Synths that Time Forgot: The Yamaha EX5

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Today we're diving into a somewhat-forgotten Yamaha synthesizer, the EX5. Is it worth it in today's market? Take a listen and let us know!
0:00 Intro
7:13 Demos
19:11 Final Thoughts
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9 июл 2024

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Комментарии : 154

@geoffk777 2 года назад

The demos show how awesome this instrument sounds. It came out in 1999, but you can do things that nothing in 2022 can really do now. Fow example, you can process a sound to make it sound like it's underwater. Many of the pads especially evolve and shift in unique and unexpected ways. And the brass and wind instruments are physically modelled to be exceptionally natural sounding. but more expressive than a mere ROMpler. A lot of people with EX5's consider them their "secret sauce", because they just don't sound like anything else. I personally have an EX5R (the rack model) and never plan to get rid of it.

@HighlandStudio91 2 года назад

"It came out in 1999, but you can do things that nothing in 2022 can really do now. For example, you can process a sound to make it sound like it's underwater." The underwater effect? Yeah...it called applying a chorus/flanger effect & cranking the feedback & depth dials(any instrument with these effects can emulate that type of sound.) The Korg Triton series ran for 7 years...whereas the Yamaha EX series ran for only 2 years. Korg has proprietary Triton VST's to this day....so where is Yamaha's software version of the EX5? Gospel Musicians have made a VST version for UVI's workstation software( but only works with UVI & requires iLok licensing....hmmm...no thanks.)

@geoffk777 2 года назад

@@HighlandStudio91 The effects processing on the EX5 is more than a case of cranking up the flanger and chorus. It uses something called FDSP. From "Sound on Sound": "FDSP, or Formulated Digital Signal Processing, to give it its full name, treats the note output of one or more AWM Elements as an input signal for further synthesis (Yamaha call FDSP an "adjunct" to AWM synthesis). When you select FDSP as the Voice type, the Voice has all the sample‑based subtractive synthesis capabilities of standard AWM mode, but in addition allows you to route the four available AWM Elements through any one of 10 FDSP synthesis types: 01: Electric Piano Pickup 02: Electric Guitar Pickup 03: Water 04: Pulse Width Modulation 05: Flange 06: Phaser 07: Self FM 08: Tornado 09: Ring Modulator 10: Seismic You can turn FDSP routing on or off independently for each AWM Element, allowing you to combine straight AWM and FDSP‑processed AWM sounds within a single Voice. A good example of this is Voice G16: Abendstern, from Preset Bank 1, which overlays smooth choral AWM sounds with tinkling bell‑like ripples, to create a rich, shimmering pad sound reminiscent of Korg's Wavestation. The bell‑like sequence is created by routing a sawtooth waveform‑based AWM Element through an FDSP type called Water. It's worth emphasising that FDSP processing is part of the individual voice synthesis architecture, so FDSP effects such as flange and phaser are note‑specific; velocity and key‑follow modulation of selected parameters within each type allow for shaping of sounds per note." I'm familiar with that preset. It doesn't sound like water, though. It has a shimmering glossty tinkle, showing that these effects are very versatile. Unfortunately, they do reduce your polyphont down to 16 notes, so you wouldn't use them on every sound. It's funny that you mentioned the Triton, because I also have a Triton rack with a MOSS board. I actually think that the EX5 is more versatile and sounds better than the Korg, although both are awesome instruments. And like the EX5, Korg has never has a VST version of MOSS, wich is a strange omission. It's not even on later instruments like the Kronos (although you do have a couple of pwerful engines that are somewhat similar). All of these ~2000 systems don't get the respect that they deserve nowadays, mostly because analog is back in vogue and digital is unfairly depricated in general.

@HighlandStudio91 2 года назад

@@geoffk777 Yamaha's FDSP may very well have been a technology that was proprietary & innovative for it's time(but boasting that it's tech is superior & unmatched to anything that is out now, is patently absurd.) 2 note polyphony with the EX5's VA? Yeah....no tech nowadays, can match the Blue Beast's prowess. Perhaps if Yamaha faithfully reproduced the EX5 in every conceivable detail in software form(rather than a cheap knock-off version from GM's)...I might be impressed. Even if that were the case...tech has advanced so much & each company has different methods of achieving a similar, if not the same result. That said, why should I bow down & worship a synth that was on the market for only 2 years? In the case of Alesis....they as well, were at the forefront of tech at the time(with such synths as the Fusion & Ion)...but the corporate end of the company became greedy & mismanaged the staff & undermined the production budgets....so key employees left....company went downhill & was bought out by Numark(a DJ equipment company.) Whereas Yamaha has always been a monster company with unlimited capitol & potential and yet, they could not keep their EX5 synth on the market for more than 2 years. I still have a fondness for classic synths/workstations( but I am not so hung up on the past, as to believe that the EX5 created tech that is not possible to replicate currently.) I am much more impressed with the Arp Quadra from 1978(but Cherry Audio managed to replicate it & improve upon it in software form in every exquisite detail for just $40.) This is a glowing testament to just how superior current day tech is. I have respect for what old boards like the EX5 could do back in the day, but the EX5 is a bad joke, compared to current day boards.)

