Amaha were once the masters of the low-cost but surprisingly impressive synthesizer. From the CE20 and CE25 to the DX21, DX27 and DX11, then the likes of the SY22 and SY55. these were all inexpensive descendents of more powerful parents. But for the past dozen years or so, Yamaha have been locked into its Motif product range, spinning off mid-range instruments, but with no obvious equivalent to any of the above. Happily, that’s now changed with the introduction of the MX49 and MX61, a pair of low-cost synths that come packaged with Steinberg’s Cubase AI6 sequencer and Prologue soft synth, as well as Yamaha’s own YC3B organ emulator. That’s a lot of stuff for such a low price. I wonder whether there’s a catch?