Yamaha TX81Z

This is by far the most difficult to program musical device ever created in the history of man. It is like trying to paint your hallway from outside by tying your paintbrush on a broomstick and manipulating it through the letterbox. And that includes the 'cutting in'.

It is so difficult that even if all the legending on the buttons rubbed off through frantic 'luck of the draw' programming it would make absolutely no difference whatsoever.

Having said that, by using the 'luck of the draw' method of just messing with the 8,000,000 different parameters, I've come up with some extremely way-out sounds that you cannot get using anything else.

8 note poly, 8 part multi-timbral. 'Effects' inlude a faux-delay, a pretty cool arpegiation and a faux-chorus, but you have to set that up yourself the old fashion way. Tuning is in fractions of a cent so narrow that it takes about half an hour of scrolling to get anywhere, but this is useful I suppose.

MIDI implementation includes special parameters for Breath Control, beyond that the functions within are abreviated so much that even the manual writers gave up on it.

5 banks of 32 sounds - 4 of which are presets, the 5th bank is user-definable.

You can make it say a rude thing (or anything else for that matter) when you turn it on. This function is awesome and especially impressive if you're showing it off to your non-musician friends.

Ooooooo kay. Here we go. How can you describe the stuff that went down in The Yellow Submarine to a blind dead guy? Firstly disregard the patch names such as 'piano', 'organ' etc. You have plinky plonky sounds and wooooaaaarrrrr!!!! sounds and blom blom blom sounds and some kchok ones. About half of them are useable, then you come back years later and suddenly find a use for the other half of 'em.

Pride of place (and I hope I get the names right here):

Latley Bass - this is why the TX81Z is still used in the writing studios of far more people than you'd care to mention. Its fat and warm, but with a thin top edge that makes it sit really well in the mix.

Snare1 - nothing like a snare, but trigger it as 64th notes and it transforms into a hard metallic NIN type percussive effect that can turn your inoffensive pop pap into hardcore monkey-kung industrial. Try this trick with the main piano sound, turns it scary!

Low String - nice warm string pad, of its own time and place.

Martian - one of my own, I can't even begin to describe what this sounds like. Oh ok, here goes - hold the keys down, it burbles.. hit them quickly it and whales like a theramin on acid through a Marshall stack, play more than one note at a time and it has a sample-and-hold fit. It's as though the damn machine is alive!

Plus a bunch of others. NOTHING sounds like a TX81Z, and you can either work with the sounds or you can't. Who'd have thought a fairly blank looking (actually, rather cool looking) 1 unit high FM the-birth-of-digital module could feel so... organic? That's why it gets a 10. I dunno about 'pristine sound quality', but a 1959 Les Paul doesn't gonna sound pristine is it? You want pristine go buy one of those china Chairman Mao's you can get in the Sunday colour supliments.

The battery has lasted until, well, forever. Um, I tried to turn it on just now and it didn't work at all. Damn! It's probably the fuse in the plug, right? Probably. That's probably what it is. Yeah.

It gets a 10 for working just great from 1989 when I got it third hand of someone, to just right his damn second!

Yamaha have a very good website with regards to manuals etc, and for third party support there are plenty of TX81Z fans out there with websites of their own.

This was my first ever synth and I used it's paltry 8 note multitimbrality to knock out some pretty complex stuff back in the mid-90s. Then I got a Quadrasynth, which is without doubt the easiest synth in the world to program, and also actually sounds like the patch names. But I love my TX, still! There is sits in my rack, between the Quadrasynth and the EMU sampler.

If it dies, we'd all hunt on down on ebay. Love my TX!

Saying that, I've recently got the DirectX softsynth version, but I haven't really used that yet.

Unlike most of the people reviewing this thing, I'm not a big nerd. This means I have no previous experience with keyboards beyond the ones that have speakers built into them. Also, I don't know what an "algorithym," "frequency modulation," "oscillator" or "waveform" is or how it works in this magic little box (but I did learn what "multimbral" means. Yeah, me!).

So if you're like me, good luck figuring it thing out, because it seems like Yamaha went out of their way to make this thing confusing to use. The manual - without which you will never, ever figure this thing out, that coming from someone who loves jumping into electronics without reading the manuals - is written like a calculus book, complete with mathmatical formulas (but it is available online for free). For example, on the front of the thing they have two buttons next to each other labeled "inc" and "dec." I found out what those buttons do, and it certainly isn't incing or decing. My conclusion: keyboardists are either all mathematics professors, total snobs who hate the idea of anyone else learning what they do, masochists, or all of the above.

I had to study the manual like a midterm study guide just to figure out that I didn't want to mess with most of the functions on this thing. They set it up so you can make your own sounds by manipulating sine waves, "detuning" and other mess. Yall have fun with that. The rest of us can run, don't walk to www.jsynthlib.org and download a pile of sounds and download them into the keyboard (oh yeah, the cord needed to do this cost me as much as the thing). There are also built in sounds, some of which are good but most pretty darn awful.

The good news is that once you figure out how to do just a little of the stuff that's in it, you can do some really neat things. Like make all notes an octave (or a fifth, fourth, second) up or down, or even both up and down. You can also combine more than one sounds to thicken or weirden things up (for those of you saying, "yeah, every keyboard can do that nowadays," refer to the "nerd" part above).