@geoffk777 2 года назад

@@HighlandStudio91 The commercial success of the EX is irrelevant. I have a Yamaha FS1R that came out at the same time and was also a commercial failure, but has since become highly sought after. I also have many modern boards including a Montage, and I think that the EX5 is unique compared to any of them. It's especially striking compared to its successor, the first generation Motif rack, which is a boring and disappointing rompler. I'm sure that the limitations of the EX will annoy some people, but the fact remains that it's a technological tour de force, which Yamaha still hasn't exceeded.

@pb879 2 года назад

@@geoffk777 Okay! We get it, you love emulation and Vsti. Great! 🙄

@aliasxs 2 года назад

I have an EX5r that I picked up for $300 AUD in the early 2000s. I never found it particularly hard to program (if you can cope with working through menus) but I did make my own programmers for it so I might fit in that power user category. Things you didn't mention include: The AN voices are limited to 2 voice polyphony (duophonic) Internal resampling let's you achieve high polyphony with your AN and VL sounds. Extraordinary arpeggiator (especially for the time). Onboard sequencer. Part of the problem for the EX was its treatment as a "Rompler". It was easier to just play the presets than program, and at the same time everyone wanted analog and lots of knobs. It also quickly picked up a reputation as being unreliable thanks to some errors that would appear when you asked it to do too much at once. I never found those errors, but I don't use it multitimbrally.

@charlesgarrett3283 Год назад

Unbelievable machine. So so versatile. Had mine for 20 years and will never be without it.

@alexskibicki2262 2 года назад

This is an awesome sounding synth. I’m a huge Yamaha fan and this synthesizer sounds incredible. 😎🤘🏻 🎹

@moogdome2562 Год назад

;e too. Massive Yamaha fan. I have at least five. Vastly underrated.

@EgoShredder Год назад

The EX5 was a success from what I remember, and I used to sell them back in the day for a pro retailer in England. Sure it has its limitations and flaws here and there, but what people seem to overlook these days is that it was an INSTRUMENT and not simply an exercise in technical specifications like the MOTIF etc. IMHO it was the last keyboard they made with character and aspects that make it an expressive instrument. Their SY77 was also a true instrument and not simply something to make sounds with, e.g. you can write good music with these instruments.

@oscargrouch8888 2 года назад

I love this synth it’s very underrated and has some beautiful sounds especially when layered with other brands of synths . It’s the precursor to the motif and still has a better piano and electric piano sound. It was designed and marketed to try do to everything and people hated it because it did everything. The arpeggiator was amazing and can be used midi with other devices . I loved it so much I bought two ex5 plus the ex7 and the ex5 rack module .

@dave3987 9 месяцев назад

The great thing about the Yamaha ex5 Pairs very well with the Rm1x and Rs7000. Current my ex5 and s90 is out of service. Now have the modx 6 to sequence with the rs7000 with both sound great together.

@florianhofmann7553 2 года назад

Those videos are top notch in any way and deserve many more views. I could listen to Zachs voice for hours that combined with the gorgeous 80s look and synth-dreamscapes make for a great show! 👍

@patrikknoerr9777 2 года назад

The blue beast is one of the best synths ever made. Small wonder it has a cult following. I love mine as well :)

@SeverityOne 2 года назад

And for some people, the silver beast. 🙂

@lundsweden Год назад

@@SeverityOne The EX5S is extremely rare! Personally I love blue synths!

@SeverityOne Год назад

@@lundsweden Blue? That's what the AN1x is for. 🙂 Somebody in the USA was trying to sell an EX5S on eBay somewhere last year, but nobody seemed interested. (Also, the person called it "white" for some reason.) I also saw a second-hand one in Amsterdam in the late 1990s, for considerably more money than I paid for a new one that I shipped from the UK during the blow-out sales. It was only £100 more expensive than the blue one.

@lundsweden Год назад

@@SeverityOne Nobody seem to remember, or perhaps wants to remember the CS1X, the first blue. I had it, did'nt like it at all!

@SeverityOne 2 года назад

The main problem of the EX5 is that it's trying to do and be too many things at the same time: * A super synth with many different synth engines * A workstation with a sequencer * A sampler (you can place 64 MB RAM and 16 MB flash) * A control synth (dual MIDI in/out) The biggest issue, in my opinion, is the single bit connection between the two DSPs. This thing has two CPUs and two DSPs, but the DSPs really run the show. One DSP is in charge of the memory, and the other is hooked to the CPUs (although it's been ages since I last looked at the schematics). These two DSPs are, as mentioned, connected via a single line. This means that, if you want to load the full 64 MB of memory from SCSI, it takes 45 minutes. In the late 1990s, 45 seconds would have been acceptable, more or less, but 45 minutes? It makes the whole sampling part essentially useless. If you use it as a sound source, and forego the sampling and workstation features, there's absolutely nothing like it. It's truly unique, it sounds fabulous, and it's just a joy to play around with. As long as you remember to avoid the "DSP resource full !!" trap. Edit: as for a signature sound, try EnsembleMix. It's a lovely string sound.

