First look at the MOX6...

[elwoodblues1969]

Didn't get much sleep last night,in anticipation of my MOX6 arriving today and now that I've sampled it,I am too wired to get much sleep tonight either!
Upon first taking it out of the box,I was completely mystified at the beautiful matte charcoal plastic chassis,the pewter-colored side panels and the lovely sloped designs on the front and rear of this keyboard!
At the rear of the MOX,the top half of it extends outward,past the area were all of the inputs and outputs are,which acts as a guard for a connected USB stick...what a novel & brilliant design!
With regard to the display of the old MO series,well....that was one of the reasons why I never purchased an MO6,as the display was flat & completely horizontal and with a murky green,monochrome display.
However,not only does the new MOX have a bright and sharp display,but this screen is also angled towards the user-wonderful!

Though I have not explored them yet,there are an impressive amount of DAW controls on this board and I just didn't have enough time to tackle the PC end of things.
As a matter of fact,I am currently having a very frustrating time with installation issues,regrading the USB/Midi driver...which is really mentally exhausting,(after having spent the first 6 hours trying to familiarize myself with the on-board sequencer).

The rubberized knobs which are controls for the parameters and the effects,have a very smooth feel to them.As for the key-bed,well....it's just about what I expected from a workstation of this price,which is that the action lies somewhere between a synth-style and a semi-weighted style feel.
The keys are also a little smaller than the piano-type-size keys,but overall,the key-bed is usable and these quirks are hardly worth mentioning,given the modest price tag.

I must say,that just the internal sounds alone,are well worth the price tag and in fact,98% of the drums sounds,e.pianos,acoustic pianos,synth sounds,bass sounds,e.guitar & acoustic guitar sounds,brass sounds and e.bass sounds are on par with my software sounds and some of which,surpass the quality of my VST's!

I have barely scratched the surface of this wonderful keyboard and I am already head-over-heals in love with this stunning piece of gear!

In some ways,the workflow in the song mode is an improvement over my old Korg keyboards and quite a bit of the ROM in the MOX is a decided improvement over my M3(acoustic sounds,as well as the synth sounds)!

I much prefer the effects on the MOX over my old M3,as Yamaha's effects have more depth,warmth and a wider stereo field.The overall sonic quality of this board is amazing,as the A/D converts in the MOX is pro-grade!

It's a wonderfully compact keyboard as well,as it's not much bigger than a M-Audio Axiom keyboard.

I wish this keyboard would have been released a couple of years ago,as if the MOX6 existed then,I would not have even considered buying a Korg product!
I owned 5 other workstations in the past and the MOX6 is undoubtedly,the absolute best workstation I've had to date!The MOX has made me realize that I have been far too loyal to Korg,as I have wasted quite a bit of money in the past because of my commitment to Korg,but then again,the MOX6 more than compensates for my financial loss(as it were),because the MOX6 is the bargain of the millennium!!

The only thing I know about the included software thus far,is that it is version 5,of Cubase AI(which wasn't mentioned on Yamaha's website),so even though the AI 5 is a minimal version of Cubase,it is fully functional,so there is a generous amount of tracks and effects and hopefully I will make my way into the software soon....


-Thom

[Fred S]

Congrats. Sounds like your enjoying yourself!

[elwoodblues1969]

Congrats. Sounds like your enjoying yourself!

Well....yes and no. Yes,it's a great keyboard,but I am having a terrible time with the USB/midi driver....as per the instructions,it was required that I disconnect all of my USB connections(except for PC keyboard & mouse) and I did install the driver successfully,but I ran into another problem.
When I plugged my M-Audio interface back in,I received a message saying that "exceeded bandwidth of midi controller"....so apparently,I cannot have two audio interfaces hooked up to the same computer and now I have no audio for anything else on my PC,including my Reason 4 DAW!


-Thom

[Moon]

Thom,
Is your PC a desktop with room for an extra card?
I think you can solve the issue by installing an extra USB-PCI card into the PC.
This will not only give you extra usb-ports, but give you extra bandwith and it is a much cheaper solution than changing your soundcard.

