Steve,

The manual (BBW)can be a little daunting can be a little daunting at first because it covers a lot of ground with so many great features in BB. But, so is the Motif Owner's manual, as the MOTIF (even the classic first edition), but it contains both a Quick Start Guide, and all the details many don't want to know (but should know much of it to get the most out of this powerful synth).

I have a MOTIF (Classic, first edition) as well as a MOTIF Rack ES. A bit of background info first (I hope not redundant or patronizing for you). From here on out, when I say MOTIF, I mean your version (the Classic, first edition)

The MOTIF has GM sounds to be sure, but there are tons of sounds you can take advantage of (which is why the SONAR/Cakewalk instrument file, MOTIF.INS) is critical. This file has all the rest of the voices, performances, etc. I don't know if you have both the manuals and supporting info (refer to links in my previous response), but if not, I highly recommend you get them. They are free and in PDF form on both the Yamaha and Motifator sites. The two factory manuals from Yamaha are:

MOTIF User's Manual
Data List (has all the voices, banks, etc. and you need this also)
Yamaha Tools for MOTIF6/MOTIF7/MOTIF8

Additional guides are on both Yamaha and Mofifator sites.

Id you have at least the first two, great.

First, let me recommend that you do not limit yourself to GM sounds (although they are excellent). Second, the reason I'm going to offer this info is help avoid setting issues later on (although I can't possible go into detail features and steps here, because I would only be repeating the manuals).

Secondly, determine what mode(s) you want to use the MOTIF in (Voice, Performance for BBW use). There are others, but Voice vs Performance is significant).

Voice is the simplest (one voice per channel) vs Performance that has 4 parts.

Where I can, I'll refer to the MOTIF OWNER MANUAL (MOM)


So here is a loosely organized step-by-step (top level).

1. Get the instrument file (MOTIF.INS from motifator site)
2. Create the patch file per BBW manual (GM menu button/Convert Patch List form Power Tracks or Cakewalk, pg 554 BBW manual).
3. Determine if your MOTIF matches the patch file (at least for banks, modes, etc. you are interested in)
4. On the MOTIF, enter Utility mode then
4a. set the basic receive and keyboard transmit channels (ref page 258 of MOM). You can leave it at 1/1, or set each to something else (1-16) just make sure that BB is set correlate with the MOTIF.

Before I continue this, I'm going to grab some dinner. I'll come back to this in a while. But recommend you do the above first anyway.

Richard