Robert Ferguson - MOTIF XS

- Music Educator and Synthesist Robert Ferguson talks about his passion for MOTIF XS, teaching music and inspiring students with music technology -

- Robert Ferguson owns and operates one of the UK's most successful Yamaha Music School teaching facilities. Having established a popular and renowned School in Glasgow over fifteen years ago he has recently expanded his tuition services to the community in the region with the opening of a second music school in Ayr.

- As well as managing a thriving teaching business he is also a passionate MOTIF XS user and we asked him how such a high level instrument performs as an educational tool and helps support his varied teaching work within a school setting; "We teach a variety of instruments including keyboard, piano, guitar and drums in our schools and in addition to the MOTIF XS8 we have several of the 'mini MO' MM6 synths in our teaching rooms. The MM6's are used primarily for live performance and general accompaniment whilst the additional functionality of the MOTIF XS allows us to extend it's use into recording and composition, we also frequently use Cubase in lessons and have now installed the superb Stagepas 500 audio system in our teaching studios ensuring great professional audio. "

Tell us a bit about how you use the MOTIF XS in the schools? "In a demanding teaching environment we find the loop based recording to be a hugely useful educational tool, we constantly use this function in our improvisational sessions. We'll compose a riff, record it and then switch off record, leaving the loop running whilst the students play over it live, and once we discover something we like we simply starting recording again. It's a brilliant method of recording any style of music; it doesn't feel like a traditional teaching lesson for our students, it's far more creative and entertaining and thus inspires a very natural process of creative music making and thought."

We also asked Robert how else the MOTIF XS contributes to the musical life of the schools, " I find the MOTIF invaluable in creating compositions and arrangements for classes for our busy live concert schedule. We cover a wide range of musical styles including classical, theatre, and popular chart type music, often very demanding and sophisticated pieces and arrangements, and we find the MOTIF XS to be perfect in all situations. This process usually starts with me sketching out basic ideas and themes on the XS and then sending the audio and MIDI to Cubase via firewire. Once I'm happy with the results I then burn an audio CD and print off the complete score for our students to rehearse, a very neat, highly productive and popular process all round."

Having established that the MOTIF XS plays a vital role in the teaching studios we were keen to delve a bit deeper into Robert's personal thoughts on some of the more technical features of the instrument, and he's eager to oblige; "Having such huge options to adjust existing voices and create entirely new sounds and effects can be somewhat overwhelming at first, but with the MOTIF it soon becomes second nature thanks to the easy to navigate operating system which has obviously been designed with creative musicians in mind, not technicians.  This is not always the case with many other music technology devices on the market these days. I just love the hands on approach and find myself creating new sounds all the time with the faders and knobs drawing you in!  I am now getting into the MOTIF on a more sophisticated level and find the tutorials on the motifator website highly useful, I strongly recommend this site as a must visit destination for serious MOTIF online tourists."

Robert is also keen to complement the preset performance sounds, telling us they instantly get the creative juices flowing and describing the 'Performance Record' function as a stroke of genius by the Yamaha design team. He elaborates here "I find a performance I like and simply press record and find that within seconds I am recording all 4 parts complete with effects and arpeggiators to a new pattern or song. Having the additional functionality to then add a further 12 tracks is great and the real benefit is that it all works so intuitively and simply."

It becomes clear that the Motifator website is integral to Robert's further exploration of the MOTIF and currently this is in particular regard to connectivity " I found this great tutorial on how to use firewire data streaming and have never looked back. The firewire connection on the XS 8 is so easy to use, with one cable I can record up to 16 tracks of MIDI and audio simultaneously direct to my PC in one hit. Previously to discovering this function I'd only ever record MIDI via the USB but now this function has really expanded my own creative potential. I have to complement Yamaha on the way the Motif so easily integrates with computers when using Cubase too, I am currently enjoying the new VST 3 editor and Cubase templates and at a time when everything seems to be getting more complicated, the direction of the MOTIF usability is the opposite. The MOTIF actually makes things simpler, which is exactly what creative musicians and educators like me need."

Whilst the MOTIF XS was eventually Robert's undisputed choice of instrument, he did do some serious market research before making his final decision and tells us " I did look at other products before acquiring the MOTIF XS but in the end, having in mind all the technical superiority, it was the sheer sound quality that swung it for me, the depth, detail and clarity of the sound quality is truly breathtaking. The quality is more than matched by variety and quantity of sounds too, so it's a total winner with me, my students queue up to create and that says it all."

- To find out more about the work of Robert Ferguson and the Yamaha Music Schools please visit www.YMS-Ayr.co.uk

Europe Synthesizers

Ozzie Henderson - MOTIF XS/S90 XS

Acclaimed programmer Ozzie Henderson talks to Yamaha on Girls Aloud , Duran Duran , Stevie Wonder, Monkey 'Journey To The West' , Formula One and of course MOTIF XS.

