"If you're looking for the latest and greatest all around workstation for studio and live use, you've got to get this one... PERI"

Feature:
No foot pedal, no sample memory, no digital outs (standard, that is), but the ability to create Arps and manipulate the sounds make up for those things that can be added. And look at the amount of wave ROM... and the number of wave forms, and the polyphony, and the sampling (after memory is installed) and the sequencer, the onboard effects (which are great too). With the addition of the mLan16e (which you can get for about 279.00 street now), you have the ability to have 16 DIGITAL audio channels and 3 ports of 16 MIDI channels each with only one IEEE1394 firewire cable!!! that gives you total digital to digital quality and the ability to route from your DAW to the Motif ES to use as an external effects processor! Big K can't do those things yet (not to my knowledge anyway!) Save songs, patterns, voices to SmartMedia (which is going away) or USB storage devices such as Cruzer Mini or the like. So overall, it has many many features. If you can't be creative with this thing, you can't just aren't creative!

Quality:
Seems rugged enough for road use, but I'll only use it in my Studio.

Value:
For the money, you'd be hard pressed to find a better deal, with this amount of wave ROM and the features it does have along with the expandability.

Desirability:
Let me tell you... this is outselling the others (Triton, Fantom, etc.) by far in most stores, check it out for yourself. A lot of the pros are using this monster now and you're going to be hearing a lot of them on recordings (it's all over even now) in the future. It's one purchase I've made with NO regrets whatsoever. I don't long for other units now, this one really satisfies my needs.

Sound:
If anyone says that this unit sounds "thin" or "tinny", they've apparently lost some of the very fine and precious hairs in the lining of their ears. Kurzweil is probably the king of overall sound, but for sounds right out of the box, this unit is hard to beat. Everything (except the saxes) sound full and lush, covering the entire audible frequency range that the particular instrument it is emulating is supposed to cover. The guitars are strong as well as the brass and string sections, and the electric pianos are done as only Yamaha can do them. The acoustic piano is fantastic and only slightly under that of the Kurzweil (and I've owned several K's), but when the new PLG150-AP expansion board arrives this fall, The CFIIIS piano will be hard to beat!

Support:
N/A (yet)

Overall:
Technology is gaining by leaps and bounds all the time. No doubt Yamaha will again improve on what they've done here just as they did with the original Motif, and if they do and they offer something as different from the ES as the ES was to the classic Motif, I'll probably get that. If someone else does it better, I'd get that perhaps, but until that happens, I'd definitely replace this one with another very quickly as I'd rather have this than anything Korg, Kurzweil or Roland is offering at this time.

"Best addition to my recording studio so far and by far."

Feature:
I love the pattern features in this unit and can spend hours and hours there thus I call it my pattern playground. I can within minutes create various patterns and then chain them together to create fresh new songs. I've started playing with mLAN and am very much looking forward to adding the mLAN16e card to the unit to integrate the keyboard 100% into my DAW (digital audio workstation). I'll be able to route any channel of audio in my DAW through the effects processors within the keyboard.

Quality:
Keys feel great, controls are smooth. Very solid (and heavy) unit.

Value:
Seeing the only other keyboard I know is the Korg Triton Studio 88 it is all I can compare to and this keyboard has much better accoustic instrument sounds more capabilities. (Though I had to add my own SDRAM for sampling - SDRAM is really cheap now, I threw in 1GB for under $125 - yes it will fully support 1GB though yamaha doesn't say this on their specs, the only reason why is that loading 1GB over USB will take you a good 20 minutes.

Desirability:
I did lots of research before buying and then after going in to see it for myself (as well as the Triton Studio) I bought this one on the spot - no questions or worries.

Sound:
Though has great synth sounds I love the quality of almost every accoustic sound in this unit as well and even then I am able to apply any of the overwhelming number of effects to tweak it more to my liking. The drum kits are some of the best I've heard as well. The weighted keys are great as I feel I have so much more control over my expression than with regular synth keys, though I did notice I couldn't do a drum roll as fast on the weighted keys but I usually do drum rolls in drum tracks which I record prehand using the handy loop recording capability.

