yamaha fails to help the beginer workstation owner with its unreliabe instructions. i’ve followed procedures as stated for saving songs to a usb flash drive and still cannot accomplish.

does anyone out there have simple, step by step instructions for saving songs on a flash drive?

i hate to sound so down and out, but the new motif xf has been way over rated.

Sounds like you’re just frustrated because you can’t figure out how to save your songs. It’s easy.

First, there must be a USB drive inserted in the “To Device” slot on the back of the XF. You can’t save anything unless the USB drive is inserted.

Assuming you have a USB drive inserted -

1. Press the SONG button so you are in song mode.
2. Press the FILE button
3. Using the cursor buttons, navigate down to and highlight the field next to the word Type. Set the field next to the word Type to “all song”
4. Press SF1 [Save]. A naming screen appears next.
5. Press F6 to clear the name field, then use the data wheel or cursor buttons to select characters for your name. Each time you select a character, press F4 to insert it. When done, press ENTER.
6. The screen asks you “Are you sure? NO/YES”. Press the INC/YES button.
7. The file will be saved onto your USB drive. When done, you’ll see “Completed” in the screen, and then you will be returned to the FILE screen. Press any mode button (Voice, Performance, master, Song, or Pattern) to escape the FILE screen.

Are you trying to save it as an AUDIO (.wav) file?

And I am losing my faith in (beginning) synthesizer players.

DavePolich - 02 February 2011 07:24 PM

Sounds like you’re just frustrated because you can’t figure out how to save your songs. It’s easy.

First, there must be a USB drive inserted in the “To Device” slot on the back of the XF. You can’t save anything unless the USB drive is inserted.

Assuming you have a USB drive inserted -

1. Press the SONG button so you are in song mode.
2. Press the FILE button
3. Using the cursor buttons, navigate down to and highlight the field next to the word Type. Set the field next to the word Type to “all song”
4. Press SF1 [Save]. A naming screen appears next.
5. Press F6 to clear the name field, then use the data wheel or cursor buttons to select characters for your name. Each time you select a character, press F4 to insert it. When done, press ENTER.
6. The screen asks you “Are you sure? NO/YES”. Press the INC/YES button.
7. The file will be saved onto your USB drive. When done, you’ll see “Completed” in the screen, and then you will be returned to the FILE screen. Press any mode button (Voice, Performance, master, Song, or Pattern) to escape the FILE screen.

So, when the USB drive is inserted does it automatically save the designated file to the USB drive or do users have to point to the USB drive?

How would you save a file to the Flash drive? I thought I saved a file to the Flash drive but it keeps being saved to the USB drive. Did that happen because the USB drive was inserted?

So, when the USB drive is inserted does it automatically save the designated file to the USB drive or do users have to point to the USB drive?

Answered in depth below. But if you have more than one DEVICE connected, you do have to select the DEVICE from among all the ones listed. But typically if you have only 1 device connected, and your XF has been made aware of its presence, it will simply be listed as the “DEVICE” on the FILE screen

How would you save a file to the Flash drive? I thought I saved a file to the Flash drive but it keeps being saved to the USB drive. Did that happen because the USB drive was inserted?

Oh, boy! ...you are confused. Please read the following carefully.

In common language a USB drive and a Flash drive are the same thing. Do not mix up a Flash drive with the FL512M, FL1024M Flash Memory Expansion Modules. These Memory Expansion Modules are commonly called “Flash Boards”. And do not confuse a Flash drive with internal Flash ROM

This is why definitions are so very important. Let’s briefly go over the terminology
Flash ROM = internal XF memory (STORES XF programs, utility and system settings)
Flash drive = USB stick, also called a USB drive, also can be a USB Hard Drive.
Flash Board = optional FL512M, FL1024M Expansion Memory Modules (SAVES waveforms and samples by ‘installing’ them).

