Hi,

I use a Nord Stage 76 as my main board & controller. The ac/el piano’s, organs & synth sections are killer, but that’s ALL it has..

So I need another machine for all other sounds. Bowed & plucked strings, winds, ethnic stuff, orchestral sounds, etc.... oh & some nice DX-7 sounds (for some reason, the DX was left out of the Nord’s el.pno. bank...). I have a Yamaha S90 (classic), but I’m looking for something newer, better & easier to carry. (Ideally a rack unit?)

The Nord Stage, besides the “piano”, “organ” & “synth” sections, has an additional “extern” section which is dedicated to control an external tone generator as if it was one of its own.

I’ve been thinking about the Motif Rack ES. The XS is too expeez & I don’t necessarily need the gizmo’s it features which the ES didn’t.

However, I’m seeing this MM6 which I don’t know anything about… A rack unit would do the trick if I always use it with the Nord, but the MM6 is small & ONLY 5kg’s!!. & if I can get away with not bringing the Nord on some small gigs, just the MM6, that would make me happy..

I’ve noticed the MM6’s are very very cheap. It’s newer than the ES series & yet it’s even cheaper than the RACK ES, let alone the 61-key Motif ES6.... which I find strange.

What is the MM6 lacking? in comparison to the ES series?

Will I have all I need in the well-priced, compact, lightweight 61-key MM6?
Or should I go with the Rack ES?

Re: Motif ES vs MM6?

There is no comparing the Rack products with the MM6 as they serve completely different markets.

Bob

Re: Motif ES vs MM6?

The MM6 is an ENTRY level keyboard. As to what it is lacking check out the MM6/8 forum starting around the spring of ‘07 when it first became available and you will find lots of posts - including several of mine - discussing its limitations.

Re: Motif ES vs MM6?

You can now buy a used (or in some cases a new) ES rack on ebay for the price of a new MM6. The MM6 is for entry level players who don’t need editing capabilities. The ES rack is a PRO level synth that will serve your needs for years to come.

-Terry

Re: Motif ES vs MM6?

oh I see… as I said, I knew nothing about the MM’s.. I thought they were just mini versions of the Motifs, with a few less sounds & gizmo’s..

ok, so what about the Motif Rack ES?

I have an S90 classic, so I’m fairly familiar with many of the sounds, but I would like to know if, in your opinion, the Motif ES has improved in the following areas in which I think the S90 was lacking:

- STRINGS: the S90’s string sounds, although they were great, they always had this vibrato thing happening even in the flat basic sound.. since the sound is customizable, I wish the basic sound was a pure tone & then you can add vibrato as you please (ex: with Mod. wheel). The omnipresent vibrato in every note made it sound that much less faithful to the real thing. How are the strings in the Motif ES? Have they fixed this problem?

ACCORDION: In the S90, other than the 2 accordion sounds in the GM bank, there are NO accordion sounds in any of the preset banks… What’s up with that? I need accordion sounds! Have they included some nice ones in the Motif Rack ES?

ETHNIC: In terms of ethnic sounds, the S90 seemed to be more focused on Indian and Asian music, not so much on Middle-Eastern, Armenian, Greek, Turkish instruments. I need some nice wind instrument sounds, such as duduk, zurna, nay, etc. & some stringed instruments such as oud, kanun, bouzouki, saz.. or at least some solid alternatives;

MICRO-TUNING: It looks like they’ve included some Arabic tuning systems in the ES. The S90 only had Indian. & it looks like you can select the ROOT & have the alternate scale apply in any key you want.
In case you’re interested: [url=http://www.motifator.com/cc_archive/tony_archive04.php]http://www.motifator.com/cc_archive/tony_archive04.php [/url]



So if anybody can give me their honest opinion about how the Motif Rack ES is in the above-mentioned areas, or better yet, if & how it has improved in these areas compared to the S90, I would greatly appreciate it!!

Thanks for the replies!!

Re: Motif ES vs MM6?

I don’t use accordions, ethnic or micro-tuning, so the only thing i can vouch for are the strings sounds, and say that the ES and XS STILL have the vibrato built into the samples, so your S90 really doesn’t differ much (if at all) where the strings are concerned.

-Terry

Re: Motif ES vs MM6?

Don’t forget that you can EDIT any of the factory presets and save them to USER locations. If you bought a ES7 or ES8 KB, you would have a excellent new sounding KB at a much lower price than the original price, being that there is a newer model out (XS). The rack version is more difficult to use because the screen is extra small, but I don’t know of you are looking to completely replace your S90 or just add onto it. Sometimes just upgrading to a newer model is less of a hassle than dealing with a rack and small screen.

The ES strings all have vibrato in the samples. You can always buy string samples on Motifator.com and load them into sample RAM. you do have to BUY Ram for the sampler if you want to use it!

I have an ES8 for over four years, and although there have been improvements in the XS series over mine, I still haven’t run out and bought one yet. I might get an XS rack just for additional voices at some point, but it is nice to have everything in one main KB, its less fiddling around and squinting looking at small screens.

Mike T.

Re: Motif ES vs MM6?

ACCORDION: In the S90, other than the 2 accordion sounds in the GM bank, there are NO accordion sounds in any of the preset banks… What’s up with that? I need accordion sounds! Have they included some nice ones in the Motif Rack ES?


“other than the 2 accordion sounds in the GM bank”

It’s the same in the ES rack and keyboard: 2 GM accordion sounds.

Re: Motif ES vs MM6?

Hi,

You seem to compare to quite extremes. Maybe you should consider the MO6 or MO8 as an ideal compromise ? It has the sound engine of the ES6, the same sequencer and arpegiator but lacks some insert effects of the ES6 and also has no sampling options and expansion slots. Polyphony is 64 at the MO6 vs 128 at the ES6 but that normally is not a problem unless you want to sequence complete orchestra.

However, the MO6 is still a leap ahead of the MM6, which is really an entry level keyboard.

With the MO6 you will get all the sounds of the ES6 plus a powerfull sequencer.

2nd hand MO6 is reasonably priced.

Regards
Bert of Kosmic