i have had one.... the triton is good for pads..... really great fo synth sounds. plus it is more intuitely designed for combis and programming big patches.
the motif has a better pallette of your bread-and-butter sunds- pianos, organs, strings, horns, things like that. it doesnt have the ensembles that the triton woulld give you; you can create them, but it requires a little more knowledge of how the machine works and basic princeples of synthesis as well as music to really get the most out of it....
i.e., motif has a very good violin, viola, and cello- which the triton doesnt really have one thats even close, but the triton has these huge patches of orchestral sounds. you have some (kinda) on the motif, but you really have to create them from the ground up. i kind of prefer it that way; makes me learn more about actual music. plus i like the idea of creating my own arrangements.
the motif racks has far better effects and a better interface for using them the triton has the touch screen, so thats an advantage. but the triton wont let you record programs unless you have created them yourself insie the sequencer mode; otherwise the sounds you have are thin "base" sounds designed for creating programs. the motif really does give you awesome sounds right out the box. no combis to copy or programs to create. you create your own sounds and store them in the same banks as everything else, but you can use them in a sequence without having to create your own.
for myself, the motif has a far better sounding sound engine..... of course it is simply an opinion, but it is one of the very few machines (the rack) that actually lives up to the hype and goes beyond it. i no longer have mine (traded it for the pc route for financial reasons) so lets see what mucka has to say.
te triton isnt a bad machine, but it just sounds very, um.... "pop" to me. the pianos are mostly sweet, sugary sounds and do not sound like a piano should; the strings sound like they are synth strings, allthough the ensembles can soundexcellent at times. the organs dont impress me (at least they are better than rolands on their workstations) and they dont have a suitable keyboards section. this the one area where the motf blows everything elsecompletely out of the water, the guitars as well.
justwant out-of-the-box sounds to work with, but i will make my own as well. i just feel if i spend $1000 on something it had better have a ton of useable sounds right when i get it- every thing else doesnt really mater to me much. all in all the triton is a great machine, and sound wise it is geared more towards making beats for guys like fabulous or nsync.....
thats just my opinion, and others will differ greatly in theirs i am sure.
and there isnt a synth alive that can hang with kontakt! garritsan orchestral strings, voices of the apocolypse, the piano cd rom i got sucks, ill have to find another, and check out brass super section! samplers rock......