I’m not sure if this is the right forum for this, but I am sure there are numerous people here who have upgraded from the Motif Classic to an ES or an XS.

I’ve had my Motif 6 Classic since 2002. During most of that time I played drums in a band, so I only used my Motif in my home recording studio. Two months ago I got an offer to join a band playing keyboards, so I have been using the Motif a lot more. I am in the process of adding some songs to the sequencer, and I was wondering what the advantages of upgrading to a Motif with more features are.

Before I drive the 100 miles to the nearest music store that carries the Motif line of keyboards to test drive a newer Motif, I thought I would ask you all for some advice. Here’s some of the questions that I have that will ultimately affect my decision to upgrade:

1. I cannot find some of the sounds that I need for my new band, including a sound for Journey Separate Ways and Rush Subdivisions (I found some that are close, but no cigar). Will the ES or XS give me sounds like these and more?

2. For those of you who have upgraded to a newer line of the Motif after owning a Classic, please tell me your experiences. Do you think upgrading gave you a huge increase in performance, sounds, and features? Are you better able to find the sounds that you couldn’t find on the Classic?

3. If I decide to upgrade, is it worth paying for a new XS, or would a used ES give me a lot more voices and features than what I currently have with the Classic?

4. Why did they increase the sequencer note capacity to 226,000 notes and then decrease it to 130,000 notes on the XS?

I’m sure this has been covered on the forum before, but I wouldn’t know where to look to find it. I know there is a lot of information on the web, but I wanted to hear from real people who use these boards in the field. Thanks in advance for any info you can give me that will help me make this decision!

P.S. - I just now went to the Wiki page at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamaha_Motif, so don’t worry about duplicating any info that is on that page.

Thanks!

John

1. I cannot find some of the sounds that I need for my new band, including a sound for Journey Separate Ways and Rush Subdivisions (I found some that are close, but no cigar). Will the ES or XS give me sounds like these and more?

=========================

Have you tried tweeking those ‘close’ sounds that you found? If you got the money to blow on a XS or ES just to get a couple of sound patches then go for it or try working with the sounds you have already and experiment. Just my humble opinion. :)

Hi John, I can’t answer your question about upgrading.  I have a Motif Classic and use it everyweek to play live with a band.  I’ve run into the situation where I can’t find sounds that I need for songs so I have done one of two things.  If you go to the Store tab on this site you’ll find you can buy sounds at a reasonable price.  I’ve purchased the Vintage Keys and Bs Knees.  They each have 128 additional voice for a good price.  I believe the vintage keys has the voice for Separate Ways.  I use it every week and get alot of compliments on it.  If I can’t find it at the store, I’ve been able to edit the voices I have or layer voices in performance mode to get the sound I need. 

Julie

The biggest single step up from the classic to the ES/XS is the increase in sample RAM which woudl allow you more space to store samples, though the frustrations of load time for the 1Gb of supported RAM is something you woudl have to allow for in the ES. The XS doesn’t support smart media or PLG boards but does have improved effects section along with quicker load times. I mention the samples because they obviously provide you with scope for increasing your motif’s sound palette and the more RAM you have the greater the variety of the palette or the better its quality or indeed both.

This is probably the stuff you gleaned from wiki, but you need to weigh up how important these features are to you and whether they are worth the upgrade price tag. Of course if it is mostly about sounds then perhaps a rack would be the middle ground solution.

Cheers

Hi,

I´m about to buy a used classic Motif rack. I wonder if I could obtain sounds like Jump, Tom Sawyer, etc. I understand that the Vintage Keys soundset is not designed for classic motif. Do you know another way of getting those sounds? Thank you!

Moving from the “classic” to an ES or XS will give you more polyphony and let you use more voices at the same time to build a “bigger” sound or let you use longer samples, but won’t give you the specific sounds (Rush and Journey) you mentioned in your post. Unless you reallly need a new keyboard, find a library with sounds you like or tweak the presets in the “classic” to get the sound you want as others have suggested.

I suspect the sequencer capacity might have been decreased because more folks are using external sequencers now.

Kevin

frosas3 - 29 June 2009 12:10 AM

Hi,

I understand that the Vintage Keys soundset is not designed for classic motif. Do you know another way of getting those sounds? Thank you!

Vintage Keys is designed for Classic as well. I don’t know why it isn’t listed at the store. My classic uses Vintage Keys. :)

OK, thank you for the information. I’m gonna download it. Do you recommend it? The best way to download it is from this site? I hope they accept foreign credit cards (I am in Chile).
Regards,
Fernando

I do recommend it. It’s very solid and has lots of sounds you can use and edit. I’m in a 70s and 80s band and lots of the sounds mesh. I love the analog synth sounds on it and the organ patches but then I have Bs Knees too :)

Well, I have the Classic Motif8 and I just bought the XS7 and it does have a lot of nice sound effects (like lots more)and editing sounds is a lot easier with the new big screen on it.
At the moment though I am still more happy with my Classic than with the XS but that’s basically due to the nasty surprise that there is no step recording in it, which I still don’t understand. So be advised that if you like to use step recording for things like song writing or drum programming that the XS doesn’t have that built in and the ES (like the Classic) does.

gehenna - 06 July 2009 02:59 PM

Well, I have the Classic Motif8 and I just bought the XS7 and it does have a lot of nice sound effects (like lots more)and editing sounds is a lot easier with the new big screen on it.
At the moment though I am still more happy with my Classic than with the XS but that’s basically due to the nasty surprise that there is no step recording in it, which I still don’t understand. So be advised that if you like to use step recording for things like song writing or drum programming that the XS doesn’t have that built in and the ES (like the Classic) does.

WoW! Wonder why they would leave something like that out. It’s like leaving out aftertouch on the KORG M-50, I’ll never understand the reasoning behind that!