Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Yamaha MOTIF XS8 Music Production Synthesizer Workstation

GuitarCenter.com



$3,199.99
MSRP: $3999.00 Save: $799.01


The Yamaha MOTIF XS8 is a powerhouse 88-key balanced hammer action workstation with 355MB of wave ROM to inspire your creativity and performance recording. The digital piano keyboard has four intelligent arpeggiators and over 6000 phrases to instantly capture your musical ideas. The integrated sampling sequencer can be expanded up to 1GB of memory for creating complete MIDI/audio productions. Studio style mixing and VCM effects from the Yamaha DM2000 let you master your music right on board. Firewire and Ethernet computer connectivity and a special Yamaha version of Steinberg software- Cubase AI expand your possibilities. With the large color LCD and 8 knobs and sliders for hands on control, making great sounding music has never been easier.

High-Quality Sounds to Spark Creativity
The MOTIF XS provides an exceptionally broad selections of realistic sounds to spark your creativity thanks to a massive 355MB of high-quality onboard waveforms and samples. 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 samples - not to mention the richly textured and distinctly electronic synthesizer waves - give you the sonic tools to fully realize virtually any style of music and any instrumentation.

The Expanded Articulation (XA) tone generation system allows the eight available elements to more effectively recreate realistic sounds and natural performance techniques such as legato, staccato and key release sounds. The elements are common to acoustic instruments but have always been difficult to realize on electronic keyboards. XA also allows you to assign elements to on/off panel switches and change sounds within a voice in real time.

Intuitive Interface
Despite all of the advanced technology and wealth of features packed tightly into the instrument, the MOTIF XS keyboard 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 main panel on 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 parameters,) or use them to control a certain effect setting for up to eight different parts. 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 Expanded Articulation Voices, letting you change sounds within a voice in real time.

Other convenient operation features include the improved category search function, which is now 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 subcategories 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.

Computer and Software Integration
A full-featured music production synthesizer in every way, the MOTIF XS comes equipped with a variety of connectors and interfaces for virtually any application and any studio environment. This includes assignable outputs, A/D inputs, S/PDIF digital output, MIDI, ethernet, and mLAN. The comprehensive set of connectors makes interfacing with computers and your favorite software exceptionally easy.

The MOTIF XS is designed to work seamlessly and transparently in your computer-based environment. The remote control mode lets you control your DAW software right from the panel of the MOTIF XS. For example, starting and stopping playback/recording can be done with the special transport buttons and changing track levels and parameters is a cinch with the sliders and knobs.