The new Fantom coming out is the Fantom X and like the Mo the huge improvement is polyphony, they have also gone to 128 poly. It too has a new sound palette added.

I of course agree with AJ about the MO's o/s. Like AJ I had the classic and now the ES. Great board except for the the worst of the worst IMO of GUI. The other thing is it needs a larger screen desperately.

I have to say that I am a serious candidate for the Fantom X when it hits the stores, because of the above on the Mo.

There are two ways to beat the amazing deflation that the new models of rehashed stuff.
1. Trade in the predecessor before the remake comes out. Or another board that comes out.

or

2. Just hang on to what one has for a much longer period of time to get the full value out of it.

I also am starting to bore of a few new features for alot more dollars and garbage trade in value on the old equipment.

They will have to come out with something much more radical value wise for me to trade my Tyros in, otherwise I too am out of that swap.

If I go to the Fantom X, Yamaha will have to do an entire revamp of the Motif before I will ever buy another one. It will have to be at least as user friendly as any other workstation out there and the screen will need to be 5x's as large with more dedicated buttons and logical (for me) to use.

I too am starting to think more along the lines of the open pc based systems, they make sense and can be upgraded to always stay current for a few hundred rather than a few thousand dollars. If the boards don't get there with a good product soon then I too will start looking more seriously at the soft synths.
Terry

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jam on,
Terry http://imjazzed.homestead.com/Index.html