Yamaha SY-85

It is easy to use. However, it has many functions. In multi timbre
mode, effects are not easy to use.

It has 30 voices, 16 multi timbres, 2 effects. However, it is not
good as a multi timbre tone generator. Because, there are some
restrictions on effects. It can read external memory cards or 2DD
disc drive to expand patches and waveforms. Or, it can receive
sample dump standard via MIDI. Waveform memory is expandable. It has
9 track sequencer with battery backup. Track 9 is special track for
rythm patterns for on-board rythm machine. It doesn't recognize an
expression (CC#11).

SY85 sounds very fat. Among presets, piano, electric guitar and
electric bass are nice. I especially love a preset which is layered
pipe organ (OR Nave). On-board effects are not bad. It likes to
send many channel pressures than latest keyboards.

It has worked well for 8 years long. There is a button which doesn't
work well.

When I bought SY85, I received a RAM memory card as a gift from
Yamaha.

If it were lost or stolen, I will buy it again. However, I wish to
replace it by newer synthsizer, if I could find nice one. I think it
is one of the most fat synthsizer among PCM sound modules. And, it's
the reason I love it. I use it with many other instrumentals. And,
it sounds DISTINCTIVE among them. I wish to have a SYEMB06 (waveform
memory with battery backup), if I could find.

A little intimidating to newbies but the old hands pick it up pretty quick. Some features are buried a bit in the hierarchy but that is inevitable with a machine this deep and powerful. Overall most of the important functions are within a few button presses or right on top. It is one of the easiest sample-playback class synths to program and configure. The 8 sliders under the display really work well and give you a lot of on-the-fly performance control. The user sample edit screens are "hidden" compared to all other edit screens and that makes me think that it was an afterthought, but other than that it is very logically laid out. After a few weeks I knew my way all around it and now I can even get around in the dark if need be. Overall high marks, especially coming from Yamaha. Presets are very good, virtually all are usefull and best of all they can ALL be replaced; you are not stuck with always having the same 256 sounds on board and only using cards for your own patches (Hello, Roland?). With the memory card loaded up you have 512 voice patches at hand and 256 performances (which can EACH be 1 to 4 voice patches in any combination: split/layer/switch etc.). The manual is good only as a reference not as a tutorial, but the board is pretty easy to get around on. It beats most other Yamaha manuals but that isn't saying anything good.
In spite of it's few shortcomings I think the SY85 is an excellent synth for all levels of player from beginner to seasoned pro.

30 note polyphony, 16 part multi-timbral (from an external sequencer only - 9 part using the internal sequencer), great synth-type action, very good effects with lots of control - including a killer leslie that makes the organs come alive! Wave card expansion plus sample-ram using standard SIMMS. 3.5" DD (720k) Floppy drive. No SCSI - a real shame since you can put loads of sample ram in this baby (2MB officially but some people have gone up to 16MB!). Very extensive MIDI implementation and intelligent performance features including splits and layers and velocity switching. Makes a great controller. Great quick-edit mode and sound search features. Decent aftermarket patch library plus huge Public Domain library from Yamaha. The sequencer is very complete and easy to use. And since each of the first 8 tracks can play a voice (patch) OR a performance (combi)you can really get up to 32 discrete sounds out of it plus drums on track 9. Some of the demo sequences I have are brilliant, they sound very polished and complete when the arrangement is well done. BUT some of the really dense songs do run into polyphony problems (mostly noticed by cut off cymbals). For live performance, however, the polyphony is ample (when not sequencing). I can easily create complete finished songs using nothing but this board, and the sound quality is tremendous - many people ask which studio I recorded in!! Even so, it is never a good idea to use only one sound source for a complete project - I like to mix it up and kick sounds out of other keyboards and modules for a bit of sonic variety. But for those of you on a tight budget - get one of these first (if you can find a good used one). It will go a LOOOOOOOONG way for you. I have seen used sy's for less than $700 here in Florida - a steal in my mind.

Most of the emulated instruments are good to excellent with the electric pianos and organs gettting highest marks followed by synths, strings, brass, basses, pianos, guitars and percussion. The built in sample ROM drums are only so-so, but using the sample RAM you can replace them easily with anything you like. Some of the libraries have excellent exotic instruments such as pedal steel guitars, indian percussion, african talking drums etc. - most of which are excellent.

