The lastest news from Yamaha

xmlguy · Post by **xmlguy** » Sun Jan 23, 2011 5:54 pm

BillW wrote:
xmlguy wrote:Anyone here know what XA means on the Motif XS, or what XS means to the Motif XF?
http://www.motifator.com/index.php/supp ... tion_rules

Perhaps the Motif XS did improve something vs. the original Motif, besides merely different samples. I wonder if XS has a similar relevance to the Motif XF vs. the Motif XS.

ozy · Post by **ozy** » Sun Jan 23, 2011 6:06 pm

Hedegaard wrote:Yamaha freakazoids?

http://www.outofservice.com/freak/

check this

Hedegaard · Post by **Hedegaard** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 5:56 pm

ozy wrote:
Hedegaard wrote:Yamaha freakazoids?
http://www.outofservice.com/freak/

check this

Great link!
57%

My forecasts:
Ozy = 100%
Akos = 0%

cello · Post by **cello** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 6:11 pm

ozy wrote:
Hedegaard wrote:Yamaha freakazoids?
http://www.outofservice.com/freak/

check this

That was fun!

47% here (phew!)

ozy · Post by **ozy** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 7:36 pm

Hedegaard wrote:57%

My forecasts:
Ozy = 100%
Akos = 0%

ha, ha.

you won't believe that, but my result was 58%.

Looks like I am far more conservative than I look (not surprisingly: a soldier half of my adult life, a sport coach the other half... uhm... not exactly the "freak" curriculum. Rather the Heinlein-wing libertarian...)

Of course, this could have a totally different readings:

1) if I get 58%, WHAT KIND OF GUY GETS 100% ?!?

2) who the heck wrote the test? Elton John's psychoanalyst?

Bachus · Post by **Bachus** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 7:55 pm

ozy wrote:
Hedegaard wrote:57%

My forecasts:
Ozy = 100%
Akos = 0%
ha, ha.

you won't believe that, but my result was 58%.

Looks like I am far more conservative than I look (not surprisingly: a soldier half of my adult life, a sport coach the other half... uhm... not exactly the "freak" curriculum. Rather the Heinlein-wing libertarian...)

Of course, this could have a totally different readings:

1) if I get 58%, WHAT KIND OF GUY GETS 100% ?!?

2) who the heck wrote the test? Elton John's psychoanalyst?

I got it to 80%

88%, 64%, 91% on the subtopics...

Is that bad?

Hedegaard · Post by **Hedegaard** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 8:04 pm

ozy wrote: 1) if I get 58%, WHAT KIND OF GUY GETS 100% ?!?

Whats really worrying, is that I got 57%, just 1% below you!
Thats bad enough! (j/k)

Interesting test though, thanks for posting

ozy · Post by **ozy** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 10:58 pm

Bachus wrote:
ozy wrote:1) if I get 58%, WHAT KIND OF GUY GETS 100% ?!?
I got it to 88%, 91% on the subtopics...

oh, oops!

Well, Bachus, nothing to worry about.

That test is full of surprises.

Akos himself would probably score 80%, contrary to hedegard's guess.

Hedegaard · Post by **Hedegaard** » Tue Jan 25, 2011 5:41 pm

ozy wrote:
Bachus wrote:
ozy wrote:1) if I get 58%, WHAT KIND OF GUY GETS 100% ?!?
I got it to 88%, 91% on the subtopics...

oh, oops!

Well, Bachus, nothing to worry about.

That test is full of surprises.

Akos himself would probably score 80%, contrary to hedegard's guess.

It should be called the "lesbo meter" the higher the score, the more potential you want to see this kind of thing

So no, am afraid Akos will be quite low I suspect....

djcl.ear · Post by **djcl.ear** » Mon Jan 31, 2011 5:18 am

SirRoyRogers wrote:Motif XF sounds better than Oasys and Kronos.

Most actual Synths -being DSP based- still lacking digital outs... Can't understand why Synth makers mostly don't allow for DAC converter choice to be exerted by users?

Even the new Kaoss pad suffers the same sound malady.
I don't know what kind or quality of converters Korg use. I do know that I don't want the extra convertions on my sound chain between Keys, effects up into the mixer.

