I do it all the time ( use the PA80 and it's styles to control and playback on the Motif ). In principle it's no different than using One man band or Jammer pro as my styule interface / controller and using the Motif as my module.

There are some tricks though. First and foremost, the PA80 uses patches 0-127 in all of it's banks, and every instrument corresponds to the GM standard. In other words a distorted guitar and anything related to it will always be patch # 30 on the PA80. The Motif doesn;t work that way. A distorted guitar on the Motif can be patch number 100, or 102 in a non GM bank. Even the "standard" GM patches are different. The PA80 and all of my software modules use patch #s 0-127. The Motif uses 1-128 for it's "GM", so that distortion guitar is patch #31 on the Motif.

I can go directly from the PA80 to the Motif via midi. What I need to do though is either setup the Motif so that it does not recognize any incoming bank / patch data, or set up the PA80 so that it does not send any bank / patch data. Then I have to manually enter the correct bank / patch numbers in the Motif's mixer so that the styles will play properly. IE.. Channel 10 for drums, ch 9 for bass, ch 11 for percussion, 12-16 for accomp voices . ( Note : when using a Yamaha arranger and it's styles as a controller, percussion is on ch 9 and bass is on ch 11. This is also important to remember should you ever consider converting Korg styles to Yamaha format or vice versa. ). Oh, and no need to turn the sound down on the PA80. I simply turn local control to "off". In this mode, all midi data is still sent ( except for the midi data that I choose to filter ..such as bank and patch data ). None of the data is sent to the PA80's internal sound source though, so the board remains silent. Most of modern midi kb's have this function, except for maybe the very low end ones.

This is not very convenient for live work, but it's fine for recording / composing or jamming with the styles. Usually I don't go directly from the PA80 to the Motif. I almost always use Sonar or Jammer Pro as a middleman. In this method I set the PA80 up so that it cannot send patch and bank data, set the Motif up so that it can receive it, and use the software as the go between. Advantage ? I can use the Sonar ins definiton file or jammer dev file to control the patch / bank data for each channel, which is much easier and faster than doing it in the Motif's internal mixer. Again, not good for live work though. Another thing to remember is that the effects data doesn't always translate well from one module to the next. Even when you have the right patches, sometimes a PA80 style doesn't sound as good played back on a Yamaha module. The advantage of using Sonar is that I have a studioware panel for the Motif which allow me to control effects and other criticAL parameters on the fly.

I recently discussed the issue of using Yamaha styles with OMB and the patch and bank implications on another thread. My best workaround at this point is to convert my existing styles using Style Updater so that the bank and patch data coreresponds to the Motif patches. In essence I edit a yamah style, change each accomp instrument so that it plays well on the Motif, and then save the style in a different folder that contains only styles etup for use with te Motif as a module. It's a good bit of work, but there is an added benefit. Once I get the PSR2000 again, I will be able to load up these styles into it, and then use the PSR2k and it's auto accomp to control the Motif in real time, and the patches will all be correct without me having to do any additional work. Then I can effectively use the Motif as my module even in a live setup if I choose to.

AJ

[This message has been edited by Bluezplayer (edited 04-09-2003).]