MOXF vs Roland FA06/08

[unixmill]

Howards, no I don't care much bat appregiators. I was thinking of picking up a mox6 as well. but keys seems so clumsy and plasticky, feels like a toy keyboard. I am seeing a lot of motif xf6 on market. I like xf6 keybed.

[OMNICELL]

tweaking is important to me; being spontaneous; blowing randomly through effects and creating the bizarre ~

Programming is a different monster; duller, but has its place I suppose.

Im finding; if the board cannot allow me to fool around with perimeters with nobs and tweak n bend sounds, Im waisting my time.

PRoblem; This is 2o14, board manufacturers are competing with the computer software companies. This is creating some strange hardware synths.

I like hardware because I can interact with it, tweak it with nobs and no latency! However, unless using a kronos, its days; the workstation, might be dead!

still looking;

[howardS]

Howards, no I don't care much bat appregiators. I was thinking of picking up a mox6 as well. but keys seems so clumsy and plasticky, feels like a toy keyboard. I am seeing a lot of motif xf6 on market. I like xf6 keybed.

I find the keyboard in the MOX6 to be better than the Junos and the V-Combo though that is personal. I find I can gliss on it pretty easily and can play it fairly expressively.

Anyhow, if you are not looking for arps, what are you looking for in a keyboard which would help you decide between the two keyboards?

[cminor]

Anyhow, if you are not looking for arps, what are you looking for in a keyboard which would help you decide between the two keyboards?

I'll say SOUNDS. Tones of SOUNDS.
And sequencer. And (not in this case) Sampler.
But the sounds are the most important "thing" on a keyboard.
What I didn't like on Motif series, was the General Midi Like sounds.
All of the sounds were like a GM Map.
On Roland the sounds have more catergories , especially Synths.
Tekno, Hard Lead, Soft Lead, Pulsating, Other Synth, Bright/Soft Pad, and more...
And the piano's are much more then the "classic" sound of Grand/Stage/etc ...

I am a big fan of Roland for the BASS sound. It's full, round and powerfull bass sounds.
Arpegiators can be recorded, imported as midi, etc.
But the sounds... the sounds are everything in a keyboard.
IMHO.

[PauloF]

Anyhow, if you are not looking for arps, what are you looking for in a keyboard which would help you decide between the two keyboards?

I'll say SOUNDS. Tones of SOUNDS.
And sequencer. And (not in this case) Sampler.
But the sounds are the most important "thing" on a keyboard.
What I didn't like on Motif series, was the General Midi Like sounds.
All of the sounds were like a GM Map.
On Roland the sounds have more catergories , especially Synths.
Tekno, Hard Lead, Soft Lead, Pulsating, Other Synth, Bright/Soft Pad, and more...
And the piano's are much more then the "classic" sound of Grand/Stage/etc ...

I am a big fan of Roland for the BASS sound. It's full, round and powerfull bass sounds.
Arpegiators can be recorded, imported as midi, etc.
But the sounds... the sounds are everything in a keyboard.
IMHO.

In fact before the FA came along, I was looking to get a MOXF and mainly because of the complementary palette of sounds ( specially the Expanded Articulated ones), the ARPs which can help creativity (when we are blank of it lol), the DAW control, the ease to record Performances and the added ability to run KARMA for a fraction of the price of the Korg Kronos or the Yamaha Motif XF.

But now... ARPs are not so important for me anyway, so the FA should be ok and an added Sampler/trigger, easy to use Sequencer, DAW control and duplicating my Integra polyphony to 256 ;-)

Another good move would be to get a Fantom G6 to benefit from its Sampler, Multi-Sample management, Drum Pattern creation/play and external Parts control that I feel is one of the best around, but the price is still to high for me and the 2nd hand ones are rare to find, still expensive and sometimes not in very good shape...

[Halunlimited]

I returned my MOXF because the piano sounds were too light and had a slight ringing aftereffect sound to them. You can attribute it to resonance if you want to, but it was bothersome to me and not all keyboards have that ringing sound in their pianos. I didn't experience it on my Fantom X88. And that's why I use the Kronos 88 as my main keyboard (The Nord stage 2 is also excellent on piano patches). I expect the FA piano sounds to be better than the MOXF via access to some supernatural acoustic pianos. At least I hope so.

[specialplant]

I returned my MOXF because the piano sounds were too light and had a slight ringing aftereffect sound to them. You can attribute it to resonance if you want to, but it was bothersome to me and not all keyboards have that ringing sound in their pianos. I didn't experience it on my Fantom X88. And that's why I use the Kronos 88 as my main keyboard (The Nord stage 2 is also excellent on piano patches). I expect the FA piano sounds to be better than the MOXF via access to some supernatural acoustic pianos. At least I hope so.

Didn't you buy a flash board and try the free CP1 piano package with samples from the CP1 digital piano? The MoXF with flash board offers so much flexibility that I really can't understand why not to make use of it. You could also install third-party pianos. I purchased a 1 GB Mutec flash board, which costs 169 euros instead of the 319 euros for the original Yamaha one, it is recommended by some stores and works fine.

