Henry you are great! Thank you very much!
One thing: The connection is to be made on mic or line in connector of the soundcard?
Regards

Salvo

No problem. I was adding to my previous post while you replied, but I hope it all still makes sense. :-)

Both inputs are probably 1/8” stereo jacks, but the line level input is best suited here. You may need to lower the volume slider on the Motif - say halfway down - to get an undistorted signal.

- H -

- Henry - - 19 April 2018 03:51 AM

Hi salvosound,

I don’t mean to be rude in any way, but it seems you’re not completely aware of the differences between MIDI and audio. This is rather basic stuff, that can have some important implications for your chosen workflow. Here’s a couple of scenarios:

1: Using Cubase as a multi-track tape deck.
Your tracks are recorded as audio data taken from your sound card’s mic/line input, and played back over the computer’s sound system. Audio latency might become an issue, but you can safely ignore MIDI this way (including the VST editor). Less to worry about now, but might become limiting later on.

2: Using Cubase as a MIDI sequencer.
Your tracks are recorded as MIDI data coming from your Motif over the USB connection. This is just note data, and not sound (which is probably why you didn’t succeed at making an MP3 earlier). During playback, the recorded MIDI note data (up to 16 instrument parts on separate MIDI channels) is sent back to Motif, which then uses it to play the music and generate the audio. Among other things, working with MIDI allows you to edit individual notes, or even select a different sound patch for each track, after recording.

3: Using Cubase to work with both audio and MIDI tracks.
As an example, you might want to add a vocal track to your MIDI song, or include some acoustic instruments.

Also, if you’ve created a song using only MIDI tracks, Cubase can record the entire song to a separate audio track. Just select the proper audio input (the one your Motif is connected to) for this track. After recording a “master track” like this, you can export the content to e.g. the MP3 format.


I’m taking a guess that you’re focused on recording audio (1) at the moment, but please correct me if I’m wrong. :-)

If the drivers for your sound card/onboard audio are properly installed, no additional software is needed for the audio connection (it’s only the optional FW16E FireWire card that needs a dedicated audio driver on the computer side). The pictured cable is all you need to make a basic recording, really.

The assignable outputs can be used for recording, but they are only available in Performance and Song/Pattern modes. In Song/Pattern mode, you can route each of the 16 instrument parts to the assignable outputs from your Motif’s mixing menu. This menu also allows you to select instruments and effect settings for each part, and the setup can then be saved on your Motif as a song or pattern.

You should keep the USB connection for now. Although it’s not strictly needed for Cubase to record the audio coming from your Motif, you may want to make use of it later (without it, Cubase and the VST editor won’t be able to send or receive MIDI data to/from your Motif).

- H -

Henry thank you very much for your helpful and clear explanation =)
I would like to know, if you can help me also on this, if there is the possibility to set the motif in perform mode, play on this and record it directly into cubase and have a track to export for the pc to listen to later?
That’s because perform mode is the way i prefer to play, and, if it should be possible, record too.
Regards

Salvo

Hi,

Yes, it’s entirely possible:
Starting with a blank project, create a new audio track in Cubase.  As the track’s input, select your line in jack (it might be named differently). Then, all you need to do is arm the track for recording and press the record button. :-)

You should see the track input meter light up green when you play the instrument, and a waveform filling the track as you record. If they don’t, we may have to look closer at the signal routing on your Motif, or the input selections that are available to you in Cubase.

Once you’ve made a successful recording, you can add more tracks. When your song is all done, use the export/mixdown function to convert it all to MP3.

- H -

Okk, i will try when the cable comes home and surely i will let u know :-)

I have my Motif XF6 connected to my iPad, using the wireless LAN adapter UD-WL01. Yamaha has a brilliant app to record your songs called Cloudrecorder. You can even upload directly to Soundcloud as well.

Click thumbnail to see full-size image

- Henry - - 19 April 2018 03:51 AM

You should keep the USB connection for now. Although it’s not strictly needed for Cubase to record the audio coming from your Motif, you may want to make use of it later

When you say that the USB connection isn’t strictly needed for audio recording, I wasn’t clear on what you were communicating to salvosound.  I wasn’t sure if you were saying that it could be used to record audio, or that it could be useful when recording audio.

The USB ‘To Host’ on a Motif XF cannot be used for audio recording to a DAW such as Cubase.  It does not output audio. 

What it does do, is allow the XF to communicate MIDI data to the computer, bi-directionally as a multi-port connection, for recording and editing MIDI (and MIDI notation purposes).

So with that in mind, it can be VERY useful when recording audio from the Motif XF via analogue outputs, S/PDIF or Firewire (with a FW16E) because it allows you to record and refine your MIDI note data with a program like Cubase BEFORE committing to an audio track on whatever audio recording system / DAW is being used.

patrickXF - 20 April 2018 09:15 AM

I have my Motif XF6 connected to my iPad, using the wireless LAN adapter UD-WL01. Yamaha has a brilliant app to record your songs called Cloudrecorder. You can even upload directly to Soundcloud as well.

