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Yamaha MODX


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At this weight if the GHS included feels as well as the Casio

Generally it doesn't. But often good enough.

 

Its a heck of a lot more sound engine wise than the PX-5S/560 for not an insane amount more.

...which I think you could also say about SP6, Kross, MX88 (and, some others at a bit higher weight). Though the MODX is pricier (as the MOXF was, but it was also heavier). PX5S advantages remain primarily footprint, weight, action; and in some comparisons, 4-zone MIDI controls with a bunch of sliders and knobs. I think it has generally been beatable in sound and operational ergonomics for some time. But yes, its competition in a capable low-cost low-weight 88 keeps getting stronger, from a starting point where it basically had none.

 

Roland FA and Krome should be concerned.

As I mentioned earlier, I think FA is still very competitive, though it wouldn't be my choice personally. Krome looks due for an update, I think it's only real edge is in having the sequencer.

 

Kurzweils SP6 needs synth action variations.

The Artis 7 is still a strong board, in ways better than the SP6 (like 9 sliders), but it would be nice if it got the newer sound set (i.e. pianos/EPs).

Maybe this is the best place for a shameless plug! Our now not-so-new new video at https://youtu.be/3ZRC3b4p4EI is a 40 minute adaptation of T. S. Eliot's "Prufrock" - check it out! And hopefully I'll have something new here this year. ;-)

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It seems like the MIDI channel problem could be fixed with a MIDI Solutions box
On the montage you can play 8 parts from the internal keyboard, but 16 parts can play at the same time. Adding a mididsolutinspedal or anipad would make all 16 parts available at the same time from the keyboard, at least in theory.....

Yes, if someone doesn't want to get involved with a phone/tablet (or laptop), a MIDI Solutons box might be good way to go. I'm thinking: use the internal keys to trigger whatever combination you want of parts 1-8, and leave the MIDI Solutions Box set to permanently route your secondary controller to parts 9-16. Then set up all your Performances such that whatever you want to play from the internal keys is in the first 8 parts, whatever you want to play from the external keys are in some combination of 9 through 16.

 

ETA: Looking at some screen shots, it also looks like if you set up the external board to transmit on 9-16, you could also toggle the internal display over to the 9-16 page to turn different sounds on and off on the fly as needed (since we're talking about using controllers that don't, themselves, have the ability to quickly switch among MIDI transmission channels, whether singly or in combination).

Maybe this is the best place for a shameless plug! Our now not-so-new new video at https://youtu.be/3ZRC3b4p4EI is a 40 minute adaptation of T. S. Eliot's "Prufrock" - check it out! And hopefully I'll have something new here this year. ;-)

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Hi all, FWIW I was there, wrote and filmed this:

 

https://www.keyboardmag.com/gear/yamaha-modx-first-impressions

 

Stephen Fortner

Principal, Fortner Media

Former Editor in Chief, Keyboard Magazine

Digital Piano Consultant, Piano Buyer Magazine

 

Industry affiliations: Antares, Arturia, Giles Communications, MS Media, Polyverse

 

 

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So ... where's Bert?

Hardware:
Yamaha
: MODX7 | Korg: Kronos 88, Wavestate | ASM: Hydrasynth Deluxe | Roland: Jupiter-Xm, Cloud Pro, TD-9K V-Drums | Alesis: StrikePad Pro|
Behringer: Crave, Poly D, XR-18, RX1602 | CPS: SpaceStation SSv2 | 
Controllers: ROLI RISE 49 | Arturia KeyLab Essentials 88, KeyLab 61, MiniLab | M-Audio KeyStation 88 & 49 | Akai EWI USB |
Novation LaunchPad Mini, |
Guitars & Such: Line 6 Variax, Helix LT, POD X3 Live, Martin Acoustic, DG Strat Copy, LP Sunburst Copy, Natural Tele Copy|
Squier Precision 5-String Bass | Mandolin | Banjo | Ukulele

Software:
Recording
: MacBook Pro | Mac Mini | Logic Pro X | Mainstage | Cubase Pro 12 | Ableton Live 11 | Monitors: M-Audio BX8 | Presonus Eris 3.5BT Monitors | Slate Digital VSX Headphones & ML-1 Mic | Behringer XR-18 & RX1602 Mixers | Beyerdynamics DT-770 & DT-240
Arturia: V-Collection 9 | Native Instruments: Komplete 1 Standard | Spectrasonics: Omnisphere 2, Keyscape, Trilian | Korg: Legacy Collection 4 | Roland: Cloud Pro | GForce: Most all of their plugins | u-he: Diva, Hive 2, Repro, Zebra Legacy | AAS: Most of their VSTs |
IK Multimedia: SampleTank 4 Max, Sonik Synth, MODO Drums & Bass | Cherry Audio: Most of their VSTs |

 

 

 

 

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thanks Aidan for promoting yesterday's live stream. We explored piano, e-piano, guitar and bass categories for the first time together and had a lot of fun. Completely unrehearsed and spontaneous.

