I spent a half hour online with an Apple sales person who claimed to be able to assist me but turned out to have less of a clue than I, and I’m clueless about this.

I have an XF8 connected to a Marantz PM8005 amp sound system. I want to plug the keyboard into a new iPad Pro (haven’t bought it yet) and Garageband. And of course I want to hear it on my sound system.

All amplifier jacks are RCA.

Audio In jacks are: CD, Network, Aux, Tuner, Recorder, Phono, Power Amp Direct.

Audio Out Jacks are: Pre amp, Audio out.

What do I need to connect the keyboard to the iPad Pro and Garageband, and then to the amp so that I can hear what the heck’s going on?

Click thumbnail to see full-size image

Hi Kenivator

Welcome to the forum. Please tell us more about what you want to do with the iPad and Garageband: Use it as a sequencer (instead of the internal sequencer of your XF)? Use its sounds and mix them with those of your XF? Or anything else?

Kind regards, Hobbit

hobbit - 19 April 2020 06:51 AM

Hi Kenivator

Welcome to the forum. Please tell us more about what you want to do with the iPad and Garageband: Use it as a sequencer (instead of the internal sequencer of your XF)? Use its sounds and mix them with those of your XF? Or anything else?

Kind regards, Hobbit

Thanks for welcoming me, Hobbit. I have heard trios, quartets and even a full band created with Garageband and a midi keyboard that blew me away. That’s what I’d like to do. Basically, I want to record layers. Most of the XF instrument samples are incredible and I imagine it would be my primary source, but I haven’t used Garageband and don’t know its full capability first-hand.

Thank you for your answer. Unfortunately I still don’t exactly understand your intensions (sorry...).

I have heard trios, quartets and even a full band created with Garageband and a midi keyboard that blew me away. That’s what I’d like to do.

This sounds to me like if it’s about the instruments of Garageband and any midi keyboard would do to trigger them when recording.

Basically, I want to record layers.

This you can do with the internal sequencer of your Motif XF or with Garageband. In order to simplify things use the sequencer of the device with the sounds of your choice (at least in the first phase).

Most of the XF instrument samples are incredible and I imagine it would be my primary source.

So it’s about the sounds of the Motif then?

Of course you also can combine sounds of Motif and sounds of Garageband, but try only one source first. So what should be the first step?

hobbit - 19 April 2020 02:57 PM

Basically, I want to record layers.

This you can do with the internal sequencer of your Motif XF or with Garageband. In order to simplify things use the sequencer of the device with the sounds of your choice (at least in the first phase).

Unfortunately I use the Motif XF primarily as a piano, which I realize is like using a battleship to go fishing. But, as a decidedly right-brained person, the instruction manual is beyond my comprehension. Most of the vernacular (even the word “sequencer") is meaningless to me, and looking up definitions before being able to begin to understand the instructions is self-defeating at this stage of my life.

On the other hand, Garageband looks relatively intuitive with instant feedback. I’ve had a few successful careers over many decades, and now I’m interested in music, but only as a hobby.

Ok. You’ll need an USB cable and an adapter to connect your Motif XF to the iPad (I have an iPad Air 2 so I need a Lighting to USB Adapter, but for the new iPad Pro it’ll probably be a USB-C to USB Adapter). Garageband will detect the external midi source and record whatever you play on your Motif XF to the activated track (for which you can choose any internal instrument of Garageband).

However Garageband cannot transmit MIDI signals back to your Motif XF (I didn’t succeed and read in several forums that this feature is not supported by Garageband). But you can record your playing on the Motif XF on audio tracks of Garageband. Therefore you would need an adapter in order to connect the audio out of Motif XF to the USB-C connector of the iPad (since the Motif XF can’t transmit audio by USB).

Probably you’ll find a USB-C multiport adapter which offers you both (USB and audio connections).

Kind regards, Hobbit

This might prove interesting:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8628464

On the other hand, learning how to use the XF’s Direct Performance Record function, or Song or Pattern modes, would probably also be useful skills.

Given the “right-brained” comment, perhaps a few videos might make the XF’s operation less opaque. Both the Motifator store and the Keyfax site have some good ones available. Tutorials for the XS also apply to the XF to a great degree.

http://shop.motifator.com/index.php/
http://www.keyfax.com/index.php/instruction/downloadable-video.html

And no, I don’t work for Motifator/Keyfax.  :-)

Of course, questions about the XF’s operation are welcomed on the forum, should something be unclear.

hobbit - 20 April 2020 01:40 AM

Ok. You’ll need an USB cable and an adapter to connect your Motif XF to the iPad.

Probably you’ll find a USB-C multiport adapter which offers you both (USB and audio connections).

Great! Thank you Hobbit. That makes sense even to me! I will pursue that further.

5pinDIN - 20 April 2020 08:44 AM

This might prove interesting:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8628464

http://shop.motifator.com/index.php/
http://www.keyfax.com/index.php/instruction/downloadable-video.html

I had searched for a thread like that on the Apple discussions forum and this link that you provided is “the missing link.” Thank you 5pinDIN! And thank you for the instructional links. They look so much easier to follow than the users manual.

Hi did you get this working? I have an mox8 and just using a regular hub type adapter from usb-c to usb-a and it doesn’t work with my iPad Pro, although the same setup works with my MacBook Pro after installing the Yamaha steinburg usb driver.