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If you're someone who enjoys making their own sounds, the SY77 is for you! Even though the 77 is a combination of AWM/PCM technology and FM synthesis, don't expect perfect emulations with the PCM sounds. Instead, as with Yamaha's DX line, expect something a little different. To try and use the 77 as an emulation synth, forget it, you'll hate it. Instead, try to remember the days when MIDI was just beginning to enter our vocabulary, as well as FM synthesis. Remember how the DX7 had a love/hat relationship because some people found the sounds "metallic", so instead, they took their DX7s and layered them with an digital hybrid like a DW-8000, or a Juno-6 to get the warmth into the sounds. This is pretty much the idea of the SY77. Combining a DX7 with a wavetable-based synthesizer into one package. Don't get me wrong, the SY sounds AWESOME, and is clearly one of the most creative sound-makers I've ever seen. I do have a problem with the user interface, I pretty much do with all of Yamaha's gear. Nothing ever seems to be laid out where you'd think it should be, and they all have a significant "learning curve" to get past before you can actually sit down and start creating some serious music with it. This is a good and a bad thing. Good if you like the stock sounds, bad if you insist on tweaking, because unless you're one of the 6 or 7 people out there with a thourough understanding of FM synthesis, which, face it, you NEED to have with this synth, you're screwed. In short, don't count on the best piano sounds, and the organ and string emulations are only slightly better than the DX line, but for the money, it's an outstanding synth.
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