- London based Ozzie Henderson is one of the UK's busiest and most respected synthesizer programmers and keyboard technicians, he also happens to be a huge MOTIF XS and S90 XS fan -  in this exclusive interview we find out why.

Most recently Ozzie has been kept busy touring with Girls Aloud and Duran Duran whilst also fulfilling all synth programming duties for Damon Albarn's critically acclaimed operatic adaptation of Monkey 'Journey To The West'.

He is currently preparing for the eagerly awaited Gary Barlow gig at the Royal Albert Hall in November whilst also building up his new educational venture, Techbus UK which provides media courses to many of the UK's schools and colleges.

Recently Ozzie was kind enough to share some thoughts with us following the huge Wembley Stadium Gig starring Coldplay, Jay Z and Girls Aloud. Here he enthusiastically talks matters MOTIF XS and S90XS combined with Formula One and of course, his all time favourite 'get out of jail' piece of kit- the Yamaha 01V96 digital console.

- We started by asking Ozzie about Monkey 'Journey To The West' the follow up to the critically acclaimed Damon Albarn and James Hewlett Gorillaz project,  without doubt one of the most ambitious and creatively challenging live production works of recent times enjoying sell out runs on all continents. We asked Ozzie where the MOTIF XS comes into the picture " My involvement with Monkey was pretty substantial really. I programmed all the keyboards, drums and percussion set ups for the UK and international legs of the Opera which kicked off at the O2. During this period I was simultaneously on tour with Duran Duran so it was a pretty manic period. Fortunately I could send everything 'Monkey' to the dedicated team of technicians who then loaded up the 4 specified MOTIF XS synths with my content."

Ozzie tells us that the MOTIF XS had to be the only choice for Monkey "I was asked to recommend the best keyboard setup for the Opera after being given a detailed brief by Musical Director Mike Smith on what the instruments HAD to be capable of.  I think this was because he'd had latency issues with previous setups. He was categorical, as well as the obvious sonic quality and functionality, he wanted plenty of headroom and the ability to play all his original sound library files on a latent free keyboard rather than a laptop."

The production sophistication and complexity of Monkey 'Journey To The West' is legendary and Ozzie is keen to praise the sampling capability of MOTIF XS. "The instrument worked incredibly well in the context of Monkey. The sampling side of the instrument is very easy and natural to use and you're not constantly battling with the operating system as with some other non-Yamaha gear. I was free to get on with the job in hand rather than having to laboriously navigate through superfluous pages."

- What are Ozzie's central requirements when specifying an instrument for high profile productions? "When I choose a piece of equipment for a tour I look for two main factors - durability and back up. There's no point taking equipment halfway around the world to find it's crashed or melting in front of you! It is vital that I'm 100% confident that in the unlikely event of something going wrong I can call the manufacturer and have a replacement en-route by the time I've finished the phone call. I'm fully confident this central criteria will always be met when I specify Yamaha. Another very important consideration when in a high pressure live environment is the ability to get into the operating system rapidly and without hassle, ensuring the learning curve is as small as possible. Thanks to it's intuitive operating system the XS range gets full marks here too."

- What about key MOTIF features for your work? "The sampler is brilliant!  When approaching a keyboard for use as a sample playback tooI, I recall how many keyboard manufacturers have got it so wrong in the past. This is not the case with the MOTIF XS. The sampler immediately feels familiar in use and is more like your favourite hardware sampler implemented into your favourite keyboard.  I use Waveform editing and looping extensively - again this feature on the MOTIF is easy and quick to use. Having several gigabytes of samples to edit requires a sampler, be it dedicated hardware, workstation or software to present you with the functions you need to get the job done rather than pages to scroll through just to change a single parameter. The sampler continues the MOTIF’s operating systems ability to stay out of the way and let you get on with the job. So a job that could be a nightmare is simple and very smooth.

In Performance mode the overview page is really useful. It allows you to see all the major parameters and voices you need to create multi-layered performance or to edit key spans quickly. And again all the options you need are in one place which means when I'm in a rehearsal and the bands in, adjusting a keyboard span for a Performance is done in seconds and not something that keeps that band held up."

- Girls Aloud, Britain's premier girl group are one of the UK's best selling and biggest grossing live acts -  total production professionalism and reliability is a must. Ozzie picks up the story "The MOTIF XS has been a regular feature with Girls Aloud for some time now and more recently I was delighted to get my hands on the first S90 XS brought into the UK which I immediately integrated into the live setup. Both are rock solid and feature outstanding sounds. The new (S6) grand piano sample on the S90 XS together with the amazing weighted piano keyboard left keyboard player Sean Barry in awe. He went on record as saying that the piano sound was the best he'd ever heard outside an acoustic grand."

