If you’re a true Yamaha keyboard fan you’re definitely aware of the Motif series. It was a legendary series and therefore an expensive one too. If you couldn’t afford it then or even now, don’t worry Yamaha has an even better series called the MM (mini-Motif). The MM may not be as good as the Motif series, but it does have some advantages over it and that’s why we are reviewing one of its keyboards, the MM8.
This is a Yamaha MM8 review that will show you if it’s worth your time or money or not.
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Features Of Yamaha MM8:
Before we dive into the tiny details of this digital piano, we want you to know that this is meant for those that have passed the beginners phase and are creative with their music. More so its also perfect for carrying to gigs and concerts, not tailored for beginners. Beginners are going to find it difficult to manage.
However, we don’t mean that beginners can’t use or learn with the MM8 keyboard, what we are saying is that it would be more difficult to do so. Anyways, without further ado, let’s get straight into it.
Aesthetics
The Yamaha MM8 is an attractive piano due to its body, button placement, and color. It’s 59.5 inches long and 20.8 inches wide, which is bigger than a normal 88-key piano. You’ll find it hard to place it on places other than its stand.
Also, its weight is 34.4, which means it’s a bit heavier among its contemporaries. Although professionals will not find it hard to carry, children will have a hard time carrying it to their lessons.
Another thing you must keep in mind is that the body is totally plastic, and hence fragile. So, prevent it from falling because the chances of breaking it are higher. Another thing you can do is to get a padded bag for it, one that will absorb shocks and therefore prevent breakage.
Sound quality and sound memory
We found the sound quality of the MM8 as excellent as we could expect. What makes the MM8 truly outstanding is the arpeggiator, which has an abundance of 213 different rhythmic arpeggios. You will not find so many arpeggios in even the pro-level synthesizers. More so playing with this arpeggio function is so fun and exciting
We also found the guitar emulator to be quite better and realistic than what it is in other synthesizer keyboards. Furthermore, the MM8 is packed with 22 Drum Kits and 418 Voices, extracted from the latest series of Motif synthesizers. While this was already enough, the manufacturers went on to add some sounds from the GM voices. We thought that having so many voices will make it difficult to find the one voice that you’re looking for but then we found the category search function, which was so effective and helpful in finding our desired voice.
The biggest advantage of Yamaha keyboards and so in the case of MM8 is having Cubase AI — Steinberg’s powerful production software. Cubase AI makes recording, editing, and mixing so easy, effective, and plentiful.
What we didn’t like about the Yamaha MM8 is the 32 polyphony, it will fill up so easily and so often, restricting you from laying enough notes simultaneously. We believe Yamaha should have provided at least a 64-note polyphony if not 128. It seems like the designers were trying to limit this keyboard so that it can be differentiated from its higher models.
However, providing a storage capacity of 64 performances, they have tried to restore some credibility. Furthermore, you can save unlimited songs on external drives depending only on the USB’s storage capacity.
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Key sensitivity
We were also delighted to discover how good the keys of the MM8 felt when we pressed them down. Not only were they weighted but they were also graded. This means that while the keys had the resistance of an acoustic piano, they also had the difference in resistance between higher notes and lower notes. This is done to replicate an acoustic piano as much as possible and it seems that the MM8 has done quite a wonderful job.
Remember when we said in the start that the body of the MM8 is plasticky, we didn’t say the keys were too. We found all the 88 keys as tangible as we could expect. Even professional players wouldn’t find fault with these keys and if you’re an intermediate level player trying to up your skill these keys the what you need.
Other features
The Yamaha MM8 includes many features, let’s start from the control panel. The control panel here is quite standard and includes an LCD in between. However, you can do a lot of customization effortlessly, including DAW interference and MIDI mode. Switching from one sound to another on the fly also was quite smooth, which is an essential feature today but lacking in so many keyboards.
The Yamaha MM8 features an internal recorder that can store up to eight normal tracks and one Pattern track at a time. Although this feature is quite basic today, we still think it’s important that we mention it.
You can also use the split and laying feature in the best way possible. All the effects such as reverb, metronome, and others are provided here as well.
The speakers are also good enough for a medium-sized hall and if you want to practice without making any noise then the option of plugging headphones has been provided for you.
Yamaha MM8 Overview:
Pros and Cons Of Yamaha MM8:
While this was all we had to say about the Yamaha MM8 we know it can get confusing for you. The fault is not yours, it’s us. We keyboard lovers can go on and on about these things that we love. So, if you’re the confused one, don’t worry. We’ll simplify all the above explained into just pros and cons so it becomes easier for you to decide.
Pros
- Enough sounds especially the ones extracted from the Motif and GM voices
- Weighted and graded keyboard
- Cubase AI featured
- All effects and features included
- Good storage capacity
- Seamless onboard editing and mixing
- Easy to navigate
- Good enough speakers
- Cubase AI included
- Inbuilt recorder
- MIDI and DAW connectivity
Cons
- Plasticky and fragile body
- Only 32 note polyphony provided
- Old style keyboard
Conclusion
As you can see that the pros outweigh the cons massively and therefore it’s a worthy keyboard to buy. If you can afford its more expensive models go for them as they will provide a better maximum polyphony, which in our experience is the only real con of the Yamaha MM8.
That’s all from our side, we hope we have provided you with our honest Yamaha MM8 review and everything you came looking for has been answered.