From: davidm@retix.retix.com (David H. Miller) Subject: Re: details of Yamaha synthesis? Date: 26 Sep 91 19:13:50 GMT In article <19976@chaph.usc.edu> pchou@sal-sun99.usc.edu (Patrick Chou) writes: > Can someone summarize the technical aspects of Yamaha's RCM >synthesis? I saw an SY99 demo at the keyboard show in LA over the >weekend and was pretty impressed. The sales people were pushing this >"amazing RCM technology" which generates more "expressive" sounds. When >I asked what type of expressions they were talking about they said, >"Well, you can EXPRESS yourself better musically." > .... > Well, at least the demos were good. So anyway, can someone explain >to me what RCM is? And what exactly is the "vector synthesis" they use >for the TG33 and SY22? What does the TG55 use? Patrick- I'll try and help you with a description of Yamaha RCM. I was also at the keyboard show and saw the Yamaha SY99 demo. As an owner of an SY77, I couldn't believe the glowing description of RCM by the Yamaha demo guy. RCM (Realtime Convolution Modulation) allows the output of an AWM (sample) element to be used as a modulation input to any of the 6 operators of its paired AFM element. A 2-AWM and 2-AFM voice allows 2 such pairings. However it does not allow an AWM voice (or sample waves) to be used as a carrier source for an AFM operator (something I'd still like to hear). The AWM/AFM pairing allows the original AWM element, plus its RCM'ed version to be mixed together to form a voice. For as much hype as they gave RCM at the show, its interesting to note that very few of the SY77 voices I have played (Yamaha or other) use RCM. In my 4 months with the SY77, I have had little luck in producing musical sounds using RCM. When an AWM element of any timbral complexity (piano for example) modulates an FM carrier, the FM output becomes noisy very quickly. Its main utility seems to be in adding roughness (for attack transients) or noisiness (for wind sounds) to an AWM sound. The basic truth is that most AWM sounds make lousy FM modulators. -- David H. Miller Retix davidm@retix.retix.com Internetworking Group -- David H. Miller Retix davidm@retix.retix.com Internetworking Group From: hardie@herald.usask.ca (Peter Hardie) Subject: Mini-review of the SY99 Date: 6 Oct 91 22:48:06 GMT I was able to attend a demo of the SY99 about two weeks ago and, for what it's worth here are my impressions of the beast. Looking at it from the front, it is exactly the same as the SY77 except that the keyboard has more keys. Every wheel and button that was there on the SY77 is there on the SY99 and there are no extras, although some have more functions. Comparing the glossy brochure of the SY99 against the SY77 we find: 1. The tone generator stages are the same. 2. The keyboard has 76 velocity sensitive keys (SY77 was 61) with channel aftertouch which on the SY99 can also be zoned. For example, the aftertouch can be set such that it is only effective on the highest note being played so that you can 'trill' only the melody line. 3. 2 DSP effect units (as on the SY77) but with 63 effect types. 4. The sequencer has changed a bit. It still has 16 tracks but can hold 10 songs (instead of the SY77's one). The sequencer memory has also been expanded to hold about 27000 notes. It still has a resolution of 96ppq internally and 24 ppq for MIDI sync. 5. Memory: Same 128 preset voices and 16 multis plus another 64 internal (i.e. editable) voices and 16 multis. The waveform memory size has been doubled to 8 Mb and has 267 sound samples in it (SY77 has 112 sounds). It has the same card and waveform slots plus the 3.5" floppy. But it also has an additional 512 Kb of battery backed up memory (expandable via 5 rear slots to a total of 3 Mb). Up to 512 Kb of the total possible 3Mb can be assigned by the user to Midi Data Recording and the remainder is used to store user samples. 6. Controllers: no changes There are of course some interesting additions compared to the SY77: a. The SY99 can load Standard Midi Files (formats 0 and 1) from the disk and the sequencer data can now be written out to the disk in Standard Midi File format 0. b. The SY99 can read samples into the new expanded memory but ONLY thru the midi port. During the demo, this was done 'live' in front of our eyes, where the demonstrator recorded a 2 or 3 second riff played on the guitar by a member of the audience. He then edited it slightly and then played the sample back into the SY99. The sample could then be played by pressing any key on the keyboard and the SY99 adjusted the sample speed so that, for example, playing a low note made the original sound as though it had been played on a bass guitar rather than a lead. However, transferring a few seconds of a sample via MIDI is SLOW and a SCSI port would have been nicer. BUT note that the SY99 is NOT a sampler. In order to create your own samples, you have to own/buy/rent/borrow/steal a sampler. e. It recognizes loop points in the sample although this was not demonstrated. d. Samples (from the expanded memory only) can be stored on disk. e. It can function as a Midi Data recorder by storing a bulk dump from another device into the expanded memory and from there it can be written to disk. You can also send bulk dumps to other MIDI devices. f. The Jump/Mark function has been expanded so that it can remember up to five previously used pages instead of allowing only a single marked page as on the SY77. g. A lot of the information pages have been restructured/reordered to provide a somewhat more consistent and easily accessible user interface. There are probably some interesting features in there that weren't demonstrated. For example, very little was said about all the MIDI features that have been added