Yamaha MU 80

I bought this module back in 1996 and it captured my attention very fast since at that time I could not afford any Kurzweil, Korg, etc expensive and great keyboards. I used to have a Roland keyboard only as a MIDI controller.
Now back to the review, this instrument is quiet easy to play with. You can have more control though when using it together with a sequencer. I strongly recommend using XG-Edit. It is free nowadays and you may find it in the net.
Press a button twice and you have all the SysEx displayed on the not-so-small screen, you can copy this for setting up your MIDI arrange (although XG-Edit does this automatically).
Setting up the effects, voices and MIDI channels is a breeze. You only need some common sense and read the manual (very bad indeed) as a reference, not as a tutorial.
I don't have this module anymore, I gave it to a friend who was getting into music 7 years ago, but I can recall some great creative songs that came out the MU80.
When some people listen to this old tunes for the first time, they never suspect all the magic that this instrument could do.

The polyphony is good enough, perhaps a professional piano player could ran out of keys but I don't think mortals like myself will.
The module sounds very good for the value, you can't ask for more and yet is very powerful if used with some imagination.
The effects section are a joke but then again, you can tweak here and there and improve the sound quality or you can try layering MIDI channels and get some awesome sounds (remember this unit could be bought today for around $100 USD, come on!)
Give a try to the cutoff and resonance filters and you can experience some "analog" sounds but don't expect them to sound like a Clavia or Virus.

In this section, the MU-80 scores very good, since all this parameters can be modified via MIDI messages or directly over the panel.
The sounds for the brass are bull****, but strings and some "sweeps" are pretty ok. The drums are very good, especially when you modify the presets (please decrease the bloody reverb). Soprano sax sucks but tenor sax (with some effects) sounds warm and good.
Electric piano, as usual from a Yamaha instrument is GREAT. Natural piano could not fool my five year old son, but it sounds better than hitting a garbage can.
I can say that this instrument overall sounds better than a lot of its time/value competitors.

I used for about 5 years and cannot complain about anything. Come on! It's Yamaha, they never fail.

Never did.

The sound module (even taking in account this device is 12 years old!) still can be usable. If you are a beginner with low budget I would recommend to try the MU-80, a guitar (connected through the AD input), a cheap computer, and a good MIDI controller and you can have great fun, believe me.
If you are a pro I would not consider this one, now that prices have dropped so much you can spend a couple more dollars and get a professional instrument.

Good Manual (as far manuals go) just play with it and browse the manual and you'll find the controls are really intelligent. You don't need software to edit, the interface is that easy and probably just as quick. HUGE display!

read other review, plenty of great features for some great music to be made the effects processor alone was worth the 200 dollars I paid for this unit used. I am a guitarrist who has been dabbling with programming and playing keyboard for the last 2 years and this thing has everything I need in a synth module. I really have no beefs with any of the features.

If realism is what you are looking for on this unit you win some you lose some. Worst are strings, brass is pretty weak but I'm talking presets here you can tweak everything on here to a definately useable setting. I'm the type of guy if you give me a cheap Casio I'm gonna do something cool with it... The bells are nice and pianos are definately useable. Basically it's like all synths there are some sounds that are gonna make you say Oooh and others that make you say eeeyahk

I'm using this in my home studio I'm not gigging it yet but I think with propper measures it would stand up. I think you can take just about any equipment on the road as long as you use your brain. too many people don't respect there gear on the road so that's why people think stuff needs to be made of 3 inch thick titanium alloy for it to be gig worthy.

Website is alright I never dealt with anyone... I guess this should fit in with reliability.

I would definately buy this again at twice the price I payed for this guy (used). I love the effects section the amp models are actually usable! I hate that my sequencer doesn't take full advantage of the XG so I have to do more hands on editing however the controls are so intuitive it's really no big deal at all. This thing has already inspired a couple songs and I was able to get them demoed quick and while I had the inspiration... I have a short attention span so complex equipment is not welcome in my home rig this is simple simple simple, Fisher price my first pro synth module kinda stuff. So all you kids out there wanting to dive into making music save your nickels and dimes and get on ebay and put down a winning bid you'll be happy you did!

Most of the presets sound fine. It has 128 internal patch locations for creating user patches; However, it does not have internal memory to store user timbre; Instead, you have to edit sounds parameter like filter cutof, ASDR envelop via multi-timbral part settings and save them to external devices like computer, sequencer via midi sys-ex. In general, the highly graphical user interface is easy to use. The manual is OK

Polyphony - 64 multimbrality - 32 part plus 2 external sound channels Built in effects - Reverb, Chorus, variation(rev, cho, delay...) 5 band EQ(it can be made to be semi-parametric via sy-sex) distortion Expandability - no MIDI capability - standard and General MIDI(XG) compability no sequencer

Most of the sounds sound good. Best of all - synth sound like filter sweep, synth strings... really punchy and clean drum sounds electric pianos... Worst of all - violin, cello... The rest of the sounds are standard for a general midi module and won't let you disappointed.

Reliability - high

Good multi-timbral module with lots of sounds to play with. Excellent digital effects. Good user interface. Best of all - an A/D input for mixing external sound sources and the MU80 has the ability to apply digital effects on them.