Some more arranger ignorance from Yamaha employees. I wont bore you with all of it. Some guy who has some experience of keyboards wants to know which is better for him , the XS or the T2 . He gets all the usual BS from Yamaha about the T2 being only suited to the OMB, wedding playing home pop star wanna be (i'm condensing the theme of Yamaha's reply ) and pro gigging musicians using the motif ES for full musical production Blah Blah Blah.

Heres my response (which might also bore you !)

"Re: Compare T1, T2 and XS....Help Yamaha, Please!
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"...which keyboard would I turn on?... the Tyros 2. Why? because it is loaded with 400 Styles (coherently put together backing specifically designed to perform those music genres) - I would sound great immediately... and could do the project quickly and efficiently. Plus my chops on Broadway style music is sadly lacking... not my forte at all.

Now say I need to put together a professional sounding piece of music - a commissioned project - and say the job required an original R&B Song - which one would I turn on... the Motif XS. Why? because for me R&B songs are a comfort zone, I don't need to rely as much on the source material. I most likely would write the whole thing myself. (Been here, done this and actually have the official R&B Song Writer T-shirt"

My response


"Dash all i can say is that the differences that are being overplayed between the T2 and XS is simply the depth of the editing which 90% of the market that purcahsed the MOTIF ES DONT USE. EG if you chose a guitar patch to edit i asume its because you wanted the final sound to sound similar to a guitar but just a personalised one ! The T2 can take that guitar sound and completely tear it apart if you want to but you sound like a sensible musician and not a sound engineer geek ! I suspect most musicians dont do any indepth sound editing whatsoever on their motif ES or will on the xs but BOTH I AM SURE WILL BE BOUGHT NEVER THE LESS.Why ????? Simply because of the marketing. The ES XS is cool right because pro's use them an you never see a T2 or any arranger on TV right ?

In the examples given above the T2 would be more suitable than the XS IN probably BOTH CASES. The T2 has the most realistic sounds within it than any other yamaha instrument including the mo ES ( havent heard the XS in person) but i suspect that too as it does not have SA voices .

If i were a song writer i want a tool that can inspire and help me get the job done quickly and efficiently. For example lets say i have been commissioned to do an R&B song. Do i want to spend hours editing the instrumet to get great brass sounds, brass stabs , falls, scorching rhythm guitars , organs, kickass drums,searing synthleads or do i actually want to write a song in the quickest time using the most efficient tool ?

The T2 has them all there done and sounding fantastic and if you want to personalise the sound you can dig into the sound synthesis. Yes its true you cant take horns and turn them into weird sounding guitars but why the hell would you ? ???

Most R&B music is composed of a good hook bass line and a great percusion/drum pattern. You can use the preset patterns on the T2 simply as a scratch pad and can instantly change th patterns and chords at any time. Why is this better than a traditional workstion and in this example better for a song writer ? Because you can experiment with musical ideas quickly and easily without extensive programming and lost time fiddling with setups, effects etc. Once you have decided upon your finished idea you can the use the sequencer in linear form. i mean programme each track playing the bass live using your own individual playing skills (not the preprogramed patterns of the arranger) your own drumming patterns , in short play everything yourself . The T2 helps you sort out the ideas and chord structure quickly so that you dont spend hours programming those ideas from scratch , rubbing them out and stating again !!! Is this a great idea for a song writer ??? yessssssssss !!!!!

Watch the XS demo's by athan and Bert.Their demonstrations focus almost entirely on this feature alone !!!! Why ?? Because finally yamaha have realised that ease of song writing and playing is MORE IMPORTANT than sound editing and they are very much aware that the market is looking hard at the T2 as an alternative workstation /song writing tool. You have heard the T2 demos and thats a compelling reason why.

Its an amazing creativve song writing and produton tool. Its a shame that you dont have one to hand to actually play and tinker with. You would see that much of what you hear from people who dont use an arranger in this way is inaccurate not deliberately so but because they simply have not experimented with an aranger as a song writing tool,

Heres my genuine advise after reading all the nonsense marketing BS both here on the forum and in the literature.If you are into making your own sounds extensively, exprimenting with filters, oscillators, LFOs and effects, making sounds that have never been heard before and might not never be used in a performance etc just because its interesting and fun to you then the motif series truly excells in this and the manual is writen for tekkies like you. If you are into playing, writing and producing professional sounding music easily with world class professionally edited sounds at your finger tips then you will not struggle at all with the T2 and you will be surprised at the music it inspires you to write.

best of luck mate ! "

[This message has been edited by spalding4 (edited 01-26-2007).]