and there was no demo of any of the new DSP effects that have been added. As you might expect, it sounds exactly like the SY77 except that, with the ability to play arbitrary samples, some of the demos had voices and other interesting non-standard sounds (compared to the SY77). Many of the built-in samples that existed in the SY77 have been redone and are apparently much better than the originals. And then, of course, there's all the extra preset samples too. For the current owner of an SY77, what about the upgrade path? If you've got the bucks, presumably you can swing a trade-in deal with your local purveyor of music computers. BUT what happens to all those disks you've got? Apparently, no problem. Although all the preset voices and wave samples are different on the SY99, it will map your SY77 voices into their SY99 equivalents. Of the "complaints" about the SY77 that I have seen on the net, there are a couple that remain in the SY99: 1. The sequencer still records just one track at a time. 2. The sequencer memory is not battery backed-up so a power failure, or switching off the SY99 at the wrong time, can lose you a lot of blood and sweat that went into the performance-of-the-century that you'd almost finished. It would be nice even if that memory were protected by a large capacitor that could hold the memory for a few minutes. Long enough to survive most power glitches and easily long enough for you to switch it back on again if you lost your mind and accidently turned it off. Pete hardie@herald.usask.ca From: scott@bbx.basis.com (Scott Amspoker) Subject: SY99 reviewed by an SY77 owner Date: 18 Jan 92 00:31:49 GMT A couple of months ago I posted a brief "first impressions" article about the Yamaha SY99 keyboard. Well, after some soul searching I decided to trade in my SY77 for an SY99. Now that I have it in *my* studio environment, here is a more detailed review of the instrument. Although my comments will the most meaningful to existing SY77 owners, anyone considering a purchase of an SY99 might find this article useful. A LITTLE HISTORY: A couple of years ago, Yamaha released the SY77, the first major improvement of the DX family synths. Not only did they substantially enhance the FM capabilities bringing it into the realm of thick, analog-style sounds (with filtering); they also added ROM samples. As I pointed out in my SY77 review at the time, the quality of the samples served only to remind me that the SY77 was primarily a powerful FM synthesizer. In my opinion, the samples served in a supporting role, lending a helping hand from time to time. I never fully understood why Yamaha chose to spin off the samples to star in their own show, the SY55. THE PRESENT: At the moment I have both a 77 and 99 setup in my studio in order to transfer patches. I have both instruments together on a keyboard stand playing them through a quality PA system and headphones. Considering how accustom my ears have become to the SY77, I was plesantly surprised by the side-by-side comparison. IN A NUTSHELL: The 99 offers many enhancements over the 77 - some subtle, some not so subtle. Most obvious is the longer keyboard (76 keys compared to the 61 keys of the SY77). Front panel controls are identical. Other major enhancements include an additional 2 megaword of ROM samples, a completely new effects processor, the ability to load user samples, and master controller capabilities. The factory patches are quite different. Minor changes include more sequencer memory, up to 10 songs at a time, a midi bulk data librarian utility, and miscellaneous convenience fetures such as the ability to edit two filters together when using them as a single 24db/oct filter (an SY77 peeve of mine). HOW DOES IT SOUND: With the exception of better effects, I wasn't expecting much improvement in the fundamental sound of the instrument. (I originally demoed it in a noisy music store with tiny speakers.) At home, I compared the 99 to the 77 with identical patches with the effects turned off. At first I noticed that the FM engines sound exactly alike. However, I stumbled onto a favorite FM-only patch called "Spirits". It is a haunting, highly resonant sound which is unfortunately plagued with intermittent distortion and noise on the 77. The 99 played the patch flawlessly. Apparently, something in the FM engine has been cleaned up. The samples were another story entirely. Most of the SY77 samples were noticeably cleaner on the SY99. The piano and strings were better. The choir had more presense and included additional samples at the female end of the keyboard (whereas the 77 stretched a sample over too many notes). Saxaphones sounded more open and natural. In most cases the SY99 samples were obviously from the same source as the SY77 but much crisper sounding. In other cases it seemed that entirely different sources were used. This was especially apparent in the drum kits which were *much* beefier on the 99 (and included a lot more drum sounds). The additional 2 megaword of samples didn't add anything earth-shattering but many of them definately had practical uses and were welcome additions. In their review, "Keyboard" magazine complained that a few of the samples had noticable loops. This is rather subtle and not noticable when layering or simply playing polyphonically. All in all I am quite pleased with the samples on the SY99 and can imagine a sample-only product (like the SY55) based on them. Finally there is the effects unit. As I understand it, the effects are based on the SPX1000. They have much different architecture than the effects on the SY77 and are more versatile. Notable enhancements in the effects area are a rotating speaker simulator and an Aural Exciter (the real thing licensed