Yamaha SY55 (keyboard workstation)
Description
The Yamaha SY55 is a keyboard workstation created around 1990.
These days it's probably mostly used as a controller, since its sounds and polyphony were pretty limited.
Links
- Yamaha.com - SY55
- Yamaha's official pages, containing FAQ, technical specs, and marketing.
- Deep Synthesis - TG55/SY55
- This was the best fan-based SY55 page I could find in a short google session. It doesn't have much info, though. Does anyone know of another good starting point?
User Comments
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Tripecac (Travis Emmitt)
I bought my SY55 in May 1990 for about $1600. It was my first big purchase. I loved it, and used it as my main controller, sound module, and sequencer until 1999.
I was pretty happy with the quality of the instruments and effects, but I wished the keyboard had more memory so I could create longer songs. Also, the tiny LCD screen made it hard to clean up improvisations, which discouraged "jamming". Back then I didn't use any MIDI, and did all the editing on the keyboard itself.
In 2000 I switched to the Korg Triton and Sonar. I still have the SY55, however; I've been using it mostly for practice and as a chain in my wah-wah pedal setup. So it's not dead yet!