The synth is very responsive with aftertouch and velocity scaling options plus the 8 assignable sliders that give you immense realtime control. Has inputs for foot controller, volume pedal, sustain pedal but no seq start/stop switch and no breath controller (boo!). 4 outputs gives fair control for recording, but the effects can be a little confusing to set up properly although they are sonicly excellent (SPX900 class). This machine kicks most other synths' asses in just about every category. The filters are second to none in a sample-playback synth. Overall the sounds are as varied and uniformly excellent as you are ever likely to find in one keyboard. Much fatter and believable than anything I have heard from Roland, and right up there holding it's own with the Korg stuff (not surprising since it's from the same design family). There are very few "dud" samples and they can ususally be overcome with effects help or simply replaced using the sample RAM or the ROM cards (although those are scarce to find.) I have the full set of ROM cards and find them very good overall with the Sax & Brass set being the best of the bunch. But there are many good sound sets to be found on the web with some patches using custom samples that load in and sound GREAT! Rock Band has some awesome lead guitar patches and ther are loads of alternate pianos to be found - Steinways, Baldwins, Bosendorfers etc. You are NOT stuck with just a few mediocre sounds - there is a HUGE variety of EXCELLENT patches wating to be discovered. And making your own sounds from scratch couldn't be easier. Once you choose the basic wave to start with, it sets the most important parameters to optimal defaults automatically to get you close to a finished sound without having to know what you are doing - incredible!

I have gigged with this synth since it came out in 1992 and the only problem I have had is broken keys when I get to pounding out those Little Richard riffs. The synth itself has never let me down, rarely hiccups and even then a simple reboot gets me back in the saddle. Never use a backup for it, although I do use other boards along with it.

Well, Yamaha has been up and down over the years but the past few years they have been among the best in the business. The aftermarket support for this synth is incredible with lots of stuff on their website and a few good PD editor/librarians floating about. Never needed an upgrade or repair (except for the occasional broken keys).

I will NEVER sell this synth - it is in a class of it's own. I think it eats most other sample-playback synths alive - even those that have come out recently. The quality of the samples in the sample ROM are among the best ever - even superior to the vaunted SY99. There is rarely a sound I need that cannot be found in the 85's library. If it had an arpeggiator I would even use it in place of my AN1x for some electronica stuff - it is THAT fat! Very inspiring pads and strings, awesome EPs, awesome "wierdness" patches and sound effects and with the sample RAM you are never out of options. I use it live for the majority of my playing and love having little sound effects loaded up to keep the folks entertained with. As a workstation it is about as complete as they get and for under a grand nothing even comes close. I _STILL_ can't see the need for a Triton or EX5 as long as I have the (although the new S80 looks promising...). I play professionally and have owned many, many synths (mostly Roland and Yamaha and Kawai) and none have given me the return on investment that this one has. It is dependable, inspiring, versatile, and sounds awesome. If I had to pick the best price/performance synth workstation ever made this one would get my vote running away. If I could give it an "11", I would!

I've never been familiar with keyboards besides this one and I figured it out in 24 hours!

I think the polyphony was 32.
many built in effect.
Nobody liked the 8 track sequencer, but I found ways to make it sound like there was 16 tracks. It was the easiest sequencer I've ever come across. It let me delete notes/drums/sounds note by note to make great and random step recordings. It made me seem more talented even by accident.

I didn't like the drum kits at all but I used them and tried to get all I could out of them. There are some sounds on the presets that I would never want to live without. Very easy to change sounds.

Never had any problems.

It wasn't my keyboard, it was my girlfriends. I tried to teach her to play it, but she didn't have the determination I did for composing original material so I got a few years use out of it. It helped me make a style that was only me and I will never ever forget it. I'm just trying to get into using my PC for recording MIDI and I would like to buy a used one to help me out.

This synth is a really easy to use sample playback-machine. The samples are all top quality (AWM-2) although the choice of acoustic piano's is rather limited (1!!). The presets have to much FX. Other than that they sound okay, especially the filter is a nasty one, I have never heard a better digital filter anywhere. It's much better than that of the SY99/77!! Editing patches is a breeze. You can come up with the best sounding pads, basses or keyed instruments within minutes.

I love the keyboard action, very light, aftertouch reacts very fast (e.g.: notes played with velocity > 100 always send aftertouch too), which can be useful sometimes (e.g. to have a different beginning of each note, very realistic!) but I would advice you to buy a Roland synth (to) if you require controllable aftertouch. The pitch bend-wheel sucks: it has only 128 steps (7 bit resolution). It's also hard to imagine that a $2500 synth from Yamaha doesn't have other tunings than the 12 tones equally tempered one we tend to (over)use in the western world. It could also do with a second LFO. The in-built sequencer we could really do without. So much for the whining: as I mentioned before, the filter really kicks ass, and so do the FX, except for the reverbs. The ability to load samples via midi and treat them as the internal waveforms boosts my rating up from 7 to 9.

All wind instruments are accurately represented. I never heard a better muted trumpet from a sample player. The strings are so so. Electrical piano's sound very good, quite expressive even. Basses are average but can benefit from the very versatile FX section.

Never had a problem (in 4 years).

Called the number which I found under Holland in the manual, the guy barely new what an SY85 was.

