Gear Hunter

Yamaha - MOTIF XS8

Description

Get inspired!
With the new Yamaha MOTIF XS, inspiration is just a key press away. High-quality sounds to inspire you, intelligent arpeggiators to fuel your creativity, recording features to capture every idea, built-in sampling to create full audio/MIDI arrangements, rhythmic Patterns to compose with, studio-style mixing controls and versatile effect processing to master your final productions. With all this and more, the MOTIF XS will soon be your favorite 'goto' instrumentwhether you're composing at home, recording in the studio, or playing live. It's got absolutely everything you need to make professional quality music.

Close your eyes, play the gorgeous sounds and rhythms of the MOTIF XSand feel the inspiration.

The MOTIF XS provides an exceptionally broad selection of realistic sounds to spark your creativity, with a massive 355 MB of high-quality waveforms and samples on board. A single Voice can have up to eight separate sound Elements, enabling composite sounds of remarkable complexity and nuance. Among the standout Voices is a resonant, meticulously recorded concert grand piano sound that is practically worth the price of admission by itself. New acoustic piano, electric piano and orchestral samplesnot to mention the richly textured and distinctly electronic synthesizer wavesgive you the sonic tools to fully realize virtually any style of music and any instrumentation.

Another new feature is the Expanded Articulation (XA) tone generation system. Using the eight available Elements, XA allows you to more effectively recreate realistic sound and natural performance techniquessuch as legato, staccato and key release soundsoften used on acoustic instruments but unavailable or difficult to realize on electronic keyboards. It also lets you assign Elements to on/off panel switches, and change sounds within a Voice in real timefor example, playing a classical guitar voice and switch between playing normally and playing high harmonics. XA also offers other unique modes for random and alternate sound changes as you play.

A wide selection of special Mega Voices provide even more expressive nuance, when used with sequencer tracks or the special Mega Voice Arpeggios. Mega Voices are not meant to be played from the keyboard because of their complex velocity layers, but have special expressive sounds that are designed to be precisely triggered by recorded datafor example, letting you create an acoustic guitar track with authentic sounding muted playing, slides and bell-like harmonics.

Other Voice-related features include a uniquely natural "half damper" effect for acoustic piano sounds. This gives you nuanced control over the sustained sound when pressing the damper pedal, depending on how far down you press the pedal. The MOTIF XS has a full complement of effects, both insert (Insertion) and send (System), and includes a special set of VCM (Virtual Circuitry Modeling) effects that authentically model the elements in analog circuitry, realisticallyrecreating the uniquely warm characteristics of vintage processing gear. Speaking of "vintage," the instrument also includes a sophisticated Vocoder effect that produces classic robotic synthesizer sounds, molded by your speaking or singing voice through a connected microphone.

The MOTIF XS has so many sophisticated features that help jump-start your creativity and live performance potential. One of the most powerful of these is Arpeggio, which lets you trigger a variety of sequenced phrases from the keyboard. There are approximately 6,000 different Arpeggio phrases on board, and you can have four different Arpeggios, playing four different instrument parts, running simultaneously-in perfect sync, of course. The music making possibilities are virtually endless. Have a drum Voice play an automatic rhythm, add an Arpeggio bass phrase, and fly in other instrument phrases as the inspiration hits you. Everything stays in sync, and everything follows your chord changes.

While you experiment and play around with Arpeggios in the Performance mode, the song ideas will come fast and fierce-maybe too many to remember. No worries, though. You can capture them easily and directly by recording them to a Song or Pattern (which can be stored to the built-in flash memory). Since the data is MIDI, you don't have to worry about running out of recording space. You can record your keyboard playing, freely calling up various Arpeggio types as you improvise, then edit the Song later as necessary. You may even want to 'keep the recorder running' as you play, then listen back later and pick out the best parts to create your final composition.

Another powerful feature is the Integrated Sampling Sequencer, which seamlessly combines audio and MIDI recording. Simply install optional DIMM modules (up to 1 GB) and record the audio directly to tracks on the MOTIF XS. Record your vocals or acoustic guitar (with a microphone), electric guitar or bass, or even short rhythm loops from a sample CD.
There's also a Slice feature that automatically chops up your rhythms and riffs into their individual beats and notes, letting you manipulate the component parts of your sample loops as MIDI datagiving you the power to easily change tempo and rhythmic feel, without disturbing the pitch or sound quality.

Despite all the advanced technology and wealth of features packed tightly into the instrument, the MOTIF XS is exceptionally intuitive and easy to use. It gives you a large, full-dot color LCD that lets you see multiple parameters at a glance, and has clear, high-resolution graphics with virtual sliders, knobs and more.

The panel of the MOTIF XS provides an amazing level of control and flexibility. Eight knobs and eight sliders let you instantly tweak a variety of parameters and effects as you play. The eight knobs are especially versatile, letting you use the knobs to independently control eight different parameters (out of 24 selectable), or use them to control a certain effect setting (reverb,

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chorus or pan) for up to eight different parts (in a song, for example). The knobs can also be used to change the rhythmic feel and other settings of Arpeggios and Patterns while they play back. Two Assignable Function buttons give you added control over the sound of the new Expanded Articulation (XA) Voices, letting you change sounds within a Voice in real time.

Other convenient operation features include the improved Category Search function, which now is organized with Dual Categories that help you find the Voice you want. Calling up the Guitar category, for instance, gives you access to the Dual (sub) Categories, such as Acoustic, Electric Clean and Electric Distortion. The Mega Arpeggio Voices also have their own Dual Category for easy selection of those unique Voices.

