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Yamaha SY99 Newbie

The Yamaha SY99 is a synthesiser combining frequency modulation synthesis (branded as Advanced FM) and sample-based synthesis (branded as Advanced Wave Memory 2) and the direct successor to Yamaha's SY77/TG77

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andymusiclife309 Vietnam
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Yamaha SY99 Newbie

Unread post by andymusiclife309 »

hello everyone, i am a new member, i recently received Yamaha Sy 77 and Sy 99, because there is not much space, i sold Sy 77 and retained 99 because i know 99 is better than 77, but I had a lot of problems when I kept 99, I downloaded a lot of sysex of 77 on the internet and sent it to my sy99, sadly it didn't receive any effects, even though I entered the voice edit to add the effect but still don't have any effect, I am really finding it difficult to use sy 99. Please tell me how I should do it. Sorry for my bad English. Thank you very much.
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Derek Wales
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Re: Yamaha SY99 Newbie

Unread post by Derek »

Hello, Andy and welcome. Your English is fine by the way, way better than my Vietnamese (i.e. I do not know a word of it)! :)

The sound engines of the SY77 and SY99 are functionally identical apart from two areas
  • The SY99 has a larger AWM2 waveform ROM than the SY77 (still minute by today's standards), so the waveforms are higher quality and there are more of them.
  • The effects units are totally different.
The second difference is why you get no effects when you import SY77 SYSX data. The SY77 was criticised for the effects units (based on the SPX90 effects unit), which actually had a dulling impact on the sound (but they are part of its character). So when the SY99 came out, Yamaha "improved" the built in effects, basing them on the SPX900 effects unit, which resulted in very different effects units and the effects architectures are quite different.

From memory (it is a long time since I have looked at this. If you send SY77 SYSEX to an SY99, there is no effects translation. This is because SY99 specific data like effects are stored in an additional SYSEX message, so if you do not send that message (and SY77 SYSEX will not contain it) then you will get blank effects units. However, I think, if you load an SY77 JNN or TNN file into the SY99 then the SY99 does attempt to translate the effects, but the results can vary from "OK", to "nothing like the original"!

I hope that helps...
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Derek Cook

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andymusiclife309 Vietnam
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Re: Yamaha SY99 Newbie

Unread post by andymusiclife309 »

Derek wrote: Sun Apr 21, 2019 7:59 pm Hello, Andy and welcome. Your English is fine by the way, way better than my Vietnamese (i.e. I do not know a word of it)! :)

The sound engines of the SY77 and SY99 are functionally identical apart from two areas
  • The SY99 has a larger AWM2 waveform ROM than the SY77 (still minute by today's standards), so the waveforms are higher quality and there are more of them.
  • The effects units are totally different.
The second difference is why you get no effects when you import SY77 SYSX data. The SY77 was criticised for the effects units (based on the SPX90 effects unit), which actually had a dulling impact on the sound (but they are part of its character). So when the SY99 came out, Yamaha "improved" the built in effects, basing them on the SPX900 effects unit, which resulted in very different effects units and the effects architectures are quite different.

From memory (it is a long time since I have looked at this. If you send SY77 SYSEX to an SY99, there is no effects translation. This is because SY99 specific data like effects are stored in an additional SYSEX message, so if you do not send that message (and SY77 SYSEX will not contain it) then you will get blank effects units. However, I think, if you load an SY77 JNN or TNN file into the SY99 then the SY99 does attempt to translate the effects, but the results can vary from "OK", to "nothing like the original"!

I hope that helps...
.
Thanks Derek very much, I regret having sold Sy 77, I think I will proceed to restore the sy99's floppy drive.
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Derek Wales
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Re: Yamaha SY99 Newbie

Unread post by Derek »

Hi,

It's why when I sold my SY77 to make way for the SY99, I first found a TG77, as there were certain SY77 sounds that are "too clean" on the SY99. You need to love the '77 for its slightly grungy, lo-fi flavour!

The SYs floppy drives are easy to fix if you can find the right belt. See my Guides page for a set of guides on the SY series, including ome for replacing the belt.

Other people are now replacing the drives with solid state equivalents, so that is also an option.
Regards
Derek Cook

http://www.carregddu.co.uk
http://www.echoes-music.co.uk
http://www.xfactory-librarians.co.uk
http://www.ex5tech.co.uk
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andymusiclife309 Vietnam
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Re: Yamaha SY99 Newbie

Unread post by andymusiclife309 »

Once again, Thank You very much
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andymusiclife309 Vietnam
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Re: Yamaha SY99 Newbie

Unread post by andymusiclife309 »

hello Derek, sorry for bothering you, I am having problems with writing a floppy disk on windows 7 64 bit, is there any software to format floppy disk 720 on windows 7 ... how can I write files for SY 99..please help .. :snooty: :snooty:
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Derek Wales
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Re: Yamaha SY99 Newbie

Unread post by Derek »

Hi, Andy

Have you seen this sticky thread at the top of the SY99 forum? This gives info on how to format disks on later versions of Windows that worked for me.

viewtopic.php?f=55&t=3834

I haven't used the floppy drive in a long time mind, I tend to send everything to the SY99/TG77 in my studio via MIDI.
Regards
Derek Cook

http://www.carregddu.co.uk
http://www.echoes-music.co.uk
http://www.xfactory-librarians.co.uk
http://www.ex5tech.co.uk
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