When??

EXer · Post by **EXer** » Mon Jan 31, 2011 10:21 pm

McHale wrote:Yah, I'm not worried about Yamaha or especially Roland sneaking in to the game any time soon.

Agreed about Roland who have never done anything else than updated JV engines and not-so-good sounding VAs (with the exception of Variphrase which is very interesting but which has never really met commercial success).

But I believe that Yamaha can release a serious competitor to the Kronos:
¤ with their Motifs Yamaha have proven they know how to make romplers which sound excellent and which sell well;
¤ with their DX7, AN1X, FS1R and VL-70m they have proven they can master all sorts of synthesis methods;
¤ with their EX5, they have proven they can integrate different synthesis engines in one single instrument (not only AWM2, AN and VL but also FDSP, an algorithm of which (EP) is now used in their CP1). The EX5 has been the best sounding multi-synthesis keyboard ever until the Oasys was released.

If Yamaha release a new EX5 it will be a real killer if it has SSD and streaming (including for samples loaded by the user), enough CPU power to run AN, VL, FM, FS and FDSP besides sample based synthesis and high quality effects, if it has a large touch screen and integrated Karma 3, and if Yamaha develop large sample banks that can be downloaded for free from their website like Clavia does for their Nord kbs (in fact these Clavia sample banks are not free, the price of their development is included in the price of the instrument, but as a customer I really appreciate that new sound banks are being developed; which other manufacturer offers a Steinway grand, a Bösendorfer grand, a Yamaha grand and a French dual manual harpsichord for their stage pianos?).

Before the Motif was released, you could see Trinities, eventually Tritons, everywhere on stage and on sets. Now you can see Motifs everywhere. With the release of the Kronos Korg has done a big step forward. If Yamaha want to keep the supremacy that they have on the hi end synth/workstation market and that once belonged to Korg, they have to react. And, believe me, they will.

Flash & The Pan · Post by **Flash & The Pan** » Fri Feb 04, 2011 8:50 am

chilly7 wrote:
Rob Sherratt wrote:Just a small detail - can someone provide a link to an official Yamaha statement saying that any of the current Motif products are discontinued? Yes I know the XF is a later model than the XS and that Stephen Kay's Karma 3 Motif product will not work with the XS.

But how does the OP justify the title of this thread? How is "a dream" in any way latest news from Yamaha, especially when Yamaha are currently at NAMM with Stephen Kay promoting Karma 3 on the Motif XF.

Have I missed something?

Thanks,
Rob
Did u actualy have read?
I seid it was sicretly discontinued!

No one will say now atlist offiscialy that Yamaha discontinued Motif Xf already.

because it will mean that Yamaha will lose iven the most loyal and the most stupid castumers, which still prefore Motif Xf to Kronos.

Because it will mean that Yamaha did a crupp and thay obended all it's customers if thay will say that it is already discontinued after fwe month when it was relised

p.s.
yamaha will oficialy state that Motif Xf is discontinued only on next next Winter namm when their new Workstation will be ready to be shiped to the doors and also thay won't keep Motif name anymore, thay will call it with different name because Motif name has a bad reputation already

My Yamaha Motif XF Review
Note: This is a very subjective review of Yamaha Motif XF from a sound designer/synthesist view.(Me)

Normally all my work is done using s DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) meaning a PC and some various software with endless possibilities. So how exciting is a hardware workstation for a person like me, in this case Motif XF, well let me put it this way, i feel like i've been pushed back 20 years in time. They call it a Music Production Synthesizer but the is not a shred of synthesis in this thing. Motif XF is a huge sample player, thats it. It has a very limited synth section, in short it has 1 VCF 1 VCA and 1 LFO which equals to a tad better than a Sound Font player.

When used as a preset player for live situations, then it shines with its 4 assignable effects and many on the fly knobs to use in VOICE mode.

When used as a sequencer it is crippled by the fact that you can only use insert effects on 8 out of 16 channels. I bet if you planned to sequence a song using 16 very nice sounding VOICE presets then you will be dissapointed to know that only 8 of these preset will include the insert fx like they are supposed to and the rest must live without the insertion effects. This is very annoying. So i tend to call the seuqence an 8 channel sequencer.