 

I plan on making a highlights compilation if you don't want to watch the 3 hour stream replay. And I don't blame you a bit!

 

Very impressed with the sounds so far, a big step up from the Motif & MOXF. But I guess you Montage owners already knew that.

 

Just a heads-up that I'll continue exploring the sound categories and features tonight (Sunday) at 2100 CEST on Twitch. Your chance to request sounds, songs and ask me questions about the synth.

 

Have a good one.

https://www.twitch.tv/woodypianoshack

hang out with me at woody piano shack
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Does anyone happen to know whether the knobs are endless encoders?

 

Sweetwater lists the MODX6 & 7 as having a "LC" synth-weighted keybed.
I wonder if that stands for Low Cwality?

My first thought was Low Cost, which hopefully isn't the same.

 

Its a heck of a lot more sound engine wise than the PX-5S/560 for not an insane amount more.

actually, it's a pretty substantial price jump, from the $1000 PX5S to the $1900 MODX8. Heck, at that point, for another $400, you could buy a PX5S and a MODX6.

Maybe this is the best place for a shameless plug! Our now not-so-new new video at https://youtu.be/3ZRC3b4p4EI is a 40 minute adaptation of T. S. Eliot's "Prufrock" - check it out! And hopefully I'll have something new here this year. ;-)

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Haha! His name came up, actually. Bert is with Yamaha Europe and this was a Yamaha US event. I saw Bert's Montage demos a couple of Musikmesses ago and they were fantastic as always.

Stephen Fortner

Principal, Fortner Media

Former Editor in Chief, Keyboard Magazine

Digital Piano Consultant, Piano Buyer Magazine

 

Industry affiliations: Antares, Arturia, Giles Communications, MS Media, Polyverse

 

 

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Woody commented that the keybed on his 61 felt better than his MOXF. Don't know if that's helpful at all for you.
i saw him say that when he pulled it out of the box and tapped some keys for about 10 seconds max with it unplugged in powered. Did he say anything about feel after actually playing it? Hard to make that comparison without having them side by side for A/B in real time imo.
The baiting I do is purely for entertainment value. Please feel free to ignore it.
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If you switch over to cahnnel 9-16 gets played by the internal keyboard instead of of 1-8 if I remember correctly. The scene buttons are great for the purpose of muting unmuting sounds on the fly, I use them all the time. Well woth notibg is that all preprogrammed sounds uses channel 1-8, leavin 9-16 completetly free! Currently I only use midi from my montage to my stage 3, I have planned to use it in the other direcition....someday.

 

It seems like the MIDI channel problem could be fixed with a MIDI Solutions box
On the montage you can play 8 parts from the internal keyboard, but 16 parts can play at the same time. Adding a mididsolutinspedal or anipad would make all 16 parts available at the same time from the keyboard, at least in theory.....

Yes, if someone doesn't want to get involved with a phone/tablet (or laptop), a MIDI Solutons box might be good way to go. I'm thinking: use the internal keys to trigger whatever combination you want of parts 1-8, and leave the MIDI Solutions Box set to permanently route your secondary controller to parts 9-16. Then set up all your Performances such that whatever you want to play from the internal keys is in the first 8 parts, whatever you want to play from the external keys are in some combination of 9 through 16.

 

ETA: Looking at some screen shots, it also looks like if you set up the external board to transmit on 9-16, you could also toggle the internal display over to the 9-16 page to turn different sounds on and off on the fly as needed (since we're talking about using controllers that don't, themselves, have the ability to quickly switch among MIDI transmission channels, whether singly or in combination).

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Cool Stephen,

 

Whats youre impression of the keybed, ehich one did you test?

 

 

 

 

 

Hi all, FWIW I was there, wrote and filmed this:

 

https://www.keyboardmag.com/gear/yamaha-modx-first-impressions

Hi all, FWIW I was there, wrote and filmed this:

 

https://www.keyboardmag.com/gear/yamaha-modx-first-impressions

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If you switch over to cahnnel 9-16 gets played by the internal keyboard instead of of 1-8 if I remember correctly. The scene buttons are great for the purpose of muting unmuting sounds on the fly, I use them all the time. Well woth notibg is that all preprogrammed sounds uses channel 1-8, leavin 9-16 completetly free! Currently I only use midi from my montage to my stage 3, I have planned to use it in the other direcition....someday.

