This tutorial (in several parts), will introduce you to several skills, including creating your own loops by RESAMPLING within the XF Sequencer; we’ll cover, loading .wav files, even how to edit (trim) a sample. Looped audio clips can be mapped to keys and manipulated in various ways. Remember: audio in the Motif XF is always samples. The advantage of being samples is that you can turn them on and off conveniently with your Keys: note-on/note-off events. This is ideal in a keyboard music production synthesizer – as the keys make very convenient on/off switches. A typical use case would have the audio begin at Note-On and continue to play (loop); tempo would be set to match the audio clip. From here, you can add additional MIDI tracks, play along with it, etc., etc. Controlling audio clips from the keys of the keyboard can be used in a variety of ways. Each of the 73 keys in a drum kit Voice could feature a different audio loop or, as we’ll learn, a single Key can actually contain multiple audio loops that trigger at different velocities. This first installment we will take a look at why a Drum Kit makes an ideal place to manage as many as 73 audio loops – we’ll start with the unique Drum Amplitude Envelope Generator (AEG).

Controlling audio loops in a drum kit means also you can apply useful parameters to control playback, like ALTERNATE GROUPS, RECEIVE NOTE-OFF, and apply an AEG (Amplitude Envelope Generator) that will hold the sample indefinitely. If you have your audio clip’s KEY parameters set so that it ignores Note-off (as most drum sounds do), and the AEG’s “DECAY 2 TIME” parameter is set to 127 (maximum) this will mean when you hit the key the audio clip begins playback and you will not have to hold the key down in order to make sound continue. It will automatically continue on its own until you hit another KEY in the same ALTERNATE GROUP. That KEY could be the beginning of a new audio clip or it could be a “silent” Key. A “silent” key is a key with a blank waveform assigned to it – it simply is used in the same ALTERNATE GROUP as your other audio clips to end playback. The ALTERNATE GROUP is what allows the Closed HH and Pedal HH to stop the Open HH from sounding, they are all assigned the same ALTERNATE GROUP – only one from the group can ever sound at the same time. The Mute Triangle stops the Open Triangle because these two are set to the same GROUP, etc. There are 127 Groups!

A Drum AEG is different from a Normal Voice’s AEG. The “ATTACK TIME” is how fast the level rises to full volume (Attack Level). “DECAY1 TIME” is how fast it drops in volume to “DECAY2 LEVEL” (which is fixed at 0). “DECAY2 TIME” is how fast the signal dies away to zero. By definition all percussion sounds eventually die out. “DECAY2 TIME” can be any value between 0 and 126, or 127 (127 which would be equivalent to HOLD). For sample loops that you want to remain at the same volume indefinitely, set the Decay2Time = 127.

At left you see the AEG set where “Decay2 Time” = 127. The envelope will continue indefinitely or what is considered “HOLD”. When you have a long audio clip this is the only setting that will allow it to play completely. Below see the actual Drum Key Amplitude screen. You are in VOICE mode (upper left tab always tells you where you are), you are in EDIT and you are editing a KEY, C3. The Output Level of this drum is 127, and the Velocity Sensitivity (its ability to get louder as you strike a key harder) is +0. This means that the velocity is fixed so that every note-on event will be triggered at the 127 level.

Velocity Sensitivity (Velocity Sens) can be set to any value between minus 64 and plus 63. A setting of +32 is the equivalent of a linear curve. That is where the harder you hit it, the louder it is. Any value above +32 will mean that extremely slow strikes will not be heard at all. By the time you reach +63 only an extremely hard (fast) key strike will trigger a sound. Negative values work the opposite to positive values. The softer the key is stuck the louder the sound.

The audio clips should have Velocity Sensitivity = +0 so they play at full volume. Use the CS (Control Slider) of the PART to control how they fit in the mix (in relation to other Parts or tracks). You will notice that there is PAN, ALTERNATE PAN and RANDOM PAN parameters per drum KEY. Notice that with the TIME and LEVEL parameters, there is no ATTACK LEVEL. This level is determined by the audio of the sample itself. And there is no “Decay 2 Level” which is found in a normal Voice, because it will always be 0 for a percussion family sound… except when “Decay 2 Time” is set to maximum (127/Hold) which would be useful for audio clips (and sample loops, etc.). The ALTERNATE GROUP parameter (discussed below) will give us a method to turn OFF the audio clip playback.