@xp50player 2 года назад

It was a little bit early for those capabilities without a separate daughterboard for the modeling stuff, like the MOSS and later PLG boards.

@mostbirnen4030 Год назад

2nd Midi-In receives Midi-Sync and MTC only 2nd Midi-Out sends normal Midi-info!

@SeverityOne Год назад

@@xp50player The biggest problem of the EX5 series is the single bit connection between the two DSPs. One DSP controls the memory, the other is connected to the two CPUs. (In case you're wondering, I have a copy of the service manual somewhere.) The CPUs controls the peripherals like floppy and SCSI. So, to go from hard disc or floppy to memory, one of the CPUs loads the data, sends it to a DSP, which sends it to another DSP over a single bit connection, and the second DSP stores it in memory. Now bear with me, it's been over two decades that I last laid eyes on the service manual, so I might be mixing things up. But some way or another, they made a very complex design (two DSPs and two CPUs), but perhaps because of the constraint of having to use Yamaha DSPs, it turned out this way.

@gcoudert 2 года назад

Love your videos, Zach! Keep'em coming!

@Synth2000 Год назад

The strings and some pads kill ... also with the sampling option it can stretch sounds and modulate into another dimensions. Big plus: it always sounds great in the mix, strong instrument 100%

@nkronert Год назад

My neighbor used to have one and the annoying thing about it was only briefly mentioned near the end - the scrappy SCSI implementation that was about as slow as a floppy drive. It's no fun to have to load samples for 30 minutes, I believe every time you switched on the device as they were stored in RAM. As a workaround, Yamaha collaborated with a company that created a non-volatile memory module that would fit into the memory expansion slot and would keep it's contents when switched off. Still, if you needed another set of samples, load time would be prohibitive, especially in a live setting. At the time I somewhat over-optimistically thought it should be possible to create a similar memory expansion board that would actually map an ATA IDE port into high memory and allow for "much" faster loading (don't know what the max throughout of IDE drives was at the time). But besides probable voltage level issues, this approach would also have required a change in the OS of the synth to support it, which was obviously out of reach for some kids in a basement.

@novachord1 2 года назад

I owned one for several years, and sold them back then. Their main completion for us was the Korg Triton and Roland XP series. The Kurzweil K2500 was a competitor in certain markets, but was much more expensive. Beautiful instrument, but like you said here, it has an under-powered processor. I left retail in 2001 to go into media composing; used it a lot for my work the first 10 years. Didn’t try to go multitimbral in my DAW, so I didn’t try to combine different synth engines when using the FDSP sounds. Loved the keyboard feel and controllers.

@raistaparta 2 года назад

The EX5 sounds wonderful. It’s by far the best sounding digital synth I’ve ever played. I agree it’s underpowered. The VL engine works fine as a mono synth (to take full advantage of a poly VL engine it would need poly aftertouch) but at the very least they could’ve given the AN engine more polyphony. Still, it’s an obscure piece of gear that deserves the hype. Crazy heavy though.

@EgoShredder Год назад

Around the time of the EX5, Yamaha released an 8 polyphonic version of VL for Windows 98 users (some say it works on Win XP). Some Yamaha S-YXG100 PVL demos.......... ru-vid.comsearch?query=Yamaha%20S-YXG100 and ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-g2yhylyEFsQ.html

@lundsweden Год назад

Yeah like 20kg lol!

@park171 2 года назад

Zach. I have the EX5 but recently acquired it was $700. Remembered 1997 how I wanted one, every one that time wanted it. But nobody really bought one. It’s a quirky box of interesting possibilities but seems to not check the “easy to use” box. I see it as the pre Motif generation of instruments. The VL and AN models I think was the interesting part that seems to live on today, like the Moss for Korg. That was the time Korg and Yamaha were still joined. So M-LAN, wave sequencing, physical modeling and that wonderful Keybed that was used by the DX7 were often integrated in both Yamaha and korg synths. All that said EX5 is a strange piece of synth history.

@therealniksongs 2 месяца назад

Good observation. I think Yamaha looked at the lack of success of the EX5 and went back to the drawing board, so to speak, subtracted some features, added some others and came up with the first generation Motif. The EX is in many ways a sort of proto-Motif. I think from a marketing standpoint, Yamaha made the right move by offering three different versions of the Motif--61 and 76-key synth actions and an 88-key weighted action. They've continued that practice down to today. Perhaps an 88-key EX might have found them a few more buyers.

@alexandarlfo 2 года назад

I love your presentations Zach Go ahead:)

@snoolee7950 Год назад

Love you commentary and macro analysis

@BoeingJetTech Год назад

Just found your channel. Love it, keep up the great content.

@_P_M_ 2 года назад

My main board. I'll never let it go. I never figured out how to program it but the sounds are excellent. Also, very expressive: Two mod wheels, touch strip, scenes. You can get a lot of mileage out of the sounds. I wish Yamaha kept a 6 OP FM generator in it but FM had gone out of style by this time. Everyone wanted sample players. Built like a tank with a good keyboard. Between this and the SY77/99 you've got all you'll need to cover the 1990's.

