This is the best yamaha synth existing so far. It was (and still is -2012-) father of the Motif. Incredible analog sounds, brasses, elegant pads, Rhodes, HiFi sound in maximal expression !! Makes every record sound professional.
Still my absolute favorite Hardware Synthesizer I own. The Strings, Pads, Bells and EDM type Lead sounds this Beast is capable of still blow my mind. AWM2, Virtual Analog, Physical Modelling, FDSP & ReSampling in one unit plus great Effects and a very good Keyboard - the EX5 is my Master keyboard and shall always be my personal Number One.
This guy's vids are incredibly informative! His playing skills and ability to interpret each instrument's style & character is phenomenally astounding. His playing & musical presentation is tremendously flawless!
I have current high end Yamaha and Korg gear and a Receptor but nothing sounds like an EX. I have bought and sold loads of keys over the last 10 years trying to find something to compliment or better the expressiveness of my EX and now recognise that my Blue Singing Machine will be a keeper
Yea, the EX5 does have a really warm & unique sound. I really love it. Some of my higher end synths include; Korg Kronos X & Triton, Yamaha Motif Classic & EX5, Kurzweil PC3K, & Alesis Fusion. I like the EX5 more than my Motif, but the Triton (Pro X 88 w/EXB-MOSS & EXB-PCM Analog Archive/Trance Attack) is my personal favorite. BTW, are you familiar with ex5tech.com? There are hundreds (if not 1,000s) of great & awesome EX5 patches there, all free.
Ive played many hours on this synth. The depth of what is possible is astonishing and can take you weeks to learn. An underrated keyboard of the highest quality from Yamaha.
Such a power house of sound programming! I was still touring with my SY99 when this thing came out. And later jumped to the then brand new Motif, ignoring the EX5. What a miss was that! I just realize it buying one after 22 years!
Had the 'board for ages, then migrated to the EX5R rack, which is now fully loaded with all the extras including floppy emulator & 'Sector-101' 16Mb Flash expanded memory option. Sounds incredible still, after all these years. It has to be one of Yamaha's best ever workstation-based synths - worth it alone for the Extended Synthesis engines covering virtual analogue AN, virtual acoustic VL, Formulated Digital Sound Processing FDSP and of course is a fully-fledged sampling work horse, where you can compliment the Advanced Wave Memory AWM2 engine to create some amazing patches. Digital filters on this are ace too !! Nice upload Katsunori-san 😎🎹👍
That's a hard one to answer. It depends on what you are looking for. I paid around $450 for mine, but I got a great deal on it. They are sometimes going for $650. I wouldn't pay that much for this unit, I would shop around or try to talk the person down to around $500ish. Again, it depends on what you are looking for. If you want fantastic piano, strings and deep sounding low end on acoustic instruments & pads, then this is your baby. Its a monster in terms of size, its dated in the sense it has a floppy drive. I actually sold mine for $550 in PERFECT shape, because it was way too big to keep, and I have several other instruments that could do the same thing in the areas I wanted them to. I hope this helps.
@ EgoShredder WOW I do NOT know, I had to sell mine :( very sad but I needed the room, it was a tank in the studio and I had so many other synths that I used more. The sound though is really FANTASTIC!
I had one (which I upgraded with memory and a SCSI drive). I sold it, but I keep wishing I hadn't. It was HEAVY to haul around, but the keybed was great and the board felt solid. It was a great controller with good aftertouch. Sounds were good as long as you didn't expect super realistic stuff (VSTs do better). Synthesis was a bit confusing and required a lot of menu diving, but results were worth it. Sound sets from folks on the EX5 forums really made it shine.
I agree. I bought this keyboard on eBay last year (I have the blue instead of the silver edition). This is where the first generation Motif was born. The EX5 has some incredible sounds that are timeless. I admit the acoustic pianos are more suited for "Pop" than "Classical", but the electric pianos are A+. This is one keyboard I'll never part with.
Cool eh? I got one too, when they were being dumped in the UK. Had it shipped it over to the Netherlands for £60. It was £100 more expensive than the blue one, if I remember correctly. All in all, I paid just over 3000 Dutch guilders (around €1400) for it brand new, whereas I saw a second-hand one in Amsterdam for 4000 Dutch guilders, with a thick layer of dust under the keys.
Severity One Mann lucky you!!!! Haha I have a good ole blue one here in the closet that I absolutely refuse to let go of :) Probably one of the most underrated synths of all time
Local ad, he was also selling an FS1R for $150 but I called him on that and he said he had bidders on it, was on $550 at that time so I backed out, didn't want it that badly. He didn't know what the stuff was worth.
thins think is a beauty, i remember walking into a music shop and playing all these other synths, then just before i left i saw this and tried it...i played about 5 samples, and the sound was gorgeous, best synth, must have been good i still remember it clearly...can't go wrong with this one
The EX5 is not the best workstation or sequencer, BUT if you use it purely as a SYNTHESIZER it is one of the best and deepest digital synths ever made. The acoustic instruments are good too, but this thing is BEAST for evolving pads, washing warm harmonic rich tones and crazy out of this world type sounds.