Triggering audio via MIDI Note-On events opens the door to many creative possibilities. Wild stutter triggering effects can be easily accomplished via key presses. And think about this: When you designate a drum kit for audio clips/loops, you have 73 different keys on which to place audio. Turning a track on or off is easily done, either manually with the keyboard, a controller or automatically using the sequencer. Drum Voices offer 73 keys to place audio, while a Normal Voice has 128 keys on which to place audio. Each Sample can contain 6 minutes and 20 seconds of audio in stereo… up to the maximum sample RAM.

Extra Credit: It should be mentioned that when placing audio in a Drum Kit, the rule of the Drum Kit Voice will apply. It is highly recommended that your audio loops be assigned one to a Waveform (same as any percussion or drum sound, one to a Waveform) and the original pitch should be assigned to “C3”. This will allow you to use it assigned to any KEY within the Drum Kit and have it sound its original pitch.

Not all audio will be appropriate to trigger from within the Drum Kit Voice. Here’s why: There is a “silence detection” function going on inside Drum Kit Voices. The Decay2 Time “hold” feature and the fact that individual Keys can be set to ignore Note-Off messages could potentially cause a polyphony use issue… As soon as you pressed the 129th note you’d have no more notes to hold. There is a silence detection that shuts down the envelope if there is no audio for a period of time, this so that notes just don’t reserve the polyphony indefinitely. Tyip ally, in a Drum Kit all samples are cued so the sound starts immediately at KeyOn, and the entire sound plays without having to hold the key down. The envelope closes according to the Decay2 Time parameter setting. Once the envelope closes, the polyphony is returned to the general pool. If silence is detected for a continuous period, the envelope is forced closed Automatically. Audio clips with long silences in them may not behave as expected inside the Drum Voice. For clips that contain silences, you will need to use a “Normal” Voice and either a finger or the SEQUENCER to “hold” the note for you. In a separate tutorial we’ll cover using a Normal Voice to house your audio clips and loops. It offers a different set of creative uses and has its own set of rules.

About the provided data:
Included in a zipped downloadable file at the end of this article is an example of how a User Drum Kit was used to house various audio clips. The data was actually re-sampled from internal Pattern data… giving you a different way to trigger playback of your musical Sections. The key thing to recognize is that you can achieve absolute sonic parity between the original data and the resample – actually you can even improve it. The world of digital sampling opens up lots of possibilities. In terms of the polyphony saved you can start to see the benefit of this type of loop creation. You can resample the Pattern Section in full or in part and make unique combinations of data. Please follow along with this tutorial to gain a full understanding of how this all works together.

Make a backup ALL data file of your own data before loading the tutorial file!
The provided data will overwrite your internal USER information. If you make a backup ALL data file of your data, you can easily return to it after you have completed this tutorial session. (Backup Now, No Cry, Later!)

Special Note: The data in the provided File  (found ‘zipped’ at the end of the article) was created with the Waveforms and Samples in the 128MB USR SDRAM of a Motif XF. This means they can be directed to your instrument’s internal 128MB SDRAM. For those of you with FLASH BOARDS make sure to safeguard your Flash Board’s Waveform List from any changes by setting their load option to “None”: The LOAD OPTIONS (lower right corner) should be set:
USR > USR
FL 1 > None
FL 2 > None 

Load the ALL data file: DrumKitLoop1.n3.X3A
User Drum Kit: Call up USER Drum Kit: UDR: 001(A01) Loop Kit C3-C4

There are eight audio loops assigned to the white keys from middle C (C3) up an octave through C4. Each audio clip as we will see is set to loop endlessly. You can stop an audio clip from playing in one of two ways:

1. Start another audio loop by pressing any white key between C3 and C4
2. Press any black key between C#3 and A#3.

How this works is all the notes between C3 and C4 are assigned to the same ALTERNATE GROUP. An Alternate Group (there are 127 of them per Drum Kit) allows any sound assigned to the group to cancel any other sound assigned the same group. You are probably familiar with this when working with hihat sounds. By assigning the Closed, Pedal and Open Hihat sounds to the same Alternate Group, playing one will stop the other from sounding. 

