So what makes your music “Swing”?

I’d like to thank my buddy from the Bronx (the 'Dukester') for giving me a topic for my blog. Blogging is difficult as I am so technology oriented and get into product issues rather than a subject like this – which I hope will be interesting and enlightening. Not that I have all the answers, because this is a very subjective topic but, at least I can pass on some of what I have learned in my experience as a musician.

Tweak of the Week Series

PRESET 1: 022(B06) Vintage ‘74

This classic Rhodes Voice (a perennial Motif-series favorite) has been updated. It is now a 6 Element Voice (obviously in all previous units you were limited to just 4 Elements by the nature of the architecture). However, from the Data List you see that it is still a single Element at a time Voice (a 4-way velocity swap). So, as before, when first called up, only a single note of polyphony is used for each note you play.

So much of what happens behind the scenes at Yamaha I cannot not discuss with you... so in an effort to find some useful and fun things to blog about, the other Product Specialist and I were talking about something we'll call "Tweak of the Week" - sometimes a VOICE or PERFORMANCE or effect or other function that might give you greater insight into how to approach getting more from your instrument. Hopefully, we can post at least one a week (if we don't get too busy) and hopefully more if possible. I just recently got a question on a Motif XS PERFORMANCE - so this is as good a place to start as any...

Motif XS Guided Tour Part II

The eight Control Sliders (CS) will send System Exclusive messages in VOICE mode to control the individual Element Levels. They will send System Exclusive messages in PERFORMANCE mode to control individual Part Volumes. They will send Control Change message (cc007) for Channel Volume in SONG and PATTERN modes. And they are assignable when the Motif XS is in MASTER mode.

Motif XS Guided Tour

Thought I would put down some thoughts and a few of things you will encounter when you first sit down behind a Motif XS. These observations hopefully will give you some insight into what is new, different and exciting about this new instrument. If you are new to the Motif-series or if you are a veteran, you will hopefully find this Tour of value.

The front panel can be intimidating to a newcomer… at least until you begin to speak the language of the product. If you are a veteran Motif user then, by now, you are used to the words and some of the concepts – these have not changed. The Motif XS is still all about music creation.

The eight Element, Xpanded Articulation world of the XS opens new possibilities. In working with transferring Motif ES Voices and seeing how they port over to the XS, I discovered some interesting things. Since Elements can be grouped and can be activated or deactivated together, this offers the possibility of creating a Voice that combined multiple sounds to great advantage.

While the chips you find in the latest/greatest synthesizer (which Yamaha manufacturers in-house, by the way) allow many things to be done, it is always what you do with them that is important to the product. Let's digress for a moment, and like Copernicus, let's not think the center of the cutting-edge technology universe is found in the products designed for us, the working professional musician... because the cutting edge of technology sometimes targets a different market all together.

I've been with Yamaha since 1987 and the years have flown by... Back then the company was working on their third computer, launching alternate MIDI controllers: the BC was in its 8th year by then, the WX7 Wind MIDI Controller, the PTX drum pad Controller and the G10 Guitar MIDI Controller were all happening, and the company was coming off of one of the biggest success stories in synthesizer history, the DX7. The DX7IIFD was in the market... Behind closed doors, the research for what became Virtual Acoustic synthesis was just getting underway. What an exciting place to be... and it still is!