Most of the complaints about this thing are that the sounds are "too 80s." Dude, I am so there! Just to think that this thing was meant to sound like actual instruments makes me giggle. I just wish it could make those sounds like Ferris Bueller did.

I got it racked up and I pray that the battery doesn't run out. I bought this thing used and I have a sneaking suspicion that the "5 year" battery is 20 years old. But so far so good.

Didn't I mention that the 20-year-old owners manual was still online at yamaha? How cool is that?

Did I also say that it's as old as me and I bought it for 40 bucks? Lets just say that if this thing broke, I would call a coroner, not a doctor.

OK, it cost me 40 bucks. 40 bucks! How disappointed could I be with it? I do have the sneaking suspicion that I could do everything on this thing for free on my computer, but what the heck, it looks cool in the rack space, it makes my keyboard sound better, and I can program it to say anything I want when it turns on. I'd pay 40 bucks just for that! Everything else is just cake.

it is a rack mount eighties synth so i take off three points by not having a knob or button for every parameter and being highly menu driven and not having just a wheel and select button. it has three sets of navigation and entry buttons. seem abit annoying at first to get down exactly which ones do what in certain menus. plus it has four other buttons to add to the confusion for different editing modes.
I read the manual and it decently explains everything. It isn't Korg user friendly or busting out like AOL. but it isn't as bad as some people make it out to be. the extra button to navigate is something i got over in about two days tops. now i can fly through them. it is even easier if you have Jsynthlib to edit with.!

Multimbrality:
it is a good multimbral synth but rarely use it as such because it isn't a swiss army knife synth. i use at maximum two voices from it at once.
you have to switch it into performace mode and allot max notes per voice. you can have up to 8 notes for 1 voice. or have 1 note for 8 voices or any variable as long as you don't go over eight in all. I stay with having three voices consisting of 3+3+2 or four voices in groups of two.

Waveforms:
unlike alot of the early FM synths this synth has more than just sine waves. it has i think about 7 waveforms you can use for any of the 4 operators.

Effects:
it has some effects that are more like midi effects than actual audio effects. they only work in performance mode(that took me a while to figure out)

things i took off points for
-no filters envelopes or just an overall filter would be nice.
-midi implementation of envelopes ADSR from sequencer
-pitch envelopes :(

sounds aren't realistic except maybe the bells sounds. but i didn't want it for realistic sounds and anyone that wants it for realistic synth sounds should maybe think about something different. i love the metallic sounds it makes. really good for techno and industrial stuff (like i do). pads are OKay. it never seems gentle enough for pads. a filter would really help that. you can get some really ripping bass out of it if you know how:).
the presets SUCK so don't really use them. spare us all by not using them. YES even the C15 Lately Bass!

i give it a nine because i bought it for metallic digital FM sounds.
and not for anyother reason but for that. I droped one point because of the pitch envelopes could help me acheive what i wanted it to sounds like.

well here is where my disappointment came. I bought from ebay for about $80 USD and thought it was okay but i realised that it had a battery that is dead. i opened it up and noticed that the battery is soldered in. The manual said it needed a battery every five years and they decided to solder the battery in? doesn't seem logical to me. but that isn't really a reliabilty issue. It is poor design issue.

if stolen or lost i might get a new one.
it was really a cheap FM synth. i was thinking of getting a DX7 but i wanted something different. i wanted a different sound than a DX7 but still wanted a FM synth. i haven't really tried a the DX7 so i don't know if the sound is too different but i assume so.

This is my *first* hard synth. I have been using a computer (power BOOK!) up untill now. This thing is easy to use. Button pushing maybe, but I can move pretty fast.

Bad midi implementation, though. Bad is in bad as in not good. I wish I could conrol ADSR from midi. Oh well.

You all know the deal. FM blah blah.

Trashy digital gross hideous thrash fuzzy hard grating noises--Perfect.

I give it a ten because it is just what you didnt want, but sounds great anyway.

I would trust my life with this thing. Tough. Looks like it could easily withstand combat

I hate yamaha. Never had to talk with them though.

If it was lost or stolen, I would buy another. It is just a necesity. Like as important and classic as a mmt-8.

VALUE!!?? Come on. ARE YOU KIDDING. Buy one or I will kill you.

Bought mine new as soon as they came out. Glad I waited over the FB-01. Preset sounds were decent for the year. I wrote a patch editor and random patch generator that I sold through keyboard magazine back in the late 80's.

i already had experience with a DX7, so I found it easy to use.

This was my first truly multi-timbral synth. Decent feature set for the price and year.

You could even program your own boot up message.

I came up with some very unique sounds.

Solid Yamaha rack unit.

They've always treated me well.

I sold mine circa 1999 after over 10 years of use. I don't miss it 'cause I still have a DX7IIFD. Not a bad little unit for those that want to tinker with FM including the bonus of a few waveforms.

Button pushing module, small display.

