I was just curious about the Flash function.
I purchased my unit within the period of Nov 1 - Dec 31 and I have registered to get the Premium Collection
Do I have to purchase some kind of hardware in order to enable Flash or will it come with the Premium Collection?
Thanks

A flash memory module comes with the Premium Collection. Installation of the module itself into the MOXF is the only hardware involved. Instructions are on pages 70-71 of the MOXF Owner’s Manual.

MANY THANKS 5PIN
I did not see this post to your response..
Appreciate your answer
Sincerely,
Josh

I wonder , do you know if there is additional space on that Flash to store your own creations ?

Joshman - 29 November 2013 02:20 PM

I wonder , do you know if there is additional space on that Flash to store your own creations ?

The module that’s usually provided is the FL512M, 512MB capacity. I said “usually”, because certain dealers might have special packages that instead include the FL1024M, with 1GB capacity.

Just to make sure we’re on the same page… the flash module is where samples are installed. If that’s what you mean by “your own creations”, then the following applies. (If instead you meant Voices, Performances, Sequences, etc., those things aren’t stored on the flash module.)

The MOXF has a single slot for the flash module, so if you intend to load multiple large entire libraries, then 512MB isn’t likely to be sufficient, and even 1GB might not be. Usually what you’d do is load a library and make note of which Voices you’d like to keep as User Voices. Do the same with other libraries, then load only the Voices you want, and the corresponding samples will get installed to the flash module. In the process you’ll likely be deleting at least some of what was installed to flash, if not all of it, until you determine what’s worth keeping for your needs.

You are given far more data than will fit on a FLASH board. Although you may not believe me (so many people don’t on this, but I’ll continue to say it anyway): you get no points for having tons of data on your Flash Board - particularly if you never use that data in a VOICE. You will not like all of the data - DON’T install data you will not use!

The trick to really ‘getting’ what the whole Flash expansion is about is you don’t install any data to the FLASH Board unless it is involved in a VOICE you actually are going to use.

VOICE data gets loaded to the USER 1, USER 2, USER 3 and USER DRUM. Voices will use audio data from the PRESET WAVE ROM or from the USER WAVE data you install to FLASH.

When you first get the BOARD you should load the entire library… then take a few days, a week, whatever, and play through the data making note of the VOICES that you feel are keepers.

When you think you know the library fairly well, then FORMAT the Board, and start to assemble your FAVORITE Voices (one at a time) to the USER1, USER2, USER3 and USER DRUM banks, installing only the minimum amount of data necessary for YOUR CUSTOMER library.

Once you have your data loaded in - make a BACKUP ALL data File (.X6A) of your data.

Just to clarify , I do not want to get the Thumb Drive misconstrued with the Flash on board the keyboard correct.

The USB stick is cheap in comparison, it is a type of flash memory and it can support playback of a single stereo piece of audio. 1GB probably will cost you about $10 (so many computer users can use it the price is now next to nothing). Streaming audio from a USB stick is cool (really) but the world of technology has not advanced to the point where $10 worth of memory is going to be able to be REALTIME accessible memory for a multi timbral synthesizer.

(It’s always fun when somebody thinks all memory is the same… Not true, not even close). The process of installing audio to the FL boards is called “burning data to the Flash” and is an intense process… Please respect that difference. It is part of what allows so many simultaneous audio channels and REALTIME access to same.

The FL boards are a very expensive type of Flash storage, it easily supports 128 independent channels of audio with a response time worthy of musical demands ( and not just ‘playback’, but playback with musician critical time). These are proprietary and only a small select set of people (musicians) and then only a small subset of them (keyboard players) would need this. Yamaha is able to keep the price as ‘reasonable’ as it is because several products have been deemed to use this memory. (Frankly with SCSI, SmartMedia cards the music industry tried to take advantage of the larger audience that used this type of storage; USB thumb drives fit right in with these storage solutions for backing up data inexpensively. For REALTIME sound access we’ve been through SIMMs, and DIMMs in less than a decade, what next… Who knows what the computer/consumer industry is going to do. At least with the flash boards Yamaha can make them as long as we find them useful… And just because the latest Mac or PC no longer uses a type of memory, we don’t have to be out-of-luck.

If you purchased a Motif (classic) twelve years ago… Everything about it works but you’d be hard pressed to find a SCSI drive or SmartMedia Card to save/load your data. The Computer industry works on a paradigm where they change everything in twelve years… A12 year old computer is a door stop by now!. If you have a computer from twelve years ago you could write a book on what you have to do to run anything today.

Flash boards are electronically erasable, and they are programmable, read only memory… The USB stick is toy in comparison. You cannot play instruments in real time from a USB stick