I am 56 and through all my life I have been playing on Yamaha instruments. I witnessed dvelopment of DX series, possesed DX21, V50 and SY77 models and adore sounds of CS series. What you are talking about here is a consequence of struggle for keeping the position of serious competitor to Korg and Roland at the time they released very successful models that conquered the market and achieved fascinating sales, making thus potential musicians to forget DX success easily and quickly. Nevertheless, Yamaha's instruments somehow have always been finding their way towards coldminded musicians who expected quality, reliability and universal appliability, both on gigs or in studio. My personal experience with Roland, Korg and Kawai are satisfactory too, but still majority of my gear relies on Yamaha's convincing sound colours, maybe somehow colder than pumped up tones of Korg and Roland, but in studio their pianos and basses are simply unbeatable.
@mrd50242 жыл бұрын
I saw a W7 for $40 on marketplace. It needed a new battery, but it was fine otherwise. Not a bad keyboard for $40!
@emeraldthebandАй бұрын
A fond memory with this keyboard was when I saw David Bryan using them at Wembley in 95’ 🎹
@de-ziner9721 Жыл бұрын
I owned the W5 when I was 10 years old and I still own it. I was so young that I didn’t fully understand it’s capacity, but I do remember I was able to record my piano songs and somehow overlay it with a another song I made. I use to love the sound effects, especially the ones if you hold the key down long enough it gives either a horror sound or a space galaxy sound. I’ve been debating whether to keep it or donate it because I only play piano and don’t need something that synthesizes. But you’re right, it is so heavy too!
@park1712 жыл бұрын
Not sure time forgot this. Yamaha had a slew of lack luster synths after the release of the SY77/99. They were knee deep in digital consoles. And all synth companies were fishing for the next digital home run. It wasn’t until 97 the EX75 and Trinity would lead the gear heads into the 2000s when the Triton and Motifs would Rule the world. Then Analog would creep it’s way back into the mainstream. But due to PC and the European Software sound designers, all hardware companies would face market Re acceptance for years to come. Love your channel.
@oupahens9219 Жыл бұрын
A bit of an SY85 with GM and more effect units and more samples especially for piano, but without these extra sliders for live control.
@NorthEastEntertainmentChannel Жыл бұрын
I own the w7, partly working as its suffering from the familiar issues with this range ie: lcd back light has gone, tact switches have became unresponsive on around 10 or so buttons and floppy drive doesn't work. I must say the reason I'm keeping it is quite a lot of the voices are brilliant and very rich compared to a lot of models following this. It's also built like a tank with a solid keybed.
@oupahens9219 Жыл бұрын
Don't worry about the back light. The first DX7 had none as well as per design. Just shine a small torch upon it.
@mp3magnet2 жыл бұрын
Motif had plug-in boards to enhance AWS2 with FM, VL and FM
@asoundlab2 жыл бұрын
Do tell more! Did it allow you to program fm and vl sounds?
@mobobb35552 жыл бұрын
If you're looking for an inexpensive workout = buy my W - 5 and use it rather than a weight set. No need for a bar - collar locks or weights to add on to the bar. Just use this workstation and you'll be in tiptop shape in no time.
@andywatts86544 ай бұрын
I already have a hernia from my ex5
@now_its_dark2 жыл бұрын
Though the synthesis had shifted to purely PCM-based, it is still pretty deep here, there are a ton of tweakable parameters per-voice. They were playing with the idea of modeling the envelopes of different instruments, which can be applied separately to the three envelope stages per-element. I think, as with many devices from this era, a software editor is pretty helpful to realize the full sound design potential.
@EuroDJ Жыл бұрын
You immediately switched to W5 from SY77 / 99 .... but it was not W5 that lost FM ... you missed the intermediate SY85 rompler ... it was he who was after Sy77 .... and before him there was also SY55 without FM .. that's where the roots of this rompler come from... And it should also be mentioned that immediately after W5, a year later, the QS300 came out with a very similar interface, but with a different set of waves.... not CS1x or EX5.. these were later
@sauermusicDE2 жыл бұрын
Expansion boards for this synth: WEMB-01 CONCERT GRAND WEMB-02 VINTAGE SOUND WEMB-03 RHYTHM SECTION WEMB-04 DANCE MASSIVE Did your device have the firmware update 2.0 inside? It features (among some new sequencer features and other stuff) new preset banks filled with dance/techno sounds.
@asoundlab2 жыл бұрын
I don’t believe so
@axs2032 жыл бұрын
Well this is interesting as I have one. Let's see what you say! I always had a soft spot for the sequencers in these Yamaha instruments. Like the QY700. It's quite well laid out. I haven't used a Triton or Trinity.....I bet they are a bit better....like you say this thing is blimmin heavy. Yeh you are right about the fx.....it was pretty impressive the note capacity for back then. It is very well built. These sounds you are playing are very nice if you ask me! Very interesting stuff. I might have to get mine out again and explore it some more. The only thing that lets it down is the piano sound........the bright piano is a bit better. I can hear that XG Rhodes in my head now. It wasn't bad at all.......
@EuroDJ2 жыл бұрын
something like Korg X3 series ... or QS-300
@tavil1296 Жыл бұрын
would you be willing to put up the SysEx data of the user bank?
@doordedeur Жыл бұрын
I thinks the W5 looks beautiful, but I agree it's more a sequencer with relatively good built in sounds than a performance synth. The W5 doesn't allow you to layer or split sounds. The lack of programmabilty is no big issue since almost noone programs their own sounds.
