Hey Guys, i’m new to this and I need some help making a decision please....Heres the situation. To start out, I need to play live ("one-man-band" kind of stuff) and i have been undergoing an extensive amount of research on its capabilities...I found that some people have complained a drop or even said its not that good/advanced when it comes to live performance(?) Truthfully, I have only played live on an actual acoustic piano so I don’t even really know what to expect in a keyboard, or what I need for that matter. I’m not concerned about studio features however, since I’ll be sequencing/recoding with a computer and thats really all I need there.

So I guess I was hoping someone could PLEASE help me out if they know anything that this keyboard can do for the stage. I’m talking advantages, disadvantages, features, controls....anything like that would be great (and if you can explain how it would be good or bad for playing live). I found the MO X8 appealing since it is light weight, has 88 Graded Hammer keys, is a fair price, and comes pre-loaded with quality Motif sounds, but i’m inexperienced in terms of features.

My other option is the MO8- since it has the sliders which I assume, (but actually have no idea lol), would be advantageous to a live performance. However, I GREATLY prefer the graded hammer keys on the MO X8. Actually, the GH key action is actually what threw me on the fence since I’m truly a piano player and have a strong distaste for balanced keys and such. Furthermore, I know that you can combine up to 4 sounds on the MO8 and spread them randomly over the keyboard, is this feature consistent for the MO X8 as well? Finally, I was hoping there is some kind of way I would be able to switch between sounds with a foot pedal…

If anyone could help that would be greatly appreciated! Also, If you guys could post some tips/tricks for what you do when playing live, or certain features I should be looking for when purchasing a keyboard for my “one man band”, that would be truly amazing!

Thanks!!

P.S. Sorry for the long post :)

Well, it depends on your style of playing. One-man-band players mostly use auto-arrange keyboard that has styles/rhythm for other parts like drum, bass, guitar...(tyros, PSR series)

MOX serie is semi-pro music production synth that has some live features (split key, layers, microphone input...that from S70/90XS), but it requires some works to create apr (simple style) or backtracks (sequencer) compare to auto-arranger keyboards (just-play). If you are one-man performer, obviously you know what to do and all of your songs are prepared...then MOX is great key.

Great things are light weight, good sound and not expensive ;-)

Hope that helps,

Thanks a lot! I just checked up on the tyros series a bit...do you know if they have an 88 graded key version? It sounds really sweet, although I don’t think I would mind creating “back tracks” for myself...is that even such a big deal to do? Never did it before…

Tyros with 88-keys? it would be more expensive than XF though ;-) The answer is NO

ahh ok! well then the MOX8 seems to be a pretty good choice...i just wish it had sliders

SpeedyG6 - 03 May 2011 06:56 PM

ahh ok! well then the MOX8 seems to be a pretty good choice...i just wish it had sliders

If you happen to have an iPad, it looks like you might be able to add a screen-full of 8 sliders using this:

http://www.yamahasynth.com/jp/library/motif_xf/ipad/soon.html

which supposedly will work on a MOX (though not wirelessly).

Wow ! thats cool

Pity it wont work wireless with the MOX series

nice! I bet you would get some interesting looks bringing an ipad to a gig hahah

but that is an extremely cool feature :)

Tyros with 88keys?

Completely different types of keyboard. The MOX8 is for those that want to get into a do-it-yourself, music production type of thing… and the Tyros and Clavinovas are about the arranger functions for entertaining.

You should really investigate them before you decide which to buy…

Bad_Mister - 04 May 2011 08:55 PM

Tyros with 88keys?

This is it....Click here

Completely different types of keyboard. The MOX8 is for those that want to get into a do-it-yourself, music production type of thing… and the Tyros and Clavinovas are about the arranger functions for entertaining.

You should really investigate them before you decide which to buy…

wow this looks crazy! but how in the world would I bring it to a gig? It says its 180 lbs, talk about a trunk full haha! So I’m not really sure what a “do-it-yourself” type is but I’m pretty talented with music, and Im a computer engineer....with those skills do you think I will be able to learn how to navigate the MOX8 and create my own performances, or is it not that type of keyboard all together?

Just get famous and have your roadies carry the weight.
;JOOP!

wow this looks crazy! but how in the world would I bring it to a gig? It says its 180 lbs, talk about a trunk full haha! So I’m not really sure what a “do-it-yourself” type is but I’m pretty talented with music, and Im a computer engineer....with those skills do you think I will be able to learn how to navigate the MOX8 and create my own performances, or is it not that type of keyboard all together?

You really need to gain an understanding of the difference between these types of keyboards because if you don’t you may spend a lot of time trying to make one do what the other does easiy.

Here is an example, a few years ago a gentlemen walked into the Yamaha booth at NAMM with a ton of questions about keyboards. During our conversation he put down his back pack and opened it to reveal that it was full of music charts. He announced “I know 10,000 songs!”

