KHPtech

Using the Yamaha MOTIF XS with Snow Leopard

I recently upgraded my laptop to Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, and discovered that my mLAN driver (which connects my system to the XS 8 over firewire) no longer worked. (This would also apply to the MOTIF XS 6 or 7 with the optional firewire card.)

It appears that Yamaha is replacing the mLAN driver with something called the “Yamaha Steinberg FW Driver”. I don’t know if the new driver does everything that mLAN does, but I just need to connect my DAW with this keyboard for now.

Here’s what I did to get things working:

Warning: The firmware updates on this page can permanently damage your MOTIF if Yamaha’s instructions are not followed carefully, or if the update process is interrupted by power loss, cable disconnection, etc. Make sure everything is plugged into a UPS and don’t do anything stupid. The author will not he held responsible for anything that happens following this guide. Proceed at your own risk.

1. Make sure your MOTIF XS OS Firmware is at least 1.10 or later before starting.

As of the time of this writing, the latest available OS firmware is 1.55, which you can download here under the title “MOTIF XS OS Updater V1.55”

Please follow the directions carefully if you need to update your firmware. (If your firmware is 1.10 or later, you don’t need to upgrade to 1.55 at this step.)

2. Upgrade your MOTIF XS Firewire firmware to 1.07 or later. This is necessary to support the new “Yamaha Steinberg FW Driver”. This updater can be found here under the title “IEEE1394 Firmware Updater Ver.1.07 for Mac OS X”

Please follow the directions carefully if you need to update. The updater application will show you what version you have before you start the update.

3. After the Firewire firmware update has successfully installed and you have restarted your MOTIF, you need to change a setting on the MOTIF. This can be accessed by pressing [UTILITY], [F1 / General], [SF4 / AutoLoad]. Change the “IEEE1394 Driver” setting to “FW”. You will need to press [STORE] and then restart the MOTIF.

4. Install the “Yamaha Steinberg FW Driver” software, which can be downloaded here under the title “Yamaha Steinberg FW Driver V1.1.0 for Mac OS X”.

5. It’s probably a good idea to restart your Mac. The new driver has a control application located in /Applications/Yamaha.

At this point the basic functionality should be working. You may also want to download updates to Yamaha’s utility applications, like Studio Manager, XS Editor, Steinberg DAW Extensions, etc.

This would also be a logical time to consider upgrading the MOTIF XS OS firmware to the latest version, as described in step 1. Remember to back up ALL the user content on the MOTIF to a USB drive first!