Yamaha QY-700

EZ 2 use! Big screen, big buttons, big scrollers, very accessible functions. It's a good sequencer for those who hate using a computer for sequencing (it's a question of opinion...)

Good polyphony, good MIDI implementation. "In the average" effects. The floppy helps a lot to save songs, whereas the internal memory is a bit slow. The main point is the sequencer: if U're looking for a very reliable 32 tracks sequencer, try this. Ergonomics is fantastic!

"In the average" sounds - GM sounds. Well... good for hobbyists. I'm an hobbyist. Sometimes, sounds are not punchy enough.

OK

Never used.

As a sequencer, it's fantastic, really. As a sound generator, I prefer my D50, my CRUMAR BIT 01, my SIX-TRAK. But one can not have all in one, isnt'it?

I think the QY700 is very easy to use due to its big screen. The menus are organized very logically, every operation is just a few buttons away. The manual is nit very intuitive but it describes everyting You need.

The polyphony is ok if You have other synths or make minimalistic music (like most dance styles). The keyboard pads are not really good, I would recommend at least a little midi keyboard to play it. The on-board effects are very good, easy to use. The sequencer does real-time, step/grid recording and list editing. There are also special features like groove temlates for realtime quantising in different musical styles, one of my favourite features.

Some sounds are very good (basses, synths) but most imitates of nature instruments are quite bad. The sound editing possibilities are rather rudimentary. The onboard effects can help a lot. With an external midi keyboard the expressiveness through velocity is a lot better than with the onboard key-pads.

This thing is stable like a rock! The song data is stored in non-volatile ROM, that means You can shut it down without losing the data!

I never needed support, the device worked without any problems!

I would definitely buy it again. This is the best hardware sequencer on the market. I only use it to sequence other synths and samplers because the internal sounds are a little weak, but in sequencing it beats every other machine! This is the ideal machine for everyone who does not like to use computers. I especially like the scrolling track-bars (like in cubase!).

In my case, very easy to use since i've had the small version, the QY70, for a few months before i got the big one. The preset sounds are basically the same, good GM sounds, great editing features as well. The manual is just fine. The only trouble i had was to sync it to my Roland VS1680, but thanks to a previous rater named Philippe and the guys at Yamaha tech support, it's all good, and it works great. So far, i like my setup so much better than when i used to work with cubase on computer. Cubase is great, but i just have trouble with computers it seems...

Polyphony seems ok, not that i'm worried about it cause i dont use too many sounds here, i use the QY more as a master sequencer. However, when i do, i find the effects really good, easy to use. The only expansion thing i can think of is the floppy drive that allows you to save, store, as song, midi file, then go to your computer if you want to, etc. The built-in keyboard isnt velocity sensitive, and, unlike the QY70, you cant set it to different values. So, i have a small control keyboard to take care of that. Midiwise, this is how i have it all setup: The Evolution MK125 keyboard goes in the Midi in A of the QY700, Midi B in and out goes to the Roland VS1680 synced as master or slave (either way) thru MTC, the midi out of the QY700 goes to the EMU XL1, its Midi Thru (of the XL1) goes to the Boss SP303 sampler, and all the audio to the VS1680 mixer. It works perfectly. The QY700 has a great, i mean great sequencer: 32 tracks that you can assign to whatever midi chanel you want, and/or internal sounds, great editing capacities. I mean this sequencer is just great for what i'm doing.
However, i confirm that the loop function isnt perfect, there is a little delay in song mode when you loop a sequence. But thats it.

It works with the music i'm working on, even though i havent found a description for it yet... But, yes the GM sounds are pretty cool, the drum are very limited though.

It seems very dependable so far.

Customer support's very helpful at yamaha. Plus they call you back so you dont pay long distance. They are really helpful.

I love this sequencer, i'd buy it again if i lost it (and could afford it...). I wanted something without a separate midi interface, small enough to carry around, with a built-in drive to save and store songs, and a midi sync capacity, and its all in there. I dont care too much about the sounds, cause i have the EMU XL1 and the sampler. If they could make the same sequencer with a digital multitrack recorder and sampler built in, that would be it. As a matter of fact Yamaha's just releasing one (in fact it has sampler but no digital multitrack...) but its screen is way too small, so the QY700 is just great for me now. For a standalone sequencer i think its the best i've seen. And as for creativity goes, i agree with a previous review that it works much better than a computer sequencer, but that might be personal after all. Anyway, this was the piece i was looking for to be productive.

The QY 700 is a complicated system that needs the patience of a brain surgeon to master. This is due in part to it's poor layour of buttons and windows. It took me months to feel comforatbel with it and i still can't use it for more than a few mins.

The bright screen is a bonus if you are hard of seeing - i find it way too bright and have to place a dark pice of plastic over it. Great MIDI specs, strong contruction. All features too hard to access.

