Review of the MOTIF XS

[Tweak]

Review of the MOTIF XS

CAN BE READ HERE:

http://www.tweakheadz.com/reviews/revie ... tif_xs.htm

EXCERPT:

It took a long time for me to decide on getting the Motif XS. I was stalemated by the Korg M3 and its new Karma II engine. The Motif XS countered with its 6,000 arpeggios and superb performance patches. I went to the mat. Crossreading manuals, staring at jackfields of ins and outs, considering sound, memory, sampling ease, storage, plugins, computer integration, quality of the keyboard, "fun", overall build, integrity of pots and switches, ability to act as a control surface. Man. I was there. What made up my mind was the concept of the Motif XS as a song idea generator. Why that? Well..

[terry]

Tweak

I'm so freaking jealous. I miss my old motif

[PinkFreud]

Tweak... first post here, so let me first thank you for your generous sharing of your experience. I was linked here from Motifator, so clearly your review is timely.

I have had my Motif XS6 for exactly one week, and my observations are in complete agreement with yours. That is, except for sampling which I have yet to explore (new discipline for me). As a composer, though, I couldn't agree more with the inspirational aspects of the Motif performances and arpeggios! I normally work on a song idea for weeks, but with the Motif, I have written and recorded five new raw mixes... some of them in genres I would not have tried before. So your comments on the "fun" element of the Motif is right on.

I also had to chuckle at your discovery that Motif-speak is a new language. I have spent more time on just trying to understand how Yamaha words and concepts actually align. Once you get it, though (in my case the whole patterns, scenes, phrases, sections, performances, arpeggios, songs, etc. paradigm), this machine is both beast and beauty.

The Motif is BY FAR the best featured and best sounding synth/workstation that I have ever used (although my experience is not as extensive as yours). For a composer, the thing is a dream machine!

I am heading to the garage now to see if I can cannabilize some PC133 RAM out of an old (and gratefully retired) PC for the sampler bank. I, too, am now mostly Mac-based (very gratefully!) and look forward to reading your experiences with Logic. I am quite happy with Cubase AI4 for now, and frankly have been able to do nearly all my "tweaks" right on the Motif.
After that, I am going to spend some quality time in your post-production and mixing sections since I have come to that point in the work flow faster than I had ever imagined possible.

Thanks again for this great site, Tweak!

[Tweak]

Thanks for your comments!

>I also had to chuckle at your discovery that Motif-speak is a new language.

Heh, it gets even more strange in other Yamaha products. On my AW1600 recorder, when you hit the wrong button, an alert box comes up telling you you are wrong. You know most alert boxes just have a "OK" box to click. Not on the AW1600. They wrote in "Oh I see!". Like their little one line complaint opened a new intellectual vista for you.

The first Motif actually scolded you if you make a mistake. "Error! You can't do blah blah X before doing blah blah Y!" I refuse to buy a synth that yells at me. I made sure they cleaned that up before getting the XS. Today the XS still has a lot of "Are you Sure?" alert boxes. Am I sure? Gee I don't know! I wish it would quit asking.

[ELECTRICFL]

Tweak how does the Fantom G feel in comparison to the XS after playing it? Specifically in regards to feel. I have not been able to play one yet and was wondering how the action of the g8 compares to that of the xs8. I know both have their respective weaknesess and strengths otherwise but I was more wondering about the feel of each. If the G8 has a comperable feel I might just use the money I have been saving for a workstation to get the new XS rack (and use it through my Juno d), and then later on purchase the G8 for the sequencer and the fantom palette of sounds.
I've been eyeing the xs8 for quite a while but with the rack now out at less than have the price it seems way more attainable. It is a bummer however that I would be missing out on great feel of the xs8 board that comes packed with all those faders that make for great live sound manipulation, as well as the huge 1gb sampling ram, and the onboard sequencer (It would have been nice had some of these made it onto the rack version). Anyways I was wondering what your opinion was on this topic since I know you just sprung out the cash for a XS6 and also went and checked out the g8. Thanks for any help it is much appreciated.

