The following Q&A are taken from motifator.com. Phil Clendeninn of Yamaha
explains more about Expanded Articulation (XA) control and the differences
from Super Articulation. This is a good read for both Motif/MOX people and
arranger keyboard people.

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>> Assuming we have the exact same samples inside Motif, Can we
   program a sound exactly like SA2 sound?

XA CONTROL as found in Yamaha synthesizers like the Motif XF, MOX,
motif XS, and S90 XS/S0 XS are the synthesizer implementation of a
technology that allows the performer to dynamically choose which
Elements and sometimes how those Elements will behave.

Velocity switching is one method of getting Voices to behave
differently, and I guess a good example would be Voices "Slap
Bass" and "Velo Bass" where when you play exceeding a certain
velocity, the normal bass tone switches to the Element that is a
sample of a slapped bass. These have been around for almost as long
as samples. And there are many, many Waveforms in the synths that
utilize velocity switching - hihats with four and five different
articulations as you increase velocity, snares the same way.

But the XA CONTROL introduced the ability to give each Element
(Oscillator) instructions on when to sound. For example, normal,
only when AF1 is lit, only when AF2 is lit, only when All AF are off,
in sequence one after the other (cycle), in random sequence (random
cycle), only when a note is released (KeyOff Sound), only when a new
note is triggered while another is being held (legato).

Acoustic instrument articulations is one of the areas that sampling
found great difficulty with, so many things the players of those
instruments can do, different gestures: players add harmonics,
slides, scoups, drop offs, switching from bow to plucked from normal
bowing to spicato, etc., etc.

SuperArticulation 2 is a cutting edge advancement on Articulation
Element Modeling, where you take the concept of giving the keyboard
player more ways to express themselves musically. This AEM technology
tricked down from the Yamaha Disklavier but was enhanced for the
Tyros-series.

You could not be more wrong about the exact same samples -
obviously you have not heard the Tyros SuperArticulation2. A single
SuperArticulation 2 Voice could have hundreds of MB of samples making
up its available content. Break down a sound into the attack
articulation > the body of the sound > the release articulation (just
as an example) an SA2 Voice might give you several different attack
elements that you can dynamically choose, those are "knitted"
onto the body of the sound, while that body is playing you have
options to adjust the tone and timbre, and you can choose from a
variety of release articulations which are seamlessly "knitted"
onto the body sound.

It is the "knitting" where a lot of the magic takes place. The
result is that you play, and it responds fluidly. And it can have
several knitted transitions during the held (body) portion.

The trick is to make these play with a minimum of intrusion on the
playing style of the performer, in other words much of what happens
does not take you out of your normal approach to playing the
keyboard. Some do however. Those that do, require you press a
button (similar to the AF1/2 buttons on the XS, XF, MOX), or play a
legato gesture, or attack quickly/slowly or release quickl/slowly
etc., etc..

In general the differences between a Tyros customer and a Motif
customer has to do with DIY (Do It Yourself). The Motif customer
doesn’t just want MegaVoices, they want to be able to create their own
MegaVoices and edit everything about them. The Tyros customer is all
about performance. Now those are very broad generalizations, and is
not true in every case.

But the SuperArticulation2 engine is quite different from the XA
CONTROL - if you have played a SA2 Voice and did not notice any
difference, you’ll want to do that again, this time pay closer
attention to how it responds. But I must say that without a lot of
"thinking" you can create more expressive phrasing and you don’t
have to be a Mod Wheel Jedi or change your playing gesture much to get
a lot out of it.

There is an auto-articulation that can be in play that really
"watches" how you are playing and I’ve had some people do this and get
it right away others kind of don’t get it until you point it out to
them (c’est la vie). The instrument monitors how you play and adjusts,
it is aware of staccato, legato, etc.

Now over in the "HOME" keys area of Yamaha they don’t usually
try to dazzle customers with specifications like WAVE ROM size,
typically if you are concerned about ROM size you are a Motif customer
(haha), but the data base for the SA2 Voices is huge - the SA2
Trumpet, Sax, Clarinet, Harmonica, and Irish Pipes alone are bigger
than most ROMplers on the market!

Certain Voices lend themselves to this AEM technology. For example,
the SA2 Trombone is as realistic a trombone (and this is my personal
opinion here) as I’ve ever played. Never really considered a trombone
as a lead Voice up until I played this. Scary fun to play and no
real instructions necessary. Constantly gives a fresh and
expressive response.

Anticipating the follow-up question. sure we could (make such VOICES
for the XF) - but on the Motif customer side, they will want access,
not just to play the Voice, but to make their own.

You give a Motif customer 7000 arps and before they have heard 100 of
them they already want to make their own. Not a value judgment,
mind you, just an observation. Hopefully, there develops an
appreciation of just what it takes to make all these different
articulations come to life. And the real innovative thing about
them is just how playable they are without being a controller
wizard. I mean the Tyros customer is hitting Section Change and
Fill-in buttons while playing so the technology has to be able to do
what it does with a minimum of physical gestures that are not apart of
your normal keyboard playing. (and I think that is the real magic
of SA2).