With Girls Aloud, Ozzie made sure that a Yamaha 01V96 digital mixer was also central to the keyboard rig. He calls this award winning console as his 'get out of jail card' describing it as probably the most versatile mixer he has ever used, "You’re never totally sure what might be required in any live situation.  Demands can be thrown at you out of the blue in real time" he laughs, "having tools around that are totally flexible is vital and the 01V96 has come to my rescue on more than one occasion I can assure you."

- Ozzie is now looking to the future and expanding his creative horizons with his new educational company, Techbus which at present provides media courses to schools and colleges. His ambition is to develop the business so it covers as many sides of the industry as possible, whilst embracing leading industry professionals and commercial partners thus enhancing the value to students and making them more aware of the workings of the business.

- We asked Ozzie to nominate one music and one non-music highlight of recent times. On the music highlights he’s emphatic “It’s got to be working with Stevie Wonder, I got a call to work with Stevie, a complete music hero for me. During our time together I told him my all time favourite song was ‘Too High’ from his brilliant Inner Visions album and with that he sat down and played and sang it for me, yeah me !!”

What about your non music highlight?  “I'm a big Formula One fan and as a programmer you're often one step removed from the main stars of the show. Recently on the Duran Duran tour I got chatting to Simon Le Bon and Nick Rhodes about our shared passion for the sport. I just happened to mention that I'd love to get to Valencia with my nephew for a race. A few hurried phone calls later I'm getting VIP treatment at the Grand Prix!"

Hollin Jones - n8

Hollin Jones is one of the UK's most critically acclaimed producers. He is also an accomplished BAFTA nominated soundtrack composer, pianist and a leading music technology journalist. As a writer, player and producer he has worked with artists as diverse as legendary Bristol band Portishead and the Clint Boon Experience. In 2008 he was commissioned personally by Morcheeba to remix their highly successful single ‘Gained The World’, and the following year he worked with shoegaze pioneers 'Engineers', remixing their comeback single 'Clean Coloured Wire'. His tracks from the album 'The Heights' and the 'Reconnection’ EP, together with a variety of soundtracks and remixes can be heard on many major broadcast networks including the BBC and ITV, as well as radio stations around the world. His MySpace site boasts over 2 million track plays!

Based in Bristol, a city renowned for musical innovation and working principally from a relatively compact home studio, he is ideally placed to provide an authoritative commentary on his use of the Yamaha n8 Digital Mixing Studio which lies at the heart of much of his recent work

We asked Hollin for a little background on his journey from jazz pianist to acclaimed remixer. "I’ve been a blues and jazz piano player for years. When I was about 16 I was playing keyboards in bands and started recording with tape-based 4-tracks and drum machines. You learn a lot about making compromises when you have to keep bouncing tracks down on cassette. After that, the Yamaha MD4 was at the heart of my studio for a long time. Then in 2000 I got my first serious computer – a Mac G4 and Cubase VST – and started to get into software-based production, and haven’t looked back since.  As technology has become more powerful I've kept pace and now use software for more or less all of my recording, effects and mixing work, though I still have some much-loved hardware instruments as well. It's important to understand what it is that equipment does best and make sure you get the most out of it.  Over the years I’ve been lucky enough to work with some great producers and get hands-on experience of lots of kit, which has helped me to make some good decisions when it comes to building my own studio.”

For the past year Hollin has been working on a project – now close to completion – with a female vocalist that he discovered when her band supported his own at a local show. He describes it as 'really laid back, melodic, cinematic, electronic stuff in the vein of Thievery Corporation or maybe Portishead in their lighter moments.' The n8, he says, came in particularly useful for the extensive vocal recording sessions undertaken during the production of the album.  He's simultaneously working on the second SeriousMusic album (a 'hip hop beast of a record') and both will be released on his own label, Calumet City Records and linked through the SeriousMusic MySpace site.

Hollin is very keen to explain how he decided on investing in the n8 Digital Mixing Studio and what it has contributed to these projects and is expansive in his praise of the Yamaha kit. "In a smaller studio where you don’t have big desks and racks of outboard, but still need top quality sound and routing flexibility without compromises, a single unit which is an interface, mixer, effects unit and DAW controller is a godsend. Setting up vocal monitoring with reverb and compression just by pressing a couple of buttons is so much easier than trying to figure out which aux channels on a mixer need to be sent where."

 

On selection of the n8 he continues, "The n8 was absolutely the best specified system for my purposes, even out-performing much higher priced units. It offers very easy monitoring and, as a Cubase user, the direct hook up between the hardware and software – without using any generic templates or doing any programming – was a huge bonus. It looks like a sophisticated piece of kit and indeed it is, but it’s actually really easy to learn and use. I know it works as an interface with any DAW but the Cubase-specific features are great for me."