Multi-timbral, stereo out, FM synthesis, 4 operator, and each operattor has several waveforms (unlike the DX7). Has no effects, so reverb and modulation are necessary

Presets are ok (they were in 1987), and some editing is necessary.
Nice basses, some wind inst. Not realistic sounds (ACPiano, Strings, brass) but good for synth music. Once (1988) I won a 1 year MusicTechnology magazine subscription for programing a very nice organ sound and sending them the parameters sheet.

No breakdown, so far (has 18 years).

No contact, fortunately

If someone can find one cheap, try it, and useful sounds can be found there. It's also 1U high (small)

This synth was not much of hit when it was introduced in 1987, the end of FM was coming fast as people lined up to buy the Roland D-50 and later the Korg M1. Cheap samplers like the Ensoniq Mirage were pressuring Yamaha to compete. All they had at the time was the DX series and the little FB-01. INSTEAD of offering a 6-operator DX7 style synth with beefed-up FM capabilities, In typical Yamaha fashion they beefed-up the FB-01 and hence, came the TX-81z.
I have owned this little synth since 1987 when it came out. Back then I was POOR!. I never owned any FM synth up to that point, but this little critter began my love of FM synths. The low cost and improved sound quality (12 bit; the Fb-01 had 10 bit output DACs). made me smile the first time I plugged this in and played it. It is very easy to use, not so easy to program from it's front panel. I has an Atari 1040 ST then so I used the Caged Artist editor that came out a little later. You can still find this editor online at atari sites and it's now free!! You can run it on your PC with the STEEM emulator. There have been other synth editors but you will probably have to purchase one if those. You WILL want to program your own sounds for this unit as the factory sounds are bland except for a few standouts.

8 voice poly means you can really only get maybe two or three parts going at once. This is no TX-816!! ( I have been surprised by how many people over the years thought I owned one of those when ever I told them what I had in my studio. People still seem to mix that unit up with the TX-81z!!) The multi-timbral thing was very new when this synth was introduced, and that was also a strong inducement for me to buy one as I didnot have too many synths back then.

The sounds in this unit where mostly made to emulate acoustic instruments and other DX sounds which themselves where trying to emulate real instruments. You must understand the atmosphere of the synth world back when the DX7 was introduced. People wanted realistic orchestral instruments and sections, as well as acoustic guitars, Hammond organs and most of all, Rhodes piano. Analog synths, even most modular units back then could not easily come even CLOSE to emulating this kinds of sounds. That's why the original Synclavier II was so lusted after; it could do VERY realistic types of sounds ( but you must realize that in those days we were so easily impressed!!). The styles of music in those days needed these realistic timbres. Now fast forward to today's music and everyone wants something old like analog or FM because of the synthetic sounds these instruments were really best at.
Having said all that, I do have to point out that even with other waveforms besides sine to program with, Yamaha just didnot produce a synth that was the sound equal of the original DX7. AT FIRST, it seems these sounds are identical, but as you become familiar with this unit you will notice that they lack the detail and intricate velocity response that the big 6- op units had. This is also because of the envelopes, which are simplified versions and because the other waveforms donnot replace the missing operators of the DX7. There is also much less resolution in the various parameters you can program with and this is probably the biggest difference. Trust me, it does make a big difference!

VERY reliable. Mine even still has the original battery!

NEVER had to call them for this synth.

If this unit was lost or stolen I would not be replacing it. I have used this thing on many projects and I have gotten my money's worth!
I WOULD replace it with a TX-802.
I have a suggestion for anyone who is new to FM. Unless you are using stacks of FM synths detuned, you really should use a good chorus and some delay on the sound (except for some sounds like the popular "Lately Bass"). It really makes it sound rich.
I have written this review after all these years because I have started to use my FM synths again. I really like the unique sounds that are only possible with FM synthesis. I like the way they repond naturally to velocity etc.
If you can find one of these synths don't pay more than $100.00 dollars for it, but DO buy one!

Absolutely hard and irritating to program, but some the presets are well-known (see LATELY BASS, FM electro, FM Choirs), manual is quite good. One would need a patch editor.

Polyphony is enough if you do not use it as mult-timbral. No onboard effects (except pseudo-reverb, pan...) MIDI implementation is enough.

Sounds are as much good or even better than the DX 7, due to 4 OP FM synthesis including NON SINUSOIDAL waveforms, which gives some powerful and complex sounds. Linking velocity to different parameters can make some very, very good surprizes... Do not expect sounds like ROMplers: it's pure and complex FM synthesis, and that is why it is GOOD!

Very reliable. Buttons are becoming a bit hard...

I love its sounds! And it is very, very cheap nowadays! If you want some pure 4 OP FM sounds, if you want THE LATELY BASS, some FM choirs, some bright sounds to add in a mix, find one!

If you own this 4 operator multi-timbrel synth you can emulate the best of the 6 operator sounds of the DX7 by combining algorithyms operators of the TX81Z. In essence the TX81Z has 32 "oscillators" in mono mode. One sh9ould be able to emulate just about any acoustic monophonic instrument with 32 oscilllators driven by velocity sensitity.

Typical 80ths Parameterhopping with a handfull of buttons.

At least easy to use,but timeconcerning while scrolling/hopping through
hundreds of Menues.
Anyway,the editing was solved well for a 1 unit rackspace device.