 

It seems like the MIDI channel problem could be fixed with a MIDI Solutions box
On the montage you can play 8 parts from the internal keyboard, but 16 parts can play at the same time. Adding a mididsolutinspedal or anipad would make all 16 parts available at the same time from the keyboard, at least in theory.....

Yes, if someone doesn't want to get involved with a phone/tablet (or laptop), a MIDI Solutons box might be good way to go. I'm thinking: use the internal keys to trigger whatever combination you want of parts 1-8, and leave the MIDI Solutions Box set to permanently route your secondary controller to parts 9-16. Then set up all your Performances such that whatever you want to play from the internal keys is in the first 8 parts, whatever you want to play from the external keys are in some combination of 9 through 16.

 

ETA: Looking at some screen shots, it also looks like if you set up the external board to transmit on 9-16, you could also toggle the internal display over to the 9-16 page to turn different sounds on and off on the fly as needed (since we're talking about using controllers that don't, themselves, have the ability to quickly switch among MIDI transmission channels, whether singly or in combination).

 

I was actually thinking also of a MIDI solutions box to address this. I'll probably need one at some point anyway if I am going to run an iPad into my rig and send program changes from an app like ForScore, etc.

 

I am like 99.9999999999% sure that the only reason the MIDI channels are fixed is that the Performance mode on the Montage is an extension of the Performance Mode on the Motif, which also had fixed MIDI channels. They probably figured if it ain't broke...

 

I think really the issue is that fixing the MIDI channels removes flexibility, which was one of the nice features of the Motif. Yes it had a complicated architecture, but there were usually a few different ways to approach a problem.

 

My final two cents on this issue are that regardless of whether its good or bad or should be on there or not, to upgrade to the Montage or MODX means that I can't really use the Melas tools to transfer over my current MOXF Splits/Layers without some extensive editing and redesign.

 

When the time comes to upgrade, which will be soon as I need seamless switching in my life, I'm going to take a hard look at the Kronos, possibly in combination with Nord Stage 3.

 

Anyway, kudos to the Yamaha keyboard group regardless, the MODX looks like a cool piece of gear that should help them regain some market share.

Studio: Motif XF8 / MacBook Pro / Apollo Twin X / M-Audio BX8a / Plug-ins

Live Rig A: Nord Stage 3 Compact 73 / Prophet Rev2 / Various FX pedals (Eventide, Strymon, Lounsberry, Neo Vent II)

Live Rig B: Yamaha MODX7 / Crumar D9-X / B3-X  (iPad)

Amp: MS KP-610s

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My final two cents on this issue are that regardless of whether its good or bad or should be on there or not, to upgrade to the Montage or MODX means that I can't really use the Melas tools to transfer over my current MOXF Splits/Layers without some extensive editing and redesign.

 

When the time comes to upgrade, which will be soon as I need seamless switching in my life, I'm going to take a hard look at the Kronos, possibly in combination with Nord Stage 3.

 

Anyway, kudos to the Yamaha keyboard group regardless, the MODX looks like a cool piece of gear that should help them regain some market share.

are all of your splits layers etc in song/pattern mode?

 

All of my XF and MOXF programs are in Performance mode (with of course a lot of custom voices as well). Pretty sure I can transfer this all over from either ... will find out when i get ready to pull the trigger.

The baiting I do is purely for entertainment value. Please feel free to ignore it.
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My final two cents on this issue are that regardless of whether its good or bad or should be on there or not, to upgrade to the Montage or MODX means that I can't really use the Melas tools to transfer over my current MOXF Splits/Layers without some extensive editing and redesign.

 

When the time comes to upgrade, which will be soon as I need seamless switching in my life, I'm going to take a hard look at the Kronos, possibly in combination with Nord Stage 3.

 

Anyway, kudos to the Yamaha keyboard group regardless, the MODX looks like a cool piece of gear that should help them regain some market share.

are all of your splits layers etc in song/pattern mode?

 

All of my XF and MOXF programs are in Performance mode (with of course a lot of custom voices as well). Pretty sure I can transfer this all over from either ... will find out when i get ready to pull the trigger.

 

Yes, long story short I always have Yamaha strings and one of the detuned Dance Synths running on Channels 3 & 16 cause my Stage Ex is lacking in that department. (This way I can always jump to those bread and butter voices on my bottom board - the nord) My splits and layers usually use more than two Voices so hence it is necessary...

Studio: Motif XF8 / MacBook Pro / Apollo Twin X / M-Audio BX8a / Plug-ins

Live Rig A: Nord Stage 3 Compact 73 / Prophet Rev2 / Various FX pedals (Eventide, Strymon, Lounsberry, Neo Vent II)

Live Rig B: Yamaha MODX7 / Crumar D9-X / B3-X  (iPad)

Amp: MS KP-610s

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When the time comes to upgrade, which will be soon as I need seamless switching in my life, I'm going to take a hard look at the Kronos

You probably know this, but just in case... you can do seamless switching on the MOX/MOXF within the sets of 16 sounds you can assemble into songs/patterns. It's something...

