I have had a whole range of keyboards over the last 20 years and have to say the SY85 is the only one i would never part with! The keyboard action is wonderful...it just feels..right! Aftertouch is superb...so controllable.

Sounds are rich and lush and although some are obviously dated...it is a ten year old synth! most are still very usable straight off.

The sequencer...although some have said it's a bit fiddly, i have found fairly straightforward and certainly a quantum leap over my previous Ensoniq SQ1+. The addition of the 100 preset drum patterns is a nice touch to get you up and running fast.

Only two things i would like to change. The floppy drive from a DD to a 1.44mb HD...if that can be done please let me know! :-) And the memory..the non-volatile strips seem hard to come by and are still relativly expensive. Although of course you can use standard sims...dirt cheap these days and probably free if you can find an old PC laying around.

So all in all...definitly the best synth i have owned and i shant be parting with it.

If anyone want's to know more....if your looking for a permanent source of resources, manuals, patches etc just drop by the "Yamaha SY Forums" at http://kickme.to/syforums We cover the whole SY/TG range. Cya there.

atb Saul

I expected to have unloaded my 85s long before today, but the user-friendliness of these synths have ensured their rightful place amongst my most valued gear. While many manufacturer's claim their products are continually updateable, few in actual fact are ever supported beyond their retail shelf life. The onus is on the owner to explore the potential of their instruments and then to exploit that potential to the max. I'd recommend the sample memory upgrades for any 85 user. It'll prolong the synth's life for an indefinite period by allowing you to keep the most current wave forms available to you.

As a work station, it has few peers; as a live performance instrument, it has no equal. I perform, as a "side man" in all musical styles, classical excepted, and this synth produces the right sounds EVERY time. For amusement, I often apply a strip of duct tape over the Yamaha logos and I'm constantly amused at the public's comments......"is that the new (insert flvour of the month) synth?"

The sequencer is good enough to provide an entire sets worth of music, at one go, if the programming is done expeditiously. In 9 years of use, I have NEVER experienced any kind of crash, freeze, brown out or display difficulties. in fact, I only recently changed the back-up batteries!!! The 85s have worked in Arctic cold and Mojave heat, without a single glich.....ever. The instrument is engineered and built with regards to the highest quality, commercially acceptable standards.

The only improvement, which could be made to this instrument, in my opinion, is the addition of a hard shell case!!! If you have the opportunity to acquire one of these excellent synths, DO IT!

I'd guess it's common knowledge by now that you can actually put 2 x 4Mb SIMMS into it to give you 8.5Mb of sample RAM. Takes ages to load and save the ALL file with this much RAM to be shovelled out to 720k floppies.

Soundwise, it's astounding. With sample RAM you can load pretty well anything you like in and get totally new sounds. The inbuilt waves are showing their age a little, but are still useful for the meat and two veg sounds every player needs. Remember, for every "Spaceship arriving with two carrier bags full of glitter" type of sound you use, there are many more strings, pads and organs that will fit more easily into tracks.

There are a few niggles. The eight sliders allow amazing editing of any sound, but you cannot then store the edits. Live only, I'm afraid. And they get a little scratchy without regular cleaning. When in need of cleaning, you will find that parameters in sounds junp spontaneously to wierd values. Could be intermittent contact of sliders, I'd guess.

Effects are the best of all the SY range. Quiet, easily accessed and easy to edit.

The sequencer is getting a little long in the tooth now, but it's perfectly OK as a scratchpad to throw ideas together fast. You can always export to MIDI file for editing on something else once the idea has taken shape.

Th word Workstation really does say all there is to say about this. You can quite reasonably expect to put complete tracks together on it.

Still worth buying. In fact, I'd quite like to get the module version to beef up the polyphony a bit. 30 voices seems a bit niggardly these days.

Ease of use: 100% (They could not have made it easier).

Documentation: 90% (In making it easy, they leave out some of the repetitive info that may be good for advanced users).

Support: 10% (It sucks...for all you Yamaha SY85 users: help me by making some patches and computer editing interfaces).

Quality of sounds: 95% (Most of the choirs are beautifull and airy, but can be very hissy - I'd suggest eq'ing out the high-high end).

Selection of sounds: 90% (Great overall selection, again considering the time period).

MIDI functions: 95% (They added in support for some of the top-of-the-line functions: MSD, controls etc).

Feel of the keys: 100% (For synth-action, these spring-loaded keys aretop-notch! Everyone who has touched them has been absolutely amazed. They're kind of a hybrid of semi-weighted and synth. Perfect for piano, lead, anything...truely a unique feel!)

User interface: 100% (The only complaint is the standard-sized screen, but the layout of the interface is excellent! The SY85's nemesis would be the Roland ummm.... pick one....anyone).

I'm thinking about adding a Triton to my rack...yes, yes...I know...it's a simple synth, but I like the sounds and its cheap! I am also thinking about the K2500...but...$$$$$ Support's good though.

If you have any questions that I have not answered in this book e-mail me!

keoki@traskenterprises.com

If you're selling a brand new SY85 e-mail me. I need to replace mine.

If you want to hear music made ONLY with the SY85 and no other synths visit:

http://www.mp3.com/keokitrask

Get one, have fun!

