Yamaha Reface

[Solyaris]

When I was growing up in the evangelical church, at the end of every service there was a "call" to come forward and be saved. Whenever this would happen the keyboardist would switch to the DX7 piano preset and play some cheesy tune. This happened across many churches. I swear there must have been some sort of memo about it circulated. Or maybe Jesus mentioned the DX7 in the bible, I dunno. But I think that's why I can't stand that preset.

[commodorejohn]

I'm sorry you didn't get my little gag, no need to get nasty though. Just out of interest, where did I say I didn't like the DX7 piano sound?

Sorry; being told that my opinions are somehow not legitimate because (armchair psychology) is a major pet peeve of mine.

[Stab Frenzy]

I'm sorry you didn't get my little gag, no need to get nasty though. Just out of interest, where did I say I didn't like the DX7 piano sound?

Sorry; being told that my opinions are somehow not legitimate because (armchair psychology) is a major pet peeve of mine.

And how does that relate to LCD Sound System?

[Jabberwalky]

The people whom I'm referring to are not even a part of this forum, and are generally >20years old in the retrowave scenes.

They think it sounds "80s" and that's the extent of it.

I find it lazy, and derivative. I'd never use it my music, but if it can help you get the expression you need....then great.

[ZeeOne]

He's joking guys...

The image was worked up by a person offering up an open suggestion/plea to Yamaha as to what they should do next with the Reface series.

Would be a nice thing though. Would make me look a bit harder at a Reface.

No, what they should do next is combine all 4 engines into one 61-key setup with adult sized keys and sell it for $1200 as the Reface Pro.

The designer of the Microkorg is my #1 time-machine kill...

[Rick N Boogie]

Just for laughs, I've played with 3 of the 4, CS, DX, and the red organ one. (red organ?, hmm). Anyway, not a fan of mini keys, but these feel better than ANY I've played previously. Sturdy, solid. Points for that. Playing them through the internal spkrs, they sound ok, but not great. Plugging them into a decent pair of studio monitors, wow- they sound fantastic. Points for that. In fact, the CS was interesting enough, I bought one.
I don't plan to use it in my studio, or really for anything other than having a cool little synth to play on road trips, vacations, etc. If they were priced closer to $250-$350, I think they'd be pretty hot sellers, and that's really the only gripe I have with them. Just the same, they got my money for the feel of the keys, and more importantly, the sound engine and ability to craft some interesting sounds with it.
One guys opinion, continue the discussion in progress.

[tim gueguen]

Yamaha went with red for the Reface YC because it was one of the colours from the original YC organ series of the late '60s-'70s. http://www.combo-organ.com/Yamaha/yamaha.htm

[moog-lover]

Sorry, I came late.
I'm not interested in comparing it with DX7, but wonder if it could sound like an OPL/soundblaster/FB-01 synth-
Can I import/export sysex presets from Reface?

[meatballfulton]

With only four operators, it surely can do FB01 style sounds (also TX81Z sounds because it has non-sine waveforms, too).

For OPL/Soundblaster, well you only need two operators so it should be able to cop those, too. How close it gets to either is for you to decide.

There's been no claim that it can trade sysex with the old 4-op synths, though.

[commodorejohn]

The big difference with the OPL chips is that their alternate waveforms are a completely different set than the TX81Z set (no idea how the Reface compares to either, though,) so even though the TX81Z should be capable of doing everything they can do features-wise, there's actually a very noticeable distinction in sonic character once you stray out of the standard DXwhatever sine-only stuff.

[moog-lover]

oh, so there doesn't seem to be a way to import sysex 4-op patches...

commodorejohn, you mean that there's a big difference just concerning the waveforms? I'm not expecting an emulation, but an approximate sound

thanks for your opinions

[commodorejohn]

Well, I can't find any documentation on what the Reface has for additional waveforms, but there is a pretty significant difference between the TX81Z's set and the OPL2/3's set, yes.

[Phollop Willing PA]

I bought one.

Back in the 1980s through to 1990s, i owned a bunch of Yamaha DX synthesizes. I had a FB01, TX81Z, DX21, DX100 and access to a DX7. I can say with one reservation, that the Reface DX is a really good FM synth. I am loving easy to program FM w/o noise, the looper and the FX. It fits perfectly in front of my modular and is a great controller (the looper transmit MIDI). I still have a DX7 in the spare room (it's my daughter's) and my DX100 was given to my daughter.

As mentioned earlier, the Reface DX is dead easy to program compared to classic DX. However, my one reservation? It can't trade voices or program classic DX via MIDI. This is a bummer as there were many voices I used, that I want to revisit.

I never ever want to program an early DX synth again, using the archaic display and sliders.

[Hybrid88]

Got to play all of these except the DX the other day, gotta say they sound great and the build quality is top notch, wonderful little things. Not a million sounds in them but what they do they do extremely well.

The mini keys are limiting, mostly because there isn't enough of them, but plug in a MIDI keyboard and your set. I guess they suit the compact size of the thing so all in all that's not a big deal.

One thing that struck me is how musical all the control sounded, really something that is missing in a lot of stuff today I think. When you tweak something it always did something interesting and musically useful. That has to be my biggest bugbear with the latest Modular trend at the moment. They are a little on the pricey side, but I suppose that's what it takes to have something built well these days without corners being cut somewhere, and that's refreshing.

[princefan3]

Would like to know your thoughts....

Would you sacrifice a DX21 for the DX Reface...I'm trying to reduce the space I'm using....would I be loosing much or gaining do you think...