Yamaha V-50

This was my first keyboard, and I found it very easy to use at the time. It was very convenient having the built in sequencer just for experimenting. When it came time to actually record I used MusicShop on a Mac.

Back when it was new the feature set was pretty good. But remember, this was built even before General-Midi, which sort of cripples it now.

Third party sounds are the way to go. I bought a disk from Sound Source and their sounds were much better than the factory defaults.

Like everyone else the disk drive failed, I used a rubber band as a temporary fix. I'll look up the Radio Shack part now that I know it's available.

But what has stopped me is today my keyboard told me the internal battery needs to be replaced. I found the lithium battery on the main board, but it appears to be soldered in place. Anyone know if that's the right one? Why solder something in that will need to be replaced later?

I'd like to get it running again just to record the songs I wrote with it. But given how old it is, I wouldn't buy another one.

My first true keyboard (after playing cheapy Bontempi things and full-home organs), I was more than a little stumped to work out how to get it going. Having said that, once you do figure it out, its like riding a bike... you never forget (probably because you dont want to have to resort to the overly complicated manual!)

The V50, being a fairly old board, has a polyphony of 16 (with drums not included in this), wheras most modern pro-style boards go to 32/64. You may think "Hey, I've only got 10 digits to play with, whats the problem?" However, this board works in two main ways:

1) Solo sounds, built from a 4-operator synth - I always found these sounded a bit thin,
2) Performance - this is basically a 'dual voice' style mode, where you can use up to 8 different voices at a time. The upside of this is you can get some really chunky basses, or some nice fat synth sounds, but the polyphony goes right down (best synth sound on there has total polyphony of 2!) You can assign the individual polyphony of each voice, however (so main synth sound could have poly of 5, while the backing sounds maybe 1 each)

The effects processor on board is pretty decent, however it is a little restrictive - one effect at a time, across the whole board. Yes, you can set it on or off for various channels, but you cant have, for example, a delay and reverb running independently.

For expansion, the obvious MIDI (duh! - not GM/GS though, so if you want to use the drum section on it, you gotta spend time reassigning each goddam key to its right note!), card slot and floppy drive. My floppy drive went a few years ago, and havent really bothered much with the board recently since starting a family, but after reading some tips from here, I might just go and dig out a screwdriver (he he he)

The sequencer is a bit of a pig to use (especially on a 2x32 screen), and again, only 8/9 channels (8 voice and 1 drum), and the drum track is built out of patterns (mini drum loops, and these have to be added in order), but again, once you know what you're doing, you can get going with it easy. Entry can be done in real time, punch (start at bar x, finish at bar y - very handy for balls ups!), or note by note. For playback, you need to set up a performance sound set(see above) and assign instruments to each channel, but once this is going, you have easy mute, solo, volume, transpose etc for each individual channel. As you can tell by the amount I put on, sequencing is something I've done a lot of with it.

Some sounds work well - mainly the synth stuff - but some are pretty dire (orchestral and piano mainly). However, I still love the DX Piano performance sound, really nice 'n' vibrant!

As I said before, FX are good, but limiting - however, this doesnt usually cause too much of a problem for live play, mainly a git for sequenced stuff.

I bought this thing as my first 'proper' keyboard when I was 15, back in 1994 - and it was pretty beat up then. Since then:

- the disk drive has gone (common fault, looking at other reviews),
- the fixed power cable has come out (KETTLE LEAD PLS YAM!!)(my fault, had cable wrapped around my board rack, and knocked the board, left it hanging by the mains lead!),
- the buttons on the panel are sticking, and sometimes require a good hard press to get them going (then they stick and require a whallop to free them! :-) )
- the audio output sockets have been replaced (old ones cracked)

Despite this, I still love the board, and will NEVER part with it, even if it is just using it as a master MIDI board thru my (also old 'n' battered) Soundcanvas!

N/A

I bought this when I were a lad, and have grown to love it. Yes, some of the features are a sod to master, yes it is worn 'n' battered, but I still think its great. Considering what I paid for it, and how long ago I bought it, it was definitely worth the investment.

Would I buy another? Doubtful - very hard to find in the UK these days (approx 15 years old now?) and newer boards have better polyphony and sounds, but if given the choice between keeping mine and going for an SY-88 (for example), vintage wins the day.

I bought this V50 to savage my old songs and now the disk drive is on vacation. But now I'm in search of replacing the drive because it's not a bad board to keep for practice.( Old Shool Jams)The presets are just that but I like the Performance 55 & the Preformance 38 sound the best. editing is not that hard and the manual well it's just a bookmark to me at this point. I know this board like I know my ex-man.

