I understand what you are saying....I don;t know which Motif XS8 you have But Performance mode on mine is nowhere near the Style playing mode of my Tyros. The only thing they have in common is they both track chords played. For one thing you are limited to FOUR voices in Performance mode while the Tyros has EIGHT and 10 instantly and perfectly timed variations on the fly and multi pad loops.... No variations on the XS HUGE difference...and when you do use the ARP changes in creating patterns you have to time them correctly.

You cannot select different variations breaks, intros and endings in "Performance mode" which means performance meaning "on the fly" playing live. All you get is chord tracking of 2 voices a Bass and a Drum Track that stays static for a "style" of music and a right hand voice. Not exactly something a "one man band act" would want to use. There is where the similarity ends.

The XS has the capability for better sounding voices because they can be edited in great detail. Not so much with the Tyros WYHIWYG...

You cannot do many things on either machine that you can do on the other, No pattern mode on the Tyros.....No variations to record in real time on the Motif XS in Performance mode. The Tyros mainstay is in Performance mode. Playing the Motif Live not many would use Performance mode as usually you are playing with a band. You create voices using eight elements, some of which can be ARPS.

The recorded "song" is created on the Motif stringing together patterns or in linear mode. Every voice has to be played unlike the Tyros where eight of 16 tracks are completed for you. Some voices can be ARPS which will track chords (or Drum parts which obviously don't) You record the pattern chaining in real time to create a song..In the Tyros you record the VARIATION changes to create a song. You are limited to four (excluding intros and endings). In the Motif you are not limited to the number of "variations" or patterns when creating a song. The EM review is misleading as few would use the Motif as a one man band instrument when keyboards like the PA1x, GWa and Tyros are available for that purpose exclusively. One thing they both do well is voice guitar parts correctly but to my ears even there Tyros beats the Motif. The ARPS on the Motif are plentiful but limiting at the same time.

Motif and Tyros Apples and Oranges.....in the same fruit bowl. They compliment each other but are not replacements for each other on any really useful level.




[This message has been edited by Kingfrog (edited 09-08-2010).]