Hello,

Does anyone have a problem with the preset piano sounds on the XS sounding ‘muffled’ and not being bright and clear like a normal piano?

I have experimented with changing the EQ settings on both the keyboard (the second row of knobs) and my powered speakers (2 x Yamaha MSR250s). The sound quality improves, but surely the sound should be bright and clear without having to alter anything?

All other voices do not have any problems (not sure why this is).

Any help would be greatly appreciated as this issue is beginning to bug me, as the piano sounds are probably the voices I use most.

Thanks,

BC.

I think you’ll find that the piano tonal qualities have a lot to do with the key velocity. If you haven’t already done so, you might try setting the Velocity Curve to “soft” in the Utility mode. See page 260 of the XS Owner’s Manual for details. There are other ways to modify the key velocity sensitivity, if that helps.

Yes, they do have a dullness to them.  Just gotta remember Yamaha gives you the actual plain grand piano from their own pianos. EQ, tweak, modify it and don’t forget to save it.  That should make a difference.  If not, then maybe your preference is not XS/XF pianos.  Try purchasing piano libraries from the store, they are hella good!

Thanks for the responses,

I’ll try changing the velocity curve settings to see if that makes a difference.

Can you recommend any piano voice libraries that are worth purchasing? The only problem is if I purchase a sound library and the problem still exists then I’ve wasted my money!

Thanks again,

BC.

Does anyone have a problem with the preset piano sounds on the XS sounding ‘muffled’ and not being bright and clear like a normal piano?

Sounding “muffled” is a description that can be a matter of the sound system placement in the room and your position in relationship to those speakers. There is nothing muffled about the piano sounds in the Motif XS. Plug in a set of headphones and listen. Or sit in the sweet spot between a pair of studio monitors.

Try this experiment:
Take your MSR250’s make sure they are EQ’d to be flat (no boost or cut of frequencies) place them the same as you would near field monitors - sit in the sweet spot forming an equilateral triangle of no more that 3 feet. Reduce the volume so you don’t wind up parting your hair.

This setup will basically attempt to eliminate much of the room you are in. It is true of SOUND: if you can “see” the speakers - they will deliver more High Frequencies. It is the lack of high frequencies that we describe as “muffled” and it is the nature of high frequencies to travel in a straight path.

- put your hand front of your mouth and speak - the person listening to you hears your voice muffled. They still hear you but the blocking of the high frequencies - move you hand out of the way and the intelligiblity increases by a huge factor. Turn you head away from the person you are speaking to, again its the high frequencies that are now directed away from the listener - the sound is not necessarily muffled but is certainly less intelligible.  High frequencies are highly directional.

The same is true with musical content coming out of a speaker - the most high frequencies are directly in front of the speakers - move to the side and your high frequency content will seem to dip. Sit behind the speakers and of course you have the worst case for hearing highs.

The point is, speaker placement has everything to do with what balance of frequencies you are getting. So before you blame the particular Voice, understand what happens to frequency response as you move your speakers.

The closer you are to the sound source the more bass you get
Placing speaker together (coupling) radically changes the tone
Placing speakers on the floor, on poles, angled inward (as in a studio monitor situation), angled away from each other, etc. etc. all have a huge impact on the sound.

Low frequencies behave differently from highs. They tend to spread out and have wide dispersion - they hit a surface and tend to move that surface - while high frequencies hit a surface and bounce back.

So your “muffled” description has to be placed in the context of speaker placement and your position to those speakers when you are evaluating them.