Hi guys. I’ve been using an Es6 for alomst three years now. The recently launched XS attracted my attention so just out of curiousity i downloaded the demos but didn’t find much difference. Infact, many of the instruments used were common to the ES !
The company however claims that the Xs superceeds the Es in every sphere. So will it be a wise decision if i sell my Es and go for the Xs ?

I played on one for about 2 hours at the Guitar Center. Got a few extra bells and whistles and the vocoder.While it is a great board, I wouldn’t trade in my ES for one. Just my humble opinion. :)

Hi,i had the ES8 sold it and got the XS8 and i can tell you one thing which is my opinion,the XS does not have the Depht,Phatness(whateva you wanna call it) that the ES has...i even tried loading the ES sounds to the XS,still the XS sounds are too thin and there anre many others on here that has also complained about that so its not just ME....i sold the XS again and got the ES8 back....i now have even added a ES7 to my boards aswell...The XS has much more features than the ES but if you liked the Depth,Warmth and Phatness of the ES the XS wont do nothing for you…
Im actualy worried bout the next motif,if they’ll make it sound so thin also...if so i wont be buying another Motif......ES rocks bro.....(just my opinion so dont shoot me down)....

Get the ES - I have an ES8 and love it. Tried the XS8 at Guitar center, and the display drove me nuts....the refresh rate and the persistent imaging made it hard to move around quickly. I would never be able to use it in a live setting.

If you have the bucks, check out the Fantom G8..... don’t flame me please! *ducks*

tho i like the xs, don’t feel it’s much of an advance over the es to trade or even go out and buy one. you’re better of with the es and getting some software.

Having an ES6 myself since the time it came out and having just about every one of those sound banks, I can tell you that the arps and the instant recording on the XS almost pulled me away.
Yes you can make your own arps and a couple of button pushes to get the voice into song mode, but the lows in the ES had me hang on to it.

Find every aspect of the ES with the books from Mark Johnston,"Commanding the MOTIF Iⅈ”

Great down to earth reading with results that don’t tkae hours and a degree have.

http://motifator.keyfax.com/mart/mainframe_temp.htm

rdyers:

You indicated you purchased an ES7 to go along with the ES8.

Did you do this for the action difference? 

I love my ES8, but when I need to perform some synthy runs or organ licks, it’s very challenging.  Need Oscar Peterson’s musculature to make it happen!

As a side note, I use the aftertouch feature a lot. When I first started using it on the ES, I hated it because the initial response of the unit was very sensitive; it only took a little pressure to make a big change, not good.

After having used it for a while though, it has “loosened up” a lot and is not nearly as sensitive in the initial push, although it is still a bit more sensitive than I’d like.

I know it’s not just me getting used to the unit, it’s truly changed. If I aftertouch in the upper or lower registers where it doesn’t get used much, it has it’s old, very sensitive response.  Not so in the middle part of the keyboard where I use it the most. It seems to have “broken-in” somehow.

I’d kill for polyphonic aftertouch.

I’ve never been a hard hitter & nor my keyboard’s ever gone through serious beating but now when i play, the keybad sounds somewhat like a typewriter.!! Is this normal wear and tear or is my keyboard asking for a service ? No noticeable change in the sensitivity though..

Yes, you have noticed that keybed on XS is different from ES. There were a post (I suppose in arhive) where several guys talked about sensitivity of keybed and that on ES it feels more professional. The explanation was that keyboard now should be more enviromental friendly and that some lead down the keys are now removed, esp. for instruments sell in Europe.
I have tried XS and it looks nice and sounds great, although lot of sounds are from ES (4 element!). If I have enough budget I will only add XS to my existing army (which I’ll never trade!):
ES6 with VL, AN and DX. I realy don’t know what instrument could compare with such a machine. ES is really a sound monster!!

Alex

I feel the same.

