If you think the SY77 can't do acoustic sounds authentically, then you really need to hear the Mirabella track I mentioned previously, we'll have to see if we can find a way to get it on the net. As well, I've been working on acoustic/grand piano sounds for the SY77/99 for quite some time, I've managed to get some very good grand pianos that pass muster with my wife, she was a classically trained concert pianist (toured some with the National Symphony) that teaches piano these days, we have a Steinway L here to compare piano sounds to.rickyd wrote:HideawayStudio wrote:I absolutely adore both the D-50 and the SY77 - I have had both in the studio for 20 years and will never part with them.
For me they are like chalk and cheese. The SY77 is an amazingly complex beast with just the most fantastic expression and real time control - it really is capable of some beautiful sounds thanks to the combination of one of the finest 6OP FM engines around with decent control of layered PCM - albeit a little dated. In my opinion the SY77 (and indeed it's rackmount counterpart, the TG77) have a lovely complex, but delicate, almost glassy nature about them warmed by usable digital resonant filters.
The D-50 is a -very- different beast which operates in a different way BUT somehow IMHO is simply oozing with a sonic character that no other synth has replicated. Whereby the SY77's sheer engineering excellence shines through it's actually the D-50's shortcomings and rather bizarre architecture (along with one of the most brilliant factory patch sets ever programmed!) that give it it's signature sound. The D-50 makes use of very low bit rate/width PCM coupled with a very strange way of implementing pseudo resonance which, ultimately, make it almost impossible to emulate in software. It's also capable of some lovely PWM heavy sounds.
The irony here is that you could probably do the ultra complex SY77 more justice in software emulation than you ever could of a D-50 simply because what you are hearing in D-50 is primative hardware leading to a sonic mess that somehow sounds good as a result!
I love them both.... long live these two wonderful beasts... that and my 1/4 ton, tube infested, mammoth!
I'm lovin' it. Well said.
Nicknames for the D-50 should be "The Lush Entity" and "The Milky Way Bar Synth". lol.
It is very neat how the D-50 is so unique that it could never be replicated. Lushness, surreal, warm. The SY-77 can do FM, super fat virtual analog type sounds, and acoustic sounds (though not real authentic, as we all know). Also can be lush, surreal, and warm. I dunno, but sonically, both sound pretty similar to me. It's a CLOSE call, but I'm finding myself leaning more towards the latter for the reasons mentioned.
Clyde