I hope to answer all the important questions I had before buying the XS8. The sounds are increadable weather your after the great pianos, or want to produce any style of music that is out there now, or has been out there in the past. Check out the Yamaha XS on You Tube and expect to be blown away. Although there may be a set number of sounds in the presets, you can change any one of the instuments in the performance mode-usually made up of four individual parts, and that includes changing the arpeggios on each individual instrument as well. What that means is you have an infinate number of choices to mix together and become a one man band. If that still isn't enough, you can load more samples into the XS through the USB port. You would be hard pressed to find anything out there that even comes close to this work station. A friend of mine traded in his Kurzweil PC3X after playing on the Motif and never looked back.

One of the most usful features included with the Motif XS is the on board sequencer which runs a 16 track recorder. You can over dub and even chain your tracks together in both voice and performance mode, then edit your mix with a virtual mixer right on the LCD screen.

Single voice instruments are very real sounding, but if you want your mix to sound like the beetles back in the 60's, you grab something in performance mode that comes close and change a guitar for instance, and the baby boomers will be asking for your autograph.

The Motif XS is built solid like all Yamaha's professional instruments, definately buy a case for it if you plan to take it on the road. There are a lot of knobs and sliders that you want to protect when moving it around. With a little care the XS should last a life time.

For the money, this is the best synthesizer out there.

Never had to contact service for repairs, and that goes for my ten year old S80 too.

Usually I never get sexually arroused by mechanical objects, but the Motif has good styling otherwise.

Played piano and keyboards for last 10 years

Jazz, Rock, Country, Classic

If there's one thing you should buy the XS series for, it's definitely the sound. The Motif has the most organic sounds of any board I've ever heard, and I feel like if I wanted to make a hit record or something, I wouldn't even need live instruments. Some people complain about the piano (which is really amazing) being too sterile or dry but the sounds are so modifiable that you can create ANY piano sound based on that template. The vintage pianos and eps are just beautiful. A million out of 10 in this category.

You can see the incredible list of features on this page.. that really can't touch what this keyboard can do. Just pages and pages of features when you get into the operating system, and I'll be amazed if I ever even FIND them all, let alone use them.

9/10 mostly because of the operating system. I think it's a hundred times easier to use than the terrible Roland G8 or anything else, but it does take a ton of getting used to. Mainly, this is because there are just so many features, you have to learn where they all are. Mainly, though, everything is a couple of buttons away. The XS does outperform mostly everything else in ease of use when it comes to its hardware interface, though. The buttons and knobs and faders make modifying voices a breeze, which is the real power of the XS. By the way, I love the manual, but expect to ask it a simple question and get WAY more than you asked for. It will refer you to many other pages to explain a simple question, but you will know the keyboard like the back of your hand afterward.

The keys are the main part of quality for me. I've had a Yamaha Graded Hammer keyboard since like 2001, in the form of a Clavinova, and this is exactly the same. Perhaps I'm just used to them, but I find the GH keyboards to be the closest anything comes to an actual piano. The Roland just feels cheap. There's another one I tried, but I forget. They all just feel horrible to play on. I recommend just going to a store and trying them all out. Plus the XS has super nice construction, and really solid, too.

I got this for half the price of my Clavinova, and it does 1000 times more. Other products in the price range simply can't compete, so I would have to say value is as high as it gets. It's an expensive board, but I guarantee you will never look back once you have one. It opens new musical doors, and provides TONS of inspiration, and I think that's a valuable thing to have at any price.

Wonderful touch, awesome looking with a freakin mixing board on the top, cool dark colors in the display. This thing doesn't look like a toy. I do wish it came in black..

