1. Can I avoid Bank 3 Voices loading onto the Flash?

Yes. You set the LOAD TYPE = “1 Bank Voice” instead of “All”. If you set the Load TYPE = All you are instructing the MOXF to load all of the Banks in the file (it makes no decisions on its own). By setting it to “1 Bank Voice” you are able to highlight the All data file, when you press [ENTER] you will be shown the BANKS inside the file (USER 1, 2, 3 etc). You can select one then direct it to one of your internal MOXF User Banks… the MOXF will load the 128 Voices from that Bank to the target internal User Bank, and install the Waveforms to your instruments Waveform List (0001~2048), and the individual Samples to your Flash Board. Waveforms will occupy the lowest numbered empty location.

The Waveform List is what is responsible for knowing *where* every individual audio Sample is located. Your Waveform List will be written to every file you SAVE from this point on. The audio Samples are what get written to the Flash Board. The Waveform List remains in your instrument until you specifically DELETE it. Once you have installed data (This means the Waveform is on the List and Samples are on the Flash Board) you can Load data to your User Bank without Waveform… this will avoid creating a Duplicate of the Waveform and Samples…When loading without Waveform, because the Voice was SAVED with your current Waveform List, it will automatically find the audio data! Waveform List is a catalog of audio sample locations.

Your Flash Board data is now just an extension of the Factory Wave ROM. If you were to load a Voice that uses the factory Preset CF3 Acoustic Piano Waveform, the Voice data tells it exactly where in the factory ROM to look. Now when you load a Voice that uses the FL Board ROM data, the Voice will know exactly where to look among your installed data! Make sense?

2. Can I put the inspiration Voices I want onto my Current ALL User Banks one by one to keep from running out of slots?

Yes. When on the FILE > LOAD screen, set the “Type” = 1 Bank Voice (one Bank of Voices).

Is this something more easily done using the Melas software? (

Oh, my goodness! Yes!
Particularly, because you are working with someone else’s sample data — you don’t know the data as well as if you sampled it yourself. Trust me. This means you will have to learn which samples go with what and spend a lot of time fact checking with the documentation.

You can certainly do all of this using just the MOXF, but if I didn’t stress how much more elegant it is to use the software, I wouldn’t be doing you any favor. The software will automatically recognize the “Parent-Child” relationship between the Voice data and the Waveforms/Samples that are used.

If you load Voices one by one, you run the risk of loading Waveforms/Samples more than once…say several Voices use the same Waveforms/Samples… Duplicates are your enemy, because they use up precious memory. The Waveform Editor allows you to just select the Voices (Parents) that you want, (drag and drop the Names into an empty Bank File) and it can automatically go and get all the Waveforms/Samples (Children) that go with it… and if it finds that it already has those Waveforms/Samples already assembled it can discard the Duplicates, thus making the job a thousand times easier.

One click versus trying to keep track (did I mention: Waveforms organize Samples. Example: an acoustic piano where every key is sampled would have 88 Samples, one per Key across the keyboard… but say it is a three way velocity switching piano — with a soft, medium and hard strike set of Samples… this would be 3 Waveforms, each organizing 88 audio samples. Now if this acoustic piano were Stereo - then it’s still 3 Waveforms but each Waveform would have 176 audio samples, a Left and a Right per Key).
A Waveform can contain, at maximum 256 audio samples — there can be a maximum of 8192 audio Samples total.
You can begin to understand that managing this much data can get to be a mindboggling task — even when you have created and named all the data yourself!

We should mention in the MOXF you never really have to manage and edit the individual audio samples, the MOXF does not have the sampler built-in as in the Motif XF, you handle the Waveforms that manage the samples… but still… a daunting task.

The MOXF has a similar routine (where it can take care of duplicates) but there is little room for error (it may involve paper and pencil) — and like I said, because it’s someone else’s data, you will not know when/if you slipped up and missed an item (and you may never know). The Waveform Editor makes the process of working with third party data a breeze in comparison.

Basically, the MELAS WAVEFORM EDITOR program lets you assemble the Voices, and the Waveforms/Samples on your computer… your end result is a MOXF ALL Data File (.X6A) that will Load everything to your instrument.

When you are ready to begin creating your own custom Flash Board setups, you’re ready for the Melas Waveform Editor.

Final note: Yes you can do this all on board. We often get the question why this isn’t all built into the synth…it is. However, to do it as well raises the price significantly — the amount of RAM memory (work area) necessary… your computer can manage the entire Flash Board content easily… this facilitates making edits and keeping an undo version much more elegant. The amount and type of RAM needed would add major cost to the price if added to the instrument. Your Computer is the best tool for the job managing a Gigabyte or half a Gigabyte of data. Hope that helps.

A follow-up question, regarding the Melas software. I can of course see the value of the Parent-Child tracking ability. I'm wondering, though, if that same sort of "automatic updating" is possible when it comes to Songs (and Patterns).

The way I work on Songs (based btw on your recommendation) is to create an AllSong file for each Song and I keep all my early "drafts" on that same AllSong file while I'm arranging and mixing that tune. At the point that I get to a version I am ready to use in my live show I take JUST that last version and put it into ANOTHER AllSong file in my CURRENT folder where all the Songs I'm currently using for my live show are kept, each as an AllSong file but there is ONLY the one Song there for ease of loading and to avoid confusion. My CURRENT folder has 50 AllSong files, arranged by the MOXF into alphabetical order and as I open each one, the Song is in Slot 1 and I'm ready to hit Play.

Now, I have done entire gigs in this fashion but more formal jobs I'd rather have set lists. So that's where Master mode would SEEM to be a handy-dandy thing. But it's actually not so handy. Because I still have to take each Song from it's individual AllSong file and put it into an AllSong file called "Set One", "Set Two", etc. so the Master software can call up the Song instantly when I press the button at the gig.

Between gigs, if I make even the smallest change in one Song, I have to update the Set List file it appears in and retain the proper numeric order so it will interface with Master mode without incident. And I have to REMEMBER to do this! So Master mode as a way to organize set lists SOUNDS wonderful, but I'm finding that to keep the system running smoothly, without risk of mishap AT the gig, takes so much tedious work that I find myself having a plain old handwritten set list and going back to the individual AllSong files in the CURRENT folder, which is kind of pitiful.

Does the Melas Total Librarian offer anything that might shave SOME time off the pre-show work I've described? Perhaps even keeping track of the latest version and updating a Master set list? Or perhaps there is some whole other method I might be considering?