STORE - If you press the [STORE] button on the Motif XF when you are in VOICE mode, PERFORMANCE mode, SONG mode, PATTERN mode, MASTER mode or UTILITY mode, you are going to be writing data to the Motif XF’s internal memory called “FLASH ROM”. FLASH ROM is a kind of memory that will hold Voice parameters in the USER1-USER4 and DRUM USER banks, it is the kind of memory that will hold the MIDI data recorded to the sequencer, it is the kind of memory that will allow your XF to remember your UTILITY mode settings between power down and the next time you power up.

SAVE - when you write a FILE to an external device, backing that data up for long term storage, this operation is always handled by going to [FILE] mode, selecting a File “TYPE” and targeting a DEVICE. This device can be a USB drive or stick, commonly called a “FLASH Drive” or to a USB Hard Drive. These are removable media. And are always external storage devices. Alternatively, you can connect the XF via ETHERNET to a computer and you can SAVE a file directly to the computer’s Hard Disk or to a (shared) USB stick (Flash drive) connected to that computer.

You do not “STORE” data to the FL512M, FL1024M Flash Memory Expansion Modules. The word ‘STORE’ would be improper to use in the case of the “FLASH BOARDS”.

You transfer WAVEFORM and SAMPLE data to the FLASH MEMORY Boards in an operation more akin to the “SAVE” routine. That is, you do press [FILE] and you do create a FILE. The FILE will save the internal Motif XF parameters as usual in the SAVE routine but you will be directing the Waveform and Sample data to the FL1 or FL2 slots - and we use the word “INSTALL”. You install the Waveform and Samples onto the FLASH Boards. This process is literally “burning the data to the boards” - similar to how data is ‘burned’ to a CD. Once they are installed there, they (the Waveform data and the samples that make up the Waveform data) remain on the Flash memory expansion modules until you either Delete them, or Format the Flash board.

So do not mix up “Flash ROM” (internal Motif XF memory), “Flash drive” (external memory like a USB stick) and “Flash Board” (the optional FL boards you can buy for installing your waveforms/samples)…

Hope that helps. Learn to use the correct terminology or you will continue to be confused.

When you press [FILE] you arrive on the FILE screen, you have an option to select from “devices”. Say you have a USB HUB device with 5 different “USB sticks” connected to it you will see a selection under the DEVICE option:
USB1- 1, USB1-2, USB1-3, USB1-4, USB1-5. If you also have a computer connected via Ethernet its name will appear as one of the DEVICES. When you move the cursor to the “DEVICE” line (near the top of the FILE screen), you can press [SF6] LIST to view a list of your currently connected (and recognized) devices.

If you only have one device connected, the Motif XF is smart enough to show that one device (as long as it is ‘aware’ of the device connected to your network). If you add a device, you may have to go to [F2] MOUNT and mount that newly added network device. Assume the word “device” here means external device… as it will always be something external to the Motif XF.

Please visit the SUPPORT area and check out the following article on how to use the FLASH MEMORY EXPANSION MODULES - (which only deal with Waveforms and Samples):
Power User: Flash Memory Expansion Modules

Ah, Thank you Sir,

..and sorry about the “Flash Drive” description that was an error on my part. I meant Flash Rom in which I always use anyway.

But thanks for the great help you provide as always, I really appreciate it. If you weren’t here to help, I don’t think even 99% of the Yamaha designers and engineers themselves would know how to operate the Motif beyond the basic. I don’t know, sometimes it seems like somebody was tired when they tried to explain operations in the owners manuals. It’s like they wrote some stuff and then fell asleep half way through, and then went woke up and immediately went on vacation the same hour, and then sent back a memo on the little information they had written to be included saying they forgot but include this in the box for shipment.

But thanks for your great work you do here, and tell them dudes I said they better double your salary this year, and that’s for the Motif mental therapy anonymous sessions you perform for all their customers.

..but you were right tho, boy was I confused, until now, and hopefully no more.

Thanks everybody! Your support is much appreciated and I’m having better success now. I’ve still got a lot to learn, but it helps with your simplified instructions.