Student

Funk, Jazz, Alt Rock

Covered AudioSlave - highway to the sun, (I think...), I used all preset sounds, 1. Single Coil Amp 2. Finger Bass Amp 3. Rock House Drum Kits. Wow... You can't tell the difference. I swear I'm listenin to them rehearse in my own room. Youtube "TearGasBaby" - AudioSlave. There's your proof. Piano - only used one sound, the Full Piano Grand. Wow.. Dr Dre status. I don't even use the other 100+ pianos yet because this one single default sound when you turn on the Motif XS 8 is f**** great! Keyboard - only used the R&B Soft. coupled with the Full Grand Piano. Strings - alot of different solos and ensembles. Quartets, Small Ensemble, etc. Alot of classics, go to the Strings, jam out a couple of minutes until you find the right Lupe Fiasco theme song, and BOOM! record that baby. Drums - Oh my god... I'm telling you, I own Fruity Loops, been playing with FL Studio for 8 years, and before I got the Motif I used to mix 30 snares to get that one snare right. 30+ minutes for mixing one snare on the Fruity Loops ... Motif XS only takes me two seconds. It's already there. Drums are GREAT! anything from Djembes, to your Claps, to your Distorted hard hitting NY coast Snares, everything here is great. There's even a Hand Kit, which is nothing but ticks and tocks and clacks and tings. SynLead - Haven't even used this yet....but it sounds great Ethnic - Great flute, great Arabic - theme sounds, there's even a sound called Snake Charmer. Used it in one of the sequenced pattern 4/4 beat, sounds cool... Brass - used it only once, haven't fully utilized it. But the variety is there on top with the strings. Overall - It's a great thing. Again Youtube "TearGasBaby" for the sounds.

The product came with manuals, power cord, and Cubase cd. The most useful feature was the sequencer, pattern mode, performance mode and voice mode. I haven't checked out song mode yet because I've yet to install my DIMM memory in my Motif so I can't really do full features yet. Dude, I'm 23 years old, I have been playing guitar since I was 15, This Motif's feature is nothing but excellence. I'm telling you, alot of people say manuals are hard to read, but I just bought this Motif friday night, by saturday morning, I already know how to sequence, record, playback, edit patterns, and get my ideas down quick. It's common sense people. You go to pattern mode, you set the tempo, you choose Category Search for your preset sounds, then you hit record, then you play whatever you desire in either 4/4 or 8/8 or 16/16, and then it automatically plays back what you just played. In recording mode, you can either replace your recording, overdub your recording, and I rather choose Replace so incase I hit the wrong note, I push the stop button, and the layer I just recorded will be deleted when I push record again so I can repeat my performance without any mistakes. Piece of Cake...

Easy. Learned how to use it in 4 hours. Haven't fully utilized the effect system such as delay and flangers, but I already know how to Sustain and Release the Full Grand Piano so it sounds more "full" I haven't got the pedal yet. Great sounds ? Oh my god Yes!. Interface ? Oh my...easy easy! Modifying sounds ? I dont quite know how to tweak my sounds to the fullest, but with the abundance of preset sounds that came with the Motif, I rarely need to tweak anything. This is coming from 7 years of experience with Fruity Loops where tweaking is everything. That's just how good the Motif sounds are. No tweaking involved, absolutely none. I haven't been using this product with anything else. Just got it out of the box and started playing. Learning Curve is give or take 6 hours of your time. Manual ? ... haven't even touched it.

The Motif is made sturdy. Very sturdy. I tend to nick my guitars banging it through desks and chairs, I nicked my guitar to my Motif, my nylon guitar got a nick, but my Motif didn't. Still nick-less free. I haven't called customer service yet. This will last me a lifetime. It's so strong, it's not even funny how sturdy this thing is. The keys are weighted, so that's good.

$2899 at guitar center.

No need for support. This keyboard froze twice on me already because I did alot to it. But after a quick off/on, it works like a charm again. I have this thing on 24/7 almost and it's great.

I have it. It's sexy, got a nice car-paint glossy light metallic bluish. So appealing to the eyes. Like a 2009 Camry, the metallic blue gloss finish color.

Producer, Engineer, Musician, Artist

Hip Hop, Rap, AudioSlave, John Mayer

Professionally

The sounds are great when selected alone. I purchased this keyboard however to combine the voices and to uses the advertised features the XS8 has. This is very, very, hard to do because this keyboard is so very comlicated.

The XS8 should have come with a better manual and instructions. The manual is horrible, H O R R I B L E. You can't figure anything out; sorry, trial and error just doesn't work. The great features are almost unusable you just can't figure them out period. This keyboard is very technical and is NOT USER FRIENDLY.

SEE ABOVE COMMENT. The XS8 has the worst manual I have ever seen for a keyboard or any electronic equipment. Because the menu tree is so hard to navigate you can't use the features very easy. The manual should take you step by step through each sequence on how to perform all of the different functions. For example - split the keyboard - select 2 different voices - and an "ARP" drum loop. This seems easy enough but try to find out how to do it in the manual, you can't.

The quality is Yamaha that is one of the reasons why I purchased the XS8 keyboard. My other Yamaha products are the best so I assume they same goes for this board.

