Yamaha MOTIF ES6

Yamaha workstation, 61 keys, purchased 2 additional sound cards. See product descriptions with lots of details elsewhere.


UTILIZATION

For getting around the keyboard and doing the basic stuff for recording and performing, editing on this level is simple ONCE you've gotten accustomed to it. The manual gets a "C" grade from me. I've found more helpful info at YouTube - thanks for all who have posted on the ES there.

SOUNDS

Great sounds, expressiveness and touch sensitivity are excellent for a non-weighted keyed. Effects are all very good as well, and easy to edit from the top-left side of the unit. Acoustic piano and electric piano programs are among the very best IMHO -- I sold my Rhodes. Electric guitars (esp. Mega-Voice ones) and strings are also killer, as well as its organ programs. BTW, if you really want killer organs, use Performance Mode and program the 4 channels to different organs of your choice, and be able to use your 4 sliders to customize and edit your overall organ output/sound with these 4 sliders, and/or fade between different types of organ programs/sounds in any given song. Motif, hands down, produces the phattest and warmest/richest sounds around -- they kill my Korg Krome, which sounds very thin in comparison. Dynamic range is also excellent. While playing the grand piano, you can really hear the difference when playing FFF vs. ppp.

OVERALL OPINION

The 2 complaints I have about the ES are these: 1) when in Performance Mode and using all 4 voices and their effects, you can easily get some latency during a performance. I've got to experiment a bit to see how to minimize this; it'll likely require me to reduce the no. of effects associated with each of the 4 programs that I load into each Performance. 2) When switching between Performances, you may have to "clear" the volume settings for one or more of your 4 voices in this mode; which, requires you to slide the faders all the way to the top, then bottom (or visa versa). Otherwise, some voices won't be active. This was and remains a little frustrating; having to make sure that I do this little procedure every time I switch between Performances. I've not ever used the sampler, so I have nothing to say about that. There's a YouTube video posted that is a sped-up time lapse video of a guy really digging deep into modifying some sounds in the ES. It is worth checking this out, if only to realize how deep you can dig, and how much of an exercise this is/can be. I've play-tested the XS and XF, but truthfully, neither seems that much better than the ES in terms of overall sound quality. Yes, loading programs into the unit is much faster with these newer versions, but other than that, I've not had enough reason to sell my ES and opt for an XS or XF. Go to YouTube, and a bunch of guys tell you why you should switch/update to an XF, but they're much more expensive than the ES was, and I'm quite happy with my ES.

Yamaha really created a good product with the Motif ES6 , I think it's pretty user-friendly and you can literally spend days on trying to figure out all of it features because there's too many to mess with. You can change waveforms, add just about any effect to your sound, create scores, and make entire compositions. This instrument doesn't really need expansion boards unless you really need a specific sound that this workstation doesn't have.


UTILIZATION

I found this workstation to be quite user-friendly. I had a lot of it figured out on the second day of messing with it. If the screen was just a little bigger then the Motif would be really off the chain! I usually need help from somebody to show me how to work things like this but I happened to figure it out on my own. Even my friend who owns a Korg Triton Pro-Workstation enjoys playing my Motif over his Korg any day.

No problems yet with this workstation. It never leaves my studio and is never in any harms way. Damn, I paid nearly 2 G's for this thing. It is well taken care of. The quality of the manufacturing is pretty good, you can feel the quality of texture of the keys when you place your fingers on them.


SOUNDS

The sound quality on the ES is truly top quality! It beats any other synthesizer on the market today. With over 1,000 sounds built-in, there is no need for samples! What I personally liked were the strings and brass on the ES. They are incredibly real and are not ; meaning they have many effects. For example, acoustic guitars are programmed such that when you hit the key on the keyboard, it's like hitting the actual string on the guitar, sensitivity matters! Another thing about the ES is the 64 built-in drum kits. They contain everything from Hip Hop, R&B, Rock, Belly Dancing to Garage kits.


OVERALL OPINION

The ES is built tough. The exterior is very durable and somewhat scratch-resistant. The keys are high quality, as with other Yamaha's I've used. One drawback is the ; of the ES gets dirty and smudgy with simple day-to-day use.

The Yamaha Motif ES6 is a great board and workstation. It only has 6 octaves but you can transpose to a different octave. The Motif ES isn’t as powerful as the XS versions but it still holds its own weight. It has everything you need to compose great music. The Yamaha Motif ES6 has very good sequencing and has professional sounds to get your music to the next level for an affordable price.

UTILIZATION

The sounds are amazing, great synths, strings and pads. You can use this keyboard for any genre of music. You could have this for a year and still learn something new out of the blue. The Yamaha Motif ES6 give you full control of the sounds to manipulate them any way you would like. Unfortunately the screen isn’t nice and big like it is on the XS. Its very small and cheap, there also isn’t as many effects as there is on the XS version of the board. With the smaller screen its harder to editing the effects and sequencing / midi notes the way you want to or may be used to if you are coming from a higher version of the Yamaha Brands or from a software sequencing program like Acid, Reason or FL Studio. Don't get me wrong, the Yamaha ES6 is a great board, but its no where as near as powerful as the XS versions of the Yamaha boards. If you compare the too boards its definitely worth saving up a little more money to get the higher version of this board.


SOUNDS

Comes with a bunch of presets and a bunch of kits from hop hop to rock. I love all of the horn presets, and the orchestra hits!

OVERALL OPINION

It is loaded with a ton of presets to get you p and running, and the manual is very clear and concise. But you will definitely need to take the time to read the manual. You wont be able to do everything you need to do right off the bat until you pick up the manual (that is if you are new to this board). If you are a vet to Yamaha’s workstations this will be a perfect fit for u. It comes stocked with drum kits and sound effects that you wow you. Price is on the higher end, but its well worth the investment.

The Yamaha Motif ES6 is a great board and workstation. It only has 6 octaves but you can transpose to a different octave. The Motif ES isn’t as powerful as the XS versions but it still holds its on weight. It has everything you need to compose great music.

UTILIZATION

The sounds are amazing, great synths, strings and pads. You can use this keyboard for any genre of music. You could have this for a year and still learn something new out of the blue. The Yamaha Motif ES6 give you full control of the sounds to manipulate them any way you would like. Unfortunatly the screen isn’t nice and big like it is on the XS. Its very small and cheap, there also isn’t as many effects as there is on the XS version of the board.


SOUNDS

Comes with a bunch of presets, a bunch of kits from hip hop to rock. All sounds are really good and realistic. I love the horn presets, very clean and crisp.

OVERALL OPINION

Overall,It is loaded with a ton of presets to get you p and running, and the manual is very clear and concise. But you will definitely need to take the time to read the manual. You wont be able to do everything you need to do right off the bat until you pick up the manual (that is if you are new to this board). If you are a vet to Yamaha’s workstations this will be a perfect fit for u. It comes stocked with drum kits and sound effects that you wow you. Price is on the higher end, but its well worth the investment.