The Sounds are awful, flat, pointless and well, they are just there. Effects are good, and all editable. I find it better to use it's great MIDI spec to just use external sounds.

i would depend on this unit in a live situation.

Would never buy it again.

Initially, I found this machine very difficult to figure out. The terminology confused me, phrases, patterns, patches. After playing with it, I started grasping some of basics.

On the plus side, I like the numeric keyboard, and the large display.

I found very little this machine couldn't do. I take it to work, and tap out ideas on the little mini-keyboard. All you need is a set of headphones, and you can create music. This machine would be right at home in a big studio with tons of midi equipment, but it's also able to shine alone.

I have an older drum machine, and a fair number of synthesizers and midi devices, along with effects processors and mixers. i have a PC with Cakewalk to sequence everything together. But this little box can do everything the other stuff does, and it's portable.

The sounds are good, and you can make them better with the built in effects. Some of the sounds have a digital quality, but for the most part, they are high quality. And there are tons of them.

The built in phrases are good.

No problems so far. Lools rugged

I'd probably buy it again. It's the only true "everything" box I've seen.

I love the way it can be used as a stand alone, as well as the heart of a sophistcated studio. So much in such a small little box.

I just received my QY700 this afternoon and after a couple of hours, I can already record and edit (notes, mix, sounds...) a sequence. And I can even play some descent lines with the build in mini keyboard. I still have to look at the pattern-arranger section and the groove edit.

The effects are pretty decent, and it's great to use the Amp simulator on a Hammond preset!
32 MIDI In and Out is great and I'll make good use of this.
The mixing section is fine and I will use it for mixing in MOTU Digital Performer. It's much easier to use a wheel that a mouse for smooth fader move.
I was surprise to found the mini keyboard usable. So much better that the Goovebox MC303 keys.
20 songs in memory means that I'll be able to load entire set for live playing and just choose the right song. The lighted screen will help on stage too.
The QY700 looks logically setup, design for musicians, not for technicians.
I use to have a Roland MV30 some years ago, but I never used it for sequencing because I never could figure an easy way to use it.
The user friendliness of the QY700 comes a lot from its nice lighted screen and a the good number of dedicated knobs.

The sounds must have sound great when it came out, but Yamaha has really improved in this area since. I also have a MU100R and it sounds much, much better that the QT700.
But for building up sequence tracks, the preset are good enough IMO. It will be easy to hooked the MU100R for the mix, since they both use the XG protocol for filter and ADSR.

I just got it.
It's a demo unit from a music shop. I thought that the QY700 was bigger that it actually is, wich came as a nice surprise.

To be honnest, in 20 years as a pro musician, I only had to change the power supply for my KORG WSEX, but then it was 10 years old... If only car were a reliable as synths :-)
I've never dealt with Ymaha support but it can be worth that Apple (over 2 month to get a dead under warranty power supply...)

It's definitely worth what I paid for (I was looking for a used one, but they(re very difficult to get in France.).
I bought it because I realized that by working on the computer from the start of a project lead me to deal much to soon - in the creative process - with editing and sounds.
I'm working on a new project and will work away from my studio (actually I'm thinking of leaving home and be by myself for a couple of weeks, away from telephone and email) on arranging with the QY700, an AN1X as a keyboard and special sounds, my guitars and my trusty Roland VS-880.
When things will be ready, I'll probably dump everything in MOTU Digital Performer, edit and mix using the other synths in my studio.
I'll probably find things that I hate about this box (I already hate the inverse - IMO - up and down key for advancing in a sequence in edit mode...) but usually, good first impressions are a good sign, and the promise of a lasting relationship :-) as it is the case, for example for the KORG WSEX, the VS-880 and a old VX90 AKAI analog synth...
I also would like to thanks all of you who took the time to review the QY700. It really helped me to make my mind and decide to buy one. Thanks

Very poor in comparison to the mpc. The ergonomics are monumentally bad and the OS is incredible illogical IMO. I`m sure with use, you could fly around this machine in no time but it doesn`t stop this from this machine having an incredibly poorly thought out interface. Its not hard to understand, but illogical in its layout - I would`ve thougt labelling the undo/redo function as errr......"undo/redo" would`ve made alot of sense, but Yamaha decided "00" would be better. I also thought pressing down on the cursor keys would be good to make the cursor go umm........down? But no, its shhots of to the righthand corner of the screen instead. Terrible.

Very well featured, I must admit and thats totally ignoring the flaky internal sound engine. Again, what use are the features when they`re locked away in some stupid menu?

Usable for some people I suppose. Poor but useful KB. So so efx. Definately not worth buying the machine for even tho on paper it looks respectable.

Didn`t really have it long enough to tell.

I only rang once and they were helpful.

