Maybe turn off MIDI out and/or thru for those tracks.

Are you actually playing the XF?

I'm also using the XF as my controller keyboard, in case that's relevant.

That suggests you are actually playing the keys on the XF. And that your playing on the XF is being sent to an external device to produce the sound. To be a 'controller keyboard' the XF has to be controlling something. 

I tried switching local to "off" on the motif, but then I didn't hear the motif sound at all.

That also suggests you are actually playing the keys on the XF. Because when local is OFF the keys you play on the XF will NOT sound but the MIDI for those notes will still be sent to an external device (p.229 of the reference doc).

The exception is if the 'Ext Switch' (p. 215 of the doc) is off.

https://usa.yamaha.com/files/download/other_assets/4/323564/motifxf_en_rm_a0.pdf

Are you playing ANY of the parts yourself on the XF? Or are they all being played on Cubase?

There are only two ways the XF is going to play: 1) you play it or 2) Cubase (external controller) sends notes and plays it.

The issue is I'm hearing the XF play even when it's not the track that selected. For example, say I have the XF on channel/Track One, And I have prologue vsti On track two, and Modobass vsti On track three. When Track two is selected, I hear both prologue and The motif. When track three is selected I hear both Modobass and motif. Etc. 

It sounds like Cubase is configured to always send on channel 1 which means no matter what track you select on cubase it will go out on channel 1. And it means that if you play the XF then Cubase will echo what you play back to the XF.

When you 'hear both prologue and The motif' what do you hear on the Motif? Do you hear the prologue track on both Cubase and the Motif? 

Can you clarify just what, if anything, you are playing directly on the XF? 

Are you actually playing the XF?

I'm also using the XF as my controller keyboard, in case that's relevant.

That suggests you are actually playing the keys on the XF. And that your playing on the XF is being sent to an external device to produce the sound. To be a 'controller keyboard' the XF has to be controlling something. 

I tried switching local to "off" on the motif, but then I didn't hear the motif sound at all.

That also suggests you are actually playing the keys on the XF. Because when local is OFF the keys you play on the XF will NOT sound but the MIDI for those notes will still be sent to an external device (p.229 of the reference doc).

The exception is if the 'Ext Switch' (p. 215 of the doc) is off.

Are you playing ANY of the parts yourself on the XF? Or are they all being played on Cubase?

There are only two ways the XF is going to play: 1) you play it or 2) Cubase (external controller) sends notes and plays it.

The issue is I'm hearing the XF play even when it's not the track that selected. For example, say I have the XF on channel/Track One, And I have prologue vsti On track two, and Modobass vsti On track three. When Track two is selected, I hear both prologue and The motif. When track three is selected I hear both Modobass and motif. Etc. 

It sounds like Cubase is configured to always send on channel 1 which means no matter what track you select on cubase it will go out on channel 1. And it means that if you play the XF then Cubase will echo what you play back to the XF.

When you 'hear both prologue and The motif' what do you hear on the Motif? Do you hear the prologue track on both Cubase and the Motif? 

Can you clarify just what, if anything, you are playing directly on the XF 

yes I'm actually playing the XF.

to be clear, I'm talking about just playing the instrument when a track is selected, not playing back a midi track that's already been recorded.

I'm using the motif to trigger midi notes in Cubase, and also as a sound source.

No matter which track,  I am playing midi instruments in cubase by playing the motif.

This is my understanding of what's going on:
I play a note on the motif and it sends a signal to my cubase.

Then, cubase sends that midi information back to the motif where it triggers a sound.

the sound from the motif is sent via my audio interface to Cubase.

the sound goes from audio input to the selected track to the master fader to the output back to my audio interface,

And from there to my speakers.

It sounds like Cubase is configured to always send on channel 1 which means no matter what track you select on cubase it will go out on channel 1. And it means that if you play the XF then Cubase will echo what you play back to the XF.

do you mean that a particular track is configured to channel one or Cubase globally is configured to channel one? I'm not familiar with how to configure Midi channels globally if that's what you meant.

When you 'hear both prologue and The motif' what do you hear on the Motif? Do you hear the prologue track on both Cubase and the Motif? 

well, let's say I have the motif first patch selected, the acoustic grand piano, Then on the motif track, I would hear just the piano, but on the prologue track I would hear the acoustic piano and a prologue synth sound. That's with xf  local set to on.

if I turn local off, then I don't hear the motif at all on any track.

I appreciate your help.