@Nakidim75 Год назад

Thank you for this review. I got mine in 1999. It always completes the projects I work on.

@kurikokaleidoscope 2 года назад

Stunning keyboards. Brilliant discussion.

@Musicology1975 2 года назад

The EX-5 is timeless and so powerfull. I love IT🤟💜

@jamessisson3703 2 года назад

Thanks for the demo. I always thought of the EX's as an interim model, as with the W5/7. All this R&D contributed to the Motif series and now of course the Montage and MODX. Yamaha seem to have a very clear vision with regard to development and funding their next wave of technician's research and development. Yamaha still beat everyone, bang for buck.

@moogdome2562 Год назад

Just love your demos. I have the EX5. Bought it about ten years ago, never used it. Think I'll play it now. I have a lot of synths, around six Yamaha. Love them. So underrated, and the digital ones are relatively cheap. I also love the Anx1. They have their own unique sound. The piano is brilliant. Heavy synth.

@copperbath 2 года назад

I love ;having 2 mod wheels..not to mention BC. Using the 2 modwheels to control modern sample libraries is the most ergo way to get fluid results.

@danielortizdecaracas 2 года назад

EX5 is a monster synth with steroids, grandfather of motif/montage series, like a big SY77/99 but sampling synthesis secuencing granular FM PCM wave secuencing modeling, very hi DSP and multi fx, very underrated, but great machine I love it I need it

@WilmarBoer 2 года назад

Nice to review a digital synth and not strike a 'analog is better' tone. Because these synths have a sound and use of it's own. Keep 'm coming like doing reviews of Kurzweil K2000 series or Ensoniq TS series.

@lundsweden Год назад

I think when this came out in the late 90s, the Korg Trinity was the king of the workstation. The Trinity had lots of expansion options, while the EX5 had everything built in. The Trinity with the MOSS board had 6 notes of polyphony. However, the 1 note poly VL sounds on the EX5 generally sound much better (the MOSS bowed string model is nice though). Also at this time many people wanted hands on analog style synths... there was and still is a bit of a trend away from workstations.

@pizzagogo6151 2 года назад

it’s the first flagship that incorporated several different types of synth engine that I can think of.Great in its time & still sound fabulous shame it wasn’t developed further, as processing power got better it could have developed into something astounding....

@lundsweden Год назад

The Korg Z1 and Korg Trinity with the optional MOSS board had more synthesis types... but I think the quality of the sound was lower. It sounds thin and doesn't fit into a mix that well. Yamaha EX5 has less polyphony (Z1 had up to 18 note using it's version of VL modelling) but the quality is much higher, still sounds good by 2020s standards.

@SEOTeamBerlin Год назад

an hour ago I found this synth's rack version Yamaha EX5R in the bay, and it's ridiculously expensive, some 1500 to 2000 USD - but the full synth recently sold for just 300 to 400. I have to research more to find out about the reason oO

@therealniksongs 2 месяца назад

The rack mount version seems to be the most expensive of all. I have been looking for years waiting to find one that I might be able to get for a reasonable price. So far, no luck.

@OscillatorCollective 2 года назад

Looking into this synth more…I think it would be a good investment in getting one and learning it, it’s sonic possibilities are very unique.

@madness8556 2 года назад

The EX5 certainly was a commercial in Australia. It was released in 1998 at RRP $4995 and they were then selling them at the vastly reduced price of $1995 at Allan's Music just a year and a half later in 1999!Meanwhile, the Korg Triton released a year after the EX5 in 1999 was selling like hotcakes at around AUD $5000, despite it being in many ways inferior to the EX5. I compared both extensively side by side before spending the extra money on on fully loaded Triton with MOSS board and the first 2 PCM boards. I really wanted to buy an EX5 because it was by then so much cheaper, but opted for the much more expensive and less powerful Triton because it was so intuitive and easy to use thanks to its fabulous touch screen user interface, not to mention the fact that it's DSP didn't get limited depending on the complexity of the voices being played! Saying all that, I'll always have a soft spot for the fantastic sounding EX5!

@productamadeus8745 Год назад

The Legendary Blue Beast! I LOVE my EX5! Bought and sold an Ex FOUR different times. This fifth is for keeps!

@BliterTV 2 года назад

I love EX & SY séries 🙂

@falangistavaleroso9689 2 года назад

I love Yamaha FM, got 4 of them

@edbifner6370 2 года назад

The Oberweich Pad was also used on the Yamaha AN1x. You should check out that synth if you want to see how Yamaha evolved their virtual analog tech.

@robsuters3975 Год назад

I own one of these beasts. Besides all the incredible sounds it packs, it has the best trumpet I have ever heard. I still use it.

@MrKitts-jm9wp Год назад

Very very true. Amazing horn patches

@user-um3bx9og8r 9 месяцев назад

All the brass section?

