I don’t understand why Yamaha refuses to put trigger pads on their Synths???

I find the pads on both the Korg M3 and the Roland Fantom killer features.  Great for triggering samples, great for patch selection, great for Chord triggering, and on and on…

I was disappointed to see the XF released without this feature.

Hmmm… there are already 16 buttons for triggering patterns.... They are not pads, but pads on some other synth work like buttons only any way.

Also, you could easily add pads to any midi workstation by getting a pad controller… there are so many options.

kbrkr - 04 August 2010 08:43 AM

I don’t understand why Yamaha refuses to put trigger pads on their Synths???

I find the pads on both the Korg M3 and the Roland Fantom killer features.  Great for triggering samples, great for patch selection, great for Chord triggering, and on and on…

I was disappointed to see the XF released without this feature.

I think it’s kind of patent issue~ Like we never see a joystick on YAMAHA or a D-Beam on Korg or BC3 on Roland

Trigger Pads suck on a professional synthesizer. That’s what drum machines and dedicated usb drum pads are for. Leave the synthesizer for synthesizer duties and leave the drum machine or drum pads for drum duties otherwise Mo problems and Mo worries.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/616089-REG/Akai_MPD18_MPD18_Compact_USB.html

This might fit nicely on top of your board.

I don’t want trigger pads on what I consider a very professional instrument. No joystick either. The first commercial synths came out with wheels and wheels it is as far as I’m concerned.

If you want those devices you are not buying a Motif.

Mike T.

Pads are not a patent issue.

If I wanted to bring extra equipment to a gig, I’d also bring a Hammond B3 and Leslie 147.  I have enough to worry about with the sound system and lighting.

No Pads on a “professional” instrument?  What are you talking about???  I did 120 shows last year with a Roland Fantom with those pads triggering all kinds of cool stuff.  Oh, you probably just use your Motif in the Studio and don’t need them.  They come in handy during LIVE performances.

miket156 - 04 August 2010 09:52 PM

I don’t want trigger pads on what I consider a very professional instrument. No joystick either. The first commercial synths came out with wheels and wheels it is as far as I’m concerned.

If you want those devices you are not buying a Motif.


Mike T.

LOL Mike we’ve been buttin heads a lot lately, but hey different strokes.

Personally I’d love to have some pads, I have a use for them especially live for flying in samples. I cut my teeth on wheels to, but I REALLY prefer a stick for lead playing. It’s like a whammy bar for keyboard players IMO. To me it’s just a more natural motion. Though I appreciate the MOD wheel too. I’d love to have both. Be great to see a keyboard where you can change the orientation of the wheels to go sideways.

Yea Wes, different strokes. I’d say its all about what we start with and get use to using. I don’t even like the mod wheels on the old S90 that they placed above the KB in order to save space. Every synth I ever owned had the wheels on the left at the end of the KB. Going there for the mod wheel is like an involuntary reflex for me.

I’d guess that if you had a KB with trigger pads you could make use of it. That link to a Midi trigger pad unit was neat, if it doesn’t have latency issues.

Cheers,

Mike T.

I thought pads were a gimmick until I started using my Korg M3 + Radias-R live recently. Have to say, they are extremely useful for a whole bunch of things.

Df, back gigging again.

kday: Yamaha Motif XF is not just a “professional synthesizer”, it’s a workstation....  so, it is OK to expect from it something that other workstation in it’s class offer.

WesEXer - 04 August 2010 11:03 PM

miket156 - 04 August 2010 09:52 PM

I don’t want trigger pads on what I consider a very professional instrument. No joystick either. The first commercial synths came out with wheels and wheels it is as far as I’m concerned.

If you want those devices you are not buying a Motif.


Mike T.

LOL Mike we’ve been buttin heads a lot lately, but hey different strokes.

Personally I’d love to have some pads, I have a use for them especially live for flying in samples. I cut my teeth on wheels to, but I REALLY prefer a stick for lead playing. It’s like a whammy bar for keyboard players IMO. To me it’s just a more natural motion. Though I appreciate the MOD wheel too. I’d love to have both. Be great to see a keyboard where you can change the orientation of the wheels to go sideways.

Hey Wes,

I know where you’re coming from.  Have you given the ribbon a fair shot?  I’ve always liked using my roland ax-7 (lap style) and using the ribbon.  I find it cool because I can slide naturally, but also choose different spots on the ribbon to “call up” the pitch change/note instantly (which can make some cool effects (especially if portamento is on—I can just tap the far left or right end).  I’ve become accustomed to playing all types of controllers, and feel like its pretty effortless now whenever I sit down with one that has a joystick or wheels. 

As far as the pads...YES.  As a rack xs owner, I’ve always been looking for the perfect controller with everything.  People come out and say “get the xs board, duh!” Nope.  Doesn’t have pads...sorry.  This just seems to be a simple upgrade of the XS, which is what they may be implying by using ‘X’ in “XF.” Perhaps Yamaha is scared of pads since they don’t have as much experience with them?

Yamaha looks more to the business and not really take into account users’ desires.

For live performances, swabs are very useful.

And I want pads, but I lost hope that Yamaha would listen to users, just matter of competition issues, not users Motif!

Kurzweil, Roland, Korg, all have pads, but refused to Yamaha, believing so is unique.

What’s the true meaning of the word “Workstation”?

Do any of them keyboards out there live up to that word?