Yamaha Motif ES 6

Okay, I thought it was about time I added my comments here. I've had this little beast for 5 years. Ease of use wise it's not that easy to get to get to grips with straight off. To be fair my last synth was an Ensoniq ESQ1 way back 1986, that was a pretty easy machine to learn. This baby is a deep & complex machine especially if you add the mLAN16E card as I have and connect it up to your computer, as I've done. Now I'm pretty experienced with electronics & music tech being an engineer so I know my stuff, but to get the best of the ES you need patience. It's not the most intuitive OS to use amd I found it frustrating at first, but if you stick with it it's worth it. I thought the manual was well written from a technical stanpoint but you've got to search in the data list too. The manual on it's own doesn't really teach you everything. The Motifator site is excellent if you get stuck.

Polyphony is 128, so that's cool for what I need, ie using it for lots of tracks at once to Cubase or or Live, plus I really like the pattern sequencer. I think Live is about the only thing that is similar in this respect. Basically the heart of the sequencer is similar to an RS700, so make of that what you will!! Loop remix is great for drums especially, haven't seen this on any other synth. For my the ES' Integrated Sampler Sequencer with Loop remix and Live using mLAN make this one great sketchpad!!! ;-)

Only really getting in to the effects now, power user guides by Bad Mister are way cool, so if you really want to get the most out of this kit get them from the Motifator site. Yes it takes time to learn but the features are great if you take the time to learn this machine in depth like I have. Effects are great.

Sounds awesome to me, but I'vealways preferred the Yamaha sound to to say Korg at least the EX5 compared to the Trinity & the ES compared to the Triton. Personal preference I suppose. The ES has a good range of sounds, good for most things. The orchestral sounds are good which is useful your like me want a range, pus it can do some great techno stuff. The Orchestrale & Synth XTreme sound banks you can buy prove this.

Generally it's been great, although the USB stick interface seems a little dodgy at the moment. And the Master Effects SF button is slow to function.

Only dealt with Phil aka Bad Mister at Motifator.com who was excellent. He answered my queries with in 24hrs, good answers. Great to have that kind of dedicated support

If this baby died I'd be seriously pi$$ed off, as I think it's a great keyboard, well it is for at any rate. Sure it's a complex beast but it's complexity & depth will reward you if you put the time in to learn. Like I said my background as an engineer probably hepled but I found it one complex bit of kit, so maybe it's not for everyone?

Very interested to see what Yamaha do next, as that's what I'd probaly go for although I'm using stuff like Live now and that is COOL!! Still come back to the ES hough.

I am only leaving this review based on Yamaha's claim that this keyboard can be used to control a DAW such as Logic, Cubase, Sonar, etc. This is either a lie or an urban legend ( something that someone claims they saw but no one else ever witnessed ). The ES series comes with software that only is compatible with macintosh not OS X. One would assume that Yamaha would have free downloads to keep their software current with modern computers. With the exception of an USB driver update, this is a radical concept is unheard of by these customer unfriendly people. So, beware if you buy one of these thinking it can also control your DAW unless you live in 1999. And, yes I did call customer service. ( see below ) There are plenty of people online in forums with the same problem yet no solution to be found.

When I called to see if a human being could come up with a solution for getting my new Mac and their Motif ES6 to to talk, I was greeted by a stinking phone matrix. Then put on hold long enough to have to shave again. When I finally got a person on the line, she said that a tech would call me back shortly that same day. Bet you can't guess what happened next, THEY NEVER CALLED BACK! The good news is, they have my money so, I got that going for me.

NEVER AGAIN. I would prefer to record the sound of banging on tin cans and a toy piano than give my money to a company who will let their software go obsolete while refusing to answer their help line. Customer service is half the equation when spending a lot of money.

