I have just purchased an 8 but have the opportunity to get a ES8 for about $1350.  The 8 is like brand new.  It appears to have never been used, the previous owner received it new as a gift 3-4 years ago and never really used it.  I purchased for my son who currently has a Roland A90 and a Yamaha DGX-505.  I want him to have a workstation that will serve him for many years to come.  He has had trouble with the Rolands keys sticking/breaking.  He plays keyboard constantly!  Is the difference in the ES and the 8 worth the trouble of selling the 8 and getting the ES.

Re: Motif 8 vs MotifES8

Keep both, stack them.
Each of them is unique and long lasting!

;JOOP!

Re: Motif 8 vs MotifES8

Both is not an option.  Money is a factor unfortunately.  The ES8 will cost me about $400 more if I can get what I paid for the 8, which I don’t think will be a problem.

Re: Motif 8 vs MotifES8

Just don’t loose money under-selling.

;JOOP!

Re: Motif 8 vs MotifES8

You’d need to weigh up the pros and cons of both and decide on the difference.

The Classic 8 is a fab sounding beast.
But the keybed on the ES is the same so the feel will be the same.
Sound wise, the ES has newer and bigger ROM, though some have expressed they still prefer the sound of the classic over the ES, that’s a personal issue though and you and your son will need to decide which you like the best on this one.

The two biggest steps up in the Es are:

1 Effects - up to 8 inserts in a multi. This offers a lot of flexibility if you are working mostly with just the Motif as your backing track creator (It’s less of an issue if you move over to using a DAW such as Cubase to build your tracks since the inserts become less important.)

2 RAM. The classic could only handle 64Mb in SIMMS. The ES takes up to 1Gb in DIMMS, though to load a whole gig of samples would take over half an hour according to some reports!! 1 Gb of RAM is more in keeping with your hope to provide facilities for your son for years to come.

The ES and the Classic both have 3 PLG slots.

The ES can be upgraded with an Mlan card.

The ES has chunkier buttons and a whammy strip.

I have a classic 7 and still love it.

So, lots to think about.


In the meantime, don’t get rid of the A90 - it’s a great board and a fantastic controller and the piano sounds still cut it in a live context. If there is an issue with breaking hammers/keys, I just went through one of my A90s and replaced all the felts and all of the hammers. It was a reasonably cheap way of getting a keyboard which played like new. I guess that you have become a dab hand at replacing broken hammers! I now have a stock of hammers for repairs /forums/images/icons/smile.gif alt=
PM me if you need more info on this.

Cheers