Guitar Center Trip - Workstation observations

[MrPillow]

Well I stopped by GC today to pick up some strings for the ol' sixshooter and a patch cable, and though I'd do my usual run of the keyboard section. I played most of the major workstations they had, including two new additions - the M3 and Motif XS, so I figured I'd post what I thought of the new ones after my brief overlooks.


Yamaha Motif XS - My god, this piece of work changed my mind about the Fantom's piano samples. The pianos on this, to my taste of ear of course, blow the Fantom out of the water. They seem much clearer, fuller, with a much better low end and overall superior sound. After playing this and going to the Fantom, it sounded like someone had thrown a blanket over an upright. The action was wonderful as well, great to play and easy to coax out wonderful nuances. The guitar sounds impressed me from the few I previewed, as did the organs EPs, synths etc. Overall the sound set seemed very good to me. The interface is very nice, easy to navigate and quick to understand, the 8 knobs are a great addition and overall the interface just seems wonderful. Everything feels very sturdy, and I doubt it would break from normal use.


Korg M3 - No. No no NO NO NO. This "workstation" felt more like a "worthless station". It felt about as cheap as my first Casio keyboard I got when I was 8. The action was horrible (61 key version), and the whole thing felt and looked like they really cheaped on materials. As for sounds, compared to the Fantom and Motif, the "4 - way Grand" or whatever it was called, was not grand at all. I found it horrible, fake in the mid range, and overall a waste of memory. I've never used Karma orwhatever all that control nonsense is, so the interface made no sense to me and turned me away very much. I didn't find it easy to navigate the sound set at all, it needed a category search feature or something similar. Overall, I didn't like it one bit.


They still have no Kurzweil or Alesis products however, which dissapoints me. Oh well, save that for another day =(

[-=AnatomiC=-]

Seems like nobody likes M3...
*Now seriously doubting about buying Korg Radias, which uses the same engineering*
Radias seems to have everything I need, for a reasonable price. But lets face it - it has a crappy design, very rubbish.
Although lot's o' lights is a pro: having them helps to perform in low-lighted environments + it looks cool, absolutely love it.

It's not that there are any other options for me...

I wonder how Rolands new workstation will be... probably very good...

[MrPillow]

Hopefully very good, I don't know if I'm going to wait for them to come or just go ahead on the Motif XS. The Fantom would need to see some drastic improvement, sound wise and ergonomic wise for me to put it above the XS.

[Athox]

Seems like nobody likes M3...
*Now seriously doubting about buying Korg Radias, which uses the same engineering*
Radias seems to have everything I need, for a reasonable price. But lets face it - it has a crappy design, very rubbish.
Although lot's o' lights is a pro: having them helps to perform in low-lighted environments + it looks cool, absolutely love it.

It's not that there are any other options for me...

I wonder how Rolands new workstation will be... probably very good...

I have played the Radias, and all I can say is wow. Go for it if the features suit you. Nothing wrong with the quality at all. Didn't notice anything wrong with the keyboard of it, but then again, you don't really need _THAT_ keyboard, since it's a rack module. ;)

[-=AnatomiC=-]

Hopefully very good, I don't know if I'm going to wait for them to come or just go ahead on the Motif XS. The Fantom would need to see some drastic improvement, sound wise and ergonomic wise for me to put it above the XS.

About the sound - we all listen to recordings etc etc. and now matter how old is it, it always sounds nice. For instance, a song produced it the 90ties and a song produced with the latest up to minute technologies:
Personally I don't hear the difference, music of 90ties can be even better.

It's not the question of sound: you just have to use your gear in the right way, mastering, mixing, being musical etc etc. and no matter what you use (I mean decent gear) your song will be good, if you are a good musician.

So, the sound in a keyboard is not my first priority - Fantom, Triton, Motif or any other decent keyboard: they are all good, in different ways though.
I'm more interested in life performances, and Yamaha XS lacks a few important features - like changing patches without gaps/lags (and it's very important IMO) and no audio tracks in the sequencer...
The quality of the design is very important to me also.

And people who are looking for perfect sounds, should stick with software (like Ivory). It's far more realistic and flexible than any keyboard. Not to mention: software is much more affordable.

"Quality" (if there is such thing) of the sound is relative - in 5 years you will say: "damn, Yamaha Motif XS has worthless sound compared to Synth X". And people always think it's perfect right now, but it can always be better!


2 Athox - I've red some review, but I haven't tried Radias yet (I asked for demo model at my local store, so I can try it out - don't want to go anywhere else. It should arrive very soon). And reviewers are not pleased with it's keyboard, but like you said, it doesn't really matter.
I'm more concerned about the quality of the rack, I will try it out and see if I'm pleased with it or not.

[-=AnatomiC=-]

I want to add something.

I went to my local store today, to order KS-STV7-add on for my V-stand and to try out the Radias: it's hasn't arrive yet :frown:

But I did saw Motif XS there and tried it out, and I must say it change my view on FX' piano also.
I played some smooth piano melodies, and then I started to search for a "make piano awesome"-button.
I was really disappointed in it!!! I was expecting much much more from piano sound that makes fantom sound like crap!
It may sound more clear (however, in the store I've played it with high-quality monitor headphones, while at home I play with wireless phones, and with super cheap speakers), but it doesn't come even close to the expressiveness of FX' piano sound!
Besides - motif had this banal classical piano sound, while FX has very specific sound: some rock-grand - love it, my favorite.
So I did me fall in love with FX' piano patches once again!

Other stuff was pretty good: some very very fine preset performances. It makes you feel good - you just go there, press some chords and you make fantastic music... to easy, even....
Fantom presets doesn't worth anything.

Lead guitar were awesome. Organs also.

8 knobs/sliders is good... but I never use more than 4 anyway.

Bottom line - it scores very good on every aspect I don't need.
Of course, what I said is 100% personal opinion. Yamaha has very good stuff, to suit lot's of musicians perfectly, but not me... :rolleyes:

[Gustavo]

Korg M3 - No. No no NO NO NO. This "workstation" felt more like a "worthless station". It felt about as cheap as my first Casio keyboard I got when I was 8. The action was horrible (61 key version), and the whole thing felt and looked like they really cheaped on materials. As for sounds, compared to the Fantom and Motif, the "4 - way Grand" or whatever it was called, was not grand at all. I found it horrible, fake in the mid range, and overall a waste of memory. I've never used Karma orwhatever all that control nonsense is, so the interface made no sense to me and turned me away very much. I didn't find it easy to navigate the sound set at all, it needed a category search feature or something similar. Overall, I didn't like it one bit.


They still have no Kurzweil or Alesis products however, which dissapoints me. Oh well, save that for another day =(

Well just remember that what makes the M3 the M3 is definitely not the keybed, Just look at it, its almost the same as buying the rack version and get a stand to put it on top of a controller. Also you shouldnt really say that Karma is nonsense and interface makes no sense if u have never really experimented with it, and also try saying it with no FX or Motif fanatism, trying to make Korg worse, i dont blame you, I also do that some times, just that not express it as much as you neither as aggressive. I have tried out many times the triton ( every one says that has bad interface) but i personally found it to be not so bad, though could be better. So maybe its also a matter of tastes. Onn the M3 keybed again, I think the reason i would want to buy it is cuz of the way the rack fits in the module (plus the joystick, since almost no controller only keyboards dont have it).

G

[Gustavo]

It's not how much gear you have, it's what you do with it. All you really need to make music is a keyboard, a computer, some software to go with it, some decent speakers, and a concept. And without the concept, the other stuff is useless anyway.

As richard said, its about how u use the gear and what u do with it. Picking the gear for what suits u best.


G