@oupahens9219 Жыл бұрын
Of course you can layer two sounds, running basically 8 "Elements" at the same time. Just connect a midi cable from out into in and send on channel 2 the second layer. In multimode. No PC needed. Since the SY series this stupid arrangement, that Midi channels are fixed in multimode is only done there. Even in the early TX81Z you could freely layer and put different voices on the same Midi channel. To top that stupid arrangement is that in the SY series the drum channel was always #16, whereas in the W serie the drum channel is on #10.
@elizabethpate6 ай бұрын
Do you think Gangsta's Paradise use the Korg M1, Yamaha W5, or another synthesizer?
@ProjectOverseer2 жыл бұрын
You forgot the SY85 😔 Otherwise, fantastic overview 😊
@pauljeavons88782 жыл бұрын
The real problem of synths of this era was they were too expensive in relative terms to the average person's salary. Synths were still considered as niche not mass market. They're relative cost has vastly lowered now. The only synth of this era that was approachable was Korgs affordable M1 clones.
@Am719192 жыл бұрын
But they were worth every cent, built very well with very good sounds even today
@vjrei2 жыл бұрын
They still very expensive today, the difference is that at around 2000 now you had a cheaper used market.
@dragmakeupforolder6784 Жыл бұрын
bought one for 120$ with a kawai km1 thrown in. the disc drive needs replacing. i bought the digital replacement for the disc and the sound upgrade chips but during covid all the repairmen were not taking new business so it has been sitting on edge in my hallway for years. i bought it for the16 track workstation. i fear the display may go and not be replaceable from yamaha. bought a FS800 superboard by kawai 10$ and if you take it down an octive it knocks down walls.
@directfighter2252 ай бұрын
Wow what a deal . Did the kawaii k1 have a sequencer
@Michael_Smith-Red_No.52 жыл бұрын
Love the sounds in this workstation, but please oil your chair before the next video. In all seriousness, this really looks like a 'proto-EX 5.'
@pbl6888 Жыл бұрын
That's exactly what it is! The EX5 has its roots in the W5, the 1st 4 elements AWM synth. 'EX' stands for 'extended synthesis' and it is actually a W5 extended with the finest synth engines Yamaha was making at the time it came out.
@oupahens9219 Жыл бұрын
@@pbl6888 Well, the SY77 had already a mode, where you can get 4 AWM2 elements, then the SY85 anyway. What improved was the amount of memory and sample variety, and effect structure.
@vectr0nmusic Жыл бұрын
"the only time they used a dial" What are you talking about? Yamaha used a data entry dial on like every workstation they ever made. Roland and Korg did it too.
@oupahens9219 Жыл бұрын
True, but this one has the double dial. Check the vid again, although it is quite painful at times.
@hakonberg80039 ай бұрын
Ugly? Really? I disagree
@MaladarGaming8 ай бұрын
I know right? Simple? Sure, but elegant at the same time. As an owner of about a dozen synths, I think it sounds great, plus u can have wanna for about 300 bucks nowadays.
@SeverityOne2 жыл бұрын
May I make two suggestions on how you could improve your videos? 1: Make a script and follow it. Right now it's a rambling monologue, and obviously not rehearsed. 2: In tandem with the above, do your research. The CS1x was NOT virtual analogue; in fact, it was extremely limited in what it could do compared to other synths. Factually wrong statements are a bit of a staple in your videos, and at some point, it becomes annoying.
@madness85562 жыл бұрын
Perhaps you can start your own series of videos and ensure that no factual errors are made.
@SeverityOne2 жыл бұрын
@@madness8556 Perhaps you can offer constructive advice to other on how to improve their videos, instead of writing snarky comments. I'm avoiding videos from this guy, just because of the two points I mentioned. You see other KZfaqrs take in this constructive criticism, improve, and thrive. So now one is not supposed to do that because, what? It hurts your feelings?
@sir_rockit66782 жыл бұрын
@@SeverityOne Perhaps? If you have nothing nice to say then.....
@SeverityOne2 жыл бұрын
@@sir_rockit6678 Please do explain what exactly is wrong with constructive criticism. If you want the unconstructive kind, there's one a bit down.
@birdie17uk2 жыл бұрын
@@madness8556 He's right though. Zack clearly does no prep for these videos, both in research and getting to know the synth. So many innacurate statements, always plays bad presets (check out his attempt to use the Behringer SH101 clone, which has no presets, it's embarassing). He once made an entire demo video on the OB-XA without noticing it was wildly out of tune!
@vintagesynthesizers2 жыл бұрын
There were synths and workstations much uglier that this W5, really.
@RayyMusik2 жыл бұрын
… for instance?
@vintagesynthesizers2 жыл бұрын
@@RayyMusik Roland XP-10, Korg N5 to name a few.
@RayyMusik2 жыл бұрын
@@vintagesynthesizers I‘d say those were all in the same black plastic ugliness league.
@jerzilla37952 жыл бұрын
Still from FM era but YS200 is the winner in my book 🤢
@RayyMusik2 жыл бұрын
@@jerzilla3795 Well, also pretty ugly. But the form factor has a touch of C15! :D
@LeventeZone6 ай бұрын
Seriously? Yet another video that is rooted in a parallel Universe... W5 was released in 1994. Everything outside the Yamaha parallel Universe that keeps rewriting history & fundamental definitions happens to have as verifiable facts Ensoniq in 1985 with their ESQ-1 and Korg M1 in 1988. The definition of "proto" something, as per ancient Greek, is therefore directly contradicting all known reality. I am sorry but with almost 15K subscribers you have a responsibility of not disseminating absolute de facto nonsense contradicting easily verifiable synth history.