I have been using a Motif 6 as my main keyboard for gigs for quite a few years now. I do like the keyboard ... some sounds are very good .... some I wish were better ... but my main criticism is I wish the onboard MIDI sequencer was easier to use. I've been using computer sequencers for over 20 years now and I think all of them beat Yamaha's sequencer interfaces. I still do any MIDI sequencing I need on computer and just transfer the file to the Motif. I just don't like the user interface on the keyboard. But I wish I could just tweak sequences easily on the keyboard itself .... but that doesn't seem to be an option.

Nigel Roland Kbs are the easiest I have used to do SMF edits on board amonst many other things. Especialy when playing live and you need to edit & save in real time.

[This message has been edited by Dnj (edited 04-16-2007).]

Expecting ANY keyboard (short of Wersi or MS with a full computer sequencer on board) to have the ease of a dedicated sequencing program is unrealistic. First of all, there's the completely graphical way of manipulating data. This obviously depends on the display. I certainly wouldn't want to run Cubase on a 4 inch screen!

Then there is the enormously greater choices of editing tools. By the time an arranger has developed a sequencer that powerful, it would be unaffordable...!

I agree that Roland arrangers have the best SMF tweaking tools (called Makeup Tools) but these are primarily header and global edits. Often all you need, but if you need to edit the track data directly, as easy as Roland make it (their sequencer is pretty good) it is still a pale shadow of Cubase.

I am just glad that USB makes data transfer so much easier than it used to be. Bang the sequence to the computer, edit the SMF there, bang it back to the arranger. Simple, fast, powerful.

Why would anyone need more?

I hear ya Diki. Man I would go nuts trying to work a Cubase related program on a 4" screen. The software programs (even the older ones) offer a lot.

A good example. Right now I'm working on John Legend's song "Ordinary People". What an absolute bitch of a song to try and do! That man NEVER plays it the same way. It's either slower, faster, jazzier, ect.

Well I got so sick of trying to play the 20,000 versions of the piano part for this song, that I just went and found the freakin midi file. I know the chords to this song, which aren't hard, but John Legend goes in two different directions at the same time with the arrangement. Well I opened the midi up under Cakewalk and have been having a blast with with it. I'm using my RS-70 as the sound source, but I can add all the tracks I want to this song, and do other things.

**Also singing this song is a pain too, again John has 20,000 ways to sing it as well**

I'm afraid, squeak, the more versions an artist does of a song, the happier I am! I never want to do a note-for-note cover of ANYTHING, and if the artist themselves seems to have that approach, too... So much the better!

At least no-one will ever come up to you and say you suck because you do it differently!

I always try to get inside the 'soul' of a piece of music, NOT the notes. Unless you have the same line-up, and the same instruments, the notes, even if you play them, won't do the same thing, anyway... But once you capture the spirit of the tune, it's amazing how far away from the original you can go, and everybody still 'gets' it.

Give yourself permission to be as free with a song as the artist does... You'll be happier for it.

I'm not trying to play it note for note. I hate doing that. It's just crazy when you're trying to "learn" the song and there are so many variations of it by the artist Trying to find a medium ground between them can be frustrating at times. I've got the chords, and I'm gonna do my spin off of it, but this is one of those songs that finding that spin can be difficult. The Midi I got was yet another spin off the song too Still I was having fun with it though.

Squeak