A look into the stock samples in the synth section reveals lack of many things, first of all in total there are ONLY 3 modulated stereo waveforms for use in broad pads, the mono noise sample is so short that you can hear the loop unless you plan to use it for a closed hihat. The synthetic bell waveforms are very thin and many waveforms are pretty useless as building blocks, however the P5 waveforms are clearly ment for serious sound design, each of these waveforms are phase locked and precise over the entire keyboard range. These are the waveforms you should use to create other waveforms, eg mix the 0 Degree Saw with a 180 Degree Saw and you get a pulse waveform. Thats how most samples should work in the synth section, but only a few do it. There is a complete lack of smart additive waveforms, harmonics you use to create physical model instruments. Sure you could use a sine wave to build up the harmonics but then it would eat away polyphony which we always try to preserve.

The handling of actual NEW waveforms are a nightmare from a sound designers view, you cant save individual waveforms but have to save the whole lot, which also means whenever you need to load a waveform then you have to import all again. In this case the machine adds the loaded waveforms to the existing waveforms so you end up with tons of duplicates in Flash Memory.
Anyways, you will need some kind of software to handle this proper.

The Arpeggio functions, yeah its super great when working in VOICE mode but when working in SONG and PATTERN mode the ARP settings will reset, so you have to find the original arp setting by browsing 7000 arps on each arp'ed preset. Dohhh

As you can guess, I am not super thrilled about Motif XF but I am a stubborn type of guy with a mission, the mission is simple, to improve Motif XF. I will start by making some of the sound designer samples which are missing and to make a point i will make these samples take ONLY 1 MB of the 128 MB free assignable ram in Motif XF.

177 KB is reserved for a useful 2 second NOISE sample. This gives me 823 KB to play with.

Wish me good luck

Bachus · Post by **Bachus** » Fri Feb 04, 2011 11:02 am

EXer wrote: But I believe that Yamaha can release a serious competitor to the Kronos:
¤ with their Motifs Yamaha have proven they know how to make romplers which sound excellent and which sell well;
¤ with their DX7, AN1X, FS1R and VL-70m they have proven they can master all sorts of synthesis methods;
¤ with their EX5, they have proven they can integrate different synthesis engines in one single instrument (not only AWM2, AN and VL but also FDSP, an algorithm of which (EP) is now used in their CP1). The EX5 has been the best sounding multi-synthesis keyboard ever until the Oasys was released.

I own a Yamaha S90ES (Motif ES) and the best part of that board is the fact that i have 3 expansion boards inside it (VL, AN, DX) which add 3 more types of synthesis to my S90ES...

Motif XF and XS don't have these expansion options, and i allways wondered why?

jojo · Post by **jojo** » Fri Feb 04, 2011 4:22 pm

Jay-Z and Lady Gaga use the Motif?

Well... now I know why I hate Top 40. I've always said it all sounds the same. lol

What happened to the days of Foreigner, and Styx?!?

EXer · Post by **EXer** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 6:53 am

Bachus wrote:I own a Yamaha S90ES (Motif ES) and the best part of that board is the fact that i have 3 expansion boards inside it (VL, AN, DX) which add 3 more types of synthesis to my S90ES...

Motif XF and XS don't have these expansion options, and i allways wondered why?

They didn't sell well. Only a small fraction of the Motif/Motif ES buyers also bought VL, AN or DX PLG cards. The PLG cards that sold the better where the expansion ROM cards (pianos, drums...), which are not needed anymore on the most recent Motifs with their larger ROM.

Let's not blame Yamaha. As a manufacturer, if they want to live they have to manufacture products that sell, i.e. products that meet their market. Most of the synth/workstation buyers are not interested in synthesis. All they want is good quality and ready to use sounds is a preset laden rompler. Some (most?) of them even never edit a preset.

Given the succes of third party sounds, it seems that many Motif users don't even know a synth is a sound factory before being a sound bank...

Dye hart synthesis fans are a niche market which is met essentially by specialised instruments (e.g. the Roland V-Synth, which is a fantastic sound design machine) or by plug-ins.