I was playing around with this sound at my local GC and was wondering if there was any way to get a handle on the vibrato. MOD wheel doesn’t seem to have any effect and neither did any of th knobs. On my S90, I come to the conclusion that the vibrato is built into the waveform and not controllable - is this the case on the MOX?

I was playing around with this sound at my local GC and was wondering if there was any way to get a handle on the vibrato. MOD wheel doesn’t seem to have any effect and neither did any of th knobs. On my S90, I come to the conclusion that the vibrato is built into the waveform and not controllable - is this the case on the MOX?

The MOX, the S90XS/S70XS, and the Motif XS/XF-series all allow you to control the vibrato of the violin… here’s how:

Yamaha, when they sample instruments like violins, sample the natural vibrato of the musician - this is subjective but the reasons are: They sound more realistic and natural when applied by a real player. Using an LFO for vibrato can quickly begin to sound too perfect (synthy). But again it is subjective - and this is why you have a CHOICE!!!

Of course, this is a synthesizer, so keyboard players sometimes feel that THEY want to control the vibrato. And even though it is very (very) expensive from a wave ROM standpoint to include the real vibrato, you are also provided the violin sampled without vibrato.

The 8 Element architectures, found in the S90XS/S70XS, the Motif XS/XF and the MOX6/MOX8, allow for different “articulations” from many of the instruments emulations.

An articulation is basically a different gesture or approach in playing the instrument. 

Call up the VOICE: PRE 4:001(A01) “Violin Solo 1”
The Voice as recalled is the articulation of the natural vibrato
Press [AF2] (Assignable Function 2)

The parameter XA CONTROL (Expanded Articulation Control) will activate the Element that is sans vibrato. By pressing the [AF2] button you are instructing the instrument to access a set of waves that were recorded (sampled) without vibrato. This parameter, XA CONTROL, can be used for many different things including switching the Elements that are set to sound.

You may want to try the following experiment: when you have friend over… play an appropriate solo violin phrase with the natural vibrato and without the natural vibrato (adding your own with the MW).

Without telling them what you are doing, ask them which sounds more realistic. It is always interesting to do such experiments. Let us know.

Thanks for the reply Bad Mister - much appreciated.