OS 1.06
This keyboard is relativley easy to use for such a powerhouse. I compose film scores, and not those weak, wimpy stringed interludes. My style is strong, full, theatre filling brass, horns, and strings. (similar music to Hans Zimmer) I use the realtime sequencer and just record one instrument after another live. For this use, the sequencer is very easy to use. Beats all others. However, I do some hip hop but the step and loop sequencers are very difficult to figure out, even with a pro's help. I gave up on it. Creating performances is very easy, along with editing them.

I have played them all. Tritons, Fantoms, M3's, etc. This keyboard has absolutely the best key action on the market. That's just that. Standard 128 polyphony is plenty for what I do. The advanced are very difficult to figure out but some are very unique. Exapnsion capabilities are amazing but one must be careful when expanding this workstation because many packs replace data already in the keyboard. Like I said before, realtime is easy, others are difficult.

Velocity and aftertouch beat ANY other keyboard on the market. There's no other comparisons. Many preset sounds are brilliant. Like I said before, my style is strong, full sounds that are used for scoring epic films. Some songs I've made with only unedited presets but when I listend to the 16 track finshed copy, I felt like I was in my local movie theatre. Performances can layer up to 4 different preset or user voices. When you put the right 4 together, well let's just say I have created entire songs with one track because of the efficincy of the velocity and fullness of the orchestral instruments. Tritons, Fantoms, and other's orchestral capabilities are NOTHING compared to Yamaha. The bad thing, again, is advanced effects. There tough to incorperate into finished songs. And plugging in a guitar to play through the keybpard. DON"T GET ME STARTED!!!! My aucustic guitar sounds like it was crafted by angels when I play it through the keyboard.

I play this ever sunday at Church, not too hard. But getting places, peple have called me crazy. I move it at least 6...you heard me 6 times a week. I have no case. I lay it down loosely in the back of my old, manual transmission car in 20 degrees or 105 degrees. This has been going on for 18 months but there has never been anything wrong with it...EVER!!!!!

Dealt with them once with a basic question about a certain function. Responded slowly but when they reached me they handled the problem in seconds.

I will most likely never get rid of this. I am getting a Tyros 2 this week. I guess I'll see how they measure up.

I would highly recommend purchasing the DVDs that are out there for the Motiff ES series. They will answer just about every question you may have regarding this instrument. Motifator.com is an excellent resource for any questions you may have, also. The resources are out there to truly master this instrument. A challenge isn't always a bad thing!

The features on this instrument are incredible. The keys are very expressive (sensitive to the touch). It also has excellent expansion capabilities. I look forward to keeping this instrument for many years to come!

This is where this instrument truly shines. I have several friends that own Tritons, and I love the sound capabilities of that particular keyboard. I had actually made up my mind, that I was going to buy a Triton when I went to a local music store. I actually took the time to play several instruments before I finally made up my mind. I couldn't get past the sound quality of the Yamaha Motif ES 6 that I was playing. It stood out among the crowd. The sounds were much more realistic, very rich, and clear. I am trained in classical music, and was extremely impressed with the orchestral instrument sounds in particular. I am not a novice by any means...I encourage you to visit a music store and judge for yourself! I believe most of you would agree with me...

This instrument is solidly built. I would have no problem using it on a gig without a backup.

I haven't dealt with this company, yet.

If this instrument were lost or stolen, I would buy it again in a heartbeat! I have been playing music for over twenty years (emphasis classical), and have always owned Roland keyboards. This is the first time that I have stepped into the Yamaha realm. I am thrilled with this instrument!!! I am a singer/songwriter as well as a guitarist and percussionist. This is the perfect instrument for me. I have been inspired in ways, musically, that continue to blow me away, every day!

I use Sonar Producer version 3.

The presets or ok, not great.

I haven't done much patch editing, but the little I've done isn't hard.

The manual stinks. It leaves out volumes of information and is laid out in a very counter-intuitive manner for me. You have to spend a lot of time on line at the support site to figure anything out.

The action is good enough for me. I'm not virtuoso though.

The built in effects are easy to use.

