With an instrument definition, you can use the sounds from the workstation with sonar, but that’s about it. You can’t edit other parameters that are not standard MIDI ones. With the motif, I’m talking about using the unit from its controls and physical buttons manipulating screens, making settings, changing things, editing instruments, creating your own etc. You can also sequence on it if you so desire. All with some great degree of accessibility. To add more to it, you can use John Melas’s motif tools/editors to edit various, almost all parameters of the unit, right from your computer, and with accessibility; according to his website,, John actually has updated all editors to be accessible! This for example means the following; when you load a voice from a keyboard using sonar ins file, allot of time you get the voice with no special effects, just the basic reverb, but no special effects that might normally be found on the voice. In the case of the motif, you don’t get the arps that go to each voice either. With John’s mix editor, you can have each project hold mix settings for the motif, which are recalled when you open the project, so you don’t have to reassign effects or mix settings. This gets you the full sound voices in sonar, well, as many as the effects section of the keyboard can handle. I don’t know how other workstations are, or how their use with sonar is, I’ve only used the motif in studio, but have used a korg triton and n364 synth as well as a few others from them, and the menus can be a pain, and many things on screen to remember. That’s why I like the motif systems, because the screens are split into sections and subsections. Anyways, to answer the question, no, ins files don’t let you control all features of the workstation, mainly just deal with the instrument on the unit, such as telling sonar what midi program change messages to send the unit to get a certain sound, such as bank 3, program 50 for a guitar. HTh, D!J!X! From: ddots-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ddots-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Bob Reid Sent: Sunday, February 08, 2015 11:08 AM To: ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [ddots-l] Re: Your Vote for most Accessible Drum Machine Late to the discussion. Can we not control an inaccessible work station in Sonar using instrument deffinitions? What about the Roland stage pianos such as the RD series? Bob. From: D!J!X! <mailto:megamansuperior@xxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Saturday, February 07, 2015 2:37 PM To: ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Subject: [ddots-l] Re: Your Vote for most Accessible Drum Machine Mike, the motif 8 (first gen), motif es8 (2nd gen), motif xs8 (third gen) and motif xf8 (4th gen) are all 88 key keyboards. The 7’s are 76 keys, and the 6’s are 61 keys. They each get better with each new generation, the xf being the top of the line right now, with flash memory expandibility, so you don’t have to reload samples/sounds every time you power up the keyboard, virtual modeled Yamaha effects, pattern sequencer and regular sequencer, performances (almost like styles), master setups for live gigs, and a plethora of sounds! They also have integrated sampling capabilities, you can edit just about anything on the entire workstation, either through the keyboard panel/controls or with John melas’s accessible editors, use it in studio or live… They are awesome instruments, and best of all, very accessible and easy to use. Regards, D!J!X! From: ddots-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:ddots-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> [mailto:ddots-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Mike Tyo Sent: Friday, February 06, 2015 9:04 PM To: ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Subject: [ddots-l] Re: Your Vote for most Accessible Drum Machine Excellent! Is that an 88-note keyboard? I'm not familiar with the Motif line in terms of models, etc. Mike ----- Original Message ----- From: Greg Steel <mailto:steelgreg509@xxxxxxxxx> To: ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Friday, February 06, 2015 19:47 Subject: [ddots-l] Re: Your Vote for most Accessible Drum Machine I have the Motif es8 and I love it. I use it as my midi controller when programming my superior drummer parts and to control my grooveboxes too.