I just spent about three hours on a MotifXS 61 at our local dealer... I have to say, on the whole, WOW!

Many fat usable patches, cool style programming, sweet overall sound...

A couple of things I noticed that haven't been talked about, yet. Firstly, the arpeggiator control is on a 'next bar' basis. There are up to five or six arpeggiator patterns (call them variations and fills, if you like) available, per Performance (registration). But there is no easy way (or I couldn't find it yet) to trigger a fill while you are playing. Fills, and next variation have to be triggered a bar in advance, so you can't hit a fill button and it immediately jump into the fill. You have to set the fill up in advance, so that is a huge strike against it compared to regular arranger-type operation.

Most of us are used to cueing up the next variation, but most arrangers will drop into a fill instantly, and then automatically go to the next variation. The XS makes you do everything yourself, so going from one variation to the next entails firstly, a bar before you need the fill, you hit the button for it (and they aren't labeled as fills, just Arp 1-6, no clue as to what they do, very poor, IMO), and then, in the next bar, while the fill plays, you hit the button for the destination arp. Not very intuitive, I'm afraid.

And there is NOTHING in the way of Intros or Outros (especially outros, some #1 arps are thin enough to work for an intro), so ending tunes without a dead stop or a fade will be difficult. Chord recognition felt smooth, and slash chords were supported in some arps, but still not quite as sophisticated as some arrangers.

The key-bed felt solid, a little short-throw for my tastes, but I'm spoiled by the G70's action... Build quality felt VERY solid, and the display was fairly readable, although some screens use such a small font that I was challenged to read easily from a standing position. I had to stop myself from pushing on the screen itself so many times, because I'm used to the touch screens on Rolands!

Amongst the myriad techno, trance and hiphop patterns were a bunch of really usable R&B, funk, rock blues and country patterns, a few nice latin ones, some reggae, etc.. But I'm not sure if, OOTB, I could gig this thing out without some more patterns. Next time I play it, I'll count more carefully.

I have to confess to being underwhelmed by the main piano. It had a nice top end, but the bottom end felt very hyped, and the middle was a tad 'tubby' and slightly phasey. I listened through a decent studio monitor setup, with a sub, so I don't think the rig was the main factor. It definitely didn't feel up to Y's P-series pianos, and seemed a very poor comparison to the FantomX piano, or an RD700SX.

But the rhodes and wurlis were to die for! Strings were very nice, orchestral voices, on the whole, pretty decent, guitars outstanding (of course!), synth sounds were good and plenty!

Next trip I'm going to dig in a little deeper, I'll try to do a bit of benchmarking on how fast the sampler loads (but, AFAIK, Yamaha STILL haven't made loading Akai multisamples any easier), and I'll try to see how many Mega voices are in it, because one pet project is to see if I can use one of these as a 'virtual' T2, so I can play T2 styles on my G70, and have them address the XS's Mega voices (which are virtually impossible to emulate on a Roland).

Anyway, good first impression.... they had to drag me kicking and screaming out of the store..!

this anticipation is killing me!!! i wanna play one!

please excuse me as I have never played on a Synth...

i like using the T2 for live situations where you can have intros, variations, fill ins etc. I know that the Motif doesn't technically have a button called "intro" or "fill" but are there ways of getting around it to make this possible??

I want the synth for its dance / trance capabilities over the arrangers but I also dont want to be playing a midi file just turning knobs and moving sliders up and down...

Nick, if you end up buying the Motif XS as your first synth, I suggest you go in with a really "BIG DEEP BREATH" before starting. The Motis XS is a great synth, but it's functions (like the Motif Classic and ES) are really indepth. The recording platform is also going to be a bit different as well. For example, one way of constructing songs on the XS is you'll use "pattern chaining", then adding linear tracks on top of those under song mode. Again the XS is an awesome workstation. However, she'll also come with a learning curve.

Squeak

i would like to add to diki's post re arpeggios, i think it is the same on the xs as the es series in that you cannot change arps via a footswitch either, its all "hands-on"...
the "fiddly" nature of the arp selection, not knowing which arp is which, no intros or endings and the fact that most of the sounds are just carried over from the es series, means i have now made the jump to a roland e-50 (should be here tomorrow), to go alongside (well, on top of!!) of my yammie S90ES..the 90es has arps, all the great ES sounds, superb main piano sound and a weighted keyboard...so i will treat the e-50 more as a module than anything else(and it has quite compact "footprint")..if anyone is interested i will post up some demo tunes, when i get time..
cheers
dennis

[This message has been edited by miden (edited 05-03-2007).]

Squeak, i am keen to take on something brand new and re learn everything from the ground up. arrangers are essentially all the same just different sounds / styles. The editing and real time playability is too limited for my liking for modern dance / trance music.

i play alot of latin numbers using the Bolero lento pattern, beguine, bossa nova and rhumba so i am hoping this is still possible on the Motif...

at this stage i am not sure if i should keep the T2 or sell it when i buy a Motif. i dont want to buy a motif and then the T2 just sits there n collects dust.

but also i dont want to sell my T2, buy the motif and go "oh shit" u know what i mean?

The Motif XS will fill your needs for the modern music. I think it will also please you in the traditional styles as well, as Yammie is now putting so much emphasis on acoustic emulation.

If you can I'd keep the T2. As nice as the XS is I think you'd miss the full arranger functions of the T2. The XS is going to satisfy you as well by having expanded versions of the SA voices. Plus it will have other Yamaha signature voices found on the arranger line.

Squeak

You can smoothly go from one variation to another by using the function buttons, under the screen.

nick, don't expect too many latin rhythms and arpeggios on the XS..i haven't been through the arp listing for the xs, but i can tell you that on the s90es(which has the same arps as the motif's) there are only a handful, with not too much variation between them..
dennis