In this case all the notes between C3 and C4 are assigned to Alternate Group #3. Each white key contains an audio clip; each black key is assigned an empty waveform number (silent) and acts as a ‘stop’ key. (See screen shot at right.)

The ASSIGN MODE is set to “single”. This is important so that only one instance of the loop assigned to this key can occur at a time. If ASSIGN MODE is set to “multi”, then multiple key presses will start multiple versions of the audio clip.

RECEIVE NOTE OFF, as discussed in the “What is a Drum Voice?” article, is what makes drum sounds play without you having to hold down the key. This is what separates drum and percussion sounds from “normal” musical sounds. In a normal musical sound you hold the key down until you want the sound to stop and when you let go KEY-OFF is sent and the sound moves immediately to the RELEASE parameter of the Envelope. With drum sounds you do not HOLD the key down. You want the entire drum envelope (AEG) to transpire without having to keep your finger on the key. As you can hear, all of the audio clips continue to play without you having to hold down the key – because, additionally, the AEG (Amplitude Envelope Generator) is set so “Decay2 Time” is 127 (HOLD).

Each of the audio clips (loops) are routed to INSERT EFFECT OUTPUT = INSERTION EFFECT A, which is setup to use the VCM COMPRESSOR 376.
By navigating to the [EDIT] > [COMMON EDIT] > [F6] EFFECT screen, you can see each Drum Key’s routing through the effects. (Unlike when in KEY-Edit, the information here does not automatically update in the screen. Highlight the KEY OUT parameter (upper left corner) hold [SF6] KBD and touch the KEY to select its routing information).  

At left you see the KEY OUT for note “C3”. It is routed to INS A > Cmp: VCM Compressor 376.

If you follow the purple line you will see you have an opportunity to route the INSERTION EFFECT’S output to the System Effects via the “Insertion Reverb Send” and/or “Insertion Chorus Send”. There is also a “Chorus To Reverb” Send amount, as well as Return amount and Pan position controls for each of the two System Effects.

It is possible to route a Drum Key, post (after) the Insertion Effect, to the System Effects that are assigned to the Kit. When you do this, then this will be respected when the KIT is placed in a MIXING setup. In other words, if you do not have a KEY routed to the Reverb or Chorus Effect in VOICE mode, it will not be able to have reverb or chorus effects when you turn up the send for the KIT in a MIXING setup. This way one drum can have no reverb while another can be bathed in reverb. Typically, a kick drum is dry (no reverb) and a
snare drum is wet (has reverb).

If you want to add reverb to the audio clip loops you should turn up the “INSERTION REV SEND” and the SEND just to the left of the REVERB processor. The “INSERTION REV SEND” returns signal from compressor and allows you to route it through the System Effects, or not. Set it to 127. Then set the subjective amount with SEND knob just to the left of the Reverb block. You can experiment by routing the Drum Key to various effects. Next, let’s take a quick look at Controllers and Controller assignment. Try setting this up:

• Press [F4] CTRL SET (Control Set)

Here you can assign various physical controllers to vary the sound in real time. You will see that you can assign controllers to certain INSERTION EFFECT parameters, to overall Volume, and to Reverb/Chorus Send amounts. Please see the Data List booklet for more information on the available parameters per Effect type.

(Shown at left) CONTROL SET 1 is set so that the Modulation Wheel is controlling VOLUME and the DEPTH is set to a minus 32. As the graph shows, when you raise the Modulation Wheel you will decrease OUTPUT – the audio clips will fade out.

This Drum Kit Voice can be used alone to perform your loops. It could contain as many as 73 audio clip keys – each key, as we will see, could hold multiple clips. And as we will also see, it can be used in a MIXING program or in a PERFORMANCE with other Voices.

In the second Control Set route the ModWheel(01) to Destination “reverb send”, with a Depth of +32. Now as you raise the MW the volume fades out, and reverb increases from the value you set for the SEND amount.

