Yamaha Motifes 8 Keyboard Replaced by MotifXS8

The new MOTIF “Expanded System" Music Production Synthesizers – expanded inside and out for unprecedented performance and expressive control.

Not only do the new MOTIF ES Music Production Synthesizers feature the largest wave ROM of any workstation keyboard available (175 megabytes in 16-bit linear format), but that Extensive Sonic library is at the heart of the most expressive, most musical synthesis system on the planet, bar none. The Enhanced Sound set of the ES 1,859 waveforms – the majority of them newly sampled specifically for the MOTIF ES series – provide the foundation for 1024 outstanding normal voices plus 65 drum kits. There are even Mix Voices so you can edit and create your own Voices will listening to your songs and store them right along with the song data. The MotifES delivers an extraordinary sonic depth and musical response. The range of sounds it produces is stunning - from the Emulative Sounds of acoustic piano and orchestra to the Extreme Synthesis of cutting-edge hiphop and electronica. You only have to hear the ES once to know this is the best sounding, most Evolved Synthesizer Yamaha has ever made. .

The newly designed tone generator chip offers true 128-note polyphony that gives you the freedom to create intricate compositions using the full gamut of the Yamaha MOTIF ES Exceptional Sonic power. These instruments are designed for serious music production. The newly developed synth engine offers new synthesizer parameters and faster, more precise envelope control.

A significant leap forward from simple single layer samples, “Mega Voice” technology makes it possible to include all the nuances of an instrument’s real time performance. Imagine a guitar voice, for example, with hammer-ons, pull-offs, harmonics, slides, fret noises, and other elements of the “real thing” all accessible from the keyboard at the same time. Mega Voice technology takes MOTIF ES guitar, bass, and other instrument voices to new expressive heights.

If you’ve ever felt limited by the Effect Systems in other keyboards, be prepared for total liberation: system effects include 20 reverb types and 49 chorus/delay types, while each Voice can have two large blocks of 116 insertion effect types. In the song or pattern modes, up to Eight Separate parts can have their voice insertion Effects Simultaneously. There’s also independent three-band part EQ Settings for each of the 16 parts in Mix, eight types of mastering effects including multi band compression, and a five-band master EQ to complete your productions right to the final mastering stage. New reverbs, vintage phasors, flangers and wahwahs ensure that you get the highest quality effects that are available in Yamaha’s vast arsenal of DSP algorithms.

Much more than a simple arpeggiator, the MOTIF ES Phrase Factory offers unprecedented versatility for creating sequenced phrases. Use it with the drum kits to produce innovative rhythm patterns, or take advantage of its chord-recognition capabilities to generate pitched phrases using the normal voices. You have 1787 preset arpeggiator phrases to start with — from standard synth arps to drum loops to natural-sounding acoustic-instrument grooves. The Phrase Factory system works seamlessly with Mega Voice technology so you can take advantage of all the expressive Mega Voice nuances. You can even assign five different arp phrases to the switches below the display and switch them in real time. Plus the arpeggiator’s performance play parameters like Swing, Velocity and Quantize let you easily modify preset or user arps and make them your own. Finally real time loop re-mix let’s you create literally thousands of instant variations on these musical Motifs.

The Integrated Sampling Sequencer in the ES provides the seamless integration of MIDI and audio sample sequencing places the MOTIF ES synthesizers right on the leading edge of music production. Of course you can BPM-sync playback of MIDI and sample loops, and our Time Slice function lets you handle samples with the same freedom as MIDI sequence data without altering pitch or losing audio quality. A maximum sample RAM (DIMM) capacity of 512 megabytes places the Yamaha MOTIFES sampler section in the same league as some of the most advanced stand-alone samplers available. You can trim, normalize, and time-stretch your samples in any way your music requires, and a range of editing functions including Loop Remix offer precision waveform editing capability. The sequencer section can handle up to 226,000 notes in 16 tracks, and with an extensive range of playback control options you are only limited by your imagination.

For truly musical expression there’s no substitute for real-time hands-on control. The MOTIF ES gives you four rotary controllers and four faders that can be assigned to control filters, volume, effects, envelops… any of an extensive range of voice parameters. These same controls provide a digital mixer feel when mixing multiple sequenced parts. They can also be used as MIDI controllers to control external MIDI devices. We’ve even added a ribbon controller for intimate fingertip voice control. And since you need to be able to find and recall voices as quickly as possible, the MOTIF ES synthesizers feature a Category Search function. The Category Search function includes a Favorite category that can store up to 128 of the voices that you use most frequently for instant recall from any mode.

If you use a computer-based sequencer or DAW as part of your music production setup, with press of a button you can turn the MOTIF ES into a full function control surface that supports the same protocols as the new 01X Mlan Mixing Studio. Simply connect a USB cable between the instrument’s “TO HOST” USB port and your computer’s USB port, and you can directly access your sequencer/DAW software’s fader, pan, EQ effect send, track mute, transport, and other parameters from the MOTIF ES controllers. You can even open and close windows on your computer directly from your ES.

In addition to the USB “TO HOST” port mentioned above, the MOTIF ES synthesizers feature a USB “TO DEVICE” port that can be connected to a USB storage device such as hard disks, flash disks, or card memory readers for convenient, safe external storage of your samples, sequences, and other production data. When you want to move up to mLAN networking — Yamaha’s high-performance music networking protocol — simply install the optional mLAN16E expansion board (available soon) in your MOTIF ES synthesizer and you’re ready to network and share multiple ports of MIDI data and multiple channels of 24-bit/96 kHz audio data with other mLAN compatible devices or computers with 1394 Firewire connectors.

If your system requires more audio inputs and outputs than come standard with the MOTIF ES, add an optional AIEB2 I/O Expansion Board for an additional six independent analog inputs and outputs as well as coaxial and optical stereo digital inputs and outputs.

Right out of the box the MOTIF ES synthesizers are powerhouses of music production features and sounds. If you want additional capabilities, however, the Modular Synthesis Plug-in System lets you simply plug in appropriate optional expansion boards. For analog-modeling synthesis there’s the PLG150-AN, or for advanced 6-operator FM synthesis there’s the PLG150-DX. The incredibly real sound of virtual analog synthesis is available via the PLG150-VL board, the PLG150-DR delivers outstanding AWM-generated drum sounds, choose the PLG150-PC for percussion, or install the PLG15-PF for outstanding piano sound. The MOTIF ES synthesizers have three option slots that can accommodate the extra features you need.

A built-in SmartMedia™ slot accepts memory cards with capacities up to 128 megabytes for convenient external data storage.

* Mono/Stereo

* MIDI Sync, MIDI transmit/receive channel, Velocity Limit, and Note Limit can be set.

* 4 Zones (Master keyboard settings), Assignable Knob/Slider settings, Program Change Table

Review of YAMAHA MOTIFES8

RATING:

Sound Quality	10
Features	10
Ease Of Use	10
Value	10
Reliability	10
Overall	10

-Gollapalli Ashish
-India, 10/28/06

Review of YAMAHA MOTIFES8

RATING:

Sound Quality	10
Features	9
Ease Of Use	9
Value	10
Reliability	10
Overall	10

-
-Bridgport, CT, 03/29/06

Review of YAMAHA MOTIFES8

RATING:

Sound Quality	10
Features	10
Ease Of Use	8
Value	8
Reliability	10
Overall	9

-H. R Lewis
-provincetown, ma, 10/21/05