Hi, Unboxed today, New Old Stock, XF6. Firmware is 1.10

Compared to our old Korg M50 Basic Piano sound the XF7 Grand Piano
sound is so dull! Same speaker/headphones it just has no life,
sustain, body, etc. Using the L output and headphone jack for headphones.

What am I missing? is it firmware? or do I have to tweak something?

Thanks!!

Welcome to the forum.

You should definitely update the firmware soon - it’s currently at version 1.50, and well worth the small investment in time needed. However, that won’t change the sound you’re taking issue with.

By “Grand Piano”, are you referring to PRE1 A01 Full Concert Grand, or USR1 A01 Natural Grand S6? Try them both.

Headphones might not do justice to the sound quality. Using just the L/MONO line output definitely won’t - the two Voices I just mentioned are in stereo, and playing them in mono causes phase cancellations which will absolutely dull the sound.

Another possible issue can be the Velocity Curve setting.
Press [UTILITY] > [F1] > [SF1], and try setting Velocity Curve to “soft”.
Be sure to STORE any changes you want to keep.
See pages 219-220 of the XF Reference Manual for details.

Do you have a flash memory module installed in your XF6?
Do you have a USB flash drive to use with the XF6?
Depending on the memory available, there are other libraries, including pianos, you might be able to take advantage of.

Welcome to Motifator and the forums!

There’s no way any of the standard Motif pianos sound dull and lifeless so there must be a problem somewhere - I suspect somewhere in the audio chain from cables and connections to your amplification system. You say you are connecting to L output. So, mono? You just need to use the headphone output and connect any half way decent set of headphones then the pianos will definitely sound full and rich.  If you have an amplification system I’d recommend using L and R outputs to get full stereo.

It’s unlikely, though not impossible, that there could be a problem with your unit. Presumably you have gone through and checked other sounds?

Good luck getting set up, but rest assured the stock pianos - never mind the many third party sampled pianos you can store in Flash on your XF - will sound ‘as good as it gets’ on a hardware instrument these days.

Ok I will do the firmware for sure. I did use the velocity curve soft setting and it did seem to help! thanks. I don’t have a flash module, but will put it on my list.

Thanks again for your help. I.m sure we will have more questions, coming from a Korg of course this is so different.

mlanier - 01 March 2015 03:25 PM

...coming from a Korg of course this is so different.

Yes, it is, and that goes to the heart of your original post.

These are powerful and complex synthesizers...both the Korg and the Yamaha...and not just “playback” keyboards for preset sounds.

The “standard” Yamaha piano is identical to the “standard” Korg piano in one very important way:

Each is simply a “snapshot” of how the Factory programmers “treated” the original samples...through eq, filters, envelope tweaks, effects, etc.

If you think that a Yamaha piano “is so dull!”, all that really says to me is that you don’t care for the way the programmer set it up (assuming here that any equipment issues have been addressed if necessary).  That’s OK.  Here is the good news:  You can completely edit and adjust the piano so it isn’t so dull to you!  There is such an array of parameters at your service for customizing and tweaking, that you can end up with a sound that would make it unrecognizable from the sound you started with.

It seems to me from the posts in this Forum that keep appearing over and over and over again:  It is either little-known or under-appreciated just how much control the machine gives you over each of the hundreds (thousands?) of base sounds.  Don’t like something?  Change it into something you do like!