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 Yamaha FX500 At a Glance  
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arrowReleased: 1989  arrowVersion: 0.00
arrowRated: Not Reviewedarrow Add review:  (0)
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Dave Nelson writes:
The FX500 is a great processor, although somewhat flakey. For example, the power button is notorious for failiure, which happened on my unit, and it is very noisy. The circuitry on the input is easily overloaded with any bass below 80 HZ, also, so piping your TR-808 into it won't work unless you turn the input volume down, and thus add some noise. It is a simul-FX processor, so you can have Compression, Distortion, EQ, Reverb, and Modulation going all at the same time. The reverb section includes several Reverbs, Delay, and Echo, and the modulator can be either Chorus, Flange, or Tremolo. Unfortunatly, there is no MIDI out or thru, so it only works either at the end of a MIDI chain or by itself on a port, and the delay is non-syncable. But, the distortion is good if not limited, and so is the reverb section. Also, there is a tap tempo feature for the delay, which is helpful, as well as a dedicated bypass button/pedal jack. You can tell this unit was designed with the guitarist in mind. Another very good point is the MIDI implementation. You can assign 2 separate controllers on any controller # to any parameter on the unit. So, you can assign the mod wheel to delay level, and a foot pedal to the low gain on the EQ. Or, any arbitrary controller # to 2 parameters, thus 'morphing' the sound by spinning a knob. Very cool stuff. I believe this unit was around $400 when it first came out in '89.

Good Points
Tap tempo, good effects, MIDI in, very flexible editing, reversable Mod-Rev order (mod before or after verb).
Bad Points
Not too diverse distortion, no delay sync, poor signal-noise ratio and dynamic range, faulty power button.
 

 Yamaha FX500 Specifications:

Digital IOs:
none
Analog IOs:
1 in, 2 outs, 2 contol pedal ins, headphone out
Midi IOs:
MIDI in
Other IOs:
none
EQ:
3 Band, sweepable mid
Dynamics:
Compression
FX:
Reverb, Chorus, Delay, Echo, Flange, Distortion, Other assorted reverb FX
Software supported:
Everything
Upgrades/Extras:
none

 FX500 Links

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