Hi Michael,

I guess that was an error in earlier versions of the manual. A factory set will NOT clear out your flash boards. The only way to do so is either to format the board or to erase all waveforms on the board.

Best regards, 🙂

Jo

Thanks for answering my question.

I think it would be really helpful if Yamaha would keep its online documentation up-to-date. How hard would it be to update the Reference Manual PDF and upload it to the Yamaha download site? It would take me about 20 minutes to do something like that.

For that matter, it seems to me that Yamaha is a large enough organization that it could take on the task of seriously organizing all of the wonderfully helpful information produced by Bad_Mister and others. One way to do this would be to put links to all these helpful items into a revised and updated Reference Manual (which would also consolidate the material in the Owner's Manual and the Supplementary Manual). Doing this would save XF users an enormous amount of time, and make the XF that much easier to learn to use.

The XF is a great machine with incredible capabilities. But the learning curve is ferocious. I think Yamaha should do everything it can to help people learn to use the XF.

Unfortunately, the misstatement in the Reference Manual about the Factory Set initializing all User settings including data installed to the optional Flash Board, did not get corrected when the "feature" was corrected. If memory serves me, this was initially how it was prior to the final release version (we're talking pre the 1.00 release version) But it was decided to change this because it should never be that "easy" to lose all your Flash installed data. And there are certainly going to be times when you would like to reset your instrument without purging your FLASH BOARDS!!!!
So I say fortunately this was changed because if the XF worked as described in the original Reference Manual, it would not be very user friendly. (Oh, yeah, that was no fun!)

As you will notice you can select not to initialize ALL, and just Factory restore USER 1: (001-128) and User Drum: (001-008)... Which is just the Voices that reference the new Wave ROM data added to the XF's large sound-set. So changes are made even after the manuals go to print (some times).

You ask how hard it would be to update... What you raise is a valid point, and is one we are very keenly aware of. I've attended international meetings where the issue of Owner's Manuals was discussed and I can tell you... it would be a monumental task. Seriously monumental.

This does not negate the need for updating such things and staying on top of them as best we can. This website itself is a corporate commitment to this very thing!!! (I'm surprised you don't see this effort as apart of exactly what you are asking for).

The Supplementary Manuals are designed to fill in the changes and instruct on brand new and updated features as added. We cannot correct the hard copy manual, but we can provide additional information in the downloadable supplementary and online documentation.

If I recall, and forgive me, it's been quite some time... When you remove your FLASH BOARDs completely from the XF, as if you were going on tour and just taking your Flash Boards... the Waveform List (the instructions that collect the Samples into groups) remains in your XF. It persists. It takes an additional FACTORY RESET after the Boards are removed to finally purge the "ghost" Waveform List. It was, properly decided, to make the Waveform List quite difficult to lose... After all, sampled audio installed to a Flash Board without the Waveform List, renders the samples useless. This is why the Waveform List is SAVED to the ALL and ALL VOICE files automatically. You get an option to SAVE "with" or "without" samples, but the Waveform data is always saved, automatically.

The Waveform is a set of parameters that define the Key Range, Velocity Range, Play direction, pan, etc. that are applied to the sampled audio data. It is a roadmap of where to locate the individual audio samples and how to use them.The Waveform data is less that 2kb, while a single sample can be as large as 64mb!!! So when it is mentioned Waveform and Sample... They both deal with custom audio data. The Waveform is a small set of organizational data, the Sample is the large set of audio data.

The Waveform List is found in UTILITY > [F6] FLASH
The Samples are installed on the Flash Board in a type READ ONLY MEMORY that can be accessed in nanoseconds in response to KeyOn commands.

The Waveform is like the Dewey decimal number that instructs the key command where to find the audio Sample data for each Note-On.

This site is the place that Yamaha has provided for the articles, tutorials, videos, from not just myself, but my fellow product specialist, and we have major plans for the future. Not sure what you meant by the comment - there certainly exist such a place. Before this version of the YamahaSynth site, there was no official Yamaha website with active communication, updated articles, tutorials, etc. We supported a third party site (to the point folks thought it was a Yamaha site) basically, so that good information could be distributed. That I did mostly on my own time... Proof of concept! Proof that customers would appreciate a website dedicated to helping them tackle these extremely complex instruments.

Frankly, having the resources of the mothership behind this site, while not perfect, (we're still in out infancy, here) makes it way easier to get things done and we can devote more time and effort helping musicians get the most out of their Yamaha Synthesizers. Yes, the learning curve is ferocious - but no more than each and every instrument the company builds from piccolos to euphoniums! Pianos to digital consoles. 🙂
Historically speaking, our best selling synthesizer was the hardest to use!

I mentioned this particular error/correction in my very first article on the Flash Boards:
Flash Memory Expansion Module

You ask how hard it would be to update... What you raise is a valid point, and is one we are very keenly aware of. I've attended international meetings where the issue of Owner's Manuals was discussed and I can tell you... it would be a monumental task. Seriously monumental.

This does not negate the need for updating such things and staying on top of them as best we can. This website itself is a corporate commitment to this very thing!!! (I'm surprised you don't see this effort as a part of exactly what you are asking for).

Having read your response, I can see that I was asking for more than I thought I was. My remark about "20 minutes" was about making that one change in the Reference Manual, not the larger task my post implied.

I really appreciate all of the help I've received on this site (especially from you!). If my post seemed ungrateful or harsh in some way, I really regret that.

No worries... I just was trying to say, we are sensitive to the complexity of the products we make. We do not make easy to use items here at Yamaha (pianos, trumpets, euphoniums, drums, basses, guitars, digital touring consoles, recorders, flutes, even synthesizers, etc., etc.,) each very complex and none of them necessarily known for easy-to-use. While this is not an excuse, we recognize a need to do the complex, because not everything needs to be built easy so that anyone can operate it. Because with all the complexity comes flexibility and hopefully inspiration to create something brilliant, something musical. And with practice comes perfection...

But to just make a product that does a lot, is not enough, we are bound/committed to support it. And the difference between this website and any other is that this is direct support from the manufacturer (not just support from afar). And as time goes forward I think you will really begin to see it as helping people up that seemingly monumental "learning curve".

Our mixing consoles are complex pieces of electronics - lots of maturity in the product (just like the Motif-series synths) so there are somethings that are naturally very complex. There is no one manual that can teach you how to use a mixing console. It, like a musical instrument, or a jigsaw, or scapel, or artist's brush... can be/is a creative tool. The fundamentals can be in the manual - applying them is really the act of being creative.

Think about how deep the Motif XF is.. I could write a manual on just using the Multi-Band Compressor. A separate manual on just using the various Time Delay Effects. Another on just how to create Arpeggios... etc., etc., etc., it is a very deep instrument. I remember buying almost each of the effects in here as a separate unit (back in the day)... and the learning curve for each device had to be surmounted (one-at-a-time). Imagine all the different things combined into the Motif XF. Parametric EQs, 1-Band, 2-Band, 3-Band, 5-Band EQs, etc., etc.

It's all part of the journey... it's all apart of the fun