Yamaha SU 700

[Chuck E. Jesus]

anybody own one/try one out before? impressions? can you do sequencing ala MPC to external midi gear? they are going fairly cheap it seems, i'd like to mostly use it as a sampling drum machine and phrase sample that i can jam on a bit...i've got a Zoom sampler, it's ok, but the yammy looks better...


thanks!

[Mr. Tunes]

I've written this before on the forum that two new years eves ago I went to an electronic music fest type show and the majority of the DJs performing that night all had SU700s. That's all I know about it!

[Distorted_Mastermind]

The closest thing to a MPC you can get on a budget is an ASRX Pro. You can get one on ebay for around 300 dollars and they are well worth that. Things to take note of is that memory and external drives (jaz or zip) are cheap and easy to find. Things like the expansion cards and output expander are fairly rare and also pretty expensive. If you can find one with the 8 output expander it is well worth the extra cash imo (would probably sell more around 500 dollars).
Some cool things about it are it has a 16 track sequencer (up to 16 tracks), up to 66 MB memory (goes a long way, over 7 minutes in lofi), and good filters. They released it to compete with the MPC 3000, and it can be heard on many hip hop albums from the 90's and is still very much in use today.
I've got one and can easily say it's one of the best pieces of hardware I own.

[thecontrolcentre]

The SU700 is a really nice bit of kit ... i looked at them back when they came out, but ended up buying an A3000 (also by Yamaha). One of the drawbacks is having to save everything to Zip/Jazz Discs as the internal memory is lost at power down, altho' the discs are cheaper now than they used to be, no HDD option. Also i think the sampling memory is limited to 64MB ... also the sample format is not compatable with anything else (not even other Yamaha samplers), whereas the A3000 can save ans export in WAV format.

[Chuck E. Jesus]

The SU700 is a really nice bit of kit ... i looked at them back when they came out, but ended up buying an A3000 (also by Yamaha). One of the drawbacks is having to save everything to Zip/Jazz Discs as the internal memory is lost at power down, altho' the discs are cheaper now than they used to be, no HDD option. Also i think the sampling memory is limited to 64MB ... also the sample format is not compatable with anything else (not even other Yamaha samplers), whereas the A3000 can save ans export in WAV format.

the one i'm looking at has the scsi card (but not the i/o expansion, pity) and i have a zip drive....the ram amount shouldn't be a prob (it's loaded), i don't do much melodic sampling, and i can do that with VST if need be...the thing that seems cool is the live tweekability...i'm still curious if you can sequence external midi gear at all, no info on that as of yet from my searches...

i don't know much about the Ensonic bit, i'll look a into it more...

thanks guys!

[clueless]

always fancied the SU-700. I have an ASR-X instead. It sounds fantastic, and the effects are essentially a DP-2 (half a DP-4!). But...the OS is...SHIT! The synth engine is fairly amazing, but you'll never get at half of it through the front panel, which is IMMENSELY frustrating. I got an editor from chickensys or rubber chicken whatever they were called at the time - it never worked, not even slightly. Time-stretching takes forever, and usually isn't worth the wait. You can build up songs by chaining sequences, but the transitions can be so clunky it's self-defeating. Effects settings can only be stored as part of a sequence (!). Unless you have the output expander, you can't output a useful click track (for your drumstick wielding pal) unless you pan it to one stereo extreme, and everything else to the other, (with no effects - they're stereo...).

Most of the rubber trigger pads on mine are now defunct, so I can't even use it as an outboard module (another shame - some great drum sounds) as I can't assign sounds to certain notes.

It could and should have been a great little machine, but it was hobbled at birth. Shame.

[Chuck E. Jesus]

oh jeez louise...i went and ordered it.... like i need more gear!

i actually got thinking about it seeing the thread re: MPC1000 vs. 2500, i'm a big Yamaha fan and it seemed to have the stuff i like (namely KNOBS TO GRAB AND TURN!)

soon i may be selling off gear...too much stuff...

oh well, now i'll be able to work 100% PC independant if i want, and that is a good thing...gotta find the i/o expansion now so i can keep her digital...


biggest impulse buy i've made in a long, long time...

[Distorted_Mastermind]

Most of the rubber trigger pads on mine are now defunct, so I can't even use it as an outboard module (another shame - some great drum sounds) as I can't assign sounds to certain notes.

My pads have taken a beating. They just need cleaned here and there imo. Assigning certain notes is easy. It has midi and can be controlled via a controller (for using the sounds, or getting control of the sounds without menus as well).

[Chuck E. Jesus]

if anyone is interested, there was an ASR-X PRO at Sam Ash in Lombard, Il for $300, plus today is a special, 10% off (i made another impulse buy-a Seagull 12 string with case, really nice shape, $200, $193 after discount and tax...now i can sell my crappy alverez ) anyway, aside from a frew scratchs it was in good shape, the buttons all triggered fine...ithas the scsi option but not the extra outputs....if you want it, they said they will ship no prob....oh yeah, comes with a zip drive, forgot to ask how much ram....


i am so broke right now....