Yamaha S80

[musicsdarkangel]

how good is this thing??

btw, does anyone know what keyboard jordan ruddess of dream theater uses?

[jojojeronimo]

Darkangel,

I'm no expert by any stretch of the imagination, but...

After a year of extensive research into what weighted synth to get, I was all wrapped up in getting the s80.

It was only after I talked to the music store guy that he revealed stuff about the ROLAND XV-88...one I hadnt really bothered looking into or just thought was too much more expensive.

Do yourself a favour..for a slight bigger investment, you are getting an incredibly superior and easier instrument, no to mention unsurpassed expandability.

Plus...128 voice polyphony compared to the s80s 64??? It's like a nintendo 64 versus the Gamecube, and if you're mostly after an authentic "piano replacement" like I was, don't get lulled by the below-par yamaha. Talk to your dealer and he'll reveal all the other disparities.

The XV sounds are professional and constantly knock me out.

[AlinMV]

But, I would get the S-80 over any roland product on the market. Polyphony as far as I am concerned has little to do with anything I would consider since you don't need 128 simultaneous voices unless you're heavily into sequencing songs and using 128 voices at the same time...

Also, if you intend on buying plug in boards, the Yamaha's boards double its polyphony to 128. But, again, really who cares?

Yamaha also has many expansion boards, including, Analog, Piano, Virtual Acoustic, FM, and others IIRC.

As far as the quality of the patches, IMO, the Yamaha surpasses anything else on the market. Roland has never had excellent patches all the way around the way the Yamaha does, and Roland sounds rather cheesy to me... Granted, all of this is subjective, so you ought to let your ears decide.

I think the S-80 (BTW I have one of these) sounds excellent for Pianos, super excellent for EP's, and has some great sounding Analog synths, Basses, Brass, Strings and organs. Of course, like most boards, you can get so much more out of it if you sit around with it and tweak the sounds to your taste.

AFAIC, if you're looking for superior samples, patches and pristine sounds the Yamaha wins hands down. If you want bells and whistles, there may be other boards for you, including the Roland.

my 2 cents.

Albert

[jojojeronimo]

AlinMV,

I guess it's pretty specious for either of us to assert which patches sound better out of the s80's and the XV-88's. The only test is for Darkangel to listen to the two different ranges himself.

That said, there are a few things I think you'll find the XV-88 defnitely has going for it over the s80:

- Ease of use - especially as the XV-88 is a perfromance-geared board. This extends to the manuals for it as well.

- Twice as expandable than the s80.

- Twice the polyphony. I havent tried playing with half the polyphony I have now, but I can't imagine that, for one thing, the 16-track sequencing, which is mostly what I use the XV for, would hold up with the richness of all the layered patches and other real time effects with the pedals. I use the XV as the sound generator half the time, not my soundcard, so this matters. Plus, wasn't that "buy a card and increase the voices to 128" only operative with the yamaha piano expansion board?

My 2 cents.

(and my ten thousands of cents paid extra.... no wonder I'm bothering to defend this cold collection of keys!)

[AlinMV]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by jojojeronimo
AlinMV,

I guess it's pretty specious for either of us to assert which patches sound better out of the s80's and the XV-88's. The only test is for Darkangel to listen to the two different ranges himself.

You must not have read my post very carefully, because I had already conceded sounds may be a subjective issue, and that Darkangel ought to use HIS ears to decide.
Nonetheless, there are certain issues that are not subjective such as the quality of a sample, the sample rate at which it was made and how clean it is. Also velocity switching is another non-subjective issue. I am not an expert on these matters, mind you, just trying to demonstrate that even your ears are not right all the time.

For instance, I have an Alesis QSR. I think the patches in that board are horrible for the most part (they are dirty, gritty, flat, cheesy...) However, in a dense mix, some of these same patches work rather well. I would still hold that the QSRs patches are inferior, but they work for some of my purposes.

