I have had a Yamaha ES8 since they came out years ago.  Then a month ago I went to Guitar Center and was sold on a XS8.  Then I came home and there were hints that a new XF was coming out.  I checked this out and true enough there was an XF.  When I saw what it could do, I decided to sell my ES8 and then buy the XF when it came out.  I quickly listed and sold it because I thought the prices would drop on the ES and XS, which I think they have dropped in price (luckily I got a real good price on my ES8).

While all of this was going on I looked at a used G8, used XS and used and new Korg M3 because the XF was going to be expensive. The Korg M3 seemed to be a different animal when compared to the Yamaha or Roland.  I came to the conclusion I wanted, maybe needed a change.  The Korg with Karma seemed like a needed change as I have had Yamaha since the DX model I had many years ago.

The Korg M3 comes tomorrow.  The story continues…

Thanks to all you forum members for your past support.  When I can afford it, I may add another Yamaha, as some of the sounds are better or at least different then the Korg.  So I will still be lurking around…

My congratulations!!!)

And, thanks for keeping us posted. I was wondering which one you’d go for…

I’d suggest to wait for korg M3F - it’s gonna be huge…

delirium - 03 September 2010 05:29 AM

I’d suggest to wait for korg M3F - it’s gonna be huge…

You said the next XS update was gonna be huge too

Funkster

I think that deciding to buy a synth or sampler or workstation depends on what needs someone has, such as what genre they prefer etc.

It’s obvious that the Korg M3 offers more “electronic” sound than the Motif series, whether Classic, ES, XS or the upcoming XF. The direction towards the electronic or ambient kinds of music is furthermore aided by the Karma module. The Motif series always sounded more “classic”, at least to my ears. That’s primarily because of the soundset, which it seemed to be directed towards more bread-and-butter everyday “real” sounds, rather than contemporary electronic ones.

But if I were you, or if I were on the market to buy a new sampling workstation, my choice most probably would be the new Motif XF (although I’ve been using a Roland Fantom-G for more than 2.5 years now, a p.i.t.a. experience sometimes in various aspects of working with it...). There is much to like about the new Motif, like the enormous ROM, DAW integration and so on, but most of all there this zero-waiting time for the sample data (courtesy of the newly introduced non-volatile flash RAM feature), which is a lifesaver, especially when performing live. ;)

cyclops - 03 September 2010 12:48 PM

I think that deciding to buy a synth or sampler or workstation depends on what needs someone has, such as what genre they prefer etc.

It’s obvious that the Korg M3 offers more “electronic” sound than the Motif series, whether Classic, ES, XS or the upcoming XF. The direction towards the electronic or ambient kinds of music is furthermore aided by the Karma module. The Motif series always sounded more “classic”, at least to my ears. That’s primarily because of the soundset, which it seemed to be directed towards more bread-and-butter everyday “real” sounds, rather than contemporary electronic ones.

one thing that I don’t completely understand is how people make keyboards genre specific....  to say the Korg m3 is more “electronic” than the motif series… are there not tons and tons of bread and butter sounds on the m3?  Well let me back up for a second… when you say bread and butter, do you mean like pianos, ep, organs, strings, horns...?

If that is what you mean, then there are tons of patches that fall in those categories… Not to mention the internal ROM and being able to create whatever you need. 

And then on the motif series… (maybe not as many electronic type sounds… I guess that would be atmospheric, moving pads.... type stuff?) I’m not sure or not what the motif has as far as internal ROM is concerned that could fall into the “electronic” category, (is there any?)

Looking at it like that though, I guess you could say that the Motif series could ONLY really be used for bread and butter… because the internal ROM doesn’t really include electronic type sounds atmospheric stuff.... (???) but then wouldn’t that make the m3 the stronger of the two boards due to the fact that you can do ANY genre with it?  (as well as the Fantom G?)

But if ALL a person needs is bread and butter… then maybe the Motif series is exactly right for them!!!!!  but even then… how many different acoustic pianos do most people use from a given set of preset sounds on these current workstations?  (or even user created)… don’t most of us pick a few that we REALLY like and just kinda use them most of the time? 

I think it would be nice for a workstation to come standard with ALL initialized presets (or something similar… maybe just make it all editable (the presets) and then allow a person to change the ENTIRE keyboard into their personal sound bank. 

Oh wait, the m3 does this… you can edit AND save ANY and EVERY preset.

I mean we could use communities to get patches from, but at least off the bat, you’d have a kinda blank canvas to work with....

do you all think that would be a good or bad idea?

I don’t know if it is because English is not my native language, but I think I’ve been misunderstood here. What I meant by genre-specific instruments, and bread-and-butter sounds is that every manufacturer - whether they want it or not - give a specific character to how their instruments sound. For instance, if you wanted a synth and your primary goal was to have the best piano sounds out there, would you get a Korg? I guess not, probably you’d get a Yamaha, a Kurzweil or even a Roland. Same goes with other sound categories, like electronic sounds. Maybe it’s the sound designers too, those who are responsible for the voicing of each instrument, who choose the sample material and those who program the final voices, patches, programs and so on. At least to my ears, most Korg instruments sound more electronic and ambient that Yamaha, and most Yamaha instruments sound more classical and natural than Korg.

As for bread-and-butter sounds, I mean sound categories like pianos, electric pianos, organs, orchestral voices, drums and so on. Although I’ve chosen the Fantom-G and have been using it for more than 2.5 years, I must admit that for everyday sounds the Yamaha Motif series have more complete soundsets. Of course, the sound selection is only one factor to choose a synth/workstation/sampler/whatever, and there are many more that makes someone choose, like ease of use, support, user interface etc.

I hope I made myself clearer now. :-)

Apex - 03 September 2010 03:33 PM

one thing that I don’t completely understand is how people make keyboards genre specific....  to say the Korg m3 is more “electronic” than the motif series… are there not tons and tons of bread and butter sounds on the m3?  Well let me back up for a second… when you say bread and butter, do you mean like pianos, ep, organs, strings, horns...?

If that is what you mean, then there are tons of patches that fall in those categories… Not to mention the internal ROM and being able to create whatever you need. 

Well, it’s not that the M3 doesn’t have these sounds, it’s just that the Motif does a lot of these better. I mean, I’ve owned an M3 and it is certainly capable of producing these kinds of sounds, but to my ears, the Motif blows it out of the water in the acoustic arena.

I’m not really sure how the Motif does in ‘electronic’ sounds, as I’ve not played with it enough to know. But by most accounts, the M3 is superior in that regard.

As to which synth is ‘better overall’, I don’t think it’s worth getting into a pissing contest about. Obviously they’re both good boards, but better in different areas.