I'll post some initial thoughs of a few of the boards:
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YAMAHA MOTIF XS:

First thing I will say about it is Wooooooowwwwwwwwwwwww!

Features: The new screen is really nice, and I think it helps make the navigation a little easier. The body color is different than the norm for Yammie. A green fish this new Motif be The extra sliders are a welcomed addition too. There are some things dropped though. No breath controller, and they even dropped "step recording" from the sequencer-that I find odd..?? Construction felt nice, as did the key action. Navigation wasn't a problem for me, as I'm used to the Motif line, but this is not a synth to take out of the box and have it tamed within a short period of time. There are some very indepth functions within the Motif OS. Like any new keyboard you just have to get used to the OS.

Sounds: Man, the SA voices sounded GREAT! I couldn't step away from this board because of the sounds. Yammie did an awesome job with the acoustic voices on the Motif XS. I really didn't notice a difference between the SA voices on the XS and Tyros 2. It was also noisy in there. For anyone here interested in the Motif XS for the acoustic voices and the Xpanded SA voices, I don't think you'll be disappointed at all... They sound amazing. The synth sounds were much better than I expected too. Editing them with the new screen is really cool

The drum kits were REALLY nice! Great velocity switched acoustic kits, and the electronica kits were quite nice too.

The Arps and Performances had me wetting my freakin pants! I almost made love to the damn board right there in the store, but had to come to my senses.........

Bottom line guys, check out the XS if you can. Also bring a good pair of headphones with you too.
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TYROS 2:

Features: Nice screen, AWESOME KEY ACTION, and I mean AWESOME! I really liked the keybed on this arranger. Maybe it's just me, but I felt the overall construction could have been a little better considering the price. I like the tilting screen too. Poly is good, didn't notice any drop outs. Wheels are of good quality. Good panel layout as well.

Sounds: I thought the sounds were very good. Pianos are a little bright for my taste, but I've always felt Yammie's pianos were brighter. The SA voices were really nice. I would say that I was 99.99% pleased with the SA voices. I know I've mentioned this, but although it may sound realistic to some, the string noise on the guitars is a bit much. Someone who's not a guitar player will love them and will think they sound very authentic. I will say that when I was demoing the guitar SA voices one of the sales reps who worked in guitars commented about the string noise. The orchestral voices were great. I've always loved Yammie's orchestral voices. Ohhhhh that sweet oboe Naturally, the sweet, cool, live and mega voices were stunning.

The drums left me with mixed feelings to be honest. The newer acoustic kits (can't remember the names off the top of my head) were much better than the traditional Yamaha acoustic kits. I didn't care for the electronic kits though.

Styles: The only thing I'll say negative about the styles is they seem "too polished". It feels more like playing with a CD than a live band. Other than that I thought the styles were pretty darn good. Just need more of a live feel to them.

Overall I think the Tyros 2 was a very nice arranger. It really shines for traditional styles. Some of the modern styles were so so IMO. Nothing really jumped out at me. I really think the T2 was designed more for the traditional crowd IMO. In that department I think the styles were quite good.
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Well that's all for now, need to get back to visiting with the family. I'll try to post more regarding the others, and possibly more about the XS and Tyros 2 if I can.

Squeak -

Nice review, especially the part about almost wetting your pants and making love to it

zuki

thanks squeak..how close do the arps come to arrangers as far as rhythm sections go, and do you in fact need to change an arp in a performance, like you would on an arranger, eg variation 2 to 4 etc etc?
thanks
dennis

Squeak,

Thanks a lot for sharing! The Motif XS looks to be exactly what I had hoped for

Kind regards,
Tommy

Any news as to how fast it's sample RAM can load up?

Fellas, only got a minute here... I'm going back to Sam Ash, and Guitar Center again today. The women are planning an afternoon of shopping--which works great for me. I've got a few things I want to spend some more time on with the Motif XS, T2, and MM6. Will be reporting back later on "all models" I've tested, and try to answer more questions.

Squeak

When I had a product specialist in my store the other day and asked about load time, and I don't have any sample ram in my store demo unit yet, he said it is much faster than the previous models. I'll have to try it when I buy some ram to install.


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George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California
818-881-5566
www.kayesmusicscene.com

George can you try to program & record a complete song using the patterns as close to arranger playing as possible & give us an idea of whats involved in the process & its difficulty.

I went back and spent some more time with all the boards I listed. I tackled the Tyros 2 again. I was pissed off at where they had the Tyros 2. Here's all these lower end arranger keyboards costing pennies, and BAM a $3500 arranger. It just seemed out of place. I told the keyboard department they're freakin crazy for not having the Tyros 2 back in the "pro" section.

Again I'm just blown away by the SA voices. OH MY GOSH those saxes are just mouth watering. I also spent some more time with the drum kits, and YES several of them are a big improvement. I think the one's that stood out were Power 1 and Power 2. I still wasn't impressed with the electronica kits though.

The keys on the T2 just feel down right great! I really like the key action on it. I felt very connected to the sound with those keys. I still feel the styles are more "CD" quality rather than "live" quality. That's not a bad thing either as we all have different opinions in terms of what tickles our pickles in styles.

I still feel the construction of the Tyros 2 does not reflect the price. For the life of me I can't understand why a $3500 arranger has painted buttons. The screen, and the overall layout is very nice, but the construction wasn't up to par IMO for a keyboard in that price range.

I dug into the entire Motif line again while I was there. What really sucked is I wanted to spend more time on the unit, but ended up answering questions for the crowd that gathered while I was playing. It pissed me off because the sales rep was goofing off somewhere, while there were customers with real questions. So I got drowned in questions related to all the damn synths back there.

I will say the chord recognition on the XS is SPOT ON! I messed with it yesterday, but didn't get to dig in as deep into the chord rec. as I wanted to today. However, it really felt like playing an arranger at times. I didn't get to get too deep into it as I said because I ended up explaining and showing features to others. I didn't want to be rude either. These people had serious questions and not one person there to answer them. Very sad.

I will say again the SA voices on the Motif XS are amazing. The acoustic sound still blew me away. The XS is gonna be a hit for sure. I don't know how buyers are going to take to the things left off this model though....

well come on then Squeak, when are u buying your Tyros 2?