Yamaha SY-85 | Vintage Synth Explorer

Yamaha • SY-85

In the early 1990's most synth manufacturer's quest to use digital forms of synthesis to re-create acoustic sounds (as well as analog sounds) led to an onslaught of rather boring instruments. Among the mob of digital synths some stood out such as Korg's M1, Roland's D-50, and Yamaha's SY-85. Fading away were the days of Yamaha's FM-synthesis, replaced by Advanced Wave Memory (AWM2). Throughout the 1990's Yamaha used AWM2 in many of their successful products because of its high sonic quality and advanced synth-like editing features. The SY-85 was a powerful workstation keyboard capable of some great sounds and full arrangements.

It's a 16-part multitimbral MIDI synth with a nicely weighted 61-note keyboard designed to be the main keyboard in your MIDI studio, with tons of sounds and sequencing features built-in. It has a long but narrow 40 character x 2 line LCD display and a 5x5 mode selection matrix which enhances operation by allowing fast easy access to any of the SY-85's modes. In addition to pitch & modulation wheels and dual output level controls, the SY-85 has eight slide controls that can be used to control a range of parameters while performing for expressive real-time power. Best of all it's got multi-mode filters and a dual-effects processor with chorus, flange, reverb, delay, exciter, parametric EQ, echo, ring modulation, leslie, distortion, etc. The effects can be used in series or parallel, and there are 4 busses to route sounds through them. Other features include a 3.5" floppy disk drive, external memory card slots and two assignable stereo outputs.

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lqbe

Posted 84 days ago

It's 2010 and the SY85 is still a fantastic synthesizer. Even though it lacks FM synthesis (compared to SY77/99). Resonant filters, great FX, charming sound. I like and use it regularly.

All of my thoughts here:
http://solasistim.wordpress.com/2010/02/04/yamaha-sy85- workstation-synthesizer/

The Ghoul

Posted 91 days ago

I still use one of these, with a DX7IIFD to write all the sequences for my industrial band (2010). Yes the sequencer is limited but it all goes to the laptop for live so what does it matter?

Mark Holley

Posted 101 days ago

I've owned this board since they first came out.... has served me well. I still use it today, mainly for pads, filter sweeps, strings, and comping sounds... also out of all the boards I own, I use the SY85 for emulating a sax... I have a killer sax patch that I tweaked over the years and it just wails... I also own an SY-99 and a S-30...... also have a Roland JV1010 and a Korg... but the SY85 holds it's own.

fhed cuenco

Posted 115 days ago

sy85 is very great very realistic sound. i used it this year 2010 jan 5. i love it. the sound is so good.im from philippines

leonardkristianto

Posted 123 days ago

does anyone know how to get a good Hammond B3 organ for this synth? or does anyone has? i need the info where can i buy or get it from. thanks

<4321>

 

via vintagesynth.com

My first "real" synthesizer, which I bought with graduation money from my BA degree... used it to compose my Master's Project and dozens of cool yugenro tracks from '92-2002 or so...

Then it just disappeared... I think somebody stole it from the Lotus Cup after an OEE (Ornamental Ether Experience) show... unfortunately I didn't even realize it was missing for several weeks, so un-materialistic I had become...

I hope whoever has my SY85 is really enjoying it and making beautiful music with it... I love you, I'm sorry, please forgive me, thank you...

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M-AUDIO: ProKeys Sono 88 - 88-Key Portable Digital Piano with USB Audio Interface

via m-audio.com

I wanna play one of these! Looking for a great-feeling keyboard...

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Don't trust the critics: Four Apple products they thought would fail

via tuaw.com

Exactly!

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Typing on the iPad

via live.gizmodo.com

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the iPad!

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iPad with keyboard & stand!

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Apple builds tablet buzz with silence, say experts

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Computerworld - Apple's ability to spawn massive interest in its still-unannounced tablet is based on a respectable track record and keeping its corporate mouth shut, experts said today.

"Success breeds success," said Michael Gartenberg, vice president of strategy and analysis at market research firm Interpret LLC, when asked how Apple manages to build such serious buzz for a product no one has seen, and about which Apple has breathed not one word.

"Apple has a track record of delivering," he said.

Kathy Sharpe, the chief executive of the Manhattan-based digital marketing firm Sharpe Partners, agreed. "Apple keeps coming out with things that are game changing," said Sharpe. "People pay attention because they get it right, even if the product doesn't work in at first, like the original iPod and the iPhone."

Apple's San Francisco event tomorrow is expected to showcase a new device -- a 10-in. or 7-in. tablet -- but the company has said nothing other than to promise something new. "The new products we are planning to release this year are very strong, starting this week with a major new product that we're really excited about," said CEO Steve Jobs in a statement released just before Monday's earnings call.

"It's a great tool that's an integral part of their marketing," said Stephen Baker, an analyst with retail research company The NPD Group, talking about the vaunted secrecy Apple maintains prior to a new product launch.

"Silence fuels speculation, speculation fuels rumor," said Gartenberg. "But by saying nothing, they haven't promised anything, so they don't really have to deliver [on the rumors]." Even so, Apple faces some risk by letting others manage the message, even if, as some have claimed, the company judiciously leaks information to selected reporters.

"The danger is that the speculation is going to get ahead of what you're going to deliver," Gartenberg added.

The risk is small, countered Baker, who reminded everyone that it's not as if this kind of attention is commonplace. "This really only happens every two or three years," Baker said. "Even Apple can't do this all the time. You didn't see this when they put a video camera in the [iPod] Nano, did you?"

The last time anyone was able to hype a product announcement at this scale without saying anything was three years ago this month, when Jobs pulled the first-generation iPhone out of his pocket, Baker said.

Apple's secrecy and its ceding the table to rumors is good marketing, said Sharpe, because it gets consumers involved. "The secrecy makes it much easier for Apple to generate buzz. No one knows what this is, so it could be the next iPhone...or the next Newton," she said, referring to the MessagePad personal data assistant that Apple introduced in 1993 to much fanfare but lackluster sales.

"That's part of the mystery. Because we're all in the dark, it's a great equalizer. No one has the story first," Sharpe continued. "That makes consumers feel a little important."

Even after the tablet is unveiled, Apple won't have much to say in how consumers perceive the device, little more than it did when it kept its month shut leading up to the event, argued Baker. "Afterward, the majority of people [commenting on the Web] will be talking about what it doesn't have, what it doesn't do," he said. "There won't be a lot of accentuation of the positive. They want to keep [talk of the tablet] amped, and the way to do that is to go negative, after you've gone positive."

Speaking of buzz, Computerworld blogger Seth Weintraub will live-blog Apple's Wednesday event.

Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld. Follow Gregg on Twitter at

@gkeizer, send e-mail to gkeizer@ix.netcom.com or subscribe to Gregg's RSS feed

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via computerworld.com

Man, I dig the sh*t out of Apple gear! And I am, like so many others these days, PUMPED about tomorrow morning's announcement!

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