@robsuters3975 9 месяцев назад

@@user-um3bx9og8r I am specifically referring to the trumpet. I play a brief solo on it here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Oqevry6PzfQ.htmlsi=1Her9IYE0n3kOo-y

@cookiekixx 9 месяцев назад

I worked at Washington Music Center in the 90s and during that time and we did sell a lot of EX5's and EX7's. We had the Roland XP80, Kurzweil K2500 and the Korg Trinity nearby and people tended to prefer the sound of the Yamaha but Rolands expansion cards were really popular and the touch screen of the Trinity was also a bit selling point. My boss Roger Hooper chose an EX5 as his main keyboard for gigs during that time. It seemed like the pro keyboard players loved the EX5 but the film and tv people went with Kurzweil and the rest went with either the Roland or the Trinity. The EX5 really held its own against the other's. Great feeling keyboard action also.

@jonathanwillis1143 Год назад

I think this board is more sought after today due to the ability to multi track using a computer DAW. There were a lot of features on this board for the day but I didn't feel Yamaha really marketed those features as well, nor did they offer a user interface more focused on using those features. Korg's Trinity and Triton boards had touch screens that were larger, easier to read, and allowed for easier programming and sequencing and sampling. With the analog modelling engine, the VL-1 engine, and other powerful features in the Yamaha EX-5 it would have helped if the board had a bigger screen to take advantage of those awesome features, even if the screen was not touch based. A more powerful processor would have helped too. Yamaha later figured this out with the later versions of the Motif.

@VintageSynthesizerSolutions 2 года назад

If you could only fit one digital workstation style synth in your studio, this would absolutely be a top pick! Fantastic value for $ too. I think the An1x has 10 voices and the EX5 has 5, can anyone confirm? Great video!

@KroniosPTT 2 года назад

An1x has 10 notes polyphony. EX5/EX5R has two AN-Modes: Layer with 1 note Polyphony (and two AN-Elements) and Poly with 2 notes polyphony on one AN-Element. Both modes can add AWM (PCM-Samples)-Elements. But you can use the EX5 to resample your AN-Voice and play it as an AWM-Element with full polyphony (and better Envelopes ;) ). Floyd Steinberg made a video about this.

@squeakD 2 года назад

I had the EX-7.., baby brother to the 5. It was a great synth/workstation, but man it certainly had its quirks.., such as the annoying DSP message when selecting voices to record with. I also found it odd that some basic voices were not present on the EX-7, and required you to expand the memory where you needed to load the GM set in order to get some basic patches. Still it was a good keyboard.

@pietervanmalderen5677 2 года назад

Still have this one and used it for small club gigs 20 years ago because it had everything you needed in one package. Did not use it for many years but never wanted to part wit the EX5 because it just sounds so good. Also owned all the other 90's workhorses like XP5O, JV10180 (also a keeper), Korg Triton & O1W (which still holds up better live than you would expect). Agree that the Roland & Korg stuff have much more of a signature sound, but especially the Triton..they just don't sound as good as the EX5 in terms of dynamics, sound quality in general, digital artifacts etc... Have a bunch af classic synths in my home studio hooked up, not the EX5 though, but once in a while when I don't find that one sound I have in mind for a session, I dive in the storage room, get the EX5 en it delivers.

@fl00d69 Год назад

This thing is literally part of my soul.

@camp0017 10 месяцев назад

Fascinating! This synth sounds way better than the SY series that was much more popular.

@markgray9861 Год назад

Did we forget to clean this thing before doing the video?

@jonrichards333 Год назад

One of my top ten synths of the last 40 years. Almost bought one but bought an Emu E4k instead. Don't have that anymore, but I wish I had the ex5.

@axs203 2 года назад

I had one of thse. I always remember the Rhodes patches more than anything else

@tonyjackson5261 2 года назад

Sometimes Z you crack me up. Good points it does fall to far in the middle of trying to be something else. The SY series found it's space. nice video.

@low_e_music 2 года назад

Would love to see the SY77 o on here. You don't hear much about them but I think they sound great, love mine.

@mrdayvidjon 10 месяцев назад

looks very nice lihe he says over the top menus ,nice board for church big 4layer pads w/DX bells or rhodes or horns w/vibrato tail sometimes there are goin 4 a goodprice

@Raydensheraj Год назад

My master keyboard....and it sounds so freaking phenomenal.... underrated....alone the FDSP synthesis and the Sampler are enough for me....but come on...AWM2, VL, VA, FDSP...and a Sampler plus Sequencer. Tons of effects....layering...and the quality of the Keys. I will never EVER replace it. Bought mine in Germany with a Yamaha Fs1r....and boy....the EX5 is also my master keyboard for the Vst synths....

@mh22xv 10 месяцев назад

Good looking synth. I wish I could buy one new. Like the Motif 7es

@stuartcrossen2723 2 года назад

I bought the lesser EX7, it did sound very good but the sequencer couldn't keep time and yamaha sent out a guide for advancing sequencer tracks. Sample load time was extremely slow too. AN sounds were great and amazing build quality. I blew my power supply up installing an internal hard drive which for good reason was never an option.

@EgoShredder Год назад

Yeah those old hard drives drew a lot of power. These days an SSD would probably be ok though.

@garyhendrie4001 11 месяцев назад

Still got mine from new, sits nicely with a korg z1. 😊

@OscillatorCollective 2 года назад

The VL series seems to me to be the most interesting of that era Yamaha.

