VanZea - 12 May 2014 03:07 PM

I remember years ago a third party released a flash memory board for the Yamaha EX5. According to Yamaha the EX5 could only adres 8mb (times are changing). I bought the board, and was able to load 16 mb of samples into my EX5. You you shouldn’t always believe what Yamaha says…

I also bought one in 2001. Still going strong today. ;)

The user Musiker Lanze wrote a review about the new 2GB Mutec flash boards in the German Musiker-Board. The Test can be found here.

I tried to (Google-) translate it to english:

Musiker Lanze - 14 May 2014 03:43 AM

So .. here are the results of my test of the new and upcoming 2 GB Flash Module MUTEC FMC-07.

[...]Mutec had asked me if I was willing to test the 2GB flash on my Motif XF. Why, yes!

Yesterday two of the new flash modules arrived and off we went.
I installed both flash boards, and after rebooting the Motif they were recognized immediately with their full capacity.

1. Test
I loaded two sound sets into the flash that have been programmed with many single samples ("Inspiration in a Flash” by Yamaha and “Super Session” by Easy Sounds). That took about one half of one flash boards capacity (just under 1 GB), and when I wanted to load another set, as I had guessed, the error message “Sample Memory Full” appeared.
Meaning , and that was actually presumed in advance that the maximum number of 2048 Waveforms and 8192 samples persists. But this is indeed a matter of the Motifs OS and not dependent on the flash board.

2. Test
Then I tested if different flash boards are running together, e.g. slot 1 with the 2GB Mutec Flash and slot 2 with 1GB of Yamaha and vice versa [...] These two different combinations work. One can then safely assume that the 2 GB modules will also work togehther with a 512 MB board. And of course the board also works as a single board.

Then I reloaded my own backup backup in the Motif with the 2GB modules installed. I tested if everything works fine...I couldn’t find any problems...works.

The Motif community should be sure delighted that you can now have up to 4 GB of flash on the Motif XF.

The only downside....
Yamaha should change the Motif OS and remove the limit in terms of samples / waveforms for the flash boards [...] It makes a big difference if you have 2 GB or 4 GB flash in Motif. Many of the musicians on the stage work indeed partially with audio tracks, and with 4 GB available you also gain space for more complex samples.

On the Tyros 5 they also remved this limitation of 9999 samples, and I hope that Yamaha can manage this with an update, provided that this is feasible for the Motif.

All the best, :)

Jo

Answer from Mutec to an email i have sent them

Hi Apostolos,

thank you for your inquiry.

Yes, the FMC-07 works in the MOXF, you can use up to 2GB of FlashROM now.
But please note, that the number of useable samples/waveforms will be not
increased. The main advantage you now have is to use larger samples, or
samples with a higher resolution and quality which need more memory
capacity.

The FMC-07 is available now from stock. Its lowest price is EUR 379.00 incl.
German VAT.

Best regards, Chris.

In the German Yamaha-Forum, there is now a first review on the 2GB Flash Board installed on a MOXF (see this Thread; you can use Google Translate). It seems to work very well!

All the best, :)

Jo

Please see my reply to this thread about this issue:

http://www.motifator.com/index.php/forum/viewthread/472271

The MO XF cannot address more than the maximum amount of waveforms specified for
its operating system. So yes, the 2GB flashboard works. But you cannot “store more samples” to it than you can with the 1GB flashboard. So the extra GB of memory is
worthless.

Mutec states -

“Yes, the FMC-07 works in the MOXF, you can use up to 2GB of FlashROM now.
But please note, that the number of useable samples/waveforms will be not
increased. The main advantage you now have is to use larger samples, or
samples with a higher resolution and quality which need more memory
capacity.”

This claim that you can “use larger samples or samples with a higher resolution
and quality” is total nonsense! The maximum resolution of samples that is allowed
by the MO XF spec is 16-bit. The system can’t address a 24-bit sample.

There is NO ADVANTAGE to installing the 2GB Mutec flashboard. None.

Please see my reply, too:

http://www.motifator.com/index.php/forum/viewthread/472271

All the best, :)

Jo

One of the advantages to the Flash board as stated in one of the Motifator articles is you can “take your backing vocals, guitar solos, etc., and always have access to them”.  Reference: http://www.motifator.com/index.php/support/view/moxf6_moxf8_features

Yes, you are limited to number of waveforms/samples, but as long as you don’t go over that number, you can now have access to more of these backing tracks and longer sample data, if you need it.  This isn’t a feature I plan to use, but it is listed as an advantage to having an on-board Flash.

Right now I have the 512MB and am plenty happy, but I’m also close to maximum.

The conclusion seems to be, the 2GB works, but you may likely run out of the maximum number of waveforms/samples allowed well before you reach the 2GB limit.

SSquared - 14 May 2014 01:24 PM

[...] The conclusion seems to be, the 2GB works, but you may likely run out of the maximum number of waveforms/samples allowed well before you reach the 2GB limit.

How likely that is depends on the ratio between sample size and number of Samples/Waveforms.

For those who have only an FL512M, the practicality of installing Chick’s Mark V was an issue, because it’s about 400MB. With a large flash module there’s less need to be concerned about using up precious space, and Chick’s is based on only five WAVs.

Sonicus.net sells the 2Gb flash board for $529 shipped to the US.

keyboard magazine has an article on the new flash boards for the MOTIF XF

http://www.keyboardmag.com/article/154908

they give it a nod ..

SOOOOOOO

So, is this saying that if you have say, a 2GB piano sample set for a MOXF that uses less than the max # of samples/waveforms/keybanks, all 2GB are accessible?

jshep0102 - 28 May 2014 05:32 PM

So, is this saying that if you have say, a 2GB piano sample set for a MOXF that uses less than the max # of samples/waveforms/keybanks, all 2GB are accessible?

I think what the factory guys are saying is the MOX can only access a finite number of samples, but storage space can be the two gigs .
Now having said that , some OS can only access a certain amount of memory space.

Taking your example, with a 2 gig card, say you have a 1.5 gig piano, then you have about less than 500 meg for other samples

musicman100 - 28 May 2014 05:08 PM

keyboard magazine has an article on the new flash boards for the MOTIF XF

http://www.keyboardmag.com/article/154908

they give it a nod ..

SOOOOOOO

The Keyboard Magazine “article” reads very much like a press release from Mutec. Do you think it might actually be that?  ;-)

5pinDIN - 28 May 2014 05:59 PM

musicman100 - 28 May 2014 05:08 PM

keyboard magazine has an article on the new flash boards for the MOTIF XF

http://www.keyboardmag.com/article/154908

they give it a nod ..

SOOOOOOO

The Keyboard Magazine “article” reads very much like a press release from Mutec. Do you think it might actually be that?  ;-)

A vendor/advertiser influencing a magazine???
Say it ain’t so ...

Here’s a piano for MOXF that is 960 mb by itself, in its largest install…

http://www.esoundz.com/sounds/alan-parsons-imperial-grand-piano-for-motif-xs-xf/5247.html

If you wanted to install that and Chick’s rhodes in a MOXF, it seems like a 2 gB card might let you do that. Ideally, you could also still install Inspiration in a Flash , and/or some of the other Motifator libraries. The question seems to be one of how soon you’ll run into one of the other MOXF limits, even if you have memory left over. But I would be very surprised if there were NO combinations where having 2 gB instead of 1 would be useful!