Congratulations on your acquisition and welcome to the forums.i am a new modx8+ owner.
The short answer is 'yes' - 'expected' since the various presets often come from different sources. Some are ported from previous instruments or previous versions of the same instrument.Is it normal for some presets to be significantly louder than others? For example, if i activate the arp on the quieter ones, then they become louder.
Other presets are often designed by 3rd parties Yamaha has contracted with to provide sounds.
And many of the preset sounds are designed to 'showcase' what the instrument can do. So they may have loads of extra functionality that only comes into play when you 'activate an arp', select a different arp, use the Super Knob, use a different one of the 8 scene buttons, press the AUDITION button to hear a custom 'song' that can really go wild, and so on.
You have just discovered why you need to throughly examine ANY preset or sounds produced by others to find out just WHAT they do and WHEN they do it. That should be done before using those sounds at a gig and before using a preset/other sound as a starting point for creating your own sounds.
There is no handbook or summary sheet that actually explains what functionality a performance uses. Everyone that acquires an instrument has to discover that for themselves.
One way to avoid future surprises is to ALWAYS use performances that you have either examined or created yourself by:
1. load a preset performance
2. throughly examine it for oddities like the one you mentioned and to understand what functionality it has
3. make a short list of what you find and keep it in a small text file for future reference
4. make any changes to the preset to remove functionality you won't want to use or to adjust things like volume
5. STORE your changed version as a USER performance - be sure to give it a unique name. There is nothing to prevent you from giving several performances the EXACT name and it will be hard to find the right one later
6. Take perioditic backups when you have made significant changes so you don't lose any work
Then to create your own NEW performances start by loading one of YOUR user performance that you created during the process above. Use the notes you took to remind you of what functionality it has in it.
That is the SAFEST way I know to keep things under control. Admittedly it adds a bit of extra work to put into practice. But it helps avoid getting surprised at a gig when you accidentally hit the wrong button and can't figure out what happened.
Like you do before going to Las Vegas - decide how much risk you are willing to take that things don't go your way.
Statistics: Posted by Douglas — Wed Feb 14, 2024 5:46 pm