Support:
Have had problems buying this unit as I didn't realize Yamaha has different divisions and the first Yamaha store I went in told me I should not by the Motif as I should stick to Yamaha keyboards and they Tyros was the best. (So you could imagine how confused I was that a Yamaha dealer was trying to tell me a Motif was not made by Yamaha). However I wrote Yamaha Canada and quickly got a phone call which helped answer my questions (and explain why that dealership didn't know anything about the Motif). He's been in contact since and has even sent me freebies.

Overall:
I don't expect to buy a new keyboard for some time. This does all I need it too and I don't see my needs changing keyboard wise. I'm more into analog recordings than the whole midi thing.

"Yamaha Motif ES8"

Feature:
I think the OS is a little bit harder to learn compared to the Fantom X and the Triton. A larger screen could've improved the performance a lot. The sequencer is pattern-based, so if you're used to linear sequencing, you'll have to experiment with it a little bit. Also I with Yamaha would expand the layering/splitting capablities soon. The ES series workstations still give you 4 parts (like the classic Motif; whereas Fantom X gives you 16 and Triton gives you 8). Yamaha also took out the optical output (you can still add it as an option though). They also took out the SCSI port, so now the only option is USB. Finally, you can add up to 1GB of sampling memory (SDRAM) which is quite amazing.

Quality:
It's built like a tank. Great construction and definitely road-ready. The action is awesome. Why? Because Yamaha have been making pianos since 1896. Longer than Korg and Roland combined. So they know an extra trick or two.

Value:
For the price I do believe it's the best choice. With most other workstations you'll have to spend a couple hundred dollars on the expansion boards in order to get the same sounds as the ES8.

Desirability:
When choosing a new instrument, personal preference plays a big role. For the stuff I want to do, this is THE best workstation without a doubt.

Sound:
It's got the best sounds I've ever heard in a synth. The main piano sound is the same as the Yamaha P-250 which sounds amazing. On the strings, you can almost feel the friction of the bow and the strings.

Overall:
I feel I'm going to own this workstation for a very long time. I like the sounds, I like the action, I like the features (while missing the features it doesn't have). I definitely recommend that you try one out if you're thinking about getting a new workstation.

"Awesome"

This reviewer purchased this item from Same Day Music.

Feature:
It didn't include much in the way of accessories, but there are several features that I want to get for the Motif.

Quality:
Very well made

Value:
Excellent value for the money.

Desirability:
Very good appearence.

Sound:
The sound is phenominal. This is best synth I've ever heard. The sounds are so authentic and the Motif is pretty easy to edit.

Support:
Haven't dealt with them.

Overall:
For along time. If one doesn't come out that is better I will probably still keep the Motif until I am familiar with the new one.

"CUT THE HYPE!!"

This reviewer purchased this item from Same Day Music.

Feature:
Good features, but not enough. They should have learned from Roland's FAntom X and make a bigger, colored screen for that price.

Quality:
Weighted keys are not as authentic as the Fantom X

Value:
Not worth the price to me. I can get a softsynth from Native Instruments and an 88 weighted key midi controller to run beter sounds off my PC for less....which is my plan now.

Desirability:
I want the rack, thats all. The screen is about the same... and I can get a midi controoler that will have more control than the motif board itself.

Sound:
Great sounds, very nice guitar emulations.

Support:
Never heard from them, left messages, and when i did get through, they just gave a case number and said they'll call. By the time they do, I'll already have a refund. HAHA!

Overall:
Don't let these novice composers and producers fool you, they have no experience. I've been doin this for 14 years, and I'm 20! I grew up on music and have experience with Yamaha boards. Just get the rack if you like the sounds. The board will do you little good unless you got money like that. Otherwise i recommend the Fantom X8 which is much higher quality of use. You can always expand the sounds for either.