I use my MO both with a stand-alone digital recorder and Cubase. In both cases, this instrument is absolutely tops. The sounds put out by this keyboard continue to amaze me. Drum kits included in some of the combination settings that use arps do not record directly to the DAW software, at least not without significant work/tweaking. However, it sounds absolutely pristine when recorded into my TASCAM recorder. The keyboard (piano and the like) sounds are the usual exemplary Yamaha pianos/keys - just super. The guitars sound real. The sweet flute and sweet oboe are sololists dream. The synth-leads and pads are pretty good too. There's lots to explore here - all quality sounds.

Wow, where to begin? The 1700+ arps are so darn addictive and fun. For those wanting to record guitars that sound live (real) with strumming and picking, you will find loads of arps for guitars that simply sound like you have a guitarist right there! Pattern player is a real pleasure to work with, you can create on the fly snappy patterns right away - no delay, no manuevering buttons and menu on menu. Boom, its in. The USB connectivity to your PC opens a whole new world for this keyboard - from the editor software and manager software, it makes this keyboard that much more convenient and powerful. The included Cubase software seemlessly integrates with the MO... Being able to save to USB devices via the device connection is tremendoulsy conventient as well. Bravo Yamaha.

For getting to your bread-and-butter sounds, its pretty easy. Yamaha has included a convenient "Category" button that lets you see all your sounds arranged by types (e.g., piano, guitar, bass, brass, etc). You simply dial or use "Inc" or "Dec" buttons and play away. The onboard sequencer is a big improvement over past Yamaha keyboards (I also own a Yamaha EX5 - its sequencer was hard to use). This one is very easy and you probably won't even need to crack the manual.

I am rating this one a little lower as, unlike the MOTIF 6 I once had for a short time (which was metal body), the MO6 is a plastic case. For my purposes that is fine, as I use my MO in my home studio setup - it will not be moved. I'd be a little worried about it if I were gigging it! However, the fit and finish is good, the keys have pretty good feel (not as good as my EX5 or the MOTIF 6) but good nonetheless. For home use, this keyboard should last years.

For what you get, this keyboard is a composers dream. It is feature packed, sounds great, and should last for years.

Unknown

This keyboard is desireable. I spent many many hours researching for the "best bang for the buck" and the MO6 is it. You will be hard pressed to find better - given its price.

Hobbyist - Soloist creating original compositions (see: www.reverbnation.com/mikehuntingford )

Jazz, Ambient, Easy Listening

Great sound, very realistic sounding instruments, nice effects and many unique sounds to further explore your creative capability

Everything I would want for my home studio,

Sometimes confusing especially the manual, but it takes a moment to get use to the process and understand the features that are present.

Very nice

Great value like all Yamaha product a lot of sound and features for the prices I am very please and that is why I am a Yamaha fan

No support needed so far

Pretty Cool looking

hobbyist

Jazz/electronic

the product sound great.. ive only had it a for about four days now and i love it... im using it to produce beats for my songs and it has alot of great sounds and appregios that come in handy. im not using it with any other equipment yet.. im currently in a renovation process of my home studio but it will be using it with the mm6 which i bought from zzounds a couple years ago along with cubase and a couple other software programs.

it did come with cubase and a single x stand.. but my mm6 came with cubase and a double x stand so its great having both of my keyboards on stands and they wont be sitting on the cpu stand in the way.. the features to me are all useful.. i cant really think of any features i wish it had other than a set of mpc pads would have been nice lol.

its easy to navigate through the sounds but i found it extremely difficult navigating the sequencer... its not really hard to use the sequencer but its complicated to get all of the sounds you wanna use in to the sequencer to record with.

the product is sturdy and mad well the controls are nice and i love the fact that is has sliders.. i really like that the sliders can be used as drawbar controls on an organ as well as the modulator wheel can be used to give it that hammond sound as well.

i think its a fair price for the board.. some keyboards are over to me like the roland fantom i think its like a thousand dollars over priced but thats just my opinion.

havent had to use them.

the board is designed great. i read alot of reviews and watched alot of online videos and demo videos on it like i did when i purchased my mm6.. watching the videos and studying up on the product helps make u feel you are making a selection you can stand by and wont regret later down the road.

beatmaker/producer/drummer

r n b/rap/gospel

8/10. Not because I'm docking points, but because I don't feel justified in giving it higher because i haven't compared it to other boards. The presets are all good, some interesting and usable...others an example of what the board is capable of. The Motif engine is well regarded in the industry, and that is what is used here.

