File Types....and how to load individual factory voices etc etc

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Explanation(?) of file types......Click here for restoring individual factory voices)

Reading some of the messages on Motifator.com, it seems some owners shy away from editing Voices and Performances because they don't want to lose the originals....others are just plain puzzled by the file types.

Hopefully the following will help someone,and won't add to the confusion. But remember,before you complain......It's not supposed to be an exhaustive explanation, I don't work for Yamaha,I don't write manuals for a living......and I know where you live.

There's a full list of file types on manual page 263.

The first file type to grasp is an ALL file (extension .W2A): Unsurprisingly, this contains "all" the Motif's user data. It saves all the User Voices,Performances,Masters,Drum Voices,User Arpeggios,Utility Settings,Waveforms,Sample Voices,Songs,Patterns......Everything that is in the memory at the time.

If you Save your work to an ALL file.... when you Load it again,you will have exactly the same setup as when you Saved.
However, when you Load, you can choose whether or not to Load the Utility settings via the "without system" checkbox.

To Save an ALL file : Press FILE,Save(F2),Type=ALL; choose a name , then press Enter to Save.

To Load : Press FILE,Load(F3),Type=ALL, select a file, then press Enter to load.

Voices,Waveforms(samples),Songs and Patterns can also be loaded individually, from an ALL file......
For example.....say you've saved an ALL file containing the factory voices called "factory.W2A".

You want to load the factory voice: "User:004 Ba Terminator".(maybe you edited it,and you want the original back....?)

Press FILE,Load(F3),Type=Voice. The right side of the display should show a list of files, including "factory.W2A"

Highlight this file, then press ENTER.
You'll see a list of Voices ,from which you can select the one you want.

Select "004:Terminator", press ENTER.
Select a user Voice number to Load into,press Enter again, and it's done.

Loading individual Waveforms, Songs and Patterns is done in a similar way, by choosing the appropriate setting for Type.

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Voices,Waveforms,Songs and Patterns can also be loaded from All Voice,All Waveform,All Song and All Pattern files,respectively.

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Performances and Masters cannot be Loaded or Saved individually,only as part of an ALL file.

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Voices can be Loaded individually,from an All or All Voice(W2V) file.
They cannot be Saved individually, only to an All or All Voice file.

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Songs,Patterns and Waveforms(samples) are treated in the same way as Voices, but the file extensions are W2S,W2P and W2W, respectively.

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Drum Voices cannot be Loaded/Saved individually,only as part of an ALL or All Voice file.

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Sample Voices cannot be Saved individually,
only as part of an All,All Song or All Pattern file.
However they can be loaded as part of a Single Song or Pattern

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User Arpeggios are Saved/Loaded with an ALL file,
or you can Save/Load them as a User ARP file (.W2G).

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You can't load All Voice,All Song,All Pattern ,All Waveform or User Arpeggio) from an ALL file....
I think this is a pity,since it would create extra flexiblity when using data from one project in another.

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Waveforms(samples) and Sample Voices are saved with the Song,Pattern or Voice that uses them.
So the following file types can all contain sample data:
All (W2A), All Voice (W2V),Pattern or All Pattern(W2P), Song or All Song (W2S),Waveform or All Waveform(W2W), Aif (AIF),Wav (.WAV).

But individual Waveforms can only be Loaded from the.W2A .W2W .WAV and .AIF file types.

So what's the best way of working ?
Whatever suits you
Here are some of my suggestions:others are welcome.

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Restoring individual factory Voices

1: Save your current Motif setup as an ALL file,
preferably when you've no Waveforms(samples) in memory.
Name it "backup".

2: Save your current Voices as an All Voice file.
Name that "backup" too

3: Restore all the factory defaults : Utility,Job,Factory Set (manual page 260).

4: Save an ALL file,Name it "factory"

5: Save the Voices as an All Voice (W2V) file.
Name it "factory".

6: Load the "backup.W2A" file you created in step 1.

You're now back where you started.
except that you can Load any or all of the factory Voices whenever you need them from the "factory.W2V" file you created.....you did read how to do that? (....further up this page. )
You've also saved your Voices in "backup.W2V" and can load any or all of them,easily

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If you want to restore just the factory Performances and Masters :
Load the "factory.W2A" file,but check the "without system" box, or you'll overwrite all your Utility settings.

This will overwrite your Voices....
but you can get them back by loading the All Voice file called "backup" .

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Another tip....
If you occasionally want to play with the demo Songs/Patterns:
but want to avoid setting Autodemoload on/off each time

Back up your settings first.
Set Autodemoload to ON (manual page 252)...if the setting is ----, then Autoload must be on
Switch it off, then Autodemoload will be available

Switch Motif Off, then On again...
and the Demo Songs,Patterns and Samples will Load.

You can then Save All Pattern and All Song files ( called "demo" perhaps? ).
from which the Songs and Patterns can be loaded easily

Restore your data,and/or set Autodemoload to Off.
And you're back where you started.

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And another one...
Saving Waveforms as WAV or AIF files can take much longer than the Motif's own format. However, it's the only way to edit/hear them on a computer, and can be convenient for Saving individual samples to use in another Motif project.