I just picked up an XS7. I’m more a keyboardist than a sound/recording technician, although I have done some home multi-track recording several years ago using an SY77 and PSR410. I guess I’m going to have to try to remember how I did that…

I’m happy with the ease of use, the interface, sequencing songs… The touch of the XS7 keyboard is fantastic. I couldn’t have an XS8. My fingers gotta fly. The manual could be better, of course. Rather than try to find and decipher this instruction, how about I ask you guys?

Q.  I like a particular Performance, but I want to change one of the four Performance track voices to another voice. How do I do that?

In fact, I expect it’s probably a good idea to leave the original Performance alone, but copy it to another memory location and “work on it” and then save it there. So how do you do that, and what other memory locations are available? Thanks!

Welcome.
The 4 members of a Performance are called Parts.
Be careful with the terms because otherwise you can’t find
anything in the manual.
To change a Performance: EDIT, select the Part by a number key
(to the right), then change the Voice inside.
See page 28 of the manual.
Save to any Performance location; you got 3 * 128.
You can rewrite the old one or give up another one.
Remember that most factory Performances are just learning material.

;JOOP!

Excellent advice. The 384 PERFORMANCES are all in “user” memory and are provided just to give the user an idea of what is possible. You are supposed to edit them, change them, rewrite them - they are only ideas.

If you ever want the originals back you can restore them either by a doing a factory reset or by loading in a FILE that contains the original data.

Recommended that you get a USB drive (USB thumb drives are fine) and make a backup of the Factory Data in an ALL data file (.X0A) so that you can selectively load any data from it.

The Manual is actually quite good on the fundamentals, don’t assume that it is bad (most people do because it gives them an excuse when they can’t figure something out). lol

You can EDIT a PERFORMANCE or you can make changes to it without even dropping into EDIT mode… the Motif XS has what are called QUICK ACCESS screens that allow you to change some of the most often changed items without having to drop in and navigate the EDIT mode screens, here’s how:

Find a PERFORMANCE you want to change one of the PARTS (by assigning a different VOICE to it).
_ on the main PERFORMANCE screen you will see certain functions listed below the screen
[F1] PLAY (referred to as the main screen
[F2] VOICE - here you can view and re-assign VOICES to the four PARTS. You can see a check mark indicating an active PART, the VOICE listed by location and name, and the Note Limit (how it is assigned across the keyboard.

Use your cursor arrows to navigate.
Use [CATEGORY SEARCH] - one of the first “tools” you will want to master… Manual page 24: Using Category Search

[F3] EG is a quick edit to the Envelope Generators for timbre (filter) and loudness (amplitude)
[F4] ARPEGGIO - here you can assign arpeggios

Anyway that should get you started… and the manual is your friend - don’t be a typical “I’m more of a musician than technician” user, check it out, and become a more complete musician. lol

Enjoy!

Bad_Mister - 12 March 2010 07:24 AM

You are supposed to edit them, change them, rewrite them - they are only ideas.

Excellent. Thanks guys.

Bad_Mister - 12 March 2010 07:24 AM

Recommended that you get a USB drive (USB thumb drives are fine) and make a backup of the Factory Data in an ALL data file (.X0A) so that you can selectively load any data from it.

Sounds like a good idea. How do you do that? :)

Bad_Mister - 12 March 2010 07:24 AM

The Manual is actually quite good on the fundamentals, don’t assume that it is bad (most people do because it gives them an excuse when they can’t figure something out). lol

I recognize that a manual for the XS would be a daunting task (having done some tech writing). I’m sure the instruction is there, once you find it. Gotta mark some pages…

Bad_Mister - 12 March 2010 07:24 AM

...[F2] VOICE - here you can view and re-assign VOICES to the four PARTS.

Ah, perfect. So you have to end any such change with a ‘store’?

Bad_Mister - 12 March 2010 07:24 AM

[F4] ARPEGGIO - here you can assign arpeggios

But apparently not turn them off, which I did find somewhere else.

Bad_Mister - 12 March 2010 07:24 AM

Anyway that should get you started… and the manual is your friend - don’t be a typical “I’m more of a musician than technician” user, check it out, and become a more complete musician. lol

Oh, I was just speaking relatively. The technical aspects are certainly part of the… Performance!

Bad_Mister - 12 March 2010 07:24 AM

The Manual is actually quite good on the fundamentals, don’t assume that it is bad (most people do because it gives them an excuse when they can’t figure something out).

Reading the manual is no fun, but I’d recommend going through it a couple times, especially while in front of the XS. It’s worth the time spent.

synthlogic - 13 March 2010 04:48 AM

Reading the manual is no fun, but I’d recommend going through it a couple times, especially while in front of the XS. It’s worth the time spent.

A couple times?! Judging from the XS’s capabilities I’ve discovered so far, and extrapolating that to the 300 pages in the manual, after a couple times through the manual, I ought to be able to RULE THE WORLD, right? lol

No fun? Man you never tried a Panasonic manual!!!!!

;JOOP!