It has great expansion capabilities. You can add memory so that you can sample your own sounds. I haven't tried it yet because the sequencing is so horribly unreliable I don't want to get too into this instrument.

The MIDI is full on (in/out/thru) and I have had no problems with communication with other units or my computer.

The on-board sequencer is my big problem. Very unreliabe, switching parts randomly, very random. It can ruin hours worth of work just freaking out on you. It is easy to use, sure, buy why?

On some of the patches the velocity/aftertouch settings are very sensitive and effective. On other they're very fake sounding.

Some of the orchestral instruments are horrid. The 70s vintage analog synth sounds are really bad. The organ sounds are good and a few of the orchestral sounds are pretty good. Mostly the patches are so-so.

It works best for dance/hip hop/electronica.

The onboard effects aren't great. The reverb is very real sounding in small doses.

I CANNOT RELY ON THIS SYNTH! DO NOT BUY ONE! It randomly copies what Yamaha called "sections" from one to the other, completely erasing what you have done. I have to re-program the part to another section and hope it doesn't start swaping itself to other sections. Also individual instrument tracks randomly jump to other sections. It has wasted hours of my time and when I can afford to I will dump the piece in a nearby river and buy something I can use. I have contacted Yamaha support and they were very rude. I would have to take it an hour away to a service shop and leave it, but they might program on it for hours and it might not duplicate the problem. Is is very random, but when it goes haywire, it really goes haywire. Yet Yamaha won't send me a new one. I make my living with this instrument and I can't be without it, so I'm trying to live with it for now. I would never use it live.

Rude, rude, rude, and unhelpful.

Can't afford to get let it go to get it repaired. I would have to buy a new keyboard to replace it while the shop had it and then the shop might not find anything because it messes up at such random times.

If it were stolen I would thank God and call my insurance co.

I have been playing since I was 5 (34 years). I own a compter, lots of outboard fx and lots and lots of guitar equipment.

I do like the relative ease of use, despite the bad manual.

It completely gets in the way with the random part switching.

O.s. 1.06.
All patches are quite good, in my opinion, the sound of Motif is very full and crystal clear. Pads are good, but usually are not powerful in the lowest frequencies. Guitars are great, taking advantage of mega voice technology, that simulates the sound of the finger plucking the string. It takes a while to learn to use them, but they really sound good. Brass sounds sound quite artificial (as in all samplers I've tried till now).
Editing patches is not so simple. All the O.S. is a little intricate, and, what's more, a small screen makes things even harder.
The manual, as all yamaha's manual, is really difficult to read.

Polyphony is 128 notes, keyboard action is good. It has a lot of high quality built in effects, but this workstation is not flexible in using effects. Two insert effects are stored together with the voice. Then, when you work in multitimbral mode, you can activate effects on eight parts. Then there are system effects:reverb and chorus, again very good. There is also a very good multiband compressor that you can add to the previous effects.
One great feature is that every channel,in multitimbral mode, has its three bands parametric equalizer (which I didn't find in any competitors' workstations), that is very valuable because you can mix the tune in midi.
It accepts three expansion cards, most of which imply a different sound generation. Among them: a card hosting the same sound engine as the DX7, a virtual analog synth (AN), a virtual acoustic engine VL (which is great in simulating brass, flutes when played with a breath controller), a VH virtual harmony that acts as a vocoder with more options than ordinary ones, it can create three voices to be mixed with yours at a fixed semitones interval. Then there are others that rely on new samples (piano (AP), percussion (PC), an XG module). Each of these expansions add polyphony to a minimum of one note (VL) to a maximum of 64 (AP). Another great expansion possibility is through mlan. Mlan conveys 64 midi channels and 16 audio channels directly from the Motif ES to the PC via a firewire cable. What's more the mlan card can work as a sound card, so that you can play through it virtual instruments or audio from the PC. Very Very good!
Midi capabilities are great, and the unit has a plug for the breath controller.
THe onboard sequencer, when used in conjunction with the possibility of working on patterns, makes it possible to make a draft of a tune very quickly.
The integrated sampler is very very good, it can imports up to 1 GB of samples. The only drawback is that loading big samples takes a very long time.

