I am a newbie when it comes to the virtual instrument world. I currently run Omnisphere and MainStage 3 via the Arturia Keylab and have it figured out enough to play for service every Sunday. Everyday is a learning experience. I want to run my ES6 through MainStage purely as a controller like the Arturia.

I have no idea what the process is for that. I saw a couple of videos but was lost when they started talking about choosing channels and 'local' settings. Is it as easy as running the USB from the ES6 to the Mac and assigning the Motif at layout mode? Thanks in advance for any help.

Yamaha Motif Es6 For Sale

I'm just a senior trying to learn the new electronic curve!! Certainly on the Motif ES6 side of things, you can connect the Motif ES to your computer via a USB cable for MIDI communication. You will need the Yamaha USB-MIDI driver for your computer type. This can be downloaded from the Official Yamaha Download site: Select your country Type in your MODEL NAME: Motif ES When the SEARCH RESULTS appear select your model: Motif ES6 Find the USB-MIDI driver for your Mac Operating System. This must be installed on your computer. The download includes the instructions! Setting up MainStage 3 - please consult their manual.

As to terms like LOCAL CONTROL = OFF or ON, this refers to the keyboard (Motif ES) communicating with the tone generator (Motif ES). When Local Control is ON, the keys trigger the tone generator (normal operation). When Local Control is OFF, pressing the keys on the ES will only generate MIDI data that travels OUT via the USB Port (assuming you are connecting to a computer and MIDI In/Out is set to USB). This allows you to decide in your computer software whether the key press will trigger the Motif ES, or some other tone generator. Say you want the key presses not to trigger the Motif ES but instead, to trigger one of the soft-synths you may have on your computer. You would set the Motif ES to Local Control = OFF If you want the key presses to trigger the Motif ES itself, you would leave LOCAL CONTROL OFF but use your computer software to route the MIDI signal back to the Motif ES on USB Port 1.

A PORT in MIDI is the equivalent of a MIDI IN plus a MIDI OUT. So in a USB cable multiple IN/OUT sets can be running simultaneously between devices. In your Motif ES for example: PORT 1 is for IN and OUT to the Motif ES tone generator itself PORT 2 and higher can be used for PLG150-series plugin boards, or for Remote Controlling your software, or you can connect one external device to the 5-pin MIDI jacks IN/OUT and address it discreetly from the computer! Each PORT contains 16 MIDI channels.

MIDI Channels are explained in your Owner's Manual. The word channel is used to simplify understanding.

Like TV channels. You must tune the receiving device to a specific channel to get the NEWS broadcast by that station. Multiple stations can be broadcasting simultaneously but the local tv must be set to a specific channel to receive the specific broadcast. In a MIDI system your Piano might be on channel 1, your Bass on Channel 2, your Guitar on Channel 3 and so on. The data will remain discreet on its own channel. Messages on a specific MIDI channel on address receiving devices TUNED into that channel - make sense. So the Motif ES is 16 MIDI channels.

In SONG or PATTERN mode you can place a different instrument on each of the 16 Channels and address each one individually.

Total Posts: 45 Joined status: Regular I just spent some serious money on a MacBook Pro 15” retina with OS X 10.9.in the hopes that recording will be easier than with my 10 year old PC. I have a ES8 with mlan and a firwire from ES8 to the MacBook. I tried downloading the driver and it failed to load. Does someone have the correct link to the driver that will work on this computer with this latest version.'

OS X 10.9” Has Yamaha abondoned support for the mlan16e? Thanks in Advance.

Motif Es6 For Sale

Total Posts: 36648 Joined status: Moderator I just spent some serious money on a MacBook Pro 15” retina with OS X 10.9.in the hopes that recording will be easier than with my 10 year old PC Just a reality check, your Motif ES is 11 years old. It is not that mLAN support stopped so much as it is that computer operating systems no longer handle true networking via FW in the same way, so the protocol had to evolve. Computer operating systems PC and Mac under went some major changes in the 2000’s. Some that changed fundamentally how they worked. During this time you had products that with one setting could be set to work with the older systems and then rebooted and set to work with the newer changed systems. Transitional products Between 2007 and 2010 Yamaha introduced several dual capable products - they used the mLAN16e2 expansion board. So it was about 7 years ago Yamaha started making mLAN products that would span the gap between the old networking mLAN protocol, and the new peer-to-peer relationship required by today’s computer operating systems (namely OS X).

The Motif XS (2007), the Motif-Rack XS, the n-series mixers, and all Yamaha digital consoles capable of housing an mLAN16e2 were able to run on either OS. These were products used to transition the gap from the old mLAN protocol and the new peer-to-peer FireWire driver which was introduced during this transition by 2010, products like the Motif XF made the transition to the newer FW protocol complete. While the XS could select either old mLAN or newer FW, the XF is only capable of the new FW protocol. This all was necessitated because of major changes to functionality of the computer systems themselves. As you know, the handling of audio and MIDI is reallocated by the driver so it is interwoven into the way the computer works at a deep level. When the computer changes the way it’s going to work, it necessitates a driver change. So if you wish to continue running an old mLAN system, you will need to get a system that can run an operating system equally as old.

For a Mac that would be running OS 9.2.x Or update your synth hardware as well to at least 2007 stage. You will find that your as powerful as your new Mac is (I have one and its great), it will run very, very few things (hardware or software), that are 11 years old. It is the nature of computers. Like the computer you purchased, the Motif XF is several times more powerful than the now ancient ES. Maybe its time. I’m just saying. The new FireWire protocol (called “Yamaha Steinberg FW ASIO driver) is still MIDI and audio to/from the computer via the connection, still 16 bus outputs, now just three pair of audio returns, - the main difference is the computer has to be apart of the network at all times (eliminates any need for a patchbay).

Many of the computer operating system folks did not (frankly) enjoy and certainly were not comfortable with a system that ran with or (heaven forbid) without a computer. In a peer-to-peer system each node on a system communicates via the computer node. Old mLAN every node, was equally capable of running the system. And a computer could configure the system even if it was not going to participate (Yamaha felt that the keyboard and mixing console could/should be able go to the gig, while the computer stays home). Computer folks didn’t like that so much.

That, my friend, is apart of ‘recent history’, by updating your Rip van Winkle 10 year old computer, you have awakened in a world where the computers have “taken over”, they have decided you will not connect your keyboard to your mixer directly to process your signal, you must connect through the computer. Each mode connects its audio outputs initially to the computer.

Not a problem, Yamaha upped the ante, and developed boutique quality effect processing on board the Motif. Starting with the XS Yamaha VCM (Virtual Component Modeling) effects were introduced on the synths. Studio quality EQs, Compressor/Limiters accurate in very detail to classic studio gear of the 1970s-1980s. Eliminate the need to process the synthesizer in a digital console, that was one big positive in the short story The bar on the on-board processing was significantly raised by the inclusion of these powerful effects add-Ons Developed original as plug-in processors for Yamaha market leading high end digital consoles known the world over Now in a synth ( where they belong!!!!):-) So you have taken one foot out of the recent past, you may want to consider fully awakening and get the other foot on the ground.

You will already know all about audio busing and assignment, it’s just “easier” now.:-) Hope that short and somewhat humorous tale brings you up to date. That said, there are folks out there who have cleverly worked around all of this and are still running old mLAN protocol in OS X they exist in the fringe Like in an alternate universe But, true, there is no official support for mLAN drivers for your current computer OS. MLAN has evolved into a system that while easier to run is limited to a much more realistic three devices with computer, versus the 63 device + computer goal of the original mLAN spec. If you have other questions, please do not hesitate to ask.