From: jtn@ADS.COM (John T. Nelson)
Subject: SY99 has no peers?
Organization: Guest of Booz, Allen & Hamilton, Inc./Advanced Decision Systems
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1992 03:21:13 GMT

Hello all.  I'm looking for my next megasynth so I decided to wander
down to my local mega music chain "Wave Wankers" to see what's new and
(dare I say it) "happening."  God that word is starting to grate.  If I
hear one more person with BIG hair say something is "happening" I'm
going to take a lighter to his BIG hair and watch it go up like the
ah.... tha... tha Hindenberg.

Hey... there's the SY99 from Yamaha.  I've always liked the looks of
this synth on paper.  It combines samples and FM synthesis together.
But I have my doubts.  First of all the thing just doesn't sparkle like
a synth should.  I noted that many of the samples that impressed me the
LEAST were those that used the SY99's AWM samples (often in conjunction
with AFM FM tones).  Maybe a lot of the samples in the box are using a
low sampling rate, less than the maximum 48Khz rate.  I dunno.

The hipest thing about this synthesizer is that you can download
samples to it via MIDI Dump Standard.  Now THAT'S a cool thing.  You
say you want an "organ" kit or a new drum kit or even a "Conrail
Locomotive careening headlong into a train of harpsichords" kit?...
hey, just download some samples and use the FM synthesis part along
with the back-end effects units to build some killer sounds.

Anyone else listened to this box?  Any critisisms of the sound
quality?  I fear that it suffers somewhat from the Korg T1 whimpy
sounds syndrome.  I definately don't want to buy another D50 with all
its inherent noise.  Anyone have an reviews or specs on the noise
levels or sample quality of the SY series, the 99 in particular?  I
must have missed all the reviews in the major trade mags.

Now let's mosy over and take a look at that new Roland synthesizer, the
JV-80.  Unlike the SY99 there are no samples and (obviously) no MIDI
Dump capability.  So this synth isn't as flexible as the SY99.  BUT...
every patch is crystal clear.  In fact one criticism of this box is
that it's TOO bright.  Ooooohhh... I LIKE this vibraphone.  Hmmmm...
this acoustic piano leaves a LOT to be desired (sounds like a cleaned
up RD300).  Hey.... neato new-age patch.  Oh... these sliders let me
adjust the output volume for parts of a voice.  Cool!  And only $1400.

But what if I want to build realistic violin sounds or something?
Naw... this isn't the box for me.  Sounds good but inflexible in that I
can't build new realistic sounds or awesomly complex sampled sounds.
Guess I wanta sampler...

Hey look over there.... there's an Akai S1000... naw too expensive.
And over there... an Emax II!  Mmmmm.... pretty low on the max number
of notes/poliphony you get.  No... I won't even look at the high-end
Roland samplers.  I know I can't afford those.  Besides.... those are
pure playback devices and expensive ones at that.

Hmmmmm... the new Proteus keyboard looks pretty sweet.  The Performance
is a great piano module and the Proteus expanders are pretty nice.
Sounds pretty good too.  Ugh... this keyboard suffers a little from
over-design.  Hey guys I want this thing to SOUND good, not LOOK good.

Oh NO!  Wave Wankers pulled the Wavestation from their displays.  Guess
not everyone can handle one of those.  I do notice they have a Waldorf
Wave.  I'm not sure I can warm up to the Wave's style of synthesis.

Let's play with this W/01 workstation from Korg.  Hmmmm... how do I get
out of this menu.  Grumble.  Hit this button.  Nope.  How about this
one?  Nope...

So anyone else looking for a new box?  What looks good to you?  I have
to say the synth industry looks like its REALLY slow.  Not suprising,
recession and all.  Looks like some deals could be had though.  Problem
is that nothing quite has the quality I want at the price I can
afford.

- John
Newsgroups: rec.music.synth