The board action is fast enough to keep up with my solos and break downs. I never really used the card features on it because I needed more memory. So I just used the 3.5 disks. But the midi thing is cool. I have my Ry30 running things when I'm jamming with friends and use the Music Studio 5 or sometimes Cakewalk Home Studio 9.

I like to use the Bass #55 or some other patches that I got from a disk from the Urban sounds or blend the sounds with my TG55 or someone else's keyboard when I Midi them together. For that Phat Sound.The aftertouch is cool if you don't tamper with it. The on board effects are cool they sometimes save me the trouble of using my reverb boxes when I'm recording on a multi tracker. And the music that I use this board for I can use it on any type of music. Just blend for the moods your in.

Well it's like a old friend to me until the disk drive as we say pretty much crashed. But all the other functions are still working. I hope for a better 3.5 disk drive than the one in it. Why not the HD like the computers use?

The company helped me once with another Yamaha prduct years ago and it did do the trick. I just was glad that they did return my call at that time and yes they were friendly as if i hit the 10 million lotto.

If this board was MIA I would find another brand board and maybe try to find another V50 because it was my first board I ever bought. I still need those songs from the first V50 that a friend crashed my disk drive with the wrong type of 3.5 disk an HD disk instead of an 2DD disk.

I too had the disk drive problem. After pulling the drive out I determined that the belt was slipping. I was right. I just purchased a new VCR type belt and my drive work perfectly again. Big FYI for all of you who have had trouble with this drive and others like the SY7, SY99, W5, W7. The belt cost $1.92 and is an FZR-9.1. 9.1 is the length. Any real (not Radio Shack) electronics or TV part store should have this or something similar. Just don't get it too thick or too wide and you will be OK.

Some presets (factory) very good. I actually sampled a lot of breathy, and percussive choices into a EMU with very good results.
I upgrades software to latest ver. A royal pain. Editing in easy, if you read the manual.
Manual very in depth, and pretty good.

EFX are okay for this age unit. I want a bigger card, so I can store more banks (mine holds one bank)
Sequencer easy to use. Reverb 1 quite effective.

Sounds- BASS bad - use all 8 voices for fat -detuned thumperz!
The bell things and breathy sounds are excellent- using tweaks/and your own sounds. Too hard to build sounds from ground up, but very easy to modify, and remake sounds very effective.

Damn Floppy.
The BELT falls apart inside floppy.
Unit worked okay otherwise. Sturdy unit, alum body-good.
I have currently one key that triggers high velocity on any strike.
I was told to use pencil eraser on strip inside....Maybe later.

Very good.

I like yamahas sounds.
They included alot of 3rd party (Jung, et al) sounds, and I picked and compiled/modified.
I tryied in VAIN to use MIDIQUEST/SOUNDQUEST with this, and I never should have bought it. I was told by MQ, I needed to upgrade software to make (defective) software work, I did, and kbd never was quite the same. MQ never did work with V-50
Bought this V-50 new long time ago.

It took a little time to figure out, but once I got the tutorial manual it wasn't too bad to program.

By now everybody knows what it can do. The on-board sequencer was a big plus for me, I used it in a single and it payed for itself in a matter of weeks. For it's era it was pretty good.

I like the wind instrument sounds and used them a lot for accompanying musicals. F.M. still does some things better than just about anything else. I like the fact that a patch doesn't sound good in just a small part of the range of the keyboard. The trombone and oboe voices sound better than just about anything I've heard since, and they are useable as tuba and bassoon in their lower ranges. I had to tweak the trumpet sound to make it useable, but I was able to use the aftertouch to create an upward pitch bend for stage band type sounds. Sure the piano sounds bad, pretty much everything else then had a bad piano sound too. For it's time, it was the best for my purposes.

I've used it for years without a problem

Never had to deal with them: no problems

I wouldn't buy it again today, but if you want good double reeds and low brass sounds you would be hard pressed to find something better today.

This is badturnip1@home.com again. I got a few emails about how to put these old v50 files to PC.