@emmanuelleibniz7654 Год назад

yamaha is a great synthesizer manufacturer, i own 3 generations of their synth : CS10, SY77 and AN1X. They're all easy to use thanks to the logical tree architecture and the way they sound is unique. wanted to sell my old cs10 for a roland boutique or a moog mother 32 (for ex) but i cannot find a machine able to reproduce the typical sound of this synth.

@Pepijn_a.k.a._Akikaze Год назад

I traded two synths in a row starting with a CS-6x, which contains some of the EX-5 sounds, and ended up with the flagship EX-5 in 2009. I haven't used it much so far,.I used an FSDP water sound for a track inspired by the sea. I kept it for its unique feauture set. It also has double midi and it responds to midi time code. VL synthesis is less elaborate than on the VL synths. For instance, you can't do random vibrato. On the other hand, VL models are instantly available as waveforms so you don't have to load them. The analogue right main output of my unit is broken. I suspect this is a Yamaha problem, as my V-50 used to have the same issue. I repaired the V-50 (Yamaha chips were still available in China) but using only the digital output (which can sync to word clock) I didn't feel the need to do so for the EX-5.

@rickkaylor7949 10 месяцев назад

Good overview of this keyboard. I have owned one of these since 1997. I used it extensively when I was in a '90s rock cover band. It is HEAVY to move around and even worse since I got a heavy duty case to keep it in when gigging. I've never been able to use a lot of it's functionality because it is so complicated to use. The manual is fairly useless due to its complexity. Just sampling a sound is super complicated. Although I have used it a lot I wish I'd gotten something different in retrospect. I tend to use my cheap Yamaha PSR-280 more than this keyboard.

@user-um3bx9og8r 9 месяцев назад

Can someone please compare it to Y-qs 300? And Y -sy85 as well

@DadoSimicStudiostriver 2 года назад

I have SY77 and i think it sound better then EX5, but more "old school" so to speak.

@wizards001 3 месяца назад

It's not forgotten. We still use them

@frontline2010 2 года назад

Hey did you say they had the "Wavestate?"in the 90's... :-)

@asoundlab 2 года назад

Ack! If I did I meant the waveSTATION - thanks for catching!

@MikkelGrumBovin 2 года назад

You just gets better and better , and i hope for Alamo , they pay you a decent salary , cause i bet you theres PLENTY of bigger fish , wholl pay for youre excellent style , class, and knowledge , in the Synth bitness diasphora 😉

@johndean5860 6 месяцев назад

How many presets can it hold?

@thisisnev 2 года назад

IMHO what did for the EX5, the Kawai K5000 and the Technics WSA1 was the market becoming fixated on analogue and analogue modelling synths, an obsession which is only now beginning to wear off. These three powerful and flexible synths, which cost so much to develop, represented the pinnacle of digital synth technology but were hard to understand compared to subtractive synthesis. Kawai and Technics lost so much R&D investment on the K5000 and WSA1 that they exited the market; Yamaha was big enough to take the hit, but nothing they've made since has really pushed the boundaries. As a sound creation tool, if you're willing to dive into the formidable manual, the EX5 still has few rivals.

@asoundlab 2 года назад

V interesting perspective! I really want to get a k5000 and play with it - seems super interesting.

@phillipwood4924 Месяц назад

I will never get rid of my EX7 because its Rhodes electric Piano, Hammond organ, Brass and String sounds are very fat and sound authentic. Great vibrato, reverb and chorus effects too. Honestly the Acoustic pianos are not very good though. I bought mine used for only $399 in 2023! 😊

@Theodora-pc8hi Год назад

To this day, I still have the EX5, which I bought when it was released, not cheap... - in my country, I had to put aside my salary for 1 year. I liked its sound and the idea of how to build the synthesizer, but soon I was faced with its limitations. For example, the 6 encoders with a type error, which are often inaccurate when setting. Or the incredibly slow loading time of sampling, which is 22 sec/mb, made it practically impossible to select samples. The user rightly felt that there is and is not this function.. The midi timing is imprecise and the effect was not in sync with the bpm.. Nowadays I only use vsts, and the EX5 has a control key..

@synthmechanix 2 года назад

I got a EX5R two or three years ago for $100! Put a new battery and holder maxed sample ram and added Sector 101 16mb flash ram. The EX5R, Korg Z1, Oasys 76 are my secret sauce! Also the FDSP algorithms came from the never released VP1.

@erikj2738 Год назад

oh my...i am crying...had one from 2000 to 2011..it was stolen...i want another

@halcyo Год назад

Pretty cool that this guy does his own sign language interpretation.

@B1GDINO Год назад

I don't know if it's presets, but it does sound old.

