Specifications

There are two types of Voices:
Normal Voices are mainly musically play-
able sounds. They can be played across the
entire keyboard in the usual tone scales.
Normal Voices consist of one or more „Ele-
ments“. With Elements several sounds can
be layered in a Voice.
An Element is the smallest unit that makes
up a normal Voice. An Element is created
by different Voice parameters, that are ap-
plied to the raw sample material.
Drum Voices are mainly drum sounds. A
Drum Voice consists of percussive and
drum sounds, each assigned to specific in-
dividual keys on the keyboard, or of groups
of such assigned sounds. A Drum Voice is
also referred to as a drum kit.
The Voice mode, Elements and the Voice
editing process will be discussed in later
episodes of this workshop.
Here we want to show you how to access
the Preset Waves in the Wave-ROM from
within the Voice mode. This is done in the
Voice Edit mode, in which Voices can be
created or edited.
In order to check the pure Preset Waves
- without having them influenced by sound
parameters -, it is advisable to initialize a
Voice first.
• TodothisontheMOTIFselectthe
VoicemodeandpressthebuttonJOB
• ConfirmwithENTERandYEStorun
theinitialization
• ThenpressEXITtoleavetheJOB
display
Now, press EDIT to enter the Voice Edit
mode.
Now that COMMON EDIT is active, press
the number button 1 to select Element 1 for
processing.
In an „Initialized Voice“ only the first Ele-
ment is active, thus set to „ON“. The other
Elements are switched „OFF“. Leave it at
that.
Now press the F1 button to call up the
Oscillator display, in case it is not displayed
already.
In classic analog synthesizers, oscillators
were electronic components, which gene-
rated basic waveforms like sine, triangle,
sawtooth, square, and pulse. In synthesizers
that are based on a „Wave-ROM“, such as
the MOTIF, the term Oscillator refers to the
output signal of its associated Waveform,
its sound is then processed with filters and
envelopes.
Now to get an overview you should select
a sound category of your interest and then
step through the Wave numbers within the
selected category.
But there are some more banks available in
addition to the Preset Waves. The bank USR
stores User Waveforms. And if Flash-ROM
boards are installed, the banks FL1 and FL2
are available.
We will come back to the usage of your own
samples or optional soundlibraries in a la-
ter episode of this workshop.
PerFOrMances and
ParTs
These terms are generally used in a very
versatile way. But limited to the matters
covered in this workshop series - Yamaha
tone generators - a Performance is a pro-
gram that contains up to four Parts. Each
Part can include one Voice and features
additional parameters that are not availa-
ble in a Voice. Performances are used for
different purposes, that require more than
one Voice, but not more than four. Use split
points to play different Voices side by side
on the keyboard, or layer Voices on top of
each other, or use them to be triggered by
an arpeggio - or combine all of these pos-
sibilities.
A Performance is primarily intended for
the use in the respective instrument. For
example it is not possible to assign sepa-
rate MIDI channels to the individual Voices
and control them from another device or
a DAW. For this reason, the Rack versions
of the MOTIF do not feature Performances.
Every other MOTIF features a variety of Per-
formances. These cover a very wide range
- both in terms of musical style, as well as
practical application on stage. (Sound com-
binations, special live applications, etc.)
Performance storage locations are always
in the rewritable user area, so you are able
to overwrite all preset Performances with
your own versions.
In an Initialized Voice of the MOTIF XF the
Waveform number 0001 (CF3 Stretch Sw
St) ist set as default. This acoustic piano is
the first Preset Wave of the Wave-ROM. In
other synthesizers of the MOTIF series there
is also a piano Waveform set, but with a
different name.
The Waveform numbers 0001-3977 of
the selected Wave Bank „Pre“ represent
the Wave-ROM of the MOTIF XF. For in-
strument or synth Waves these are multi-
samples, ie individual samples, which are
mapped across the keyboard to make a
balanced sound. With sound effects and
drum sounds usually only one sample is
used for a Wave.
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