Hi,

as promised in another thread I post here some impression on my XF7 used in live scenario during different gigs..

Just my 2 cents… I.M.H.O.

I’ll try to be “Synthetic"…

Note, I’ve not had a MOTIF XS.. so my opinion is based mo XF Vs my ES7 and EX5 (speaking on yamaha models that I Use)

Pros:1) A lot of good sound for basically any style…

2) easy to carry, not heavy

3) with 2 Gbyte of flash I have my weapon of personal sounds no more wait for loadind samples.. It is a very pleasure!!!

4)Eight elements are very usefull to make complex voices for specific songs and I often use voice mode instead of performance mode to model my needs.

5)it is relatively simple to modify the sound on the fly with knobs button and sliders…

6)i can assign the ASSIGNABLE FUNCTION buttons to a CC in my controller pedals (via Kurzweil K2600s) so I can control very complex of the performance

7)tap tempo facility

8)the global quality of sound in term of clarity and dynamics (with reserve.. look in Cons;..)

9)the diplay contains sufficients informations for a quick oweview of the performances or voices status (with more than one reserve!!!!)

10) Wave Playback from USB pen (With reserve!)

CONS:

1) In a sunny day is imposssible to play for two basic aspects..
First: is Inpossible to view anithing from the display none value of the contrast work well.. Also the view angle is no good especially if you put the keyboard in the top of the set.
the quality of the display itself is very very poor (i speak about my XF.. my be there is something wrong in my model...)

I have momentary splved this issue with an hand made sort of wooden couple placed over the display..
Second: The matt black finish under the direct sunbeams make dangerous the use unit..  I don’t kmow if I’ll go in a damage of electronic and plastic parts workin for many hours in this conditions..

2) The great range of dynamics is great on studio but makes the sound to desappares playning soft with the other musicians.. it needs a little compression to be audible in a mix..

3) Playing live over a wave from usb pen I can’t able to change the sound I have to use only the sound thath I’ve prewious selected.. (Voice and performance mode) in this case i don’t want to use the song mode…

4) When I play in my live performance, the more of the time I have to play using my right hand on the XF and the left hand on the Kurzweil, especcially during solos and obbligato parts..

So In this way is oten impossible to use the presets sound becouse for the most of part they don’t have programmed with after touch parameters assigned on lfo, expression and so on.
So I can’t use the pitch bend and wheels and a.t. is a crucial resource in this case..

Why programmers donìt have used the after touch in their patches??

for the moment I stop my impression here becouse I have to go to the naxt gig this night....

What do you think about my inpression??

ciao to all folks!!!

Keyrunner

keyrunner - 21 July 2011 04:07 PM

[...] 2) The great range of dynamics is great on studio but makes the sound to desappares playning soft with the other musicians.. it needs a little compression to be audible in a mix.. [...]

Have you tried changing the keyboard velocity response? If not, press [UTILITY] and change the Velocity Curve setting there. [STORE] the change if you like it.

Regarding the display in bright sunlight,
there is no keyboard with a display thay
can be seen under bright sunlight. The sun
is BRIGHT - way brightet than any display
would be.

There is nothing wrong with the display
on your XF.

>>> Why programmers donìt have used the after touch in their patches??

Is it possible to change the MIDI command code of the AT to that of the PB?
Or is that no solution?

;JOOP!

5pinDIN - 21 July 2011 04:19 PM

keyrunner - 21 July 2011 04:07 PM

[...] 2) The great range of dynamics is great on studio but makes the sound to desappares playning soft with the other musicians.. it needs a little compression to be audible in a mix.. [...]

Have you tried changing the keyboard velocity response? If not, press [UTILITY] and change the Velocity Curve setting there. [STORE] the change if you like it.

Hi 5pinDin,

Thanks again for your responses…

Yes I’ve tried your solution and may be I’ll choose this method to be the best way…

I would like to find a solution that allows me to fine adjust the dynamic curve per patch and not globally to suit different playing style in different genres....

With my custom patches it’s not a problem but, again, with presets there is no way to modifying anything.

I don’t know why Yamaha engineers have not tought about the possibility to temporarily “owerwrite” the presets as I can find in other keyboards this solution doesn’t cost a lot in terms of memory consumption i think…
With this solution and a per patch “restore” function the story change radically, in my opinion greatly increasing the power of this machine…

just my opinion....

ciao
keyrunner

DavePolich - 21 July 2011 05:20 PM

Regarding the display in bright sunlight,
there is no keyboard with a display thay
can be seen under bright sunlight. The sun
is BRIGHT - way brightet than any display
would be.

There is nothing wrong with the display
on your XF.

Hi, Dave

Yes, you are right, there is anything more brighter than sun..

but my comment take consideration between XF display Vs the display of my other keyboards.

The Xf display is the only graphic coloured display I have,

My others keyboards have conventional display, less actractive but a little bit more better in terms of intelligibility under brightest conditions and point of angle views…

I don’t like the apparent non-uniformity in the distribution of contrasts, increasing it and the scarcity of field of view watching the display almost parallel to the keys.

I put the XF over my K2600xs in a almost straight position, I don’t like to have the upper keyboard with high angolation…

The story change if you put the XF in lower position, as master keyboard or unique keyboard, in this case the intelligibility is much better .. but unfortunately this is not my case…

that’s my personal opinion..

ciao
Keyrunner