I played an MM8 today at a local store and the keyboard action was awesome. Am I imagining this or is the keyboard better ie improved over my ES8? I need to go back and play some more I’m thinking this might be a better instrument for me.

Your thoughts?

Keyboard actions are like shoes… the shoes that fit your feet is all that matters. If you like it, then that’s it. Would you change or exchange the shoes that fit your feet, because some one told you that this other pair feels good to them? they are your feet. Same with action - it is always a personal taste thing.

Remember, a big influence on our perception of what we call ‘action’ in an electronic keyboard, is how the sound responds, not just how the keys feel - this can be critical. You can adjust the VELOCITY CURVE overall, and depending on the synth engine attached, you can change how each individual Voice and each individual Element within a Voice, responds to your touch and playing approach.

Just so you know: The MM8 is a Yamaha Graded Hammer Standard action.
The Motif ES8 is a Yamaha Balanced Hammer action (w/Aftertouch).

Traditionally, Yamaha would use the Balanced Hammer action for the weighted action 88-key synthesizers. However, with the very successful MO8 (2005) and MM8 (2008), Yamaha introduced synths with the Graded Hammer action that you would find on Yamaha 88-key digital pianos (which has different weighting across the keybed).

The Yamaha “Balanced Hammer” action has a single (consistent) weighting across the entire keyboard and is usually attached to a synth engine that is highly user editable as to how the instrument’s sound responds on a per program basis.

Currently, the MOX8 features the Graded Hammer action and the ability to edit the response.

It is not coincidental that the Graded Hammer action is lighter in weight, overall. The MM8 and MOX8 are under the 35lbs. which is the limit musicians consider easy to move.

Thank you for the reply. Understood on the subjective nature of keyboards, and yes there is a difference in these two examples, they are not the same design. On the velocity curve settings for the ES8 do you have an archived article on playing with this setting?