Yamaha Reface

[Alphacode]

In that photo with a guy on the stairs, the keys look to be somewhat bigger than typical mini-keys.

Because they are , i thought they have normal keys at the begging in these blurry pics but i think now these are the 'Korg Ms20 mini' keys , which in fairness is not that bad , they are very playable...

[Vo1t]

Looks like Yamaha has blazed this trail before, the CS-01 mark II, it came from 1984 with 32 mini keys, all analog, monophonic with breath controller!

[coastalscrub]

[Percivale]

I read that it is 1.9kg without batteries. How portable would you consider that to be?

[Stab Frenzy]

I don't understand why people are unhappy with 4-op instead of 6-op. 6-op is limited to sine waves and most of the time in a 6-op patch you're using two ops together to make one saw wave or whatever, only very rarely would you use all six ops individually. 4 op with a variety of waveforms gives you more power than 6 op all sines.

[ian]

Yeah, I heard that the Reface is a mix of regular tech, nano tech and bio tech... Can transmit electro magenetic waves via mycelium ....so.... you can Reface your toaster or your house pet; just plug it in to anything! but be careful not to try to harness power of the sun just yet .... I heard Rudeness was changing the colors of a lab rat's eyes with a Reface .... But that his music was still corny... Hmmmmm, can't fix that.

[Swayze]

Hilarious. You read my mind.

To be completely honest, this offering from Yamaha is downright disappointing. Portable plastic keyboards with digital sound engines. This new line was created with poor teenagers and hobbyists in mind. I hope they have an ace up their sleeve (knobby AN1x re-incarnation that models the CS80 and combines FM for layering).

And for cryin out loud, give me 61 full size keys, preferably the same keyboard off the DX7 mk2.

[philip]

Looks like Yamaha has blazed this trail before, the CS-01 mark II, it came from 1984 with 32 mini keys, all analog, monophonic with breath controller!

It's digital

[Jabberwalky]

These are Yamaha's "Monotron". Why is everyone getting their panties bunched?

[Tacowitch]

I actually can't wait to try out that YC. I've wanted a YC-20 for forever and this may actually be able to scratch that itch on the cheap. Those rocker switches.

Also, I'm probably in a minority here, but I think a smaller synth with some built in speakers has the potential to be hella fun (as long as it sounds good and falls within an appropriate price range).

[priima]

They look very fun and appealing towards young musicians with a budget and who don't care about the past (besides in an aesthetic sense). Why don't people understand that most companies will never be marketing towards older people who focus on the good ole days? Manufacturers like DSI exist for that.

These instruments will be used to make fun nu young music 4 the future. Why would they make a full sized $800 synth line? For old people? Old people can just spend money on ebay.

(yeah I know these are being marketed as revival/nostalgia.)

[Kilroy the Killjoy]

Also, I'm probably in a minority here, but I think a smaller synth with some built in speakers has the potential to be hella fun (as long as it sounds good and falls within an appropriate price range).

Agreed. To me price is the determining factor of whether or not Yamaha blew it, and since (as far as I have seen, someone correct me if I'm wrong) there has been no official word on that yet, I'll hold my tongue on either denouncing these as a waste or accepting them as neat little bits of gear.

Even with those god-awful touch buttons where there should have been knobs, the DX is keeping my interest so far. I've been wanting to get into FM synthesis recently and it looks like it could function as a decent beginner synth, so I could overlook its shortcomings as long as it's not overpriced.

[Zamise]

Hah that vid! CS being an AN is also pretty ironic if true. I would suspect the AN alone, new would run in at least the $300.00 US range. Strange thing is 8 polyphony on the AN? PLGs have 5, and the daughter boards in the AN1X is 10 if I'm remembering right. I guess we'll find everythign out in 14 hours and 33 mins.

[Swayze]

Don't get me wrong, tiny toy keyboards have their place...I have a CZ-101 after all. And I'll even buy one of these if the price is right. I was just hoping for something a little more...inspired, professional, I dunno. A new synth with a lot of features that one could really dive into.

This was a safe move on Yamaha's part and it makes a lot of sense. The market is full of regular people who aren't serious musicians or synth nerds. They don't want to spend $2000-3000 on a workstation or synth just to goof off for an hour when they come home from work. They want to drop a couple hundred bucks on a toy and have some fun. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. Yamaha is dissecting the workstation into smaller parts that are easier to sell. This "something for everybody" approach is very lucrative. It's just not all that interesting to me personally.

[salwa]

Hmmm...