Yamaha Motif Series from EX5 to Motif XS

[admin]

The Motif was introduced in 2001 in its 61, 76, and 88 key versions. Though the Motif series continued to use Yamaha's AWM Synthesis (Advanced Wave Memory) the Motif was a break from the past for Yamaha keyboards. The previous flagship was the EX5 workstation which also used AWM (another name for sample playback synthesis) and sampling. But it also has Yamaha's AN (analog) synthesis and VL (virtual acoustic modeling) and FDSP (Formulated Digital Sound Processing) Synthesis.

Read the rest:


http://tweakheadz.com/reviews/review-motif-family.htm

[balma]

I had an EX5 and I used a lot during 5 years, almost every day

Ex5 is an oddity. In fact, it was the workstation with the most complete synthesis at the moment of its release.
It has virtual acoustic, virtual analog, FDSP (11 bizarre effects with very deep synthesis exclusive for this synth) sampler and AWM.


This synths has a unique sound. IMHO the FDSP effects are the best feature on this workstation, since you won't find them on any other synth.
there are effects like "water" wich is a random resonance effect that gives an aquatic effect to pads, very similar to pads heard on OXYGEN from Jean Michel Jarre. Others like TORNADO, or SEISMIC that add a lot of compression or distortion to leads.

But the Ex5 has been one off the biggest failures from Yamaha. The O.S. is one of the worst operative systems you'll find on any synth. There are a lot of useless redundances on parameters, bugs that make your synth get stuck on the pattern sequencer.

And the loading times are ridiculous. Loading 106 seconds of samples can take 40 minutes!!! Without the flash memory rom, the sampler is useless, because all the samples got erased when you turn off the synth.

but I spent great times with it. It definitly has a better sound than any MOTIF released after it. Creating virtual analogic + virtual acoustic + sampler + AWM on a single patch is an odissey.

Long times programming, but at the end, you can get amazing sounds never heard before.

It's a shame that Yamaha didin't dedicate more time to the developing process of this synth. It could be one of the most kicking ass synths of all times.

[Tweak]

>Loading 106 seconds of samples can take 40 minutes!!!

And then if it crashed after 40 minutes.... I remember that about them, and how wretched SCSI was implemented. And the cost... I think it was around $3400 in 1990's dollars

[balma]

Yeap. Such a cool keyboard with so crappy operative system, who understands Yamaha????

This synth has so, so many features. From around 30 synths I have owned, 100% sure this was the hardest to use. Truly complicated screens inside screens inside screens.

something that I really loved, was the possibility of spreading 128 samples across the keyboard and store that sample map as a single patch. With the Ex5 it is possible to sample an entire instrument like a piano, key by key, note by note. But that means an inmense amount of work.

Also, there was another feature, named KEYMAP.

You can place on each key:
A sample
A pattern track
An entire pattern.

What a weird synth! But this feature was so cool, using an external sequencer to activate these keymap with triggers. you were able to instantly mix lots of tracks of different patterns at the same same time, or even play 4 patterns of 8 tracks each one at the same time, just pressing 4 keys. And play samples. It mixed patterns, pattern tracks and samples into a same category. Interesting concept.

but all these features were wasted when turning off the synth. You erase the keymap when turning off...

the only way to save it, is to save everything as GLOBAL MODE. I mean, if you want to save KEYMAP, you have to do it along with the multitimbral performances, patches, songs, patterns, and finally, samples.

And counting that you are using floppy disks, it will take 30/40 minutes saving....

[Tweak]

You can place on each key:
A sample
A pattern track
An entire pattern.

Interesting. The Fantom took that idea and ran with it. You can place a pattern or a track on a drum pad. I've not fount that kind of function on my Motif.

All these machines still lose samples when you turn the power off. But the loading from removable media is much faster.

[balma]

You can place on each key:
A sample
A pattern track
An entire pattern.

Interesting. The Fantom took that idea and ran with it. You can place a pattern or a track on a drum pad. I've not fount that kind of function on my Motif.

All these machines still lose samples when you turn the power off. But the loading from removable media is much faster.

I also have the fantom, but it has this idea like arranger keyboards, you know, chords at your left, lead sound at your right and enjoy bossanova...
je je

On the EX5 you press "keymap" and it appears on the LCD screen ready to assign to each key, and it spreads all over the keyboard from left to right. And it combine the tracks and patterns, with samples. For example, you can resample a pattern, convert it into sample, add an affect to the sample (like isolator for example) and then, playing it along the original pattern where it came from.

And a unique feature on the pattern sequencer, is that, each track has its individual length.

most of the sequencers, the length is for all the tracks. And mostly, they go from 1 to 32 measures.

On a EX5 pattern, track 1 lasts 4 measures, track 2 lasts 2 measures, 2 bars, and 180 milliseconds. track 3, lasts 16 measures, track 4, 5 measures with half bar and 120 milliseconds....

That creates patterns that NEVER repeat in the same way due that they are made by tracks that have a very specific lenght each one. How much I love this unique feature. And there are 101 groove effects, any kind of known swing effect is available for each track. And the timing time (4/4, 3/4. 8/2, 16/32, etc) is especific for each track, and you can double or reduce to half the track bpm velocity on percentajes.

So, if the whole bpm pattern is 120, and you put 1 of the tracks of the patterns to 125%, the bpm of this track will be 150.

A whole day to discover lots of ways to play a single pattern. And you can duplicate a single pattern to other locations, modify these settings to obtain different results, and then, assign all these variations of the same pattern to the pattern map


Talking about the sounds.
After the EX5, I got a MOTIF classic, and still using the Motif.

If you compare them sound by sound, EX5 is superior to the Motif in every one of them

You know that the MOTIF is used a lot for a lot of bands for its good acoustic sounds.

But a nylon guitar, a string, a rhodes or a piano, sound a lot better on the Ex5 due to its virtual acoustic engine. I think (but not sure) that the VL1 virtual acoustic tone generator is the same one that comes inside the
Ex5.
For a flutte sound there are dozens of dedicated parameters exclusive from Yamaha to shape that windy sound. The strength that you use in your mouth to blow into the flutes hole becomes a parameter, the strength of your your fingers on the small holes is represented by another one.... same for each strings, and wood hit instruments.
You must become a freak programmer to use this synth.


I've seen this big synth on $600 on EBAY. It's a great investment, despite all its problems.

I would not hesitate to pick a EX5 instead a Motif. the small brother of the EX5 is the sequencer RM1X. I played both with MIDI during years. If you see them, they are pretty similar, even in the color! They were built under the same concept, but the sound engines are totally apart.

Good to find on this site people to talk about the EX5. Deep users of this synth are hard to find, maybe they don't exceed the 100. There are more users, but, people who really went deep into the EX5...