Hello Everyone,
This is my 1st post, and glad I am to be a part of such an elegant community like this forum.

I am an ES7 owner. Its version is 1.08 -the most recent one. I’m about to buy a 2nd hand PLG150-VL board (I also have a BC3). I will have payed and got the board by monday, so I will appreciate if this post is answered urgently.
Here are my questions:

1) For this is a used board, I will only be having the board: not the CD (and not the box). Would it be a problem not getting the CD? Will I be missing anything?*

2) I’m planning to install the board to the 1st slot of my ES7. Does it matter which slot? (I have no other boards installed)

3) PLG150-VL is said to have 256 Presets and 70 user. These will all be on the board itself, right? I won’t have to load any of these presets/users to my ES7’s banks, will I?

4) I am well aware that this board will add only 1 polyphony to my ES7. But will it also be a +1 zone when at the performance mode? 4+1 zones?

*Also about the 1st question: One of the CD’s I got when I purchased my ES7 is sth. to do with PLG boards. For what use is it? Should I download a PLG150-VL editor from a Yamaha site? How can I maintain the samples/presets/users -if there are any on the original CD that comes with the board?

Thank you all…

1) For this is a used board, I will only be having the board: not the CD (and not the box). Would it be a problem not getting the CD? Will I be missing anything?*

No. The CD is not necessary - all data on it is now old and out of date. CDs that is how you did things back in the 20th Century because not everyone had a computer and could download things. :-)

2) I’m planning to install the board to the 1st slot of my ES7. Does it matter which slot? (I have no other boards installed)

No. Once you install the board in Slot 1 you will address it via SLOT 1 (this means that you can only access VL sounds via SLOT 1) other than that it matters not what slot you select.

3) PLG150-VL is said to have 256 Presets and 70 user. These will all be on the board itself, right? I won’t have to load any of these presets/users to my ES7’s banks, will I?

There are 192 Preset VOICES… 6 custom locations that you can load in from the VL Editor.

If you are talking about making your own custom horns, you have 6 locations. If you are editing provided models you can store 64 USER in a special Motif ES bank. Most editing on the VL is customizing the horn to your playing style. Building new horns is actually Rocket Science!!! (;-)

4) I am well aware that this board will add only 1 polyphony to my ES7. But will it also be a +1 zone when at the performance mode? 4+1 zones?

The PLG150 boards neither add or subtract polyphony from the Motif ES. The best way to think about it is - it is a separate synthesizer with it OWN polyphony of 1 note. It is a physical model of a pipe/bowed-string. A PIPE can support one note. A BOWED STRING can support one note.

Once installed it is a PART. If you create a PERFORMANCE you can select any 4 PARTS. If one of the PARTS is the PLG150-VL you can select the other three from the internal. A PERFORMANCE is still only 4 PARTS. The PLG has it own PART, Yours will be P1 (Plug-in Slot 1)

*Also about the 1st question: One of the CD’s I got when I purchased my ES7 is sth. to do with PLG boards. For what use is it? Should I download a PLG150-VL editor from a Yamaha site? How can I maintain the samples/presets/users -if there are any on the original CD that comes with the board?

The VL has no samples, it is pure physical modeling, no recorded samples - it does not use sample technology at all. It is all done by number crunching. The EDITOR is available on-line. Not sure if it can run on today’s computer OS’s (it is over 15 years old)

PLG150-VL Editor

Here is a link to some FREE Voices and my old tutorial on the VL - enjoy! Nothing sounds like VL!!!
Motif ES and the PLG150-VL
There is a link in the PDF article to the article: “PLG150-VL: A Getting Started Guide”

Enjoy!

The PLG150-VL editor runs fine on Windows XP...should work on Win 7 as well.

There is no current Mac version available (there was one that ran on OS9 but it is no longer available as a download from Yamaha).

Thank you both for the fast and detailed responses. I am really very excited now about the board. Concerning I will only have paid 150$, I believe I will be able to achieve a very authentic style by the help of this board.

Bad_Mister - 29 May 2011 09:42 AM

3) PLG150-VL is said to have 256 Presets and 70 user. These will all be on the board itself, right? I won’t have to load any of these presets/users to my ES7’s banks, will I?

There are 192 Preset VOICES… 6 custom locations that you can load in from the VL Editor.

If you are talking about making your own custom horns, you have 6 locations. If you are editing provided models you can store 64 USER in a special Motif ES bank. Most editing on the VL is customizing the horn to your playing style. Building new horns is actually Rocket Science!!! (;-)

Obviously, I was unable to ask the question proprely. Sorry for my bad english. What I tried to ask was that if the board had its own banks like Pre-1, Pre-2, etc. of the ES7 itself, or if I was to use these board-banks only by installing them ON the motif banks, say Pre-1 or user-1. Now that I’ve read some of the PDF’s you’ve kindly directed me to, I understand that the board has its own banks like PLGPre-1. Right?

Bad_Mister - 29 May 2011 09:42 AM

Here is a link to some FREE Voices and my old tutorial on the VL - enjoy! Nothing sounds like VL!!!
Motif ES and the PLG150-VL
There is a link in the PDF article to the article: “PLG150-VL: A Getting Started Guide”
Enjoy!

Thank you also for sharing your voices, as well as your knowledge. I have no experience on VL board, but I have spent some time on Roland’s V-synth, which has an AP system very similar to the use of VL board of Yamaha’s. The abbreviation ‘AP’ stands for Articulation Phrase Synthesis which seemed a bit inspired from Yamaha’s Virtual Acoustic Physical Modeling Plug-in Board to me. AP is not truely a synth engine that produces sounds, but more a way to ‘interpret’ the sounds; just like in the PLG150-VL. Thanks Roland and the its AP feature for directing me to PLG150-VL!

I will have more questions after having the board installed to my ES7, and after trying the possibilities I can reach with the board, then I will share my experiences here, hopefully including free voices.

Best wishes to you all…

Here is the only VL video I managed to find on youtube:
PLG150-VL on Yamaha S90ES by Loranzo Ellis

I would appreciate if motifator users also shared their video or audio recordings of VL board. Especially from Phil. (No pressure :))

I’ve got my VL today, at last!How exciting I am!
I have already installed it, but it seems it’s far from being a plug-and-play device. It most certainly requires a lot of work.

BTW, I think I’ve made a mistake opening this topic under Motif ES section of the forum. It would be nice if moved to the Plug-ins section.

Best Wishes,
Kahnn