I know this has been answered probably many times before but I can’t seem to find detailed instructions and the old threads that link to other threads explaining this, just keep putting me back to the forum main page..

So I have an ES rack and I’m on a MAC… I’ve Dled the Voice editor and the Studio manager and the USB software....

Thanks for the patience :)

1. Install the Studio Manager and Motif Rack ES Editor software.
2. Install the generic USB/MIDI driver.
3. Connect your Mac to the Motif Rack ES via the USB MIDI cable.
4. Setup the Motif Rack ES to communicate with the Mac via USB by setting the MIDI IN/OUT parameter in the [UTILITY]-->MIDI page to USB
4. Start the Studio Manager
5. (From within the studio manager) start the Motif Rack ES Voice Editor.
6. (From within the Voice Editor) load the voice library you have purchased and copied onto your Mac.
7. Rearrange the voices in that library as desired and then use the “Transmit” button to transmit this library to the Motif Rack ES unit (see the information below extracted from the Motif Rack ES Voice Editor Manual.)

Regards,

Brad Weber

Click thumbnail to see full-size image

BradWeber - 13 August 2009 04:41 PM

1. Install the Studio Manager and Motif Rack ES Editor software.
2. Install the generic USB/MIDI driver.
3. Connect your Mac to the Motif Rack ES via the USB MIDI cable.
4. Setup the Motif Rack ES to communicate with the Mac via USB by setting the MIDI IN/OUT parameter in the [UTILITY]-->MIDI page to USB
4. Start the Studio Manager
5. (From within the studio manager) start the Motif Rack ES Voice Editor.
6. (From within the Voice Editor) load the voice library you have purchased and copied onto your Mac.
7. Rearrange the voices in that library as desired and then use the “Transmit” button to transmit this library to the Motif Rack ES unit (see the information below extracted from the Motif Rack ES Voice Editor Manual.)

Regards,

Brad Weber

Thank you so much this hopefully will help a ton :)

BTW: If I have the PLG150-AN am I able to still load the voice banks (3rd party and the Yamaha banks) into the PLG? I know the AN editor is windows only…

Again thanks

BradWeber - 13 August 2009 04:41 PM

1. Install the Studio Manager and Motif Rack ES Editor software.
2. Install the generic USB/MIDI driver.
3. Connect your Mac to the Motif Rack ES via the USB MIDI cable.
4. Setup the Motif Rack ES to communicate with the Mac via USB by setting the MIDI IN/OUT parameter in the [UTILITY]-->MIDI page to USB
4. Start the Studio Manager
5. (From within the studio manager) start the Motif Rack ES Voice Editor.
6. (From within the Voice Editor) load the voice library you have purchased and copied onto your Mac.
7. Rearrange the voices in that library as desired and then use the “Transmit” button to transmit this library to the Motif Rack ES unit (see the information below extracted from the Motif Rack ES Voice Editor Manual.)

Regards,

Brad Weber

Ok… I must be doing something wrong because I followed the steps to a T but the voice editor will NOT let me load any of my banks… everything is completely greyed out when I try to choose the bank.
What am I doing wrong??

THANKS

No, the VOICE EDITOR doesn’t support the PLGs, but there are separate editors (that also work within the Studio Manager) that do that. If the editor isn’t there for the MAC, I guess you’re out of luck (at least with Studio Manager...)

Grayed out?  Give us a screen capture of what you’re seeing. 

Are you successfully able to LOAD the file into the editor?  If not, you may have the wrong file format.

You have not setup your MIDI Ports in the MIDI SETTINGS tab - so I would imagine that you are not getting any response from the Editors.

Once you start Studio Manager (we assume you are running it as a stand alone application, i.e., without Cubase)… therefore you will need to make the MIDI PORTS available. Studio Manager is the host application for the Editors.

Go to SM2 > PREFERENCES
The MODIFY WORKSPACE tab is initially shown
Here you can ADD-> the DEVICE EDITORS to your WORKSPACE

So once you click to ADD the Motif-Rack ES Multi and Motif-Rack ES Voice Editors to your Workspace, click on the “MIDI SETTINGS” tab at the top.

