Sample Libraries on Keyboards!

[Texas]

After looking at the Neptunes video and seeing that they don't use an MPC, my question is how do you sample and archive the drums, etc in the boards?

What I mean is, some threads stated that none of the Neptunes drums are stock drums. Are these drums archived on the boards or are they resampled everytime.

I ask this because I have an producer/artist that loves to work with the Yamaha's(ES6 and Motif 8). The one thing that I have been frustrated with is that I can't figure out how to load samples through the USB ports (is it even possible) from a computer. I want to step up the drums in our productions because its pass due but from experience I would prefer to use boards ove the MPC.

Any tips, tricks, suggestions, or opinions is very much welcomed. Thank you!!

[Kestral]

I thought with most of these new fangled keyboards (ie. Triton), you can just put the samples on a floppy and then put the floppy into the floppy drive of the keyboard and load the samples up?

[radiospace]

With the Motif ES series of keyboards, you can load samples from a Smart Media card. You can simply leave the Smart Media card in the Motif ES and every time you power it up have it "autoload" samples into memory (but you have to add standard memory DIMMs...up to 1 GB total in two slots)...then you've got your own drums in the Motif. You can do the same thing from an attached USB drive (which obviously will hold a lot more samples than a Smart Media card, which might max out at 128 MB (?) in terms of the Motif ES' ability to use it.

One thing to keep in mind with the ES is that sample loading is pretty slow. I think they figured that to load 1 GB of samples into it would take 30 or 40 minutes. (Which is why Yamaha officially only promotes the ES as accepting up to 512 MB of memory...even though it definitely will take and use 1 GB). But for drums it shouldn't be an issue, really.

I recommend visiting www.motifator.com if you want more detailed information about using your own samples in the Motif. They have pretty good forums as well as some technical documents, etc.

[Texas]

Thanks for the replies.

I'll check out the site and hopefully find something usefull.

We have a laptop to connect to the Motif's to load the samples. Does anyone have experience loading samples this way?

Even if I load them from the laptop I would have to reload each time right !

Again thank you for the replies!!

[radiospace]

No matter how you load the samples in, they have to be reloaded every time you turn the Motif off and back on again, since they are stored in RAM which is wiped clean when the machine is turned off.

I've never heard of anyone loading samples directly from a computer but that doesn't mean it can't be done. You'll have to research that. A small, dedicated hard drive might run $150 and seems like a better choice all in all since it would always be hooked up when you cut the Motif on in the morning, allowing you to autoload while you make coffee or whatever...

Another choice is a USB flash drive (which you'd plug directly into the Motif ES' USB port). However, the USB flash drive is the slowest method of loading samples into the Motif (not counting a USB CD-ROM drive, which is probably even slower).

Folks have done tests with the Motif's sample loading and determined that Smart Media is faster than USB hard drive which is faster than a USB flash drive. Therefore if you are loading less than 128 MB of samples, Smart Media is your best choice. Flash drive is never the best choice for speed but might be convenient if, for example, you had a collaborator who wanted to work on a computer or at home and cook up samples, then bring them over to the Motif and load them in.

[XHipHop]

http://www.motifator.com/

They have some guys over there that know the unit inside and out. Check out the forum