This is what the Motif XS could have been...

I decided to take it upon myself to design what I think the Motif XS should have been:

I kept the overall size of the board the same as the Motif Classic and ES. I chose a white finish with black endcaps rather than the greenish silver they are using.

Other features:

-2 Mod Wheels (same as SY77/99)

-9" diagonal touch screen (tilt adjustable like the Tyros 2)

-8 pressure sensitive trigger pads

To any Yamaha designers out there - give me a call next time around. You let us down on the XS.

I found the most grating part the huge black silkscreening (which didn't align with the keys on the 61-key model) while the actual faders are pretty tiny.

Anyway, in your model I think the numpad would've done better on the right instead of the left. The entire mess of buttons at the right can move up a bit, but the modwheel and numpad kind of belong to eachother - 2 options to enter data that are strongly related should be close together. Also, make the screen 16:9 - it'll be more part of the machine itself and you'll have just as much information, only displayed with more sensibility (sequencers, mixers, synthesizer control panels - all of 'm have a strong horizontal bias, usually).

Thats not a numpad .

That group of buttons are exactly the same as the Motif and ES. They are the mode buttons (Master, Voice, Performance, Song, Pattern, ISS...)

So I'll guess the Motif XSXL (/ XXS / XES / EXS ?!) [released around... 2011?] will look quite similar to this design .....

by then the XS rack will be in my studio (if I'm still a Yammie head that is )

That looks strikingly similar to an OASYS!

Thats not a numpad .

...It's a space station!

You're right, it could've been if the grey keys were on the bottom.

I don't mind the layout of the new Motif XS at all. I just have never been a fan of the big black stripe on the Motifs, and I am not sure about silver-greeen.

Yooz, I assume your model also has builtin VA and FM synthesis, as well as a 250GB hard drive and two DVI connectors for outboard monitors. Correct?

That looks strikingly similar to an OASYS!

Yamaha was making use of hinged screens long before the Oasys:

The original Tyros came out in 2003.

Nah, there's other companies that do this. Convergence can be nice up to a point, and after that it becomes stupid and self-defeating; expansions and upgrades only last a limited time. I believe the JV/XP cards have lasted the longest.

But, imagine this: there's craptons of widescreen TFTs. Instead of 1280 x 1024 you get 1440 x 900. Better; you get it for the same price.

Even more support for my argument; look at older displays before the LCD color craze began. All of 'm are widescreen (even though they're only 240 pixels wide - they're 64 pixels high, which gives you a 1:3.75 ratio. If that's not widescreen I don't know anymore .

A sequencer works from left to right, a mixer works from left to right, a synthesizer works from left to right - so sacrifice a bit in the vertical direction and give it a wide screen. How many racksynths do you know that are higher than they're wide? Exactly.

Shouldn't be horribly expensive, and it works a lot better than a 3:4 one - plus, very important - it reduces the depth of the casing.

Yeah, the *most* important part would be the AN, FM, and VL engines, but fully programmable with multi-timbrality and large polyphony, included in software, just like the Alesis Fusion does for no more money (and less even!) than other workstations cost.

Yes, I admit, I'm still shocked and appalled at Yamaha's decision to move backward, rather than forward, with their design and marketing strategies . .

Coincidentally, it looks like Yamaha's partner in China, CME, has adopted your keyboard's color "motif" anyway. This is a picture of their new UF 70, a new upgrade to their UF controller series. Somewhat of a resemblance, hmm?

What's up with the keys on the right end of the keybed? Is this thing based on some new scale I'm unaware of?

I agree that it looks similar to the Oasys. However, your design is much better as the tiltable screen folds down flush with the rest of the keyboard. The goofs who designed the Oasys really screwed that up... even when folded down flat, the screen is rather susceptible to damage.

Other companies do it because it's cool and makes their products more competitive.

If Yamaha included a VA and FM engine with the synth, like in the Fusion, how exactly does it "last a limited time"? DSP code does not magically expire one day. It's gonna last as long as you have the keyboard.

I don't get it. They have mature, bug-free VA, FM, and VL implementations gathering dust. Why not throw them into the XS? It doesn't make sense to leave them out.

I guess that once you've owned a Fusion, your whole idea of synthesizer value changes -- drastically. And just to show that I'm not being unreasonable, I would gladly pay $4000 for the board I described. But $3500 for the XS as is? That's overpriced.

What's up with the keys on the right end of the keybed? Is this thing based on some new scale I'm unaware of?

Yeah, I saw that after I hit the render button.

You get the point still.

Hey thats really a cool design. Digging the black with silver mix. It would be great to have a big screen, but I hope its not touch screen....my screen would just look nasty. i sweat too much.....and those touch screen probably wont last nearly as long as the keyboard would...

but i all up for a 9 inch screen. They should also let you hook up external monitor....mmm...20" flatscreen......i be sequencing all day.

I have not heard of one single case of anyone damaging their OASYS LCD screen when it is laying flat, all the way up, or part way down.

Perhaps owners are more careful since they know there is a big LCD screen, but there doesn't appear to be a problem.

Also, given the OASYS LCD is encased in metal, the "folding flush" design above would provide no advantage. The only way to better protect the LCD would been to hinge from the back of the keyboard (allowing one to hide the glass). However, this would require the LCD to placed a significantly larger distance away from the player, which would reduce the effective screen size.

Alesis rocks! I hope they announce something in the next couple days. I think it'll be quite a while before anything comes close to the value you get with a Fusion.

About the Yamaha thing. Maybe they'll use those technologies for a new synth - separate from a workstation.

They could also release them as vsti's - like the legacy collection.

It would be a shameful waste to have Yamaha just drop them completely.

But to find them incorporated into a synth/workstation - look to Alesis Fusion.

Perhaps it is because their piece of gear costs as much as a small car, and you don't drive those up a wall for fun, either .