Yamaha MM8 88-Key Synthesizer User Reviews at zZounds

"Love this board." submitted May 6, 2011

By a customer from hotmail.com

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The Wow Factor

Musical Background: Hobbyist/Active Musician

Music Style: Rock

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Sound: Love the sounds.Electric keyboard sounds are top notch, some great brass sounds. Synth tones are great too, and playable pretty well for only attack, resonance, cutoff, and release dials. Very good piano tone, not Yamaha's best tone out there but better than any other tone for boards this price. Feature: Many aspects of effects are controllable, but not easy enough to access in live situations, great to build the tones you want and save them in the presets. I do wish there was an expansion slot i would love to and a piano tone to the board, although the existing is very good. The keys are top of the line, action is amazing and super expressive. The dynamic range is huge. Ease of Use: Super easy to use. Comes with great sounds preset and its easy to modify them. Quality: Very well made, I've been taking it to gigs for about a year and a half and no issues. Travels well and it's nice and light for the heavy duty keys built into it. Value: Best board in this price range hands down. Manufacturer Support: I'm gonna give them a ten, but honestly i haven't had to deal with support at all, which is the way I want it when I buy an instrument! Great quality and I'm sure I'm going to get years more good performance from it. The Wow Factor: Definitely looks nice on stage! Overall: Had it for a while now and i still love it! Couldn't imagine life without it right now, and I will have it until it breaks, probably ten years or more the way things look right now.

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"Show me your pianist." submitted March 20, 2009

By a customer from cinci.rr.com

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Musical Background: hobbyist

Music Style: better than yours

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Sound: The sounds are very good and high quality. The keys have fantastic action and are very expressive. This product gives you a huge sound bank to chose from. Feature: There is so much you can do with this. Besides being able to record your own songs into the machine, you can store them on external storage via usb or even use the mm8 as a midi controller. The product doesn't come with any accessories, but I did buy both optional foot pedals. Ease of Use: The manual is very helpful, if you read it there shouldn't be too much confusion. Quality: This thing is quality personified. Value: 1,000 dollars is a pretty big price, but as with most things, you get what you pay for. Look around for deals. I've seen this as low as 869 dollars blemished. Manufacturer Support: I emailed yamaha a couple of times regarding using this machine as a midi controller. They answered promptly and sent me a direct link to download a driver. The Wow Factor: I played it once and had to have it. Overall: I'm pretty sure this unit will last me a long time. There's so much to explore and at its price point it was the most "realistic" feeling synthesizer I found during a trip to a local music sore. If it breaks I may get a new one, it really would depend if I had the cash on had.

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"Best live keyboard for the money." submitted April 7, 2010

By a customer from yahoo.com

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Musical Background: Active musician - full time professional keyboardist

Music Style: Jazz, Country, Rock, Blues, Funk, Fusion

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SPOTLIGHT REVIEW

Sound: The sound is excellent and the instrument has high quality and very usable presets. Some of the sounds can use a bit of tweaking to get them exactly the way you want them (to your personal taste)but all of the tools are there to do it. Being able to modify sounds live in real time is a GREAT advantage to being able to express yourself - with some practice this can be every bit as expressive as a sax or even a voice! I have always been impressed with Yamaha and never had a single problem with any of them with the exception of one that arrived damaged and that was no fault of Yamaha. I am strongly considering switching my top keyboard to an MM6, I currently have a Yamaha Portable Grand above this but I love the expressive capabilities of this MM8 and it has everything I want in sound so I may end up with the MM6 also. Amazing instruments for the price. Feature: You have to buy a couple of pedals but both together are less than 100 bucks. I already owned pedals (other brands) that work for this. Simple layout and well thought out. One feature I wish it had was a numeric keypad so I could go directly to the sound I want by entering it numerically. You have to hit a button and then use a dial to get to the sounds which can be a pain if you work in a band that hammers songs straight through with no breaks between - keeps you on your toes. Although this thing is plastic, it is high grade and tough stuff - I've never had a problem with any plastic Yamaha I've owned and I've owned many. I play for a living and the fact this thing is only 35 pounds is a godsend - the keyboard this replaced in my setup was over 80 lbs which felt like lugging a dead body at 3 in the morning. The keyboard feels great, like an acoustic piano - the only downside is the keys do not snap back fast enough to do rapidly repeated notes and I do a lot of organ work that requires it. The MM6 will do it, the MM8 will not. My last weighted keyboard wouldn't either, nor will many acoustic pianos. Ease of Use: Well written manual - clear, to the point and well translated. No strange phrases that often pop up in manuals originally written in another language. Everything is intuitive and obviously written by, and for working musicians. Modifying sounds is easy and everything works the way you expect. Quality: For a light weight plastic keyboard it's tough as nails - built to stand up to years of road abuse. It will scratch up like any plastic product but will keep on ticking. With a little care, you'll still be playing this thing in ten years. Value: The very best at this price point - this is a better keyboard than anything I have tried for twice the money. Manufacturer Support: Yamaha is the best I've seen in support. The folks are well trained and know the products inside and out. I have never needed a repair on any Yamaha product but any time I have a question, they have the right answer. The Wow Factor: Not sexy, just smart. Smart is always better in the sack anyway so in that way I guess it's sexy. Other products might have a "wow" look that this lacks but with the lights off this ones gonna get you where your going with a lot more finesse. The sounds are sexy - from deep throated growls to breathy whispers in your ear, hard wood woodwinds and brass with a sass that reminds you of the finest, ask anybody who's played one. Overall: For a live keyboard, this is it. Other than the addition of more polyphony as an arranger/composer and a numeric keypad to speed sound changes on the fly I can't think of a thing this doesn't have that I want. I will end up with the top of the line MOTIF as a studio instrument but the is THE instrument for live shows. I've played everything out there and dollar for dollar Yamaha came close to perfect. They obviously listen to everything their customers say and keep making better products so I'll expect to see the numeric keypad on the next version - by then I'll be so fast at working this it won't matter. I'll keep this thing till it dies and buy the closest thing they have to it when it does.

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"Great value!" submitted May 27, 2010

By a customer from colonyheights.org

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Musical Background: Active Musician

Music Style: Varies

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VERIFIED BUYER

zZounds has verified that this customer bought this product from us.

Sound: Great piano sounds Feature: Has a lot of options Ease of Use: I don't like the roler dial, but not hard to operate. Quality: Light-weight, great sound. Value: Great price for what you get. Manufacturer Support: The best support is support you don't need. Have not needed any.

1 of 3 people (33.33%) found this review helpful. Did you?

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