Using Audio Clips in a PERFORMANCE
Call up Performance USER 1:001(A01) Cool Funk & Sax
Here is a simple example PERFORMANCE made up of two PARTS. PART 1 is the “Loop Kit” mapped so that it plays from C1 through C2 (so it can be reached from a Motif XF6 whose lowest key is C1 – this is accomplished by using the PART parameter “NOTE SHIFT”). PART 2 is “Velo Growl Legato” saxophone, mapped from C#2 and above. You can see that you can control the Sections with the octave C1-C2 and solo on top. If you’d like you can edit this PERFORMANCE to select other instruments, for example:

Press [F2] VOICE and activate the B3 organ sound “First 3 w/Perc” and/or the synth lead “Feeling” by placing a red check mark next to the PART 3 and/or 4 (this activates the PART SWITCH). Then use the [PERFORMANCE CONTROL] function’s PART MUTE to turn on and off the right hand sound you want to use or simply fade them IN and OUT using the Control Slider associated with the PART in question.

Learning moment: The PART SWITCH activates the VOICE in the PART. Initially the Performance had just two Voices activate (see the main screenshot, PARTS 1 and 2 are lit green above the fader, and highlighted in blue in the PART NAME list). PARTs 3 and 4 must be activated… that is the PART SWITCH must be turned ON. Once it is, then you can MUTE and UNMUTE – which simply connects and disconnects the PART’s audio from the output.

How the Loop data was prepared:
Although the source of your audio Loop data can be virtually anything on the planet… since we are involved in learning the Motif XF, we want to show how data made from internal Arpeggio Phrases could be used to create PATTERN Phrases and Sections that could then be RESAMPLED in the XF’s Integrated Sampling Sequencer. By routing the PATTERN data to the XF’s Sampler you can turn your data into CD quality audio Waves – which as we have seen, can be mapped to keys and triggered by single note-on events at any time.

Go to PATTERN mode and recall PATTERN 01 “Cool Funk”. The eight audio clip loops were re-sampled directly from the XF sequencer. In fact, the music parts were mainly derived from data generated by on-board arpeggio phrases. Of course, you can generate your loops in any number of ways. For example, in another example we will show you how to import (load) a sample wave into a Drum Kit. But for this first example, the eight Sections, A-H, were RESAMPLED directly to RAM. Then the Waveforms were assigned to INITIALIZED Keys within a USER DRUM Kit.

You can see that we have assigned our User Kit “Loop Kit ” to PART 16 of this Pattern. If you select Track [16] you can manually play the SECTIONS by simply touching a Key.

You can actually play this PATTERN without ever hitting the PLAY button. Select Track [16], press “C3”. Section [A] will play. You can then switch to Track [15] and play over it with an organ sound.

This first example is purposefully kept simple for sake of demonstration. But as you can imagine you can resample as many tracks as you desire… even as many as all 16 tracks to an audio clip. You can resample just the PARTS you know are going to use a lot of polyphony… say you have a big string ensemble, brass section, orchestral sound that you created and you realize you are pushing up against the limit of the 128 note polyphony. By re-sampling just those tracks you can reduce your huge polyphony-hungry sound to a single note-on event. This is the equivalent to sub-mixing (creating a mix within a mix) – only this time the purpose is to reduce the load on the polyphony. Knowing how and when to re-sample, means you will never run out of polyphony. Also it will free up those tracks for additional recording (an added benefit).

• Select PART [16]
• Press [MIXING]
• Activate the INS FX Switch (VCM Compressor 376) on PART 16.

By placing a red check mark in the “Ins FX Sw” box for track 16 (circled in red) we are recalling the VCM Compressor 376 that was assigned to the Drum Kit in VOICE mode. Remember any eight PARTS of a MIXING setup can recall their Voice mode Insertion Effects. For those who worry if their samples are going to be loud enough… you can hear that even without the Compressor the level of the original PATTERN data is pretty much matched in the audio clip… even with the Volume set at just 100. By placing a user sample in a Motif XF Voice (Drum Kit Voice, in this case) you have all of the same Voice parameters that will ‘dress up’ the audio and it will compete quite nicely with internal sounds. When the INSERT EFFECT is added there is a little extra punch added to the sample. A compressor is a leveling amplifier that adds “presence” to the audio source.

