Yamaha QY-700

The preset sounds are crap and boring
easy
The manual is far behind. It's made for XG junkies.
usage in a professional way is not possible. (Ask the Yamaha support
line about the Hanger in song mode)

1.)polyphony is not fully usable; processing problems
2.)effects would be good:but in use: the timing is not stable anymore
3.)no
4.)Midi-implentation o.k., Timing is not working
5.)sequencer would be fine,but at 40% is already too much for him
There are good features, but unsusable at all

1.)The sounds are old and crap. (not the same)
2.)I guess for kids between 3-6
3.)The effects are not usable at all. (Try to switch patterns while playing.)
4.) good

1.)no
2.)no please not again. The Yamaha support told me to give it back.

It took me half a year to get the answer:"Sorry, the QY700 was not
made proper, so it has got this hanger at the beginning of the loop.
We can't help you. Give this crap back to us."
Very honest support. (Ihaven't been a lazy customer)

1.)No
2.)I tried one year. (I use these kind of machines daily)
3.)The hardware is the best on the market.The graphics are well done.
I hate:There is a "hanger" at the 1st loop point in song mode if you
really want to use this machine what it is actually made for.
4.)MC50, MC80,MMT8,Q80,MAQ,...........................
5.) A stable timing
6.) It messes up the whole liveset-timing
7.)If anybody knows this problem please let me know....
My QY700 is not working proper. I wrote this letter to the support:
I'm very satisfied with the hardware and the graphics.But I've got
some problems also:
In song mode after the last bar(looppoint2) it jumps to the first bar
again(looppoint1), but it hangs there for some time. I turned off chasing,I turned off the effects.... Nothing helps.(If these functions like effects,templates,chasing...are provided, I think they're made for using them.I can't use this superb sequencer when it doesn't stay in time. I rang several times Yamaha in Germany but they couldn't solve the problem. I don't think that it is the Yamaha marketing-philosophie to bring out a product on the market which is not possible to use at atleast 80 %. The Qy700 gets already this timing problem,between last and first bar of the loop,when I run it at arround 50%. When I switch from one pattern to the other I have to
stop even in between, otherwise it makes an incredible noise. I play liveset for some years already arround the globe (sonic research, pilottanzt)and I love the hardware and graphics so much,but why does such a good concept end like this. Does Yamaha think of an update?
Like that the machineis unusable at all.
Please help me I'm desperated about that problem.
The answer from the phone support: I'm very sorry. We know the problem
but we can do nothing anymore. This machine was not built for 100%
usage! (very honest...)

I'd give it a 10 but nothing's perfect. It's sooo simple and the jobs (like macros on a computer) make everything even easier. It can put in SySex messages for you but you don't have to know the hex yourself (I can't really explain it but it's really great). There are SOOOO many buttons to navigate through stuff; the buttons on the bottom an side of the wonderfully huge LCD are a nice help. You can take it out of the box, hook it up, and write a nice sequence quickly. There are 3 realtime recording modes (Replace, Overdub, Punch) and great Step recording so everything is pretty much covered. The manual is cool but if it is your first hardware sequencer (which it was for me, and that was a good choice I made) it doesn't have much in depth explanation on certain things.

This baby is a sequencer and a great one at that. It's got lots of stuff that will let you use it w/o a controller synth if you really want to (i.e. a 2.5 octave mini-keyboard and pitch and assignable wheels). I use the assignable wheel a lot for realtime recording of big volume or pan or filter changes and it works out great. I don't use the patterns much--hardly ever for auto-accomp.--and when I do it's usually in songs with repetetive phrases. The jobs in the sequencer block can really beef up your songs--I use the crescendo feature a lot--or just make putting sequences together more simple. There's an event list so you can dig pretty deep. There is a nice XG tone generator that I use with almost all my songs simply because it's easier than sending out PC messages to my Korg X5. The effects are allright, I just wish you could use more at one time. There is a disk drive so you can save stuff, and it's got a memory of something like 100k notes but I wish it had even more because I often can't load downloaded SMF's because I am out of memory. It's got 2 MIDI Ins and Outs so that's cool. It only has a foot switch input though (no volume pedal or anything like that).

I like the sounds; it's got an XG bank of like 480 sounds and there are some editing capabilities for them. I like putting the assign wheel to filter cutoff and my controller's wheel to filter res. and then fooling with both, you can get real cool sounds that way. Lots of cool pads and synths. A lot of organs but none that are too great. The accoustic instruments are not that bad and neither are the pianos. It's got a whole bunch of non-GM sound effects and they are fun and some are actually usable. Responds well to sustain pedal, better than my Korg X5.

