Yamaha MM8 Music Synthesizer  

The MM8 Music Synthesizer delivers all the musical power and creative control you need — and a whole lot more. Taking their sounds from the highly popular pro-level MOTIF series instruments, the MM8 has an enormous variety of dynamic, authentic Voices to help you create and perform in virtually any style of music.

This powerful keyboard also gives you total control over your sound, letting you dynamically change sonic textures as you play with real-time tweakable knobs. Also built-in are special Patterns that provide full instrumental backing — drums, bass and chords — to accompany your live performance and song creation.

The full length 88-key keyboard of the MM8 delivers natural touch and expressive control over the complete piano range.

PLAYABILITY


The MM8 keyboard has 418 Voices and 22 Drum Kits on board, all based on the dynamic, realistic sounds of the advanced MOTIF series synthesizers. These exceptionally high-quality sounds range from authentic acoustic instruments to wild, unique and in-your-face synth Voices. An extra set of GM Voices is built into the instrument as well, giving you all you need to play back songs recorded in that popular format. With so many Voices to choose from, you might think it's difficult to select the ones you need. Not so. The convenient Category Search function lets you choose the type of instrument you want to play — organ, guitar, synth, lead, strings, whatever - then select the specific Voice. All your favorite sounds are right at your fingertips, ready to play when you are.

Arpeggiator Madness

Generate some excitement, and tap into even more inspiration while you play with the Arpeggio feature. This lets you automatically trigger repeating rhythmic phrases, riffs, broken chords and melodic patterns - and even change them harmonically by the notes or chords you play with your left hand. The MM8 comes with 213 different Arpeggio types built in, providing a variety of musically useful and exciting patterns to get the house jumping or to jump start your song writing. Bass arpeggios and Drum Voice rhythm loops are included as well for setting up dynamic riffs and beats to jam over.

Patterns for Jamming

Want some instant inspiration? The MM8 has a full set of Patterns that give you powerful rhythmic backing in a wide variety of music styles — including Hip Hop, Rap, R&B, Dance, Ambient, Pop, Rock, Jazz and even World styles. These Patterns are just what you need to get your music moving in the right direction. What's more, these Patterns are as close to the real thing as you can get. Patterns that stay solidly in the groove, but never sound mechanical. Drum loops with a truly human feel that dance and float around the beat, yet remain firmly in the pocket. Riffs and licks that get you inspired, make you move, and help you create some serious music.

Comprehensive Control

The MM series is all about control. Take a look at some of the ways you can use it to power your performance and make your songs really stand out.

Tweak Your Sound

Once you've called up a synth Voice, you can simply play it as a static sound by pressing the keys — or you can take it another level up, and tweak the sound while you play with the four control knobs. Make it sing and weep or make it scream and holler. Change the filter cutoff and resonance settings for real-time texture shifts, and tweak the EG attack and release to completely alter the dynamic feel of the Voice as you play.

Piano-like Expressiveness — Graded Hammer Keyboard

Drawing on its long experience (over 100 years!) in crafting fine acoustic pianos, Yamaha has equipped the MM8 with a remarkably expressive GHS (Graded Hammer Standard) keyboard. If you're a piano player, you'll notice and appreciate the difference as soon as you touch the keys — the instrument feels and responds like a grand piano! The GHS keys are weighted heavier on the lower notes and gradually become lighter as you play up the keyboard, giving you detailed expressive control over the sound.

PERFORM AND CREATE


Performance Memory

When you play live, you want to be able to make sound changes quickly - not just between songs, but right in the middle as well. The Performance Memory feature is the perfect tool for doing this, letting you seamlessly switch gears in the middle of a performance (or recording) and take things up a notch, or bring the dynamics down instantly. Each Performance can store combined settings for the Voices you want to use (including keyboard splits and layers), the Patterns you'll use for backing, and any other crucial settings you may need — then select them simply by pressing a single button. Up to 64 Performances (eight banks of eight each) can be saved to the instrument, and you can save even more to USB memory stick.

Song Creation and More

The MM8 is also an ideal tools for song writing and demo making. The powerful, authentic sounds of the MM series as well as its dynamic Patterns and Arpeggios ensure that your tracks sound completely professional. Up to five User Songs can be recorded to the instrument, and with the built-in rear panel USB terminal, you can store up to 400 Songs to a USB memory stick or thumb drive. In fact, the USB connection lets you store Pattern files, Performance settings and all other important data you've created, and then bring it to a computer for archiving and organizing. Songs can also be saved in the universal SMF (Standard MIDI File) format for use on any SMF-compatible device, including DAW software.

PRODUCE


In the Studio

At home or in the studio, the MM8 can serve as the center of your music production system. Most of today's music is being made on computers and the MM series fits right into any computer music system. Just connect the USB To Host terminal on the instrument to your computer with a standard USB cable, and you've got a compact, yet full-featured recording setup. And just to make sure you get a head start, we've included a free copy of Cubase AI 4 — a sophisticated music production software that has all you need to record your performance data from the MM8 via MIDI (and even use plug-in synthesizers in the software), edit the data, process the sounds with effects, arrange it in multiple tracks and perform final mixdown.

CUBASE AI 4 Software Included

The Cubase AI 4 software bundled with the MM series Music Synthesizer harnesses the power of the Steinberg Cubase 4 digital audio workstation to provide a set of advanced software tools that are easy to use while delivering extensive recording and production capabilities. In addition to advanced audio recording and editing, Cubase AI 4 offers a range of MIDI sequencing capabilities, an entire suite of VST effect plug-ins, and a HALionOne sample player featuring selected waves from the famed Yamaha MOTIF synthesizers.