Hello All,

Hey all my name is Fred and I’m new to the world of Motif’s and Workstations (I found this site on Google, it’s really great!) and I’m having a time trying to conceptualize some terms and modes (and navigating the UI).

I have a very basic question.... Is there a way to call up a beat, a pre-made one? I’ve had a Yamaha PSR keyboard and on it you could just press the style button and scroll through the list of drum beats… how do I do this on the MOXF and then go back to Voice mode. I’ve been reading the manual for a few days I just can’t seem to ‘get’ the modes of the MOXF. I’m going to keep reading the manual (it’s a lot to take in coming from my keyboard) but I need at least a simple drum beat to play to.

Okay so I know that the Pattern mode lets you play, record, and edit rhythms. This combined with a sound selected in voice mode creates a performance. I think I have that right. I only see a few pre-made patterns in pattern mode but they don’t seem to only be rhythms but songs. Then I go into perform mode and there are more songs by genre there. So I’m seeing that the modes kinda blend into each other, I’m on page 23 of the manual where it lists the different modes. I can’t seem to get a handle on it.

Hi There,

Welcome to Motifator.com and also to a certain amount of work in order to understand the basics. The ‘Motif’ platform is not crazily complex and the key to it all is not trying to kick against the way that it handles its many features. If you learn and then accept the various methodologies you’ll have years and years of wonderful music making ahead. If you try and force it into being something it’s not, you’ll have years of headache.

The basic modes could be (extremely briefly) summerized thus:

Voice: maximum polyphony single sounds with tons of waveform and effects power.
Performance: up to 4 Voices on a single MIDI Channel, layered, split etc. Any Voice can be ‘driven’ by an arpeggio, which, commonly, can then turn a chosen drum Voice into a drum ‘beat.’ Performances are just pointers to and mixers of the Voices. They don’t house actual sounds.
Pattern (sequencer): looped recordings using up to 16 tracks of instruments. Have 16 Sections (think of a Section as a verse, a chorus, a bridge etc).
Song (sequencer): linear recordings using up to 16 tracks of instruments.
Master: is basically just a list of Voices, Performances, Patterns and Songs plus additional MIDI control info. They just make it easier to switch from one mode to another, especially in a live performance setting.

Although you can create your own drum beat, or import a MIDI file (commercial or other) into the Pattern or Song sequencer, for the most part drum beats are MOXF arpeggios. There’s a gazillion to choose from plus you can import others or roll your own.

You can just play along to a 1001 different drum beats by calling up or creating a Performance and changing the drum arpeggio that is driving the drum Voice and ‘playing’ the other Voices yourself.

A lot of people find the various DVDs / videos we produce here very helpful. There’s not one specifically on the MOXF right now but the MOX DVD/download is fully compatible and only misses the Flash storage capability.

If you are particularly interested in additional drum beats then do check out both the Pattern and Arpeggio libraries that you will also find in the Shop. Many styles to choose from.

Hope this clarifies things little for you.

MM

Mr. Motif,

Thank you for all of the information, I appreciate it… the more I read posts on here I’m getting a better feel for it. And yeah I’ll definitely change my perspective of the UI, it’s just different but not bad.

“You can just play along to a 1001 different drum beats by calling up or creating a Performance and changing the drum arpeggio that is driving the drum Voice and ‘playing’ the other Voices yourself.”

One more question, can you explain how to do this? I see several parts to a performance but I am not sure which part needs to be changed to keep the drum beat and add my own voice. I’m using the Dance Party performance.

Does anyone know how to do the above? I’m working on creating my own drum tracks while trying to figure this out.

When playing a Performance, press Edit and you’ll see the (maximum of four) Voices currently being used by that Performance. You’ll quickly see which Voice is a drum voice and can then access and subsequently change which arpeggio is currently triggering the beat.

A lot of people are very happy to help with problems or help questions that aren’t covered in various videos but in terms of just becoming familiar with the instrument I would suggest at least picking up the downloadable MOX video as a lot of time was spent there finding the best way to show and explain the basic structures and functionalities. It’s much much easier to ‘look over someone’s shoulder’ as it were, than simply ‘read words.’ The manual has words and most new users tend to find that this is not sufficiently revealing or explanatory.

Good luck!

MM

Yeah I picked up a copy of MOX DVD which is basically the same as the MOXF (F stands for flash I guess. Thx