Thanks George for your swift reply.

I have now, in fact, downloaded the Manual for it (MOTIF) Acrobat format, and the 300 pages that it contains will be good reading!. It was the sampler that attracted me to it in the first place, as I "Could" make do without the dedicated samplers - if this one proved to be good - and it does seem good (re-sampling etc). But how does the Sampler compare to a "real one"? (Akai/Emu/Yamaha etc) -I wonder!. The SCSI on the back of the Motif gives me the idea that you can load sample CD's in. Right? - if you can do this, and map them out like a normal Akai/Yamaha/Emu sampler etc, then it is well worth its price, if the sounds are "very good" that is!

I suppose with today’s technology - and keyboards at that, we SHOULD expect Piano's to sound like Piano's, and Oboes like oboes etc. I know lots of memory are required for these individual sounds, but i would rather start off with Good (very good) sounds, and then add "very good" sounds to the already Very good sounds that are on this keyboard!. It is year 2001 now, and I remember the Yamaha SY85 when it came out, and that was superb in its day. Maybe we "can't" have a great Keyboard "all-in-one" But then again...why not? - The Motif seems to offer this, with the option to add harmonizer by cards etc. The Roland VA7 is good - but I gather it stops at 48 MB (IE: NON expandable), and in a year or two from now, 48 MB will seem low.

I don't always like the word "Multi layering" etc, when we have only 62 notes poly, in the case of the Motif (the Yamaha 9000 Pro has 126 notes remember George, and that is what leaned me to the Pro slightly) I think you can increase this with cards, but that adds to the price (not sure how much these cards are by the way).

I say this. An arranger keyboard need not be one that is full of auto accompaniments etc, and loads of backings. Nope. We can use a keyboard with a Sequencer in it, and use that to "ARRANGE" our songs with, and then store them for playback. Maybe it is not so easy to do on the Yamaha Motif - but if the end result is justified by the work put in - to get "That sound" then I am prepared to work for it. If this Motif can load in Sample CD's, then it may be the one for me. (How would external samples affect the Polyphony on this Motif I wonder? The fact that they are very low priced (compared), makes me wonder how they get (Almost, it seems) a "fully fledged" sampler in there as well!

Andrew



[This message has been edited by Nimrod (edited 07-01-2001).]