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Motif Xf8 and Cubase Pro 10 Communication and Integration

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Hello. I am using Cubase Pro 10, Motif XF8, FW16e, into Mac running High Sierra. All software and firmwares are current, to include Motif XF Editor and the Extension.
I would just like to find out if there is a routing available from the Motif to the daw that could assign all 16 parts of a Motif song to their own Audio track on Cubase?
This is other than using the All File>Mac>Editor Song Import procedure.
I am wishing not to transfer Midi but Audio over Firewire from the Hardware Motif Xf to the software on the Mac directly.
This is the simplest way I can think of and I'll bet it can't be done. 🙂
The Motif XF and Cubase 10 are so advanced I'll be betting against myself. 😉

 
Posted : 03/12/2018 11:55 pm
Bad Mister
Posts: 12303
 

I would just like to find out if there is a routing available from the Motif to the daw that could assign all 16 parts of a Motif song to their own Audio track on Cubase?

Yes, that can be done. The FW16E gives your Motif XF 16 Audio bus Outputs... so in theory you could do that, but nobody would do that and hopefully after this post you will understand why, even YOU wouldn’t want to do that.

It is definitely possible...But it is not a wise move. What you are not seeing is a MIDI Track is neither mono or stereo, because MIDI is just data. Therefore 16 MIDI Tracks rarely if ever equates to just 16 Audio Tracks. While MIDI is not sound, (only data) the sounds that it triggers can be stereo and some can be Mono.

Let’s forget for a minute about 16 Tracks. Let’s say I have a song with just six MIDI Tracks:
Track 1 Drums
Track 2 Bass
Track 3 Acoustic Piano
Track 4 Jazz Guitar
Track 5 Saxophone
Track 6 Strings

Recording this to five audio tracks would be a crime!
The Bass, Jazz Guitar, and Saxophone are fine recorded in mono
The Acoustic Piano and String Orchestra are definitely Stereo
And the Drums while definitely can be recorded in stereo, the way you’ll find yourself utilizing all this power is when you route the Kick Drum, Snare Drum, Hihats, each to there own track, the Tom-toms to their own stereo track (maintaining the left-to-right panning, the Cymbals to their own track.

Kick FW1
Snare FW2
Hihat Closed FW3
Hihat Open FW3
Hihat Pedal FW3
Crash FW4
Toms FW5&6
Bass FW7
Jazz Guitar FW8
Acoustic Piano FW9&10
Strings FW11&12
Saxophone FW 13

Now that might be a realistic session using the instruments I’ve mentioned for this example. Remember, some of the sounds you play definitely are Stereo, and would suffer if you squeezed them to a mono track. Often an instrument can be mono, like the B3, but if you are going to record the B3 with the Rotary Speaker you are going to want to record that in Stereo because the Effect utilizes Stereo. Same with any of the Rhodes sounds, the Auto Pan, Stereo Chorus Effects will require two buses to carry the signal (left and a right)

But if you want to start from the beginner’s beginning and just record each MIDI Track to a mono audio track, trust me you can... (your friends, if they are kind will not critique your work, but it will sound very, very poor.

Call up “Vintage’74” - a classic Rhodes Suitcase Sound with Auto Pan, if you are listening in stereo, you hear it immediately. You will need two buses to record this properly. Often the effects utilize stereo... you will want to capture that.

Now you don’t have to, you could just route it on a mono bus, as you could with all 16 sounds, but WHY!?! You lose the stereoness;
in mono it just doesn’t translate. Listen closely to your sounds, they are not all mono sounds.

From SONG mode
Press [MIXING]
Press [EDIT]
Press [1] to select Part 1
Press [F1] Voice
Press [SF2] Output
Here you can set the FW output as you desire.

Because you can use synchronization, you do not have to do all Parts at once. On the first pass you might just render the drums to audio... i’ve Done sessions where with 16 MIDI Tracks wound up with well over 30 audio tracks... don’t limit your audio recording and busing based on thinking your 1 MIDI Track will translate to an equal number of Audio Outputs... that rarely, if ever, happens!

Please see the following article on the planning, thought process and the routing of signal using your XF and FW. When you have questions, post back here:

Motif XF: Routing Parts via FireWire

 
Posted : 04/12/2018 3:58 am
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Thank you very much!
Well, I tried to verify that I had the Mac setup correctly with the Fw(which I think I do) before beginning, but could not locate the article suggested in MOTIF SF ROUTING PARTS VIA FW that stated "If you have not done so already, please see the SETUP article for your computer type first. It will cover the basics of setting up the Motif XF with your computer via FireWire. This article will concern the option FW16E (FireWire Expansion board)."
I tried several search words/combinations and then tried MOTIF XF and got no direct result. Thousands of search results to go through just to find the category for Motif XF. Went to 'Learn' and searched there too with no results.
I'm not a lucky Bloke!

I know you will have a way for this next question that would be timesaver for sure; After achieving the routing from the article I mentioned above, what would be the correct way to save the setup not only in Motif XF but also in Cubase 10?
And maybe setup the first 10 songs areas on the Motif with it's setup for the future?

Thanks in advance.
Christmas Cheers!

 
Posted : 04/12/2018 2:52 pm
Bad Mister
Posts: 12303
 

Here is the article referenced in the "Motif XF Routing PARTS via FW":
Motif XF YSFW Setup Macintosh with Cubase

I know you will have a way for this next question that would be timesaver for sure; After achieving the routing from the article I mentioned above, what would be the correct way to save the setup not only in Motif XF but also in Cubase 10?
And maybe setup the first 10 songs areas on the Motif with it's setup for the future?

When you have everything setup properly, Cubase will remember not only the MIDI sequence data but your Motif XF data, as well. You do not even have to have the MIXING setup loaded in the Motif XF. You can have Cubase send the data to the Motif XF.

In other words, once you have setup the Motif XF with its Editor inside of Cubase, when you save your Cubase Project File (.CPR) your Motif XF data will be stored with it! All you need to do is open the Project, the Motif XF Editor VST will return all your settings to the Motif XF... all you need do is Open the Project file, then hit the space bar to play it!

The Motif XF Editor VST can be configured so that when you SAVE the Project, the Motif XF settings are saved as well, and when you Open the Project the Motif XF settings are automatically restored (bulked) to the Motif XF. You can store them in your Motif XF if you wish, but you do not have to... the whole idea of running the EDITOR VST inside of Cubase is to eliminate having to match the MIDI Sequence data with the Tone Engine data. It is all handled automatically _ it is all stored in one place! (When you have 16 PARTS and all those routing, eq, effects and stuff, you want it to be easy as possible - that what this integration is all about).

All you need do is SAVE the Cubase Project - the software does the rest!

Extra Credit Reading:
Motif XF Editor VST

 
Posted : 06/12/2018 1:02 pm
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Thank you so much!
This has gotten me closer to my goal of mastering, or at least knowing how to operate the Motif Xf8 to it's fullest before upgrading to something new.
Discipline, like Awareness are beautiful things.

Mr. PC did not forget me! 😉 )

 
Posted : 06/12/2018 3:00 pm
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