As long as you like it then that's a win

Dennis

I don't think so. The ROM is about twice as much as the XS so even if it's only a few more sounds, it should mean that all the sounds have more samples, articulations, etc

great instrument. Would you say that it's easy to reproduce all the functions of an arranger, minus the intros and endings?
Are the arps as good as styles?

What interests me about a Motif over a PSR-s is the detailed sequencer, but I still use styles a lot.

Until Yamaha add in the capability to drop into a loop on anything OTHER than the 'one', rather than cuing them up a bar in advance, there's a DRASTIC difference between the Motif's and the arrangers.

On an arranger, you hit the fill button, it IMMEDIATELY drops into the fill, still in time with itself. Unless I have heard wrong, there's nothing that can do this on a Motif.

AFAIK, you also can't change inversions on bass and keyboard parts. Root only (unless the arp is written as an inversion), I believe.

Want to remind yourself how arrangers used to be, right when they first came out? Get the latest WS's...

yeah, I have to agree. No matter how many great synth workstation there are, like Yamaha Motif and Roland Juno G, I still want an arranger, and it has to be a Yamaha because it's the only one that has a 'chord track'. Technics keyboards had that too.

Also, using different chord inversions to me is essential.

Thanks for the clarifications,I'll stick to arrangers....the Motif is a great instrument but for composing a full arrangement quickly to me nothing beats an arranger.


[This message has been edited by arranger_yes_pc_no (edited 10-22-2010).]

[This message has been edited by arranger_yes_pc_no (edited 10-22-2010).]

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[This message has been edited by arranger_yes_pc_no (edited 10-22-2010).]

Nick G. has a similar view about the XF that I had. I played an XF8 a while back and I thought it was a step up from the XS sound wise as well. Out of the box the XF really shines but I do have a few issues with it not the least is the smaller, lower resolution LCD screen than my huge, higher resolution Roland Fantom G7 has. I noticed also in low light it is difficult to gauge and read the panel buttons etc., that are on the Motif XF which could possibly interfere and hinder a live performance where low lighting is used. Kudos to Yamaha for giving the XF a large Flash RAM capability for storing samples and I assume other types of files. It is funny though that Yamaha doesn't list the XF specs on their site yet. Will they ever?? The XF is already on store shelves and Yamaha.com doesn't have specs listed for the XF yet??? Whoever runs their website should get with it and post them asap. First it was Yamaha not posting the WAV ROM amounts for the Tyros 2/3, etc. and now they don't post anything at all for the Motif XF OR the Tyros4?? Bizarre to say the least. Yamaha must feel entitled to do whatever they want since they're the big cheese in the keyboard arena. It must be nice being able to keep your customers and/or potential customers in the dark I guess... right Yammie?

All the best,
Mike

As I said m8, which you seemed to have deliberately cut-off to make it seem like that was MY view....I was only passing on an alternate view given to me by someone else.

I personally have not heard it.

I HAVE used an XS pretty extensively even to the point of TRYING to get use it as an arranger.

It did not really come close. I mean, some of the arps are cool for about 16 bars, but try running even four different ones over a 5 min jazz tune, and they soon get tiresome. No half-fills, no variation fills, even the arps within a category are very similar.

And, live, I found the only way that really worked without too much forethought was having the variation start immediately on the button press.
Having to think a bar ahead was a pain.

LOL, I can tell you you really need to have good button pushing timing!!! I had some funny segues at times

Dennis

Hi Mike,

I think you haven't seen Yamahasynth.com before? specs and WAV rom are listed here about the XF http://www.yamahasynth.com/products/synthesizers/motif_xf/#specification-anchor

So obviously the Motif is NOT an arranger. BUT you can make it kinda close in some ways.
In the performance mode you have 5 variations of the performance that are all fully configurable.
you can switch between the 5 variations in realtime or by measure.

What this means is you can make 1 or 2 or more of the variations very short so they act as fill ins and you can set thats variations to "Realtime" so when you press the variation button it will INSTANTLY go into a fill. OR if it is configured to be my "Measure" it will change to the fill in timing at the next bar.

I have made some performances VERY close to some styles that are on the Tryos BUT you are limited to only 4 tracks.

Now in each track you have 8 elements. so we can technically have 8 x 4 WAV samples playing simultaneously.
its completely configurable.

generally you have Track 1 as the drum kit, track 2 as a bass, track 3 as a combination of pad, synth noises, loops, whatever you want, and then track 4 as your right hand playing voice.

using the AF1 and AF2 buttons you can allow certain elements to cut in and out in realtime so this gives you alot more granularity as well. The control surface with the 8 sliders and knobs can also make your 4 tracks variate in MANY ways. even though YES I would kill to have at least 2 more tracks in the performance mode, there is still ALOT you can surprisingly do with 4 tracks playing simultaneously.

One thing I have noticed that no other brand has (maybe korg but prove me wrong), is that some arpeggios have full chord recognition and some do not.

For example a looping 4/4 bass guitar arpeggio can recognize the chord you are playing on the keyboard in any octave section. so what this means is you can play full 3 or more finger chords on the left hand triggering off pads and other channels but the bass line will play in the chord the keyboard recognizes.

SOME other arpeggios are triggered just by a single note and can muffle if you hit a 3 notes in one go.
There is a lot of granularity and personal customization on this machine, alot more than most arranger players may think or know.

hope this helps...

Nick

Nick

Hi Miden,

I just want to add because maybe you missed this feature when you used the XS:
firstly to clarify - the XS had about 6000 arpeggio patterns already out of the box. the XF has over 7000.

The arps are all categorized and there are already pre set arps for 8 beat, rock, trance, jazz, latin for all types of instruments (drum arps, bass arps, pad, guitar strums ETC ETC)

ANY sequence that you make in the song or pattern mode CAN be converted to an arp so you can call it up in your performance and play it in a live situation with CHORD RECOGNITION (something the ROLAND Fantom doesn't have and I don't know about the Korg M3)

You can also import ANY midi file into the keyboard's sequencer and convert that to an arp using the "put track to arpeggio" function as well. Its VERY easy.

The beauty is that when you use an arpeggio in the performance mode, you can assign it to respond to chord recognition or not.

Please dont take me wrong i am not trying to cut you down or be defensive, but I want to clarify this to any people who are genuinely interested or curious in case they are mislead.

Nick