Welcome to the re-invented Yamaha Synth site. We don't really see a question here, but the Motif XF represents the maturity of the sample playback engine with its eight Element (Oscillator) Voice architecture. We hope that you have discovered the FLASH BOARD expansion option - as this will allow you to continually re-invent your Motif XF's Wave ROM. This has been the dream of users of this type of synthesizer for some twenty years.

Thank you for being a Motif XF owner. We are committed to help folks get the most out of this "milestone" product - which is still extremely programmable. Please join us in the coming weeks as we unfold some of the magic and power of this truly innovative synthesizer engine. We trust you have updated your unit to the firmware 1.50.x and are taking advantage of the new features engineering continues to add to your instrument. Between the firmware updates (which continue to come) and the knowledge you will (hopefully) be able to gain from participating here, you may discover that your Motif XF is the "new Motif series"!!!

Also please participate here, because at Yamaha USA, we are determined to find out exactly what YOU (the user) want to see in future development. Athan Billias' BLOG:Voice of the Customer - Product Planning is all about what you would like to see in the future from Yamaha. There will be surveys and discussions - and while we anticipate some "pie in the sky" dreams, that is what this is all about!

So again, welcome!

I think the unspoken question is the same one I have - when will there be a new workstation - either a replacement for the XF, or a replacement for the entire Motif series? Where are you going with the keyboard workstation? I'm scared to buy another Motif. My old one is outdated - an ES8, and I need another workstation, AND I'm so used to the way the hardware sequencer works, that I'd like to stay with Yamaha. But, even with the flash available for the XF, you need to battle Korg's step to the solid state drive and the incorporation of a really good synth engine. So, I'm waiting. Although I'm tempted to buy an XF7, I'm scared because I don't know how much life is left in the product line.

I think Bad Mister said it. The Motif XF "represents the maturity of the sample playback engine..." And so it is as concerning Yamaha products. I think they've done a great job with updating how things work while also maintaining a good bit of backward compatibility. I have a number of voice libraries I purchased for my Motif ES over the years, and have a favorite collection loaded in my XF. So 10 year old voices in what is still a new machine. Not a bad deal.

There are other products out there with their own unique sounds, features and benefits, but no one I have found in this business supports their products better than Yamaha,

Edit: I will say I am not yet thrilled with this site, but I'm sure I will adapt. Not logging me out so often would be a big help. 😉

The logging out thing is an issue. Grrrr! I'm sure it is being worked on - and is probably more complex than the synthesizers we are supporting - or it must be 🙂
(thank you for reporting this)

This thing about Voices being 10 years old... let me ask a (loaded) question here, would any new synth have to have a Piano sound? Strings sounds? Brass sounds? Electric piano sounds? Synth lead sounds? Guitar sounds? Bass sounds? Drums?

The piano is 314 years old... just FYI. The technology Yamaha has developed over the years to reproduce this instrument in an electronic (portable) form is amazing. As a builder of the real thing - no expense is spared in the R&D of the piano - both acoustic (first and foremost) and electronic.

Flash Boards allow you to take favorite renditions of your favorite piano Voices and continue to use them _ face it you are going to need a piano sound in your next production synthesizer so what if your ES piano is 10 years or 20 years old, if you need a piano sound, no one is going to walk up at the end of your gig and say... that keyboard sound you were playing was 314 years old, can you pay something newer. Not when you need a PIANO SOUND.

So you're right - it is not a bad deal. Flash Boards and the current architecture and concept allows you to take those sounds you deem as YOUR FAVORITES and customize your instrument YOUR WAY! Not a bad deal, at all.

Tom,

I looked at the Kronos when it first came out and I was tempted because of the SSD sample storage, multiple synth engines and direct audio recording but I've since discovered many things about it that made me glad I bought the XF instead.

I found out recently that when you buy a Korg expansion library it gets registered to your instrument, if you ever buy a second Kronos you can't use the library there, you have to buy it again!! That's crazy. Kronos also has a major flaw in the USB audio interfacing...any output from the DAW (for monitoring) is mixed together with the Kronos output and sent back to the DAW, so you can't actually use it as your only audio interface. Unlike the XS and XF, Kronos users still have to remember to back up all their sequence data before shutting down. The sample RAM is shared with the OS which takes up over 1GB of space. While you can have multiple expansion libraries stored in the SSD, you can't access them all at once so if you need sounds form multiple expansions it's not always possible. The software remote control features are extremely limited compared to what the Motif series has offered already for over a decade.

Now the Kronos is a very nice instrument, but there's so many things that Korg got wrong that Yamaha got right in the XF.

Bad Mister wrote:This thing about Voices being 10 years old... let me ask a (loaded) question here, would any new synth have to have a Piano sound? Strings sounds? Brass sounds? Electric piano sounds? Synth lead sounds? Guitar sounds? Bass sounds? Drums?

When I was after a tone generator I tried out both the ROLAND INTEGRA 7 and MOTIF RACK XS... and it was the AMAZING SOUND of the MOTIF RACK XS that convince me to keep it (and returned the INTEGRA 7). Even though the MOTIF RACK XS came out back in 2008, to my ears it still sounds amazing!