Extensive Voice editor. Built-in sequencer, however I use it with a DAW. No Sampler. Polyphony limited to 64 which may not be ample enough for some.

This is the main reason I'm compelled to write a review. Although powerful as a standalone tool, the MO is not easy to learn, especially if you are new to synths. If your going to figure out the interface, and aren't familiar with Yamaha products...get ready to spend alot of time with the manual. I'm new to synths, and therefore wasn't able to tap into 95% of its capabilities....UNTIL I discovered Studio Connections. Yamaha and Steinberg have developed some decent software to access the internal logic of the MO/Motif from your computer. This relatively easy to use and clean interface has opened up a world of sound design that would have taken months, if not years, to learn otherwise. Studio Connections also includes a multi-part editor, so that you can save mixing settings to your computer instead of to the MO. You can tweak your MO like you would a VST instrument. So even if you are new to synth programming, but will be using this as part of a computer based DAW, you actually can jump right in without having to spend months learning the MO's complex interface. Don't give up on it UNTIL you try Studio Connections.

Yamaha is known for good quality. Motif engine.

Depends on what you need. Its price point is competitive with the rest of the market. Got mine used

Haven't dealth with it.

New to the hobby

electro

Sound is really realistic. Have owned Korg, Alesis, Kurzweil, and this one is really good.

This one is power packed, the manual is a little hard to understand, but there is a lot of features on this board.

It is a little hard to get used to until you get the hang of it. The manual is really difficult to understand.

20+ years

All around

Pristine 24 bit clarity. Many sounds that are uniqe and professional

It has got everything, it is just figuring out where they are! One of my favorites is the DAW remote control feature. Logice recognized it as a Logic control. Every button on the MO then becomes a button for the sequencer. Even displays track, plug in, instrument and other info on the built in screen. Only drawback with this is that you cant use the MO's sounds when in this mode. You can stil trigger soft synths though.

There is a learning curve but I am not going anywhere for a while.

Seems very sturdy Very clean. Get a good bag or case. You dont want anything to happen to this baby/

Yes a great value.

Have not dealt with the company. There is a web site designed by users for users. Good start for people new to the MO

It is one of the most attractive boards Ive ever seen, The name could use a help>

The sound quality is excellent. It is really just a cost-effective alternative to the Motif series. Obviously there are fewer presets and functions, but as always, you get what you pay for. The sound from this board, with or without tweaking presets, has dramatically improved the overall sound of my demos.

Yamaha makes great keyboards all around and the MO6 is no exception. As mentioned in the "sound" portion of this review- it's not a Motif, nor should it be expected to be. That being said, it's the best keyboard in it's price range. In addition, the keyboard comes with the AC adapter which these days is a luxury!

The interface is very similar to the Motif layout. It is easy to tweak presets...although keep this in mind- the presets are very well put together and you will probably find yourself doing very little tweaking...and a lot more playing! That's a good thing, as always.

The M06 is a very heavy, very sturdy board. I would imagine this would hold up well in a live gig situation...however, mine is permanently secured on a two-tier stand in my studio. It is very stable and I have never had an issue with knobs, buttons, or faders falling off or keys sticking-- it plays today as it did on the day I received it.

The selling price is understandable...it's much better than the mid-priced Yamaha's, but has a ways to go before reaching the Motif market. I think Yamaha's marketing dept. did a good job in determining the price for this instrument.

I have not had to deal with Yamaha with regard to the MO6 or for any other Yamaha music products I have owned- never had a problem! I think that speaks positively to the quality of these products.

I have a vintage 1964 Wurlitzer 4100 organ, a Korg microKorg with reverse color keys, and a host of cool Gretsch, Fender, and Epiphone guitars-- and this Yamaha is just as classy as everything else...Perfect.

