Hey amt7565 --
Price... I got my brand new Motif 8 at guitarcenter for $2340 ... all I had to do was bring them the quote I got from
www.altomusic.com (you have to email them for it... and btw I did this about 8 or so months ago so your price may be different - hopefully even better *grin*).
So far as editing the PLG boards.... I don't have any of them yet myself, but as I understand it, editing can be done onboard, but making voices from scratch requires the computer software. Though on part of the
Motif FAQ it says (regarding PLGs)
"On top of that you can do pretty detailed editing right on Motif.....we’ll do another tutorial on how to utilize the PLG computer editing software, which allows PLG150 AN, DX and VL Voices to be built from scratch.* *requires appropriate PLG Voice Editor and XGworks 3.0 as a front end (Windows) or the stand alone editors for Mac" .... also more PLG questions are answered
here.
You may also find these links useful:
http://freespace.virgin.net/readfern.gray/
http://motifhelp.tripod.com
Some things you probably may want to be aware of before jumping on the Motif bandwagon:
- Motif is "very" powerful... but as such it is also pretty darn complicated. The OS does not always work in the absolute most user-friendly manner (though really do any of em? hehe). Be willing to spend some serious time learning how to get things done.
- Insertion FX .... there's only 1... in other words - if you want to use two or more voices in your song/pattern that both require their specific Insert FX to sound right (i.e. wah on your guitar, etc).... you can't. A ton of Motif owners are currently lobbying Yamaha to release some form of hardware upgrade to make more Inserts available, though to my knowledge Yamaha has not responded yet. It shouldn't be hard though, especially considering the new Motif Rack has 4 insert effects. Because of this I tend to avoid using Motif's sequencer and rely on Sonar (which I prefer anyhow so it's ok).
- Polyphony .... you get 64 notes... Motif Rack has a much roomier 128. I'm not sure how this compares to Triton... though it trounces the Kurz k2600's 48 poly either way hehe (though it's better than both in its own different ways).
- User voice locations.... Triton Studio (and classic? dunno) has more memory locations than Motif for storing user voices and comes with a greater number of ready-to-go voices. You can easily load banks of voices on Motif though to make up for it. Speaking of voices, Motif's preset synth voices (dance/hiphop/etc) aren't as bleeding edge as Triton or the latest VAs... but with some editing they can be (and there are a number of people/companies coming out with collections of greatly improved voices along those lines).
Anyhow... you definately can't compre Motif with the Triton Studio in terms of features... the Triton Studio (88) is like $1000 more though, so it figures it would offer more. Adding an
AW16G though brings Motif up to about the same level. If I had to do it again, and money wasn't an issue, I "might" get
a Triton Studio,
a Motif Rack, and a virtual analog synth like
an Access Virus or Nord Lead 3. But money "is" an issue for me like many people, and I think Motif has the most value at it's pricepoint (though if you don't mind used gear, a used K2600 can be had at a similar price). For now I'm just hoping for the few bugfixes and upgrades that will help clear up the most major of Motif's flaws.
Well wow - I posted about 10x more than I planned... I just hope it's helpful for you and anyone else struggling with this decision
Peace.