The SY77/99 is only a PITA to program for those that don't take the time to learn how to program them. I don't find the SY77/99 "a strict rigid Yamaha workstation" at all, I find them to be extremely flexible and capable of sounding like most anything you want them to. "Navigate lots of screens/menus over a complex FM engine using arrow buttons and cursor", obviously you never learned about using jump marks. Sample ram can be expanded internally to 3mb, while that is relatively small compared to today's generous sample ram in many synths, it can be extremely useful and will hold a lot more than you are giving it credit for, you just can't use huge megasamples. The SY99 was never intended to be a sample monster rompler. I would suggest that perhaps you never learned how to maximize the usefulness of an SY99. I've owned and used an SY77 since '89/'90 and bought an SY99 several years ago, I find them to be extremely useful and capable of doing most anything I want to do.balma wrote:I owned the SY99 during 8 years, sold it after most of the buttons died due to overuse and getting the EX-5.
It can produce great vintage FM type sounds, nice basses and a lot of cold and also lovely pop leads.
This synth is a pain in the a*s to program and requires a devoted programmer. Is a very cool sound engine, fitted in the body of a strict rigid Yamaha workstation. Navigate lots of screens/menus over a complex FM engine using arrow buttons and cursor.
If you take a closer look to the Yamaha EX5, it has almost the same interface of the SY99, but with knobs under the screen.
The sampling function you mentioned, is barely a feature. 0.5 Mb. I think you can "expand" it to 2Mb or similar. You can load the samples Oh yeah.... aja.... give that!, dance, get up! and the memory will be full.
You´ve used synths that can create sounds similar to the music you mentioned. Give a try to modern VAs.
Lots of them can produce the sounds you´re looking for, with 25% the time you would invest doing it in a SY99.
....Or buy a OBX
Clyde