ORIGINAL: cmorgan8

I have never had an issue with Yamaha MOTIF ES6 61-Key Music Synthesizer

Awesome Keyboard/workstation!!!!!

Shameless promotion ahead:

Speaking of the Motif ES6


http://cgi.ebay.com/Yamaha-Motif-ES6_W0QQitemZ150209884261QQihZ005QQcategoryZ64387QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Shameless promotion over.

P

I have checked almost all presets on Motif XS and Fantom, they were connected to the same system. Words not enough to describe how MotifXS sounds.

ORIGINAL: vicsant

When the Korg Oasys first came out last year, the 88-key model was priced at around USD8K. Now I know Jordan Rudess, and Herbie Hancock are using these instruments, but I'm sure they got some substantial discounts from Korg to use and "advertise" the Oasys. (Maybe these instruments were given to them). It would be interesting to know just how many of these beasts Korg was able to sell.

Based upon the number of people who have registered them at the Korg Karma Oasys site and figuring in the people who haven't, if you look at the serial numbers out there, its close to 5,000 units.

its close to 5,000 units.

Wow!

.....And a lot of us complain about Sonar's $179 yearly update!

Susan:
I first went down to the music store to buy a Yamaha P90, a digital piano. I'd played one before and was really impressed by how piano-like the keyboard was. It felt more like a real piano than any other digital piano I'd tried.

But after thinking about it I decided I couldn't justify a piano, I needed a more general-purpose synthesizer. The S90 is basically the P90 with a synth tacked on, so I went looking for that instead. Couldn't find one in town, though, so I gravitated toward the Motif, which features the same piano samples as the P90/S90.

But I didn't like the keyboard on the Motif nearly as much. Too synth-y, too plastic feeling compared to the P90. The music store guy suggested I look at the MO8, a new model at the time, that featured the same samples as the Motif but with the keyboard used in the P90/S90/P120 digital pianos. So I got one, and have loved it ever since. Great weighted piano feel, very comfortable for someone accustomed to acoustic pianos. Sounds good, too -- just like your Motif.

I saved nearly a thousand dollars, too, over the Motif. I spent that grand on a Kurzweil rack module, so I have polyphony galore without resorting to soft synths and their, uh, challenges.

I'm still on the hunt for a good organ-style keyboard, though. The downside of a piano-style keyboard is it's painful (literally) to play organ parts on. Got my heart set on the new Hammond XK-3c, but at $2300 the contents of my penny jar won't quite cover it yet.

EDIT:
To clarify, at least three different keyboards are used for the MO and Motif product lines. The 61- and 76-key versions of the Motif ES use a standard synth-style keyboard. The 61-key MO6 uses a semi-weighted keyboard. The 88-note versions, both the MO8 and the ES8, have hammer-action keys, possibly the same exact keyboard in both.

Looking on ebay, it looks like your estimates are closer than mine on new equipment. I paid $1700 for my FantomX6 more than a year ago and can probably get $1100-1200 for it now. When I was looking to buy, the street price for a new one was $2000 and were going for about $1500 on ebay. That was last year and the Fantom was the latest model. The new G model will decrease the X's value.

But the return on used equipment looks much better. I'll bet an X6 in good condition bought today for $1200 could be sold for almost the same price a year from now.

OTOH, a computer is worth practically nothing after a year's use and used software and sample libraries have no resale value.

If I had to choose, I would drop the hardware, but having both is the best and worst of both worlds. The things I like best about the FantomX are the portability, sounds, midi accuracy, and reliability. Everything ends up the computer for ease of editing and audio tracks. The FantomX has 8 audio tracks but they take forever to load.

Susan G have you tried XS? If yes can you compare sounds?

ORIGINAL: jimack

Exactly right. I bought a Yamaha S90 a few years ago. It has great sounds right from the Motif series. I rarely use it with my DAW, except for Piano parts. But even then, I don't use it for the sound, I use it for the action. The main reason I bought it was so my kids could have access to a somewhat "real" piano. And the action on it is superb, so it fills that bill quite nicely. I NEVER use the workstation features on it though. Save yourself some money and take bitflipper's advice.


Edit -->> The only exception I could see to this is if you do a lot of Live Performing. In that case, a workstation might make your life easier.

The S90 and newer S90ES are excellent weighted keyboards with great sounds. They are also set up to be decent controllers. If I ever need an 88 key controller, my first choice would be the original S90.

Timing is everything. Before I read through this thread, I saw some comments/diff thread... on capitalist America, etc...RE the Roland bit.

I read this at just the right time, and about fell off my chair.

ORIGINAL: John

Ah let me think about this, ah yes, Roland. I can't think why that popped into my head.

I have an M-Audio ULTRA 8R interface, Toshiba satellite lap top computer, realtek soundcard,and tons of other studio gear to include TASCAM DA-38's, FINALIZER EXPRESS, DAT, and every cable in the world