I have created and saved to USB several Song/Pattern files.  I can LOAD them back into their various Song/Pattern locations and then play them normally via the sequencer but I’m wondering if the files can be streamed into and played by the sequencer directly (i.e., without having to be formally LOAD to Song/Pattern locations).  In other words, it is possible to play a saved Song/Pattern file DIRECTLY from a USB drive? 

Thanks for any insight.

Can I play a Song/Pattern directly from the USB without loading/storing to a Song/Pattern location?

The answer to the question is yes. But here is what you need to know: when you save a Song or Pattern that you have done, the MO saves both your MIDI event data (your MIDI/musical performance) and it saves the Voices you’ve selected the volumes you have set, the effects you have selected and the amount for each of the 16 Parts, the EQ you’ve setup, etc., etc., the entire MO tone generator as you have it setup in the MIXING program (this includes hundreds of parameters in addition to the musical performance data).

The FILE is an ALL data file which saves all user parameters in the MO
Or it is an ALL SONG which saves both the MIXING setups and the MIDI sequencer events for all 64 Songs
Or it is an ALL PATTERN which saves both the MIXING setups and the MIDI events for all 64 Patterns.

But I did say the answer is YES. You can SAVE your Sequence data as a SMF (Standard MIDI File) the familiar .MID format. SMF (.MID) can be “streamed” direct from a USB drive without having to LOAD the data to the MO. But as the manual warns you, on page 100, this does not include you MIXING setup.

The SMF is a universal standard for moving MIDI event data from one sequencer to another, it does not automatically include any of your synthesizer setup data, you have two choices:

1) Keep the MIXING data, named and stored, in your MO, and when you are streaming the SMF from your USB stick make sure the appropriate MIXING data is being targeted for each song title. You can actually have 64 Song Mixing, 64 Pattern Mixing, and 32 Templates on board your MO. The Song/Pattern Mixing data will need to be loaded each time you power on; the 32 Templates remain in memory between power cycles.

2) Place the setup info in the Sequence data itself. Like GM files (which also use the .MID file format) create a “setup bar” - one measure out front of your song that “reprograms” the MO tone engine. This can be done with Program Change, Control Change and System Exclusive messages. By placing this information at the front of your file, all you need to do is pick any Song or Pattern location, start the file streaming from your USB stick, and the file will reprogram the current Mix to your exact settings for that song.

To stream SMF from a USB drive: (Page 213)
Place the MO in SONG or PATTERN mode
Press [FILE]
Set the TYPE = SMF
highlight the .MID file
The PLAY Arrow will appear in the screen above [F6]

It is some work, but if you need instant access to songs by title, a SMF that contains your MIX setup data out front, allows the quickest, neatest and most foolproof method to select and play… Without having to load data to the sequencer itself.

Hope that helps. Welcome to the forums!

This is incredibly helpful.  Thanks very much for your time and insight.  Now I understand the issue (and the potential difficulty).  Just one or two follow-up questions if you don’t mind (although of course I’ll be spending my weekend trying to implement this).  When I save the Song/Pattern to stick in the first instance, I assume I need to do a “Save As” type of command so that the Song/Pattern sequence data is saved in .MID format?  I don’t remember seeing that option but perhaps the data is stored in that format already.  The second question is how do I save the MIXING data, named and stored, in the MOX?  Can I do that from a Song/Pattern I’ve created?  In other words, I create the Song/Pattern, then SAVE to USB; during that process is there an easy way to save the event data to .MID and the MIXING data to internal memory?  Thanks again, and sorry for any confusion on my end if I’m missing something.

You’ve posted in the MO6/MO8 forum - initially we thought you had a MO6 or a MO8… you now mention the MOX… Much of this is the same (although button presses can vary because of the screens involved - but just for the sake of less confusion which one do you own? MO or MOX?

When I save the Song/Pattern to stick in the first instance, I assume I need to do a “Save As” type of command so that the Song/Pattern sequence data is saved in .MID format?

From the SONG you want to “save as”
Press [FILE]
Press [F2] SAVE
Set TYPE = SMF
Move the Cursor between the brackets and give the file a unique name.
Press [SF1] EXEC
You will now be able to select the SONG, or the PATTERN/SECTION to export as ("save as") a Standard MIDI File.
Press [SF1] EXEC to execute

Remember that this will transfer all the Events that appear in the track data. The MOX will automatically add the .MID extension to your file name.

The second question is how do I save the MIXING data, named and stored, in the MOX?  Can I do that from a Song/Pattern I’ve created?  In other words, I create the Song/Pattern, then SAVE to USB; during that process is there an easy way to save the event data to .MID and the MIXING data to internal memory?

When you create a sequence (Song or Pattern) using the MOX’s internal sequencer, both the data for the MOX tone generator setup and the MIDI events captured by the tracks are to be stored in the MOX’s internal FLASH ROM. Just like when you edit a VOICE and want to keep those edits, when you write to a SONG or to a PATTERN, you should NAME and STORE this data to the internal FLASH ROM of the instrument. This will allow your data to remain in memory between power down and power back on. Even without writing the data to file, the FLASH ROM is memory that the MOX keeps even though power is interrupted. I mention this first because, only the STORED data gets SAVED to a FILE. When you go to SAVE data you will see a screen that tells you that edits will be stored.

Say you have a SONG that you’ve setup in SONG location 64, and rather than keep the MIDI events stored permanently in the MOX, you would rather just use the MIX for this SONG - that is, you would transfer the MIDI data to a SMF and access that the MIXING setup for playback.