Moon

[SLD Music]

Thom,

Take your time.  There's much to learn.  The short of it (as I understand it because although not identical, the XF8 works similarly only via firewire rather than USB) is that IF you want to use the audio out via USB capabilities of the MOX, you will not be able to use your M-Audio interface at the same time (although you should still be able to use its USB midi ports).  Both the MOX and the M-Audio interface can be installed (assuming your PC can handle it), but you will have the decide which one you want to use to route your AUDIO through.  In short, if you want it to, the MOX BECOMES your audio interface, although you do not have to use it as such.  You can still use the Midi over its USB and still use your M-audio interface as you used to, but in that case you will not get audio over USB via the MOX.  Make sense?

As I said... this is complex, particularly on the PC side of things, and it will take some time and learning to get set up so you can get back into your workflow, especially if you're also trying to learn a new DAW in Cubase AI.  I spent two months with the XF8 taking my time both enjoying it and not rushing to try and get it set up to my liking, trying to understand the best way for me to work with it.  I LOVE the thing, but it will take me years to explore its options and possibilities.

You'll figure it out, but it will take some patience.

[elwoodblues1969]

Thom,
Is your PC a desktop with room for an extra card?
I think you can solve the issue by installing an extra USB-PCI card into the PC.
This will not only give you extra usb-ports, but give you extra bandwith and it is a much cheaper solution than changing your soundcard.

Moon

Sounds like a novel idea,but my finances are completely maxed out for the next 4 months,just with the payments on my MOX6.Surely...there must be another way,perhaps?

Good suggestion & I appreciate the thought,but that option will have to wait.


-Thom

[elwoodblues1969]

Thom,

Take your time.  There's much to learn.  The short of it (as I understand it because although not identical, the XF8 works similarly only via firewire rather than USB) is that IF you want to use the audio out via USB capabilities of the MOX, you will not be able to use your M-Audio interface at the same time (although you should still be able to use its USB midi ports).  Both the MOX and the M-Audio interface can be installed (assuming your PC can handle it), but you will have the decide which one you want to use to route your AUDIO through.  In short, if you want it to, the MOX BECOMES your audio interface, although you do not have to use it as such.  You can still use the Midi over its USB and still use your M-audio interface as you used to, but in that case you will not get audio over USB via the MOX.  Make sense?

As I said... this is complex, particularly on the PC side of things, and it will take some time and learning to get set up so you can get back into your workflow, especially if you're also trying to learn a new DAW in Cubase AI.  I spent two months with the XF8 taking my time both enjoying it and not rushing to try and get it set up to my liking, trying to understand the best way for me to work with it.  I LOVE the thing, but it will take me years to explore its options and possibilities.

You'll figure it out, but it will take some patience.

If I do have the option of running all of my PC's audio via the MOX6,then this is fine,as it will free up a bit more space in my work area.

With regard to the learning curve of Yamaha,installation has never been my specialty,but as for the rest of it..well..I managed to get a fundamental understand of the on-board sequencer in just a few hours(which is more progress than I had anticipated,as I've been a Korg guy for about 22 years.
That being said,I'm not worried about familiarizing myself with Cubase AI5 too much...but I really don't have much patience for installation,as I always dread doing it and I figured the software for this board was going to give me problems,unfortunately.

On a different but somewhat relevant note,have you ever sampled the key-bed action on the XF7 or XF6?According to what I have read,the action on the XF6 is no different than the action on my MOX6(which is really a waste,considering the XF6's price tag) and it makes me especially pleased,that I bought the MOX6...rather than wasting extra coin on additional polyphony,sampling,sounds & a larger screen...all of which I don't really need.

Anyhow,thanks for the advice and I hope to hear some tunes from your XF8 in the near future.


-Thom

[SLD Music]

Thom,

Yes, once you get the right driver installed, you just choose the Steinberg driver in Reason as your audio interface, and Reason should be good to go.  The outputs of the MOX will then go to your sound system and you should hear Reason through it.  Same with Cubase.  The only caveat of course is that the MOX must be powered up in order for you to hear the audio.  

No I was unable to sample the XF6 or XF7 keybeds.  And honestly I didn't care anyway.  All I had access to (or wanted access to) was the 88 key version, as the that's the size I wanted and I wanted the weighted keybed.  I did have a chance to feel the Kronos' 67 key version, but I didn't want semi-weighted keys, so I didn't spend much time with it.  I was also able to sample the MOX8, though, and I seriously considered it because of the price (I also considered the S90XS) but ultimately decided that for me... a "Do it once and Do it right.  No regrets." mentality was best.  I went with the XF because it did what I wanted in terms of integration with my DAW, was more future proof, and it  gave me more to grow with later.

