I will never buy a 61 keys keyboard once more. I have a PA2X Pro, and I will
buy a Motif XS rack when it will come out.
I think that will be a purfect
comination. Motif, sounds, PA2X Pro arranger
sounds, connected together....purfect.

Tryggve Sweden

Motif XS rack is now available in US.
I was interested, but I auditioned a Motif XS 8....sounds are OK, but extended articulation I was not impressed with. XS rack is same sounds.
T2 has better SA.

Lee

Sadly, the one thing I REALLY like in the MotifXS keyboards is dropped in the XS Rack (and has been for all the Motif Racks)...

The sampler...

Somehow, Roland can include it in their Fantom Racks, but Yamaha drop it for the Motif series. Shame, really, as it isn't worth it for me to get a Fantom rack, as many of those sounds, and the 'flava' is already in my G70, and I really wanted to add Mega voices to my rig, but the incompatibility between MotifXS Mega voices and T2 and S900 ones makes using the XS Rack as a replacement for those products very difficult, and with no sampler, it starts to be a far less attractive purchase.

Shame...

Hey, Jørgen - if you are reading this, how about a program that converts from T2/S900 Mega information into XS Mega info...? That would be REAL handy

Shame...

You never know though. Maybe Yamaha "fixed" the SAV implementation with the Rack XS compared to the Motif XS. I believe though that the Mega Voices are all the same in the Rack XS, T2, and S900. At least as far as the technology behind them goes that is.
The S900 has less in quantity of the mega voices than the T2 or Rack XS does though. But there should be no incompatibility as far as using the Rack XS with the S900 or T2 in my opinion.

What you need to be aware of is if you have another brand of keyboard product other than the Yamaha brand and you try to MIDI up to the Rack XS you will most likely face incompatibility issues with not only the Mega Voices on the Rack XS, but also the SA voices on the Rack XS as well. I know I had problems when I midi'd up my Roland Sonic Cell with my Tyros. Since I bought the Roland Fantom G I am now using my Sonic Cell with that instead of my Tyros. Of course with that combo there is complete integration and compatibility. But the Motif Rack-XS used with a non-Yamaha i.e. (minus Mega voice and SAV inside) product?? There's bound to be some compatibility issues in my opinion. >> Your mileage may vary.. And all I can say is buyer beware!!

PS: I'm talking about when you play SMF on your keyboard through the Rack-XS. If you play the keys while playing the patches i.e. "voices" in the Rack XS you should be fine. Except that you can't play the Mega Voices in a live venue type situation as we all know. At least not effectively anyway. Again, your mileage may vary, depending on how well you can play those nefarious Mega Voices, of course.

Best,
Mike



[This message has been edited by keybplayer (edited 07-08-2008).]

I found out that the Motif-Rack XS has a GM bank of sounds that are "full" Motif XS sounds. Even though the Motif-Rack XS isn't fully GM compatible, with its separate bank of GM sounds there should be no problem playing SMF's through the Motif-Rack XS. Although, if you manually select sounds from the Preset Banks you will need to choose voices that aren't Mega or SAV voices or you may run into problems when playing SMF's. It might actually be possible to use SAV sounds without any problems. We will have to wait and see.

Best,
Mike

Gang,
Do not expect the EA ( extended articulation voices) in the XS rack to be like the T2...that are NOT even close. They don't work the same way and I for one was not inpressed with them. I did't even find that they do the same things at all. Very disappointing to me anyways.

It will be interesting to see if others agree.

The XS does have some great sound though. Not enough for me to keep it.

Lee

will tyros 3 be Musical ? or still just a digital workstation ?

Quantized looped base 8 bar (max) Styles 'CD polished' (no live feel) and too repetitious to suit my taste. You be the judge..

If Ketron ever gets the Audya out the door, (by summer of 2015 for sure ) it will be the first and only arranger (besides Lionstrac's Qrranger "now available" I believe .) that brings some diversity and randomness to auto-accompaniment Style playing. On top of that the Audya should have a suitable Live Band sound, feel and groove to it. The cost will be astronomical though and because of it may not sell near as well as Ketron was hoping.

Tyros3?? We'll have to wait and see but most likely it will be just an incremental upgrade to the Tyros2. Maybe Yamaha will surprise us though, you never know.

Best,
Mike

[This message has been edited by keybplayer (edited 07-11-2008).]

I was told by Ketron sales that the target cost in US for Audya is $4,000 - $4,500
Lee

Mike, sorry, but I need to clarify some of these points..

Firstly the Yamaha modules Motif, Motif ES and the Motif XS are FULLY GM1 and GM2 compatible and meet the full midi spec. (I own a Motif ES Rack).

What Yamaha have done is put BETTER sounds into the GM banks, but they still respond to the standard GM bank patches 0-127 as well as all controller and other GM requirements.

In some cases the sounds are even layered, not because Yamaha had to, but because they CHOSE to at the sample level, so users can get superb sounding SMF's even though they are still just the basice GM soundset.

There are several threads about the GM patches at the Motif Forums. And in particular Bad Mister (yeah thats his nick!!) has written several great explanations of this subject. (he is the, or one of the, chief Yamaha techs in the U.S.)

Personally, I always use the higher bank sounds as they have better efx and the ability for insertion effects.

Dennis