Hi, I own yamaha mo6 & mo8. I’m considering for upgrade to yamaha moxf6 because of flash board availability. I wish to create new piano sound in my flash board.

So these are the questions comes in my mind:

i) What is the maximum velocity layers allowed in single key?
ii) Is it possible if I put maybe 500-600 waveforms in single voice?

Thanks!

i) What is the maximum velocity layers allowed in single key?

ii) Is it possible if I put maybe 500-600 waveforms in single voice?

No. The maximum number of Waveforms in a normal Voice is 8; The maximum number of Waveforms in a Drum Kit Voice is 73.

The maximum number of samples in a Waveform is 128.
So I imagine in theory you could have 1024 samples in a single Voice
Or like use all 8,192 samples in a single Drum Kit

Theoretical maximums are just that theoretical… They are because nobody would do this, it is total not musically viable, it is not practical, and would be a waste of the resources. Some where less that the theoretical limits is what winds up being used.

Here is a real world example of what I mean.

In sampling a piano no one would create 127 velocity swaps just because you could. First you would not be able to accurately generate the data, and no one hears like that. In sampling a piano no one would create 128 samples across the keyboard, even if you sampled every key there are only 88!

The “S700 for XS” piano is made up of 3 Waveforms for the main body of the piano… A Soft, a Medium and a Hard strike Waveform. That is, a complete Multi-sample set of soft strikes across the entire instrument, a complete set if medium strikes, and a complete set of hard strikes.

Each waveform is a complete Multi-sample across the piano and contains some 90 samples per strike-type across the keyboard.

Three Waveforms, ninety samples each… 270 samples to make up a single piano Voice… This does not include the Waveform and samples that recreate the Key-Off noise. (Which occurs when you release a key)

Here is some things to help you think about using the available parameters wisely… (Practically)

A Waveform is specifically defined as a collection of samples. Waveform as used in the Yamaha-synth engine is defined as different from the word “wave”. The words “sample” and “wave” are often used interchangeably but Waveform is a collection of samples, a collection of waves.

A MOXF Waveform is one or more samples that have been given a Key Range and a Velocity Range. These two MOXF parameters are what separate a MOXF Waveform from your garden variety .WAV… The MOXF Waveform has these addition parameters that define when, where and how the audio will be triggered.

A .Wav can be played back by your computer media player. When the MOXF plays that same audio it has added Key Range assignment and a Velocity Range that will determine what keys will trigger it and how loud that it will sound. Your computer’s playback is simple, your MOXF playback is enhanced and musical.

Enhanced such that play a key an octave up plays the audio twice as fast, doubling the frequency (pitch) and the 12 steps in between are tuned to Equal Temperament. Enhanced… so that the faster you engage the on switch (key) the louder the audio plays back. Musical! What your computer does with a .wav is not musical. What you do with the Waveforms in a synth is musical because they “mapped” in a musical way…

There are 128 Keys across the MIDI keyboard C-2 through G8
that’s more than any instrument yet known to man. The one you know with the most keys is probably the acoustic piano with its 88… So obviously most instruments do not require all 128 Key Banks across the keyboard…

There are 128 Velocity slots (well, 127 because velocity of 0 is meaningless), but again no one is going to stack 127 samples on top of each other. It would be a waste of time, effort, memory, and would be a ludicrous endeavor… Why? All the time you spend creating a layer of an instrument to respond at a velocity of 1
And then spending an equal amount of time re sampling the instrument at a velocity of 2
And then spending an equal amount of time re sampling the instrument at a velocity of 3
And so on, and so on.

Sure you could, but no one will hear your sample played at a velocity of 1 and they certainly will not appreciate the harmonic content difference between it and the harmonic content change which occurs when velocity of 2 is sent… I’m willing to wager that no one has ever played a key at a velocity of 1 as opposed to 2 on purpose!

The principal Snare drum in the Power Standard Kit at E1 is a five way velocity switch… Try it.

To many velocity switches makes a Voice impossible to play (on purpose) ever try to manually play a Mega Voice… Try playing one of the velocity switching Mega Guitars as well as the MegaVoice Arp phrase that plays the same Voice!!! Call up any MEGA guitar, turn the arp Off and attempt to do something purposefully… You will not be able to because too many velocity layers have a diminishing return.

The theoretical boundaries are wide enough that to accomplish a sample sound set that works as a musically playable instrument is found somewhere within the boundaries… Well within those boundaries.

Now not to discourage you, but the MOXF is not a sampler
The MOXF does not have the building tools to construct musical instrument sounds… If that is your goal then you want to get the motif XF, not the MOXF.

The MOXF can playback instruments created on or created for the Motif XF. You will not be able to edit samples on board the MOXF itself. Just want to be clear about that because your questions seems to point to just getting started in this area. If you want to “create your own” you may want to get a MOTIF XF.

That said, yes you could create your sounds with an external computer based Editor, that does exist, but you would still need a sampler.