We’re extremely proud to introduce the new S90 XS/S70 XS as the successor to the original S90 ES. Equipped with exceptionally high-quality musical instrument sounds and a real piano-feel response, this is truly the instrument of choice for musicians and players worldwide, whatever the genre. Drawing on our long experience cultivated through years of synthesizer development, we designed this model not only for top professional musicians, but also for casual players and hobby musicians who want to have a greater level of high-quality sound, playability and advanced features – especially in live performance applications. To complete this lineup, we’ve added the S70 XS, a 76-key model which maintains the same keyboard touch as the 88-key model, yet provides the added value of portability.

The advanced and convenient features of the S90 XS/S70 XS do not stop there. The Remote Control functions and the Master Keyboard features have been enhanced and made more powerful to meet the demands of professional music production. We are proud and confident that the S90 XS/S70 XS can aid in your music making, and we’re sure that it will be your first ‘go-to’ instrument in music situation, live performance, recording and so on. In order to take full advantage of the S90 XS/S70 XS’s functionality, please read this manual carefully. We also recommend that you keep this manual in a safe and handy place for future reference.

We really hope that the S90 XS/S70 XS will help your creativity and musical work grow by leaps and bounds.

Enjoy!
Sincerely,
The Yamaha S90 XS/S70 XS Development Team

The best musical instruments start with top-quality sounds, and the S90 XS/S70 XS delivers
all that – and more. The S Series features all the Voices, Performances, arps and Virtual Circuit Modeling effects found on the flagship MOTIF XS Music Production Synthesizer.
Plus we’ve added a huge 142 megabytes dedicated exclusively to high-quality piano waveforms, for a total of 456 MB of instrument samples.

Foremost among these new piano sounds are the new samples taken from Yamaha’s
world-renowned S6 concert grand piano. These fully capture the richly textured sound of
that wonderfully expressive instrument, and provide a warm concert grand piano sound
unavailable on any other keyboard. For variation, the MOTIF XS piano based on a Yamaha
CFIIIS is also available.

Conventional keyboards in the past had their sounds designed primarily for the listener.
This time, however, our development team set out to primarily satisfy the player instead.
We reasoned that when the performer hears and experiences the best possible sound, the
performance would be the best possible, too! The result? The S90 XS/S70 XS is a genuine
musician’s instrument, one that truly inspires and stimulates the live performer as well as
the music creator and arranger.

The S90 XS/S70 XS also lets you quickly and conveniently create your own custom Performances,with the amazingly fast and easy Performance Creator feature. It’s never been easier to
select a Voice, then quickly program Layers and Splits – even assigning a Drum Voice complete with arps to create your perfect Performance.Let’s say that you’re playing a piano Voice and you want to layer a string sound on top of it.
Simply press the [LAYER] button, then select the desired Voice category and Voice, and store
your new Performance – just a few button presses and you’re there!Plus the panel controls of the S90 XS/S70 XS have been designed and positioned for optimum, intuitive operation, especially for live performance. For example, you can quickly select a Part, turn it on/off, set Arpeggio on/off, switch Arpeggio Hold – all done easily with the top panel controls – and instantly tweak important synth parameters via the Knobs and Sliders.
The perfect Performance has never been easier to create and control.

The S90 XS/S70 XS has a host of other features that live performers
will appreciate – such as the combo input jack that accepts mic
input. Simply plug in a microphone, tweak
the INPUT GAIN knob (while checking the convenient PEAK lamp),
and you’re all set! Plus, you can use the Control Knobs to finely adjust
the volume and even directly apply reverb or chorus to the sound.

If you’ve got a USB memory device or thumb drive, you can plug it into the S90 XS/S70 XS
and record your performance as audio data. This remarkable feature lets you instantly
capture what you play on the keyboard – including arpeggio playback – to your USB device.
If you’ve connected a microphone or guitar, you can even record your singing or playing
as well. You can also record audio directly to the internal flash memory (192 MB) built
into the instrument, without the need of a memory device.

And keep in mind that anything you’ve recorded to the memory device, even audio files created
on your computer, can be played back on the S90 XS/S70 XS – which means you can create
your own custom audio backing tracks and perform along with them on the S90 XS/S70
XS. For example, you can create a basic song track beforehand, then sing and solo over it
during your performance. Or add guitar parts and vocal harmonies to be played back with
your live performance. There’s also a useful Song Chain function that lets you string together
separate recordings and create a convenient backing track “set list” for your gigs.

The S70 XS has a 76-Balanced Hammer Effect keyboard in a compact, lightweight design. It’s easy to use, exceptionally portable, and absolutely perfect for live performers and gigging musicians.
The S90 XS provides 88 -Balanced Hammer Effect keyboard for those players who need a full-range, full-scale keyboard.

The S90 XS/S70 XS is a perfect companion for your computer music production system, too, serving both as a master keyboard and a full-function, multi-timbral tone generator. With the DAW Remote function and its 50 different control templates, you get amazingly easy, intuitive control over your main DAW software and VST instruments – directly from the panel controls! Moreover, the Voice Editor and Remote Editor software gives you convenient, comprehensive computer control over all the sounds, settings and functions of the S70 XS/S90 XS.