I have been considering selling it, but I couldn't find a better filter to put my samples through, so I desided not to. It teams up great with a monofonic sampler like the AKAI S01. This will give you more possibilities than a sampler alone of the same price (unless you find some exceptional deal). In fact, I can recommend this synth to any western musician without reservations (you can find a program, I forgot the name, on internet which converts .WAV-files into midi sample dump and vice versa, it costs $7).

I bought this synth when it first came out. I was familiar with old analogs and FM synthesis, but pretty much a beginner to all of the synthesis methods that came of age after that. I found this synth fairly confusing to learn, but once you do, it's well worth it! For those who are more experienced with modern synthesis, it should be fairly easy to learn.

30 voice poly. Built in effects are a godsend. Some of them are made up of two effect, which gives up to four total possible simultaneous effects. The routing of the voices to each effect/sub effect is fairly complex- i thought it was the hardest part to figure out. I use 2 1 MB SIMMS from an old 386, works great. Don't get too excited about using it as a sampler. You can only get samples in two ways- the disk drive (limits you to how many samples you can fit on a disk) or through sample dump (only limit is available RAM, but boy does it take a long time!).

I've had no problems with this keyboard in the 4 years i've had it.

I wish the sequencer was better, but hey that's what the computer is for!
http://www.teklab.com/mailinglists.html for mailing list info. ftp://ftp.teklab.com/teklab/sy85/ for SY85 software. Yamaha recently released lots of sounds to PD, and they're all here, as well as an SY85 specific librarian (PC)

Present sounds are fine. Editing is easy. Manual is ok.

Polyphony: no problems. Keyboard action is alright for synth-sounds (but I don't use the others so...) Built in effects are good and easy to use. Expensive extra memory but I bought them... Never used the on-board sequencer: use Cubase.

I use it for Techno/Dance/Dub/Trance. But to my opinion it is a litlle to static for that. Thinking now of buying extra an Prophecy. The reaction on velocity and aftertouch is ok.

No problems here

Here in the Netherlands Yamaha gave me great backup and they were verey helpful and friendly.

It's a fine tool. I'll keep it. But I do need some extra, more intuitive synths too.

HELP!!!! Have I bought a go-nowhere product here? The biggest problem I have is that the manual is, with extreme restraint, useless! I have tried a number of avenues to find any kind of instruction manual for the SY series and come up blank. If there is anyone who can recommend one and tell me where I can find it, I'd be indebted. My e-mail address is OSPEngr1@aol.com. Thanks! D. Tyler

I have to confess to being a raw beginner insofar as any indepth knowledge of the instrument is concerned. I decided to buy an advanced model because I don't intend to buy another. It functions extremely well, i.e. plays well. It has many advanced capabilities that I do not understand quite yet, thus the need for a better manual or other instruction book. My rating is based on what I know so far.

Instruments are VERY realistic, especially the pianos. The controls for velosity and aftertouch are accurate and responsive.

No problems so far. I'd risk no backup.

Can't get any advise on an alternative manual from them! They think theirs is ok, even when I pointed out the gross misspellings in the first 25 pages to them. I asked if that was a good sign of the quality of the material.

I'll buy no other technical product again without first taking a thorough look at the documentation. The technical detail is dense to the point of being nonsense and there is no well-written, pragmatic section explaining how it all works together. It's like learning to garden by reading a volume on organic chemistry. I don't disagree that there is a lot of useful information in it, but that there is very little practical stuff.

The preset sounds feels good, but I don't use them. Yes, create is simple. Add a little distorction on tenor sax, it gives incredible results!! The editing is simple: just in a week I understood all the parameters of sounds. And they are a lot... The maual is complete, and easy. There is also a quick guide to understand the main function of the keyboard.

It has 30 Voices poliphony and 2 DSP with 90 type of effects. Effects can be linked in several ways, and some are splitted, like 4 DSP. The SY85 can mount up to 4Mb of SIMM ram for samples, that can be received via SDS, but I tried with 16Mb and everything works well. The internal sequencer is poor, but, who use it? I use my PC, and it's another world!!! The midi implementaton is missing of some useful function, like portamento or Hold pedal, but there is a powerful real-time sysex that allow you to do incredible things....

Effects are good, lke reverbers. Distortions, for example, works well on 'acid sounds' but not on guitars or organs. (NO TUBE INSIDE!) The feeling of the keyboard seems a little 'light', but with synth sounds works very well. Dynamic response is adjustable and the keyboard is very simple and enjoyable.

I depend on this keyboard, is extremely useful and polmorphic!!

It never broken, after tree years of travelling!

There was a moment I wanted two of them...... I love its capablity to receive Samples. It's always a new keyboard. I hate the sequencer (8 tracks..Too little!) and FDD (720Kb). It help to make me music, 'couse editing the sounds was never so simple for me. Yes. BUY IT!