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So I went ahead and got a Motif ES7...


eric

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Well, I succumbed to gear lust in a big way. I'm a pretty sick puppy. Lately, I'm in an almost constant state of flux and I go through this about every 12-18 months. I decide to reinvent my live rig for better sound, better playability, you name it.

 

I picked up an ES7 yesterday and have been playing with it quite a bit. I have two road gigs tomorrow and will try it out to see how it works. I'm going to carry my V-Combo as the top tier keyboard to play Hammond, as I'm not fully comfortable using the ES organ sounds without drawbar control. The ES organs are very respectable, but just not sure if I would be digging them live or not.

 

I have been marking favorite sounds and trying to assemble the patches that I'll need to get through these gigs. Looks like I won't have time to fully explore creative layering, but instead use the basic sounds as presented by the ES.

 

One issue I have is that in order to save all these performances, I will need to over-write the ones in there, most of which are very inspiring and great examples of what this keyboard can do. It is a lot of manual effort to figure out which factory sounds I want to keep and then quarantine them to several banks, opening myself up some free spots to save my gig sounds.

 

I could not determine if there are any "BLANK" performance spots in the ES and presume I may need some type of external memory to pull this off without nuking some of the factory presets. Any ideas?

 

I'll be excited to try this keyboard over the weekend and see how it works for me live. At home, I'm absolutely addicted to the arps and I even starting playing with the sequencer...the last hardware sequencer I used was on my M1 back in the late 80's and early 90's!

 

Regards,

Eric

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Originally posted by eric:

One issue I have is that in order to save all these performances, I will need to over-write the ones in there, most of which are very inspiring and great examples of what this keyboard can do. It is a lot of manual effort to figure out which factory sounds I want to keep and then quarantine them to several banks, opening myself up some free spots to save my gig sounds.

 

I could not determine if there are any "BLANK" performance spots in the ES and presume I may need some type of external memory to pull this off without nuking some of the factory presets. Any ideas?

Leave the User 1 bank alone...all of the sounds in the User 2 bank are just duplicates of the presets - it's kind of a showcase bank. That's the one I mess with.

 

I recommend making your own bank and saving it to a Smart Media card - if you haven't gotten one yet, do it - they're cheap! You might wanna get a USB card reader, too - they're even cheaper, and make the whole data transfer process between MOTIF and your computer a snap.

 

BTW, you're totally safe because you can always recall the factory banks from the internal memory.

 

Congrats on the new toy - you're gonna love it! :thu:

 

dB

:snax:

 

:keys:==> David Bryce Music • Funky Young Monks <==:rawk:

 

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And, as I say in just about every post regarding the S90/Motifs, get familiar with Master mode. Master mode presets are just pointers to existing patches, performances and sequences/mixes. The advantage is you can seemless move between a patch and performance without switching modes, plus they can control extrnal synths. Because they are just pointers, if you overwrite a Master mode preset you're not killing a preset, just pointing it to a different one.

 

Busch.

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I have a couple more basic questions as I program this thing frantically tonight...

 

Busch, regarding the Master mode. I have been exploring splits and layers in Performance mode and not spent much time in Master mode. Can I set up splits and layers in Master or am I required to point to a performance that already has these set up?

 

Also, Dave B, regarding the User Bank 2 that you recommended. It appears that this only applies to Voices and not Performances. I can't get the Bank 2 button to switch in Performances, telling me that this is not available in Performance mode. While I may get some use by tweaking preset FX/EQ levels of the single Voices and saving them for reference by a Performance, I'm still left with the issue of needing to mark and move Performances to clear a couple of banks to use for my patches. I guess I can deal with this.

 

Thanks!

Eric

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Originally posted by eric:

I have a couple more basic questions as I program this thing frantically tonight...

 

Busch, regarding the Master mode. I have been exploring splits and layers in Performance mode and not spent much time in Master mode. Can I set up splits and layers in Master or am I required to point to a performance that already has these set up?

 

Thanks!

Eric

Generally, you want the splits already set up in patch or performance. Master can do splits via the zones but you would use MIDI program change numbers to assign a patch to the top and a different one for the bottom. Problem is they would both be on the same MIDI channel and hence the second patch change would take precidence over the first. I'm probably not explaining this clearly. The zones are really for sending patch changes and setting up splits/layers with external synths. But a Master mode preset can be nothing more than a pointer to a patch or performance.

 

Busch.

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So I stayed up late last night trying to set up all these sounds I need on the Motif ES7. I followed Dave B's advice on the User Bank 2 and I customized a number of the presets with different FX, EQ, cutoff, etc. Then I went to Performance mode to create some splits and layers.

 

This is when I began to get frustrated...there does not appear to be any way to copy FX settings from Voices into Performances. So my killer phased EP sound was straight, no FX, when placed into an initialized Performance. I pored over the manual and the Motifator.com forums with no luck. There was one description of the scenario on Motifator, but it did not work. The Performance -> Job -> Copy feature would only copy things between Performances and not Voices.