Here is my v50 solution:
What I did was use Cakewalk (pro audio 8) [probably any recent version will
do]
This keyboard is pre-General MIDI so MIDI tracks 1 thru 8 are your voices
and 9 is the drum sequencer. Just set up a pre-set 9 track recording set
see the attachment: and use it to record the 9 tracks using the MIDI in and
out ports to a MIDI card (or as in my case Roland UA-100). Use the audio
outs to connect to the interface device [UA-100 or your PC sound card]

When you get Cakewalk Pro Audio 8 (or newer) try to use the preset tracks I
attached. Just change the ports in the attachment on each track to the
acutal MIDI device that you have connected to the MIDI in and outs from the
V50.

Load up the song in the V50's memory. Then arm each track to record by
selecting the R in MSR [this will turn it red] and hit the record button at
the top of Cakewalk; then start the song on the keyboard. This records it in
MIDI format. When satisfied, De-arm all the tracks to prevent overwriting
them. Keep the V50 attached to the MIDI ports [out and in] and the audio
connections too. The MIDI file will now control the V50 synth.

I then use Microsoft sound recorder [another wav file recorder might be
better, but I haven't gotten that far yet]. Make sure you have a lot of RAM
in the PC: even a 3 or 4 minute song takes up to 40Mb or more. I had to buy
a DIMM 128Mb stick. (my 64Mb PC ram wasn't large enough)

Then check the time length of the MIDI file you just made in Cakewalk:
convert to seconds. In sound recorder record the first 60 seconds. When it
stops hit record for another 60 seconds, and so on, till you've got the
total length of the Cakewalk file.

Then in sound recorder select file/properties and change all formats to CD
quality. This is now a large acoustically blank wav file. [probably 30-80Mb
or so depending on the total length in seconds].

Then rewind both the Cakewalk and sound recorder files and drag them close
enough where you can hit the record on sound recorder and the play on
Cakewalk one right after the other. (you might need to minimize Cakewalk to
see the desktop and sound recorder) This makes a nice wav file which can
then be converted into mp3 format.

I use SCMPX [[try the link to scmpx.zip attachment,,, or search for another
one on <http://www.maz-sound.com/mp3.html>]] to convert to mp3 format. Then
the file will be smaller, probably 2.5 to 4Mb or so... You can now post it
on a website or burn to a CD-R.

If you're interested how it could turn out, try my site
<http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/168/slipp.html> The slippsong is actually
from acid pro, but so far the others are all from my Yamaha V50!! If you
have a slow connection and use the Lo-Fi stream, it will be mono and won't
sound as clear. So either stream it with a broadband internet connection
{DSL or Cable Modem} or select download and listen to the files from your
hard drive.


As for the floppy drive in the V50: the part number is D357B 045600
3.5" Below the bar code it reads VK423800

This is a Double-Density drive. Not common anymore. But my local music store
has a guy who, about 2 years ago, was able to get one and install it for me.
That wasn't cheap, but it was worth it. I don't know if they have an email
address

Weathers Music Corp
2825 Commercial Se SALEM OR 97302-4454 (503) 362-8708

I know this seems tedious, but once you've got the files on PC. WOO HOO! As mentioned, you can check out some songs I did on the v50 that I got to PC and then posted online. mp3.com/slipp

If you get some songs posted, send me the link.

I'd like to know if this worked for you..

Lotsa luck

keep on composing.. you know the rest..!

If all you plan to do is use pre-sets for performances or just messing around its okay. But if you are trying to put together songs, good luck. Manual reads like a Rocket Science textbook and is rather frustrating to read and comprehend.

Not being a "real" keybord player I find the action to be adequate. Effects are easy enough to modify and turn off and on. Asked around for expansion moduals and most of the people I talked to either never heard of it or got that wispy far off glaze in their eye's.
Senquencer must have difficult at best to figure out(ie: voice assignments. If someone can post an expalnation on how to do this I would really appreciate it.

Voices are not extemely realistic but gives the immpression of what it is supposed to be without sounding to corny.

Best feature takes a real licking.

Obviously would not buy another V-50 as there are so many more up to date, feature filled and user friendlier boards out there. I use it for performances and I am currently looking for a sequencer that would allow me to program more songs for perfomances. The V-50 is probably not the best ax for that purpose.

It is now Sept 2000. This opinion is based on how easy it was new. You got to think that when I got this new in 1990, it was, [in my amature opinion], just about top of the line for a workstation. I got it for about $2500US in Hawaii. The only thing is I have all these songs [and partial ones] on DD diskettes and I need a transfer program so I can use it with Windows 98... If anyone has a link or software PLEASE contact me badturnip1@home.com
I would be EXTREMELY grateful!!

