Yamaha MO8 88-Key Music Production Synthesizer Workstation with DAW Control  

The MO8 delivers Yamaha's powerful MOTIF synth engine functions and sounds in a compact, affordable workstation. Plus, it doubles as a powerful computer recording partner, giving you sounds and controls to use with your DAW software. The Yamaha keyboard has 88 hammer-action, touch-sensitive keys, 64-note polyphony, 256 user presets, 256 performance presets, 5-band master EQ, a backlit graphic LCD, plus USB and S/PDIF outs for digital connectivity.

MO sounds from acoustic to analog

The heart of the MO series is the same massive 175MB wave ROM and synth engine found in the flagship MOTIF ES. Complete with expressive, multi-velocity acoustic pianos and EPs, MegaVoice guitars and basses that capture all the subtle nuance of the real thing and a vast selection of string, brass, and other acoustic sounds, the MO8 synth is ready for any type of music production. A huge selection of different drum kits instantly inspires new beats and grooves. Whether you need realistic rhythm tracks or orchestral backgrounds, the Yamaha MO8 has all the sounds you need in one place.

But the MO isn't just for acoustic emulations. The four-oscillator voices feature multiband filters and snappy envelopes so there's also a complete selection of analog and digital synth sounds from funky basses, silky leads to atmospheric pads. Realtime controls and an advanced modulation matrix, let you easily shape those sounds to fit your production needs.

The Yamaha MO8 also includes advanced effects processing including reverbs, chorus, and delays; 16 individual part EQs; and powerful dual insertion effects that can be applied to up to three parts in a mix or performance. The insertion effects feature some of the most creative and unique DSP processing on the planet including lo-fi, digital scratching, slicing, and beat change.

If you're looking for the most expressive acoustics sounds from pianos to drums, the widest selection of the freshest synth basses, leads and pads and the most powerful DSP processing available, you'll find that nothing in its price range has any MO.

The Yamaha MO8 synth goes with the flow
As a musician, you find yourself in lots of different situations: live gigs, song writing collaborations, studio sessions, and computer music environments loaded with DAWs and soft synths. The MO series was designed to adapt to each of these different applications with their own special demands and provide just the right feature set for each situation. The responsive voices and realtime controls allow you to express subtle emotions in live performance. The performances are not only live ensembles with splits and layers, but many use the MO's Phrase Factory Arpeggios and are complete grooves to instantly inspire song ideas. But most important of all, the Yamaha MO8 was designed to be not just a keyboard, but the center of a computer based music production studio. The synth offers a DAW remote control mode that gives you full hands on remote control of DAW and SoftSynths. The Studio Connections compatibility let you treat the MO as a VST SoftSynth inside Cubase SX 3.1 and Nuendo 3.1. The special Utility Quick Setups let you easily change from one style of working to the next. So no matter how you like to work, the MO series adapts to fit your workflow and lets you be more musically productive.

Song writing partner
Some people might wonder why you need a built-in sequencer in a workstation keyboard when there are so many powerful computer software programs like Steinberg's Cubase products available today. But the Yamaha MO8's Song and Pattern sequencer was actually designed to be a creative scratch pad to let you quickly and easily get your song ideas down. Much of today's music is looped based and having a Pattern sequencer let's you work in sections that can be easily chained together to try different song arrangements. So when working on new song ideas, it's often faster and easier to use the MO8 synth's on board sequencer to get your ideas down quickly while inspiration is still fresh. The Quick Setups utility also lets you transfer from the internal sequencer to your computer with a single button press.

Jam on!
The Yamaha MO8 is light in weight and extremely portable so it's great for live performance situations. It also features a Balanced Hammer action keyboard like that found on the MOTIF ES8. Hands-on knobs and sliders provide realtime controls alongside a full compliment of pedal control inputs. The 88-note keyboard also features full multizone MIDI capabilities for controlling external tone generators, SoftSynths, and other keyboards in your rig.

With it's high-quality built-in DSP effects, the MO8 sounds great going directly into your band's PA mixer. Light in weight and heavy on features, the MO series is a working musician's dream.

Project studio—Controlling your DAW with your Yamaha MO8
Today's project studios are centered around the computer and the MO series' total integration with computer production systems is what really separates it from the competition. It features both USB "TO HOST" and USB "TO DEVICE" ports. The "TO HOST" port lets you connect multi-port MIDI to your computer with a single USB cable. The "TO DEVICE" port lets you connect USB storage devices like hard disk drives and thumb drives (USB flash memory) directly the MO for saving voices, performances and songs and backing up files to your computer. Digital Audio connectivity is standard with a stereo coaxial digital output for noise free digital recording of your MO8 to your computer sound card, a DAT or CDR.

The Yamaha MO8 keyboard also features a DAW Remote Control Mode that allows full hands on control of popular DAW software including Sonar, Logic, Digital Performer and the full range of Steinberg Cubase and Nuendo products. You can control Volume, Pan, Solo, Mute, Track Arming, Track Select, and many other track specific functions. The Transport controls on the MO series can be setup to stop, start and return to zero your DAW projects. You can even edit and control VST/AU plug-ins and see their parameters displayed in the LCD display of the MO. Total control over your DAW and SoftSynths from your hardware synth has never been easier.

Home Studio—Controlling your MO with your DAW software
Perhaps the most exciting part of the Yamaha MO8 is the powerful cross platform software that can be downloaded from www.yamahasynth.com. Full Voice and Multi-Part Editors are available that let you edit and store MO setups via your computer. Even more amazing, using the latest versions of Cubase SX or Nuendo, you get all the benefits of full Studio Connections compatibility. No more trying to remember what Voices you used in that project you were working on three months ago. Just launch the project and the Recall function will reconfigure your MO to exactly the settings that were last used in the project.

With Studio Connections Audio Integration capabilities, you can even turn your MO into a Virtual Synth complete with phase-accurate latency compensation and add VST effects directly to your MO inside your VST mixer. This allows you the convenience of freezing a track on a hardware synths and being able to continue working on your project even when the hardware is not connected.

Total integration = total control
Total control over your DAW and SoftSynths with the MO's DAW Remote Control Mode has never been easier. Total control of your hardware synth from your DAW software with the MO's Studio Connection compatible software has never been easier. Now you can use all the power of the total computer integration in the MO 88-key synth to make more music.

What is Total Recall?
Total Recall is the first phase of the Studio Connections project. The Voice and Multi Part Editors for the MO Series are Total Recall compatible so they work inside the Studio Manager system available in the latest versions of Cubase and Nuendo. Studio Manager can be opened directly from inside your Steinberg software and contains editors for a variety of Yamaha synthesizers, mixer and effects. Saving a project in Cubase and Nuendo saves all your Studio Manager editor settings right along with your project file. Just open your project file again and Studio Manager will restore your MO (and the rest of your MIDI Studio) to the exact same settings as when you last worked on that project.

What is Audio Integration?
Audio Integration is the next phase of the Studio Connections project. It allows you to setup the MO Series as a VST Instruments via the "External Instrument" function found in Cubase SX 3.1/Nuendo 3.1. Now you can use the MO Series just like a plug-in, routing it to the DAWs Audio mixer, applying VST effects and even using unique VST functions such as "mix down" and "freeze". Finally youve got a seamless environment where both hardware synthesizers and software synthesizers can be completely integrated together.