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Motif & PLG150-PF
PLG150-Pf Piano Plug-in Board
The PLG150-PF is a sample playback based
single part plug-in board. It is based on the
same AWM2 technology that is used in the
Motif wave ROM. It features 16MB of
sounds exclusively in the piano category
(acoustic grand pianos, electric pianos:
Rhodes, Wurlitzer and DX7 type, Clavinet,
Harpsicord, electro-acoustic (CP80-type).
These sounds are painstakingly sampled
and meticulously voiced by our experts.
Classic sounds of the ‘60’s and ‘70’s are of
particular interest. A large gathering of
antique classics were assembled for the
sampling sessions. Inspiration for voicing
the classic sounds found here include
Richard Tee, Donny Hathaway, Bob James,
David Foster, Joe Sample, Josef Zawinul,
Emuir Deodato and others. Sounds were
programmed to mimic the classic
recordings where these sounds were
immortalized. Much detail was paid so that
these sounds work in context of music. The
acoustic grand pianos (many of them) are
stretched tuned adding animation to the
sound when used in the context of a group.
The PF board differs from the other PLG150
series boards in two ways. First, it is based
on samples (the AN, DX and VL are all
non-sample based technologies). Second,
it does not have an “Expert” editor or a
USER RAM bank for “from scratch” waves.
It sounds funny to have to explain this but
for a sample playback board to have its
own “from scratch” bank would require too
much RAM. The ‘pure’ synth boards like the
AN, DX and VL in comparison use very
little RAM to store entire banks of Voice
data. The DX, for example, has a bank of
32 sounds equal to about 4KB (that
kilobytes!) of data. Four kilobytes of
sample data is really nothing at all.
Samples require mucho megabytes of
data! Therefore the sounds on the PLG150-
PF are largely presets that you can tweak
via OFFSETS. Part of what you are paying
for, however, is the excellent VOICE
programming. Although the PF board has a
similar architecture to the Motif, 4-element
AWM2 sample playback, you do not have
the same degree of editing that you would
with a Motif VOICE. Rather than being able
to program “from scratch”, you recall a
mostly finished AWM2 Voice that has
certain parameters available for real time
tweaks. For example, if the original
programmer applied a Control Delay or an
LFO based effect, then you will be able to
control how it works. But you will not be
able to change the pre-assigned Board
effect. As we will see in this article, this is
not a problem because you can assign
Motif effects to any Board sound and store
it as one of your own PLG USER Voices.
Checking Installation
For installation instructions please follow
the Owner’s Manual pages 282-283. Check
to make sure your board or boards are
properly installed. The Orange connector is
slot 1, the yellow connector is slot 2 and
the Green connector is slot 3. A PLG150-
series board can occupy any slot.
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The
boards should always be installed with the
Motif off – the boot up routine will check
the plug in slots and automatically, if it
detects a board it will load 64 Preset
sounds for that board. (The VL board is the
exception. It has actually 3 PRESET banks
of 64 that it will load when a VL board is
detected – one for Aftertouch play, one for
Velocity play and one for Breath Control).
Here’s how to verify your board:
On the Motif: Press [UTILITY]/[F6] PLG to
check the status screen which will identify
all the PLG boards found and their slot
location:
The “Expand” parameter will be active only
when you have 2 or more PLG150 series
boards of the same type installed and
polyphony expansion is possible. A second
PLG150-PF can give you a maximum of
128 notes of piano board polyphony in
Expand poly mode. A third PLG150 can
give you 192 notes total for piano board.
Because the System is modular, this
polyphony does not take away from the
62-note polyphony of the mothership host
(S30 / S80 / CS6x / CS6R / Motif6-7-8)-
Nor does it contribute to a pool of notes –
they are completely separate. You, of
course, can use multiple boards as
individuals, thus increasing how many
Parts for which you will have PLG150-PF
Voices available.
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HINT: Find a consistent slot layout for your
boards and stick with it. When making bulk files
that reload your custom sounds (AN, DX, and VL
only), it matters which slot the board is found
in.