Compare the audio clips with and without the INSERTION EFFECT. Yes, the compressor makes it a bit louder, but what you want to train your ear to hear is that it has a definite punch, as well. Once you have activated the red check mark on PART 16, you can A/B (compare) the signal with and without by using the dedicated [INSERTION EFFECT BYPASS] button on the front panel. Compressors change the volume footprint of the sound – increasing its apparent ‘weight’ (significance, presence).

You can manually play the audio clip simply by triggering a note-on event on PART 16. You can compare it with the whole PATTERN Section.
C3 = Section A
D3 = Section B
E3 = Section C
F3 = Section D
G3 = Section E
A3 = Section F
B3 = Section G
C4 = Section H

The black keys in this middle octave act as Loop Off switches (C#3, D#3, F#3, G#3, A#3 and C#4).

In the next installment of this tutorial, “Creating the LOOP KIT Data“, we will take you through the process of recording these Sections as Audio Waves (loops).

RESAMPLE SETUP: How it was done:
In the previous tutorial “Working with Audio Loops in Drum Kits” we used an example with 8 audio loops. This portion will show how you can take your Pattern data and turn them into audio clips. RESAMPLING is used to record audio (sample) data created by and/or arriving at the available inputs on your XF.
From PATTERN mode

• Press [INTEGRATED SAMPLING]
You arrive at the Sample Select screen. This is considered the ‘home base’ screen while in sampling. You can branch out from here to EDIT, or perform a JOB, or to look at KEYBANK assignments, or even go from here to RECORD (sample). See the article on “Integrated Sampling Sequencer” for details. The only parameter you can select on the Sample Select screen is to select a target WAVEFORM. A blank WAVEFORM will have a number but dashes instead of a name, for example: Waveform 0009: ————

• Select a blank Waveform
• Press [F6] REC

You now arrive at the Sample Record screen.
Here you setup the SAMPLE SOURCE and SAMPLE DESTINATION parameters.

Sample Source
Recording Type = sample
Input Source = resample
Stereo/Mono = stereo
Record Next = off
Frequency = 44.1kHz

Sample Destination
Waveform
Keybank = C3
Track: 01-16 you can select any track… For this example set the TRACK = 01 to illustrate that you can target any track, even if it currently contains data.

By setting the Recording Type to “sample” we will be creating a sample but not creating a MIDI Note-on event to trigger its playback. When the sample is created it will simply be added to the available sample waveforms on the USER Waveform list. Our plan is to place this sample into a DRUM KIT. Remember by placing it in a Drum Kit Voice we gain the advantage of all the VOICE mode parameters that frame a sample Voice (Envelopes, Filters, processing, etc.). And as mentioned there are specific tools in the Drum Kit Voice that are perfect for framing an audio clip like a PATTERN Section looping. Not only does this reduce the load on polyphony (you might be using hundreds of note-on events in your 16 Track Section, Resampling them reduces the note-on event count to 1), but you can use this data in a Performance.

Alternatively, you could set the Recording Type to “sample+note”. What “sample+note” does is it creates not only the sample, which is added to the Waveform list, but it additionally creates a NOTE-ON event for the sequencer to automatically trigger playback of the audio clip. Remember we are not recording audio to a track. We are placing audio into a sample Voice that then requires a note-on event to play (like all samples in the XF). The Integrated Sampling Sequencer will automatically create a note-on event that is based precisely on your PUNCH IN Measure and with a duration (Gate Time) that will hold it until the PUNCH OUT point. However, for our tutorial this is NOT what you want to do – but we mention it because it opens the door to world of possibilities you may want to explore at another time. Using “sample+note” generates MIDI data – for this tutorial we are only interested in creating the audio data – which we will assemble in a Drum Kit Voice. We do not want to generate NOTE-ON data (particularly if you have all 16 tracks filled). Resampling can be done even if all 16 tracks have information, if and only if you set the RECORDING TYPE = ‘sample’ (never “sample+note”). If you use “sample+note” you must dedicate a track for the created MIDI data and the new USER Sample Voice.