@hermeslord 2 года назад

Around those times the Roland JV/ XP and Korg 01 and Trinity series ruled the waves. And Yamaha loyalists hadn’t gotten over their DX7 IIs and SY77s to hop on to the EX5 EX7 though the the latter were far more sophisticated. But there’s something about the DX7 II and SY77/99 that cut through what an EX5 could sound like

@miguelrejas5034 11 месяцев назад

SY77 SY85 SY99 used FM+ AWM EX5/EX7/EX5R used VL , AN, Fsdp and AWM2 BUT NOT FM. That's why the sounding is different. Later MOTIF (All the serie) uses FM+AWM2. Yamaha jumped onto what people searched back in the day and till theses days: A very simple kbd to use and tweak. They didn't care about the sum of techs UNTIL KORG released the KRONOS with 9 sound engines. 🤷🏻‍♂️

@nickmariotti4241 Месяц назад

@@miguelrejas5034 No FM in any of the Motif series. Motif (all four generations) is 100% AWM2 (sample playback.) Not until Montage did Yamaha bring back FM. There may be FM-sounding voices in Motif, but they are samples of FM instruments. There is no actual FM synthesis going on in the Motif.

@d.g.f.7056 Год назад

The rack version is absolutely not affordable,so perhaps that's the mote optimal and better version, I'm not sure though, I've never used one, but I've always preferred the rack form factor for both its space saving and actual functionality

@doordedeur Год назад

It has as very slow processor, so with multitrack sequences it ran out of processor power. Even with my newer S30 I encounter latency because of a too lacy processor. As good sounding as the synths sound, the processors couldn't keep up to the goals, so the synths got a bit unusable.

@mostbirnen4030 Год назад

EX5 is timeless! For diving deeper into the world of EX5 see the Playlist of Floyd Steinberg ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Pfu8D-SMIPg.html

@tonywillans7556 Год назад

Yeah, I agree with a lot of what you've stated here. Nice piano sounds, but other sounds are quite samey and nothing really stands out. Sampler is just horrid to work with, as is the sequencer with a too small screen with too many menus to wade through.. Keys feel nice to use and much less bouncey than Rolands when playing piano. Feels more like weighted but obviously they're not. Pretty old storage system (floppies) now too. "Expression Pad' swipey thing is a nice feature on some sounds. Board is pretty heavy to lug around. Got rid of mine a few years back for about $600US

@neuromancer9k 2 года назад

Looks like the flagship version of the CS-series. I think that the CS-6x was a bit underrated and although I never got to play this one, I think that's got a lot of the same great sounds and same downsides to programming.

@michaels8607 Год назад

From what I understand it's quite complicated and the OS is weird, had some bugs, and was not for the preset /rompler crowd. Reminds me of the VL1, Hartmann, Oasys, VSynth GT,PolyBrute, Quantum/Iridium...People just want to jump in and go straight to Top 10 In the BillBoard charts..

@azlanrazif 2 года назад

I use mine as a MIDI master and workstation.

@crandallexpo0648 Год назад

That's cause roland XP 80 was in charge 👌🏾🔥

@tigerboy4516 Год назад

Yamaha should put a modern cpu in there and sell them in a "classic icon" range. They should see how many pre purchases they can aquire, (on Facebook).. if the get 30,000 then make it happen

@robsuters3975 9 месяцев назад

And make it a LOT lighter while they're at it!

@FugaziSB Год назад

you'd think that in 2022 the big manufacturers will take advantage of the technology we have now, and get a workstation with the sound engines this synth had, but without the processing limitations it had - this is easy considering how commuting power is much stronger and cheaper today, but unfortunately that's not the case. Korg where the only ones trying to do that with Oasys and Kronos, but they didn't get them to the full potential and power they could get to. Considering Oasys is more than 10 years old, the new Nautilus should have had at least twice the power and half the loading time, with more polyphony and better sounds. I guess the workstations days are over, the big companies are still making them but not putting real R&D in them, they just doing the same thing over and over again,

@mudi2000a Год назад

The only thing similar which is currently produced is the Roland Fantom (not Fantom 0). You can load new synth engines (e. g. N-zyme) as software and at least the Piano and Supernatural sounds are certainly using physical modeling as well. And of course the ZenCore engine has both VA and Rompler features. Kronos/Nautilus never had new synth engines which could be installed later.

@nickmariotti4241 Месяц назад

Funny, but Yamaha seems to be slowly creeping back to EX-5 territory with the Montage. First, they brought back FM (and this time with 8-OP instead of 6-OP, a nod to the FS1R) in the original Montage, and now with the new Montage M, they've reintroduced AN. Perhaps the next gen Montage will incorporate an updated VL engine as well, and then we will have a "Super EX" (yes, I know that sounds more like a Roland product name) for the 2030s

@bradmodd7856 Год назад

Will you listen to the stepping on that filter? 🤣🤣🤣 dark days of digital

@madness8556 2 года назад

Why wasn't the EX5 successful???? The simple and short answer is that it had a terrible user interface along with the other limitations you mentioned. It's DSP was also underpowered. I really wanted to own an EX5 because of its excellent sonic capabilities but I instead opted for a Korg Triton with MOSS board and never looked back. It's a shame really because the EX5 was in many ways way more powerful than the Triton with its vastly superior touch screen user interface.