Here you will find the MIDI “INPUT PORT” and “OUTPUT PORT” setup. You must mark the Port 1 for both INPUT and OUTPUT - these are the ones that the Editors will use to communicate with the Motif-Rack ES.

YAMAHA Motif-R ES Port 1 = INPUT PORT
YAMAHA Motif-R ES Port 1 = OUTPUT PORT

You do not mention a keyboard controller but you may want to set it up here as well. MIDI THRU is were you can route a keyboard plugged into the Motif-Rack ES’s 5-pin MIDI jack to control the Rack ES.
You may want to set this as your DEFAULT setup (mark SET DEFAULT)
Click APPLY
Click OK

Next you can double click on the Motif-Rack ES Multi icon, in your Workspace to launch the Multi Part Editor.
Go to SETUP > SETUP…

in the dialog box that opens set the following:

MIDI IN REMOTE PORT = Not Assigned
MIDI OUT REMOTE PORT = Not Assigned

MIDI IN PORT = Yamaha Motif-R ES Port 1
MIDI OUT PORT = Yamaha Motif-R ES Port 1

Leave the REMOTE PORTS - “Not Assigned” as you do not mention any qualified device to act as a REMOTE CONTROLLER for the Motif-Rack ES Editors…

Next you can double click the Motif-Rack ES Voice Editor icon.
Go to SETUP > SETUP…

in the dialog box that opens set the following:

MIDI IN PORT = Yamaha Motif-R ES Port 1
MIDI OUT PORT = Yamaha Motif-R ES Port 1

Hope that helps, let us know.

As to using the Motif-Rack ES with the PLG boards, of course, the Editor deals with the PLUG-IN VOICES… you have to understand the difference between a PLUG-IN VOICE and a BOARD VOICE.

PLUG-IN VOICE - is a set of Motif-Rack ES parameters that point to a single Element _ that Element is a PLG150 series Voice (Board Voice). The PLUG-IN VOICE includes the Motif-Rack ES SYSTEM and INSERTION Effects, Filter Cutoff/Resonance, EQ, etc.

BOARD VOICE - is a preset or user sound resident on the PLG150 series card… the BOARD VOICE is treated by the host product (Motif-Rack ES) as a single Element. For example, the PLG150-AN comes with two banks of 128 PRESET Board Voices and a custom USER bank of 128 that can be created with the AN Expert Editor. 

Studio Connections article

Bad Mister-

Thanks for setting me straight with my connections. BTW I’m using a V-SYNTH in a midi studio and DP as my sequencer.. if that changes anything.

It seems now the computer and the ES are at least talking to one another but I’m still having some lingering problems: 

1. How can I open or load a w2a file? Actually, any file ending in “a” will not open for me

I searched through the threads that state they have to be opened one voice at a time… but how can I do that on a RACK or using SM? I believe I read also that SM can open these directly but every time I try , all I get is a “error loading file” message? Are my files corrupt? 

2. Why when I open some files and try to open them in user 1, does it throw them into a different bank (user 2) and load a different bank (the one with “unplugged guitar” preset 1) into user 1?

3. Is there a easier way to load AND audition sounds into my rack than putting it into MIDI-USB mode to load them and then switching to MIDI - MIDI mode to audition them using my controller?

Thanks for the patience…
Rob

1. How can I open or load a w2a file? Actually, any file ending in “a” will not open for me

I searched through the threads that state they have to be opened one voice at a time… but how can I do that on a RACK or using SM? I believe I read also that SM can open these directly but every time I try , all I get is a “error loading file” message? Are my files corrupt?

A .W2A file is an original Motif ALL data file and is not able to be opened by the Motif-Rack ES itself. The ALL data file for the keyboard Motif included all Voices, all Performances, all Songs, all Patterns, all Arpeggios, all user Waveforms, etc., etc. The Motif-Rack ES cannot handle all of these things.

If you have a .W2E version of that data (which is an original Motif VOICE EDITOR file) you can use the Studio Manager and the Motif-Rack ES VOICE Editor to open that file. The .W2E VOICE EDITOR file for the Motif, contains just the Voice data which the Motif-Rack ES can read.