Because we are in a Sequencer Mode (Pattern) we are offered the Destination of TRACK. If (and only if) you are sampling in VOICE mode or PERFORMANCE mode would you be able to sample directly into a Drum Kit. This would be ideal if you were sampling from a source like a CD player or MP3 device (we’ll cover that later).

• Press [F6] STANDBY

The upper portion of the screen will review your Waveform, Track and Measure target. The Settings made here on the STANDBY screen are as follows:

Record Monitor – this is your listening volume and does not affect the recording level. Set to taste.
Record Gain – this is your gain control for increasing or decreasing the re-sample audio level. This is critical to your recording. Settings are –12dB, -6dB, 0dB, +6dB and +12dB. The object is to get a good reading on the meter at right. Please notice that the meter is not layed out equally like a ruler. The values are actually closer together (finer) as you near the top of the meter. You want the meter to be in motion. You have too much level if you do not see the meter fall back – as long as you have movement and do not hear clipping you are most likely fine. Use both your eyes and your ears. (Believe your ears). Remember also the individual CS (Control Sliders) on the XF mixer also influence the overall level on your meters. Create a good musical balance (mix) and then use the Record Gain parameter to finalize the overall level. (By the way – the main Volume fader has NO EFFECT on record level. Why, you ask? Because resampling is done in the digital domain and the main Volume slider is decidedly analog.)

Play SECTION [A] – set the Record Gain.
Key – C3, middle “C” on the Yamaha keyboard.
Trigger Mode – Set to Measure. The Measures setting will allow us to set an automatic Punch in and Punch out point
Punch In/Out – set this to start at measure 001 and end at the maximum you can set it. The OUT point will be determined by the Length of the current Section… if your Section is 002 measures in length, the punch In/Out would be 001-003. The OUT Point is always at the top of the next measure.

You are ready to arm the sampler. Make sure you’re at the TOP (measure is shown in the upper right corner) of the Pattern.

• Press [F5] START
The sampler will arm and “WAITING” will appear. It is waiting for you to start the sequencer – at which point playback and sampling will begin.

• Press PLAY on the XF transport to begin playback and sampling
The waveform will be drawn as it samples and it will STOP automatically at the punch out point.
“FINISHED” will appear.

• Press the [SF1] AUDITION button to verify that you have recorded audio.
The playback will be quite a bit quieter than the SOURCE, particularly if you had the RECORD MONITOR at 127. This is not a reflection of anything but that you are now listening back to the sample and are no longer listening to the SOURCE. If you recorded with proper meter level, your sample will be fine.

• Press [ENTER] to fix
“Fix” here means to affix it to the USER SAMPLE WAVEFORM list (to keep it).

If you are happy with your sample (there is no distortion and you are confident that the meter was maximized without clipping) then press ENTER.

Next we will return to the main [PATTERN] screen and take a look at the assignment that was done. On track 1 the Integrated Sampling Sequencer will have temporarily assigned the WAVEFORM to your MIX. This is so you can access it from within the PATTERN.

• Press MIXING
You will see that a special User Sample VOICE BANK is selected “SP” and Voice NUMBER “xxx” is assigned to the MIXING PART. However, for this tutorial we are going to eventually place this sample waveform in a DRUM KIT so we are not concerned about having it assigned permanently to our MIX. And this is very important to understand. Since our goal is to assemble the eight audio clips to a drum kit – we do not need to assign the User Sample Voice “SP-xxx” to this MIXING setup. To REFRESH your mix (return it to the state is was before you resampled) do the following: press [PATTERN] to return to the main screen…

• Press the [PROGRAM] button (upper right front panel)
• Press the button [1]-[16] that will recall this PATTERN.

For example, if you were using PATTERN 01 you would press button [1] while [PROGRAM] is lit. Pattern numbers 1-64 correspond to [A][1] ~ [D][16]

This will restore your original Voices to their PARTS in your MIX. The “SP:xxx” Voice still exists; it simply is not assigned to a TRACK (remember we are going to place it in a DRUM KIT Voice).