The synthesis itself is something special.Why to loose more words
about FM ? FM is an academic synthesis,wich was firstly developed by
John Chowning of Stanford University in the early 70ths.
Yamaha launched with the DX series a userfriendly format of this synthesis.
So the the whole entire DX and TX series is pretty easy to use.
(Always take a calculator with you).

The further step of the TX81z is the fact,that it uses not only sine
waves.You can choose between eight waveforms.This makes it easier to
recreate typical DX7 sounds.Four operatos with eight waveforms are
fighting against a six operator model with sinewaves only.

The four operator models were usually underrated in comparsion with
the six operator models.But the TX81Z proved firstly,that also a four
op can be as good as a 6 Op.

We don't talk here about the FSR1,wich demonstrates how good FM should
have been at the beginning.

8 voice polyphony,8*Multitimbral.No seq.,no FX.
Typical 4 op soundarchitecture.Midi Imp. is OK.

Typical 4 op. A little thin and weak in bass.Also has Aliasing.

With FM,instruments can be never realistic.Except for thin organs
and good EPs.The TX is strong-like any other FM-synth,in metallic,
percussive,bells,chimes and morphing FX sounds.
With experienced programming it is also possible to let it sound
analogish.
Its domains are FX and Morphing sounds.

The limitations are the unflexible EGs.Much better as the typical analog ADSR,
but not as good as the EGs of the Casio CZ/VZ synths.
The Casios had eight step EGs,wich were freely routable for Sustain and
Endpoints.

And in the same year Casio released the VZ8m synth.Also one rackunit,
also 8 voices and also 8 Multitimbrality.But with more effects(not build
in FX) and if compared to FM with eight operators.And per OP with
eight different waveforms.Plus Ringmodulation and additive synthesis.
Wich means simply,without any fixed algorithm.
But Casio used PD synthesis instead of FM.Some people say that PD is
only a clone of FM under a different name.That's not true.
PD is a kind of changing anglepoint of a Phase via compression( a kind
of Pong game),FM changes the frequency like in slow motion with the
Pitchwheel.

But this is going to far.The TX81z is able to create some great sounds
wich are typically FM:Metalic and FX:And as Multitimbral device easy
to arrange.

The old days of early digital.Solid and build like a rock.

Yamaha offers always a good support for new and ancient models

The TX81z is a try worth.Already fitted with Multitimbrality and a
better version of four op FM.
The four OPs are usually underrated in compasion with the big FM
brothers.But they can do also make a good job.

Compared to the Casio VZ8m the TX8z is not so flexible.In sound,they are
totally different.The VZ is more flexible in routing,the TX is more
Metall,FX sounding.The VZ sounds more warmer and analog.
Both are of the same age and with the same Polyphony and Multtimbral
functions.Alos are both 1 Unit rack modules,with a nearly same
User Interface and Display.
I like it to use them together.But if the VZ were lost,I would be busy
to get a new one,for the TX I can not say the same.

Very ease to use. The best factory presets are: eletric pianos,organs,analogs,digitals,bells,noises and bass. Ease to editing patches,too. good price: Us 146

No sequencer. 16 notes poliphony and 8 parts multimbral. Good efects are delay and chorus. Don't have expansion.

Good analogs,digitals,eletric pianos,organs,bells,bass and noises. The sounds are similar of Dx-7. I'm using day by day in Dance music and jingles. I love my Tx-81z

As with most FM synths, editing could be a bit tricky. But spending an afternoon or two learning it, this machine gets pretty nice over time.

Considering the age of this little machine, it's pretty good.
it's multitimbral, the velocity-sence gives it a lot of expreivness, and the midi works perfectly well (wich it doesn't always do on some roland machines)

The faktory-presets aren't that beauthiful, in fact most of them truly sucks, especialy the the emulations of acuostic instruments.
However if you have patienence to get inside the at least in the beginning, messy soundeditor, you can get some extremly cool sounds out of it. Despite the faktorypresets there's a lot of attitude and agression beneath the surface of this one, like killer-basses, chainsaw-drones and weird electronic sounds. The feedback operator adds a noisy edge or almost analogue warmth depending on wich algorithm you choose. It's perfect if you are playing hard electronic music and want some real hard-edged sounds. It can allso do the metallic trumpet-like sounds used by Front 242, Portion control and depeche mode in the mid 80's.

I never had a single problem with it

It's a nice synth, if you can coop with it's limitations. Never the less it's over 15 years old, so thats what you get buying any old synth. But if you have patience, you can have some realy fun times with it.

Many of the presets try to emulate actual acoustic instruments. Although FM was the best at this when this synth was new, it's laughable compared to current ROMplers in this category. THIS, HOWEVER, IS NOT A NEGATIVE (read on). The unit has 128 presets stored in ROM and there are some neat digital noise type effects and some really neat programming tricks that are impossible on a ROMpler.

The editing and menu navigation isn't too hard compared to present day synths, since there are fewer functions. Editing actual patches due to the quirks of FM is difficult if you aren't familiar with the family. My unit didn't come with a manual, but I downloaded one from Yamaha, so it's no problem. This is my first FM synth, so I could use more guidance in the programming area than the manual offers. I use MIDI Quest V8.0 on my MIDI setup and this eases programming quite a bit...however, due to my unfamiliarity with FM, it's still hit and miss. It is great fun to generate random patches and morph between two patches in MIDI Quest, however.

