Yamaha n-Series Console and Motif XS with YSFW Driver

The Yamaha n-Series mixing consoles and Motif XS (w/mLAN16E2 installed) can both use the YSFW driver (Yamaha Steinberg Firewire driver) - post October 2008. The new generation Yamaha products are the products that currently use the mLAN16E2 (i.e., Motif XS and Motif-Rack XS). The n-series mixing consoles joined them in December 2008 with the release of firmware update 1.03. This article is specifically for those who are using the n-series mixers with the YSFW driver and have updated their n-series mixer to version 1.03 or later. 

You should have the following items updated:

· Cubase program (Cubase AI4/AI5 or later, Cubase Essential 4/Essential 5, Cubase Studio 4/Studio 5, Cubase 4/Cubase 5/Cubase 6) or later
· [Yamaha Steinberg Firewire driver + n Extension] TOOLS for n (for your particular computer OS)
· Motif XS Extensions.
· IEEE1394 firmware updater 1.0.7 or later
· N-series firmware updater verson 1.03

The “Motif XS Extension” and the “TOOLS for n (or later)” are necessary because they will make the learning curve less steep:

·These Extensions allow Cubase to automatically identify the Audio Driver active on your computer. 
·These Extensions will also allow Cubase to identify the Motif XS MIDI and Audio Ports by name… ‘Motif XS 1’, ‘Motif XS Remote’, ‘Motif XS Main L’ and ‘Motif XS Main R’, ‘n12 Direct 1’, etc…
·These Extensions, of course, also add the IMPORT > Motif XS SONG function to Cubase.

Note: If you have older legacy mLAN products and are running the n-Series mixer on version 1.02 (or earlier) please see this article:
n12 and Motif XS with the mLAN driver

Motif XS
·Press [UTILITY]
·Press [F1] GENERAL
·Press [SF4] AUTOLOAD
·Set IEEE1394 Driver = FW
·If you need to change this you will receive a warning that the change will not become effective until after you power down and power up.
·Press [STORE] to write this setting to your UTILITY mode system.
·Only if you needed to make a change you will need to Reboot

Motif Rack XS
·Press [UTILITY]
·Select [GENERAL]
·Press [ENTER]
·Page 2 of 5
·Set IEEE1394 = FW
·Press [STORE]
·Only if you needed to make a change you will need to Reboot

You can STORE these setting in Flash ROM.
The MIDI IN/OUT parameter will be set to “mLAN”

CUBASE: VST CONNECTIONS > INPUTS
Shown below in the screen shot is the VST CONNECTIONS > Inputs tab options in Cubase when you have both the n12 and the Motif XS connected via firewire to the computer. That is a simple daisy-chain where one firewire cable connects the Computer > n12 and a firewire cable goes from the n12 > Motif XS

Computer > n12 > Motif XS
—or—
Computer > Motif XS > n12

The items can be in any order – the order makes no difference at all. This firewire daisy-chain is sufficient to handle all routing of audio and MIDI signals to and from your computer.

This screen shot shows that an incoming signal from the n12 and/or the Motif XS can be the source for any AUDIO track. The VST CONNECTIONS > INPUTS screen is where you take the signals coming into the computer and connect them or make them available for Cubase audio Tracks.

This may take a minute to get your head around, but there are 16 audio inputs from the n12 and there are 16 audio inputs from the Motif XS. So, first, why are they listed as “n12 Direct Out 1” and “n12 Direct Out 2” and so on? Well, naturally, an output from the n12 mixer is seen by the computer as an input… that is, from the computer’s viewpoint the n12 Direct Output number 1 is available as a VST CONNECTIONS INPUT for any Cubase Audio track… as OUTPUTS are connected to INPUTS.

Next, the n12 is obviously a 12-channel mixing console, so how come it has 16 audio outputs? Well, as you can see there are 12 direct channel outputs (used when you want to route a signal directly to its own track in Cubase). But you also see two Left and Right pairs… the RECORD bus and the STEREO bus. There are going to be times when you have multiple inputs to the console and yet you want to “mix” them to a stereo pairing (one of the beautiful things about a mixer: it can mix signals). For example, you may have five background singers each on a separate microphone or maybe you have 8 microphones on a group and are doing a “live” stereo recording. Combining signals is what a mixer does!

The Motif XS (or Motif-Rack XS) also has 16 audio outputs. The first two (Motif XS Main L and Motif XS Main R) are the main stereo output channels of the Motif XS. These are followed by 14 individual assignable mLAN/Firewire audio outputs (m1-m14)

These VST CONNECTIONS INPUTS are made available to the computer - each device delivers its 16 audio outputs directly to the computer - each is said to have a “peer-to-peer” relationship.