new Yamaha SY99 sound bank !

[himalaya]

Last year i replaced the display backlight (yellow = much brighter and better contrast than the original blue). But this was the most horrible repair i've ever done. You have to completely disassemble the whole keyboard into (felt like) thousand parts and screws. Now i know that i would never do this again.

Pffft! And I need to change the internal memory battery.

[himalaya]

Will you people just stop.

Oh SY....why oh why
does your presence torment me so much
I see you on eBay surely you're a great catch
I want to dive in your blue LCD
You are the carrier I'm the operator sound is our baby
Feedback loop ratio multi point envelope
Stop it now! Enough! There is no hope!
I'm gonna bid! Oh my divine synth
Nothing will stop me now not even absinthe

[Drenholm]

Will you people just stop.

Ah, you know deep down that if you get an SY77, you will always wonder what you're missing from the SY99... And it's definitely worth the extra money!

Having said that, seeing as you're in the UK, I may be selling my SY77 quite soon, complete with flash new blue and white LCD screen (no more failing backlight! no more whining power inverter!) and guaranteed working, recently serviced battery and drive belt... so, er, what was I just saying? Oh yeah: Forget about the SY99!

[pocvecem]

Last year i replaced the display backlight (yellow = much brighter and better contrast than the original blue). But this was the most horrible repair i've ever done. You have to completely disassemble the whole keyboard into (felt like) thousand parts and screws. Now i know that i would never do this again.

Pffft! And I need to change the internal memory battery.

Good luck finding a CR2032 with the right socket.

If not, i wish you happy soldering!

[tehlord]

This, plus a 77/99 is now totally inevitable


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... 79fCwTByys

[bluedad]

The Korg was just monstrously huge, too heavy to gig with and no space to set up at home.

Even compared to the SYs? It would have to be truly a behemoth to do that!
7

Oh yeah, I forgot the x; 01/W Pro x..88 keys. The guys in my band called it 'the beast', I lovingly referred to it as 'Big Momma' If the SY99 is as huge, I have no interest in it.

Welcome to the club, new SY77 owner!
That keyboard is great.

My TG77 is in the rack with a Motif ES, and it seems to stay at band rehearsal most of the time. So this is a welcome addition, and the keyboard feels great..just no back light. And for reasons mentioned already in this thread, I'm not looking forward to doing that myself! I always seem to have parts left over when I put things back together!

Hey Bluedad, I have just been listening to most of your music on your site - very impressive. Solitary Torment is brilliant and I can imagine it being used in a Tarantino movie or something

Thank you!

[Drenholm]

a 77/99 is now totally inevitable

Hooray!

The Korg was just monstrously huge, too heavy to gig with and no space to set up at home.

Even compared to the SYs? It would have to be truly a behemoth to do that!

Oh yeah, I forgot the x; 01/W Pro x..88 keys. The guys in my band called it 'the beast', I lovingly referred to it as 'Big Momma' If the SY99 is as huge, I have no interest in it.

I see your point, but I maintain that the SY99 is worth every precious kilogram.

Also, visually, I'd say it has a real sense of power due to its sheer size but also to its almost completely uniform, understated, and rather misleadingly plain all-black decor. I know black metal/plastic was common back then, but a lot of the other synths at least had colourful buttons and things. The SY99 has black buttons, and the only colours you get are the decals around the buttons and the various LEDs! But I think that makes it all the more awesome, actually. I think I'd better buy one of the blue LCDs while they're still available, so that'd be more colour.

Plus, my SY99 was delivered to my upstairs neighbour, stolen from me, and fenced to Cash Converters until I found it the next day - so for all I know, its unassuming looks could have been a factor in it thankfully not being sold to anyone during that time! As if it being from 1991, originally priced at $3995, and sent to me from Kingston Upon Thames weren't enough... after being through a pawn shop and police headquarters, now this is an instrument with history!

Actually, everyone, forget all the nice things I've said about the SY99... Just leave them all selling at cheap prices so that I can stockpile.

[himalaya]

Last year i replaced the display backlight (yellow = much brighter and better contrast than the original blue). But this was the most horrible repair i've ever done. You have to completely disassemble the whole keyboard into (felt like) thousand parts and screws. Now i know that i would never do this again.

Pffft! And I need to change the internal memory battery.

Good luck finding a CR2032 with the right socket.

If not, i wish you happy soldering!

Oh, that doesn't inspire confidence. Are these batteries really so hard to find (and install )?

[pocvecem]

Last year i replaced the display backlight (yellow = much brighter and better contrast than the original blue). But this was the most horrible repair i've ever done. You have to completely disassemble the whole keyboard into (felt like) thousand parts and screws. Now i know that i would never do this again.

Pffft! And I need to change the internal memory battery.

Good luck finding a CR2032 with the right socket.

If not, i wish you happy soldering!

Oh, that doesn't inspire confidence. Are these batteries really so hard to find (and install )?

All batteries in the SY99 have no holders! Holy Sh*t! Yamaha saved something like 1.50 Euros in a synth that costed a fortune 20 years ago by soldering CR2032 batteries with special sized pins directly to the main boards. I was very pleased when i found that out, believe me.
Last year i wasn't able to find these special size batteries in germany. And i needed 7 (two on the main boards and five for the 512kb ram expansion boards).

After long research i decided to go the complicated way:
http://www.xfactory-librarians.co.uk/Do ... cement.pdf
You don't need a doctor's degree to do this but should have basic electronic skills like soldering and some tools at least.

Got all the parts and batteries for around 25 Euros. It took about four hours (plus 3 bottles of lager or so ) for me to mount all the holders to the boards.

And please: Don't solder directly to these small batteries. If they don't explode they are damaged at least.

Cheers,
Gerald