These units are known for their bass and bell-like sounds, great if you are into dance music. (I play classic rock and progressive rock and the unit is fun in my genres as well. In fact, my unit's 32 user modifiable patches were all programmed as various basses. My rating is based on a high ease of use for navigation, but difficult FM patch editing.

This unit has 8 voices and can be used as a 8 patch multi-timbral unit, but I haven't bothered. I'm happy using it as a straight patch system. You can set this in a monophonic mode and detune each of the 8 voices from each other which does in fact create GIANT lead sounds. Effects are easy to use, no expansion but this is an actual synth so you get to generate whatever you can figure out. MIDI isn't bad for the age of the unit and it does have pressure sensitivity and several MIDI controller options. My rating is based on this units intended purpose for me (it's NOT to replace my JV-2080 for instance) and the fact that I use MIDI for control and playing of the instrument and not for sequencing. For a simple source of FM synthesis sounds, this unit is great.

Some of the "realistic" instruments really aren't too bad...organs, basses, bells. However, for realism you are better off with a modern ROmpler or Sampler. I think that anyone who buys an FM synth today knows what the limitations and positives are. Onboard effects are fine for the age of the synth, I've used some external effects at times. These units are used frequently in dance and electronic music these days, it seems. However, my main interest area lies in classic rock, modern rock, and all forms of progressive rock (yeah, I'm a dinosaur!) and this little synth is great fun and a source of great and unusual sounds. Although I haven't done it yet, I'd love to use it as a sound source for MIDI bass pedals. As almost all of my keyboard playing is done live (no sequencing) I use this unit for weird noises, bells, synth organs, evolving pads (not like a wavestation, but there is neat stuff you can do), and the like. FM synths can be VERY responsive to your playing as are intrinsically modulation patching machines. There is a lot buried under the surface of this little guy. Don't be fooled by the units attempt to generate realistic sounds (a big goal of FM in its day, but overshadowed today by cheap ROMplers and Samplers). However, the moderns musicians desire to branch out from "built-in" sounds is well met by this machine. Sounds are similar to the bigger DX-7 synths, but have 8 built in waves instead of just the sine waves, which was actually appealing to me. This synth only uses 4 operators (for you FM nuts out there) but the multiple wavesforms is a fair trade.

Built like a tank. I'd use it on a gig with no worries...and I'm usually afraid to bring older synths out with me.

This is my first Yamaha, designed to quell my FM jones before I decide on what larger 6-operater DX- or possibly SY/TG synth to buy. I've never had to deal with Yamaha, but their website is quite good.

I would definitely buy again. The cost to fun and cost to benefit ratio is great! It would be great if you could store more than 32 presets of your own, but many of the 128 built-in presets are nice and battery backed RAM was expensive back then! I absolutely love this synth.

Hideously difficult. I use it as a mono-timbral device because I am not masochistic. If you have the patience to set up a "performance" have at it, but I find it horrible. FM in general is difficult to grasp when it comes to sound design but you can get the hang of it after a time. I like the programming layout at least, it does make sense in a weird way. Much easier if you have Sound Diver or Unisyn but still FM so... The presets are laughable but charming in their own way, and a couple are good for starting points. The manual is ambiguous and generally horrible like most Yamaha I have used. C'est la vie, it was cheap...

Decent features I guess. 8 note poly is plenty for mono-timbral use. Even in a multi setup, its probably plenty as some FM sounds can take quite a bit of sonic space if you program them that way... The effects are a joke but it is a pretty old synth. Decent midi implimentation but nothing great. Pretty much a run of the mill for '80s FM synths BUT it does have some unique things under the hood, but that info's in the sounds.

Ugh, forget the organs and electric pianos. Any sound module has replications of those. Go for the weird stuff! This unit creates some of the geratest oddities that are awesome for some weird one-hit type sounds. I have made some great Skinny Puppyeasque sounds with very little effort just by making some very minor alterations to some banks I DL'd off the internet. Deep bell sounds are great and some of the pad sounds are something else when run through effects.

One of the best uses for this synth I have found is as an additive for other synths. Adding a funky sound to another synths lead and bass sounds creates some great results when used with the right sounds. Another great thing is to run it through another synth's input. I have mine going into my Waldorf Micro-Q and using the filters and envelopes on the Micro-Q almost makes it into a new mega synth with some crazy sounds I haev NEVER heard before...

The sounds I use are generally very clangy and I feel this unit produces those types of sounds best. Hence it seems to be great for industrial/darkwave. It doesn't seem all that versatile in its sound generation but I have been somewhat lazy in programming it because I am a dunski when it comes to FM for the most part. The velocity and aftertouch are weird in their sensitivity. Its fine if you don't mind going over your sequences and fine tuning but its a bit of a drag for live play IMO.

The unit boasts 8 different operator waveforms as opposed to the normal 2. This is what separates this from other FM synths. Just changing the operator shapes can make dramatic differences to the sound. Again the sounds remain very clangy and FM sounding but they can add a new depth. Its a really nice thing to have on the bass sounds as it can make a nice rounded bass sound a nightmare stomping sounds with just the change of the operator shapes.