Keoki

Roland makes some nice synths, but that stuff is getting really boring in my opinion. The SY-85 brought a new horizon into my collection of sounds. I do own some FM based and even the TG33 from Yamaha. But the quality of sound on this thing is amazing. Artifical enough to create a new type of sounds. Yet the sound is big enough to stand against any modern synth. Okay, maybe not an all rounder but for $400, it makes a great addition. The drums on this is so crisp, that it cuts right through any mix. and the ability to play voice and performance a great bonus.

I love Rolands and Korgs, but this is a great compliment to my setup.

Happy Sequencing!!!

Mark Holley Markholley2000@yahoo.com

Now it lies into pieces and I really miss it. After playing with more modern sinths I think the sy85 will be the next. try it if you have the chance.

You probably already know that this machine uses the AWM-synthesis, exactly the same architecture found in the CSx synths, the A[3/4/5]000 samplers and the EX-series. Basically, the difference being the polyphony (30), the FX-section (top notch) and the ROM-sounds (very early 90-ties).

The SY-85 is a real brad-and-potatoe synth. It's like the whole synth was built to play a supportive part in arrangements. It's sound blends in almost everywhere. When building arrangements, you just keep adding parts until you're out of pholophony. I think this synth realy shines if you play folk/pop/rock and need a few synth sounds or good strings to stay behind the accoustic instruments. If you're into dance music you will have to program it, and may be spice up the sound by an outboard distortion pedal.

Programming this beast is a blast. Not only is it easy and intutive, it's realy fast, way faster than most modern synths. This is because of the eight value sliders placed below the display which all can be used to edit parameters, and if you need more precission, you can use the data wheel simultaneousely. The sounds are very programmable featuring three envelopes, one LFO and multimode filters sounding like typical Yamaha digital filters - smooth and sweet but impossible to get aggressive. There is also a quick-edit mode in which you can sketch a new sound in half a minute, something many other synths lacks.

The SY-85 is sturdy and has a built in powersupply. Saving data to disc is plain and simple. It is a lovely master controller giving very quick access to all 16 MIDI channels when in multitimbral mode. It has a sustain pedal and expression pedal input. Use them, the AWM-synthesis was built for it and the SY-85 handles it excellently. In conclusion, it has served me well and I use it on almost everything I record. However, you may and should buy additional synthesizers to get sounds whith more character. After all, the SY-85 has been used on so many records you will have a real hard time comming up with a completely new unique sound from it.

It's one of my all time favourite synths. and once you get 8Mb RAM into it, the sound creation potential goes through the roof.

BP

By the way, I'm on the prowl for a SY85 so if there's anyone out there who has one to sell or "donate" to a church let me know.

The staple Piano and Pad sounds are more than adequte, and the numerous Rhodes-style patches that can be created with the SY85 really can't be surpassed short of buying the real thing.

Many of the sounds are a bit on the clean and bland side, but you should really look to make your own sounds - the editing facilites are superb, with much scope for evolving, shifting sounds. Features to pick out include the "pitch randomise" paramter that varies the pitch of each note you play ever so slightly and really makes a differnece if your trying to create true acoustic emulations. There are also numerous real-time functions that were on this synth long before Yamaha thought up the CS1x - including control over FX parameters.

The waveforms themselves are of a good quality for the time, but you are not doing this machine justice if you don't endeavour to load samples into the on-board RAM.

Starting to age but, with effort, still very good.

The leads are very usable, and the horns are by far some of the best I've found on any rompler. Strange noises and punchy basses abound, and with proper tweaking, there's not much you can't coax out of it. Add to this the ability to dump in your own samples, and what more could you want. An extremely versatile board.

Check out Yamaha's site for some good downloads!

The only qualms I have are the difficulties transferring files between my computer and the ancient disk drive/operating system, and the noise the keys make when you play fast.

for a higher price. But after a few days testing the SY85 I decided to keep

it myself. I really like the filters in this synth(24db with resonance-oh yeah),

they are very effective and you can easily control them from the panel.

I have expanded my sampleRAM to 2,5mb with two 1mb SIMM that you can almost

can get for free now (I took mine from fathers old Macintosh IIsi). I've sampled

a lot of old analogue synth sounds and combined with the SY85's

LFO, filter etc and they just sounds GREAT-very thick and nasty...

The only thing that really bugs me is the slow &¤%#"# diskdrive, so I tried to

load samples via MIDI but that went even slower. So now I never turn off the

power...

But besides that, if you have a PC with Sound Forge (or Awave) or a converter

program (that converts samples from .wav to SY85 format .syw) you can

have a lot of fun with this thing.

came out- paid full list price for it. It is the first multi

timberal i own. Like everyone else here, i think it sounds

great. The interface though is somewhat confusing at times, takes

some getting used to.

There are some quirky things about this synth- some of which can

be used to advantage.

WELL worth the average $500-$600 used price.

But with a bit of work I managed to create a couple of semi-decent hammond organ sounds,

which is quite a feat for a digital synth. It's the effects that really make it. Up to

four channels of FX, and some of deepest, vastest reverbs I've ever heard.

Once I'd upgraded the sample memory to 2.5 MB, this thing really came into its own.

It took a while for me to sort out how to actually get it to play samples back (the manual is next to useless)

but once you get the hang of it it's very flexible and can be made to do almost anything.