This is my first post here, as a new owner of an MOXF8, this forum was recommended to me as a great resource for information on my new instrument, so thanks in advance for any help.  So my Premium Collection goodies finally arrived, I have performed the firmware update to v.103, I have the 512 MB flash board installed and a USB stick plugged in, and the MOXF connected to my computer over USB, but I don’t seem to see any documentation/instructions on how to install the Premium Collection sounds from the DVD.  Can anyone point me to step by step instructions on how to proceed - how to install, load, access, see, play the new waveforms and Voices that use them?  Thanks very much.

Welcome to the forum.

Loading new material will typically overwrite the User data. How “new” an owner are you? Have you edited any of the User Voices or Performances yet, or stored your own Patterns or Songs? If so, the first thing I’d suggest doing is saving an “All” file to the USB flash drive. That will provide a copy of your own work, as well as give you some familiarity with the MOXF file system.

You mentioned that you have a flash module installed. If you haven’t formatted it yet, that should be done before attempting to load Waveforms/Samples to it. See page 158 of the MOXF Reference Manual.

If you haven’t already done so, have a look at pages 156-157 of the Reference Manual. File extensions will tell you which model a file is compatible with. Files with extension .X3A, for example, are from a Motif XF, and compatible with the MOXF with some limitations.

You can connect the USB flash drive to your computer, copy files to it, move the flash drive to the MOXF, and load what you want - again, with some limitations. One thing to be aware of is that the Motif XF has four User Voice Banks, and XF “All” (.X3A) files might be set up to load Voices in the fourth Bank, which doesn’t exist on the MOXF. There are ways to get around that.

I hope that gives you somewhat of a starting point.  Let us know what you want to load and we can go into details if needed.

Here are some helpful articles concerning the MOXF:
http://www.motifator.com/index.php/support/moxf_articles/

This one in particular might be of interest:
http://www.motifator.com/index.php/support/view/moxf_flash_board

Thanks for the responses.  I haven’t yet clicked the article links I just saw you provided, looking forward to reading them; in the meantime, I thought I’d just update as to where I am right now, not sure I need any immediate help (I do have a question, it’ll be at the end of this update).  One hindrance was that due to some problem with Acrobat on my pc at home, I was unable to open the MOXF Reference Manual pdf, even uploading it into Google Drive I couldn’t open it there either; however, I was able to read it at here work and consult the sections you referred me to about file types, saving and loading, and I feel more comfortable with the concepts and procedure now. (I already understood of the relationship and distinction between waveforms and voices, what I wasn’t sure of was how the various file types worked; the reference manual cleared that up nicely as you suggested.) Of course I want to load up and try all the extra sounds that I got with my Premium Collection, but was kind of bummed to read that the first set that probably all of us are most interested in, the Chick Corea Rhodes product, apparently takes 420 mb of space with its waveforms, using the vast majority of my 512 mb flash board right off the bat.

More troubling to me, reading the mnaual that comes with the Chick/Rhodes sounds, was something you referred to in your first response, but I think (I’m at my day job now and won’t be able to resume working on all this til tonight) if I understand what I’ve read so far, that it might not be a problem.  Actually, there are two related issues that both concern me, but I am making an educated guess that both are mitigated on my new MOXF8. First of all, it bothered me that I kept reading, both in your suggestion and in the Chick manual, that you must always back up all your previous work before loading anything onto the flash drive.  This sounds like a real hindrance!  And then the related issue, that the voices included on the Chick/Rhodes patch, automatically load to User Bank 4 which as you pointed out doesn’t exist on my MOXF8.  However, I am inferring from what I read that these issues exist more with the MOTIF (for which the Chick manual was written) and are less of an issue now with the newer MOXF.  Reading the Reference Manual for the MOXF8, I see that (although I haven’t gotten to try any of this yet), the Load operation allows you to pick a source and destination bank (and I would think the slot too) for any individual Voices - or Performances I imagine - that I want to load from the “ALL” type file - or for whole banks included in the file.  Therefore, I am hoping that I can select the 16 Chick Corea Rhodes voices that are in Bank 4 in the .X3A file, and specify to have them loaded into my Bank 3 instead - solving both problems (my changes to voices have only been written to User Bank 1 so won’t be overwritten if I do the operation this way). My guess is that previous MOTIF keyboards didn’t have this capability.

My questions Phil at this point then are these - 1) am I right, that the Source/Destination bank selection capability in the MOXF’s Load function, will let me write the voices I want from within the .X3A file, into a bank of my choosing, and therefore I will be able to get them even though they were saved from Bank 4 originally, and also that I don’t need to necessarily first back up my current data (assuming I don’t care about overwriting User Bank 3) right now.  Question 2) If the answer to #1 is “yes,” will I be able to take advantage of this functionality even with the older style .X3A file created for the Motif, even though it is not the newer style .X6A file formatted for the MOXF?  Question 3) If the answer to #1 is “yes” but #2 is “no,” OR if the answer to #1 is “no,” then what in fact is the workaround you mentioned, that will still be able to load these voices onto my new axe?

Thank you so much, I know this was a long post, I wanted to be specific and clear.

And one follow-up question.  Is it the case that I’m wrong in my optimism - and that even though I can specify which banks I want to load Voices into from files - that just the act of updating the Flash Board with new waveforms, will in itself reinitialize my User banks anyway?  In which case, yes, as you suggested, I definitely have to back up my stuff first in any case (and in which case I guess what I would then do is, after updating the Flash, reload the individual voices and performances I want from the backup file I created).  Ugh!  Pretty inconvenient.