Its a tank. I've had mine for a year and a half and its been solid. Of course the thing is ancient and it works wonderfully.

No online community that I've seen but who cares? I DL'd 1500 sounds from Yamaha's website along with the manual. The fact that Yamaha still has stuff lingering around for this grandpappy of a synth gets them a high rating this time. I generally don't like Yamaha's tech support but 1500 patches (even if 90% are crap) for a 15 year old synth is pretty good.

Not easy to use but not that bad either. Some great sounds but you really do need some outboard effects to wet the sound up as you just can't rely on the onboard effects. Some great noise making ability really makes it shine. Although FM synths have TOO distinct a sound, this one is more versatile due to the additional operators. I can't complain much because these things are practically given away anymore and I have managed to put together some great sounds for various tracks. Its greatest strength though, is the fact that they are so rarely used anymore and as a result add a unique edge to a track that cannot be replicated by anything other than another FM type synth and even then it stands apart because of those extra waves. While people scramble to buy up all this vintage gear or new VA's these synths are being ignored so their sound is FAR from overused. If you do any kind of electronica and are looking for some new sounds to liven up your music, this is a pretty good synth to look long and hard at, especially if you already have a sampler and an analog or VA synth. It just might give your tracks that little extra that has been so elusive and as cheap as they are, its hard to justify NOT buying one.

Presets are very ordinary sounding (the DX11 keyboard version must have come out later because its preset are much better). Do try out the popular "Lately Bass" patch though. Editing patches is difficult with FM synths at the best of times. I defy anyone to stand up and admit that they really know how to get a particular sound from an FM synth. It has a small display )16 character by 2 line) and two cursor buttons and 2 +/- buttons so there is a lot of button pushing involved. An editor would be bliss.

FM synthesis. 8 note polyphonic. 8 way multitimbral. 4 banks of 32 presets and 32 user presets. FX are MIDI based delay, pan and chords. Not much fun though. 1 rack space. What more can be said?

If FM is good for anything then it is the expressiveness of the sounds. You can make a patch respond to velocity, aftertouch and modulation in a way that a sample playbakc synth will never achieve. Sounds are FM so that means no realistic instruments. What it can do is nice square waves, electric pianos (including the classic FM pianos from the 80's) and chunky basses. Try looking on the net for some soundbanks to download.

Must have had this thing for 10 years now and never a problem.

Well I've never had a problem so I don't need support. Check out the yamaha service site (via yamaha.co.jp I think)for a manual.

Probably not the first module you should buy but if you are looking for something that can do analog type basses and cant afford a modelling synth that give it a listen and download some patches. If you do bad eighties love songs then get it for the electric pianos.

No idea what the OS version is, or if there was even such a thing as OS upgrades back in the days when they cranked these out.
I imagine a patch editor would make this easier, but once you get used to the way the menus are set up, it's quite easy to navigate. Let's face it - no one made synths very easy to figure out back in the 80's, but after dealing with some of the machines of the 90's, this thing will seem a breeze comparitively - even from the front panel. Unless you have no idea what you're doing in the first place.

Polyphony 8 I believe. As practically every review in this section already mentions, effects are MIDI-based, not DSP-based. Delay and pitch shift which are fun to play with and a pseudo-reverb that's not useful for much. If you have the correct cable, you can dump your patches to CASSETTE (which gives you an idea how old this thing is)... pretty sure standard sys-ex dumps work fine, though I haven't gotten around to trying it. The noteworthy feature here is the multiple operator waveforms - even though it's only 4-op, this allows for some pretty complex modulations and enable you to get a lot dirtier more easily than with sine-only FM deals. This alone is worth the price if you're into any type of music which involves intensive sound-design (as I am). Another cool thing for people who can make use of it, is that it features the microtonal tuning capability that was also in the TX-802.

Fuck the presets. There are some decent basses and some cheesy sound-effects, but that's about it. All the presets are really good for are as a starting point for your own patches. This thing is absolutely killer for sound-design - I was considering selling it, then I made a couple new sounds on it and promptly changed my mind. This is great for bell sounds, sub-sonic bass noises, long evolving pads, scratchy/digital sounds of both the short and long variety... not too heavy on modulation routings, but A) there's already a lot of modulation going on with FM synthesis in general and B) what WAS in those days (with the exception of modular analog)? I'm still getting an FS1-R (which was going to replace this in my rig), but I'll keep this around just to have a pure-FM synth and for all the stuff it can do that the FS1-R can't.

Mine's firmly planted in a studio rack, but it looks like it took a hell of a beating before I got it, and it still functions without a glitch. The "built like a tank" term seems appropriate here.

Never dealt with them. But they have PDF manuals for this and other units on their Japan site (which is how I got mine), which is a nice gesture. However, I will refrain from a rating here since I've never had personal dealings with them.

