new Yamaha Motif XS workstation

[NuSkoolTone]

Originally posted by Don Solaris Yamaha, give us normal classic black version and cut this coloring s*it once and for all.

Agreed. That looks WAY cooler. The black at least makes it look a little smaller.

[The Pro]

+1 on black... much better....

[stikygum]

Different strokes for different folks. Black, white, no big deal. Nice but so are colors.

So, what boards out on the market offer touch screens? No older Motifs? I think that is lame since Roland and Korg seem to have this. Although Tritons seem lame still even with a nice touch screen, probably it's best feature.

Touch screens are everything in a workstation these days, that still sickens me on this new Motif.

[mildbill]

Originally posted by Mike51 .... The Fusion was a failure....

Maybe a failure in the overall sales race, I don't know.

But mine hasn't failed to please me yet.

[Whop Yo Jaw!]

Looks much better in black.

[mwalthius]

Originally posted by orangefunk btw someone did this at motifator

IMHO, gawd is that ugly. It'd be ugly no matter what color it came in.

Every once in a while, someone designs a great-looking synth. Minimoog, Arp Odyssey, Roland Jupiter 8. Moog Voyager Electric Blue. Virus Indigo and Polar. Korg MS2000B and Radias are pretty cool.

The Yamaha romplers are so dull and uninspired. At least the Alesis synths try to have a sense of style, homely as they may be (IMHO).

[Sealed]

Originally posted by Don Solaris Yamaha, give us normal classic black version and cut this coloring s*it once and for all.

This black design looks much better!

[Diametro]

[aeon]

Originally posted by Tony Scharf thats no moon...its a synthesizer...

Hehe, classic! Good one, mate - you had me laughing out loud at quarter to three in the a.m.


cheers,
Ian

[Yoozer]

Originally posted by Don Solaris Yamaha, give us normal classic black version and cut this coloring s*it once and for all.

Where they really borked things is at the 61-key version having the mixer not flush with the start of the keyboard.

Lots of empty space at the wrong places.

[keyman_sam v2.0]

The black version looks fugly. I prefered the original color.


Sadly, I think yamaha is following the trend of the Fantom X. "Oh woweeee!!! Look mah, its in COLOR! Just like my TEEEVEEE"



I'd take a monochrome touch screen over a color screen any day of the week, thank you. The folks at korg did it right with the triton classic. Why doesn't yamaha follow THAT?










Not that i care since i have the fusion and the fantom, which blows the XS out of teh water already.

[Meatball Fulton]

Originally posted by dxdreamer since AN and VL card hardware + commision for developers all together arent all the expesnive... why no intergration....

 

 

My guess is Yamaha simply doesn't see enough demand. They didn't follow up with new AN or VL standalone machines years ago, PLG card support has been poor the last few years (they never released OS X versions of the editors) and no other company ever embraced breath control so I'd say the writing is on the wall: no matter how much people here might want these features it's just a blip in the overall market.

 

As a geek I'm most interested to see how the integration with Cubase works. With an Ethernet port on the XS it's obvious computer integration was of high importance to the developers. Yamaha has been pushing this "Studio Connections" concept since buying Steinberg and the XS is the first new machine since then.

 

Even so, I've only had my ES for 2 years I'm not about to trade up since I haven't begun to approach the limits of what it can do.

 

I'm also curious how much trickle down from the Motif line there is in the new MM6.

[Don Solaris]

Originally posted by Yoozer Where they really borked things is at the 61-key version having the mixer not flush with the start of the keyboard.

Exactly! Looks like their cost-cut system included firing of all designers. So the design itself was left to self-called "experts" and their friends. The result is the most ugly colored keyboard one can imagine.







Small fact from psychology: objects with cold color tones repel most human beings (gives a feeling of cold metal). Just like warm tones attract (orange Waldorf XT, red Nord Lead, yellow Q). And Yamaha just couldn't pick more cold looking color. Well done!

Big to whoever picked it.

[InsideLookinOut]

I think this will fit perfectly into my setup. I use my ES for mainly bread and butter sounds.Total Cubase integration is the main thing I haven't fully been able to get until now. So the XS is great for some and not necessary for others. Time to let go of the ES7!!!

[flat earth]

That looks eerily familiar.......

[MartinHines]

Originally posted by Meatball Fulton As a geek I'm most interested to see how the integration with Cubase works. With an Ethernet port on the XS it's obvious computer integration was of high importance to the developers.

 

 

Just FYI,

 

According to Yamaha_US posts on Motifator:

-- the Ethernet port is for file transfer only

-- the Firewire port (included on the XS8, optional on the XS6/7) transmits midi and audio data [the Firewire port uses a modified version of mLAN]

[kuniklo]

You guys are funny - all in a twist about the color.

I've always been a bit of a snob about romplers, but my mother recently bought an S90, which includes a bunch of Motif sounds apparently, and I was pretty impressed with a quick browse through the synth sounds. You could definitely write some pretty weird stuff with the included presets and the general tone and polish wasn't bad at all.

I don't plan to ditch my Virus or Machinedrum but I do think I could get by with just a Motif/Fantom/Triton if I really had to.

[Tony Scharf]

Originally posted by MartinHines Just FYI, According to Yamaha_US posts on Motifator: -- the Ethernet port is for file transfer only -- the Firewire port (included on the XS8, optional on the XS6/7) transmits midi and audio data [the Firewire port uses a modified version of mLAN]

 

 

Thats what I figured. Yamaha still really wants mLan to fly, and I am impressed that they have continued to support it, despite its low penetration and acceptance.

 

The ethernet port is interesting. How long before they put an 802.11g card in their synths, so you dont even need a cable for file transfer?