With local off: if you have a track where you want the Motif to sound then you need, for that Cubase track, MIDI thru on and the output to be your XF.  The MIDI channel can by "any" (or "all" forgot which is used) to simplify setup as this will echo back whatever MIDI channel data comes in to the output.

Edit timeout, but MIDI channel set to "any" is correct.

You can only have ONE 'controller'

I'm also using the XF as my controller keyboard, in case that's relevant.

From your description you don't want the XF to be the controller. The 'controller' is in charge - it tells other devices what to do.

I'm trying to use the feature where you can create An instrument track and have An External midi instrument, In this case the XF, function as the instrument As if it were a vsti.

When the XF functions as the instrument it means it is being controlled by an external device and the XF is NOT the controller.

Bad Mister wrote a detailed article about setting up the XF as an external instrument in Cubase:

-h-t-t-p-s-:-/-/-w-w-w-.-m-o-t-i-f-a-t-o-r-.-c-o-m-/index.php/support/view/setting_up_the_motif_xf_as_an_external_instrument_in_cubase_6

The previous doc references were only meant as an aid - they aren't meant to suggest you could have found your answer just in the doc

-h-t-t-p-s-:-/-/-u-s-a-.-y-a-m-a-h-a-.-c-o-m-/files/download/other_assets/4/323564/motifxf_en_rm_a0.pdf

The 'local' switch does nothing more than determine whether the notes you play on the XF are sent to the XF tone generator.

It should be OFF since you want the MIDI for the notes you play to be sent to Cubase and it will then echo that MIDI back and that MIDI IN will go to the tone generator.

The Zone 'Int' switch (p.215) controls whether the zones MIDI data goes to the XF tone generator. The 'Ext' switch determines whether the zones MIDI data is sent to external devices. 

If you are using zones you want: 1) local switch OFF, and the Ext switch ON. As the doc says the Int switch position doesn't matter if the local switch is OFF.

There are TWO signal types involved with what you are doing: 1) MIDI data and 2) audio data.

You play the XF and it sends MIDI to Cubase which echoes the midi back to the XF to the tone generator. The audio from the tone generator is then send to Cubase.

If you have local set to ON and you play the XF the MIDI will be sent to BOTH the tone generator and to Cubase. And Cubase will also echo the midi back to the XF and again to the tone generator.

You can only have ONE 'controller'

I'm also using the XF as my controller keyboard, in case that's relevant.

From your description you don't want the XF to be the controller. The 'controller' is in charge - it tells other devices what to do.

I think we may be misunderstanding each other. 
I do have only one controller: the motif.

I am using the motif as the midi controller for Cubase, and also as an external instrument for cubase.

I'm trying to use the feature where you can create An instrument track and have An External midi instrument, In this case the XF, function as the instrument As if it were a vsti.

When the XF functions as the instrument it means it is being controlled by an external device and the XF is NOT the controller.

it can both. I've done it before.

Thank you Jason for your helpful tips.
I will try them out and get back to you

BTW: I do have a Motif XF.   So if you ever wanted to show some screen shots of Cubase to get an indication of the (specific) configuration, I could follow along with an earlier version of Cubase.  I doubt you're having to use any feature that wasn't available in Cubase 10.  

I might have Prologue since it should be part of Cubase <v12.  I may have Modobass (from IK I think it is as part of a bundle I got a long time ago) but most likely I'll just use Halion to simulate both Prologue and Modobass.  I'll be most interested in how exactly you've setup Motif.  It may or may not be required to menu into different areas to gather those details - but the top-level menu (screen) may be enough to capture what you've got going.

hi Jason,
when you were talking about mid thru, what did you mean?

is that a setting on the motif or on Cubase?

could you tell me where to find it?

thanks!

Ah, in preferences!

Well, I got it to work. Not sure how though.

I replaced my USB/midi cable that goes from the motif to my computer.

I fiddled with Settings.

I turned the computer off and on again.

I took pictures of all the settings in case it gets messed up again and I forget what I did.

I'd be happy to post the pictures if I can figure out how.

Glad to hear you got it working.

Well, I got it to work. Not sure how though.

Not so glad to hear that - LOL!

I replaced my USB/midi cable that goes from the motif to my computer.

One important thing to note about cables is that the older instruments don't support USB 3 cables. The new M models are the 1st ones where the doc says you can use usb 1.1 to 3 cables.

But if your previous cable was usb 1 or 2 then it could have been, but wasn't likely, the problem.

I fiddled with Settings.

Did you make any changes to the Motif XF itself? Such as the Int or Ext switches?