2. Why when I open some files and try to open them in user 1, does it throw them into a different bank (user 2) and load a different bank (the one with “unplugged guitar” preset 1) into user 1?

You can basically direct the data to whichever user bank you wish. 

Using the Motif-Rack ES VOICE Editor
Go to EDIT > IMPORT
Use the IMPORT dialog box to OPEN FILE
Select the Voices you wish to IMPORT - it lets you select the by MEMORY bank “Normal User 1”, “Normal User 2” etc - you can select individual Voices or you can [CTRL + A] to select ALL
You can then drag them over to your preferred bank… with the obvious restriction that NORMAL USER banks can only be dropped in NORMAL USER banks, DRUM USER Banks can only be dropped in the DRUM USER bank, and PLUG-IN USER Voices can only be dropped in the PLUG-IN USER banks.

3. Is there a easier way to load AND audition sounds into my rack than putting it into MIDI-USB mode to load them and then switching to MIDI - MIDI mode to audition them using my controller?

Absolutely there is - I began to mentioned it in the last post (but you had provided no information about a controller).

With the Motif-Rack ES Editor click on the icon that looks like a human ear (MONITOR) this allows you to audition the sounds without having to load them to the Motif-Rack ES. It simply bulks the current VOICE data temporarily to USER 1 location 001 and it only resides temporarily in Edit Buffer (where you can play it, explore it, edit it, etc. If you decide you like the VOICE you can then STORE it to any USER location you desire. If you don’t want to keep it - simply move away, or double click another Voice to audition…

As I mentioned in my previous post… if you have a keyboard controller you will want to setup the STUDIO MANAGER > MIDI SETTINGS tab so that MIDI THRU INPUT and OUTPUT parameters represents your controller coming into and going back out of the system. This way you will not have to keep switching the MIDI IN/OUT parameter

(don’t do that)…

Leave the MIDI IN/OUT = USB
Plug your keyboard via a 5-pin MIDI cable to the MIDI IN of the Motif-Rack ES. The Rack ES is now a MIDI interface… the key presses of your controller will simply pass THRU the Rack ES and arrive in the computer (STUDIO MANAGER). Studio Manager will see this incoming MIDI data as PORT 1.... and you can set the MIDI THRU INPUT to receive those key press… and set the MIDI THRU OUTPUT parameter to bounce them to the Motif-Rack ES via USB-MIDI OUT

So set the MIDI THRU setup
MIDI IN = Motif-R ES PORT 1
MIDI OUT = Motif-R ES PORT 1

THANKS SO MUCH!! I appreciate your patience and help :)

Re: the w2a files, was the ES keyboard able to open these sounds?

Is there any way I can convert them to a w2e file if I do not have access to a keyboard ES or a motif classic?

I ask because there were several professional banks that were given to me by Athan at Yamaha for damage that was done to an ES8 (long story… but we agreed some pro libraries would be used as compensation for the damage). If I can’t convert these files myself, would someone here be able to help in doing that?

Again thanks!!

The Motif ES can load voices from Motif Classic ALL files (*.w2a).
But the Motif Rack ES cannot and neither can its voice editor.

Regards,

Brad Weber

BradWeber - 15 August 2009 02:11 PM

The Motif ES can load voices from Motif Classic ALL files (*.w2a).
But the Motif Rack ES cannot and neither can its voice editor.


Regards,

Brad Weber

OK thanks, but is there any way to convert them other than using an ES?

Bad Mister or Brad:

Just so I understand this: PLG150-AN voices can only be loaded using AN editor which is only available for PC? Are there any options for those on a MAC?

Thanks

tdm71 - 15 August 2009 04:23 PM

OK thanks, but is there any way to convert them other than using an ES?

Brad

I know it won’t help you immediately, but sometime in the autumn I’ll be looking at updating an.factory (http://www.xfactory-librarians.co.uk) to work with the PLG150-AN. As the librarians are written in Java then they are cross platform and also work on OSX.