Ok, usually I’m a manuals guy: I like reading user manuals and figuring out how stuff works.

However, I find the Motif ES manual pretty damn incomprehensible. I’m trying to figure out exactly how the PLG15-AN board works/integrates into the rest of the ES operating system.
I have a pretty simple setup: a Motif ES6 w/ PLG150-AN board installed in Slot 1, and I’m using another keyboard as a controller for the ES6 as well.

What I want to do is be able to play the Motif ES6 in Song Mixing mode so that I can play the board multitimbrally live, using my controller keyboard to call up the right sounds on the right channels. I dedicated channel 7 to be the channel I actually play from the Motif’s keys, with channels 8, 9, 10, etc as channels I play from my controller’s keys.

What I don’t understand is how to set up the right parameters to be able to call up a PLG150-AN sound on one of these channels and play it, either from the Motif’s own keys or from my controller.

I’ve tried reading the manual and understanding about port numbers and device numbers but honestly, I’m not getting it at all. Is there anyone that can explain how this works in a more comprehensible way than the manual does?

It is basic MIDI. You can place the PLG150-AN on any MIDI channel that you require. What may be difficult to grasp at first is that the Motif ES is 16 PART multi-timbral in SONG/PATTERN MIXING mode (those are its multi-timbral modes). The three slots that can contain PLG150-series boards can either replace one of those 16 internal PARTS or be layered with one of the 16 internal PARTS (if you are attempting to play them from an external keyboard).

You can assign MIDI channels to any of the Motif ES PARTS as follows:
From [MIXING]
Press [EDIT]
Press the PART button [1]-[16] to select the PART
If you want to select a PLUG-IN PART you must first hit the [F6] PLG1-3 button to toggle to the view of the PLG boards: slot 1, slot 2 and slot 3

When you are transmitting to the PLG150-AN from the Motif ES’s own keybed, you transmit to it via a TRACK of the sequencer. In other words, when you select the TRACK SELECT [1] button you are transmitting on MIDI Channel 1 because Track 1 defaults to transmitting on MIDI channel 1. You can change the default transmit channel as follows:

Press [SONG] or [PATTERN] to view the main screen
Press [F3] TRACK
Press [SF1] CHANNEL

Here you are looking at the default setup for Track Transmit Channels. There are 16 tracks and 16 MIDI channels. the default is Tr 1 = Ch1, Tr 2 = Ch2, and so on…

It is possible to place the PLG150-AN boards on a separate PORT. The Motif ES internal PARTS are fixed on PORT 1.

If you set your PLG150-series boards to PORT 2, then by default they will occupy the first 3 MIDI channels of PORT 2
Slot 1 = Channel 1
Slot 2 = Channel 2
Slot 3 = Channel 3

You can set a track to transmit to the PLG150 board by setting the PORT of the track you want to use to PORT 2.

Say your PLG150-AN was in slot 1 and you wanted to play the PLG150-AN from the Motif ES keyboard - you have several options:

1) you could select a MIDI channel to use for the PLG150-AN, then program the internal sound that defaults to that channel so that its MIDI RECEIVE CHANNEL = OFF.
For example, You could turn internal PART 1’s MIDI Receive Ch = OFF
Press [MIXING]
Press [EDIT]
Press Track Select [1] to view PART 1 parameters
Press [F1] VOICE
Press [SF2] MODE
Set the MIDI Receive Ch = OFF

Press [F6] PLG1-3 to toggle to the view of the three PLG slots
Set the MIDI Receive Channel of Slot 1 = 1

As you can see it is basic MIDI - the sequencer Track (and Keyboard) transmits on a specific MIDI channel and the Tone Generator PART is set to receive on a specific MIDI channel.

2) You could place your PLG150-series boards on PORT 2
Press [UTILITY]
Press [F6] PLUG
Press [SF2] MIDI
Set the Port No. parameter = 2
This will change all PLG150 series boards together (by definition a PLG150 board is always a single Part board and will only occupy a single channel so all PLG150 boards can exist on a single PORT - a PORT has 16 Channels - there are only 3 slots).

Go to SONG (or PATTERN) mode
Press [F3] TRACK
Press [SF1] CHANNEL
Set Track 1 = MIDI channel 1, PORT 2

Now when you select the Track 1 button you will be transmitting to the PLG150-AN board on MIDI channel 1 of PORT 2.

Warning: you cannot transmit from your external keyboard directly to the Motif ES and reach PORT 2, sorry. A standard MIDI cable is only capable of transmitting on a single Port, the default (fixed) PORT that speaks to the 16 Internal Motif ES PARTS. So if you want to address the PLG150-AN from an external keyboard via a standard MIDI cable you will need to use the REPLACE method described above.

PORT 2 can be addressed from an external device only via USB-MIDI or mLAN-MIDI (both are multiple Port interfaces). So it is possible from a computer-based DAW to address the Motif ES on PORT 1 and reach the 16 internal PARTS, and on PORT 2 reach the 3 PLG150 boards in Slots 1, 2 and 3

Hope that helps.