No PLG or ARX-like plug-in board.  My DX board is straight hardware architecture from the DX series, no samples and my output is much better DA converters than in the 1980s.  Coupled with firewire and 88-keys I have a luxury FM synthesizer and workstation. 

Although the XF series is sharp and has the larger wave rom and nice screen, the lack of ability to add extra synthesis like the 2003 ES and just like the XS is once again a step backwards.  People, the AN board is not a sample board, it’s the AN1X architecture shoved in a Motif, just like the 150DX.  A 1GB sample board is nice and I see it’s a step forward but $600 more it makes you wonder why such a small upgrade from the XS this is not just put in the board to begin with.  Also the FW board is not standard in the XF8.  Things to consider. 

Come on Yamaha with some more synthesizers like the 80s and 90s.  I have East West Quantum Leap huge sample libraries with richness, a couple hundred gigs on an external HD for the real orchestral sounds for much less than a $600 memory board.

Bach42t - 05 September 2010 04:09 PM

No PLG or ARX-like plug-in board.

I’ve heard Yamaha say that the reason the PLG support was dropped was because it wasn’t selling. Hard to argue with that.

Bach42t - 05 September 2010 04:09 PM

A 1GB sample board is nice and I see it’s a step forward but $600 more it makes you wonder why such a small upgrade from the XS this is not just put in the board to begin with.

The 1GB flash board is $300, not $600. And you really only need to buy the 512MB board for $150 if you want. I think that should hold a lot of samples, given that it’d be bigger than the ROM in most keyboards. Depends on how well you craft your samples I guess.

The whole big thing about the flash memory and the seemingly high cost of has to do with the speed. I figured that at worst case you may be playing all 128 notes of polyphony from the flash, each one stereo. So that would be 128 x 2 channels x 44,100 samples/sec x 2 bytes/sample = 22.5MB/second. I didn’t do any research on whether that was fast for flash to deliver, but I asked an engineer friend of mine and he said that was fast. So it cost more.

Also, consider that the 128 notes might be read simultaneously out of any combination of ROM, RAM, or flash memory, all with different timing requirements. So I guess they needed to create a special memory bus that would manage that.

Bach42t - 05 September 2010 04:09 PM

Also the FW board is not standard in the XF8.

Yeah, I guess I’m a bit disappointed in that too. On one hand, it’s nice that it’s an option so the extra cost isn’t forced on people who don’t want it. But is the XF8 any less expensive than the XS8 was at launch? I don’t remember.

Bach42t - 05 September 2010 04:09 PM

I have East West Quantum Leap huge sample libraries with richness, a couple hundred gigs on an external HD for the real orchestral sounds for much less than a $600 memory board.

Of course, you’re comparing apples and oranges.

The XF is a great board (had the chance to play it today) but I also don’t plan on getting rid of my ES6 simply because I covet the plg boards.  However, after playing with the XF board today, I may be inclined to pick one up along with my ES, but I am not completely sure.