Hi,

This is going to be a bit of a strange topic I think. But I will explain why I am asking.

As some of you know, back in April I started having issues performing live with my Motif XF and YS200 combo. It ended up being the YS200, so I bought a Korg Krome to replace it as a MIDI controller. Unfortunately after a week or so it started having power issues. Long story short, the previous owner managed to break off the plastic ring in the DC inlet inside the adapter end. I took it back to the store where I bought it to get it repaired. The first time they said it was done, they had only removed the piece from inside the adapter, but not replaced the broken DC jack. So they said they would fix that. The parts ended up on back-order for one and a half months. They came in a few weeks ago, the keyboard was fixed (for free, under warranty), and then I got it back. So now I am back to where I need to be. Why does this all matter, you ask?

During the 4 month or so period since I had issues with the YS200, I have had several gigs with my main band, and I needed to use two keyboards to cover all the parts. The first time we had a practice, I had the locking up issues that I mentioned from the YS200. I already had everything set up for our songs. For the service, I ended up not using the Motif at all because we hadn’t determined the source of the issue yet. Once the Motif was in the clear, I approximated those setups which had changed some (some of the original setups I had weren’t working at the practice, and the cheap keyboard ones ended up working better) changed from my cheap keyboard onto the Motif. So far, so good.

The first practice for the next gig, I made my setups on my Motif XF at the studio, transferred them via USB to the Motif XF at the rehearsal space/church, and used my newly-acquired Krome as the MIDI keyboard. It started having the power issues the next day. We had one more rehearsal before Sunday. I used an old PSR for a few upper sounds (no MIDI), and modified the setups to fit most of my sounds onto the Motif keys since I didn’t have a MIDI keyboard. I saved all of these Mixings separately in empty Song slots. At that next rehearsal, I had to change some voices and settings in my Mixings. After the rehearsal I went home, but didn’t back up the modified settings on the church keyboard to the USB. I needed to use my own keyboard for the actual service. When we had our pre-service practice, I went and backed up the church keyboard settings (the modified programs etc) on USB, and added the two or three modified programs to my keyboard. The third gig was around a month or two later. We played a mixture of previously-played songs and five new ones. I set up new programs for the five new songs. For this gig, I used my own Motif XF and used the church Motif XF as a MIDI keyboard for mine. I again needed to modify the setups, so for a few of them, I saved them in new locations. Some of the others, I needed to change sounds because they weren’t working or change controller assignments (no sustain on bass patches, etc), but I just saved those in place. We performed, everything was fine.

I get home, let everything sit for a while (too busy with classes etc). Then I find out that I am needed to perform with a friend’s band in half a week. Fine, I’ve done it before. I know that I need to make space for those new setups, so I need to winnow some stuff down. I Go to the Motif, enter Song and Pattern mode. I then realize that I have anywhere from 3-5 versions of each song, all labeled pretty much the same (form copy and paste, then edit in a hurry, save, play). I know what we used at the last concert, but at that concert I noticed that some of them weren’t sounding right, so I modified them as well (missing FX etc, probably from choosing the wrong base setup from before). So I have all of these version of different Mixings, and I don’t know which I actually ended up using vs used once vs didn’t work out vs etc etc etc. Each one has something that I changed at some point which worked better and I used for x performance. The only ones I know for sure about are the ones we used at the last performance, and some of those are modified from the ones used when I had no MIDI keyboard rather than from the ones from when I had them set up for two keyboards. So I need basically to have two setups for each song, one for the two-keyboard setup with MIDI and one with most sounds on the main keyboard for when I need to use a cheap upper keyboard for a few sounds and cover the rest with splits.

So I have all these variations of one song’s setup, each messed with in some way, and whatever that way was, it worked. Might be as simple as a modified EG envelope or eq on one sound, or disabling sustain on some of the others. Not all of these are loaded in right now. Sometimes when I would edit something in a hurry, I think I edited an old version instead of the new version, so different features/edits are split across multiple files. :-O

I need to be able to compare multiple Mixings so I can condense them and combine/regroup them etc. Will the Motif XF editor work for this, or do I need Melas Tools, or something else?

I’m not even sure I wrote all of this right. I find it confusing myself, hence reaching out. I have to get this sent through in a hurry; bad storm coming, we might lose power.

Thanks.