Just to address one point before I go any further…
You posted “My questions Phil...”. I assume that was intended for Phil Clendeninn, a/k/a Bad_Mister here on Motifator. I’ll answer to 5pinDIN, “5-pin”, or even “Hey you”, but I’m not Phil.  :-)

I’m glad you were able to read the Reference Manual at work. Your member profile doesn’t indicate what computer OS you’re running at home - if Windows, you might try an alternative PDF reader:
http://www.foxitsoftware.com/Secure_PDF_Reader/

Yes, the Chick’s Mark V Waveforms would take up much of the space on a 512 MB flash module. It might be be better to start with some of the smaller sample libraries. Of course, anything installed to a flash module can be deleted if you decide you no longer want it. By the way, the flash chips are rated for a minimum of 100,000 program/erase cycles per block, but the process of deleting and rewriting isn’t fast.

There’s no obligation to do so, but saving an “All” file to a USB flash drive is a good means of protecting your data. That way, if you accidentally (or intentionally) overwrite some important User data, you can always reload it. The various load “Type” options allow you to choose what to load from an “All” file. For example, if you load a new library in entirety and it overwrites all the User Banks, you could use the “1Bank Voice” option to reload a User Voice Bank from your “All” file without changing other MOXF memory contents.

Of course, if you load a library and then decide that you want to restore the original factory User data, a factory reset will accomplish that. A factory reset won’t, however, delete contents of the flash module. That has to be done separately, if desired.

As you mentioned, it’s possible to select the destination for data from a .X3A file. That in combination with choice of “Type” can overcome problems that might occur with loading .X3A files as “All” to the MOXF.

Thanks a million 5pin, sorry I had you mixed up with the moderator here.  I had heard before signing up that Phil is really quick, helpful and knowledgeable with answers here, and since you showed those same qualities, I mistook you for him!

And thanks another million for the recommendation on the alternate PDF reader for Windows, that has really been a thorn in my side, the Adobe reader just seems hosed on my Windows PC at home for some reason no matter what I do (update to latest version, uninstall/reinstall etc).  I’ll definitely give it a try.  They were right about this place! :)

rforman61@msn.com - 10 January 2014 08:42 AM

And one follow-up question.  Is it the case that I’m wrong in my optimism - and that even though I can specify which banks I want to load Voices into from files - that just the act of updating the Flash Board with new waveforms, will in itself reinitialize my User banks anyway?  In which case, yes, as you suggested, I definitely have to back up my stuff first in any case (and in which case I guess what I would then do is, after updating the Flash, reload the individual voices and performances I want from the backup file I created).  Ugh!  Pretty inconvenient.

Loading new data doesn’t “reinitialize” User locations, but it certainly can overwrite with something you hadn’t intended. Waveforms can be installed to the flash module without overwriting User Banks. However, typically Waveforms being installed to flash memory are associated with Voices that you’re loading, and those Voices (or Performances, etc.) could overwrite your User data. Care taken in choosing Load “Type” and destination can avoid unintentional overwriting, but I think “better safe than sorry” is more than a cliche. Saving a backup “All” file without samples doesn’t take very long, and doesn’t use much space on a USB flash drive.

rforman61@msn.com - 10 January 2014 10:51 AM

Thanks a million 5pin, sorry I had you mixed up with the moderator here.  I had heard before signing up that Phil is really quick, helpful and knowledgeable with answers here, and since you showed those same qualities, I mistook you for him!

No problem - you’re very welcome, and I’m sure that Phil/Bad_Mister will post at the first chance he gets.

rforman61@msn.com - 10 January 2014 10:53 AM

And thanks another million for the recommendation on the alternate PDF reader for Windows, that has really been a thorn in my side, the Adobe reader just seems hosed on my Windows PC at home for some reason no matter what I do (update to latest version, uninstall/reinstall etc).  I’ll definitely give it a try.

I hope the Foxit Reader does the trick, because the information in the Reference Manual is vital to understanding the MOXF. Of course, what isn’t clear in the Reference Manual, someone here can usually resolve.

 

rforman61@msn.com -

They were right about this place! :)

I’m glad you’re finding that the Motifator forum wasn’t misrepresented (on KC, perhaps?).  :-)

Yes that’s right, a few of my fellow keyboardists over on the KC forum directed me here.  Luckily, like I said, I have been at least been able to read the reference manual on my machine at work so I won’t have to fly completely blind.  (Printed out the section on files.) Even at home I can still work around it by uploading most PDF’s to Google Drive and opening them there, but that didn’t work for this one, my suspicion being that that was because it was too big a file. 

Kind of annoyed now at Yamaha that their Premium Collection, included as a promo with a purchase of the new synth, includes all these great extra sounds, but only a flash board big enough to load up some of them.  Thinking maybe I’ll load the 512 up with the Rhodes and CP1 collections, then buy a 1gb and try my luck selling the first one already loaded up with those extra waveforms, I would think that would be of interest to owners who didn’t get in on the December promotion; and since I got the smaller card “free” I should be able to price it attractively.

rforman61@msn.com - 10 January 2014 12:04 PM

…
Kind of annoyed now at Yamaha that their Premium Collection, included as a promo with a purchase of the new synth, includes all these great extra sounds, but only a flash board big enough to load up some of them....

I also thought that a 400+ MB library...which requires the full LOAD of sample data to make even (1) VOICE work!...with a 512MB card was an odd marketing strategy for the Premium Collection.  But hey, its better than not getting the Rhodes Library!

In any event, the good news is that the Chick Corea Library...and its very large sample file size...is really an anomaly.

You will find the vast majority of 3rd part libraries do not have this same dynamic.

Yup, Foxit reader worked, opened the reference manual right up.  This forum has been fantastically helpful to me already in my first 24 hours here, thanks again gentlemen.