I played my first gig with the MM6 Saturday night and came away with a few observations. First, a little background. I bought an S90 about three years ago and have cycled it in and out of my live rig ever since.
I have always had a problem getting at it’s sounds, effects etc quickly on the fly in a live situation. So, I bought the MM6 for gigs.

Here’s what I think.

Overall, a great little instrument - especially for the price. Yamaha has definitely listened to their users griping about the user interface and done something about it. I only had one afternoon to set it up before the gig, so I’m no guru, but I did notice a couple of things.

The performance memory - which is actually the storage area for user patches and settings- is set up in an 8 X 8 array, 8 banks of 8 performances, and is great for storing and retrieving favorite patches in any order that makes sense to you. One thing that I think needs to be addressed in OS upgrade 1.XX is that when you select a bank with the INC/DEC buttons, the entire LCD displays only BANKx even when you select one of the eight patches in the bank. The only way to see what patch you’ve picked is to exit back to the main screen. It would be a huge plus if the display showed the names of the eight patches within each bank when you called it up so you would know what you were selecting. I ended up taping a chart above these buttons with patch names for the first few banks, but still ended up mis-fingering the selections a couple of times mid-song.

The split and dual (layer) functions are great and really easy to get at and use live - unlike the S90. I did notice that when calling up performance memory patches that the splits/dual parameters seemed to be applied erratically. Sometimes it would come up split and or dual and sometimes not. This may be due to my unfamiliarity with the unit.

The sounds are pretty good overall. Not quite as fat and warm as the S90/motif IMHO, but as Morty has mentioned there is a wealth of DSP effects available, and I plan to work on applying these to sweeten up some of my fave’s. For what I use it for - Organ, Piano, Electric Piano, strings, brass primarily it’s great, and I like the filter knobs being always available for tweaking. I don’t like the fast Leslie simulation on any of the stock organ patches at all, but I notice that there are almost 20 different rotary speaker DSP effects available so I plan to tweak on those as well.

I realize that this is an entry level synthesizer, but I do miss being able to edit some of the sound fundamentals. For example, there is a patch called “Lucky” which I assume is supposed to be Keith Emerson’s Moog patch from “Lucky Man”. It sounds OK, but it has no portamento! Yikes! A brief search didn’t uncover any way to add or adjust this and the tone generator may not even support it. I’m guessing that once Yamaha releases sound editors for this thing, we may be able to get at some of these parameters externally.

I can’t comment on the sequencer, arpeggiator and accompaniment modes which are major features of this instrument since I don’t use that sort of stuff live. I’m old school. I still play my own licks /forums/images/icons/wink.gif alt=

Anyway, in spite of these few gotchas, I had a blast playing the MM6 and highly recommend it as a Motif alternative for stage use.

Bob

Re: First Gig - First Impressions

Glad to see a review from someone that has taken the MM6 on a gig.  Thanks for the review.  Also I really don’t think Yammie will be doing an OS updates for the MM6.  I can’t recall an OS update even being on the table here (from Yamaha’s end).

I like the whole concept of the MM6.  I was very pleased to see Yamaha release another board that would “replace” the original DJX or be based on the same concept.  I just WISH that Yamaha would have made more voice editing options with the MM6.  I also don’t like the registration use for saving custom voices either. 

The MM6 really is just a PSR keyboard with a Motif based sound engine.  Yammie did the same thing (or the same concept) years ago with the original DJX.  I was surprised however to see that the Yamaha S03 is more editable than the MM6.  Even the Roland Juno-D has more editing options and includes editor software.

A store locally is supposed to be getting an MM6 soon, so I will be taking it for spin (hopefully).

Re: First Gig - First Impressions

squeak...you’re totally right about the MM6/djx connection. played it the other day and found it great for sounds and yet disappointing in big ways. not being able to loop a basic phrase with the sequencer being the most puzzling...could the djx do that? (I can’t remember)

also did either djx have an arpeggiator? the mm6 one does have a fairly extensive list of arp patterns; I haven’t played the motifs enough to know if it’s the same as on there or not, but it’s a lot of fun to play…

I sorta hope you’re wrong about the OS update...it’s really close to being a great scratchpad tool....

Re: First Gig - First Impressions

Nope, the DJX’s sequencer didn’t loop either.  However the DJX had a very and I mean VERY basic sampler.  You could create a beat using the sequencer on the DJX, and then sample it right back into the keyboard, and loop the sample /forums/images/icons/smile.gif alt= Hell the DJX even had a ribbon controller, along with a few extra knobs.

The DJX did have arps, but not anywhere near the quality of the MM6.  I can’t see them updating the OS either.  Strip it down and the MM6 is a modern based PSR arranger.  It’s even made in the arranger factory along with the PSR’s.  The PSR’s (current such as PSR1500/3000) and lower don’t have updatable OS’s..

Squeak

Re: First Gig - First Impressions

how was it according to fragility?
that is my only concern cause I will be taking it everywhere,
and I dont want to damage it since its so light.
I will be making sure it has a good carrying bag.
I ordered one already.
It will be the middle keyboard of three and will be well supported on the 2nd tier.
I love the sounds as well and found that as you manipulate
the dsp and tweak the first 2 knobs a little etc. on the preset patches youll come up with nice edits.
for eg.I use 2 pianos for one nice rich piano
I increase the main dsp level on most of the other preset patches
and it really enhances the patch and then program it into memory
Lastly I find the rotor effect #5 the best for most of the organ patches it even works a little with the modualtion wheel as a cheap leslie simulater

enjoy
morty

Re: First Gig - First Impressions

Morty,

I’ve only had it at one gig, but I’d say it’s pretty well built. I was concerned at first that the feel of the pitch and mod wheels was a little uneven, but after playing it hard for one night, they seemed to smooth out. The keyboard action (fast!) and feel are surprisingly good for a low cost keyboard. Being able to reach up on stage after the show and pull it off the top tier of my stand with one hand is nice also - it weighs nothing. My gig bag shows up today, so last Saturday I had it stuffed in my golf travel bag with minimal padding. On the way to the club it fell off the back seat onto the floor on its face with no apparent injury, so I think it’s rugged enough.

Thanks for the DSP and Leslie tips. I’ll check ‘em out.

Bob