M3 vs. Fantom-G vs. MotifXS

[Tom T]

Well eibbor didi you get anything yet?

I am looking at getting a new workstation and have been viewing this and other forums trying to get info. I think I saw post by this guy in another forum and I think he said he got a Yamaha Motif XS.

[Dr.InnoVation]

This battle has been on-going and I've been a heavy proponent of the Yamaha XS, however you guys teetering on the edge may want to check this dude out if you haven't already- He makes me a believer of the potential of the M3

http://www.korgforums.com/forum/phpBB2/ ... hp?t=37142

He's only 15! I couldn't even afford a Casio portatone when I was 15!

[bkboy]

to sum it all up,

korg m3 sounds very 3 dimensional, its sounds/filters come alive and out to you, so its good for spacey pads, electronic sounds and ofcourse some great string/orchestra/drum sounds....yamaha motif xs is more 2-dimensional sounding (like an access virus), so its good for 'live natural' instruments like piano, guitar, sax, vintage analog sounds, etc. roland fantom-g is somewhere in between the two in terms of dimensional space and its great for vintage 80's synth sounds.

my order of choice would be:
korg m3
roland fantom g
yamaha motif xs

[Dr.InnoVation]

Wow, VERY interesting....Yamaha last?

I don't think I've ever seen that last in the best of 3!

[mbncp]

I don't know if there is a huge difference with the XS (keyboard) but I'm pretty disapointed by my Motif Rack XS.

The piano sounds like a toy, it's even worse than on the psr-s900. The accoustic bass is as bad as on the s900 (each time I hear that sound I get nausea, no kidding). Most of the patches on the XS have too much reverb/delay, which probably fools most people.
I'm not saying it's all bad, but while it's difficult to find something equivalent to the M3 on a pc (vsti), the XS is far behind my best samples libs.
I should get my copy of Kore2 soon, and if it works fine in my live setup I may just put the XS in the trash can.

Also, the arps on the motif are really boring and most multis are totally uninspiring. Karma and the combis on the M3 are light years ahead.

Now I have no clue about the fantom but if I had to make a choice among the stuff I have, then it would be:

korg-m3
pa2x-pro
all my vsti
my first shoes
motif-xs (rack)

[Dr.InnoVation]

Wow! I must be tone deaf then!!

Well, if you decide to "dump" the XS I'll be glad to have it bud
Or PM me if you'd like to talk about it?

Either way nice setup you have there.
Have any demo's of your work?

[drvenom]

Well, I ended up getting the Motif XS 88 because the acoustic instruments sound amazing to say the least. However, I want to get the M3 because of Karma and the beautiful mixture of combis. The M3 has some really nice patches that make you feel like you are traveling across the Universe.

I think that these two keyboards compliment each other perfectly.
Man, I wan't to shoot my leg off for missing that radias board rebate with the purchase of the M3. Man. I can't believe I missed it. I hope they have other offering in the near future.

I really don't have much to say for the Roland Fantom G other than, "nice screen."

[mbncp]

Wow! I must be tone deaf then!!

You lucky man

I guess I expected a little too much from the XS, especially on the acoustic side. Now I agree it's a bit stupid from me to hope that any of the acoustic sounds of the XS would even come close to my huge sample libraries.

Now don't get me wrong, the xs has some interesting sounds and the best is that it doesn't take any resource from the pc. These days even a quadcore, 4 gb ram and 2 TB of drives has it's limits.

>> Have any demo's of your work?
Havn't done any recording in a long time. All I do is select some patch/combi on each synth, and play for 1 to 3 hours non stop. Must be awfully boring to listen too, but I'm having fun
Anyway, here's a little example of how it can sound all 3 together, live, no mixing or tweaking, fooling a little with the controllers and even some playing on the keyboard itself http://homepage.hispeed.ch/mbncp/stuff/m3xspa.mp3