[Tweak]

Well, feel is a subjective thing. But of course in my mind I have compared them for me, though with much more time spent on the Motif. Roland made some improvements on the feel of the G. It is way better than the S, and better than the X, both of which always feel a little sluggish. The G seemed quicker, lighter, more Yamaha like. But I don't think it matches the XS or the S90ES (the latter I find perfect for me). The Fantom is better than the Motif in many other departments, particularly sampling, sequencing and drum controlling. The Motif is an idea-generator. I don't know if the rack has the sequencer, but have not read the manual yet.

http://www.zzounds.com/a--3745/item--YAMMOTIFRACKXS

[ELECTRICFL]

Nope no sequencer on the rack version . Thanks for your input much appreciated. I feel if I get the rack version it would sort of cheapen the xs experience I have been looking forward to haha so I might just wait till I can at least afford an used XS6 even though I really wanted an XS8.

[Jeroen]

hi tweak
would you be so kind to post 2 mp3 files of the grand piano and Mellow one??

that would be great !

Thanks in advance

Cheers Jeroen

[Tweak]

hi tweak
would you be so kind to post 2 mp3 files of the grand piano and Mellow one??

that would be great !

Thanks in advance

Cheers Jeroen

Hope you aren't holding your breath.

[ELECTRIC]

Tweak have you updated the OS of your XS yet? I read somewhere that this update allows for seemless switching between patches without the sound cutting out (A feature that is praised in the Fantom G). I was just wondering if you had tried it out yet and if it is effective. Thanks for any help.

[Tweak]

Tweak have you updated the OS of your XS yet? I read somewhere that this update allows for seemless switching between patches without the sound cutting out (A feature that is praised in the Fantom G). I was just wondering if you had tried it out yet and if it is effective. Thanks for any help.

I have done an update last month. I have not noticed that though, but I was not looking for it either. They did fix a tendency of the motif xs to ignore program changes in a sequencer...under some conditions. That was driving my crazy. Seems better.

[ELECTRICFL]

Thanks for the reply tweak. This is the same person as ELECTRIC by the way just had that other SN because mine wouldnt work for a bit once the forums got renewed but its fixed now. Anyway I've been saving up for some time for an XS8 and I'm finally within a few 100 of being able to purchase it. How do you feel with your XS6 after having it for quite some time now? After I get the XS8 my next planned synth purchase is a Muse Receptor with Komplete inside have you checked these out? They seem like the way to go if they truly load up patches as quickly as they claim. It would be nice to play a grand piano patch live that comes from a soft sampler in which the samples are several Gigabytes large as oppose to the small sample rom within workstations.

[Tweak]

I am using the Motif XS as my main keyboard now, with the fantom S on the other side of the room. If i have a regret it is that I did not get the 88 key version.

The Muse Komplete Inside is very tempting



http://www.zzounds.com/a--3745/item--MU ... --showroom


If the box can do 16 instances multitimbrally it will be well worth it. I've got Komplete 4 here and my mac g5 can't keep up with it as well as I like. There's a lot to like about komplete. Absynth, FM8, Electric Piano, Acoustic Piano, Massive, Pro 53--all should feel great on the Motif keyboard.

[ELECTRICFL]

Glad to hear that . I was thinking about getting a Muse pro or the pro junior because that would up the hard drive from 160gb to 750gb with the pro, and 500gb with the junior. That gives me a lot more space to add more soft synths (The refx Nexus 2 is looking good). That would seem even more viable to you because you already own Komplete so you could just use those installation cds to install it onto the Muse (You dont have to get a seperate license they give you a free authorization file on the muse research website).

