If I’m reading what you wrote correctly, you want to play all sixteen Parts of Motif-Rack XS MULTI at the same time, but you only want to hear those that you increase the volume... well that would not work, because of the polyphony issue. Just because you turn it down and can’t hear it in your speakers doesn’t mean it not requesting and using polyphony.

To take your question a step at a time. First, the answer is YES. You can use one Multi location of a Motif-Rack XS for all your setups.
Everything after that goes off in the wrong direction.

The way you do it is by taking advantage of your Controller’s ability to send Bank Select and Program Changes on the MIDI channel or channels you wish to control, and the Motif-Rack XS’ capability to change just the one Part on each channel within the MULTI.

For example, if you wanted to play a certain Piano layered with a certain Pad, you would send the Bank Select and Program Change on Channel 1 to recall the Piano in Part 1, and send a Bank Select and Program Change on Channel 2 to recall the Pad in Part 2. This could all take place within MULTI 001. You simply address the instrument’s assigned to Parts 1 and 2.

We don’t know your particular controller but you can play as many Parts in your Rack XS MULTI as channels you can transmit on simultaneously. For example, if you Keyboard is a 2 Zone, 4 Zone or 8 Zone Controller...

If you attempt to place sounds on the same Receive Channel, you will find that your options to control the sounds independently diminishes... and you will be burning up polyphony at all times.
Btw - OMNI Mode means the receiving device receives on any channel you happen to be transmitting on... if only Channel 1 is responding this is a clear indication that you are only transmitting from the Keyboard on just a single MIDI CHANNEL.

Thanks so much for your insights. I'm afraid my Arturia KeyLab 88 just isn't up to the task for sending key commands in Omni mode (that is, the traditional meaning all 16 channels at once).

I did find another thread on another forum which gave me the idea to try using the RCV/Controller Set Assignments by assigning the assignable CC #'s to Volume, and setting all MIDI Channels to 1.

This left me with one problem, and I will post it in another thread, so please go ahead and close this one out.

Best Regards,
Tony Gardner

Thanks so much for your insights. I'm afraid my Arturia KeyLab 88 just isn't up to the task for sending key commands in Omni mode (that is, the traditional meaning all 16 channels at once).

No, it is not. OMNI is a reception thing (a function of MIDI Receive) a receiving device set to OMNI Mode will receive data on any channel transmitted to it. Your controller transmits on one channel, by setting your receiving device to OMNI, means you do not have to choose any specific channel to transmit on - any of them will work. It’s for people who don’t know what a channel is and what channel their keyboard is transmitting on... you can’t miss, your receiving device accepts any incoming channel.

Your Controller will NOT transmit on OMNI Mode (sic) there is no such thing.
I never heard of a transmitting device having a setting for OMNI Mode... not in the first 34 years of MIDI!!!

Hey Everyone.

I can't tell you how HAPPY I am with the "Ultimate" multi that I created for my live performances. This weekend, I will record a video explaining all the details and post it on YouTube, and will post a link here so everyone who is interested can benefit. Of course, if you don't want to wait for the movie, I wrote it all down here.

THE OBJECTIVE:
I need instant access to eight of my favorite piano/keyboard voices, and have each one paired with one or two PADS. I want to be able to use the sliders on my MIDI controller to adjust the volume of the PADS.

THE PROBLEM:
On my MIDI controller (Arturia KeyLab88) I can set 16 sliders to send CC#7 (volume) on each respective channel but the keys will only trigger on a single MIDI channel at a time. Setting all 16 voice/parts to MIDI Channel 1 is impractical since it would be seriously taxing on the Motif's polyphony.

THE SOLUTION:
(1) My MIDI Controller has 10 memory locations which can set the main MIDI channel to 1 through 10 respectively. So all my sliders, buttons and pads send to the current MIDI channel, and after setting the MIDI channel to 1 through 10, I save it to its respective memory location. Now if I click on button 3, I am only sending to MIDI channel 3.

(2) I created a multi and assigned all 16 parts to custom designed voices in User Bank 1 (001-016). Voices 1-8 are for my favorite piano/keyboard sounds, and voices 9-16 are PADS and other voices that sound good with their piano/keyboard counterpart. They don't HAVE to be pairs -- using this method, I can use up to three voices considering the next part of my solution. For clarity sake, I am calling these "groupings".

(3) There are three controllers which support a range of 0-127 (ribbon, assigns 1 and 2), and these are programmed into three of my MIDI controller sliders. Each of these three controllers are reserved for "Volume" and apply to that voice only (within a given grouping).
* Voice 1 is always some kind of piano or keyboard and I use the Mod Wheel to adjust its volume if needed.
* Voice 2 always uses Assign 1 for its volume (Slider 1)
* Voice 3 always uses Assign 2 for its volume (Slider 2)
* Voice 4 always uses Ribbon for its volume (Slider 3)
So, if I move Slider 1, the volume for Voice 1 is adjusted and the other voice remain unchanged.

(4) The MIDI channels for each voice/part on the multi are set based on my voice groupings. So Full Concert Grand on Part 1 gets MIDI channel 1 and JP Strings on Part 2 also gets MIDI channel 1. Part 3 has Rock Brite Piano on MIDI channel 2 and Part 4 has a good C3 organ also on MIDI channel 2. This concept is continued for all 16 parts. Some parts are just single instruments with nothing else in the grouping, so it is assigned its own MIDI channel. As I mentioned earlier, I can only have up to 10 MIDI channels because my MIDI controller only has 10 memory locations for instant switching of the keyboard's MIDI channel.

(5) I have also assigned Sliders 4 and 5 to Foot Controller 1 and 2, and gave them to Reverb and Chorus sends respectively (Chorus is changed out to a nice delay).

I'm sure as soon as I start using this method live, I will make changes to all of the above, but for now, I think it's AWESOME that I can literally click one button on my MIDI controller to instantly change my piano/keyboard sound complete with a perfectly paired PAD (or three) which I can mix with the main sound. An option which is not yet on this setup is to enable up to four ARPs. And of course, since I'm already in Multi mode, when it comes time to break loose and fire up the "one man band", I'm just a Program Change command away!