Yamaha MM6

[DavidK]

I bought one this afternoon. Anybody have one or played one??

Interesting keyboard. Some good sounds and a good price. Its huge, yet comically light. It feels like a hollow prop, Ive never seen anything so light (and so plastic). Its a lot of fun to play. Sounds range from great to horrible. Decent piano, a couple of good organs. The sounds in general do not sound "real", but they sound good and the effects are good.

Almost no editing, its a sample playback synth. Its like an advanced "general midi" keyboard with good sounds. A LOT are useless, like dogs barking, sirens and car engines Still, it has plenty of sounds to pick from. THe synthy sounds are quite good, nice leads and pads. Strings are ok, brass very "synthy", a few ok winds. Drums are fine. The few vocal/choir patches it has are laughably bad, a disappointment since I use those a lot.

Comes with CUbase LE. So far I cannot find instrument definitions for the MM6 and Cakewalk. If you find any, please let me know. It has four knobs but the tweakability is VERY limited.

I will give it a few days, but right off I am generally happy. Its hardly amazing, nor is it a toy. Its a rompler with some good sounds for a decent price. I got a discount, but most are going for 599. Its worth it, but I wouldnt pay more. To me, its what I think a 6 hundred buck keyboard would sound like, no better and no worse.

Anybody else?? Anybody? Bueller??

 

[earthboundrec]

I think in that range, the Korg X50 is a great option. ($699 MAP but can be haggled to $599) To me the MM6 seems like a glorified version of their cheaper YPG series. The X50 is basically the Korg Triton TR minus the sequencer. tons of great sounds though. I've played around on the MM6 and really just don't know what to think of it. Nothing really caught my attention right off the bat.

 

[DavidK]

One thing for sure: I havent had this much fun playing keys in years. Lots of patches with instant gratification. I dont know if they are useful, but they are fun.

I've played around on the MM6 and really just don't know what to think of it.

I didnt quite either. I spent all day with it and I am liking it now, its a strange one. I wouldnt call it "mini-mo" because that leads one to believe its a baby motif and thats not really happening. Some really good patches, just not that many. The arpeggiator is pretty cool, the sequencer basically a scratch pad.

I am definitely keeping it. Its a different enough sound from my Roland JV1010 that it will be very useful to spice things up. Its like a PSR on steroids. A few of the pianos are quite impressive, I would say its worth it for the keyboard sounds alone. The harpsichord stinks and there is only one church organ. The synth-type sounds are what I will use the most with this.

 

[DavidK]

This thing is pretty damn cool. It's SO much fun to play, with the patterns, funk licks, dual and split modes. I am diggin it, its a nice sounding unit.

The 32 note polyphony was a BIG mistake. They blew it on that one, they should have charged 50 bucks more or something. In the pattern mode it will cut out patched pretty easily. It wont matter when I use it for recording, but for just messing about they really need 64.

 

[ido1957]

I know nothing almost about keyboards - but this sounds like a pretty good one. The reviews online are all favorable. Congrats on your new acquisition. Enjoy!

 

[DavidK]

I know nothing almost about keyboards - but this sounds like a pretty good one. The reviews online are all favorable. Congrats on your new acquisition. Enjoy!

Thanks Gerry. By far, the biggest problem is the instrument definitions, i.e. Sonar needs a list of the tracks to use the keyboard. They havent been created yet?? That's beyond stupid, it means I cant really record that much with it. I cant believe they put the product out without the definitions.

 

[DarkFriend]

Got it

I was in the market for an inexpensive keyboard, under $700 and the MM6 caught my eye. After demoing for an hour in a local music store, I was sold. In particular, I was looking for bread and butter sounds like Hammonds, pianos, basic strings, and electric pianos. For these sounds, the MM6 delivers.

I don't have a need for heavy sound editing, so this keyboard makes sense. For the quality of the sounds and the built-in features, its a good $550-$600 deal.

The one beef is with the Hammond organs. They are sampled with a slow Leslie speaker. So, you can't change the Leslie speaker rotation speed.

 

[DavidK]

The one beef is with the Hammond organs. They are sampled with a slow Leslie speaker. So, you can't change the Leslie speaker rotation speed.

My main beef is a lack of portamento or mono mode. Other than that its working out. Good luck with yours.

 

[bsr2002]

No editing on sounds exept on the fly but no memory. I liked playing it but I'm spoiled with my Motif Classic And ES

 

[DavidK]

No editing on sounds exept on the fly but no memory. I liked playing it but I'm spoiled with my Motif Classic And ES

You can save sounds as performances actually. You cant particularly "edit" but you can play with the attack, decay, cutoff and resonance knobs. Pretty much anything you do on the mm6 can be saved as a performance.