Yamaha:  for those of us who bought the XF8, aside from the weight difference,

(a) what does the XO8 have that the XF8 doesn’t have and vice versa—&

(b) why is the XF8 more expensive than the XO8?

(b) XF8 more expensive because

1) construction - higher quality material
2) better keys with aftertouch
3) ribbon
4) bigger screen
5) more connectivity
6) support for sampling
7) 16 part multimode + 128 polyphony - requires better processor (i think)
8) built-in power supply
9) maybe sliders are more expensive?
10) even the wheels are better quality

The Motif X-series is the top-of-the-line synthesizer series from YAMAHA. The MO X-series are the Motif-lite series, if you will. Clearly based on the killer sound engine (and as many of the features that will fit) of the Motif, the MO-X is all the features you would want if you can’t quite afford to get the Motif itself. Imagine sitting down and making a keyboard that has as many of the cool features as you can grab from the Motif XS/XF and packing them into a synth workstation that is lighter in weight and more affordable.

You can think of the synth engine of the Motif XS/XF as a dual chip, while the synth engine in the MO-X is a single chip - pure and simple. Each chip is 64 notes… so the MO-X is half the polyphony. New body design so it is about half the weight. And the goal: to make it about half the price!

Without compromising Yamaha quality!!!

The MO8 followed by the MO6 have been consistently the best selling synth workstations for almost 5 years now. The $1000-$2000 price-point is the volume zone for synth workstations. Their popularity is based on they give you the SOUND of the Motif (top-of-the-line) synth but at a friendly price that appeals to a very wide audience. The MO6/MO8 were based on the ES, the MO-X6 and MO-X8 are based on the XS.

They are primarily used as live and home music production synthesizers. So the weight issue is always important, and at 15 and 32 pounds these are very gig friendly.

The MO-X series features a built-in AUDIO/MIDI interface that gives it the ability to route audio directly to your DAW via a stereo or dual-stereo OUTPUT bus setup.

The MO X-series are made in Japan? or China?

Bad_Mister - 07 April 2011 11:21 AM

The Motif X-series is the top-of-the-line synthesizer series from YAMAHA.

The MO-X series features a built-in AUDIO/MIDI interface that gives it the ability to route audio directly to your DAW via a stereo or dual-stereo OUTPUT bus setup.

Is there any possibility of a USB Audio/MIDI interface being developed for the top-of-the-line Motif X-series synthesizers?

There are hardly any new PCs/Laptops coming up with the FireWire interface. The world is moving towards USB (2.0 and 3.0). And the USB 3.0 interfaces are way faster than FW.

So when is Yamaha going to hire USB and fire FireWire for its top-of-the-line synths?

Is there any possibility of a USB Audio/MIDI interface being developed for the top-of-the-line Motif X-series synthesizers?

There are hardly any new PCs/Laptops coming up with the FireWire interface. The world is moving towards USB (2.0 and 3.0). And the USB 3.0 interfaces are way faster than FW.

Currently moving stereo audio or dual stereo audio is what is capable on the USB AUDIO/MIDI interface as found on the new MO-X series. With USB it is not a matter of speed. So many musicians think the USB versus Firewire is a speed issue. Trust me it is not. Both are plenty fast enough to move the data from here to there. The matter is bandwidth… Firewire is simply just more robust. Remember the Yamaha Steinberg FW driver is moving as many as 48 audio channels (16 per unit, three units can be daisy chained) and not to mention 100’s of MIDI channels of data bi-directionally!

The USB AUDIO/MIDI interface on the MO-X; we feel it is perfect for this type of product. Nothing additional to buy and you can use the dual Stereo (4CH mode) audio buses to MULTI-TRACK (in the manner that Les Paul invented). That is, you can record your project, monitoring all your PARTS through USB3/4, and selectively OUTPUT a PART to USB1/2 when you want to render it as audio in your DAW. Basically, rendering your PARTS to audio, one by one.

Or you can combine everything on USB1/2 and make a realtime “live” recording…

Or, of course, you can simply use USB1/2 for your vocals and use USB3/4 for you music. There are many different workflows possible with this system. And you don’t have to be a Rocket Surgeon to work it.

Why this is a such a compelling feature for the MO-X is, because you do not have all the simultaneous note polyphony, nor do you have as many simultaneous INSERTION EFFECTS as the top-of-the-line units, but with this workflow you can output PARTS as audio to your favorite DAW using the INSERTION EFFECTS as you do so… in this fashion:
1) You never run out of polyphony on a recording project and
2) You never run out of powerful Insertion Effect processing either

I’m finding it not only easy to do - but it allows the mid-level workstation customer a viable workflow for serious music production.

There are now 6 QUICK Sequencer Setups which make it a breeze to work with, again perfect for this customer. If you have never recorded with a hardware synth and software on a computer, you will find this not only easier than you ever imagined but very powerful as well.

I would also like to add that you better hope that the music industry does not embrace USB 3.0.  It is a flawed product.  Lightpeak (now better known as Thunderbolt) is far far superior.  While USB 3.0 is great for the average consumer for flash drives, etc it is not so for us musicians.  Thunderbolt is a combination of PCI-E and Displayport technologies wrapped up into one.  It can stream up to 10Gb of data a second!  Imagine having one port for everything.  Hard drives, audio interfaces, monitors even.

There is still too much overhead in the USB spec for what we do.  This is why the high end products continue to support Firewire.

This is a killer product.  The value is amazing.  Like I said before, I have a XS 6, but I can find a lot of uses for the MoX6 too.  Being light weight is a pretty cool feature.

Bad_Mister, good point about the USB audio feature alleviating any issues with polyphony.

Getting back to the topic of the thread title, is the audio quality of the MOX the same or better than the XF series ?  i.e. the D/A converters and audio output output section.  Are these on par ?

valen - 25 April 2011 09:26 PM

Getting back to the topic of the thread title, is the audio quality of the MOX the same or better than the XF series ?  i.e. the D/A converters and audio output output section.  Are these on par ?

My guess is that the D/A converters would still be better on the XS/XF, but not by much.

Hi dcool

The MOX is made in China. (went to Guitar Center yesterday to checked it)