Yamaha EMP700

It's a fairly straightfoward unit to navigate there being only two algorythms available at once, i.e REV and DYN. The REV side is your Digital EFX (Reverb, Delay, Chorus, ect) and the DYN is the analog preamp(EQ's, Comps, Wha, etc). The unit is interesting because these banks offer many composite algorythms with Combo's like Chorus+Delay, and in the the Analog Stage a Comp, Graphic + Gate together, thus making it quite powerful.

It has some really cool funky features like allowing presets to be accessed by the function buttons, I use one as a tuner mute when onstage I can activate it at my rack or via floor control. I also have a Yamaha PCMCIA card for the reader drive giving me an additional 50 user presets and holding a whole backup of my existing presets, I have owned quite a few multi EFX and this one is quite easy to use.

I use my EMP700 with an ADAMB1 Midi Bass Tube Pre, ART Stereo tube DI and Woogie handwired 900 Watt Mosfet Power amp, into 2 EVTLHP 15" cabs, and a custom 600 Watt 2 x 10" + 2 X JBL 2402 Bullt Tweeters in my bass rig.

The sound quality of this unit is absolutely excellent, The reason why the EMP is so good is that it has sufficient headroom in it's circuitry to handle drums,Keyboards,Vocal,Bass so it has wide dynamic range and a large amount of headroom. Gain structure with this unit is critical so make sure you set the -20/+4DB switch to the correct setting for your rig.

The factor presets on this unit however are woefull. I can honestly say I have never been able to use any of the standard presets with tweaking them first. Once you start to explore the algorythms of the EMP you will find it very simple to progran the most wicked Choruses, Reverbs and Delays. The EMP allows cool stuff like Predelays and delay times to be set by tap tempo or down to one hundreth of a millisecond. The Harmonizer is pretty powerful but sadly sounds a little wack. Very cool muti tap delays and a pretty cool auto Wha too.

My EMP700 has done at least 2000 gigs from 1993 to now, nuf said.

Rotten to try to get parts for now, my display is slowly fading (Doh!). The I/O's are also pretty badly mouted, I have jumpered all of mine to ciruit board directly.

I Have been playing for over 30 years (I'm in my 40's). I was a professional for 15 years until entering into musical instruments distribution. I have played in lots of different bands playing everything from Rammstein to Neil Young. I just like the sound of the EMP as a bass processor. I keep trying to replace it and not finding anything I like the sound of as much. It also has a neat set of Algoryths that make it pretty powerful for a wide variety of applications, perfect for home record as an allrounder.

The achilles heel of the EMP is it's MIDI delay, you will notice it changing Patches. You can minimise this by keeping your patches around unity as the EMP ducks to bypass as it changes presets.

The other problem is the surface mount input and out jacks can be easily damaged. I would venture a guess that most of the dissapiontments reported with this unit are as a result of damage to the I/O's, (and the dodgy factory Presets).

Recommended for: Experienced Muso's, Small Studio/Home recording.

Not Recommended for: Teenage Metalheads.

I am a composer and engineer/producer and came by this unit. I found it easy to get a fairly good sound out of it. It depends how you are using it. Processing individual tracks or overall mixes.
Editing patches is straight forward although my unit has a dead LCD display so I cannot see anything on the LCD display. I can see what preset is being selected and even blindly edit the presets but this is the purpose of my enquiry.

I am using the unit in a studio situation as either a side chain effect or insert effect. The secret to using it properly is getting the gain structure right. Set it for +4bdu and make sure there is that level present at the input. The output will be similar and if its being used side chain as in reverb say then the amount returned to the main mix will often be low in comparison to the direct sound. So any noise genereated by the unit will be negligable.

As with most Yamaha products I think reliability is high except mine has this dead LCD display problem, I assume Yamaha got onto a bad batch of LCD units when this model was being manufactured. I have scoured the world and there are no parts available. Does anyone out there have dead one that some other part was sacrificed for and the LCD display was still working? The LCD display is mounted on a separate daughter board. I would prefer to install a new daughter board. Changing the LCD display could be a bit tricky.

Yamaha Australia have told me there are no parts available for this unit anymore and Yamaha America have told me that they do not service Yamaha products outside the US. Does that mean Yamaha America have still got some spares? Maybe someone in the US could buy it for me and send it to me.

The unit fits well into my existing setup. What I would love is for someone who has a working one to email me with the following information.

When a preset is selected and recalled and I can do that, then the LCD normally shows the 4 parameters that can be edited. Subsequent presses of the REV or DNY buttons reveals extra screens if they are present. I would love to know what the 4 paramaters (or more depending on the present) for every preset are from left to right. Then I can still blindly select these buttons and edit using the up down keys and using my ears to hear the resultant change to the preset. Not a bad way to edit. It focuses you on the sound really you are trying to make.

Very easy to use. Many buttons to play with, all you have to do is tweak to perfection.

At first I thought it was noisy but once I learned how to use it, the sound came out just the way I wanted it. I used it with a bass, guitar, drums, keyboards and even vocals.

