And a Motif is an arranger? NOT!

Ian

What prevents Yamaha or any of the other keyboard manufacturers from putting quality drum sounds in their Arrangers? Granted, a Motif is a Workstation and it is considered a professional keyboard instrument used for professional purposes but so is the Tyros/2 according to Yamaha. In fact a Tyros/2 costs in the same neighborhood as an 88 note Motif ES/XS. Since they are both considered professional keyboard products why has Yamaha relegated the best Drum sounds to the Motifs? I think the main reason is because Yamaha seems to have grown accustomed to the way they have produced the Drums on the PSR line of keyboards instead of updating the Drum sounds to be similar to those that are on the Motifs. The Drums improved somewhat on the Tyros over the PSR line and the Tyros2 is even better yet but they are still no where near the quality of, for instance, the Motif ES or Motif XS. We are paying the same price for their top of the line Arrangers as we would for their top of the line Workstations and in my opinion Yamaha should give their TOTL Arrangers the Motif quality Drums also. I hope Yamaha reconsiders (the old way of doing things) and gives the T2 successor some outstanding Drums.

PS: The Company that succeeds in doing that first - whether Yamaha, Korg, Roland, or whoever, stands the best chance in my opinion of gaining additional market share in the Arranger keyboard market, even if some of the other features on the keyboard are not quite as cutting edge as the keyboard(s) with the lesser quality Drums.

Mike

I have a motif xs. I'm sorry, but I don't agree with this statement. They ARE somewhat better than Tyros, but they are still close miced without the room ambience or any convolution. My problem with that and maybe it's just me, is that the room sound helps to (for want of a better term) homogenize and marry the drums to the mix. In other words add tremendous punch, impact and a sense of spaciousnous with being overbearing.

Yanaha does have pretty good reverbs. I have a spx 2000 reverb on the console aux 5 and 6 and a AKG on 3 and 4, but I could twist the knobs right off the mixer and I just can't put in what isn't there.

Honestly, I have always thought my little psr 550 from years ago had more realistic drum sounds than my Tyros.


[This message has been edited by pianodano (edited 09-28-2007).]

I think that Yamaha's drum sound reflect their market position on the PSR and Tyros lines... That is, keyboards specifically marketed AT and voiced FOR the 'home' user.

As such, the 'live' dynamics and punch that is so important to performing publicly, where you are TRYING to get as close to a real 'live' band as possible, actually works against you when you are at home, and want a more polished, CD-like sound (after all, that is what you are comparing yourself to, at home).

Add to that that probably most home arranger users have never played in a live band (the vast majority of arranger sales go to hobbyists and amateurs) and wouldn't recognize a good 'live' sound even if they had one, and you start to see Yamaha's position on these sounds.

They certainly don't BUILD their arrangers for professional use (despite them being used by many as such), nor include so-called 'pro' options like larger keyboards, so it is unlikely that they would voice them that way...

JMO, yada yada yada...

Well you could say:

And Tyros2 is an Arranger - NOT!!!

Not according to Yamaha anyway - see front page of Manual - Digital Workstation.

And I suppose it is. It doesn't have proper sampling capability but it does have a load of advanced features if you can only find the time to work out how to use them.

John




[This message has been edited by jwyvern (edited 09-28-2007).]

John...he was comparing PSR to MOTIF not Tyros2.

Ian

Diki, I know you're gonna take this hard.

You'd better sit down and take a deep breath.

Ready?

I agree with you 100%.

Ian

I never agree with Diki--it's against my principles!

Cheers,

Gary

Originally Ian granted, but similar comments tend to be made about Tyros in this type of discussion, and I think people in general are talking "Yamaha" rather than a particular model. I may be wrong though in which case they'll all think the drums are perfectly OK on Ty2.

But this is digression
John



[This message has been edited by jwyvern (edited 09-28-2007).]

I just thought I'd quote this just in case you came to your senses and deleted it!

Seriously, though... thank you. I've never had a problem with Yamaha's, in fact, I'm very envious of many of the OS features and quite a lot of the sound-set, but my primary goal is playing live, and replicating the 'live' band experience for my audiences, and until Yamaha decide to do a true 'pro' model, with punchier drums and a choice of
different 'pro' keyboard sizes, like they provide for the Motif users, sadly I'm not even able to contemplate one.

Maybe Yamaha will address this one day if they are able to get over their 9000Pro jitters, but probably they consider guys like me too small a market to be worth going after. Shame, really, as so little needs to be done to make an effective live sounding arranger, but at least they DO focus exclusively on the one market, something other manufacturers MIGHT be better off financially doing.

But sadly, some of the best professional OS features are on an arranger voiced specifically for home use, and some of the more 'pro' built and voiced arrangers (especially Roland) have what I would, at best, call 'home' orientated OS's. Hopefully, ONE of them will address the other's needs, or I'll be permanently stuck in limbo, but forced by my job to use the 'live'-est sounding arranger despite it's shortcomings.

[This message has been edited by Diki (edited 09-28-2007).]