Yamaha MOX8
Billed as ‘the mobile Motif’, the MOX range brings the features of Yamaha’s flagship Motif series to a wider market. Mike Willox investigates further.
Price: £1,576.00
Manufacturer: Yamaha
Website: http://www.yamaha.co.uk
MOX8
Manufacturer Yamaha
Price £1,576
Contact Yamaha 01908 366700
Web www.yamaha.co.uk
When we reviewed Yamaha’s flagship Motif XF last year (MTM Issue 92), we were impressed by Yamaha’s continuing development of the integrated workstation, but were a bit taken aback at the final bill for a fully loaded version. So for those of you looking for the main functions of the Motif series but not in a position to make the kind of investment required, Yamaha has released a scaled-down version of the series in the shape of the MOX8 and MOX6.
Upwardly mobile
Sadly, the MOX series replaces the lovely big screen that is a welcome feature of the Motif series with a 240x64-dot, backlit LCD display, but at least it’s considerably lighter thanks to its more lightweight casing. The 88-note, Graded Hammer Standard MOX8 weighs in at 14.8kg,making it a useful band-in-a-box gigging solution. The keyboard itself is nicely balanced for playing some of the excellent piano sounds that are part of the very same sound engine that comes with the XS series and feels heavier at the bottom and lighter at the top end, just like a real piano.
This does lead us to our only real gripe, though, which is possibly due to the lighter casing: when we laid into the keyboard with any real conviction, the function buttons on the control surface rattled like hell. Sure, if you’re working with the volume up or you’re using headphones you’re not going to hear it, but it could be an indication of the machine’s long-term durability.
The MOX6 boasts a sprung 61-note keyboard and all of the features of its bigger brother but weighs only 7kg, which is not a lot given how versatile it is for live work. We didn’t have one of these available for review so we can’t comment on the rattle issue.
Yamaha has really got the balance right in this series. The combination of a USB audio interface, step sequencer, real-time controllers and MIDI via USB alongside the versatile sound set makes it an ideal production machine in conjunction with a DAW. Both keyboards ship with a copy of Cubase AI as well as Yamaha’s YC-3B soft organ and Prologue soft synth, so you’d need only a computer to enjoy a powerful home setup.
Sound advice
The real winner in the MOX8, though, is the USB audio interface, which enables four-track recording and two-track playback between the workstation and your computer. This can be assigned to send the signal from the audio inputs on the back (inputs left/mono and right are served by standard 1/4-inch jacks and can be assigned to mic or line input) to its own stereo buss, or to be mixed with the sounds generated from the internal sound engine.
Playback level from the DAW can be adjusted from the DAW master fader, which is next to the Master Volume fader on the control surface. This makes for seamless to’ing-and-fro’ing between the MOX8 and your DAW, and with MIDI over USB as well, it’s easy to run another sound source through the A/D converters.
As well as the two volume faders, the control surface has pitch and mod wheels that feel like they could take a lot of use, as well as two rows of four assignable rotary encoders. These are already set up to enable real-time tweaking of the factory patches, with the Cutoff and Resonance controls first up, followed by filter envelope depth and portamento. Two other sets of four parameters can be accessed by using the toggle button to the left of the encoders. The four encoders then adjust parameters for EQ, effects and the arpeggiator, depending on where the toggle is set.
The rest of the control surface is laden with a bounty of buttons that’ll be familiar to any existing Yamaha user: 12 buttons under the display to access the various soft menus, a set of 16 to the right for selecting voices, editing the sequencer and the internal sound set, plus all the usual suspects for navigating your way around this very versatile workstation.
Model operation
The key set of buttons, though, are the Mode selectors. The MOX8 uses the same architecture as practically all of Yamaha’s workstations and performance keyboards, and nine modes are available: Voice, Perform, Master, Song, Pattern, Mixing, File, Setup and the very useful Quick Setup.
Any multi-timbral Perform setup consists of up to four Voice patches, which comprise eight ‘Elements’ per Voice. An Element is simply the fundamental building block of any Voice patch – they are, essentially, wave samples that can be filtered, panned, velocity-assigned and so on to create sophisticated multi-samples.
Searching through the 1,127 voices is made easy using the Category Search function, and once you’ve found the sound palette that suits you, it can all be stored in the Favourites section. The internal sounds are varied and mostly of very high quality, with everything you’d need for most gigs, creating backing tracks and all aspects of songwriting.
There are two ways of skinning the proverbial cat when writing on the MOX8: Song or Pattern mode (the former being a linear 16-track recorder with additional Tempo and Scene tracks). The same goes for the pattern sequencer: the MOX8 can save up to 64 songs and patterns respectively.
One of the best features though, is the Performance Record function. Say you’ve found a Perform setup that’s inspired you to finally write that elusive hit; you simply press the Rec button on the sequencer panel and a dialogue window asks you whether you want to record in Song or Pattern mode. If you want Song mode you’ll need to specify which song you want to record to and then just press play. The sequencer will start when you hit a key.
Arpeggiator heaven
The powerful onboard arpeggiator has 6,720 types of arpeggio (usefully divided into categories that work with each sound set the best) that can be assigned to all of the voices.
The guitar arpeggios are superb and rival a lot of the soft guitar solutions out there at the moment. By using one of the two Assignable Function buttons it’s possible to change the sound of a strummed nylon string to a harmonic or damped note on-the-fly, making for some very realistic and natural-sounding guitar tracks. Up to six arpeggios can be assigned to each Voice, enabling you to constantly be changing the arp pattern in a live situation or programming drum fills in a song.
The quality of the effects is also excellent. Yamaha’s VCM (Virtual Circuit Modeling) effects do just that: they model at component level, producing realistic interpretations of all of the usual effects suspects. The REV-X reverb is particularly good, delivering great transparency. Each Voice can be processed by two inserts and two send effects, with each Element being able to be assigned differently to them.
Soft solutions
As well as the bundled Cubase AI and the two Yamaha soft instruments, a remote editor is included, enabling you to edit the MOX8 from your computer as well as have the MOX8 operate as a VSTi. This enables the synth to be completely integrated into your system, and allows for ease of sound searching with MediaBay in Cubase.
Yamaha has clearly thought through the integration of the workstation and DAW with the MOX series. With the MOX6 being available for as little as £900 on the street – and bearing in mind that it has the same functionality as our review MOX8 model – you can pick up a sophisticated workstation bundled with a DAW and software editor for a truly reasonable price.
Apart from our reservations about the dreaded ‘rattle’ issue, we would heartily recommend this extremely good-value keyboard, especially given the depth and breadth of the sound set, the powerful arpeggiator and its USB functionality. MTM
Verdict
WHY BUY
Great value for money
Easy and quick to get ideas down
Very portable
Versatile instrument for live work
WALK ON BY
Noisy rattle from fascia knobs
Road-worthiness is unproven
A great-value keyboard that’s more than just a workstation – the USB soundcard is a real bonus and works effortlessly with the bundled version of Cubase. Well worth checking out if you’re looking for a one-stop studio solution.
★★★★★★★★ (8/10)
Score: 8
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This review first appeared in Music Tech Magazine issue 99
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