With the history repeating it self, I can see it happening to all keyboard manufactures.
What happened to typewriters will eventually happen to all the keyboard manufacturers.
There is a lot in common between writing and composing/playing music. What word editors did to press industry will eventually happen to music industry too.
I’m not sure if Yamaha has anything special to offer as its next generation MOTIF or whatever it introduces later. The software industry is taking over fast, catching up with acceptable real-time performance and ease of use, and eventually, will completely replace current line of workstation keyboards.

What Yamaha should understand is that it’s inevitable change, they should focus on creating great controllers and software and their tight integration IMHO

Just my thoughts. Those who bragging about these keyboards will also forced to use VSTis very soon so this is the end of the road…

abdol - 22 August 2013 09:13 AM

[...] What Yamaha should understand is that it’s inevitable change, they should focus on creating great controllers and software and their tight integration IMHO

Just my thoughts. Those who bragging about these keyboards will also forced to use VSTis very soon so this is the end of the road…

I won’t try to predict exactly what road synths might might take, but there certainly seem to be a lot of us who still prefer a piece of hardware that can be operated independently of an external computer (at times).

One thing’s for sure, Yamaha isn’t unaware that the situation is in transition - they own Steinberg, the developer of Virtual Studio Technology (VST).

The cops came to my house just last week to make sure I was using VSTis and had my keyboards locked up so the kids couldn’t get at them.

I wasn’t as lucky. Got caught turning a teenager onto a vintage synth and got nabbed in a sting operation. 3rd offense, going to the big house.

Old keyboards with black and white keys seem to fare a lot better than QWERTY ones.

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Abdol, let me clue you in. Yamaha has a history of being “ahead of its time”. Start with the DX7 - that was a product no one asked for, FM had been dismissed as a gimmick and no one had thought of putting it in a synthesizer. Yet it was perhaps the most profitable, best-selling product in synth history. Yamaha was the first to come out with a dedicated music
computer. Yamaha was the first to bring physical modeling to a consumer
product (the VL1 synth). Yamaha was the first to develop a waveguide synthesizer (the VP 1). The Motif series has been the best-selling workstation of the past 10 years. Yet there you are, dispensing “advice”
to Yamaha, as if you’re smarter and more “hip” than anyone at the company is.

If you think Yamaha has its head in the sand and is ignoring
trends, you are completely mistaken. You don’t know what products the company has in development now, do you? Of course not. You’re speculating on a situation you really know nothing about.

Sure, the first production-model flying cars will be coming to market soon. That doesn’t mean roads as we know them will cease to exist. Hardware, like rock and roll, has been declared dead for the last 20 years. I don’t see it going away. Nor do I see Yamaha ceasing devlopment of new products, many of which you will, I am sure, be quite surprised
and amazed at.

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DavePolich - 22 August 2013 02:40 PM

Abdol, let me clue you in. Yamaha has a history of being “ahead of its time”. Start with the DX7 - that was a product no one asked for, FM had been dismissed as a gimmick and no one had thought of putting it in a synthesizer. Yet it was perhaps the most profitable, best-selling product in synth history. Yamaha was the first to come out with a dedicated music
computer. Yamaha was the first to bring physical modeling to a consumer
product (the VL1 synth). Yamaha was the first to develop a waveguide synthesizer (the VP 1). The Motif series has been the best-selling workstation of the past 10 years. Yet there you are, dispensing “advice”
to Yamaha, as if you’re smarter and more “hip” than anyone at the company is.

If you think Yamaha has its head in the sand and is ignoring
trends, you are completely mistaken. You don’t know what products the company has in development now, do you? Of course not. You’re speculating on a situation you really know nothing about.

Sure, the first production-model flying cars will be coming to market soon. That doesn’t mean roads as we know them will cease to exist. Hardware, like rock and roll, has been declared dead for the last 20 years. I don’t see it going away. Nor do I see Yamaha ceasing devlopment of new products, many of which you will, I am sure, be quite surprised
and amazed at.

No offense but I think you watch too many sci-fi movies or wally wood comics! Flying cars?
I never said Yamaha’s head is in the sand nor any of the things you made them up. I have no internal knowledge from Yamaha whatsoever.
Anyway if you sit and think about it, you’ll realize why Yamaha bought Steinberg.

No matter how much technology Yamaha has in its inventory, it can’t defeat an army of software. There is no question in that. It’s like gaming and graphics, back in old days 3d graphics on a PC was a dream now it’s reality. No one will give a flying treatment to the crappy sounds embedded in a crappy hardware if you can do it on a tablet’s touch screen and a keyboard controller. Honestly your ideas are not well thought of.

FYI companies and what they do is not sth you and I can predict it, one simple example is Nokia, once giant and now doesn’t even count. What you can predict though is where business goes…

Have fun guys and be happy.

Checkout HALION 5 !

HALION 5

Why would YAMAHA bother with another Hardware workstations ?

YAMAHA should just produce new sample libraries, innovative VST synths, and Effects.  Why build another workstation just to become outdated in less than a year, and have so many limitations based on its hardware’s limitations ? 

Software is the future !  As much as HW-Fans would dislike this, it is reality, today, tomorrow, and further in the future. 

Oh.. and the Motifs will be vintage classics, so… don’t get rid of your Motif Workstation.

Haha,
Muziksculp

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spot on, I mentioned it once in the MOX forum, Yamaha’s current samples are abused to the level that I can distinguish them easily.

A rompler won’t become a classic stuff, may be could become sth like a mellotron(not even close) it has no value other than its samples.

Yamaha has a long way to go!

I really liked the Cubasis 1.5 and honestly think instead of trying to come up with sth similar to Kronos.

Talking about the Motif Line, well they have been around over a decade now, and if you compare the Motif XF to the original Motif Classic. What has changed ?  The core technology is still the same, actually they omitted some of the plug-in boards that were available as options, and added flash ROM, (Big deal) ... That’s mostly what has happened over a decade… Where is YAMAHA’s innovation during those 10+ years ?  Same thing with a few bells and whistles, over and over again.

It’s time YAMAHA switched to Software development. They have less limitations, and have Steinberg to work with them.  I would love to see them develop the best sample libraries money can buy (i.e. for Halion, and Halion Sonic), the best Soft-Synths on the market, and some awesome Effects Plug-Ins.  imho. that’s the right path YAMAHA needs to take.  If they take us on another 10+ year ride with HW-Technology they will be missing the bullet train of progress in today’s fast and actively growing software music market.

Just my 3 cents.

Cheers,
Muziksculp

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