Why this is tricky (and important) is that we are not finished sampling – we need to resample the other seven Sections. And we are only ‘borrowing’ a Track to temporarily house our waveforms until we build our drum kit. This can be tricky if you have data on all 16 Tracks you do not want to permanently change the VOICE that is assigned to the track that we are borrowing. Remember re-sampling can still be done even if you have data on all 16 Tracks! We are only creating an audio sample – we are not creating any new MIDI data. We are going to simply add the audio clip to our list of USER WAVEFORMS and when we finish sampling we will construct our DRUM KIT with those Waveforms. The MIDI data on the Track is unchanged – we only want to use the audio – this is why selected RECORDING TYPE = “SAMPLE”. No new MIDI data is created; only the audio clip.

• Press the [TRACK] button (Track Select) and then select the next SECTION, (Section [B])
• Return to [INTEGRATED SAMPLING]
• On the Sample Select screen target the next empty (for example, Waveform ———–)
• Press [F6] REC
• Press [F6] STANDBY (make sure the Punch Out measure is set to the maximum value)
• Press [F5] START
• Press PLAY on the XF transport to begin playback and sampling
• Press [ENTER] to fix
• Press [PATTERN]
• Press [PROGRAM]

Press the button [1]-[16] that will recall this PATTERN – and restore your original MIX of instruments.

Rinse and repeat for each Section in turn.

Waveforms to the DRUM KIT VOICE
Once I resampled the Pattern Section data from the sequencer to eight USER SAMPLE Waveforms, next I assembled them to eight notes of a USER DRUM KIT. This was done by calling up USER DRUM 001(A01) and initializing an octave of keys (13 total) C3~C4. Eight of the keys would hold the audio clips (loops) and five of the keys would act as OFF buttons. I called up User Drum Kit 001(A01)

• Press [JOB]
• Press [F1] INIT

The “VOICE Job – Initialize” pop-up window appears. Uncheck the box that says “ALL PARAMETERS” (unless you want to do all 73 keys). What I did was select individual Keys to initialize. What initializing does is basically set the Voice to a default drum sound. In a normal Voice when you perform the initialize Job, it places a piano wave in one Element. Here the initialize Job will place a snare drum on the Key – all other parameters are reset to a neutral (but workable) condition.

In turn I initialized C3, C#3, D3, D#3, E3, F3, F#3, G3, G#3, A3, A#3, B3 and C4

Each KEY was then edited as shown in the beginning of the article, by assigning the USER Bank Waveform to the KEY in question and editing the Oscillator page parameters and Amplitude Envelope to respond as we would like for audio clips. The Alternate Group assignments allow us to immediately substitute one audio clip with another without having to have multiple clips playing simultaneously (which can be interesting but requires pin-point timing). We also assigned empty waveforms to the Alternate Group to act as OFF triggers.

Samplers and Musical Inspiration – thinking outside the box!
This is the kind of Key trigger programming that is done with the Yamaha DTX electronic drum kits which also feature sampling – where, as you can imagine, a drummer has no control over duration other than triggering a note-on event. If you are playing an electronic drum kit triggering looping audio clip samples you need to assign a drum PAD to end the playback of audio. Over the years I have worked extensively with electronic drum wizard Tony Verderosa on this type of triggering. The main reason the XF has a sampler and not just a digital audio recorder (Yamaha knows what a linear recorder is, trust us, we do) but a sampler simply is an extremely creative musical tool when it comes to adding new dimensions and exciting external sound objects to your compositions.

The tutorial here is very “inside” in terms of its conventional use. But nothing says you have to do anything like what I’ve shown here. Let YOUR imagination run wild. It is a sampler after all, and what you sample and trigger is up to you. If you have a few moments visit http://www.tonyverderosa.com and take a look/listen around his site at the video clips. Maybe you’ve seen his Twix commercial… Basically Tony has a hybrid kit (part Yamaha acoustic/part Yamaha electronic) triggering samples from drum pads. Some are traditional drum and percussion sounds but some are vocals, keyboards, and other found sound objects. Everything Tony does is done without sequencers!!! It is all played live. The DTXtremeIII kit features Motif-level sounds and feature/function set including the sampler – so much of what you see is very possible with your Motif XF… of course, we do not recommend you hit your keyboard with sticks!