 

and ethernet (using something like samba) to share the files with your computer, rather than having to install a storage driver of any kind, means that you dont have to modify your system, and it will be instantly compatible with more than one operating system (even linux). Furthermore, you could easily network the XS with more than one computer, and potentially (though I doubt it) between different XS units. This could be something we see a lot more of.

[orangefunk]

More info.



For those of you who would like another clarification on how the new XS sounds and looks -

Soundwise - the XS has a brand new LSI chip and this chip sounds better than any previous chip they have employed in a workstation. The waveROM has been almost completely re-done. In short, it all sounds significantly better than the ES. Analog synth voices sound like analog synths, acoustic instruments have brilliance and clarity, bass sounds have plenty of low end power, drums are more detailed and punchier. Yamaha paid attentiuon to all the comments, complaints, and rants about the ES ROM and addressed those in re-doing the ROM waves, and we as programmers addressed it in the voicing.

The piano sings and sustains and is brand new. Almost all of the orchestral wavesforms have been replaced - new strings, brass, woodwinds, etc. There are new analog waveforms and a huge amount of new effects waves. New drum waves as well. Voice-wise, there are a ton of new electronic and hip-hop voices, special effects voices, as well as vintage synth sounds, along with all the bread and butter sounds you have come to rely on. No matter what genre you work in, you can do it with the XS.

Looks-wise, the XS is actually cooler looking "in person" than you'd think. Its profile is less deep than the ES, and the 6-7 models weigh less. Keyboard action has been changed to what is more like the keyboard action on the Tyros 2.

One of my favorite things about the XS is the multiple arps. In Performance mode, you now have 20 total (5 arps with 4 variations each).
There are many chord recognition arps, so you can have a Performance that features a drum groove, a separate bass line which plays automatically AND follows the chords you play, a separate rhythm guitar or piano or synth comp playing automatically, a separate melodic line playing in the upper octaves automatically, AND you can play a part on your own in real-time on the keyboard and everything follows along. It's really sophisticated and I haven't seen it on any other product out there.

I have posted about XS versions of DCP libraries in the "Sounds" section of the forum. Yamaha US has posted answers to just about anything you can think of in the "MOTIF ES" section of the forum.

I can't answer every question about every single voice in the XS. Your decision will of course be based on what you think of it when you finally get to hear it.

[The Audacity Works]

Originally posted by Don Solaris The result is the most ugly colored keyboard one can imagine.

To be fair, online photos can be very deceiving. When the Mackie DXB was first announced, everyone complained that it looked like baby-puke brown. In person, it looked like a warmer platinum, and very pro-like.

As for the size... There's this group of people who insist that the bevel between the keyboard and buttons must be so many inches (as a design philosophy, not a component necessity). I strongly disagree. Gear should be no bigger than it absolutely has to be.

EDIT: Here, like this:

[malfunkt]

If you got the dough for it, these look like very capable products! I sure would love to have one of these...

Get this, I used to own a Motif ES, and the reason I bought it was to have a solid workstation that I could use to compose away from my computer.

Well, it just didn't totally cut it for me... granted I didn't dive completely into it. But, it was just far easier to compose on my computer... and I wasn't inspired by the Motif. I was disappointed by its slow sampler too. some of the waverom was fantastic though... filters were pretty good... effects of high-quality but not flexible enough in their routing.

Now the XS on the other hand, is that much more capable. If they focused on creating an even better sounding workstation sample-based synth, I'll be impressed. There are many processes that if even further optimized for DSP would be very CPU consuming on a computer.

However, the other side of me goes.. wait a sec! hOW FRICKIN MUCH?

so I bought an old K2000

And you know what, sure it can't match some of the specs, but it fill the Rompler void and it can STILL do things that the Motif can't!

I've also owned an EX5R, great-sound, slow pokey synthesizer.

If one advice I can give, either buy the latest best workstation, or buy the best of the older stuff. The mediocre and cheap stuff is just that.

[noision1]

Originally posted by Don Solaris Exactly! Looks like their cost-cut system included firing of all designers. So the design itself was left to self-called "experts" and their friends. The result is the most ugly colored keyboard one can imagine. Small fact from psychology: objects with cold color tones repel most human beings (gives a feeling of cold metal). Just like warm tones attract (orange Waldorf XT, red Nord Lead, yellow Q). And Yamaha just couldn't pick more cold looking color. Well done! Big to whoever picked it.

Agreed. Also from a practical standpoint (I didn't read every post yet, so this may have been said), the faders look pretty short given the space available.

The green color is very FS1R: A cool unit that I don't believe sold all that well. Was it the color or the worst manual in history?

[stikygum]

Wait a second, are we all forgetting that the Triton as well as many other boards out there sport the same silver finish? I like warmer tones too, but that color shouldn't matter too much. Granted it might not look as good as my Novation KS-5. That thing looks like it came from a Star Trek adventure in outer space.

[Tony Scharf]

its not the color of its skin..but the content of its wave memory..

[assaf]

Originally posted by malfunkt However, the other side of me goes.. wait a sec! hOW FRICKIN MUCH?

 

 

Ah, finally someone has the guts to complain.

 

Sometimes musicians are the worst consumers in the world. They act more like junkies than intelligent, educated people.

 

This thing sports the same power (polyphony and effects wise) as the older ES. A pentium 4 bought in 2004 would cost how much in 2007? ... instead they choose to increase its price, and by a non-trivial amount as well. Just contrast this with the Alesis fusion which has shown us all exactly how cheap workstations can be (I think it's a crappy workstation, but a very capable crappy workstation nevertheless). There is no excuse for this high price.

 

I'm a great believer in the workstation concept, but this is crossing the line. If Roland & Korg follow in Yamaha's footsteps and raise their prices I'll have to pass.