I've had some proccessors crap out on me or begin to get noisy. I've had this unit for 7 years and it's still the same as I bought it.

Never needed support.

Overall it's a good unit, it lacks a knob or two other than that it's cool to sit and create with this unit. I've worked on Industrial, electronica, synthpop, dance and rock projects with this bad boy.

only buttons, no knobs. That sucks. It's not made for stupid guitarists like me...

Maybe the unit is okey for vocals but if you want to use in your amps effectloop - forget it!!!! It's sounds like nothing. The flanger is not a flanger - it only turns volume up and down and cuts the brilliance of your tone. chorus is bad but usable. reverbs also. delay sucks. equalization sucks too. bad unit.

I'm 18 and I play guitar for 12 years now. I have several (tube-)amps and two guitars. A standart-class Yamaha and really good PRS-copy. I play New Rock with the band and Jazz, Fusion, Bossa Nova, etc. at home.
Belive me - I grew up with music. My mother, my brother, my sister and my grandpa are all musiciens - I HAVE GOOD EARS. So belive me when I say this unit sucks in a guitar rack!!!!

Easy if you are used to studio gear. Enough number of buttons makes the editing quite simple. The possibility to choose from 4 programs on the display is also a benefit.

Very clean sound with no audible noise. All effects sound very good with the exception of the longer reverbs which i use sparingly. However, all the other other effects and especially the filters are
superb because there are plenty of parameters to create your own programs.

No problems with it .

I play different instruments and make some singing too. The EMP700
can add nice efffects for anything. The complexity of the effects also goes beyond just the simplest type of chorus, delay etc. The midi parameter control is nice too.

Easy to get a good sound out of this box. Editing patches is no problem at all. The manual alsoexplains very good what happens and what each effect does.

The reason i do this review is because someone else gave a 1 for the sound quality and called the effect a white noise generator. That is definitely not true. There is no noise at all and the signal to noise ratio is as always with Yamaha gear very high. The frequency responce is up to 20 KHz.
It is well intended for anything and especially in the studio. The
effects are also very audible and transparent. What i enjoy with this
effekt are mostly the filter effects. There are different types and resonanse is available. It also has several types of the real phaser
effect. Since true in/out stereo is available for i get more use for it. Almost all parameters can be controlled via any defined midi parameter or controller. The reverbs are not like a Lexicon PCM80
but the the rooms are very good.

No problems with the reliability. Yamaha has always made reliable products. It always work.

I have never needed any help sofar with support.

This is a dedicated studio gear for me. It's good characteristics
makes it ok for my requirements.

Good sounds right out of the box. The reverbs are particularly good. Very lush and natural sounding. Best reverb I've heard. Most of the presets are very useful without any tweaking. Not sappy, very tasteful. Great effects for drums, room simulations, compressions, etc. (However, the guitar presets leave something to be desired; when it comes to guitars I'm more of a purist).
If you need to tweak the presets it's relatively simple. The display is smaller than later models but the interface is pretty friendly, easy to understand. Editing is simple and there is plenty of storage (100 presets + 50 user presets) plus there is unlimited storage with the internal memory card drive.
Manual has served me well, when I've needed it. If you're fairly adept with basic sound equipment, you shouldn't need the manual much.
Haven't used it with MIDI so I can't say how easy that is to use.

As mentioned above, most of the effects are better than great. I've used this unit MOSTLY for reverb and compression on vocals and overall mixes and for eq, compression and reverb for drums (and sometimes flanging). I have often used the stereo enhancer and ambience effects for certain instruments and mixes. Like I said before, real natural and tasteful.
I don't really use the distortion. I'd rather rely on my guitar preamps or amplifiers for that. They're not so bad, just too "hi-fi" for guitar in my opinion.

Changed one 1/4" input jack in 7 years. No other problems. Generally kept in studio but have taken it on gigs on a few occasions.

Never dealt with Yamaha's effects people. However, I have dealt with them regarding my Yamaha guitar. Slow to return phone calls. Nice person I talked to but not particularly knowledgable for an "expert".

Bottom line about this thing is that good sounds come easy and it makes me want to record. In the beginning I wished the display was bigger, but now I know how to use it. Newer models have more processors (this one has two). But I'm not a big believer in multi-efx processors. There aren't too many companies that get all the efx right. I'd rather have a few different units for multiple efx. If this was stolen and I was still recording on my own, I would definitely look for another one.

Why do I have so big fingers ? The EMP700 is not easy to work with. The menu navigation is awfull, the buttons are too small and the display is poor.

This is a white noise generator!!!! Impossible to use chorus or flanger. I could never compare to another but this is awfull! Reverbs and delays are metallic, artificial,.. When I bought it, I choosed it to save money (low price).

Very reliable. In fact, too reliable ;-) (3 ro 4 years)

Never could talk to someone interested in my problem at Yam France. Don't know how they are elsewhere.

I'd never buy that stuff again. This is now the least powered on unit in my rack, congratulations !

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