I absolutely hated this machine, thankfully I was able to send it back to the shop and I was canny enought to hold off from selling my beloved MPC untill I`d check this out first. It *does* have some great features, but the OS and ergonomics like I said before are worse than I could ever have possible feared. I only wanted to trade this for the MPC to free up some extra cash, I`d rather go poor than use this truly awfull machine.

This unit is very easy to use (that's why I bought it.
The preset sounds are a little weak but you can get good sounds out of it
if you dont mind editing it. The beat patches suck but what do you expect.
Most demos suck in general. Manual=good stuff (very informative)

The effects are pretty good. It would be nice if you could hold more sequences
but load time from the drive is really quick. MIDI is where its at when it comes
to this machine (two midi outs, two midi ins) 32 channels come on, you
couldnt ask for anything more. This sequencer is the best stand-alone sequencer
on the market I have come in contact with. (you can create your own groove templates).
AS FOR THIS HANGER FACTOR (its not a loop machine, it has a loop option for editing
reasons). Buy a sampler if you want to loop something. Oh yeah, all you have to do to
to solve the hanger problem is copy out the phrase and repeat it for the desired amount of
beats.

Ok, the sounds are not the strong point of this unit. The effects are pretty good
though. Pitch wheel and mod wheel control other units quite well. Dont buy this unit
for sounds. Buy this unit for the master control power it has.

RELIABILITY=BEST STUFF
NO BACK-UP

N/A

If it were lost or stolen (I would pitty dafool who stole it, I would
get Mr. T all over their ass!!! I might even get Murdock

ALL A-TEAM aside I have been in the electro-field for about 10 years or so
and I have had this machine for about three years and watched people buy and
sell mc303 and mc505 I would not trade this in for any groove machine
(other machines I use= ms2000r, tr-rack, akaiS-2000, sp808ex, dr660, sp202,
vs1680, pro tools, soon to come in contact with an xv-88

all in all if you want a great master unit for your midi setup, you could
not go wrong with the QY-700

The preset sounds are good byt they get even better in a complete orchestration.The editing is very easy(thanks to the graphics),it made me understand the basic things about editing.....The manual is simple,well-written and if you like using MIDI it'l make you love it!

For this price you get more than what you expect:32 poly,several effects,pattern player,great midi,cool graphics

Awfull strings,good piano ,basses,brass,synths,districtive pads,cool and easy to edit drums.Some specific sounds have nothing to do with their names......I use a roland keyboard to play the sounds and the response is ok.I think it can be used for all kinds of music:i made(in the pattern section) loads of different songs and genres(PINK FLOYD,ARETHA FRAKLIN next to TSIFTETELI and RUMBA.....)

YES YES YES!I use it live 4 years now.I never had a problem and believe me i'm very careless.Indoors,outdoors,studio,radio stations i use it like mad.It's ideal for live,TRUSTY and women love it.....

I never had a problem so.....

It helped me make music,radio jingles it get me 10 times the money i paid back.It's the best hardware sequencer money can buy.I found everything i imagined.And even though i use software sequencer i still love it......

Sounds are XG sound so not really mindblasting but cool enough
to cover all types of music.
The manual is complete and clear but needs sometimes some digging
(like all manuals).
The internal rythmes suck a lot but i have been able to replace them
by some USB rythmes (www.usb.claranet.fr) and now things are getting
better.

Polyphony is enough, effects are cool but not as cool as some Korg
devices but for the price you can't ask more.
The expansion capabilities are limited to the disk drive importation
it is a pity that yamaha has not planned to release an internal hard
drive for the QY700. Now I am happy i can had foreign brand styles/
patterns via floppy disk with the USB QY700 CDROM which is full of
new patterns (nearly 4000 ot them !!!)

Sounds are realistic, but i admit that it lacks some synthesis editing
features not only XG parameters should be modified but more filtering
parameters, but because it is a XG device you are limited to XG sound
parameters modifications.
Controlled by external keyboard the velocity and aftertouch work less
than with Korg sound modules. The effect section is classic but i find
it better than the Sound Canvas series.

Never had a problem with it.
Reliable, clear screen that you can be turned off by software
if you don't use the qy for some hours and want to preserve the screen. I would use it on a gig without backup, it would be cool
to have batteries inside to avoid the external power supply from being
used.

Never called yamaha for it.
I never had to open it even for checking what was inside : ;-))

This is a brilliant piece of hardware there is inside :
1 sound module
1 powerfull sequencer with a big screen
1 arranger (harmonization upon input chords)

for a really bargain price.

Only the styles sucked but now there is the availability of a pattern
cdrom from USB (available here) :

www.usb.claranet.fr

then now i can run on it all the best styles
from all the others brands/models of arrangers !

For US$200 it is a real good investment for your QY700 Future !

With this product i have discovered things beyond the QY limits !

Check their website www.usb.claranet.fr

Mumbly.