Yamaha QY-300

Well, you have to do some reading - you cannot just jump on and start using. Once you have the basics it is pretty easy to use.

This unit is discontinued but is still very useful in today's home studio or on stage. There are alot of futures too many for a real musician. I use it simply as a stand alone sequencer.

Seems to be sturdy but there seems to be issues with the 3.5 drive & it cost $103 to replace. I bought mines with the drive not working...still a great unit.

I was looking for a rack sequencer but could not find one. Alesis never put the nanotracker out. This is a great stand alone sequencer.

I bought my QS-330 through ebay for $300 AU. Just recieved it today, but I'll give you my 1st impressions of it. I've been playing with and fooling around with it for 12 hours since i got the parcel! At 1st this little guy doesnt seem to make much sense, so you're gonna need that manual. Luckily you can easily dowload a PDF of the manual if yours is missing its original manual. Its all pretty simple really, once you get used to the weird japanese version of english that is all through the unit and the manual. Basically, it is a 16 channel sequencer that can have an additional 8 patterns playing along= 24 tracks- not bad at all.

Polyphony is 28 notes. Keyboard is actually tiny little non- velocity sensitive buttons, but they feel good to use. You can imput a velocity sensitive keyboard into the QY-300. The unit comes with built in reverb, a pretty good one too. There is one midi in, and one out, no thru. The onboard sequencer rocks, thats why you'd buy this, and for the auto arranger features. Has plenty of dedicated buttons for those of you sick of mouse clicks and GUI's. The sequencer can operater linearly, like a tape recorder with punch in faucilities, or in pattern mode more like a drum machine. Timing is ultra tight like a drum machine. I plan to generate songs on the qy-300, and finish them off in cubase, nothing wrong with getting the best of both worlds, hardware and software. The fact the QY300 doesnt crash should be enough alone to convince you that this makes a great initial scetchpad for your inspiration, so mauch better than the myriad of problems a windows PC has.

The internal sounds are actually pretty good, some of the drumkits are only OK, I feel the cymbals snares and bassdrums are a bit of a letdown compared to roland's machines. But the analog snare is actually very good, anolog kick is, umm OK, but where's the 909 hihat!? So its not a dance box! Its probably aimed more at people composing pop and rock songs. The idea of storing your own basslines, riffs and chords as patterns that you can chain together to make a quick song makes the inspiration flow- thats why i bought it. Ok, you could get a better sound with external modules, softsynths, cubase ect. But this is much quicker and the results can be surprisingly good. I would definatly keep some of the parts in a final recording, but supplement the onboard drums with my Roland R-5 drum machine, get a bit of anolog warmth into the mix with my oberheim matrix 1000, and you have an enormous sound that people would have no idea was generated by a small black box driving its own sounds and a few modules.

this unit is a solid metal bottom/ sturdy plastic top bit of gear. All the buttons feel well made and should take a lot of normal use. Yamaha gear has never let me down.

Yamaha customer support is a joke! They basically tell you you should buy a new piece of gear when you ring them up for a part- as far as i can tell, they don't stock any parts! Luckily yamaha gear is generally solid and reliable then.

I would replace this in an instant. This is one bit of gear yamaha has beaten roland with- i dont think the roland mc-50 mkII is as good as this. The yamaha qy-300 has a feel factor that is fun! This is beacuse you can scetch out the song using the onboard sounds, making songwriting quick and painless. I would say the QY-300 can actually improve your songwriting ability, as this unit is so easy to use it opens up your creativity and frees your inspiration.

I found this sequencer to be pretty easy and self-explanitory. I do have the manual and when I have needed to find something in there, the directions were usually clear and concise. I like the fact that it has alot of data-entry buttons, which is why I bought it -- makes it much easier to punch in a chart quickly. Onboard sounds are decent, but think of them as an extra -- something to give you a complete pallete when using the unit alone. Very portable -- which I absolutely love.

It has everything I'd want in a portable, hardware sequencer.

Think of the sounds as extra -- you're not buying this for its sounds unless you're an idiot.

Plenty of Yahama gear over the years from Synths to AW4416, O1V, PA Speakers, basses, guitars... never a failure... EVER!

For well over a year, Yamaha kept mailing software upgrades for my AW4416 and discount offers for accessories. Pretty cool! Never had to call them, though so I really don't know what to say. So far, so good! I guess the high incidence of reliability is the best customer support one could ask for, isn't it?

