Hi guys,
I currently own a MOXF8, but I am not too happy with the touch and the sounds of the piano. I mainly use the keyboard for piano, EP, pad, strings, brass, organ (Church worship kind of setting) and also occasional classical piano.
I'm looking at an ad on craigslist for a S90ES for $1000 CAD and I'm considering selling my current piano for that one. I've heard many good things about the S90 and I've seen it in use very often from amateur to professional settings. The one downside it presents is that its older, and I don't know too much about it (The S90 series is almost impossible to find at a store in Canada as it was discontinued)

I find the GHS on the MOXF8 a little too light for my taste and I was wondering how the balanced hammer action on the S90es was in comparison. I also heard that the piano sounds are excellent on the S90es, how do they compare in character? What about all the other sounds (EP, pad, strings, brass, organ)?
And lastly, how would it be in studio settings? I know it doesn't have DAW workstation capabilities like the MOXF8, but I don't really need that. I simply need to be able to plug into an audio interface and record, and connect to MIDI (preferably via USB?

And any other points would be welcome!

Thanks,
Danny

I gig the S90ES, it's a great sounding board. Very capable. The main S piano sound is particularly good for solo play. But there are some variations on the waveforms for a more cutting sound, and mono as well. The other sounds available on the S90ES are the same as what you would find on an Motif ES which was a major win for Yamaha - very well accepted pretty much everywhere for it's build quality, sound quality and variety. The downside is it's heavy, 49.6lbs. The MOXF8 is 32.85lbs.

Is it worth $1k CAD? I'd say so, but you really should try to talk him down. New at this price you'd be looking at something like a Casio PX-5S which is great for it's weight and price, but unless you just have to have that HEX synth, I don't see any reason to prefer it over a S90ES or a Motif ES which are just built better and much more robust in sounds and features (like arps and DAW remote for example).

The balanced hammer action on the S90ES is fairly firm, and quite nice for playing EPs, and there are a ton of EP sounds on board. I go back and forth about this a lot though, I sort of like a graded action when I am playing a lot of acoustic piano.

Other than weight, I have no reason to replace or "upgrade" my S90ES. I also have the expansion slots filled, so I have an excellent DX synth, AN1 synth, and I used the last slot for the piano board just for the extra polyphony when I am doing a lot of layering.

There are a lot of guys still gigging the S90ES at The Keyboard Corner as well. I am sure there are some threads on it. Or at Motifator.com. Yamaha also has an S90XS and S70XS. However, I've heard from more than one owner that they preferred the S piano sample in the S90ES. The S70XS only shaves the weight to 44.2lbs.

I owned the 90Es for a short time, a weekend, maybe 4 to 5 years ago. I bought it in pristine shape off of CL for a grand.

I spent the weekend doing extensive A/Bing with my CP5. Both with phones and through gigging speakers.

My verdict - the CP5 was sonically equal or superior in almost every instrument category with the exception of a few exotic synth patches ( that I would never use) . And I far preferred the the CP5 action over the balanced hammer. The down side was the CP5 was larger and heavier by around 6 lbs. But again, and surprisingly, I couldn't find anything about it, for what I do, that was superior to the CP5.

I sold it on the following Tuesday, again on CL, for exactly what I paid for it.

Still, I'd most definitely go with the 90ES over the MOX8. I'm not at all a fan of the watered down Motifs - both sound and keyboard feel. I know the MOXs are lighter in weight to schlep around but I'd suck it up for the difference in quality.

My main concern would be, considering it's an older keyboard - what kind of shape is the keybed in ? Has it had a lot of use ? Is it it loose feeling ? Yes the build quality is excellent on the 90ES but over time the plastic parts still wear out. That's not to say you couldn't replace the whole keybed but you're looking at an added expense , which I'm not sure of how much.

Also I owned the S90 Classic. Bought it when it first came out and used it as a work horse for close to 10 years. The ES, piano speaking, was a much better board but I was cheap and never did upgrade until I checked it out a few years back.

So you guys recommend the S90ES? People like to ES over the XS? Wow

The other pianist at church has a S90ES. She used to use it at church but the line outs stopped working correctly. The church bought a CP4 and she loves it. The GHS is pretty bad, so I don't blame you there, but I love my MOX6 (synth action). It's done really well for playing at church.

I think with that price range, why not check out a new Casio PX-5S? Just for comparison.

The Casio is excellent for weight and surprising for sounds and action at it's price point. The HEX synth is a bonus but not a factor for someone mainly looking for a stage piano with bread and butter sounds. It's worth a look, although, not really comparable. But maybe good enough. The user interface is most lacking, I think.

If you like the Yamaha AWM2 libraries I'd check out a used CP-5 or CP-4 (the CP-4 is actually the newer and lighter model).

I did see the CP4 and I really love it, but I don't have the extra budget for it unfortunately. At the moment its either stay with the MOXF8 or get something cheaper. And the S90ES seems to be better quality with a cheaper price at the moment.

Regarding the 90XS - most prefer the ES piano. The S6 sample had a weird phasing issue on some notes in the octave below middle C. You can Google it.

I was set on buying the 90XS as it had more clarity in many areas then the ES. But that phasing piano issue was a deal breaker. Plus the 90XS is a really long/wide keyboard. Pretty unwieldily for moving around, taking up space on stage and lifting on and off the stand.

Just doing a quick search I'm assuming this is it:
http://vancouver.craigslist.ca/rds/msg/5561593623.html

Can't tell from the photo what kind of shape it's in. Hopefully you're local so you can check it out before buying. Look for any unevenness in the action or key noise.

And yes I'd go with the 90ES over the Casio fwiw. Good luck.

Yup, Thats the one. I'll definitely be trying it out before buying if I do buy it. The seller has told me that everything is in great shape.

So but I was wrong about the S90ES pianos, they are not on the latest Motif ROM, hence not on the MOXF's, post edited, please disregard

I purchased the S90ES and I'm very happy with it! Thanks everyone!

Awesome. Every once in a while Yamaha nails it. The Motif ES and S90ES were on the money. As the Montage begins to arrive in shops, people are getting their hands on it, and an OS revision is already available... could prove to be a winner... although right now the 8 is $4k. So most of us like to play a few years back to stay within a budget. Enjoy!