You would use the routine described above to save SONG 64 as a SMF.
Here is how you can take the initial MIXING settings and store them in one of 32 internal MIXING TEMPLATES.

Press [SONG] and recall your SONG 64
Press [MIXING]
Press [STORE]
Press [F2] TEMPLATE
Here you will be given the option of renaming the first TEMPLATE 01 - please do, this is just a “placeholder” Template, overwrite it by changing the NAME to the title of your SONG that uses this particular MIXING setup

Once you rename the template and execute the STORE, this MIXING setup (which includes every Voice, every setting) can be recalled at any time to any SONG or PATTERN Mixing location

Press [SONG] or [PATTERN]
Press [MIXING]
Press [F4] TEMPLATE
You can ‘recall’ your SONG’s Template and direct it to the current location.

You can keep 32 of these TEMPLATES on board. This will allow you to clear the SEQUENCER of event data, because you have the MIDI events in a SMF, and you have the MIXING setup stored in a MOX Template.

The TEMPLATES by the way are now apart of your MOX’s “SYSTEM” settings. It will be backed up when you SAVE an ALL Data file. Your TEMPLATES are automatically written to an ALL data file, so be aware that when you load some one else’s ALL data file or even a previous one of your own, the TEMPLATE data might be overwritten by the TEMPLATES stored in that ALL data file.

This is where you start to appreciate the LOAD TYPE “ALL” option that is for “with/without SYSTEM”. When you uncheck the box it will load the data of a file without overwriting the UTILITY mode and Template settings.

Hope that helps.

Sorry I wasn’t clear; I have the MOX8.

This is greatly appreciated.  I have and understand now.  Thanks for your patience and assistance.

Just a note to let you know your suggestions worked great.  Thx again.  Sorry about the confusion earlier; I do have an MOX8.  One last question - is your earlier suggestion - to place the setup info in the Sequence data itself - doable on the MOX8?  Right now I’m storing the SONG setup data in one of the 32 TEMPLATE spots, but it would be good to reprogram the tone engine “on-the-fly” from the USB.  If it is possible, how would I do the “setup bar” you had suggested?

The quickest way is to use an external program to capture the BULK information for your MIXING.

The MOX6/MOX8 can export the MIXING setup as a small packet of System Exclusive data.
You can setup to capture this with an external DAW (like Cubase) or a program like MIDI-OX - then attach that bulk information to the front of your SMF.

Prepare your MIXING setup and STORE it
Press [MIXING]
Press [JOB]
Press [F3] BULK
Press [ENTER]
Prepare to record (capture) this bulk in the external program
Press [YES] to confirm and send the bulk

It takes about one second to send all the parameters as system exclusive bulk data.

You can then record this back to a measure you place in front of your music data. I highly recommend that you create a measure in front of your music sequence data to house this setup data.

Remember this much System Exclusive data will trump the CLOCKs ability to keep time, so it is best kept isolated completely from your music data.

You can create and insert blank measures in front of your SONG as follows
Press [SONG]
Press [JOB]
Press [F4] MEASURE
Select CREATE MEASURE
At measure 001 create a 4/4 measure (or whatever is appropriate)
Press [ENTER]

The idea is record the system exclusive data from the external device into this measure. It is recommended that you record it to track 1 only so you always know where to look for it… It is a SYSTEM message so it does not matter what MIDI channel, it will address the entire system.

With your blank measure out front of your music, set track 1 in Overdub Record
After the count-in, send the bulk data to the MOX, recording it to track 1.

And unless your tempo is 300 BPM, you should have plenty of time to complete the bulk before the downbeat of your music. Add an additional measure if necessary. (Don’t worry sbout a gap bewteen the time you push play and music starting… Your audience is never paying that close attention and once the music starts their memory is very short) Once the system exclusive data is captured by the MOX sequencer SAVE your data to the SMF.

Now your SMF will only require you recall any Song or Pattern location, the bulk will reprogram the Mixing setup, without overwriting the current MIXING (it temporarily changes it, but does not store it).

Sounds complicated but it is not takes a couple of seconds when you know what you’re doing.
If you are going to use a DAW make sure it is set to record SYSEX (many default to filtering this data)

Makes complete sense and can’t wait to try.  That should do it for this thread, but I’ll let you know if I have any issues.  Thanks again for allowing me to take this to the next level.

Hi Bad_Mister,

Question : is this (playing a Song/Pattern directly from a USB stick) also possible with a Motif XF8 ?

Thanks!

rikdeckers - 23 February 2013 08:36 PM

Hi Bad_Mister,

Question : is this (playing a Song/Pattern directly from a USB stick) also possible with a Motif XF8 ?

Thanks!

Sadly not, at least not on the XS and as far as my researches show, neither on the XF..... and this is precisely my issue too :(

Now that I saw that this is possible on a MO and MOX, I am even sadder and I’m asking “why?!”. Did Yamaha fear that adding a midi/audio file player would affect Tyros sales?! Come on! Most people owning a Tyros probably haven’t even heard of Motif!

I mean, I really really doubt that it would have been a problem to add a play button to the file screen and load those 50-200 kilobytes in cache, or even a few megabytes of wave data.

I hate being forced to turn to a certain model for certain kinds of uses.

Okay, I could use an external midifile player, but we’re talking about a 2700-3000€ instrument here!! Just let us play midi/audio files directly on a Motif XS/XF! Please!!

I agree with “musicadi” : Just let us play midi/audio files directly on a Motif XS/XF!
Thanks in advance…