;JOOP!

thrill86, I’ve been playing electric keyboards and synthesizers since they first were introduced back in the seventies and have gone through dozens of all the great keyboards as they came out.  When I bought my Ensoniq ASR-10 and a Kurzweill 2500S I thought I had the ultimate sound machine and onboard sequencer for my purposes.  But 4 years into my Kurzweil I got itchy fingers and when I sampled the onboard sounds of the ES, for my purposes (Black music; hip-hop, jazz, funk, R&B;, etc.) the sounds all had a punch to them that offered me a nice array of hundreds of band instruments that even sounded better that the Kurzweill V.A.S.T. engine produced.  I mean this Yamaha ES is the coolest keyboard in history and any sounds I want that aren’t inclusive can be all found to play in Kontakt’s software, since both the ES and Kontakt have complete tweakability.
However, when I play the XS in the music store I just can’t seem to get that sound engine to pump as strong as my ES.  What an incredible instrument this ES is.  I have every single sound possible, produced in supersonic stereo, and authentic as I want it to be.  I love my ES more than any keyboard I’ve ever owned and the only thing that would ever make me consider a different hardware configuration is if a keyboard came out with an ever more omnipresent punch that can be achieved with the incredible Yamaha ES.  Of course, you’re from East India and the music you play might have different requirements.  However, even though the XS has the same, or even greater tweakability as the ES, I think the ES sounds stronger.

i have ES7 and XS8… the XS is better synth...with more power…
but i love my small and sweet ES7…

jesus !!!!!! soo i was stupid spending my money on XS ?? I don t have ES . JESUS !! i don t believed ..F this s true s a big shame

radurobert, I’m so sorry I misled you to believe your XS is less a performer than the XS.  Actually the exact opposite is true.  I just haven’t spent the time learning the XS since I’m so pleased with my ES.  Of course there’s alot more to learn on the XS since it’s considerably more advanced a machine.  Your XS is actually a more powerful machine as well as being more sophisticated, so everything the ES has, so does the XS, but not vice versa.  If you look, the XS is almost a grand more expensive than the ES.  For my particular needs my DAW gives me the software for mastering and sequencing so I don’t need all that overkill.  But it’s much cooler to make use of BOTH the Yamaha’s creative tools as an alternative to just depending on the computer.  Not only is the arpeggiator unbelievably flexible, but I use the drum machine on the ES, since the PATTERN sequencer has moves that Sonar doesn’t, so I use the ES sequencer off and on in place of Sonar, which gives me a whole new range of creative possibilities.  And the XS has everything the ES has and more.
So if you reevaluate, you’ve got the coolest synthesizer of all of them.  I’d trade you my ES for your XS anyday, although it’d take me months to study.  So reevaluate and you’ll see you came out a real winner with the best machine, albeit you have to invest quite a bit of time to make use of what you have or else you’d be right, it would have been a waste of money.  You came out the winner.  You’ve got so much more potential.  But it’ll take alot more initiative to make use of the thoroughly modern motif XS.

just buy an XS and have both,then, when you get itme to tell us ALL about what you think about both, then and only then will this be setteled once and for all.
Really, it’s all about you sugar lips!

gaggy87 - 02 March 2009 11:50 PM

I’ve never been a hard hitter & nor my keyboard’s ever gone through serious beating but now when i play, the keybad sounds somewhat like a typewriter.!! Is this normal wear and tear or is my keyboard asking for a service ? No noticeable change in the sensitivity though..

Problem:
If your ES keyboard has a clicking sound with everything powered off it may be one the of two aftertouch strings. 

There are two strings (yes strings) that run the length of the keyboard.  The string has a metal crimp piece on the end and it simply hooks onto another metal spring.

Solution:
Open the keyboard.  Find the end of the string, hook it back on.
The clicking noise will go away and your aftertouch will work again.

More Details:
If you open up the keyboard you will see the hammers hit against a piece of padding.  There are two strings on this pad that run the entire length of the keyboard for the aftertouch.  The strings fasten to a metal piece on the left side that acts as a spring.  On the far right end of the keyboard is the aftertouch module.  It also has a springy piece of metal with the string attached to it.  This side has a strain gauge which measures the amount of bend in the metal piece.  When the string is hit by the hammers or pressed upon by the hammer it bends the metal piece chainging the resistance of the strain gauge which goes to the aftertouch module.

This is a simple fix.  Just don’t bend the metal pieces and if the end of the string is not visible you may have to peal back the fabric covering the pad and strings a couple of inches.  Don’t worry, there is plenty of sticky adhesive to push it right back into place.

Just hope that the sting did not break.

There is a calibration procedure that requires diagnostics mode that can also help the aftertouch.  I used it a couple of years ago, I am trying to locate the details on it.