I'm sure you can read the others' postings that show the specs. But let me say once again: for a small time musician/hobbyist this sequencer is fine. Just remember the era it is from. Obviously more recent software is more user-friendly [ie- Gui interfaces instead of a 2 line by 40 character LCD display.]
About expansion: the local instrument shops can't seem to even remember the last time any V50 stuff was ever in their store?>>??

Once again, my major prob is trying to convert my V50 diskettes into a more modern format. I was told this was made before General MIDI was adopted, so my acutal voices will not necessarily transfer.:

When I bought this, I wanted to make Rock songs (and others). But the distorted guitar left much to be desired. So guess what? I went and bought an acoustic and an electric guitar and taught myself to play them. I started to write several songs based from the synth, but then...

Well, after getting a basic feel for guitar, I've since written many songs from the guitar and used the v50 to accompany/fill in for the "band".
Being orignally a woodwind player, I found the sax actually not too bad for an FM voice, but nothing can beat the live sound of a sax.
I never tried the breath controller. ... I wonder, hmm ...

As you can see from the others' postings, this thing is tough! [not bulletproof] But the only weakness I experienced was the disk drive. {see the remark on the other guy who replaced his himself. If you aren't sure you can do the job--get a pro!} Plus remember: it is only Double-Density, not HD like today's drives.

By the time I needed help. I was years out of warranty! Is that good?

If stolen, I would need some way of accessing all the diskettes. So either I'd buy another, OR hopefully I'll find conversion software. [see above]

The 5 rating is only that low because of the features offered by newer keyboards. If it was still 1995 or so, it would be at least an overall 8! This one is a gem!

{by the way, 3 years ago, a local artist whom I was jamming with one night played my V50 and remarked "WOW! Just listen to these 8-bit sounds! You can't find that anymore, this is awesome!"
Was he insulting it? Or should I take it as a compliment?}
HA!

Keep on composing till you're decomposing!

Operating system is in ROM so not upgradable, but this is sometimes a good thing, (compare an Atari STE to a PC,) it may be old but it works extremely reliably. The presets are mostly ok for an FM 4voice synth,but the preset piano is only ok in a mix. The piano can be edited to sound reasonable but if you want 'proper piano' use something else-a tone module connected via midi is very easy to set up. The preset performances (up to 8 voices per performances) can produce some seriously mega sounds which if used for live gig or recording to multitrack can sound as big and hard as anything else. Editing performances is dead easy-unlike the voices. To edit voices can be boggling till you suss how FM synths work. I grew up on Moog Prodigy and Juno 6 so I already knew how sounds were made and could relate FM to analogue after a while, but if FM synths are your first type of voice editing, you may struggle. Having said that, The depth of voice editing on the V50 is pretty comprehensive for a 8 year old synth(bought mine in 1990) and there is not much you can't do with a bit of thinking and perserverance. The main thing I can't do with it now which I would like to is sync the LFO to the sequencer. The inbuilt drum machine is pretty good and pattern edit is good. Drum voices are ok if a bit limiting in the coice of voices(61) these days. The manual is ok except for the chapter on midi, not in depth enough. The 9 track sequencer (8 for voices, 1 for drums) is easy to use and has realtime, step and punch in/out record. The drum track is pattern based and is realtime or step record.

61 note, velocity and pressure sensitive. 16 note poly-8 voice multitimbral.32 effects(editable) 100 preset voices, 100 user. 100 preset performances, 100 user. 12 perf. effects(seperate from DSP effects) Microtuning Sequencer is 8 track with max of 32 note poly for all tracks Drum machine is 8 note poly. Terminals=midi in, out, through; L/R stereo out(left for mono); pedals for sustain, sequencer start/stop; foot controller for tone,pitch or volume; headphones; breath controller.

Some dodgy voices(piano,vocals etc), most are ok to use live, but you would suffer if you try to use it as your main instrument for recording. It will do some excellent basses if needed though. Performance effects are good as are most of the voice effects.

Ridiculously reliable, which is it's taken me so long to upgrade myself to a newer workstation(KorgN264). It has never failed me in 8 years of gigging, recording and general use most days of the week apart from the 'Yes/+1' switch on the main panal which I literally wore out, and the volume slider which complained at having coffee spilt inside it.

Yamaha in the UK are pretty good and have usually been able to help over the phone, or direct me to thier man in my home town for a repair(good man, been on the Yamaha courses).

