When playing live and attempting to adjust volumes of individual voices in performance mode, I find myself hampered by the fact that one has to shift the volume bar for a particular voice past the stored volume level in order to get a response. Is there any way to set it so that touching a volume bar immediately triggers a change and overrides the stored volume for a particular voice? (Is this clear as mud?)

I suppose you could edit the voice as a new voice and remove the stored level.

robinvt - 19 June 2012 11:57 AM

I suppose you could edit the voice as a new voice and remove the stored level.

Could be wrong here, but I believe there will always be an indicated set level you must “hook” to change.  When I switch to a PERFORMANCE I have set up for live playing, I have just trained myself to immediately sweep the faders to get the volume ready for real-time adjustment.

If you associate a SONG/PATTERN with a MASTER program, you can have a setup where your Sliders are “live”.

For this you would have to set the ZONE SWITCH to ON, KNOB CONTROL ASSIGN to ZONE and program your Sliders to send CC07 messages. However, be aware that in this case there could be a “jump” in the volume levels of individual MIXING parts as soon as you touch the corresponding Sliders.

Also, this would not work for a PERFORMANCE because the part volume levels for a performance are controlled through SysEx messages which you would not be able to send from MASTER mode.

See the following thread for perspective:

http://www.motifator.com/index.php/forum/viewthread/455875/

@ cmayhle
Could be wrong here, but I believe there will always be an indicated set level you must “hook” to change.  When I switch to a PERFORMANCE I have set up for live playing, I have just trained myself to immediately sweep the faders to get the volume ready for real-time adjustment.

Correct. There is always a stored value when the Program is recalled. The best solution, of course, would be motorized faders that automatically matched the stored value and therefore would mimic the “live” condition when the Program is recalled. Short of the motorized fader there is not a perfect solution.

What you can do in PERFORMANCE mode is decide what needs to be adjusted and work with your available options to find a suitable situation to perform the sounds you need. There is not going to be one solution that works for everyone.

Say you have two Voices that you need to work the volumes of during a PERFORMANCE. You can assign direct control of one of them to a Foot Controller

If you have three or four Voices you need to work the volume of, then you can simply recognize that the CS are VOLUME controls that need to be ‘activated’. You can either store all the volumes at 127 or all the Volumes at 0 (that will certainly remind you that you need to activate the sliders in order to use them in real time).

When you recall a PERFORMANCE the screen can show the stored value and position (red arrow) of the Volumes of the PARTS. When you recall a PERFORMANCE you can be recalling four different sounds. How you switch between them is a very programmable - You can MUTE the PARTS you don’t want to sound, you can turn entire Voices ON and OFF using the tools available within the architecture of the XF.

Typically, when recalling a PERFORMANCE you should activate the [PERFORMANCE CONTROL] function. This gives you 16 front panel button control over what is going on in that PERFORMANCE.

You have the buttons [1]-[4] that are PART SELECT. This in conjunction with the [COMMON EDIT] button selects what your 3 rows of 8 KNOBS is controlling.

And while the HOOK system may seem disturbing (it just takes getting used to), many find the JUMP system even more disconcerting because you cannot slowly raise a value - as soon as you touch the slider it JUMPS to that volume.

If you treat them like an organist would Drawbars - it is part preparing to play the sound or sounds you have accessed.

Click thumbnail to see full-size image

@ VikasSharma
Also, this would not work for a PERFORMANCE because the part volume levels for a performance are controlled through SysEx messages which you would not be able to send from MASTER mode.

Yes, you can send the System Exclusive messages that control PART Volume from MASTER mode. This is what the CS send when the Master program is associated with MODE = PERFORMANCE, and the KNOB CONTROL ASSIGN = something/anything other than “ZONE”

From MASTER
Press [EDIT]
Press [COMMON EDIT]
Press [F2] OTHER
Here is where the MASTER program is associated with an internal MODE. If you select “Performance” and direct the MEMORY to a particular PERFORMANCE.

You can set the ZONE SWITCH = ON
But if you set the KNOB CONTROL ASSIGN to control the internal tone engine (and not pay attention to the Zone assignment) the Knobs and Control Sliders will do as they are assigned within that internal program. Make sense?

Knob and Control Slider Assignment can be set to behave as they do in the associated mode or they can be set to behave as programmed within the ZONE setup. The ZONE SWITCH setting is independent of the KNOB and CS assignment. Very flexible and very useful.

The same would be true if you selected VOICE as the associated mode, the Knobs and CS would behave exactly as they do within that associated VOICE - In all cases, the CS behave as individual Volume Levels within the associated program, the Knobs behave as they do in the associated mode, you have several rows of knobs (thus the several option selections).

If you select “Zone” then the KNOBs and the CS will do as you designated within the ZONE setup

Thanks, all. After trying it out, I find that setting the voices all at zero (for a performance of 2-4 blended voices, for example) works well. Starting at zero volume means that I don’t have to “hook” a stored volume to change it; just need to commence a performance by sliding the drawer bars up slightly, and then individual voices in a blend are instantly adjustable.

You still do have to “hook” the stored value even if it is stored at 0. What happens is, like playing any musical instrument, once you learn what you need to do to prepare to perform, it soon becomes second nature.

I’ve learned to “hook” the volume just before we start the song as described.  I usually set the saved volume for first voice I will use at the level I’m looking for, the next ones I set at/near zero so I hook them off before the song starts and bring them up when needed.

Is there a way to activate/de-activate voices without going into edit mode (vs. just setting volume to zero)?  I don’t really want to go into edit mode while playing live if I can avoid it.  Maybe its an irrational fear, do forum members do this?  BM has advised me more than once that i’m wasting precious polyphony by having voices on with volume set to zero.

Yes, there’s an easy way to do this. Just use the buttons numbered 1-4 (for soloing) or 9-12 (for muting) by first activating the PERFORMANCE CONTROL mode of operation. Read page 93 of the Reference Manual (English version)

MarPabl - 20 June 2012 08:13 PM

Yes, there’s an easy way to do this. Just use the buttons numbered 1-4 (for soloing) or 9-12 (for muting) by first activating the PERFORMANCE CONTROL mode of operation. Read page 93 of the Reference Manual (English version)

tried it last night - Awesome!  At first I was stuck on how to get out of Perf Control mode, then figured that out.  The ability to not only turn voices off and on but adjust individual voice parameters is epic!  A whole new (better!) playing technique for me to study and master!  Thanks MarPabl!!!