Just for giggles: The humble beginnings of my new studio is below:

[elwoodblues1969]

Scott,

Initially,I did have the wrong download link,because the manual for this brand new product was outdated,as the link provided to the update was old.
When someone on the Motifator forum pointed me to the latest download,the installation went fine...but the whole audio configuration scenario confused me.
In my utter state of frustration,it had not occurred to me to configure the audio interface in my Reason,so thanks for remindning me.
As for the whole semi-weighted thing...well...this is a gray area,as there are varying degrees of semi-weighted-ness.For example,my Kurzweil PC3LE6 has full sized,"waterfall"-action keys,which is on the heavier side of semi-weighted action.....whereas the keys on my MOX6 is more on the synth-style semi-weighted action,which means that there is considerably less resistance and smaller keys,as well.
I used to be a big proponent of 88 weighted keys-as I have owned a couple,in past years...but I found that weighted keys are too heavy for certain tasks & genres of playing and I am more of a programmer,than a pianist,of sorts.

I get what you're saying about the concept of non-obsolesce,but I have discovered that the more a hardware keyboard is designed like a computer,the more it behaves like a computer,as there are some of the same corruption and incompatibility issues of a PC.
Keyboards with a set amount of ROM is a solid state device and the beauty of the MOX-series,is that you have the best of both worlds....stability and also the room to grow,via the PC integration.
Another deciding factor for me against buying an XF,is the cost of their flash memory boards....absolute extortion,if you ask me.

I don't think of your XF and Macbook as being humble-but rather,an efficient and compact studio. You're room could benefit greatly with some acoustical treatment-but otherwise,a very nice set up thus far.


-Thom

[SLD Music]

Thom,

Have you got it all set up now, then?

And sorry I didn't say it before: congratulations on your purchase!  Hope you have fun with it.

[elwoodblues1969]

Thom,

Have you got it all set up now, then?

And sorry I didn't say it before: congratulations on your purchase!  Hope you have fun with it.

No...not yet,as there is so much to download and configure,with reference to all of the activation codes & licensing for Cubase AI5,the included VST's and then there is the matter of sorting out the editor VST download,the remote tools download and the Studio Manager download.

Apart from all of that,becoming fluent with the MOX6's on-board sequencer and other functions,is still a work in progress.One of the reasons why I am in a mad rush to sort everything out,is that I want to begin on writing & recording a tune for the quarterly song theme here,on K-M and I am hoping to meet the deadline on that.

Needless to say,I am beside myself,over all that I have to learn in that time frame....so glad I am retired,with nothing else to do!


-Thom

[elwoodblues1969]

I could go on in perpetuity,as to how amazing the MOX6 is,as the more I explore it,the more I adore it! Since I had all of the drivers installed and the necessary settings configured,I am really delighted in controlling the audio of entire PC right from my keyboard,via the DAW fader!

I am really amazed by how I can control 99% of of everything in Cubase,without ever having to mess with my mouse-brilliant! I am a bit overwhelmed with the vast array of functions within the DAW and how it is all operated by the MOX6 and I would very much like to see Yamaha come out with a tutorial DVD.
I suppose that such an accessory is in the works & I sincerely hope so,as the tutorial DVD I had bought for my Reason 4,was extremely helpful.

I am still really mesmerized by the MOX6's on-board sequencer,as being able to instantly record direct from performance mode and save it to the built in memory,is the most fantastic novelty imaginable!

Yet another very clever feature,is the ability to begin recording by merely touching the keys! The sample quality & variety of the drums,guitars,basses & synths is the best I've ever heard,amongst all of the hardware workstations I've ever owned.
The program presets are so usable and inspiring,that this keyboard has spared me the enormous expense of having to purchase a boatload of software,as I have all of the bread & butter sounds I need,sparing me a lot of PC processing power as well!

For $700 less than what I had paid for my Korg M3,I have a workstation that puts the M3 to shame,as the MOX6 absolutely blows the M3 out of the water....& makes the Korg M50 a pitiful joke,by comparison!


-Thom

[Oren]

...I could go on in perpetuity,as to how amazing the MOX6 is,as the more I explore it,the more I adore it!
...The sample quality & variety of the drums,guitars,basses & synths is the best I've ever heard,amongst all of the hardware workstations I've ever owned....

So, NOW you're having fun, Mr. Blues...