[ELECTRICFL]

Finally got my Motif XS8 a couple days ago. I can't get enough of it its my first real workstation I'm upgrading from a Juno D. The manual isnt quite as difficult to read as I thought it might be since so many people speak of the motif speak in it. But that could be because this is my first real workstation so I have no old names that I am use to seeing. I'm playing it throught a roland keyboard amp which it sounds great through but cant wait to hear it out of monitors (Dont have yet) or a PA. Time to get back to playing it.

[Croftworks]

I have a Fantom X7 and Triton Extreme. I am looking to replace the Triton with a keyboard with better pianos and able to use faders to bring in layered sounds such as strings, choirs, pads etc. as required. I thought the motif XS was the answer... but only 4 voices per performance set-up? What a disappointment! This means that when playing live, you can only use 4 of the faders.
On some set-ups on the X7 I have 5 splits with some of the splits layered. I use the 4 control knobs as faders in Mixer mode. I think Yamaha has really missed a trick here and focussed on home recording rather than live music. I suppose it's horses for courses.
So now the front runners for me are FG7 or Kurz PC3.

[KevinOnKeys]

Tweak and my fellow Motif-ers or those on the fence,

All I can say is, the first time I played the Motif XS I wasn't totally sold. I had bought it used for a song and was glad its keyboard felt good and that it had a wide variety of bread and butter sounds on it, but I hadn't had the chance to really listen to the sounds in detail.

I had considered a Korg M3 or the Fantom, but while both had their charms I found the sounds of the Korg too pedestrian (and I'm a lifetime Korg guy!), lacking presence or bite or depth. Likewise, the Fantom was "off", somehow, the sounds just don't seem like they'd fit into a mix well without standing out in an undesirably artificial way, if that makes any sense.

Then I started running the Motif in stereo through twin keyboards amps and BAM! My eyes and ears opened wide!

I have never been completely blown away by any Yamaha keyboard. I learned how to program the DX7 in college and found it unique in character (and obviously a signature part of popular music at the time) but cold and sterile. My D-50 and DW-8000 and later, the M1 brought me more joy and inspiration. There were cool pieces, to be sure, but none I "HAD TO HAVE".

Now, I use a CP300 every night at work and have one at home I never use (already having 88-key weighted controllers and lots of piano sounds to choose from, like Ivory, Akoustic Piano, Kurzweil modules, etc., and think it's very solid and dependable if also a bit safe and vanilla) and the Motif......and the Motif is making me think I could practically do gigs with just that one sound engine! Hook up a MIDI controller to the Motif, assign one sound or several as splits and layers and use that for a show, it could be done! SO much variety, with So many sounds of substance and quality!

Of course, I wholeheartedly agree that they stopped short on orchestral sounds; still, it saved the day when I had put all my eggs in the muse Receptor basket (we're talking about the newest, latest, greatest Pro with all the bells and whistles...yikes, what a joke!) and allowed the show to go on when tasked with replicating a string quartet! Without it all would have been lost!

I haven't even begun to dig into the Arpeggios, built-in sequencing, and sampling but already I'm going to say this is the best-sounding all-around keyboard I have ever owned or heard. Clearly it has certain limitations, especially in the area of expandability, but I'm okay with it since what it does have is uniformly excellent.

I will leave the Muse story for another day, but suffice it say when push came to shove that thing folded like a tent, it was useless and the people at Muse were churlish dicks about it, frankly. They knew their wonder-device was not nearly as cool as it purports to be; they just didn't have many power-users really putting it through its paces enough times to get the data in. NOT ready for prime time, folks. A great idea spoiled by lousy execution.

But I digress!

And I'm spent.

Thanks, Tweak, for always offering a wealth of detailed information, your site has saved me from wasting money on many a machine!

The Motif XS, though, is a sound buy...as is the rack, which I just picked up. Going to try combining and splitting duties with rack versions of a Triton, D-50, Kurzweil and the Motif XS Rack and see how far that gets me....but I won't be surprised if I bail the rest and just go Motif all the way! Can you tell I like this thing?

[Tweak]

Nice review. Thanks! My only regret with the Motif is that I did not get the 88.