@rhkavli 2 года назад

I bought the Trinity V3 with the MOSS board in 1999, which is the precursor to the Triton. I got rid of it after a few years. Later I discovered the EX5 and bought one for next to nothing. Fitted it with SCSI2SD. I'm never getting rid of it. Love how it sounds.

@EgoShredder Год назад

Touchscreens are expensive and tricky to replace when they get older though. Give me standard displays and controls any day, that can be replaced more easily when the time comes.

@madness8556 Год назад

@@rhkavli the EX5 is easily one of the best sounding synths I ever heard in the day, hence why I wanted to own one. It could sound very warm and very clean and polished at the same time. The sound certainly didn't put me off but rather it's underpowered DSP and archaic user interface. It's size was also a bit too big if you wanted to squeeze it into the back of a smaller car.

@Triplechorus2 Год назад

I bought one in 2001 with a zip drive and have it still today. Great warm sound, deep and flexible sound engine and the same phenomenal keyboard as my also great sounding 01/W. Use it for many sound experiments and explorations. The sampling option is only useable for short one-Shot-samples. It has better built-in samples than my TG77 and a better reverb. Quality of chorus and symphonic effects are similar on both synths. It is here to stay until I cannot play anymore. Greetings from Germany🇩🇪🤝

@victorkrapivkin1863 2 года назад

I literally kiss mine good night every evening I have a chance to put my hands on it, and I will never sell it.

@SameAsAnyOtherStranger 2 года назад

At what a grand will get you these days for new synth, the going price of $700 hardly seems worth it. A good thing to swoop on in the local market for anything around $400 though.

@louiscornale5667 10 месяцев назад

Great job but how about wooly bully watch it now 😮

@WARDISWARD Год назад

It all went downhill from there on . THe gear produced in the nineties as spectacular , the only modern stuff I have is a Sequentix cirklon and A Roland integra , all my other gear is what I consider the best of 90's : :clavia nord modular , Roland R8!m , Yamaha tg77 and A4000 ..and soon an ex5r ( I am a rack guy )

@user-um3bx9og8r 9 месяцев назад

Ex5r has all the knbs to twist ?

@jerzilla3795 2 года назад

I almost bought one of these locally for a good price, but I just couldn’t justify it for the space. In 2022, garageband on my ipad (or any DAW) can give you 95% of these sounds with a better UI. I’m sure I would have gotten attached to it though since its a classic well-built Yamaha!

@V.A.T.4music 2 года назад

To my ears and having a bunch of korgs....rolands....kurzweils..from that era in my studio...still is one of the best sounding digital synths i have ever put my hands on. I own an Ex5 and an An1x....and still love the sound of the Ex5 better!! But this is just my opinion!

@mp3magnet 2 года назад

Have one still. Great synth, but crappy workstation. Never recorded a single song into it, convoluted interface, but sonically it is a monster. Motif series or Montage do not come close.

@gtubgle Год назад

This review was a tanker lol

@cnfuzz Год назад

Yamaha really went for all the bells and whistles with that generation of instruments and samplers , great selection of emotive patches ,

@fuckcensorship69 Год назад

350 page manual. And it's poorly written. Look up something in the index, and it's either not there, or sends you to 7 different pages. I love it, but it took me 6 months to scratch the surface of its possibilities

@SlyGovernor-vd4gc 2 месяца назад

I need a keyboard dealer pls

@quantumeseboy Год назад

I always thought EX was better than Motif.

@park171 Год назад

Again Yamaha searching for years to replicate a large scale hit. But never got there until the motif. Motif what helped Yamaha is that they could compete against Kurzwiels overly priced rompler samplers. Motif did it. All at the same time they contributed to the end of imaginative Sythesis and rode the wave for over a decade. Miked the motif and then boxed them selves in a corner which is why the the montage was made. That was a lackluster synth that even Yamaha had to update it to be a sequencing workstation. They should have mad a digital version of a CS80 style of synth and completely move away from workstations.

@michaelaurelius8507 6 месяцев назад

I don't think I'll ever want an EX5, ever. The limitations of how under powered this thing was is truly what made this a flop. Had they truly given it the power it needed with polyphony and being able to combine more than one synth engine like the OASYS, but not as powerful given the technology at the time of release, this would have been a real winner. I think it sold well in the very beginning of its release out of excitement and hype, but when people realized how limited it was with what it was capable of (or at least what people expected from its capability and complexity), they lost interest and really gave Yamaha some serious backlash over its limitations. It was literally doomed from day one and I say good riddance to it being forgotten. What did you expect, Yamaha when you released such a powerful synthesizer workstation with serious limitations that render it almost useless other than being able to play single sounds. It should have just been a synthesizer akin to the Korg Prophecy or Z1, but the Z1 was unbelievably powerful for what it was and what was available at the time. Same with the Trinity. Fucking Yamaha for ruining what could have been one of the greatest workstations ever made like the Kurzweil K2500/K2600, E-Mu E-Synth and E4K or the Korg OASYS. Pisses me off to no end! Smh🤬🤬

@michaelaurelius8507 6 месяцев назад

The SY99 and W5 were far better, because at least they were something you could actually use as a performance workstation rather than a single use synthesizer, unless you stuck with the AWM engine.