 

As for MODX vs. Kronos, I'm actually looking at moving the other way. I don't gig with the Kronos much, because I'm not inclined to bring around a 30 lb board that gives me only 61 keys. I've most often used a MOX6/MOXF6 instead. But the Set List style screen and DX7 compatibilty and improved seamless swiching now bring three more things I like from the Kronos over to the Yamaha world, in a 16-lb 76-key config, or a hammer action 88 that weighs only about wha the Kronos 61 weighs. So there's that much less in Kronos advantages over Yamaha. Aftertouch and clonewheel are probably the biggest things, and I've got the NS3 for that. Korg had a lightweight 7x key arranger with aftertouch (Pa3X LE), I wished they had built a Kronos into that chassis, but now I see a MODX in my future.

Maybe this is the best place for a shameless plug! Our now not-so-new new video at https://youtu.be/3ZRC3b4p4EI is a 40 minute adaptation of T. S. Eliot's "Prufrock" - check it out! And hopefully I'll have something new here this year. ;-)

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I see transport controls. Maybe they didn't remove the sequencer? Please??

 

Edit: Sigh...the pitch and mod wheels are above. Why...

 

I'm not a Montage expert, but my understanding is Montgae doesn't have a sequencer as most would think of it (16-track midi recorder). I think it can "play" things you load in - maybe that is all those transport buttons do?

 

Edit Answer: so its shorter? I'm hopeful for that, if I can get a MODX7 into a shorter case that doesn't exceed airlines 50" oversize rule - wahoo! length and weight are two key specs I'm waiting to see.

 

Motif XF was 49", can't put it in a case and stay under 50". plus weight of 38 lbs requires a more substantial travel case to protect it from airline monkeys. Impossible to stay under 50 lbs there - so double fail on the airline oversize/weight limits. My MOXF6 flies in an SKB molded case (combined MOXF6 + case ~ 35 lbs).

 

if I could somehow get an MODX7 in a case under those two limits - game changer for me. tbd ...

 

file in the slow on the uptake folder. Yamaha published official spec of MODX7 at 45". as i panicked i'd never get it in a 50" case I figured I should recheck the airline policies. uh - US airlines are uniform - standard baggage rules apply if length does not exceed 62" (so forget all that 50" crap I was worried about)

 

So i'm dumb ... but more importantly i'm stoked. It was hard it is to rationalize upgrading to MODX6. MODX7 gets me back int 76 keys (which I do miss on MOXF6) in a superior keyboard I can grow with for another 5 years.

 

and once again, as is my tradition, i can import all of my current working library of Performances and Voices to be up and running in a day or so, as I slowly learn the new technologies and abilities. Because i really am lazy like that.

The baiting I do is purely for entertainment value. Please feel free to ignore it.
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I wonder if the MO-class action wears quicker than FSX/BH, thereby contributing to a new MO board feeling better than a well used one.

 

I have owned three keyboards with the GHS action, a P85, KX8, and now the MX88. In both the P85 and MX88 the action started getting (mechanically) noisy after a few months. Not a problem on stage, but distracting in the studio.

 

I didnt take the KX8 out much, and disposed of it after less than year, so I dont remember if it exhibited the same issue.

 

 

 

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Here's an interesting MODX video, in that it shows more of the programming process and interface. This thing is damn deep if you want to go there...

 

[video:youtube]

Studio: Yamaha P515 | Yamaha Tyros 5 | Yamaha HX1 | Moog Sub 37

Road: Yamaha YC88 | Nord Electro 5D

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I wonder if the MO-class action wears quicker than FSX/BH, thereby contributing to a new MO board feeling better than a well used one.

 

I have owned three keyboards with the GHS action, a P85, KX8, and now the MX88. In both the P85 and MX88 the action started getting (mechanically) noisy after a few months. Not a problem on stage, but distracting in the studio.

 

I didnt take the KX8 out much, and disposed of it after less than year, so I dont remember if it exhibited the same issue.

 

 

 

I play synth/semi action so dont know GHS. I think MOXF6 is a bit louder and looser than Motif XF, in the scheme of things. Feel is in the same ballpark, not like going from an AP to a tinker toy. I dont notice key sound, im always either headphones or loud live band. My wife has said i bang keys loud when I practice (headphones :)), So I asked her which is louder - MOXF of XF?

 

She said whuh? I dont even know which board youre playing. You still have two keyboards? Huh ....

 

So ... no help there :)

The baiting I do is purely for entertainment value. Please feel free to ignore it.
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