I am new to the Motif and have been getting started with the song/pattern recording. My issue is on track 1, a piano sound is “stuck “ so to speak even though I have changed the sound and or bank. The other tracks are not doing this and seem to be fine. Am I missing something?

Are you working in song or pattern mode?

If you are working in song mode, the issue could be that you have a program change command embedded in the track data for track 1. By deleting this program change command, the Motif ES will then use the voice you specify in the song mix rather than being overridden by the program change command.

If you are working in pattern mode you may be encountering one of the most common user traps for that mode of operation on the Motif ES.

You should be aware that when pattern phrases are recorded (either by you or preset pattern phrases) the mix settings for the voice specified at that time are stored in the phrase header. By default, these settings - and in particular the voice selection - will override any changes that you make in the mix after the fact. The reason for this “feature” is that the designers of the Motif products wanted you to be able to re-use pattern phrases in multiple sections and/or patterns without having to remember the voice and other settings it was created with.

Thus if a pattern phrase was recorded using a Piano voice, by default it will always play back using that voice. If you want that phrase to be played back using a different voice it won’t be enough to simply change the voice selection in the mix for this part.

To change the voices that previously recorded pattern phrases are played back with, you must either change the “track voice” that is stored in the phrase header or tell the instrument to ignore the track voice and playback phrases using the voices specified in the current mix. For more information on how to make these changes, see this post from a previous incarnation of these forums.

Brad Weber

Brad - Thanks for the explanation. As it turns out the PLG1 card was causing this and I have to bring the volume setting to 0 in the mix to turn it off. Is there another way to mute that voice?
Dave

Ah… since I’ve moved on to a Motif XS (which doesn’t support PLG cards) I had forgotten about the fact that, by default, the PLG cards are layered with the internal tone generator.

You can choose which of the available tone generators (the internal AWM2 and PLG cards) responds to each MIDI channel (and therefore its performance or song or pattern part). In this fashion you can choose one or the other or to layer the voices generated by both.

Information on using the PLG150 boards in performances and song/pattern mixes is contained in the attached article. While originally written for the Motif (classic) it applies to the ES as well.

Regards,

Brad Weber

MotifPLG150.pdf  (File Size: 216KB - Downloads: 186)

Thanks Brad that article was informative.