 

So I was not able to declare success in creating all the sounds I needed. This will take much more time than I had expected. I was hoping to be able to "point" to the individual voices via Master mode and then set up the layers and splits from there, but it is not really a good choice. Performance mode is where this needs to happen.

 

Mike Martin (or anyone), can you post some tips on how to deal with this issue? Basically, I want to be able to take Voices that I have tweaked and then replicate them over to Performance mode, keeping the FX from the Voice intact.

 

I am getting ready to hit the road for some gigs today and am not sure I'll break out the ES7 yet...still not comfortable with the UI and I don't have the sounds I need... :(

 

Regards,

Eric

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When you take voices into Performances, they automatically have their inserts, you don't need to do anything. If you take a look at that Electric Piano sound you'll see that its getting the Vintage Phaser from the System Effect, not the Insert. Just change the system effect from plain Chorus to the Vintage Phaser and you're done.

-Mike Martin

 

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Just got a Mo' Classic for test use, I'll get the ES later (seems to be some delivery problems to Finland). Really great board in many ways, but the UI is indeed a bit confusing... so I have some questions.

 

So is the Master Mode really not doing anything by itself, it's more like a bank with stuff from different modes, so that you don't have to change between modes?

 

I'm looking to connecting an additional keyboard to Motif (probably a Fatar controller) so that I can play the Mo's sounds with two boards. Can I use the Master mode so that I have eg. a synth bass on channel 1 played by Motif keyboard, and a rhodes patch on channel 2 played by the second keyboard? Or should I do it in the sequencer mode?

 

Also, the Classic doens't seem to support Smartmedia with memory up to 32mb, but the ES supports 128, 256 etc. I have the Classic only for a while, but I'd like to get some memory to save songs already. Can I get a 256mb Smartmedia and use it with the Classic now, and later use it with the ES when I get it?

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Originally posted by Dan South:

Isn't there a way to reload the factory programs if you overwrite them for a gig?

Yes. Utility -> Job -> Factory Set.

 

By the way, how big are the Voices, Performances, Patterns and Songs? How many can I store to a 128mb Smartmedia card?

 

And should I get a USB hard drive for samples and Smartmedia for voices and sequences? Is that the best way for storage? And I'm getting them for the ES.

 

Also, is the USB enough to hook the Motif to a PC, or do I also need MIDI? Is there any good librarian to easier assemble the voices and performances to banks, or do I have to do it inside the Motif?

 

Once I get all this done, I think the Motif is really close to a perfect instrument... :cool:

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Originally posted by Jabbe:

And should I get a USB hard drive for samples and Smartmedia for voices and sequences? Is that the best way for storage? And I'm getting them for the ES.

I only have the one 128 MB Smart Media card...but then again, I'm not using that many samples. If I were, I'd probably get a dedicated USB drive.

 

Also, is the USB enough to hook the Motif to a PC, or do I also need MIDI? Is there any good librarian to easier assemble the voices and performances to banks, or do I have to do it inside the Motif?
I haven't done the USB thing yet - just MIDI - I'm still getting used to the G5 and Panther. I do plan to though, mainly because I want to use the MOTIF's control surface capabilities to control DP and Logic.

 

Don't know about the editor - I've been able to do all my editing inside the machine...I've actually never been much of a software ed/lib kind of guy though....

 

Once I get all this done, I think the Motif is really close to a perfect instrument... :cool:
...and you haven't even played with the ES yet, right? You're gonna be blown away. I kinda liked the Classic Mo', but the new one eats it for lunch IMO - if nothing else, the new filters alone will really impress you - that's one of the things thast left me cold about the Classic.

 

I agree with your sentiment, and was saying the same thing to steadyb yesterday - I really do believe that to date, the ES is the ultimate ROMpler.

 

dB

:snax:

 

:keys:==> David Bryce Music • Funky Young Monks <==:rawk:

 

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Originally posted by Dave Bryce:

I haven't done the USB thing yet - just MIDI - I'm still getting used to the G5 and Panther. I do plan to though, mainly because I want to use the MOTIF's control surface capabilities to control DP and Logic.

Looking forward to hearing how the control surface part works out.

 

prog

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Originally posted by Dave Bryce:

...and you haven't even played with the ES yet, right? You're gonna be blown away. I kinda liked the Classic Mo', but the new one eats it for lunch IMO - if nothing else, the new filters alone will really impress you - that's one of the things thast left me cold about the Classic.

 

I agree with your sentiment, and was saying the same thing to steadyb yesterday - I really do believe that to date, the ES is the ultimate ROMpler.

Yeah, I know. There are a few things on the Classic that aren't that good, eg. the piano, filters (though they're a lot better than in cheaper romplers) and some acoustic sounds. And the samplers memory capacity is not enough. But I think I won't have too many complains about the ES, so that IS the ultimate rompler. Can't wait to get my hands on it. But in the meanwhile, I'll be enjoying the Classic very much...
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