Yeah, I'd replace this... bang for the buck is huge, and at the low low asking price, it's not like anybody couldn't afford one. I was torn between this and a TX-802 when I was looking for a rack FM synth, but after trying them both, this won out. The TX-802 has more output capabilities and 6-op. algorithms, but lacks the multiple waveforms - which is more than a fair trade off in my opinion. Sure the 802 is a bit cleaner sounding, but I'm not going for pristine productions here, and the FS1-R will pick up the slack in that department once I get one. As I keep saying, at this price, there's no reason not to at least try one - and with all the people snatching em up, it should be easy enough to unload if it ain't yer thang.

The presets of this machine are - except for some basses and organs - rather dull. T
The best thing to do is using and editor like Unisyn to produce some new sounds.
Try using some kind of randomize function if your editor allows this - you'll get some pretty weird results instantaneously !!!
(At least you don't have to crack your head about FM synthesis!)

Everything has been said here I guess...

If digital is going to make a comeback or if you like to use harsh, weird and unusual sounds - look nowhere else.
Using it along with some chorusing effect produces some really neato noises. I use it for basses and other otherworldly klingklangs.
I once put it through a Lexicon Vortex - a bizarre reverb/delay/pitch shift....all in one effects unit - and I ended up with some of the darkest
sounds around. (Some wonderful formant things happened like a chanting Robotic Gregorian Choir!!)
The reverb is a tad gritty but the delay is a good thing. There even is a chord function where you can stack up notes to play for example chordal
arpeggio's.

After all those years it still works OK - so I guess it's pretty reliable.

Never had to call.

I'd definately replace it when lost or stolen, it still remains an invaluable source for bizarro bleeps and klangs.
I put it through a Moogerfooger Ring Modulator or through the Sherman Filterbank to add some more quirckiness to it - this fattens the sounds up
too. I never use it for conventional purposes like pianos or organs. Weirdness and basses are what it does best. You might even use it for bell like
patches.
Did anyone mention the display shows "Good Morning!" when you turn it on??? (You can replace this - Mine says Aaarrgh now !)

Editing is pretty okay for a rackbox -- 2 line LCD and a couple sets of cursor keys. No data wheel of course. The menus for patch editing are a bit tricky to navigate but you get used to it. An external patch editor would probably be nice but I have yet to find a decent one (Unisyn maybe?). I had no manual, but there's a very handy little pull-out card on the thing that depicts all the algorithms and shows you a map of the menus. Nice touch.

Polyphony is something lame, 16 I think. No effects except for MIDI effects (MIDI delay and so on). You can do multitimbral, but it's a pain in the rear to set up -- these things are so cheap, don't bother, just buy 4 of 'em. :)

No expansion capabilities, no sequencer.

When I first got this thing, I couldn't figure out what to do with it. The presets are HORRENDOUS (remember, this was made in the days when synths were intended to simulate real instruments), and the somewhat irritating menus kept me from exploring too much.

So, I loaned it to a friend. One night we started playing with it, and managed to make some BEAUTIFUL little pads, soft flutey noises, hard electronic drum hits, cold digital basses, all kinds of neat stuff. For ice-cold buzzy FM noises, you cannot beat this thing. I'm using it for trance/industrial type stuff,
and it's just the thing. I plan to pick up a second one. Minor drawback: there seems to be a bit of digital noise on the output, and some slight high-end hiss on the notes themselves no matter what you do. I would put this through an EQ and a gate. I have mine hooked through a Peavey Spectrum analog filter to warm it up a little - some reverb and chorus do wonders for it, too.

As far as the guts details: it's a 4-op FM synth, but with more waveforms than your typical DX type sine/triangle/pulse -- there's like 8 waveform choices, and 7 or 8 different algorithms for combining the 4 oscillators. ADSR envelope and pitch detune for each osc. If you're used to more 'modern' synthesis architectures, this will be a fun excursion for you. Give yourself time with it and you'll find a lot of nice sounds in here.

The one I have seems very old and battle-worn, and it works like a charm. I'd gig with it no worries.

Never dealt with Yamaha. I doubt they'd acknowledge the existence of this bit of gear.

If it were lost or stolen I'd get another one immediately, and then CURSE myself for not making a sysex dump of my patches.

For the fairly limited range of digital FM-type sounds this thing can make, it might be hard to understand why I gave it such a high rating. The key lies in the accessibility. This thing makes no assumptions about what you want; it's just a raw sound-forging tool. No presampled waves, no presets of any value at all; just a straightforward set of oscillators and your imagination. This puts the fun back in sound design!

My only complaints are the bit of noise it produces, and the irritating don't-bother multitimbrality. But ignore that -- this thing is worth the little money you'll shell out for it.

Editing patch thru 6 button can be some kind of tiring labor (sometimes fun eventough). A software patch editor is useful to get the maximum of this "beast". Hours of tweaking fun garanteed...The manual is okay. The suggested performance presets are good to give new ideas.

Check the other reviews.

You get weird sounds for a small price. Do go for the piano thing in this box. The bass are good. Some good percusive sounds. Cool organs. I'm mainly in the industrial thing and the tx81z give me all the FM sound I need. Some FM can do some good to your mix from time to time...Yamaha did a good thing to reduce the noise in the TX81Z. The delay is useful. You can do arpegiator things with it.

Mine's got scratchs on the casing. I don't know if the battery has been changed. It has been obviously mistreated and it's still working as good as the mint thing.
There's a memory protection and it has never failed me while playing at my house. I actually gig with it with no backup.