[Halunlimited]

I returned my MOXF because the piano sounds were too light and had a slight ringing aftereffect sound to them. You can attribute it to resonance if you want to, but it was bothersome to me and not all keyboards have that ringing sound in their pianos. I didn't experience it on my Fantom X88. And that's why I use the Kronos 88 as my main keyboard (The Nord stage 2 is also excellent on piano patches). I expect the FA piano sounds to be better than the MOXF via access to some supernatural acoustic pianos. At least I hope so.

Didn't you buy a flash board and try the free CP1 piano package with samples from the CP1 digital piano? The MoXF with flash board offers so much flexibility that I really can't understand why not to make use of it. You could also install third-party pianos. I purchased a 1 GB Mutec flash board, which costs 169 euros instead of the 319 euros for the original Yamaha one, it is recommended by some stores and works fine.

You're absolutely right about that option and that would have been the way to go if I kept it. On the other hand, I wasn't thrilled about the MOXF's ease of usability factor and scrolling through the small screen e.g. vs my expectations for the new FA. There were, in fact, things I liked about the MOXF but now that I see the ergonomics and capabilities of the FA, I am pretty psyched.

[mixalis]

I would like to ask something... In a real piano the sustain pedal behaves differently if you press it a little bit instead of all the way down.Does Moxf or the fa emulates this behaviour? Is this what half pedal is?

[Tino64]

I would like to ask something... In a real piano the sustain pedal behaves differently if you press it a little bit instead of all the way down.Does Moxf or the fa emulates this behaviour? Is this what half pedal is?

I am not an piano player but the MOXF has settings for it, you also have to use an specific pedal.
(Yamaha FC3)
Don`t know if the FA has it!

[specialplant]

I think such detailed pedal effects are not emulated by synthesizers, neither by MoXF/Motif XF nor by the Integra/Jupiter/FA pianos - maybe by the Kronos. The MoXF has got additional pedal and key-off samples, but IMO not half-pedal. High-grade digital pianos are more detailed in this respect.

[howardS]

I would like to ask something... In a real piano the sustain pedal behaves differently if you press it a little bit instead of all the way down.Does Moxf or the fa emulates this behaviour? Is this what half pedal is?

You will see from P.98 of the FA manual that you have a continuous hold pedal option. You will need to connect a pedal that support this option, or rather that it sends continuous controller information. On page 98 it says "If this is ON, the FOOT PEDAL HOLD jack will support half-pedaling. If half-pedaling is enabled, you can connect a damper pedal (such as the DP-10; available separately) and use the pedal to control subtle nuances of the piano sounds you play."

I think such detailed pedal effects are not emulated by synthesizers, neither by MoXF/Motif XF nor by the Integra/Jupiter/FA pianos - maybe by the Kronos. The MoXF has got additional pedal and key-off samples, but IMO not half-pedal. High-grade digital pianos are more detailed in this respect.

Many synths other than the Kronos have the half-pedalling option. My Fantom X had it and that goes back to 2003. My MOX6 also has half pedalling as set out on P.44 of the Reference Manual so I suspect the MoXF and Motif XF also have it. In addition to the FA offering half-pedalling, the JP-80 also offers it as you can see from p 83 of the manual. I have not checked the Integra or the JP50...someone else will have to look at those manuals to confirm it but I suspect it is there.

[PauloF]

I would like to ask something... In a real piano the sustain pedal behaves differently if you press it a little bit instead of all the way down.Does Moxf or the fa emulates this behaviour? Is this what half pedal is?

You will see from P.98 of the FA manual that you have a continuous hold pedal option. You will need to connect a pedal that support this option, or rather that it sends continuous controller information. On page 98 it says "If this is ON, the FOOT PEDAL HOLD jack will support half-pedaling. If half-pedaling is enabled, you can connect a damper pedal (such as the DP-10; available separately) and use the pedal to control subtle nuances of the piano sounds you play."

I think such detailed pedal effects are not emulated by synthesizers, neither by MoXF/Motif XF nor by the Integra/Jupiter/FA pianos - maybe by the Kronos. The MoXF has got additional pedal and key-off samples, but IMO not half-pedal. High-grade digital pianos are more detailed in this respect.

Many synths other than the Kronos have the half-pedalling option. My Fantom X had it and that goes back to 2003. My MOX6 also has half pedalling as set out on P.44 of the Reference Manual so I suspect the MoXF and Motif XF also have it. In addition to the FA offering half-pedalling, the JP-80 also offers it as you can see from p 83 of the manual. I have not checked the Integra or the JP50...someone else will have to look at those manuals to confirm it but I suspect it is there.

HowardS is absolutely right!
Just to add on this, the Roland DP-10 that HowardS mentions is perfect for Half-Pedalling. I used to have two with my RD-170 (2001) and Fantom Xa (2005), and both supported that feature.

[mixalis]

So it actually supports it? YEEAAH!! thank you very much

[unixmill]

just found a motif xf6 (1yr old) for $1100. debating if I should go for moxf6 or motif xf6 or roland fa06.

Boot time and firewire are working against motif xf6. Cheap build works against moxf6. I have not played a FA06 yet :)

decisions decisions. but I feel that if I play FA06, I may just end up falling in love with it :)