Yamaha Reface

How many FM synths exist with one control per function though?

A couple.

Despite costing $940,000 per unit, they are reeeally quite nice. Industrial design wise and feature wise, as well. If at $300, I might pickup the CP. Cuz if I buy a keyboard, at this point, it'd just be nice to sit in the corner and lap play. If I wanted hardcore synth shit for music composition, I could just use Logic. I've been looking for a standalone keyboard for ages, and I never considered lap playing. The CP and YC have made me consider it.

To me, the added feature of these, after watching sonicstate videos, is how close controllers are to the hands that are playing. With that perspective in mind, minikeys makes sense... especially cos they seems very playable. You can play and adjust parameters at the same time... Dorian Concept comes to mind for that style of playing. He was constantly playing and adjusting the sound... but of course he could PLAY, and minikeys are no troubles for him. So I guess they are addressed to those kind of players.

Apart from the DX which could intrigue DAW folks as well... in the end, you need a keyboard to test your sound design, and you could "lap sound design" with that.

I do not work for yamaha :) but I can see who this things are addressed to... I cannot imagine whether they are going to be successful tho. I sent the link to a friend of mine who is a good keyboard player, and he wasn't really impressed. So...

edit: typos

If I could play keyboard I'd buy one of these in a second, thought they sounded very good, the CP especially.

According to the Japanese Yamaha site, these are a run of approx. 5,000 units for the first year.

In Japan, CS/DX September 1, CP/YC November 2, WTF. But, list price is 45,000 yen, which is about $370 US.

I have wanted a DX7 since the mid 80s but only this year finally got an FM synth (not including 2OP PSS keyboards)

I got the DX100 and found it a breeze to edit on the panel, really fast. This reface speeds it up by nearly 4 times.

It's a myth that these DX synths are a pain to program. The problem is a lot of people cannot be arsed to learn the FM concept so it's always guess work and and if you don't like atonal clangs then it's going be real hard finding those tuneful sweet spots.

  On 7/9/2015 at 11:04 AM, peace 7 said:

According to the Japanese Yamaha site, these are a run of approx. 5,000 units for the first year.

 

In Japan, CS/DX September 1, CP/YC November 2, WTF. But, list price is 45,000 yen, which is about $370 US.

Yeah shit. That price is a lot more agreeable.. Dx would def be a nice purchase.

purty kool

i'm anxious to see some legit synthheads make demos for these

instead of just yamaha PR dudes

alot of the magic of gear is in the quirks

the stuff that's not in the manual

i have a hunch (get it?) that the DX and CS are more powerful than they appear to be

anyway, i wanna hear actual musicians get their hands dirty with these

  On 7/9/2015 at 8:20 PM, LimpyLoo said:

i'm anxious to see some legit synthheads make demos for these

instead of just yamaha PR dudes

 

alot of the magic of gear is in the quirks

the stuff that's not in the manual

i have a hunch (get it?) that the DX and CS are more powerful than they appear to be

 

 

anyway, i wanna hear actual musicians get their hands dirty with these

oh god, the yamaha tech guy comes across as such a politician PR guy.

being asked questions and just deflecting 100% and jumping into sounds and features.

i get the feeling this is less marketed at synth heads and more at small band, indie band stage stuff. the prices seem to be a bit lower now than originally revealed, which (im hoping is true!!) as it would be more in line with that idea.

the thing that baffles me most is having the piano and organ models have such tiny keyboards. i cant imagine many keyboardists getting a kick out of such tiny keyboard, 3 octaves.

  On 7/9/2015 at 8:29 PM, bitroast said:

 

  On 7/9/2015 at 8:20 PM, LimpyLoo said:

i'm anxious to see some legit synthheads make demos for these

instead of just yamaha PR dudes

 

alot of the magic of gear is in the quirks

the stuff that's not in the manual

i have a hunch (get it?) that the DX and CS are more powerful than they appear to be

 

 

anyway, i wanna hear actual musicians get their hands dirty with these

 

oh god, the yamaha tech guy comes across as such a politician PR guy.

being asked questions and just deflecting 100% and jumping into sounds and features.

 

i get the feeling this is less marketed at synth heads and more at small band, indie band stage stuff. the prices seem to be a bit lower now than originally revealed, which (im hoping is true!!) as it would be more in line with that idea.

the thing that baffles me most is having the piano and organ models have such tiny keyboards. i cant imagine many keyboardists getting a kick out of such tiny keyboard, 3 octaves.

