Motif’s 20th anniversary is approaching soon, and Yamaha has had time to reconsider their current position with regard to the Motif.  Perhaps now they realize it was not wise to concede the music production synthesizer market to the Korg Kronos.  Perhaps now they realize there was room for both a new Performance Synthesizer Flagship and a enhanced Music Production Synthesizer Flagship.

Motif’s 20th anniversary would be the perfect opportunity for Yamaha to recapture their competitive advantage in the music production synthesizer space, or at the very least make it a race again.  As awesome as the Montage is, it is no Motif and its not trying to be.  Yamaha is big enough and smart enough to find a way to have both a Montage family and a Motif family and there is a fan base big enough to support both.

So Yamaha if you’re reading, there are a great many in the Society of Motif that believe you should, and beseech you to renew Motif production by ushering in the next generation of Motif.  Motif-NG NG (Next Generation).  Motif NG8, Motif NG7, Motif NG6, and Motif NG(VST). 

And here are some guiding principles for Motif NG:

1.  Build on what already works.  The Motif is what it is, because it does what it does.  Take the things that are successful in the Motif and enhance them.  With the low low cost of hardware production and software production there is no musician-friendly reason to remove successful features.  So one future Motif mantra should be:  Enhance Yes!  Remove No!

2. Remember that the Motif is the musical instrument of choice for several classes of musician: club thru large venue performers, studio musicians, composers, virtuosos, weekend warriors, recording artists in virtually every genre, professional touring sideman, and music teachers.  Part of Motif’s success story is that it serves each class of musician well, and leaves no one hanging.  So another future Motif mantra should be:  Leave no musician behind or hanging.

3.  A musical instrument is a very personal thing.  The Motif of the future should allow the owner to not only make it personal through sound, but also customize the way it looks.  Enhance the user customization options of the user interface i.e. add more color options, more font types and font sizes, add the ability to let owners, import their own graphics that can be associated with sounds the owner creates or modifies.  Give the next generation of Motif the option to
order their Motif in custom colors (for a price of course), but custom colors (red,black,white,fuchsia,yellow,purple,teal ,etc) if you want to spend the money. So another future Motif mantra should be: Let the owner customize both sound and visual aspects of the Motif as much as is practical.

4. Respect both hardware oriented and software oriented workflows.  Some Motif owners enjoy and prefer tight integration with a general purpose computer running DAWS (e.g. Cubase, Logic, Protools) and VSTs(e.g. Omnisphere, Serum, Predator,etc).  Some Motif owners enjoy and prefer working with physical music support like hardware recorders, compression, limiters, and interfacing with other physical synths(e.g. Quantum, Prophet, Electron Digitak,etc), modulars, physical groove machines, sequencers, and effects boxes.  Don’t try to force those that prefer a software centered workflow to adapt a hardware centered work flow, and don’t try to force those who prefer a hardware centered work flow to adapt the software DAW centered universe.  So another future Motif mantra should be:  Don’t try to force workflows on Motif owners, support both.

5.  The Society of Motif is timeless, as long as Yamaha continues the Motif should be a vibrant line.  Of course there are times when Motif production may slow down, be relaxed, or even paused, but it should never be pronounced: “discontinued”.  So another Motif mantra should be: The Motif will always be a current member of the Yamaha family of synthesizers.

lastmonk - 19 August 2019 12:04 AM

So Yamaha if you’re reading, there are a great many in the Society of Motif that believe you should, and beseech you to renew Motif production by ushering in the next generation of Motif.  Motif-NG NG (Next Generation).  Motif NG8, Motif NG7, Motif NG6, and Motif NG(VST).

Just a suggestion - reconsider the “NG” moniker. In popular usage, it means “No Good”. In fact, Motif built-in diagnostic tests display “NG” when a test fails.

5pinDIN - 19 August 2019 07:29 AM

lastmonk - 19 August 2019 12:04 AM

So Yamaha if you’re reading, there are a great many in the Society of Motif that believe you should, and beseech you to renew Motif production by ushering in the next generation of Motif.  Motif-NG NG (Next Generation).  Motif NG8, Motif NG7, Motif NG6, and Motif NG(VST).

Just a suggestion - reconsider the “NG” moniker. In popular usage, it means “No Good”. In fact, Motif built-in diagnostic tests display “NG” when a test fails.

ROFLMAO but I dunno on this list:

https://www.allacronyms.com/NG

Next Generation, and New Generation get a few votes. And don’t forget about the Pepsi the “new generation” campaign LOL. Probably depends on what side of the railroad tracks your from, but point taken.

How about:

Motif 2.0
Motif D.S. (as in Dal Segno)
Motif Infinity
Motif 4eva
Motif DejaVu
Motif Progeny
Motif V
Motif Encore
Motif Obbligato
Motif Rondo
Motif v2
Motif N (for Next)
Motif++
Motif Dolce
Motif D.E (Definitive Edition)
Motif Extreme
Motif Evolution
Motif B (Beyond Vst)
Motif QT (Quick Timbre)
Motif U (Ultimate Edition)
Motif CI (Cubase Inside)
Motif NM (New Midi edition)

Fingers are crossed that something new in the Motif lineage is coming.  Maybe starting out with something as simple as updating the MOXF to have a touch screen similar to the MODX.

My guess/hope is Yamaha has updated the software interface (using montage’s interface as a springboard) on the way to eventually just bringing an embedded version of Cubase that includes Midi 2.0, MIDI MPE stuff to the next generation of Motif.  When that drops, it will literally be a game changer.  R.I.P Korg Kronos