I had considered purchasing the VL150 plug in for the Motif. For those who may not know what VL synthesis is, it's Yamaha's version of physical modeling synthesis, a process that is supposed to allow the user to create certain acoustic instrument parameters ( wind /breathe control, string plucks, etc etc ) that model the real thing.

Before making the commitment to purchase the VL150 I decided to give it a test run on the s-yxg100 demo download available from Yamaha.


What I can say is that the s-yxg board software is pretty decent in itself. I gave it a test run with XG works by using it with some of the 740 / 2000 styles I have. It plays pretty well and with a little xg editing and tweaking it pretty much sounds like I have the PSR740 or 2000 inside of my computer. For that value alone, I may consider purchasing the software. I guess with a program like live styler or RSP one could even perform live with a setup of the s-yxg100 and a laptop. It wouldn;t be my first my choice , but it appears doable.

Now for the not so good news. Ok... the sax stuff and a few of the other sounds can be made to be pretty realistic with the VK plug in. It also allows for virtual guitars. There is a lot of detail that can be controlled.. but... it's monophonic. How exactly am I supposed to imitate an acoustic guitar that way ? As had Terry pointed out in an earlier discussion, this makes it impossible to slur notes even on the very nice sax and horn patches.

It's too bad, because Yamaha had something potentially pretty good here. I am leaning toward purchasing the s-yxg100 in spite of the limitations of the VL synthesis instead of purchasing the VL and XG expansion boards for my Motif. At 80 USd, ( vs about 400 for the two exp boards ) it probably gives me most of what I wanted from those two expansion boards anyway, except for the add on polyphony to the Motif itself ( although I'll gain it back inside of the computer which is where I do all of my recording anyway ).

AJ




[This message has been edited by Bluezplayer (edited 02-07-2003).]