A great unit unlike anything else made today aside from the Akai -- which will cost you 5X what the QY300 is going for. It's not one of those gay dance-mix boxes designed to make idiots think they're musicians! A "real" musician's tool, no doubt. Very easy for data entry and highly portable and self contained. I suppose you could get that in a lap-top now days -- for $1500+ plus the software... For the 250 - 400 these seem to sell for these days, simply unbeatable.

Very easy to use and this was my first sequencer other than a drum machine. If you know the menus this knowledge transfers fairly easily the the newer RM1X or RS-7000 sequencers that I am now currently using. I never used the phrase-creation mode, I don't see how you could compose music a phrase at a time without hearing the other phrases (unless you're a genious, of course.)

It has very standard sounds. You can experiment with the standard sounds and still create very good music. The reverb is quite good. The floppy disk is great for transfering sequences. If you prefer linear sequencing to pattern-based you might really enjoy this sequencer, as a playback sequencer using external sound sources I'm sure it would make a great inexpensive live sequencer if you picked one up used and loaded your sequences from your computer.

Not really the best tool for sounds, I'd recommend using external modules selected for your taste and style. Still, I think it's fun to see what you can do with a limited pallet sometimes, I enjoyed creating music with this thing and the sounds are good quality for what they are (GM Soundbank, similar to those on a digital synth).

Extremely reliable, no problems with it whatsoever and I purchased it used.

It was a good deal and getting started with midi sequencing was through experimenting and learning. I now use the more dance-oriented RM1X and RS-7000 by Yamaha and I'm very happy with them both.

The qy300 has its own internal software and is very user friendly.
The preset sounds are AWM1 not AWM2, so leave a bit to be desired' but some of the sounds, like the vocal Ooh , are 100% better than
Rolands infernal Dooh. Sounds can't be edited but the Patterns can.

It's a 64 note sequencer, i use an external Keyboard (controller)
cause those rubbery (that's not Japanese) mini keyboards don't
have Velocity sensitivity. I currently use an external sound
module but use the QY300 at my live gigs. Its a great work horse.

i bought mine in 1994 and back then did'nt mind the sounds,
gee, at a live gig , who cares, i still sing and play guitar
so that it makes me sound , well, real. it has good reverb
and by doubling tracks and time (clock) shifting them, a achieved
a nice "chorus" sound.It has 8 drum kits and, wait for it..
the ability to set them up on ANY channel, (hello roland...?)
So you can have several different kits all at once, Just GREAT..

This has been my live gigging machine since 1994
So i'm pretty taken with it.
And yes, i use it at gigs without a backup sequencer.

Having had little or no trouble , i think yamaha have been
pretty alright, it was my SPX90 that broke down.

id buy another one cause i know it well, its dependable and its
Compact (how james bond is that).Ive been gigging since the early 80s
The qy300 now drives my New JV1080. The major quibble with the QY300
is that it has no "back lit" LCD screen and i do miss the
old stop start foot switch jack from other devices.
It comes with heaps of Cool patterns and chord structures
although i now use it as a midifile player and construct songs on
my computer these days.

This is not really a "synth", but it is a sequencer with a built in sound module. The little brother of the new QY-700. It is a GM box with the standard Yamaha AWM sound bank. The sequencer is way cool and pretty easy to use. It will work with external sound sources so you are not stuck with the internal sounds. The LCD display on the front makes it much easier to use than other dedicated sequencers.

28 note poly / 16 part multi-temberal. A tiny little chicklett keyboard, but it will work with an external controller. Built in effects include room, hall, plate, and delay. Pretty nice for a "built in" effects set on a sequencer. A great place to work up an idea. Has the usual quantize, swing, etc. kind of controls. A build in phrase database lets you hack together an idea in a VERY short time!

Standard GM sounds with several kits. The sounds are AWM so they are only OK. The onboard effects are fine. Handles PB, AT, MOD, and volume.

It has not broke yet. I guess it is OK. I would not want to drop it (or any other synth).

Never needed it.

I would buy it again. It is a little pricey for the sound quality, but the sequencer is better than any dedicated seq I have seen. Also reads and writes 2SDD 3.25 floppy disks and can read and write standard midi files. A real winner for a gig!