I've e-mailed Yamaha Canada and I didn't have a response. They were to busy selling motorcycles I guess...

I give a fantastic value only for the price paid for this thing. You're looking for a cheap toy around 100$? Get a TX81Z. If it was lost, I would buy it again for the same price. I'm do not prize it enough to pay more. I like to get new sounds with a random patch generator. It doesn't need more thingies. If you want effects, use exteriors ones. I don't really use the yamaha to compose the main thing. However, I do program sounds in spare time that i can use to fix hole or add a little bit of clanginess. It's more a patching device. I use the bass, organ and FX sounds more often than anything else on this synth. Finally, this synth have relieved me the need for a bitch for a good to weeks. If you compare, the TX is more economic in that way...;)

what can i say...it's an awsome machine, if u know what u're doing...this thing can throw out some kick ass sounds, but only if u're willing to program it...doing it manually isn't too bad, just got to bear through many (MANY) menus...a pc editor is VERY helpful..manual is good to get u started, but u don't need one, u can learn by experimenting, it'll just take u a bit longer

8 note polyphony, 8 parts multitimbral...don't use this thing for the center of u're studio...it's a rackmount, non expandable (hey, it's early 80's technology)...it had built in effects, just not DSP effects..midi effects...their not too bad, but don't rely onthem..if u need to add efects use an external fx unit...

allright now...in my opinion, these sounds are AWSOME...i've created sounds that can kick ANALOG ASS!!!...looking for realistic instruments...wrong place...if ya want killer basses, organs, metallic sounds, blips and bleeps (industrial/jagged techno), this is where to go...presets SUCK!!!...(some are good, but most aren't)...MAKE U"RE OWN..it is't that hard..if u know what u're doing u can get the kewlest sounds out of it...

it's like 12 years old, and hasn't failed once...i don't even expect it to..battery supposd to die away after 5 yars, mine is fine, but i still backup my patches just incase...

never dealt with 'em b4

if it were lost/stolen, i would buy it again (if it cost me under $150)...it's one of the greatest synths i've ever used, it'd be hard for me to actually go on w/o it...i depend upon this puppy for a lot of my sounds...i've only had for a year, but it's felt like an eternity...i also own a tg-33, and it's hard to compare, both are totally differnt...i had a choice between this and a tg-55, but the tx kicked more ass...55 was too much of a preset machine ( I HATE SAMPLE BASED MACHINES!!!)...all i have to say is, if u're into industrial or anything like that, and see one of these for like under $150, take it...TAKE IT...u'll be glad in the long run

I didn't have a manual, but worked my way around the system readily enough. The menu structure and front panel are a little fiddly (seems typical of mid-80s Yamaha rack modules), but there is a cool workaround. Since the sysex architecture is a superset of the DX27 and DX100 keyboards, I can use my DX100's parameter buttons (and data slider!) as a remote to change most TX81Z parameters, which makes life a lot easier. It also accepts patch dumps from the DX100. The LCD display is nice and bright!!

Not much to add to what's been already said, except to repeat that the "effects" are MIDI effects, NOT audio, and that the multitimbrality works by assigning certain numbers of voices to channels and key zones, which prevents note stealing but is inefficient and a pain to manage.

It is early 80s synthesis technology, so don't expect totally realistic sounds, especially of resonant instruments like strings, brass or pads, which analogue does better anyway. However, in my opinion FM synthesis still can't be beat for creating metallic sounds from scratch, such as bells, gongs, or wacked-out drones and clankings, which can be created with just a couple of operators. It's also great for creating organ sounds, using the four operators like drawbars. I'd recommend it for industrial or hard-edged techno, or if you wanted to add a bit of metallic grit to ambient music (Eno still uses a DX7...) One point-it seems to have a lowpass filter on the outputs, which takes a lot of the digital noise out compared to my DX100, but also removes a bit of high-end brightness as well. Take your choice...

Very reliable-I've never had trouble with either of my Yamaha synths.

I have found Yamaha Australia to be helpful when I've ordered spares and manuals for other gear.

I guess the bottom line is that despite its age it can do things that none of the shiny 64 voice GM/GS sample playback units available today can-give me total start-from-scratch creativity, AND an alternative to analogue. I definitely would like to keep some kind of FM synth as part of my kit. The only major gripe is the lack of a pitch envelope, which I believe the DX11 (the keyboard equivalent) has.

I'm not sure what software version, but I assume it to be the oldest. The internal presets sound fairly good, especially Bank D, which has some really interesting noises and special effects. It really takes some practice to be able to program sounds, but if you fool around enough you'll doubtlessly encounter some bizzare and cool sounds.

The "effects" are are pointless expect maybe the pan feature. 8-note polypony, 8-part multi-timberal. Responds to breath control, mod wheel and aftertouch can be set up to act like breath contol.

I use mine for industrial and dance, it's really excellent at bizzare industrial noises, like whooshs and pops, but for the dance crowd, don't expect dance ready drum sounds, but has a selection of synth percussion I find useful for dance tracks, and the basses are good, and you can program some fairly good synth beeps without to much effort

I don't move mine off my desk, and it has had no problems.

Only contact I have with the