I’ve been reaching for a metaphor, and that’s never a good position to be in. If you have to strain for your metaphor, as if for a dusty can of beans on the top shelf, it’s not going to be the poetic illustration that you want it to be. I’ve considered writing things like “the Yamaha Motif ES Rack is like the girl you bring home to meet your parents” and “you don’t drive to work in the TVR”. But I shouldn’t be committing that kind of prose to code, just like I shouldn’t be trying to apologise for purchasing the first current-model sample-based synth to be added to my collection in 8 years.

And so I won’t apologize for buying the Motif, because it was inevitable in a way, and because it’s a fine piece of gear. It does what it’s supposed to do, and packs more than a few pleasant surprises, for a reasonable price.

How was it inevitable? It was inevitable that I would end up playing covers on the B-circuit again, because I can, and because it’s kind of fun (okay, I admit it), and because there’s a couple of bucks in it. Enough to pay for a new piece of gear. But give unto Caesar, remember? You don’t use the dough you make playing “Fly Like an Eagle” to buy a modular synth. You buy a workhorse, something cheap but powerful, with your basic stable of piano, electric piano, organ, clav, brass and strings — and a few stock synth patches thrown in for good measure.