If you can't play it and use it what is the value. I wouldn't take it on a gig until I knew how to use it inside an out. If I elect to keep this keyboard ( I am thinking of selling it after only 4 months of owning it) it will take many many months before I will be able to really use it; oh I can use it like a piano keyboard rite now - but I didn't buy it to use it like a regular piano or a piano keyboard!!!!!

I have a problem trying to figure out how to use this keyboard. I purchased a DVD from their Keyfax store on how to use the XS8. The DVD describes all the great features of the XS8 but skims over the instructions very fast. The moderator on the DVD does things but doesn't give you a chance to absorb the info he also leaves out steps as he starts pushing the buttons as he tells you "just add this and do that" he doesn't go step by step and leaves you hanging. Very hard to catch the details. You have to keep playing it over and over.

I didn't think the color was so bad until I got it. It is butt UGLY!

40 years a musician, played a pipe organ in chuch, play for fun , own a Hammond B3, own 3 Yamaha keyboards

Jazz, popular, classical, R&R

I had a roland music workstation and had a wonderful time using it.But I decided it was a bit simple so I wanted an upgrade. What a mistake. I have had two people over to my home which I paid for by the way to help me understand the instruction booklet. They by the way said theyd have to study the book for days to interpet it for me. Both were music graduates who came from our local university. They agreed that it wasnt because I was dumb but because the video and instruction manual are so poorly presented. So I believe that I really ended up wasting my money.

hobbyist active musician

The sounds are great when selected alone. I purchased this keyboard however to combine the voices and to uses the advertised features the XS8 has. This is very, very, hard to do because this keyboard is so very comlicated.

The XS8 should have come with a better manual and instructions. The manual is horrible, H O R R I B L E. You can't figure anything out; sorry, trial and error just doesn't work. The great features are almost unusable you just can't figure them out period. This keyboard is very technical and is NOT USER FRIENDLY.

SEE ABOVE COMMENT. The XS8 has the worst manual I have ever seen for a keyboard or any electronic equipment. Because the menu tree is so hard to navigate you can't use the features very easy. The manual should take you step by step through each sequence on how to perform all of the different functions. For example - split the keyboard - select 2 different voices - and an "ARP" drum loop. This seems easy enough but try to find out how to do it in the manual, you can't.

The quality is Yamaha that is one of the reasons why I purchased the XS8 keyboard. My other Yamaha products are the best so I assume they same goes for this board.

If you can't play it and use it what is the value. I wouldn't take it on a gig until I knew how to use it inside an out. If I elect to keep this keyboard ( I am thinking of selling it after only 4 months of owning it) it will take many many months before I will be able to really use it; oh I can use it like a piano keyboard rite now - but I didn't buy it to use it like a regular piano or a piano keyboard!!!!!

I have a problem trying to figure out how to use this keyboard. I purchased a DVD from their Keyfax store on how to use the XS8. The DVD describes all the great features of the XS8 but skims over the instructions very fast. The moderator on the DVD does things but doesn't give you a chance to absorb the info he also leaves out steps as he starts pushing the buttons as he tells you "just add this and do that" he doesn't go step by step and leaves you hanging. Very hard to catch the details. You have to keep playing it over and over.

I didn't think the color was so bad until I got it. It is butt UGLY!

the motif xs has the best piano and rhodes sounds i played the fantom,triton,m3,oasy noting can compare to the motifs realistic sounds the guitar sounds real every thing on motif sounds real

the xs is easy to play because the keys is lighter.the lcd is better than what they had

the xs will will great for the road with all them sounds and it does alot of things

yes it is

it looks great

music director at chruch and musician

gospel, neo soul,and r&b

The preset voices are so realistic and heart-throbbing. The piano, guitar and brass are closest you can get to an actual instrument. The organ is like a leslie hammond organ where you can control the valves with the sliders and add chorus in real time with the right fader. I spent the entire night just admiring the voice bank of this synthesizer.

The setup on the wide lcd color screen, in collaboration with the sliders, voicing and sequencing.........awesome.

I never owned a motif before this one, but I found all of the features quite convenient and useful.

In comparison to the triton, it looks more attractive and professional. Everything looks like its in tact, free of any blemishes. Very durable.

I had second thoughts of getting it, but after my experiment with it a few nights, it is worth every single penny. Its like a portable studio.

The guys at the company are wonderful and very helpful.

The color, the 8 valves, large color lcd screen, and the proportion just gives the motif xs a complete rich finish.

keyboard player

neosoul, gospel, reggae, r&b