Wow, this oldie beats even much more younger Yamaha's (16 programs per performence, differend synthtype, not only AWM2...) Did I hear Eric Norlander sounds?
Maybe these synthesizers were used in hits from 2000 to 2002 For example, probably songs like: Try Again by Aaliyah (March 2000) It Wasn't Me by Shaggy (November 2000) Survivor by Destiny's Child (March 2001) Without Me by Eminem (May 2002)
I have just bought the EX7. Wow what a great synth. I own four Yamaha synths now. The piano on the EX is the best I've heard, but no weighted keys I believe. the sax sounds excellent. can't wait for it to come. Excellent demo. thank you so much.
I have just ordered an EX7 too. Wanted a good Yamaha synth. For arrangements I gotten the Korg Karma..and for piano weighted keys.. the Kurzweil. So, no need to expect just what I look from any.
Great video as usual! Just makes me sad thinking about all the amazing synthesis technology Yamaha is just sitting on. The EX5 combined virtual analogue, physical modeling, FM... We can't even get a FS2r formant/FM out of Yamaha, I understand the ROMpler workstations are where the money is, but KORG has been putting out amazing synths for years, come on Yamaha! By the way, I'd love to see a Monotribe demo when they finally launch. :D
My biggest dissatisfaction with the Yamaha synths is the lack of multi synth engines - which they pioneered and simply allowed Korg to dictate since...
@efectooro7 El Yamaha EX5 es un teclado legendario, muy respetado, es todo un clasico, tiene una potencia tremenda, para mi el mejor teclado en su epoca, tanto asi que fue el teclado base de los MOTIF...!!!
Predecesor del primer Yamaha Motif, claramente usa el sonido de piano llamado Power Grand usado en muchos pianos y teclados Yamaha, solo que aqui en el EX5 suena con una calidad inferior.
I still have one of these that I got in 1997. I used it a lot in rock bands and still use it to this day. I've never seen a white one. Mine is the blue beast. My only complaints are that it is REALLY heavy and difficult to use. The manual is virtually useless.
There's really no difference with the blue EX5. The box says "EX5S", the logo on the back (facing the audience) is a bit bigger... that's it. Mine is fully kitted out with 64 MB RAM, 16 MB flash, SCSI and four extra outputs. As for our bedroom, that's the only room in the house that isn't air conditioned. Plus it's 33 degrees C, and summer hasn't even started... :)
Seems unlikely it's unequivocally better :) Seems more flexible. But as a sequencer I can't believe it's better. Surely the Motif's grand piano is better, it has a lot more wave memory. I am curious, have you owned the XF? I have owned the XS, XF and Moxf6. And the XF is indepensible for me. I did feel I had to add some other synths, so bought a Virus, Blofeld and Prophet 12 over some time. But the XF is my centerpiece - sequencing, drums, acoustic stuff, organs...I use the basses on the Virus a lot, but I like the Motif's as well. I don't enjoy programming Motif patches much, it's not hands on, and it doesn't have modulation options like the other three.
The EX5 is a synthesizer with some workstations capabilities, the Motif is a workstation with some synth skills. They're both so different in concept to try comparison...
I doubt the EX5 is better in term of sample based synthesis, as the Motif came after, has more memory, the pianos should sound more 00's than 90's on the motif. Not saying that the EX5 sucks, it sounds really good in this demo
EX5/7 dernier Synthétiseur Workstation multi-synthèses de chez Yamaha, perso j'ai la version rack, l'EX5R, mais j'adorerais avoir cette version "anniversaire" :-)
@maidiremirko same sample sets pretty much. Yamaha took a lot of great samples and have been making them available for years in different configurations. The A4000 cds are probably the "rawest" format of those samples available commercially.
Yamaha should revisit the concept and re-issue the EX-5 with a touchscreen similar to Montage but everything else just the same. Of course the sequencer should rather be a motif xf and a Montage-like sampler but everything else kept the same, especially the build and material quality.
this was a great synth in its day. I thought it sounded better than the Korg Trinity which was the competition at the time. I went with the Trinity because it had an aluminum case instead of the cheap AN1X style plastic. and the Korg was infinitely more user friendly.
Too bad - but thankfully one can simply hook up a good 88 note controller for full piano. Or connect a later-model Electone with dual 61 note keyboards and bass pedals. Something like the ELS-01X or ELX-1m. These were designed to work together.
Neither the EX5 or the EX7 were strong in the sequencing department.., but BOTH are amazing just for the synth capabilities. Granted the EX7 was more watered down.., but it too was great as a synth.
Would it be in any way redundant to buy this and the SY99 already owning a PSR-S950? The S950 reproduces many of these type of patches (FM pianos, complex pads), but I'm so drawn to the lushness and grit of the SY & EX! Should I buy just one or the other (the latter probably having some edge)?
![YAMAHA EX5 Demo & Review [English Captions]](/img/logo.svg){kind=logo}