Welcome to the forum.

I’m sure it’s very useful, but doesn’t it only ever record straight to stereo? (which makes it useful for completed songs as opposed to multi tracking)

I’d also be interested in how it performs when playing into it live, in terms of latency and not just for recording an audio file of the contents of whatever someone has in the XF’s onboard sequencer.

Because of that, it doesn’t seem like a logical solution for salvosound.

Hi,

Sorry if my message was unclear, but that had already been pointed out earlier in this thread:

philwoodmusic - April 18 2018 10:01 PM

USB To host is for USB MIDI.

With most onboard sound solutions, like the RealTek chip in salvosound‘s computer, audio latency is going to be very high. Latency is not much of an issue, though, if the only goal is to record a complete song to a single stereo track in one go, without monitoring through the software.

Using onboard audio is not an ideal situation for multitracking. You can work around the latency, but the driver offsets for these chips aren’t necessarily stable from one session to the next (and sometimes even from one take to the next). You may therefore occationally end up with audio tracks that gradually ‘drift’ out of sync.

If you want to do overdubs or multitrack, recording MIDI tracks is probably the best way to go. With a song consisting of only MIDI tracks, you can have the Motif generate all the sound, based on the note data it receives from Cubase. Thus, the latency/sync issues of the sound card are bypassed alltogether. When the song is done, you can still record it all to a stereo audio track from the Motif’s outputs. To do this, you’ll have to leave the ‘USB To Host’ cable in place.

I hope you’ll be able to make your first recording soon, salvosound! :-)

- H -

Yes, you’re right, I said it at least TWICE before having to clear it up :-)

No worries.

Guys, the cable arrived at my home, so i can start to try and tell you, thank you again =)

Hello again!
Mates, it’s so hard for me, i choosed to record a multitrack from motif output when starting a new project (no vst).
I don’t know if i have to connect usb cable to have midi but i imagine not. Anyway when i start a new .cpr in the way mentioned above it tells me “midi port unmapped”. It’s basic? Or i can ignore it?
Other thing, i can’t start a new track and play motif to record it.
I don’t know what input and output to assign tot he track ( i chooosed asgn as output and motif main as input, but im very confused =) i imagine maybe i must set line in of my soundcard as input and motis asgn as output, when i start a new track from: insert track / audio)
I can’t see output level raise up when i play on the sinth keys..
Can you please tell me a good sequence, step by step, to be able to record a track from assignable output?
Thank you very much and sorry if i am unclear at all!

Hi,

Since we’re not interested in MIDI yet, you can safely ignore the USB cable and the “MIDI port unmapped” message for now. We’ll deal with that when you’re ready. The most important thing is to make sure Cubase is properly set up to use your sound card’s audio driver.

1: Go to Windows’ Control Panel, and open the “Generic Low Latency ASIO Driver” tool.
2: As the output port, select your computer’s speakers.
3: As the input port, select your computer’s line-in jack.
4: Click OK.

5: Start Cubase.
6: Select Devices > Devices Setup.
7: In the Devices list on the left, select “VST Audio System”.
8: Click the “ASIO Driver” menu at the top, and select the “Generic Low Latency ASIO Driver”.
9: Click OK.

10: Open the Devices > VST Connections menu.
11: Make sure that your sound card inputs and outputs are listed in the respective sections.

12: Create a new blank project
13: Click Project > Add Track > Audio.
14: Use your sound card as both input and output for the track (the options depend on the settings you see in step 11).

Please note that Cubase can only “see” the inputs/outputs of the computer, and not the Motif. If you still can’t get any sound, try to connect your audio cable to the Motif’s main outputs instead.

Do you have the Cubase Elements 9 manuals? If not, you can download them here:
Cubase Elements 9 manuals

- H -

Henry, as usual, thank you!
But i don’t find “Generic Low Latency ASIO Driver” tool in control panel of win 10 64 bit.
Maybe it is not installed?
In cubase i could switch between asio generic and asio4all (that i ve downloaded some time ago).
Now i uninstalled asio4all, thinking that it would hide the Generic Low Latency ASIO Driver but i can’t find this one in control panel.
And i don’t know how to download it again.
I have only yamaha usb-midi driver wdm in control panel.

I will search how to download and have it again.

Cheers

Salvo

EDIT:
FINALLY i solved thanks to you =)
The settings about asio generic drivers i could find them by entering in the cubase folder and then “asio” folder and running the setup.exe and configuring line in as input and speakers as output.
The only issue is that i recorded a wave track and when i play it e.g. in winamp the audio is very noised, buzzs everywhere..no clear sound, but the first step is already done!
THANKS AGAIN!!! =))))

BUFFERS, BUFFERS, BUFFERS!
Lol m8s Now it’s ok. They were at the minimum value in asio setup.
I set up to medium and sounds pretty =)
No buzzing no distortion

Excellent! :-)

Higher buffer settings will increase the monitoring latency, but that’s not really a problem at this stage. If/when it becomes problematic, you should be able to lower it a bit, without the sound cracking up.

- H -