Motif City

This is by far one of the most popular questions I receive via email.

In short, yes, you can save a Motif song or Pattern as a WAV file. But in order to do this, you will need to do the following:

1. Purchase Yamaha certified sample RAM and install it in your Motif. Available at motifator.com
2. Purchase and connect a USB storage device to your Motif (preferably a 1GB+ jump drive or USB hard drive). Both can be purchased from motifator.com

Once you have fulfilled these requirements, here is the process:

1. Record a song or pattern. Leave Track 16 open (good habit to get in)
2. Press the Integrated sampling button. This will take you into the sampling function assicated with the mode you're in. I.e. if you are in Pattern mode, when you press the integrated sampling button, you will be in Sampling>Pattern mode.
3. Place the cursor over the Track field and select Track 16.
4. Press the SOURCE (F2) button. This opens the configuration screen. For TYPE select Sample; for SOURCE select Resample. Change the other fields in this screen as desired (I usually use all default values).
5. Press the RECORD (F6!) button to enter record settings mode. In the top left Trggr field, select PUNCH. Then, in the field below, assign the measures in your Pattern you want the Motif to record (i.e. if your pattern is from 1 to 16, select punch IN as 001 and OUT as 016). Punch mode is the easiest method of recording a song or pattern.
6. Press the REC (F6!) button to enter standby recording. Motif screen will say "Waiting.."  THEN press the PLAY (sequencer transport PLAY button -- the white one) to start recording. The Motif will play back your Pattern or Song, and when it reaches the last measure you defined as PUNCH  OUT, it will stop and present you three options: Audition (hold down button to listen to what you recorded); Cancel (Discard your recording); and OK (keep it!)
7. Now you have recorded your song or pattern and you're ready to save it to USB or Smart Media. Click the FILE>SAVE buttons
8. In the TYPE field select WAV and then press the DOWN arrow button to move the cursor into the NAME field [               ]. Use the jog wheel and arrow buttons to name your newly recorded WAV file (note: if you already have wav files in the directory, the Motif will automatically load the name of the first one listed in the name field. You MUST overwrite this name with  a new name if that happens).
9. Now click the ENTER button. Another screen pops up. Make sure Track 16 is selected. Hold down the AUDITION (SF1) button to listen and you should hear your track. Don't worry about the C3 field.
10. Click the ENTER button. If the screen says "Overwrite?" you should select NO and go back and give the the WAV a unique file name as I told you to do in step 8 :). If no message comes up, you're done and your wav has been saved to your storage device and can now be loaded into your computer if you connect your storage device to your computer.

In the next tutorial I will be discussing how to make custom voices with your resampled soounds :)

Happy Motif'g!