The sounds are great, as I said before. There are 1152 memory locations to store sounds. Only 256 of them are writable.
In any case this workstation can work very well with any kind of music.

Great! Rock solid and reliable.

Motif ES customers can take great advantage from the online forum www.motifator.com, because not only expert users can give useful advice to solve your problems, but there are Yamaha specialists that, in a very brief time, will give answer to your question. I am really impressed by it.

This is the only machine, in my setup, I couldn't make music without. I think that, if it was stolen, I will go straight to buy another one.
It is great in sounds, features, in the fact that Yamaha gives you for free very good editors for it and for the expansions.
What I really complain is the lack of flexibility: too little writable memory location, too rigid in assigning effects.

Some people may be frightened by the small screen in comparison with Triton and Fantom, but things arent what they look like. MOTIF compines speed and easy manipulation through the many keys it has. The tasks are getting done faster, it just needs more practise. For those who believe that learning through the manual is difficult, there is the motif dvd that includes all the possibilities
compining sound and images.

You can read about the great characteristics that this synth has in the site: www.yamahasynth.com/products/motifes/index.html

I was prejudiced with Yamaha since 1990, that I had bought the model SY-55.
After that model I bought in 1999 the Korg Trinity V3, in 2004 the Korg KARMA, the Roland Fantom XR and the Korg Triton Rack.
To be honest, I was disappointed of the Korg Triton quality of sound.
I couldn't make a good production, because it was low in volume and poor in sound.
The Roland on the other hand was good but didn?t cover my needs.
About Motif ES I had heard good comments and demos, but I was stuck with Korg and I thought Korg was better.
I went a few days ago in the Yamaha delegation to listen to MOTIF ES6.
I was playing two hours and I understood the big difference between it and Karma/Triton and Fantom XR.
I left the shop amazed by it and the next day I went back and bought it.
From my small experience from 1990 till now I would say that Motif ES is ages forward than the rest.
From its few possibilities, I have seen so far, I can say it is magnificent.
Its sounds have growth and warmth with expressiveness and the most important thing you can use them.
The sound quality is perfect. The effect possibilities are amazing.

I have got it for one month and it has no problem so far.
It's construction materials are inox and at the sides plastic, these I am afaid a bit. It has good keys and it seems long lasting

For any questions about MOTIF and all its extra products visit the site: www.motifator.com.

This machine is the dream of musicians of any style.
I think Yamaha is in the right path.
If it was lost or stolen, I would replace it in a minute.

It took me a long time to replace my old synth but when I tried an ES at Yamaha's UK HQ I knew the revolution was here. I moved from a Yamaha SY-85 to the MOTIF ES6 so the layout is sort of familiar. And the enormous new screen is a real plus. The manual is about as complex as the SY-85 was. I found the website www.motifator.com very useful and also the DVD. I tend to use acoustic type sounds and there are many great examples on the ES. Pianos, guitars, strings. The list goes on. I have managed to edit voices onboard quite easily and haven't yet resorted to the software editor.

Wow! Loads of polyphony (the SY-85 had 30 notes). I haven't put the sequencer to use yet but that usually shows any poly shortage. The Smart Media slot is certainly an improvement on floppys and cards are quite cheap to buy. The expansion options are good too. I'll probably invest in the AIEB output board and maybe the harmony plug-in board in future. MIDI capabilities are extensive with the powerful MASTER functions although I tend to use it as a stand-alone instrument.

The instrument sounds are the reason I bought my ES. It excels in all the sounds that I use for pop, jazz, funk and blues styles. The key action is superb although I had an after-touch fault that meant I had to return the instrument to Yamaha but they fixed it under warranty and it's perfect now. Incindentaly, very few of the preset voices use after-touch so editing is needed there. The effects are also great especially the reverbs, distortion and rotary speakers. There is a lot more EQ power available than the old SY-85 too.

