I just recently purchased a new Motif XF8 and just love it so far! I have alot to learn about this keyboard. I just purchased a couple voice libraries and the instructions seem to make sense on how to load them in but it seems to me they will be loaded over my standard factory stock voices in User 3 or 4, if I am understanding this correctly. I have a 512MB flash board and I would like to install my new voice libraries on the flash board (assuming if I cant load them into the XF memory without overwriting current voices). I assume this would be the place to load them? I am very new to this and ANY help would be greatly appreciated! I am going to have to really read over my manual to fully understand all the features.

First, a few things you need to know:  Your Flash Memory Board is for the LOADING and storage of new SAMPLES, not new VOICES.  Do your Libraries have any new Samples, or are they new VOICES built from the native XF Samples contained in the machine?  USER VOICES get STORED in USER BANKS, and this includes your 3rd party Libraries.  You must over-write VOICES to put new ones into your XF. 

Second, the USER 3 and 4 VOICE BANKS are duplicates of other PRESET VOICES already in the machine, so you will not lose anything by overwriting those BANKS.  Only the USER 1 BANK has unique new VOICES, all other USER VOICE BANKS (2,3 and 4) contain duplicates of PRESET VOICES.

Third, PRESET VOICES never go away, and all of the Factory-LOADED USER VOICES and PERFORMANCES can easily be retrieved at a future time if over-written.  The simplest way is Resetting the User Memory to the Initial Factory Settings (A Factory Set), described on page 18 of the XF Owner’s Manual.  So...you will never really lose any data supplied from the Factory, although you may need or want to reset or re-LOAD it in the future...if it gets over-written.

You will have many more questions.  Try using the SEARCH function of the Forum’s topics and threads (At the top of this page) to find answers, and if that doesn’t help, ask questions of your own!

Thank you for the assistance. These libraries are just voices, these were purchased from the Motifator shop voice library. The voices were created using a Motif ES7, a Mackie mixer and a KRK V6 studio monitor according to the manufacturer. I did not realize the voices in User banks 2, 3 and 4 were duplicates so that was helpful. I have been doing alot of reading on this forum which has been helpful about loading my new voices. I still have more reading to do to fully understand because I am a little unclear if using the “ALL” feature when loading my voices will clear all User banks 2, 3 and 4. For example when loading my purchased sound library it will default to User Bank 3 so I would assume it will just overwrite the voices in User Bank 3 but not positive. I also purchased another sound library that is also defaulted to User Bank 3 so I am going to have to figure out how to navigate to load these into User Bank 2 instead, I have seem to found some good info in the Forum on how to do that but need to take a little more time reading. I also have the XF fully loaded DVD that I need to watch that came with my 10th anniversary pack that will help me learn. I am already starting to learn thanks to this awesome Forum and your reply to get me rolling. It all seems a little overwhelming at first but I cant wait to really learn all the functions of this keyboard which will take quite of bit of time! Thanks again!

An “ALL” file will replace all User Voice Banks 1-4, the User Drum Bank, all four of the Performance Banks, and the Master Bank… And all settings in the Utility mode. “ALL” literally means all. (All user storable data in the XF).

When you create an ALL file of your own, everything in the user storable memory locations is written to that file. The same would be true for the person making the Library file that you purchased. So when they say their new Voices will load to USER 3, this means that the new data that they created will be loaded to User 3, and most likely the other User locations will be filed with the same data as comes in the default Factory Set. There is no such thing as an ‘empty’ Voice. A Voice is a set of parameters assigned to address a set of oscillators (tone sources).

The reason they provide you with an ALL data file is because it is the most useful and the most flexible of the XF file formats. You can opt to load the entire file, by setting the Load TYPE = “all”; you can load the entire file without the Utility mode changes by setting the Load TYPE = “all without system”

You can load just one Bank of 128 from within that ALL file, by setting Load TYPE = “1 Bank Voice”
You can load just a single Voice from within the file by setting the Load TYPE = “voice”
A single Song, a single Pattern…

So you will want to learn about your Load options, this way you can direct the Voices you like to the locations you want them in your “user” locations.

If you are using the free Motif XF stand alone/VST Editor, you can audition your Voice Library without even loading the sounds to internal locations. You transfer the data for the Voice from the Editor to the edit buffer of XF if you like it STORE it to an internal User location, if you don’t just click on the next Voice.

It is probably th most elegant way to manage Voice Libraries.

Hope that helps.

Thank you Bad_Mister I appreciate the assistance, that was very helpful. I will be loading my new voice libraries in tomorrow. I just watched the XF fully loaded video and that was extremely helpful, I now have a much better understanding of samples, voices and performances. I also learned how to load libraries to different user banks which I must do because the 80’s Volume 1 and 2 both load to user bank 3 so one of them I will switch to user bank 2. I now understand why samples are only loaded to the flash board as well and not voices. One thing I don’t understand is how a new sample is created, are these down by programmers or some type of software?

One thing I don’t understand is how a new sample is created, are these down by programmers or some type of software?

We have a tutorial that will step you through the basic process… You can use a microphone or even one earpiece of a pair of headphones as the source…

It will show you how to sample to create Voice...it is all done right on board the XF

SAMPLING BASICS Tutorial - and although it was written for the XS, it applies in full to the XF

Be sure to see the example sampling “Experiment #1: Setup an Audio Sample in Voice mode (simple) it will lay out the concepts you need to know.

If you get stuck post back here.
Hope that helps.

I have samples on a sound library - Garritan Lite Apparently it only loads to user bank 4.  But the instructions said to said it to “ALL” - and it wipes out my voices I arranges on User Bank 1, for instance - apparently to factory user settings

So I want to keep my User Bank 1 AS IS.  How to I load the Garritan Lite strings for instance to User Bank 4 while not touching the other banks?

THANKS VERY MUCH.
AB

Bad_Mister - 22 February 2013 05:55 PM

An “ALL” file will replace all User Voice Banks 1-4, the User Drum Bank, all four of the Performance Banks, and the Master Bank… And all settings in the Utility mode. “ALL” literally means all. (All user storable data in the XF).

When you create an ALL file of your own, everything in the user storable memory locations is written to that file. The same would be true for the person making the Library file that you purchased. So when they say their new Voices will load to USER 3, this means that the new data that they created will be loaded to User 3, and most likely the other User locations will be filed with the same data as comes in the default Factory Set. There is no such thing as an ‘empty’ Voice. A Voice is a set of parameters assigned to address a set of oscillators (tone sources).

The reason they provide you with an ALL data file is because it is the most useful and the most flexible of the XF file formats. You can opt to load the entire file, by setting the Load TYPE = “all”; you can load the entire file without the Utility mode changes by setting the Load TYPE = “all without system”

You can load just one Bank of 128 from within that ALL file, by setting Load TYPE = “1 Bank Voice”
You can load just a single Voice from within the file by setting the Load TYPE = “voice”
A single Song, a single Pattern…

So you will want to learn about your Load options, this way you can direct the Voices you like to the locations you want them in your “user” locations.

If you are using the free Motif XF stand alone/VST Editor, you can audition your Voice Library without even loading the sounds to internal locations. You transfer the data for the Voice from the Editor to the edit buffer of XF if you like it STORE it to an internal User location, if you don’t just click on the next Voice.

It is probably th most elegant way to manage Voice Libraries.

Hope that helps.

Try loading as Type “1 bank voice”. See the XF Reference Manual, right-hand column of page 243, continuing on page 244, for details.