I told him to step away from the workstation keyboard (Motif) and I promptly took him over to the Tyros (this was several years ago so it might have been the original Motif and original Tyros). My reasoning:

Could you program 10,000 songs with a workstation like the Motif… well, yes you could. Each by each.

Could you program 10,000 songs with a Tyros (arranger)… the thing is you don’t have to… recall the appropriate Style and go for it.

Immediately, he was in a cmfort zone

It is a matter of goal. If you know 10,000 songs, you probably (like this gentlemen) are more into “playing” them than programming them. If you get my meaning.

Some people find the programming ‘each one’ THE THING they want to do. Some people just want to find an appropriate style and want to begin playing it right away. As a friend of mine says they want to “...sound great immediately.”

If I needed to submit an authentic sounding 1940’s Fox Trot, a 1950’s rock n roll song, a 1960’s discotheque/twist song, a 1970’s folk rock song, a 1980’s synth rock title, 1990’s hip-hop groove, and a Broadway show tune, for a TV commercial or a time-travel sequence in a movie.... could I do it on a Motif-type keyboard? Yes, I could. Could I do it on a Tyros-type keyboard? Yes, I could. If the deadline was tomorrow, the arranger workstation engine of the Tyros would be much more efficient and would have my project sounding great immediately… In music for hire situations sometimes the deadline and amount of work determines the work method.

Get either one… but get it because it is going to do the job you need it to do. These two products are in very different categories - ignore them at your own peril.

Bad_Mister - 05 May 2011 09:29 AM

Some people just want to find an appropriate style and want to begin playing it right away. As a friend of mine says they want to “...sound great immediately.”

If I needed to right an authentic sounding 1940’s Fox Trot, and a 1950’s rock n roll song, and a 1960’s discotheque/twist song, and a 1970’s folk rock song, and a 1980’s synth rock title, and 1990’s hip-hop groove, and a Broadway show tune, for a TV commercial or a time-travel sequence in a movie.... could I do it on a Motif-type keyboard? Yes. Could I do it on a Tyros-type keyboard? Yes. If the deadline was tomorrow, the arranger workstation engine of the Tyros would be much more efficient and would have my project sounding great immediately… In music for hire situations sometimes the deadline determines the work method.

That’s an interesting way to look at it, and it makes sense. But a few days ago I happened to be in a store playing even a much lower end Yamaha, the MM8, and it had many patterns in a wide range of styles. I found plenty of preset performances, where I could start playing some left hand chords and right hand melody, and out would come an entirely arranged song in some style. And the MOX seems to have these kinds of functions too. That is, you can get fully “arranged” sounding background tracks for a variety of styles without having to build any sequences from scratch.

That being the case, can you elaborate on how the Tyros is different? Is it that the Tyros simply has far more such styles to choose from?  Or is there some additional kind of functionality, absent in the MOX (or MM), that puts it in an entirely different category in terms of its capabilities for fast-composition and instant-accompaniment? (And what would that functionality be?) Or maybe it’s largely a matter of having an interface that is deigned specifically to do those kinds of things more easily? Or...?

anotherscott - 05 May 2011 10:51 AM

That being the case, can you elaborate on how the Tyros is different? Is it that the Tyros simply has far more such styles to choose from?  Or is there some additional kind of functionality, absent in the MOX (or MM), that puts it in an entirely different category in terms of its capabilities for fast-composition and instant-accompaniment?… Or maybe it’s largely a matter of having an interface that is deigned specifically to do those kinds of things more easily? Or...?

Well, all of that, almost.

The Motif series is designed for empowering you to create whatever music you want to in the most flexible way. The results you expect can almost always be achieved, although the effort involved is pretty high. You can be original as well as exact.

The PSR series (including Tyros) are arranger models primarily targeted towards one-man-band musicians. You get a plethora of preset styles and voices. You can make an arrangement to get close to your expected results very quickly (but not quite there… ;) ). Instant entertainment, instant gratification.

My other option is the MO8- since it has the sliders which I assume, (but actually have no idea lol), would be advantageous to a live performance. However, I GREATLY prefer the graded
hammer keys on the MO X8. Actually, the GH key action is actually what threw me on the fence since I’m truly a piano player and have a strong distaste for balanced keys and such. Furthermore, I know that you can combine up to 4 sounds on the MO8 and spread them randomly over the keyboard, is this feature consistent for the MO X8 as well? Finally, I was hoping there is some kind of way I would be able to switch between sounds with a foot pedal…

If anyone could help that would be greatly appreciated! Also, If you guys could post some tips/tricks for what you do when playing live, or certain features I should be looking for when purchasing a keyboard for my “one man band”, that would be truly amazing!

Thanks!!

P.S. Sorry for the long post :)

Scroll down the page http://www.hackettsongs.com/blog/tour35.html

Thanks thats really helpful! Bad_Mister, I understand now how they are different. For the most part, It appears the Tyros is more or less “plug-and-play” while the MO series does require some effort. The question is, how much effort exactly does one need to put into making a song on the MOX8? Could you possibly give a simplistic general walkthrough so I would be able to have a basic understanding?