However, I'm going to add a stupid computer trick. The SY-99 uses single sided floppies, which can be hard to find. You can get them from Yamaha, but they cost about $1 each ($25 for 25). Or you can get them from www.computers4sure.com for much cheaper, but it's still mail order.

But if you need disks quickly, you can convert the floppies you buy at the store to the older format. When you look at a floppy, you'll notice that there are two small holes cut through the case. One of the holes is the protection hole. This one will usually have some sort of sliding protection. The other hole signifies that the floppy is HD, not 2D. In other words, it will hold 1.44 Meg rather than 720K.

To convert the disk, cover the HD hole with a piece of tape, such as a cut up floppy lable. Make sure you do a good job of sticking it in place - you don't want to have tape screwing up the innards of your synth. Then reformat the floppy for 720K on a computer.

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I probably didn't accurately convey the meaning of the term "interact" in describing what happens between the two seperate synthesizers within the SY99. By interact, I did NOT mean that the sampled sounds and the AFM sounds are simply sitting side by side, residing inside a single keyboard and being played back. That could easily be accomplished with two separate instruments; an AFM synth and a sample player or sampler.

Rather, the two synths are talking to each other, one affecting the other. In technical terms, routings exist between the output of the sample and the inputs to the 6 AFM sound sources [called operators]. The routings are called RCM. What can happen here can range from the rediculous to the sublime.