Motif XS vs Nord Stage EX

[Herman Munster]

I'm just curious as to which you guys would prefer to have for acoustic and electric pianos along with organ sounds. I'm prejudiced in one direction, but wondered what other ears preferred....

[vintagefreak]

Originally Posted by Herman Munster

I'm just curious as to which you guys would prefer to have for acoustic and electric pianos along with organ sounds. I'm prejudiced in one direction, but wondered what other ears preferred....

i am making some tracks on the MPC3000 and looking for a "all in"
sound module or a keyboard that has better rhodes and B3 organ sounds
for some organic sounding jazzy stuff....

heard Nord stage or North electro and really like their sound and the sound editing possibilities ... but they not really multitimbral....

is there anything multi timbral on the market that can compete with the sound of the Nord stage or Nord Electro?

How is the rhodes and organ sounds on the Yamaha Motif line of keyboards?

[radiospace]

Originally Posted by vintagefreak

How is the rhodes and organ sounds on the Yamaha Motif line of keyboards?

I love the EP sounds on the Motif. (I've got the ES version). They are really, really good. They're a lot different than the Nord ones somehow. Perhaps not as "realistic" sounding but more "produced" sounding from the get go. They are very musical, IMO. I bought a library of Rhodes samples and patches at one point for the Motif as an add-on but in the end I greatly preferred the stock stuff.

The organs are not so useful to me, because you can't tailor the sound like you can on a Nord, with virtual drawbars. (I'm assuming they haven't changed that in the latest versions). The Nord organs pretty much kill anything else out there, especially the Farfisa. You might have to be an Elvis Costello fan to fully appreciate that particular organ, but wow, it really sounds nice on a Nord.

When I played a current Korg M3, I was pretty impressed with the electric pianos but again not so much with the organs. Don't some of the Kurzweil keyboards have a B3 mode with virtual drawbars? Maybe look into that.

I'd imagine with any workstation you can either buy or load your own samplesto your heart's content to get specific sounds you need on hand. For me that aspect of a workstation is a bit much to keep up with and I'd rather have a sample library on the computer and just use the keyboard "as is" for the most part.

[BradLyons]

It really depends..... Personally I prefer the action of the keybed both in the initial touch and release response of the weighted keys. The acoustic piano sounds are really good. For live or studio recording they are wonderful. I was recently in China at the World Choir Games and took (2) MotifXS keyboards, primarily because of the piano sounds.

HOWEVER when it comes to organ emulation and the electric pianos, that Nord is amazing! BUT let me ask you this---are organs really that important for a weighted action keyboard? IMHO if they are, buy a 61-key controller with MIDI out to provide a much faster action. Obviously you're not going to have the waterfall action either way, but it's hard to satisfy a real piano/ep with organ in the same box.

The piano in the Nord Stage is okay---not great, but for live it can be just fine DEPENDING on the style of music being played and the arrangement you're playing with (band set). The MOTIF is going to do a heck of a lot more, but the Nord Stage---if EP's, Clavs, Organs, etc are important will just rock!

[vintagefreak]

thanks for replyes ,
i had a chance to play with the Nord Stage and Nord Electro 3 once and really liked the sound of Rhodes
Whurlitzer B3 and great warm sounding strings on Electro 3.
I am aiming at using MPC3000 as main sequencer
making beats and bass , chords, pads, strings on the fly
Live ... don't think any Nord is multitimbral to do that?

on the contrary that would be possible with the Motif or the other workstation -- but from what I heard on the sound presets demos on YouTube - Motive EP pianos sound a bit to cheesy to my ears or maybe it's just me?

are there any other good sounding multitimral alternatives out there?

[BradLyons]

Originally Posted by vintagefreak

thanks for replyes ,
i had a chance to play with the Nord Stage and Nord Electro 3 once and really liked the sound of Rhodes
Whurlitzer B3 and great warm sounding strings on Electro 3.
I am aiming at using MPC3000 as main sequencer
making beats and bass , chords, pads, strings on the fly
Live ... don't think any Nord is multitimbral to do that?

on the contrary that would be possible with the Motif or the other workstation -- but from what I heard on the sound presets demos on YouTube - Motive EP pianos sound a bit to cheesy to my ears or maybe it's just me?

are there any other good sounding multitimral alternatives out there?

I don't think the MOTIF's EP's sound cheesy at all. Did you hear every single patch they have? Remember, there's A LOT! I wouldn't have taken them to China if they didn't sound that good----my band is a world-class band (my keyboardist tours with Mariah Carey, we are used to the best). This is something one would need to sit down and play to experience the sound. That's part of a Rhodes patch is the give and take relationship you have with the instrument. While the MOTIF is just playing back samples, it can only go so far---it does do it incredibly well, but this is where the Nord Stage does have an advantage as it's more than just samples with velocity switching, it's really modeling the sounds.

[vintagefreak]

Originally Posted by BradLyons

I don't think the MOTIF's EP's sound cheesy at all. Did you hear every single patch they have? Remember, there's A LOT! I wouldn't have taken them to China if they didn't sound that good----my band is a world-class band (my keyboardist tours with Mariah Carey, we are used to the best). This is something one would need to sit down and play to experience the sound. That's part of a Rhodes patch is the give and take relationship you have with the instrument. While the MOTIF is just playing back samples, it can only go so far---it does do it incredibly well, but this is where the Nord Stage does have an advantage as it's more than just samples with velocity switching, it's really modeling the sounds.

I'd like to hear every single EP patch on Motif - any YouTube links that clearly demonstrate isolated patches without the demo songs?

how tweakable those patches on the Motifs?

[BradLyons]

The MOTIF is a full-blown synth, you can tweak anything that you wish. YouTube is NOT a good way to demo anything, let alone an instrument. You really need to play this if you're unsure.