 

The goofiest part of the SonicState vids was his whole "oh sorry I just so carried away when I play these things" schtick. And yeah, I think they definitely tried to please the EDM/synthpop/indie-rock kids. The ReFaces do look decent but it seems like they easily could have been deeper. (Obviously I haven't played them yet so I might be way off base...again, waiting for some creative demos to start flooding YouTube)

My favorite "PR guy" is the dude from Elektron. He just explains how the thing works with zero hype, and then he jams on them.

Oh, and Dave Smith and Roger Linn.

Yess. When sonicstate guy asks elektron guy a question he'll actually answer it too, instead of throwing an explosion on the ground and distracting the audience with different sound effects and a delay feedback knob.

The moog guy is good too for pr. Glasses moog guy.

I also like how efficientally elektron guy speaks in elektron native tongue. Talking about endless possibility and the like. You read elektron manuals and they have the same vocab !! Good stuff.

yeah these smaller companies (elektron with cenk, moog with amos etc) have musicians/developers demoing the stuff so they know their target audience. the big companies employ salesmen who have no clue. Akai wolf stuff has to be the worst in recent times. Roland aira too.

Check out the DR mix ones for reface. He's no synth head but he plays and shows off the sounds well, and he's a likeable goon by the sounds of it.

Loved this hype add when it came out. Love the guy in this, can't remember his name. EDIT: hector

  On 7/9/2015 at 8:09 PM, TRiP said:

TRiP, on 09 Jul 2015 - 8:09 PM, said:

 

purty kool

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbgIFf6NHqc

Recognise that so much.

EDIT: Ahh just realised it's a Pink Floyd jam.

  On 7/10/2015 at 12:34 AM, b born droid said:

 

  On 7/9/2015 at 8:09 PM, TRiP said:

purty kool

 

Where is that arpeggio loop from?

 

Recognise that so much.

 

pink floyd - on the run

i hope they make-a-ha a lottaha O-KA-NE-O

theres never been a one knob one function fm synth. why on earth didnt they do that? like the brian eno editor for the dx7. make that~!

I didn't check out the CP before, it sounds really lovely. If it had a built-in rotary speaker effect like on the organ, I'd definitely pick one up.

  On 7/10/2015 at 1:14 AM, marf said:

theres never been a one knob one function fm synth. why on earth didnt they do that? like the brian eno editor for the dx7. make that~!

wouldn't that be fucking massive though?

it's never been done. i think the japanese like obtuse interefaces. anything they have made that turned out great was a total accident

I am still trying to wrap my head around the interface for this synth. it just has 24 pins to control it and all it says to me is "good luck"

You put that chip in your peepee hole, and then YOU BECOME THE SYNTH. Unfortunately you only get one knob, but it'll have to do.

If you have feedback on all 4 ops AND the interface is more or less DX21-reasonable (and it looks like it is even friendlier... if the touchscreen sliders work), then the DX is pretty much the definitive FM synth for me. As long as you aren't doing crazy fixed-ratio tricks, you don't really need 6 ops if you have feedback everywhere. Being able to stack two sounds like on the DX21 would've been even better, but I guess you can always resample.

The CS is cool too. Sounds ok (don't know what a true CS sounds like - well, I know Beaubourg clangs and it does those just fine) and it's knobby and simple but versatile enough. Kind of like a posh Roland Gaia?

They look really nice too, although I can't help but think that having a so-so keyboard/Volca ribbon/PO grid and cutting corners with the build quality so you could get one for 200€ would've been awesome. I guess Yamaha is a performing musician's company, but I still think these are a bit odd: the Jordan Rudesses of the world are going to complain about the minikeys, the Pocket Operator mob is short on money and doesn't have any use for even quality minikeys, and the Gearslutz crowd are going to say that the LFO doesn't have 20 modes and that using the "CS" name is a travesty. Perhaps it looks like they're trying to do a Microkorg type thing, but these units are too specific and too well made to be Microkorgs, and there's 4 of them too...

Whatever, I'm not getting one at 450€. Sad, because the DX looks so so great. I'd say I'm part of the demographic which loves 4-op FM the most (I really swear by it), but not of the demographic that Yamaha is targeting here... which is odd? I mean, the nerd factor of 4-op FM (in 2015) is off the charts, so a "band keyboard" (with no mod wheel...) isn't the most optimal option, and the CS's engine is more like a dream Volca than a 450€ synth.

  On 7/10/2015 at 3:05 AM, peace 7 said:

You put that chip in your peepee hole, and then YOU BECOME THE SYNTH. Unfortunately you only get one knob, but it'll have to do.

unless female then it's a data slider