Basically, you have to figure how to THRU the data in your DAW.

The Motif-Rack XS Editor deals with MIDI. MIDI makes no sound, it triggers the tone generator. The tone generator then Returns audio to the DAW. What are you using as your Audio Interface? Does you Motif-Rack XS have the optional FW Expansion Board?

If you do not have the expansion board, the Motif-Rack XS sends the audio for the sixteen Parts to the main Left/Right outputs. In use, you would connect the Main L/R outputs on the Motif-Rack XS back panel to a pair of inputs on your Audio Interface.

In the Yamaha Motif-Rack Editor VST go to “File” > “VSTi Setup” > Here you can inform your DAW which two inputs to “look for” audio coming from the Motif-Rack XS. You can use the top line: AUDIO RETURN PORTS > Left / Right — here you put the Driver ports to which you connected the audio from the Rack XS.

Rafail,

Could you solve the problem? I'm also trying to use the XS rack with Ableton but not getting any sound even if the editor and the rack are (apparently) communicating correctly. I've tried for a while and I got out of ideas.

Any help will be highly appreciated.

Juan

I’ll ask you the same question: what is your audio interface?

I have this same issue. I am using the MLAN16E2 expansion board to connect my mac to the XS Rack. The Plugin communicates with the unit and I have the ability to adjust settings; however I cannot get the plugin to produce sound. I have an Audio interface I could use to get the L-R out but I want the digital audio direct from the unit via mLAN. Is there something I need to additionally configure to achieve this?

The GENERAL>mLAN Monitor is set to with PC.

The motif plug appears to be functioning properly.

What am I missing here?

Setup the Motif-Rack XS Editor
· Click on FILE > SETUP on the Motif-Rack XS Editor toolbar
Here you want to setup the communication between the hardware Motif-Rack XS and the Editor.

The Motif-Rack XS is its own audio interface via mLAN.
Click on FILE > VSTi SETUP
Here you are setting up how the Rack XS will be returning Audio to the DAW.

I'm confused.

I am loading the Motif-Rack VST in Ableton, and I am making the connection (FILE>SETUP) and it synchronizes successfully.

There is no VSTi Setup option in the File menu in the plugin?

I am running VST v1.6.6

OK, so I updated the firmware on the MLAN card, the OS on the Motif XS Rack, and I also upgraded the VST to 1.6.10 and I still cannot get audio out of the fire wire connection and I cannot see the VSTi Menu everyone talks about in the file menu. Is there a mis-configuration on the XS-Rack itself?

My theory is it has something to do with being unable to select MIDI out in the IEEE Settings (see screenshot).

In order to get the audio from the Motif-Rack XS via mLAN, you need to be running the Motif-Rack XS VST inside your VST3 compatible DAW, so you can return audio…

The Editor VST should be launched as an External Plug-in which mean the MIDI should be Output to the “Motif-Rack XS VST- MIDI In”, the Editor VST will then show the VSTi SETUP option. (This only appears when running the Editor as a plug-in, if you run it standalone, you will not see this option.

Sorry, I don’t know your DAW well enough to tell you how or where to set these options are set. You will only see the FILE > VSTi SETUP when the Editor is launched from inside your DAW as a plug-in.

After a lot of troubleshooting and attempting several configurations, I believe I have it working for my needs. Even though I was never able to see the the VSTi settings for audio, the VST works properly in Ableton to control the XS-Rack: It will save parameters, it will allow live editing and automation of parameters, and it will save the data from my studio set with my project. I am capturing the Audio in Seperate tracks which use the Ableton External instrument device to bind the midi and audio.

Here's how I got my XS-Rack working in Ableton over the IEEE1394 interface for both MIDI and Audio:

Start by switching the XS-Rack to IEEE1394 = FW in Utilities. You need to have the 1.04 Motif OS and an mLAN card with at least 1.07 firmware, or the FW option will not appear on the XS-RACK in the Utilities menu.

Next, make sure you have installed the Steinberg FW driver. You can check the status of the driver/connection in the Yamaha Steinberg FW Driver in the Mac's system preferences.

Next, configure an aggregated audio interface in the Audio Midi Setup on the Mac. Mine contains my Scarlett 18i20, my Roland Integra7, and the Yamaha Motif-XS rack.

In Ableton, configure the new ins/out in Ableton's audio preferences and enable MIDI devices for the mLAN connections.

Now create a MIDI track in Ableton and add an External Instrument Device pointed at the MOTIF-RACK-XS (Main) MIDI device, with audio output coming from the channels representing the stereo pair of mLAN channels you want to use.

Create another track and add the VST. It doesn't produce audio, but as I said, everything else works fine. Make sure it's connected via mLan, and in sync.

Now you can add additional Midi tracks using the External Instrument Device to map the Midi channels to their respective outputs in ableton.

Inside the VST there is an Output Select column which allows you to configure which mlan pair you want to send the audio to. This is where you map the multi voice to the audio pair in ableton. NOTE: If you sharer a pair with another track, you should set one of tyhe tracks audio output to none so that you don't get the sound coming out of both tracks, just the one holding the input.

So far this is working well for my needs, even though the VSTi settings never appear when I load the VST in Ableton. Must be something with the Newer versions of Ableton causing the VST plugin to think it's not running in a DAW, but at this point it doesn't matter to me. I would have had to break all of the tracks out like this anyhow to capture the Audio/MIDI in my live set. This is basically how I do it with my Roland Integra and my Access Virus, so I can separate out all the multi parts.