Page 2: Yamaha MODX

Finally we get to the MODX's various performance-level playback and motion-related features. There's an arpeggiator. No, actually, make that eight arpeggiators that can run in parallel, and have access to 10,239 note patterns. That's a lot of patterns... Some reassuringly simple ones, akin to any normal synth's up, down, and up/down modes are available in slots 5972 to 6029. Many of the rest are full‑blown accompaniments that adapt to the harmonies you play, and generate bass lines, riffs, textural elements or drum patterns (and there are literally thousands of superb drum sounds on the MODX, arranged into over 150 pre-packaged kits). So not really arpeggios at all, but more the kind of thing we'd expect to find on an 'arranger' keyboard, albeit without any formal facilities for intros, endings and fills. 256 user slots allow you to store your own programmable patterns, should you exhaust the preset possibilities in this lifetime or the next.

Overlapping in functionality with the arpeggiator to some extent is the Motion Sequencer. This is essentially step-time, clock-sync'ed parameter automation that might be used to create pulsing/sliced pads, Sample & Hold-like filter effects, rhythmic crossfades between parts, and a lot else besides. Eight 16-step sequence lanes can be active simultaneously, with any one part capable of running four of those. Twenty‑four preset patterns are provided, and you can create and store your own.

The 76-note MODX.Then, I can't ignore it any longer: MODX's big flashing knob, that is. This is an eye-popping feature of the front panel, as for many performances its backlight will flash in various funky colours, and sometimes the LEDs that surround it go shooting about too. Essentially, the Super Knob (for that's what it's called) is a macro. As you turn it (by hand, or remotely with a connected expression pedal), multiple parameters associated with its neighbour knobs may be tweaked, across different value ranges and with opposing polarities. Yamaha's performance presets use it extensively, and often have filter cutoff or layer volume levels controlled by it. But the knob position can also be automated with its own Motion Sequence, opening the door to automated trance-y builds and drops. Equally, two programmable static values can be recalled with dedicated Knob Position buttons.

Finally, Scenes. Each MODX performance has eight slots into which can be saved snapshots of arpeggiator, Motion Sequencer and more general part parameters, ready to be recalled while you play with the front‑panel Scene buttons. There's scope here for serving up straightforward variations of a sound, like perhaps enabling various effects combinations for an electric piano. But for arpeggiated auto-accompaniment-style performances they can recall different pattern combinations, or indeed offer sound variations with and without rhythmic accompaniment. A powerful real-time feature.

MODX Living

You won't need me to tell you, if you've been reading up to this point, that the MODX is phenomenally capable. Out of the box it serves up thousands of immediately usable, attractive and often very inspiring sounds, including all the expected pianos, organs, mallets, guitars, strings, brass, wind and synths, along with a vast selection of western and ethnic percussion. With its Motion Sequencer features, effects galore, and the mahoosive, multi-layered character of the thing, it's going to appeal to anyone working in trance, techno, EDM and other related fields. But I can equally see it as a great all-rounder, for gigging keyboard players, and, with its rapid seamless sound transitions, for theatre pit band players. In the studio, allied with a computer DAW, it's like having a massive, easily accessible sample library always ready and willing to instantaneously load the next sound. Performances can easily become epic, orchestral and cinematic in character, blending acoustic and synthetic elements. It's a pretty good controller keyboard too: a Zone Master mode lets you do multi-channel keyboard splits for playing external gear.

That mix of the more conventional subtractive AWM2, 1980s-retro (or much more experimental) FM-X, extensive effects processing, and almost inexhaustible arpeggio and Motion Sequencing potential is very, very persuasive. Really, what the MODX can pump out, at its relatively modest price, is nothing short of breathtaking. I can't help thinking back to when I was a nipper, when one synth was all you could afford after years of saving: a MODX would have been a mind-blowing prospect. (Still, I loved my ESQ-1, and thanks again mum and dad...)

As I mentioned, the MODX scores very highly indeed in the generous provision of high‑quality preset performances. And it's very possible (he says, adopting a slightly ironic tone) that the best user experience might be had not venturing too far beyond them. To put it another way, the inevitable consequence of all the complexity and power is that more ambitious programming of the MODX can be unbelievably fiddly, slow, confusing and just damned hard work.

The 88-note MODX.The elephant in the room, actually, is the touchscreen, and the way deep-level programming features are accessed through it. Multiple finger-prods are required just to begin editing an AWM2 or FM-X part, and individual pages of parameters are accessed via nested tabs — masses of them, whose location and purpose take some learning. And then, once you've hunted down your parameter, the touchscreen offers no method of interaction beyond finger prods. Dragging virtual knobs or sliders, or even moving an envelope breakpoint, as we've become so accustomed to on the iPad (say) is just not a 'thing'. More often you're faced with visually undifferentiated boxes, either parameter labels or value fields, that have to be tapped and then manipulated with the value dial, +/- buttons or a virtual numeric keypad. It's strictly one parameter at a time, and the experience can be slow, sterile, and not very rock & roll.

Now, of course, power users will point out that parameters can be mapped to the front‑panel Assign knobs, or to the Super Knob. But that (which requires still more configuration) is clearly aimed at performance rather than creative sound sculpting, and has little in common with using a true analogue knobby synth.

I don't want to give the wrong impression. It's not that you can't get wonderful sounds from the MODX. But my beef with it is all about immediacy and transparency when creating sounds. Many (probably wiser) users will have less interest in this aspect, and may be more than happy to just tweak as necessary the thousands of instantly available, expertly programmed preset performances. And of course, it's quite exciting that Yamaha expose the synth architecture as comprehensively as they do: this absolutely is a full-blown synth, and not some kind of stage piano.

MO or less?

This is a synth with a staggering price/performance ratio. It's got a soundbank that's ready for serious use too, and will satisfy the needs of many different players. I wondered initially if it'd all be a bit too skewed towards the Super Knob and Motion Control features, but though they make a unique and characterful contribution to many factory sounds their use is by no means compulsory.

Though not a workstation, it comes from the workstation tradition, with vastness of feature-count clearly a big part of the identity. It really does carry the same flag as all those '00s Motifs, Tritons, and Fantoms. It's deep, labyrinthine, and traversing its hierarchies can be slow, sometimes bewildering. But the payback is immense versatility and ability. If you've no desire to go beyond the presets you may think you've died and gone to heaven.

There's little left for me to do now other than to strongly recommend the MODX to anyone looking for a big multi-timbral, multi-effect, multi-tasking all-rounder. For the most luxury version of this technology you'll still want the Montage. For the rest of us, there's the MODX.