from Aphex). The progammer may assign MIDI controllers to modify effects parameters - nice touch. USER SAMPLE MEMORY: The ability to load user samples into the SY99 didn't register in my head as something I would care about. Samples may be loaded via MIDI sample dump or from a disk. However, since I'm one of the few people in the universe that owns a Yamaha TX16W sampler, I decided to give it a whirl. I stuck one of my TX16W disks in the SY99 and loaded in some samples. I then created some user "waves" (a single "wave" is Yamaha-speak for a collection of samples mapped across a keyboard). This procedure was refreshingly easy to complete (especially compared to the TX16W's OS >from hell). My samples sounded exactly as I hoped they would sound and the loops were intact. Bravo! Also worth noting is that sample memory is not lost when the power is off - no need to keep reloading tons of sample data from disk. User waves are *not* second-class citizens in the SY99. They have the same status as the ROM samples and can be put to any use (including modulators in the FM synthesis). By the time I was through with this little experiment I was actually quite excited about it and intend to explore this more in the future. MASTER CONTROLLER: The SY77 was frequently bashed because its keyboard could only play on one MIDI channel at a time. Yamaha attempted to address this issue but only with lackluster results. The SY99 can be instantly placed into "master" mode. Up to 8 master configurations may be stored, each defining 4 zones with various parameters per zone. It's better than nothing I suppose but I'll hang on to my own master controller software, thank you. NOW THE BAD NEWS: Aside from the wimpy master controller feature (a moot point to me), there really isn't anything *serious* to complain about. There are some minor annoyances however. 4-element patches are still confined to bank D. That was plain dumb 2 years ago and even more so today. There is still a clumsy multi-mode implementation. The on-board sequencer could still integrate more smoothly with the multi-mode capabilities. Also, why is it that all the RAM on the instrument is preserved when the power is off except the sequencer RAM? This no longer makes sense with all that user sample RAM. While I'm on the subject, I think that the default 512K user sample memory is rather stingy. It can be upgraded to 3 meg with Yamaha's usual overpriced memory upgrades. There are also some incompatibilities with the SY77 discussed below. MOVING FROM THE SY77 TO THE SY99: On the surface this seems like a trivial task. The SY99 will load SY77 files from disk or read an SY77 formatted data card. (NOTE: You cannot access an SY77 data card as an on-line patch bank. You must load or save the entire card to internal memory or disk. The card may then be reformatted for the SY99.) Keeping in mind that the ROM samples have been cleaned up, SY77 patches should sound the same on the SY99. The problem arises with the different effects units. I found that some patches sound just fine without any further intervention. Some patches have the effects mix too wet - a simple adjustment is all that is necessary to fix that. Finally, some patches loaded with the effects way out in left field. I had to go in and reprogram the effects for those patches. I noticed that the SY99 at least partially translated the effects for those patches but didn't do a complete job. For example, the chorus mod frequency would be set correctly but the EQ parameters would be ignored. It took me about 2 hours to correct a bank of 64 patches. To be fair, once I got the hang of it I noticed a consistent pattern in how the effects conversion failed and I was doing it much faster near the end. In some cases I actually preferred the "incorrect" effects and left them alone. I'll convert my remaining patch banks without too much trouble. Finally, one small change in the SY99 caused me one hell of a major headache. The SY77 used MIDI program change messages to switch between patch banks and modes. The SY99 uses the newer MIDI bank select message to do those things. This isn't so bad except that Yamaha chose not to carry over the SY77's method of bank switching. My MIDI controller software simply wasn't prepared to deal with this and it cost me an evening to make the necessary modifications. CONCLUSION: I had to ask myself if I was spending too much money on what was essentially an upgrade to an instrument I was already reasonably content with. Once I got the two synths together I decided it was worth it (at least for me). There's no doubt that many existing SY77 owners may opt not to move up and that's understandable. However, I've always considered the SY77 to be arguably the most powerful synth in its class though not necessarily the best sounding. It was a solid workhorse that rolled up its sleeves and did all the difficult tasks while the D70s and the Kurzweils got all the glory. So what was wrong with the SY77? Its mediocre samples brought it down a notch. With the SY99, I believe that Yamaha is targeting the difficult-to-please sound purists. Although its sample playback engine is not going to surpass E-mu's incredible G-chip, it has a very pleasing quality to it and I find myself taking it much more seriously than with the SY77. It seems that for the first time since the introduction of the DX7, Yamaha has finally "arrived" someplace although I'm not entirely sure where. I can't imagine what the successor to the SY99 would be like except to have more of everything (more polyphony, more memory, more samples, etc.). Time will tell. -- Scott Amspoker | Basis International, Albuquerque, NM | This post stops at all | railroad crossings. scott@bbx.basis.com |