Yamaha MO6

Yamaha MO6, officially called Yamaha MO6 61-Key Music Production Synthesizer is one of my keyboard instruments. I use it for general playing, composing and as a master keyboard in my home studio.

I think it is a nice keyboard with large variety of sounds as it is based on Yamaha Motif sounds. I also like the feel and playability of the 61-key keyboard and the possibility to control the sounds on-the-fly with knobs and sliders (although there is less controls than the Motif has). It works well as a master keyboard.

The large layered sounds are nice for general playing. But for recording they are often too big. If you plan to record several keyboard tracks in stereo you will quickly fill the soundscape and result is a confusing mess. I have found that for recording use it is often better to remove some layers from the sounds and record in mono. Then you can position the sound in the stereo mix by panning. This makes the sounds fit better in the mix.

There is a built-in sequencer but as usual if you like to use it for step sequencing or sequence data editing is it best to switch to a computer-based sequencer for good.