The MOTIF XS is not only exceptionally intuitive and easy to operate, it's a true joy to playright down to the newly designed expressive keyboards. The MOTIF XS6 and XS7 have a new, natural FSX keyboard (61/76 keys), while the MOTIF XS8 features the grand piano-like BH (Balanced Hammer) keyboard (88 keys).


MOTIF XS888 keys, Balanced Hammer Effect Keyboard (Initial Touch/Aftertouch)
MOTIF XS776 keys, FSX Keyboard (Initial Touch/Aftertouch)
MOTIF XS661 keys, FSX Keyboard (Initial Touch/Aftertouch)
Tone Generator block
Tone GeneratorAWM2 with Expanded Articulation
Polyphony128 notes
Multi Timbral Capacity16 Parts (internal), Audio Input Parts (A/D, mLAN*)
*1 stereo Part
Wave355MB (when converted to 16-bit linear format),
2,670 waveforms
VoicePreset: 1,024 Normal Voices + 64 Drum Kits
GM: 128 Normal Voices + 1 Drum Kit
User: 128 x 3 (selected and copied from Preset bank) Normal Voice + 32 Drum Kits
PerformanceUser: 128 x 3 (up to 4 Parts)
Filter18 types
Effect SystemReverb x 9 types, Chorus x 22 types, Insertion (A, B, L) x 53 types x 8 blocks,
Master Effect x 9 types, Master Equalizer (5 bands), Part EQ (3 bands, stereo)
Sampling block
SamplesUp to 1,024 Waveforms (Multi Samples)
Up to 128 Key Banks per Waveform
Up to 4,096 Key Banks
Sampling SourcesAnalog input L/R, Stereo output (Resampling),
Digital output mLAN (available on the MOTIF XS6 and 7 when the mLAN16E2 has been installed)
A/D Conversion24-bit, 64x oversampling
D/A Conversion24-bit, 128x oversampling
Sample DataBits 16
Sampling Frequency44.1kHz, 22.05kHz, 11.025kHz, 5.5125kHz (Stereo/Mono)
Sampling Frequency via mLAN (when the mLAN16E2 has been installed):
44.1kHz (fixed)
Sampling MemoryOptionally installed, expandable to 1GB (512MB DIMM x 2 slots)
*DIMMs are not installed to the instrument when shipped from the factory.
Sample LengthMono: 32 MB
Stereo: 64 MB
Sampling Time44.1kHz: 6 min. 20 sec.
22.05kHz: 12 min. 40 sec.
11.025kHz: 25 min. 20 sec.
5.0125kHz: 55 min. 40 sec.
*Mono/Stereo
Sample FormatOriginal format, WAV, AIFF
Sequencer block
Note CapacityApprox. 130,000 notes
Note Resolution480 ppq (parts per quarter note)
Maximum Polyphony124 notes
Tempo (BPM)5 300
Recording typeReal time replace
Real time overdub (with the exception of the Pattern Chain)
Real time punch in/out (Song only)
TracksPattern: 16 Phrase tracks
Pattern Chain: Pattern track, Tempo track, Scene
Song: 16 sequence tracks (Loop on/off can be set for each track),
Tempo track, Scene track
Track
Patterns64 Patterns (x 16 sections),
Measures: 256 maximum
Mixing Voices: 16 Voices per Pattern and up to 256 Voices for all Patterns
Mixing Templates: 32 for all Songs and Patterns
PhrasesUser Phrases: 256 per Pattern
Songs64 Songs
Mixing Voices: 16 Voices per Song and up to 256 Voices for all Songs
Mixing Templates: 32 for all Songs and Patterns
ArpeggioPreset: Approx. 6,000 types
User: 256 types
*MIDI Sync, MIDI transmit/receive channel, Velocity Limit, and Note Limit can be set.
Scene Memory5 per Song
Sequence FormatOriginal format,
SMF format 0, 1 (Format 1 load only)
Others
MasterUser: 128
*8 Zones (Master keyboard settings), Assignable Knob/Slider settings, Program Change Table
Sequence Software
compatible with the
Remote Control functionFor Windows: Cubase 4, Cubase AI, SONAR 5.2
For Macintosh: Cubase 4, Cubase AI, Logic 7.2, Digital Performer 5
*Functions to be controlled differ depending on the software.
ControllersPitch Bend wheel, Modulation wheel, Ribbon Controller,
Assignable Control Sliders x 8, Assignable Knobs x 8,
Assignable Function buttons x 2, Data dial
Display320 x 240 dot, 5.7 inch graphic color backlit LCD
ConnectorsOUTPUT L/MONO, R (standard phone jack)
ASSIGNABLE OUTPUT L, R (standard phone jack)
A/D INPUT L, R (standard phone jack)
DIGITAL OUT
PHONES (standard stereo phone jack)
FOOT CONTROLLER 1, 2
FOOT SWITCH x 2 (SUSTAIN, ASSIGNABLE)
MIDI IN/OUT/THRU
USB (TO HOST, TO DEVICE)
AC IN
ETHERNET
mLAN (MOTIF XS8 only)
Power Consumption30W
Dimensions, WeightMOTIF XS8: 1,457 (W) x 466 (D) x 168 (H) mm, 28.6 kg
MOTIF XS7: 1,252 (W) x 391 (D) x 122 (H) mm, 17.0 kg
MOTIF XS6: 1,045 (W) x 391 (D) x 122 (H) mm, 14.8 kg