Active Musician, Recording musician

Instrumental, Surf, Americana, Folk

This's great, i say it's the bigger brother of mm6. realistic sounds. sounds and samples r all realistic & cool. (175 MB wave memory)

loads of real time controllers (for it's price) it's just amazing. one of it's flaw is that only it is unable to put some plugin boards in it. (that's what they say) one drawback is that the polyphony is only 64 notes... sad

Well...the LCD is small, greeny, and it's reall hard to navigate around. well like the motif it's really complicated... i guess. for first time users it sucks. the realtime controllers could back it up a bit now...

i heard that the material used for the structure is some plain plastic (that's how my friend said) if that's true that could be serious. however inside, being a younger brother of the Motif ES. this makes it seriously good.

for price i say its 2 good. come on it's too much inside there already (controllers, built in sequencer, no. of voices, filter & insert effects etc etc) but that does'nt mean increase da price.

one unattractive thing of this machine is that it's lcd display. lessly the plugin boards make it a bummer.

part-time musician, Hobbyist

Dance, Hip hop, arabic stuff

State-of-the-art professional sounds that can be edited and shaped. The most impressive sounds to this point are the strings. There's no need to own any soft synth strings if you own this keyboard. It has the dark, full, light, ensembles, solos, and many combinations. The pianos are strong. The drums and percussion are strictly pro level. Haven't heard better. I've owned almost every keyboard known to man, and frequently return or sell them after a few weeks. I keep thinking that there just has to be a better one out there somewhere. This one is staying right here for quite a while. PS - If you're into the "beat," you'll find some amazing performance grooves, and arps. Off the chart. It's not my thing, but I've heard plenty, and this keyboard extremely fun. I've seen two major hiphop artists in studios with the MO6.

The USB connection to the computer is a lot better than using midi cords. The software editor is something that I haven't gotten into yet...but it appears to have layering, editing, and saving options that will free me from doing it with the keyboard. The edits and layers can be saved on my computer and used whenever. The sliders and envelope knobs are very cool and usable.

This is one area where Yamaha could do better, but the MO6 is an improvement over earlier keyboards. Maybe it doesn't bother anyone else, but the controls for changing voices are on the right side...so when I'm testing a sound I have to "octave-down" and test with my left hand while adjusting with my right. I'm going to buy foot pedals to get around this...so in the long run it's not a big deal. Everything else about the keyboard makes this a minor issue.

Off the chart in all aspects. When I play the keys feel smooth, consistent, solid, just the right touch, and the sensitivity is fabulous. When I took it out of the box I said to myself, "hmmmmm, maybe I've found something here." It just feels like top-shelf engineering and design. No one makes better keys than this. Promise.

I've owned 3 workstations within the past few years, and I prefer this over the feel and the sounds of the any generation of Motifs, Rolands, Kurzweil, or Korg. Yamaha says that the voice engine is the same as their top keyboards. I disagree. These are better. I can't really explain it. It's something to do with the clarity and depth of sound, mainly with acoustic instruments like grand pianos, strings, guitars, and percussion. The price is very fair.

Called once. No problem.

It feels like I'm at the helm of the Starship Enterprise. Others do this too, but this ranks right up there. I've been to a couple of LA studios and have seen this keyboard used as the centerpiece in both places. It's definitely a hot item in the pro world right now.

Band Director, Song Writer, Arranger, Rock Guitarist, Pro Singer

No category. My music can't be pegged. I strive to make new sounds. My own "new wave."

The sound quality is good but the technology of this unit is limited. The limited polyphony makes recording difficult without computer use. Live use is fine. The material it is made of is very cheap the keys used for the actual playing be careful they feel as if they will break

This product is easy to use if you are use to using any motif products. But even if you aren't anyone use to using any type of music workstation shouldn't have a difficult time navigating this board.

This keyboard has a very cheap feel. Plastic parts feels as if could break easily

I feel it is a decent keyboard. I personally don't feel its worth the price its selling for, only because of the quality of the material it is made of.

dont know never had to use it

Active Musician

gospel/ RB

I mean really!!!!!! whats better than yamaha overall!!!! Rolands are cool but yamahas are the bentley/rolls royce of keyboards!!! i do wish that the pitch bend was horizontal instead of vertical.

all of them

u do have to read the instructions just a tad.... even the english can be chinese sometimes