Yamaha SY55 | St. Michael

Описание: It is sometimes said that the Yamaha SY55 (1990) lives somewhat in the shadow of its siblings from the SY Series. The SY77 and later SY99 were considered the absolute flagships, the SY22 and SY35 perhaps had a slight more 'edge' and - vector - 'coolness' to them and the SY85 - which also runs solely on Yamaha's Advanced Wave Memory (AWM2) engine - outclasses the SY55 on almost all fronts if we look exclusively at the specifications. However, I dare to say that this machine is a great addition to the SY family offering some excellent sound possibilities by virtue of its beautiful characteristics. At around 10kg, it has a good build quality and nice feel and it is also the SY that seems to fit best in its housing, modest and correct. Its 16-bit wave data sampled at 32 or 48kHz, 24-bit internal signal processing and high-resolution 22-bit digital-to-analog converters bring out a crisp and clear sound to one's ear. It is not without reason that i've noticed the SY55 and its rack-mount brother; the Yamaha TG55 being used on several recordings throughout the nineteen-nineties and beyond.

Standard, the Yamaha SY55 contains 74 waveforms and 64 presets. These are made possible by the 'mere' 2MB of sample ROM. When you scroll through these presets you'll hear some beautiful, fit for use sounds that all give a good indication of the overall sound quality of this synth. One patch you'll definitely notice is the one I used for this demonstration and it hopefully serves as a good example.

The preset 'St. Michael' - referred to by Yamaha as a "choir with bells on release" - is made possible by a combination of two elements; 'Cowbell' and 'Chorus'. The latter is one of the SY55's choir waveforms (something that - by my lights - the SY Series in general excels at). In addition, both elements are placed further apart, emphasizing the overall stereo field. Then, the elements are modulated by rather complex envelopes and digital filters and finalized by a typical 80s reverb (8: 'revmetal').

I plan to make a video where I will showcase more presets from the SY55. This video - possibly in combination with a more extensive blog on my website - will appear later.

(Video Blog 11)

Video:

Nikon Z6 (Nikkor Z 24-70mm f/4.0 S)
Panasonic HC-VX1

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