 

When asked specifically about current projects, Hollin describes how pretty much everything is recorded, edited and mixed in his home studio. "People find this aspect hard to believe, expecting that it must have been done in some big, expensive place. It just goes to show what you can achieve with the right skills and the right equipment in a small space. The n8 makes vocal recording a breeze, whereas before I had to compromise quite a lot in terms of not being able to give the singers reverb and having latency issues. For me the killer feature of the n8 is the ability to send reverb to the vocalist’s headphones but not necessarily to the record bus. It sounds simple enough but with a separate interface and mixer setup, it’s really fiddly. On the n8 it’s just a press of a button. Since I work with Cubase as my main DAW, the Cubase integration with the n8 is fantastic, especially the transport and click controls on the hardware. There’s a single button to monitor a channel ‘wet’ through VST effects, and of course it only needs a single cable between the Mac and the n8 and that takes care of everything. Compressors on each channel are really handy too!"

http://www.myspace.com/theseriousmusic

You can also find tracks in high quality on a pay-what-you-like system (some are even free) at www.seriousmusic.bandcamp.com, and of course on iTunes and Amazon. Physical copies of the album can be ordered at http://seriousmusic.bigcartel.com/

For more details on Yamaha n series digital mixing studios visit http://www.yamahasynth.com/products/digital_mixing_studios/n12n8/

Digital Mixing Studios Europe

Martyna - CP33

At Yamaha we’re always keen to learn more about how our instruments and equipment is being used across a wide range of diverse musical styles and situations. We're passionate about music and musicians. Talking to the people that have chosen to play Yamaha and rely on our instruments every day (and night) provides us with a unique insight allowing us to consistently ensure we are getting it right.

Here we talk to renowned singer songwriter and jazz artist Martyna, one of the UK's most acclaimed up-and -coming musicians. As well as being a highly popular and respected solo artist she's also currently very busy regularly performing as part of an in-demand jazz trio and told us   "I’m very much an acoustic singer songwriter, I sing, play the piano and I write my own songs. My background is acoustic music, but over the last couple of years I’ve moved more into jazz whilst still trying to keep the 'singer songwriter' aspect. Basically my jazz has a lot of roots in acoustic music."

Martyna has recently acquired a Yamaha CP33 Stage piano and STAGEPAS-300 compact PA system - she now uses the CP33 for all her musical activities including live shows, recording and rehearsals, with the STAGEPAS proving invaluable for a demanding live schedule.

She's particularly impressed with the sheer versatility of the CP33 piano sounds for serious working musicians and comments "In the past I've used many types of different pianos but now I find that the CP33 will do everything I need, from studio to live work. It has such a great sound; it's beautiful for gigging and is just like a traditional instrument for my purposes. People are always impressed, the CP33 is equally invaluable in the studio where it gets used all the time."

This year Martyna has been performing at a wide range of venues and is keen to praise the versatility of the CP33 in coping with some demanding live spaces "I don't think there is such a thing as a typical live venue so it's vital that my instruments and sound equipment perform consistently at 100% in any type of environment or event. Currently our live work can vary from venues like the Stables in Wavendon through to large concert halls, regional theatres and even noisy and raucous clubs - the CP33 is perfect for all these venues, it's amazing."

Martyna on the subject of recording, " We like to try and get a really live sound when we record, this can involve us making the actual recording on location in venues we play at live and yet again the CP33 performs brilliantly."

When asked what aspects of the CP33 she likes in particular Martyna is keen to stress the combination of sound and feel, crucial aspects to any professional player and on this subject she's very focussed  "It's two things, the weighted keys and the action, in the trio we have a pianist who has always refused to play any form of electric piano or keyboard until he played this one. The second aspect is of course sound quality. It sounds amazing. There is nothing worse than when you’re at a gig and you can hear this tinny piano sound. The CP33 feels like a piano and it sounds like a piano. I tend to use the piano pretty much raw, mainly concentrating on acoustic piano sound number one that is perfect for my musical style. As you can tell I'm on the road a lot and this is where the CP33 also excels, it's not the lightest instrument in the world due to the weighted keys but it's just so worth it. I've had lighter keyboards before and there's just no comparison in terms of sound and feel, since I've got my flight case it's a breeze."

Martyna uses Yamaha's award winning STAGEPAS-300 compact audio system for shows, and as someone who describes herself as 'very picky about sound' we asked her if the STAGEPAS lived up to expectations "it's a fantastic system and now feels like my friend on the road, with the jazz trio we have a mix of acoustic and electronic instruments and the STAGEPAS is ideal, so compact too. It fits easily into a car boot and when we turn up at venues with a house PA that doesn't suit we can quickly switch to the STAGEPAS. We also use it for rehearsals, it's so handy for our type of work."

For more information on Martyna:
http://www.myspace.com/martynajazz
http://www.martynamusic.com
And listen to Martyna perform on the January 2009 podcast HERE.

Europe Stage Pianos