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Old Motifator threads are available in the Archive.
| MrMotif
Total Posts: 1122
Joined 10-02-2002 status: Administrator |
Although NAMM initially bagged the ‘traditional’ hi-tech top spot for trade shows Musik Messe is a much, much bigger show (maybe 10x?) more global and also, interestingly, now more of a center of things ‘synthy’ with the preponderance of Eurorack and other spaghetti-sporting widgets and gadgets. You could hardly make it through Korg’s booth with the amount of wire all over the floor and Roland has now officially entered the Eurorack scene. There’s also the JD-Xa. But nothing is more retro than a genuine re-release and I will shortly be going to the re-launch of the Elka Synthex and will report back how, or indeed if, age has withered it or custom staled its infinite variety of sounds… |
my03
 Total Posts: 38
Joined 12-01-2014 status: Regular |
Is it full sized or “86%”? |
Way_ne
 Total Posts: 1291
Joined 01-26-2003 status: Guru |
I hope Yamaha makes a tiny change to their existing and future keyboards. Quietly change the naming scheme so they now have “Vicariously Controlled Oscillators”, the abbreviation of which would provide much amusement to watch on gear forums the world over in the ensuing weeks and months. Once the blathering reaches the threshold of pain, despite it having been almost immediately apparent that the sound sources in question are clearly fundamentally the same as they’ve always been, the company responds by way of a new post on Bad Mister’s Blog: “There’s been a lot of Internet ‘discussion’ (to be somewhat charitable) recently about the Vicariously Controlled Oscillators in our range of keyboard products, and we feel it may be helpful to explain the reason for recent changes in our terminology. “We routinely reassess many factors of our various instruments, including our naming conventions, in order to best accommodate the changing landscape of digital musical instruments in terms of aspects like marketing, customer perceptions and expectations, and the many other facets of this business which necessitate constantly evolving strategies. “The new term in question was the result of much research and consultation in a number of different areas, and by the end of that process it had come down to either ‘Vicariously Controlled Oscillators’ or the equally apt ‘Discretionally Controlled Oscillators’. “However, apart from the extra syllable of the latter term, the key factor the afore-mentioned research clearly showed us was that there is a very strong perception in the marketplace that Vicariously Controlled Oscillators sound much warmer, richer and ‘phatter’ than Discretionally Controlled Oscillators, which are considered to be thin, cold, bland and characterless by comparison, despite the end result being essentially the same in modern microprocessor-controlled instruments, according to our oscilloscopes, musician testers and entire design team. “Therefore, it was clear that having VCOs listed in the specifications was far more appealing than having DCOs to some prospective buyers who appear to make musical instrument purchasing decisions based almost entirely on certain acronyms that they feel are crucial to have listed on a spec sheet.
“The many other buyers of our range of keyboard instruments were largely unaware of the change, basing their purchasing decisions instead on the musicality, sound, feel, features, stability, build quality and reliability of our products, none of which are affected one iota by the change in terminology, because it made absolutely no actual difference at all to anything about the instrument.
That evening, Dave Smith sits down at his office desk after another day’s work designing a yet-to-be-announced 100% digital Prophet synthesizer, cussing under his breath at still having to wrestle with the poorly designed hardware envelopes that one of his discrete component suppliers still insists on using for sending invoices. Once done with the routine wrangling of the stubborn, ever-necessary anachronisms inherent to this music technology game, he fills the first shot glass for the day, leans back in his chair and checks his emails, several of which are about the Yamaha press release concerning their Vicariously Controlled Oscillators. After reading it through, he smirks wryly, raises his shot glass towards the screen in a salutory gesture, chuckles, and says “Good one, Fellas...” |
| MrMotif
Total Posts: 1122
Joined 10-02-2002 status: Administrator |
The Synthex would appear to be full size, yes. Image Attachments
Click thumbnail to see full-size image
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zpink
 Total Posts: 427
Joined 08-02-2014 status: Enthusiast |
@Way_ne
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Stashman
 Total Posts: 79
Joined 08-24-2014 status: Experienced |
Curious to know, just how many of us are going to rush out and immediately buy, the newest, next greatest thing from Yamaha as soon as it hits the street?
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| DavePolich
Total Posts: 6820
Joined 07-27-2002 status: Guru |
It doesn’t matter when the next Yamaha workstation will be released. When it is, plenty of
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RobinVT
 Total Posts: 210
Joined 01-16-2012 status: Enthusiast |
I love my XF7 and have a long way to go to before I can ever master all the capabilities
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| motidave
Total Posts: 426
Joined 10-03-2010 status: Enthusiast |
I don’t know, whats it got? :) |
5pinDIN
 Total Posts: 11891
Joined 09-16-2010 status: Legend |
Maybe it will have a built-in owner’s manual. It should be interactive so that when you look up a topic, it either automatically does all the necessary setup, or at least blinks the proper button LEDs so you can tell which ones to press, and in what order. That could reduce my replying to posts… ;-) |
| cmayhle
Total Posts: 3116
Joined 10-05-2011 status: Guru |
I’m not so sure 5pinDIN, and I don’t think This will put much of a dent in the need for piano instructors either… ...but if they could make it compose music for you, just by following the lighted keys produced from a hit-maker algorithm, we could get that pesky musicianship out of music altogether! |
| Melodialworks
Total Posts: 157
Joined 06-13-2009 status: Pro |
XF8 WH arriving soon, possibly as early as today. In preparation, I’ve watched (and made notes) from the “Motif XF Fully Loaded” video, and read some of the owner’s manual. I’m immediately struck by the lack of user banks, compared with Kronos, for example. On-board help would be beneficial. I’m planning on using it with Cubase (USB MIDI), and that looks like a daunting prospect in terms of learning curve. I’m looking forward to the successor of Motif XF, but will enjoy what I will soon have until that happens. |
| 5pinDIN
Total Posts: 11891
Joined 09-16-2010 status: Legend |
Congrats.
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I’m always perplexed by comments about the lack of User locations in the XF versus the Kronos. The Kronos has 1664 Programs (all user) - the XF has 1,024 Preset Voices plus 512 User Voices, total 1,536. Yes, the XF Presets can’t be overwritten, but if you don’t like them, why buy an XF? The Kronos has an advantage of 1792 Combinations, as opposed to the XF’s 512 Performances. However, it seems that the use a synth gets would determine how many Voices/Performances might be needed at any one time. For a gig, I can’t imagine a situation where the number of User locations would be a handicap. In the studio, loading an XF “all” file without samples doesn’t take very long, and could provide 512 new Voices and 512 new Performances.
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I agree that you’ll enjoy the XF. You might find that if you climb the learning curve enough, the potential lure of a successor could be lessened. |
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