I've got a lot of stuff on disk which I've done on the V50 which I still use, so I may well buy another(secondhand obviously).I think for what I've done with it and how reliable it's been it was worth the money. I've been playing music for about 30 years and have tried a lot of different gear. For the price at the time I'm happy that I made a good choice. Other gear I have is a Yamaha QY70(excellent), 8 track multitrack, Atari STE running Cubase(done the PC thing and gone back to the Atari for purely midi, much happier now thank you) Alesis Midiverb3, Korg N264. Still like my V50 and still use it for gigs-I find in music it's very often not what you've got, but what you do with it that counts. Crap music on the latest hyper synth is still crap music. Because now I'm very familiar with the V50 I still use it as a sketch pad for ideas before going over to Cubase. There is a voice editor available to run on an Atari which is very good written by Martin Tarenskeen, postcardware, at www.mt@telebyte.nl.

This was my first keyboard and my introduction to MIDI. The learning curve was steep for learning the MIDI functions, even using a simple program such as Musicshop. I haven't found a patch editor for this keyboard, but the manual explains how to edit patches.

61 note keyboard, 16 note polyphony, 8 voice multi-timbral. 32 different effect combinations, only one effect per performance. FDD built in, sequencer is easy to use. I usually use the built in editor to program quick sequences to play background while practicing guitar parts.
In addition to the keyboard, there is a built in rhythm machine which sounds pretty good, althought the learning curve for it was also steep.

The standard sounds are ok as long as your not trying to duplicate a real instrument. I bought a third party set of sounds and they are much better, so the potential is there. It still lacks a good piano sound though, but since the keys aren't weighted, I ended up buying an Alesis QS8 for the piano. The keyboard has good feel though, and velocity and aftertouch work well.

I'm a hobbyist, so other than moving from room to room in my house the keyboard hasn't really been subjected to any stress. Haven't had any problems with it at all.

No experience

This was a good keyboard to learn about Midi and experiment with. I probably wouldn't buy it again because keyboards have progressed quite a bit since the V50 came out, and it doesn't seem to be well supported by third party software.

Presets are okay. Editing the patches is hard. Manual sucks. I don't think the software is upgradeable in this thing. Getting around on it took some time for me. But once used to it, it's pretty easy to get where you need to go.

16-note polyphonic, 8-note multitimbral. Keyboard is non-weighted synth feel with single aftertouch. Effects are decent. No real expansion possible. You can get memory cards, but just use the disk drive. MIDI is standard In/Out/Thru with 16-channels. It has a sequencer built in.

Instruments are obviously FM synthesis. Its synthesis is pretty shallow with only four oscillators creating a digital signal. It probably only works well for a Jazz electric piano or dance/rock. Expressiveness is a bit limited, with only 8 possible velocities (0-7). Good for 80's vintage, however. Its output is basically 100hz to 15,000hz, though, so don't expect chest-pounding bass or shimmering highs.

I've owned this damn thing since 1990. The only problem I had with it was I dropped it from about four feet onto a concrete floor, and it futzed up the disk drive. I had to buy a replacement, which I was able to install myself at home. (but I'm a computer guru, so I do that kind of thing all the time) Also, now, the bottommost key doesn't respond until the keyboard is 'warmed up.' (10-15 minutes after turning it on) That really confuses me.

Never dealt with customer support. Bought the disk drive from a Yamaha dealer. I paid $2600 for this thing new, but that was 1990. You should probably see it for under $500 these days, and then only if it's in pristine condition. It just isn't that modern.

It was worth what I paid, and it's worth $500 for a great little toy for your kid or beginner keyboard to be sure this is really what you want to do. It might even work if you're not the most professional sound person and you want to make your own songs. It is a 'band-in-a box' thing, with drums, sequencer, etc. But you gotta know how to play. No auto-accompaniment or any of that bulls**t.

piano sounds are pitiful, strings pitiful, analog sounds are superb! really disappointed with the piano sounds, wish I could get a hold of some better ones. Editing: seems ok, I followed the manual, it covered a great deal of patch editing. Manual: It's good, I had a Kawai K4 three years ago and that's what I'm comparing the manual to. Kawai's is awful. Yamaha really wants you to understand the machine Not alot of detail on the disk drive tho. I think they could've put more clarification on what happens to your sounds(you cant load them back the same)

keyboard feels like it may fall apart, bought used maybe the guy before hammered it, dont know. Effects are GREAT!! Sequencer is pretty good, use a PC based one tho.

piano is so so bad!

no problems

the ladies I dealt with at Yamaha to get this users manual (didnt get it when I bought it here in Japan) were really great. NO CHARGE!!