If the reliability of my previous Yamaha gear is anything to go by (I have a Yamaha Electone HX that is still perfect after 18 years playing) I have every faith in the ES and Yamaha's service team. I wouldn't take a back-up if I'm working in a band. When I work solo I always take two keyboards anyway.

I had to return my ES after nine months with an after-touch fault but Yamaha fixed it promptly and it's now perfect. No worries with Yamaha.

I hope it doesn't get lost or stolen but I'd get another for sure. I feel that the Motif is built for pro use and caters for the 'traditional' gigging keyboard player perfectly. The ES has also apeared in some pretty high profile gigs under the fingers of such legends as Stevie Wonder and the like. I did look at the Korg Triton Extreme and Roland Fantom X but found them to be a bit too 'DJ' orientated. (It may have just been the demo I saw). I also have Roland and Korg gear which I am pleased with. I'm sure the ES will serve me as well as the SY-85 has done for the last 12 years.

This is a different beast all together from the Korgs I am used to. Having an X3 and Trinity, this was quite the shock for me. However, am learning the ropes, as it were. Presets sound great, esp. the pianos and guitars. Some useful sounds, some not so useful. There is a learning curve to this board, as it can do so much.

Polyphony is great, as it has 128 voices built right in, and expands with addition of plug in boards. Effects are numerous, and the way to route the effects gives one many options. The sucky part is that it did not come with sample memory, but fortunately, SDRAM is reasonably cheap, got 256MB for 65.00 at Office Depot. Sequencer is fairly straightforward to use, was making patterns in about 5 minutes after short instruction.

The Pianos and Guitars stand out on this instrument, sax sounds were disappointing, strings were pretty decent. Drum sounds are very expansive, seems this is where the bulk of the samples are. This board is good for all types of music, esp. dance and hip hop. Effects are nice, no complaints. Reaction is good for the most part, some patches require you to stand on the keyboard to get some sort of sound out of it. Action is far better on the 88key version, I have the 61 key version.

Havent had it too long, seems to be reliable. Would use it on gig without backup.

Have never dealt with company, but motifator.com seems to be a good resource for these boards.

If this were lost or stolen, would buy another one for sure. Think this is a good value for the money. Been playing for 20 years, but this board is the most complex I have had, bar none. I like the sounds and the features, dont like the learning curve and the smallish lcd screen, could have made the thing larger.
In short, this is a music machine that is geared up for the music styles of today, and is somewhat future-proof. Will be using this to create music for many years, I hope.

Hard learning curve but once tou get through the college course you may be fine.

Lots of great features but takes time to learn to master them.

Lots of voices and rom memory.

Smart memory card slot holds 128mb of extra sounds and data.

Accepts great sounding yamaha optional memory boards expansion but most of the boards are very limited on editing unless you use the software to edit the boards from a computer.

It also has a nice arppegiator with 1500 presets.

It also has a remix function which is also very nice too.

It also samples and resamples but the sampling functions and the super slow sample editing is a total mess. I felt like they intentionally wanted to punish me for having to include the sampling function on the keyboard.

Loading and saving sounds can take almost half the day for large memory sounds.

Great sounds on board they're real thick.

The inserts turn this monster into a beast.

Wonderful big fat basses and great organs.

Piano is good but roland synth always have had better pianos than yamaha.

Great synth leads very realistic sounding.

Lots of good sounds

Haven't had a problem yet.

They are depenable when you need them.

I'd give it a 9 because it samples and allows me to remix the samples which is great for rap melody ideas.

Cool arpeggiator that can inspire melodies and then remix them again gives unlimited sound creation possibilities for melody inspired music.

If it were lost or stolen now in 2005 I'd probably a Alesis Fusion that has many more features and more power for less money.