Thanks !

Previously, I have never really owned much Yamaha gear. A PSR540 and a TG33 and a TQ5 I think are the only kit I had.

I have now got a TG55 and at first,it was a bit of an unknown, but after getting into it, I hve found that its a great little bit of kit... I personally dont like the size, having preferred the smaller modules, but its now taking pride of place and is given a Midiport all to itself... Only the korgs have had that before.

All in all a great addition to my kit

It's an OK synth. This type of synth (wavetable in ROM chips with limited editing) has been hit hard by inexpensive RAM-based PC sound cards. The rack-mount packages are being dumped because they are awkward to transport.

Like many Yamaha's of the late 1980s, the All-Notes-Off (0xb0 0x7e 0x00) MIDI command does not work. I found this with the TQ5 (also from 1988-89). This bug was fixed in the TG100 from 1992 and all later GM-MIDI series Yamaha synths.

Quite hard to program without an editor. "Too many buttons, Herr Mozart, too many buttons." And the one or two editor programs still available are difficult to work with. Most editors from that era that can be found on the web don't function at all anymore. There is never any source available, so they can't be updated or even the bugs repaired.

But, all in all, a good synth with good sounds and good effects. However, for a beginner, a Yamaha Loop Factory box (either the Analog or the DX7 version) would be better. For the same amount of money on eBay, a BOSS DS-330 Sound Canvas, a Yamaha TG100 or MU-5 would be a better wavetable synth.

With the 16 voices you can do sounds with two oscillators and then you may play up to 8 notes at the same time. If you use all four oscillators you may use 4 notes. And.. even though you "cannot" choose to use 3 oscillators (you choose between 1, 2 or 4) you really can program it to use 3 oscillators! Set it to 4 oscillator use and then on any of those, set the low key zone to -c5 and the high key zone also to -c5 or, as low(or high) you may get. Then that fourth oscillator will be ignored. Simple and smart huh? I´m sure you may use that trick on other synths where an odd number of oscillators besides only one "cannot" be chosen. So what about its other features? Well there are all of those traditional parameters and yet more and they are not simplified in any way. Envelopes can be set with some more values than the adsr type and each filter, each pitch and each volume has its own envelope. Two filters may be used for each waveform so in a note of a sound there may be 16 different envelopes acting. Together with the lfo-s I made some nice Pink Floyd sounds. (Yes I admit I´m a Floyd freak (take a look at my email address)). Four types of filtering are available for each waveform. 1: one low pass filter with resonance. 2: two low pass filters with resonance. 3: one high pass filter without resonance. 4: one lowpass filter with resonance and one highpass filter without resonance. There are four outputs which is good. 34 effect programs consisting of reverbs, delays, eq-s and distortions. Sadly no chorus/flanger programs. (The big brother TG77 has the same 34 programs as TG55 and also 6 more programs (35-40) where chorus and flanging is used.) Among those parameters achievable in control by means of midi controllers as the modulation wheel of the keyboard used, are the filters. But the manual does not tell, that in order to obtain a filter sweep control while holding notes down as in my case, the filter source must be set to eg, not to lfo. (Or vice versa? :-O). Otherwise the filter cutoff value can not be changed while playing the note. (Same fact about the TG77). In spite of my special love for this model I must confess that I´m disappointed that they did not design it to perform pwm or at least monophonic playing with a portamento. Nevertheless I rate the feature section with a nine because things done with it are done really good. Fantasy is the source of expressiveness and the more tools you have the better result you get. And considering the large numbers of parameters available, the limit is the fantasy and skill of the user. The audio quality is also very good on all waveforms. No bursts of noise while playing any note and no noise while not playing anything at all. Sounds have got clarity and it sounds dry. I have made some very good Kraftwerk sounds bearing that in mind. The real instruments are quite good, even the piano may work if you soften it a bit, but I mostly use the synth type wafeforms. The reverbs are good for synth music, (synth music for me is Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream and Jarre). That´s my point of view but they are never bad. The delays (max 300ms), eq-s and distortions are perfect as they are.

Yes I fully depend on it and I have had several "second" TG55 modules earlier and all of them have been in perfect order. (As with the most of sound modules).

I will always keep the TG55 in highest priority because I know it so well and because of that I can use its capabilities of doing nice synth sounds. Before I bought this one I also thought about buying the Kawai K4r which is a very good thing too, yet different. But the TG55 which had cost ca 8000 crownes initially, got cheap for a while after being on the market in a year and the K4r cost no less than 4995 back then in April of 1991, so I chose the TG55.

The manual of the TG55 is available through download from the Yamaha site in japan. That also contributes to a high overall rating because users of this kind of module surely depend on the manual which is a must for this machine.