Hi, I’ve previously used Yamaha PSR workstations, but would like to venture into the world of Synths. I hope to purchase a MOXF6 in the next month. I am not one to go into music shops and ask to test drive the kit and have in the past based my choice of instruments on reviews and YouTube videos, (Bert Smorenberg rules as a demonstrator,) I have never been disappointed in any Yamaha product I have purchased this way. I have searched the forum for answers to a number of questions and found answers to all but a few, so here goes.

On the PSR’s I have owned, they all came with internal speakers and as I normally play using headphones, (this saves my wife’s sanity,) when plugged in, the internal speakers are disabled.  As I don’t wish to buy an expensive amplified speaker system as I will primarily be using headphones, so my questions are.

Can I connect a set of powered speakers I have that were once connected to a PC, I would use a splitter to connect to the Left / Right sockets on the MOXF and if the headphones are connected, would the powered speakers be immobilized. Hope someone can advise.

Thanks in advance

Grandad1946

The audio outputs to your powered speakers will not be disabled when you connect headphones. You’d have to turn them off manually.

Hello Grandad and welcome to the forums!

Phones and main L/R outputs are separate, yes. While appreciate the need to be ‘silent’, would advise looking at at least a to-some-extent full range loudspeaker system for those moments when partner may be out of the house or out of earshot! Although you may not be indulging in quite the level of sub bass-requiring, slam bam music implied by an earlier poster, in order to appreciate the pianos, drums, even some of the orchestral instruments, better sound reinforcement really will pay dividends.

There is a ton of wholly free advice here on Motifator.com but we’d also want to put in a plug for our own DVD/downloadable videos that tend to reduce the incline of the learning curve. You can search on those in the Shop and (for downloadable videos) in the shop on our sister site http://www.keyfax.com.

A comment on the ‘keyboard’ warning, while it can’t hurt to inspect exactly what you’re taking home, Yamaha hardware is generally very well made and warrantied as you obviously know from years of Yamaha purchases. Don’t think you need to be unduly concerned on that score.

Thanks for speedy replies.

Lastfermata: I guessed as much, will need to turn the speakers down to zero.

Purcell: My post explained that I don’t do music shops. As to using headphones, I never exceed a volume that will damage my hearing. I have already downloaded the users and reference manuals for the MOXF and have watched everything I can find about the MOXF and the Motif XF as there are a lot of similarities. I am working my way through the MOXF forum so hope to have a head start when I eventually get my hands on the real thing. Oh and by the way, the PSR S series like the Tyros is a workstation

Mr Motif, thanks for the response. Yes Yamaha kit is the best. I will be looking to get the DVD as an additional learning tool.

Once again, many thanks.

The Wave ROM in the MOXF is over twice the size of that in the MOX - over 1300 more Waveforms.

The Polyphony in the MOXF is twice that of the MOX - 128 versus 64.

The MOXF has an additional Preset Voice Bank.

The MOXF has 8 additional Preset Drum Kits.

The MOXF has 1,261 additional Preset Arps.

Dual Insertion Effects can be simultaneously active on eight Parts in the MOXF versus three with the MOX.

The MOXF can have an optional flash module installed, of 512MB, 1GB, or 2GB in size, holding up to 2,048 Waveforms or 8,192 Samples, whichever limit is reached first.

There are other features on the MOXF not found on the MOX.

I’d suggest only considering the MOX if those advantages aren’t important and/or the MOX can be purchased at a very advantageous price.

Grandad1946 - 17 September 2014 06:15 PM

Thanks for speedy replies.

Lastfermata: I guessed as much, will need to turn the speakers down to zero.

Purcell: My post explained that I don’t do music shops. As to using headphones, I never exceed a volume that will damage my hearing. I have already downloaded the users and reference manuals for the MOXF and have watched everything I can find about the MOXF and the Motif XF as there are a lot of similarities. I am working my way through the MOXF forum so hope to have a head start when I eventually get my hands on the real thing. Oh and by the way, the PSR S series like the Tyros is a workstation

Mr Motif, thanks for the response. Yes Yamaha kit is the best. I will be looking to get the DVD as an additional learning tool.

Once again, many thanks.

Hi GrandDad, welcome to the Forum!
I’m sure you will fiind this forum very helpful as there is a big number of very knowledgable people here.

I’m a happy owner of a MOXF6 myself and had been a slow learning curve as I come from an all Roland background…

An yes, the MOXF is a great board, with more features than any other in its class ( some of them somewhat hidden I must confess )

My advice to you, don’t pay too much attention to provocative posts, just ignore them as they don’t deserve your effort to answer ;-)

Cheers,
Paulo

Hi there Granddad

Great choice of keyboard.