I've used it solo to back me up (I play piano/keyboard) and it's been great at that (although now that I think about it I've only actually performed with it once). I've never dropped it or anything so I can't say anything about that. I can't rely on it to stay the same all the time though: when I first got it the cursor in the event list followed each note as it played and now it doesn't; when I first got it my Korg X5 responded great to PC's for the A (user) bank and now I can't figure out how to do that at all (except with SySex); I have this song where there are 4 pad tracks doing the same back up and another 4 doing melody, except the melody is only audible with 2 melody tracks muted (it's not a polyphony problem). Some other settings might change unexpectedly which is annoying.

I've never had a problem with it that I needed to call for.

I'd certainly buy again it if it was stolen (if I had the money; i'm only 14 I don't make much). I would not buy it's smaller relative (QY-70) even though it's much cheaper because it's so small and I can't work like that. I wish it had more memory. It's real great otherwise and I'm very very happy that I bought it.

Fairly easy to use-manual is 332 pages of programming fun, but everything's laid out clearly. Lotsa dedicated buttons, and the patches are all from Yamahas MU series. Display is about the size of a Korg Trinity's without the touchscreen feature. Disk drive is on the right side, and connectors on the back of the unit are also labeled on the top front edge, so you don't have to go prospecting a lot.

This is a great practice unit!! Don't buy it exclusively for its sounds, because while not cheesy, they're not going to cause Korg or Kurzweil to lose any sleep. Like all synths, the sounds tend to shine in some areas, suck in others. I happen to like the drum sounds, and the extensions provided by the XG protocol. This is a tabletop sequencer/built in tone generator/embedded mini-keyboard/real-time accompanist/pattern arranger box that I use all the time as a saxophonist. It's great to woodshed with, because the pattern mode enables you to roll your own, up to 250 bars in length, and since it's using static RAM, your sequences will be there when you next power up. You get 32 notes polyphony off of the tone generator, with another 32 allowed via the 2 pairs of MIDI in/out for a total of 32 part multimbral trax. FX are OK, but not on the order of say an Ensoniq DP or Lexicon. The sequencer has about 100K note memory, and at 480 PPQ, you can get some expressivenes not available at 96.Plus, you get 3,876 onboard phrases and 512 user styles. It'll play off-the-shelf SMF and GM sequences and the event editing features rival those found in a software-based sequencer.

One gripe I have - In song mode, if you loop a sequence of say 64 bars, when you make the complete cycle, the unit sort of "hiccups" as it starts back again at bar 1. By Yamaha's own admission, there is no workaround for this. It's not very noticeable at faster tempi, but if you really want a seamless turnaround, you have to do all that in "Pattern" mode; and while 250 bars is pretty generous, the fact is that if you ever want to loop play a 251 bar sequence, the timing error is here to stay. The expressiveness, is do-able via MIDI as well as the pitch and mod wheels on the unit. One can play general MIDI sequences off of 3rd party disks, so this is cool especially is you insist on playing the aformentioned 251 bar sequence over and over again and do it first via Cakewalk or whatever, and then save it to disk. Overall, the expressiveness if adequate, but don't look for Morpheus-like dynamic patches.

This has been a very reliable unit for me. I like it especially if I'm on the road, and want to practice. It's also been a lifesaver when our band has a clutch gig, and we have to learn a bunch of unfamiliar material. Plus, it's nice to know that if your drummer is AWOL, you can still sort of do the gig. I like the fact that I don't have to save stuff every time I turn it off. Plus, the 2 pairs of MIDI jacks mean if one pair fails, ya still got the other. (This hasn't ever happened to me, but like the rest of the electronic musician world, it's nice to prepare for the unexpected).

Customer service is OK, and all my tech support questions have been answered. I've never had to get anything repaired, so I don't know.

Overall, this is a fine machine for doing what it was designed to do. It's a far better sequencer, than say, the Ensoniq ASR models, but not as good as Ensoniq sound-wise.(Can you say single rack tone module?) The little 2-octave keyboard means you don't have to rig up a bunch of stuff just to write tunes. And, the pitchbend/mod wheels mean that you can use these on keyboards (such as the Generalmusic PRO2) that don't have them. Plus, the XG extension is well supported by 3rd party vendors. Verdict: It's a good'un.