Im tryin to record midi from the motif. I have been able to do this. But however there are some things i cant get my head around. Firstly, when im recording the region gets filled with crosses and x´s like there is something that is not connected right. Secondly, if im recording a violin and record a piano on the other track, both of the tracks becomes the piano ( even if i have set up different midi channels). And can i just record 16 midi tracks?

And how does motif recall the messages from logic and vice versa. Can i save a project without converting it to audio and open without any loss?

In addition, when my motif is connected via usb to my mac, it just stops working sometimes. Not sometimes but actually a lot of times. The whole keyboard just freezes and i cant do anything. I have tried pressing any button and the thing still wont work. The only solution is to reboot the keyboard. This makes me extremely frustrated. I thought that a keyboard that expensive would at least have some quality.

I know there is a lot of questions. But im just so freaking angry. Intil now ive just worked inside of my mac and as soon as i buy external stuff, everything gets so more cumbersome. But i cant afford returning the motif cus i need it as my primary sound source. My only alternative is to buy a bunch of plugins which will ultimately crash my mac. Now i have a fairly good mac (imac, 2,8 ghz, 4 gb ram) but i guess i would have to upgrade to a mac pro if im going to use plugins that much, and i cant afford that..

Thanks in advance, any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

There are several Motif’s. You need to very specific on what equipment you are using and how exactly you are setup. And, if you can attach pictures of your Library showing your MIDI ports along with a picture of the Audio Midi Setup…

Sorry, missed the XS in your title. But, post the other stuff and I’ll try and help you out…

I have an imac. My interface is a mobile pre usb audio interface by m-audio. That is connected via usb to one of my ports on the imac. Then i have the usb from my motif going into another one of my ports on my computer.  Then i have put a jack into the phones input on the motif and into the stereo mic on my interface. 

I have watched some logic tutorials on youtube and i found out that i needed to create an aux to lissen to the sounds that comes into logic. But now it seems that i dont need this because i can still hear my motif on an external midi channel without the aux.

OK, a couple of things…

Firstly, when im recording the region gets filled with crosses and x´s like there is something that is not connected right.

Check out the following post and see if this helps… Let me know how you’re progressing…

http://www.motifator.com/index.php/forum/viewthread/441836/

So went into my midi setup ( cmn shift U ) and there was a device there called yamaha motif xs. Im not sure whether this is the usb or the external one u were talking about in the article u were refering to.. Am i supposed to add another or?

so the yamaha usb device u were talking about is not in the AMS..

Yes, when the driver is properly installed, it is automatically created in AMS the first time you connect the XS via USB. The second device you must create and real important, give it a name that you will easily recognize when you see it in Logic… (My XS, or anything that will stand out...)

The pic below shows my AMS setup. The top right device is the driver. (I’ve customized the icon, so mine will look different from yours.) The bottom device, I had to create and draw the cable…

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So i added a picture of my AMS right now.. I opened the external instrument, changed the name and opened all midi channels.  I know the usb driver does not have a title like YAMAHA USB DRIVER DEVICE or something but im sure thats the one u were talking about cus it has 4 ports and got created automatically.

Then i opened logic and an external instrument. The general midi thing showed up but my motif showed up in my library to the right hand side. I added a picture of that as well.

I also added a picture of the crosses i was talking about that fills up my regions.

Click thumbnail to see full-size image

OK, that’s why I said give the device a distinctive name. All of your ports are reading the same name which makes it a little harder to identify. And the crosses are more than likely do to parameters being sent for Port #2.

I do still recommend renaming the device you created to Mo’ XS’, ‘XS Baby’, ‘XS Machine’ anything distinctive. Note how mine is named XS8 MLAN. While the picture below is from my MLAN setup, note how differently it reads in the Library from the other XS Ports: just makes it easier.

Another way to verify that you are using Port #1:

In the other picture, I’ve clicked on the second triangle in my Inspector so that it reveals the Port. If there is not enough info showing, click the double triangles and it will reveal all of your Ports and show the currently selected Port checked.

A couple of other things: I think I stated before to make sure you have set the XS for Logic Mode (pg 267 of manual) and selected the appropriate ‘Quick Setup’ setting (pg. 270 - 271 of manual)…

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I have changed the names in the AMS to Yamaha usb driver and the external one i created to Motif Baby. I also have the remote setting on the motif set to logic and the setup number in the quick settings set to recording on computer. The motif baby shows up in logic as port 1 i think because before it said port 1 and now just the motif baby as shown below. In the library there are 4 ´´motif babies´´, one for each port i guess.

But im still getting the crosses in my regions. I dont know even i have connected the cable into my audio interface right. (out of the phones output into the stereo mic input. The reason i got the motif was to have a sound source outside of my computer so i didnt slow my computer down. But maybe ill return it, i dont know. But if ill manage to set all this up with your help ( for which im extremely grateful) will i be able to open up a logic project and recall all of the settings made wihout having to convert every region to audio before closing a project? in addition, i notice that the external midi channels looks kind of different from a software instrument track. I cant even apply logics eq or any effects. Does this mean that i will have to convert everything to audio before i mix? I know i have a lot of questions, but i have to get these answered so i can decide whether or not to return the keyboard.  I have a 14 days return guarantee. I received the keyboard 4 days ago or something. Anyway, i understand that this is not your problem, but i sincerely appreciate your help.

Click thumbnail to see full-size image

First, be patient this will work… There’s something simple we’re missing. I’m not at my computer but, I think it’s odd that all the ports do show up as Motif Baby in the Library. I only use USB every now and then since I have MLAN but, I don’t recall all of them being named the same thing. But, the inspector shows that you are using Port 1…

Even though it’s odd that the Channel 1 & 2 Instrument inputs are not on the same side of the mobile pre, I would go with two cables from the L/R of the Motif to the CH 1&2;of the Mobile Pre… Also, did I ask if you’ve set the XS to USB Mode in the Utility Interface MIDI IN/Out??? (pg. 267 of Manual).

You will be able to recall the settings, with a little work (I’ll show you later) and / or save the mixing in the XS, which I highly recommend. You can also save it in Studio manger if you run it at the same time…

You are right that you cannot add Logic effects to XS instruments until they are recorded as audio… (that doesn’t happen to be of great concern to me. I don’t recall ever having to add Logic effects to XS voices recorded as audio- not including the mastering process.

PS- you won’t have to setup an aux to hear the mobile pre… Logic should auto detect it. We’ll get into the audio after solving this MIDI issue… I believe those xxx’s are from a MIDI clock, if not the remote… We need to identify where it’s coming from… By the way, does the Mobile Pre show up in the AMS?

I have motif set to usb mode yes, no the interface does not show up in the AMS just in my system settings as u can see below.

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am i not suppose to create a multiple instrument in logic environment for the motif, or is the external instrument in the AMS enough? In addition i just wanted to let you know that the metronome of logic is following what ever instrument is selected on the motif. So when logic´s click plays, if i have the grand piano selected on the motif, the piano will play along with it, strange...it hasnt always been like this, and ive tried some settings on the motif, but no luck yet.

As far as Logic 8 metronome goes vs. the Motif I ran into the same thing with having the metronome in Logic play whatever the sound is the Motif had selected for the given metronome channel. 

What I ended up doing was I went into Logic’s metronome settings, and put the metronome on channel 16.  On the Motif XS6 I use a cowbell sound.  It seems to work OK except I am using alittle polyphony doing it this way.

Bill :)