Got a few questions about the XF after spending 2 hours with Tony E (this is coming from a Fantom X8 user):

Can a footswitch be used to tap tempo?

In master mode, Tony was switching between 4 patches w/o the sounds cutting off. We couldnt find a way to select these patches in master via footswitch.  My question is are there more than 4?

Control surface question...can I assign one of the sliders to a specific midi channel & CC (to control overall level of the RME mixer?).  This setting needs to be the same regardless what voice or master is selected.  Would i need to program that for every voice/master?

XF Firewire. I’m using Logic 8 with RME FF800 interface. What capabilities are available to the Logic user?

Personal note...the XF sounds amazing. Thank God for pitch bend & mod wheels. Love the color & I’m already thinking about making some nice cherry end caps for the XF8. I’m a songwriter and unlike alot of people I don’t use *that* many sounds sketching things out...piano, organ, strings, mellotron choir & couple leads. Getting this stuff into flash and off the computer will be a real timesaver.

Can a footswitch be used to tap tempo?

There is a company that makes a Tap Tempo footswitch that works via the MIDI IN jack (34OneII tap tempo pedal. But if you are referring to one of the FC4/FC5 Foot Switches that plug into the Motif XF, no.

In master mode, Tony was switching between 4 patches w/o the sounds cutting off. We couldnt find a way to select these patches in master via footswitch.  My question is are there more than 4?

The question is not really clear. You can place as many 16 VOICES in PARTS of a MIXING setup and switch between 16 sounds without cutting off. Master mode always points to either a single VOICE, a single PERFORMANCE, or it points to a SONG/PATTERN MIXING setup. Each MIXING setup there are a total of 128 of them, can contain 16 sounds. Using the TRACK select buttons 1-16 you can quickly and easily move seamlessly between the sounds.

A Foot Switch can be used to advance through program setups - which will always cause a sound interruption (an “all notes off” message is mandatory in that situation. The reason the seamless trasnition between sounds works in a MIXING setup is that you are not switching programs - all 16 VOICES are a part of the same program, you simply switching between them via the front panel buttons. So clicking a foot switch assigned to Program Change advance will recall 16 new VOICES in the next program.

Control surface question...can I assign one of the sliders to a specific midi channel & CC (to control overall level of the RME mixer?).  This setting needs to be the same regardless what voice or master is selected.  Would i need to program that for every voice/master?

You can assign the CS to a ZONE when you are in MASTER mode. They can send any cc message between 01~95. And you would, indeed, need to set it up in each MASTER program. There are 128.

XF Firewire. I’m using Logic 8 with RME FF800 interface. What capabilities are available to the Logic user?

The XF’s firewire interface will not work with the RME, or if you’d like the RME’s firewire interface will not work with the XF. They use two different protocols.

Yamaha’s FW interface handles both MIDI and audio down the single FW cable, 16 audio outputs, 3 pair of audio returns, plus 3 PORTS of bi-directional MIDI communication. You can certainly use it with Logic - you can visit the Logic forum here on Motifator for some users of Logic who can fill you in on the capabilities with Logic.