All of the the new workstations use compression algorithms to allow larger wave ROMs.

Yamaha Motif XS
"Wave: 355 MB (when converted to 16-bit linear format)"

Roland Fantom X
"Wave Memory: 128 M bytes (16-bit linear equivalent)"

Korg M3
"Preset PCM: 256 Mbytes (when calculated as 16-bit linear data)"

So the XS has 227 MB more Wave ROM data than the Fantom and 99 MB more Wave ROM data than the M3.

Anyone every wonder why Roland and Korg have nice, even numbers that are multiples of 128 and Yamaha always has these weird numbers- the classic Motif is 85 MB, the ES is 185 MB and now the XS is 355 MB ?
Here's the answer !

If you look at just the name, you might think that there were a lot similarities between the Motif XS and the Motif ES. There's just one letter difference, right ? But when you look under the hood, nothing could be further from the truth.

So what's new ? Just about everything, a new TG, new CPU, new OS, new UI and much more !

After reading Dave’s blog about computers and workstations, I had to respond.

Dave Polich said "Saying you prefer a workstation instead of a computer for music production is like saying you prefer rotary phones and dial up to high-speed broadband and cellphones."

I like and respect you Dave, but in this case I think you are completely wrong. Read more to find out why.

Over the weekend , I sat down to see how easy it would be to put some simple demos together with the XS. It was a blast and only took about an hour and half to make 33 short demos ! Normally this would have taken a couple of days of complex sequence programming. Hope you enjoy them as they are focused on letting you hear the sounds, not on showing off how many notes can be played in 30 seconds.

On Friday night at the NAMM show the Motif XS sound design team in the US got together at a trendy Japanese restaurant by South Coast Plaza not far from the show to celebrate the completion of the Motif XS voicing. Unfortunately I couldn't join them. Sound designers are some my favorite people to hang out with. Since my days as the head of sound design and product planning at Korg Inc in Japan working on products like the M1, 01W, and Wavestation, sound design has been a passion for me.

Over the past five years, in several thousand posts on Motifator.com, Yamaha US has never used the word "I" or expressed any personal opinions.

Well, I'm about to change all that !