[b]That said, there are a few things I think you'll find the XV-88 defnitely has going for it over the s80:

- Ease of use - especially as the XV-88 is a perfromance-geared board. This extends to the manuals for it as well.

I can tell you I currently own roland Products and have owned many roland products in the past and the roland manuals are notorious for being written in some impenetrable lingo. Also, as far as ease of use, I find the S80 a breeze to get around in...

- Twice as expandable than the s80.

- Twice the polyphony. I havent tried playing with half the polyphony I have now, but I can't imagine that, for one thing, the 16-track sequencing, which is mostly what I use the XV for, would hold up with the richness of all the layered patches and other real time effects with the pedals. I use the XV as the sound generator half the time, not my soundcard, so this matters.

You prove my point. Unless you're heavily into sequencing, you don't need the 128 voices.

Plus, wasn't that "buy a card and increase the voices to 128" only operative with the yamaha piano expansion board?

Maybe. I dont know. Actually, that was my point. I wouldn't buy a keyboard based on polyphony because that's hardly an issue unless you're heavily into sequencing, and that's your only board. There are VA snths out there with 5-10 note polyphony. Does that rule them out as viable keyboards?

My 2 cents.

(and my ten thousands of cents paid extra.... no wonder I'm bothering to defend this cold collection of keys!)

I totally understand that... That maybe why I am defending my cold set of keys.

Peace

Albert

[TexRoadkill]

I want to check out the Yamaha. I've never really tried their keyboards. I've always been partial to Korg and Kurzweil for their string sounds.

I just bought the Roland VM3100 mixer and the reverb is incredible. Generally speaking it seems like Roland keyboards are better for pop/R&B stuff. Might be better for a newbie also.

How are the acoustic drum sounds on the Yamaha?

[AlinMV]

Hey TexRoadkill

Again, I am admittedly very partial to Yamaha. One thing that I am not necessarily impressed with are the drum sounds on the S80. However, I have not tried editing any of them. I have an Alesis DM pro module which takes care of all my drumming needs.

I found Rolands to be generally middle of the road in sound design, with Yamaha at the top and Alesis at the bottom. I think that the MOTIF has taken Yamaha's sound engine to greater heights. Although it is a workstation (Which I don't need) it is a trully great board, and the drums on that board really rock.

I have a roland xp-50 and a jv880, both of which I use to some extent. I use the roland mostly for bass sounds using their excellent bass and drums expansion board. But, the pianos, EP, organs, analog synth leads, are weak... The Roland Strings I generally like but we're talking maybe one or two patches.

Roland for pop? I dunno... Maybe. Just like the triton... People rave about it, and frankly, I still can't figure out why... I play it every time I'm at the music store and still can't get to like it...

Oh well.

BTW, yamaha is coming out with the S08 which has 88 weighted keys, and less features than the S80, to bridge the gap between the S30 and S80.

Albert

[wes480]

I bought an S80 about a year ago - love it to death. The piano sounds are excellent...etc. etc. I don't know much about synth music and sequencing and what not..trying to learn more. But, what i can tell you for sure is that in terms of the PIANO aspect, the s80 (or any high end yamaha) is superior to the Roland or any Korg. Yamaha has a lot of experience with real pianos, and their weighting is the most realistic of all that I tested.

I wanted a synth that i could play piano on with headphones, and the S80 was it. so, from an instrument standpoint..it is better. in terms of the sounds/modules...whatever else, don't really know. But, it sounds good to me.

[jojojeronimo]

"I wanted a synth that i could play piano on with headphones"


Not to flog a dead horse, but thats exactly what i wanted too. The quality of the XV-88 in the synth arena (the whole world of extra possibilites) was the deciding factor though - cause after all, if what you want is exclusively a digital piano - why would you geta synth?

[TexRoadkill]

I have a Yamaha P80 as a weighted controller and piano sound. I've always prefered the Yamaha action to the Rolands. The Rolands always seem a little too mushy. It's harder to do fast trills or program live drum fills on them. The Yamaha action has a little more bounce to it.