I’m a lucky owner of one myself since a month or so.
One often come across posts about there being a steep learning curve of this and other Yamaha synths, but I actually think it’s quite simple to use. It may be so that I use it differently than other people, but for the acoustic voices, why fiddle with what’s already perfect? ;-)
I’m quite a fan of wobbly sounds too myself, but when creating those I’m always using the excellent editor. I can imagine that for sound design, the built-in system may not be THE most user friendly one, but I wouldn’t even try that since I have it hooked up to the PC. :-)

For my needs the key-bed is more than adequate even though the keys are ever so slightly narrower than on the Novation I’m used to (less than 5 mm/octave) but I’m not blaming that when miss-hitting keys.... well, not often. ;-)

I hope you’ll enjoy yours as much as I’ve enjoyed mine!

Have fun!

Hi Granddad & welcome,
You should be ok with connecting your current speakers, it certainly shouldn’t do any harm but I’m betting it won’t be too long before you upgrade them so you can open your windows and give all the neighbours a taste of what a great instrument sounds like lol.
There is a learning curve, as with any new keyboard but I found this was eased with the purchase of the MoX & MoXF DVD’s. The MoX one will help you fathom using the MoXF whereas the MoXF DVD caters more for the additional Flashboard which can be added when you are ready to explore that avenue.

Most importantly, have fun !!! :)

Gary

My thanks to all who have responded. I’m frantically waiting for the funds to become available.

Tiasdad:I don’t think my neighbours would be pleased with me blasting out, most are a bit older than me, especially the one next door who only needs the slightest reason to complain, so I’ll stick to the headphones unless I’m having a party.

Zpink: My musical tastes are eclectic, so I hope to use the vast majority of the voices.

Paulof: at my age every thing has a slow learning curve. My main problem will be to learn the correct fingering for some chords as my other keyboard has the luxury of single finger chords, so I’m currently practicing on my PSR until I get the MOXF6.

5pinDIN: love the name, I looked at the specs, I would have loved to get the MotifXF, but I’m sure the wife would have raised some objection at the price and I didn’t fancy several months in traction.

A great Forum and hope to make a lot of friends and in time be able to give guidance to new members.

Grandad1946

Grandad1946 - 19 September 2014 04:04 PM

5pinDIN: love the name, I looked at the specs, I would have loved to get the MotifXF, but I’m sure the wife would have raised some objection at the price and I didn’t fancy several months in traction.

Perhaps a misunderstanding?

The comparison I gave was between the MOX (which purcell was suggesting as an alternative), and the MOXF, which is the model you’re apparently saving up for. With the MOXF6, you get the better specs I listed.

Yes, the Motif XF would be another step upward in features, etc, but I do understand that there are budgetary considerations.

Sorry 5pinDIN, I understood what you meant, yes I did look at the MOX range, then saw the MOXF and realised it was a way to get a most of the features of the Motif XF at a cheaper price.

Grandad

Hi Grandad

I’ve been through Yamaha’s, Korg’s and Roland’s over a lot of years and came back to Yamaha after seeing some demo’s on YouTube and I haven’t been disappointed. I’ve recently got the MOXF6 that you’re looking at and you really get a lot of oomph for your money, barring a few extra’s you’re getting all the quality sounds of the Motif for a fraction of the price. It took a while to get used to the small screen and find my way around the operating system and I’m still at the early learning stage, but I’m already using it as the main keyboard in the band I’m in after a couple of weeks and you’ll get a lot of friendly expert help from this forum.
You may also find it helpful to see some very good sound demo’s by keybdwzrd although it’s on the MOX6 (the previous model to the MOXF6) the voices are the same. He has about 6 demo’s at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UH3KDi3lDI .

Lastly, you were talking about speakers. I was recommended M-Audio MX5 by one of the moderators from the Yamaha forum. They’re not the latest but you can get a pair for £129 and they do do justice to the sounds from the MOXF6. If you’re like me you’re probably on a tight budget but if you can stretch to those you’ll really hear the benefit.

Hope this help
Bruce (fully signed up member of the grandads association)

bruceglan - 27 September 2014 08:01 AM

[...]You may also find it helpful to see some very good sound demo’s by keybdwzrd although it’s on the MOX6 (the previous model to the MOXF6) the voices are the same. He has about 6 demo’s at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UH3KDi3lDI .

A little clarification…
The MOXF has all the Voices of the MOX, but also an additional Preset Bank (#9) of Voices based on Waveforms not found in the MOX.

 

bruceglan -

Lastly, you were talking about speakers. I was recommended M-Audio MX5 by one of the moderators from the Yamaha forum.[...]

Can we assume that by “Yamaha forum” you’re referring to yamahaforums.co.uk (which is not a site run by Yamaha)? Otherwise, it would be hard to imagine a forum moderator of a Yamaha-owned site recommending anything but Yamaha speakers.  :-)

Yes you’re right 5pindin. Having a senior moment. have to make allowances for us grandads. :-)