Terry -

I've been thinking about getting a Motif ES to provide backing for my accordion CDs. I've looked at all of the new keyboards and prefer the ES as far as the sounds go.

I recall you posting earlier that you have the ES8. I've been going back and forth on the ES7 versus the ES8. I know the 8 buys you another octave and hammer-balanced keys for $400 street, but it's also heavier and more cumbersome. Since I won't be carting it everywhere I guess it's no big deal.

Do you use it at all like an arranger? I love some of the guitar arps with the Mega voices and the chord recognition is pretty cool. I had a lot of ideas about using the guitar arps and some old accordion songs together.

I've got an AW16G and was checking out that Tascam you purchased. Nice unit!

If you get a chance I'd love to hear an update about your Motif ES experiences.

Anybody else that has one please feel free to comment as well.

Thanks.

Tommy

Tommy
Like every other board I think the Mo has it's pros and cons. From my perspective of course, here's what I think:

Pros
Sounds, arps, pattern sequencer, key feel weighted 10+ perhaps a bit too many synth sounds for my bread and butter needs, but that comes with the workstation territory.

Performances gets a 7+

Cons
User interface and understandability, logical layout, below the surface, i.e, if I want to do something once I get something sequenced, like change a voice or, edit or really anything other than pick voices and play or arp them. Add something from my plug in boards, send the arp out to arp one of my sound modules etc.....

Screen size.

Menu after submenu rather than dedicated buttons.
All of that I give a 10- to.

Some "get" this board without much if any problems. On the other hand there are way too many "uh.how do I.whatever's" on the Motif forum which at least tells me I'm not the only dumb one and that the Mo is not all that intuitive.

My suggestion would be before you plunk down the dough, d/l their manual read it and make some notes or print the pages of things you think you would do on a regular basis, then trot on down to the store and try them live on the board.

I would not suggest buying the Mo with any thought of it being arrangerish except only very very remotely if you want to consider the arps/perf sort of arranger like. The arps will only arp 1 voice at a time though, so to speak, maening in performance mode, live real time you can apply the SAME arp to 4 voices but that certainly sounds like trash in 99% of the cases.

You can record different backing sequences in pattern mode with different arps, and in this case it's not much different then playing against any prerecorded backing tracks.

Straight up as much as Yamaha is #1 in my book I am seriously considering trading it in on a Fantom X8 when they hit the stores. The S I had was not as powerful as the Mo is, but I "got" that board right out of the box. So all the Mo features and power are useless to me if in frustration I finally give up and don't use them.

About the Tascam, the short answer is, the best recorder I've owned yet with the highest quality results I have ever had. I would like to see a few improvements that really are minor in routing of things on the screen and a "save as" feature would be a little help. To me there's more bang for the buck with the Tascam then there was with the AW4416 and are on the same block pricewise. This is another case I think that I got this board right out of the box after a couple of days of playing with it and the AW took alot more with more manual usage. The AW was/is a great recorder and I got great results with it and the several hundred songs I recorded on it over a few years, but I do like the Tascam quite a bit better.

What's a ;ittle hard for me to understand on Yam's snobbier equipment is the 180 degree difference in understandability (for me) compared to the Tyros and their other arrangers I have had which are always a "no brainer" to me and have had to barely unwrap the manuals let alone use them.

Terry

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jam on,
Terry http://imjazzed.homestead.com/Index.html

Thank you VERY much for such a detailed response, Terry. You've certainly given me a lot to think about.

It's funny but my AW16G has been a bit of a pain in the neck lately. It was great when I read Yamaha's Recording 101 doc and I not only recorded but burned a CD the first night! But....now that I have advanced past that point and want to use EFX, editing, virtual tracks, exporting of wavs, etc., I am finding myself on www.aw16g.com almost daily asking questions. It's true that I get help instantly but it's sure a pain to have to go post every question I have. And I'm a manual-reader too, so pity the poor folks that hate manuals!

I can't think of another "home" (and I use the word home for lack of a better desciptive term at the moment) musician/producer that creates and puts down clearer, crisper recordings than you. I listen to some of your clips with headphones and am blown away by the stereo separation and clarity. It's one of the reasons I went with a Yamaha DAW since you used one. So it's interesting to hear your take on the Tascam as being the best DAW you have ever used.

Thanks again. I'll definitely consider the 88-key version since you rated the action a 10+. I'll try to find one at a music store around here.

Tommy

Tommy
You're more than welcome and thanks for the kind words about my mixes.

Another huge + for the Tascam if you're into it.....you can record 128 tracks of midi. You can also do 999 virtual tracks of analog.

The onboard efx are very good, using things like TC reverb etc.
Terry

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jam on,
Terry http://imjazzed.homestead.com/Index.html