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I am curious if there is anyone else out there that is using a yamaha motif keyboard along with biab and rb. I finanlly have mine set up and it is working but I am pretty much a novice and would benefit greatly from someone else's knowledge. I know I am just using the basics right now and am eager to learn all the aspects of both biab and rb.
Thanks


Windows 7, yamaha motif8 keyboard. Biab and rb 2012.
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Bottom-line up front (BLUF) I doubt I can help much beyond what you already have figured out or can easily figure out.

I have a Motif XS7 but I am NOT a keyboard player. I use mine MAINLY as a large (space sucking) sound module (with some damn fine acoustical sounds - for a "lowly MIDI ROMpler"). That goes for my other two keyboards as well. I am a guitar player and I "mess around" with my keyboards. I only jumped in here to say there is at least one person with a Motif that uses BIAB and and RB (but I doubt I will be of much use).

If you need BIAB or RB help there are MANY, MANY gurus here who really know their stuff - I am NOT one of those. But very little about BIAB or RB is keyboard or other external MIDI HW dependant in terms of inputting MIDI to BIAB/RB, sending MIDI to the Motif or even getting the audio from your Motif into your PC - that will be more a function of your PC's audio card/interface than the Motif.

I don't use any of my synth modules (keyboards included) as GM sound modules except the one that was designed explicitly for that use, my the Roland SC-8850 (and it's a killer GM/GS box - as GM /GS goes).

This next statement is going to bring "fire and brimstone" down on me from the forum regulars but the reason I mention GM is because BIAB when using/generating MIDI is GM by default - don't know any other way to say it. However, it can be configured to not use GM/not be GM. RB on the other hand is a DAW (with nice hooks into/with BIAB) so it is whatever you configure/use it as. That's important because the Motif is not really GM "friendly" - it has the obligatory GM bank and that is as much concession as the Motif makes to GM.

I use my keyboards, usually the 88 key Alesis Fusion, or my GR-50 to input melody/lead lines, chords, drum "measures", bass lines, etc. (as MIDI) sometimes with expressiveness added (use of mod wheel, pitch wheel, or a with various pedals assigned to CC1, CC7, CC11, etc. ) .

I never use my keyboards as "controllers" of the PC DAW SW or vice versa (too much "hassle" factor for me). I also never use the Yamaha provided SW (the provided Cubase, Studioware, etc. either . Except when I am managing patches or performing library functions of the user banks/patches - but even then I use John Melas's SW almost exclusively for that!

GOOD LUCK and I hope people here can help you out with specific questions.

Larry


PS: The "MIDI ROMpler" thing is just me "stirring the pot" of some other unrelated but overly serious threads on: "MIDI sucks", "MIDI is dead", "no it's not", " RT's or nothing" .. on-going threads.

Last edited by Larry Kehl; 01/05/12 02:56 PM.

Win10Pro,i9,64GB,2TBSSD+20TBHDDs,1080TI,BIAB'24,Scarlett18i8,Montage7,Fusion 8HD,QS8,Integra7,XV5080,QSR,SC-8850,SPLAT,FL21&others,Komp.14,IK suite&others, just a guitar player-AXE FX III &FM9T, FishmanTP, MIDIGuitar2, GK2/3'sw/GI20
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Quote:

PS: The "MIDI ROMpler" thing is just me "stirring the pot" of some other unrelated but overly serious threads on: "MIDI sucks", "MIDI is dead", "no it's not", " RT's or nothing" .. on-going threads.




Seriously?

My Ketron and Jv1010, Roland W50 and Korg PS60 love midi, but are having an affair with RealBand. My RealBand is wired to my Ketron to My JV1010 to my Bose, and to my Voicelive and to my footcontroller and I think they started out with light interfacing, then the cables got tango'd and now I've full on swinging going on, but don't tell yer re-publicans who are against interfacing, or pushing the Esc key before the song's gestation is done. OK ta ta fer neigh eh?


John Conley
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I have been using SONAR (Cakewalk), version 5 for quite a while. Starting using BBW (2004 version). Everyone has their preferred way of doing things with BBW, DAW, and software/hardware synths. I'm primarily a guitar player, however I do use my legacy Motif keyboard as both a keyboard and tone generator. Also, I use a 2nd generation Motif RACK ES as tone generator in conjunction with BBW, Realband, midi-guitar. BBW has made several improvements that (version 2012) enhance the midi-capabilities in BBW. But, since I've been using SONAR as my DAW for so long, I find it suits me better and speeds up my workflow for mixing, editing, etc. Basically, I export both audio and midi files from BBW, then import those as separate audio/midi tracks into SONAR (most any DAW will do, and SONAR X1 is miles above version 5).

There are some patch files (.pat) and drum kit (.dk) files for the Motif (legacy, ES, and Rack ES I believe) available on the PG site downloads. These will help in getting things set up for the Motif and eliminate some of the work. BBW will also convert Cakewalk .ini patch files to .pat files. You can find a lot of info for the Motif(s) on the Motifator site (www.motifator.com). This site has good info for all things Motif. Consider downloading Yamaha's (free) Studio Manager software app and the corresponding (free) Voice and Multi editors.

Here a a few other things to keep in mind with BBW/Realband. While BBW uses .pat files for patch files, Realband uses .ins files. If you want to set up Realband with the patches, you can download the .pat file(s) from PGmusic, then in Realband, there is a utility that will convert the .pat file to the RB .ini file. One more step...you'll have to opt to append that (part of the conversion/load patches dialog)to RB. But upon the next start-up of RB, you'll see the Motif patches as an option.

Sorry this is sort of long, but here's the last two steps (perhaps) you will need to do.

Download from Yamaha's synthesizer site (www.yamahasynth.com) the appropriate USB midi-driver for your operating system (there's an associated readme/install file with it). That way, BBW or another app will be able to use that driver for the Motif. Recommend you get the Studio Manager and editors mentioned below.

If you want to use multiple voices/instruments in the Motif, make sure you set the Motif into Multi-Mode, and select an available Multi (there are 128 total, 32 pre-programmed from the factory. 16 channels (that correspond to midi channels 1-16, separate from Yamaha Motif plug-in hardware modules)for each Multi. Determine what you want those channels to be (voice-wise), and set BBW/RB to match, or, vice-versa. Then you should be good to go. One last thing regarding the patch files located on PG's site-it is not complete (i.e., not all the preset voices (over 1100) are included). But, Cakewalk has them (www.cakewalk.com) or motifator has the Cakewalk patch files (.ins) that BBW can convert.

Hopefully, this is not redundant info for you.

Richard

Last edited by rich in ca; 01/05/12 04:13 PM.
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