including voices for each part, effects, effects routing, stereo pan position, relative volume, etc.) on the XS.

The other challenge will be that the XS may not have all of the same voices that the Classic had and the XS cannot directly load classic voices. It is possible to convert classic voices to Motif ES format and then the XS can convert those to ES voices to XS format.  Following two conversion and given the difference in tone generators and effects processing for the classic and the XS, you will probably need to tweak these voices further to get the sounds you want.

Let us know if you need further assistance.

Regards,

Brad Weber

Greatly appreciate the instructions Brad. Guess I might have to rethink my upgrading to the XS. Or maybe I could add an XS7 to get the additional polyphony and arpeggios and keep the Classic8. Just thinking out loud. Thanks again

And if you only need a tone generator (including additional arpeggios and polyphony and no sampling or loading of sample voices) you might also consider a Motif Rack XS.

Regards,

Brad Weber