In 2010, the top synth Yamaha Motif XF appeared – an all-purpose instrument that kept and pursued the traditions of its predecessors and headed the victorious procession of the Motif series in studios all over the world.

Climbing the Motif line ladder of success, Yamaha made a decent step from XS - already quite serious - to XF: gave it the option of flash memory up to 2GB, 741MB ROM, 3977 waveforms, moved from mLAN to FW16E Firewire (16 audio channels and 3 MIDI ports) interface, featuring an expansion slot, comprised 4 banks 128 user programs (Voice) each and 4x128 performances. The performance can contain up to 4 programs, each with its own effects and arpeggiator settings which is full of pre-installed "phrases" as well (about 7800 in XF). The sound engine is a good old AWM2, supplemented with XA (Expanded Articulation, advanced sound articulation) and VCM (Virtual Circuitry Modeling, modeling of audio circuits on analog components).

Despite the support of 96kHz, converters at audio inputs and outputs give only up to 44.1kHz, but XF allows to adjust Motif sounds to the tracks in DAW already recorded at a higher resolution, allowing for real-time conversion. Yamaha succeeded in connecting workstations to a computer: starting with ES, Motif offers two USB, one for MIDI and the other one for other devices, both operate causing no problems. The expanded sample memory has brought many new and improved samples in different categories, including Natural Grand S6, Clavinet D6, organ Vox and Farfisa, a string section, various brass, orchestral, bass (extremely high quality in the lower range), synth and drum sounds (in Including Yamaha Oak and Maple drums).

Samples recorded on flash memory will require DAW processing, since editing such parameters as rhythm, playback mode will be impossible. To make corrections, the sample (or Waveform) must be located in the internal memory. Motif XF has 2 proprietary standard slots for sound library expansions that support 512 and 1024MB memory cards, as well as 128MB of internal memory for a sampler and a 16-track sample sequencer.

Motif XF is the true standard on the studio workstation market. If you purchased it, you wouldn’t replace it with anything else, and if you get it, you will never regret it. It allows you to do everything you expect a digital workstation should do, and keeps its price at the level.

The market price has fallen a bit with the arrival of Montage! A technological reserve is still impressive and will serve you for many more years, and the aimed at live performance Montage, though it’s quite successful, won’t overtake XF8 in popularity too soon.