I thought the G1000 version sounded better.. quite a bit actually.... but I don't think using an unmodified midfile is a fair comparison in the first place. While I don't have a T2 to compare, I've never liked any Yamaha I've ever owned for midifile playback.

The Motif ES doesn't sound very good playing most of my commercial midifiles either, as the many of the GM sounds aren't very pleasing at all and while I've never owned a G1000 or similar Roland board, I've often heard that Roland's are one of the better brands for GM sounds. I'll go as far as to say that my old software Hypercanvas ( Edirol / Roland ) module sounds better than my ES when strictly speaking in terms of SMF playback.

Of my three hardware boards, for playback on the majority of my midifiles using GM only, I would say that I prefer my MZ2000, with the PA80 lagging behind a little, and my ES a distant third. Yet the ES overall has much more pleasing lead voices for me than the other two.

My point I guess is that these boards are designed specifically as arrangers and not midifile playback machines, and it's hard to judge them on the merit of SMF playback only, particularly when using only the GM wavetables in each. It is apparent to me that Yamaha probably never has paid a lot of attention to producing quality GM sounds.

While I'd someday like to see a Tyros II accompanying me to a gig, I'll also say I'm still happy with my two "old" arrangers as well.. the PA80 and the MZ, so if it never happens that I wind up with a brand new T2 or other latest and greatest, I'll be just fine anyway I think.

AJ



[This message has been edited by Bluezplayer (edited 05-14-2006).]