The YMO Music Computer 

The end track: alexball.bandcamp.com/track/lovers-in-tokyo Thanks everyone!

Man, RIP to Yukihiro Takahashi and Ryuichi Sakamoto, thank you for this episode! That song was great

1 hour to record vocals. 1 hour to record live instruments. 17 years to programme MC-8. Great stuff :)

I like what Tomita wrote about the MC-8 in 1978, on the sleeve notes for 'The Bermuda Triangle': "For the past year I have struggled with a computer - a micro computer. I say "struggled" because a computer is beautifully precise, but I wanted it to produce musical results - in other words, as a musical instrument. How could this keyboard of only ten keys compare with that of a grand piano? But I came to realize that those ten keys could produce an almost limitless number of combinations, each of which is a signal that could determine a characteristic of sound: pitch, texture, attack time, duration, loudness. And the computer can be programmed to change any or all of these features with incredible speed. The computer thus produces a sequence of signals that control the sound production of a synthesizer. It is something like millions of little hands rapidly changing all the synthesizer connections to produce a vast variety of sounds. My musical images must be coded by numbers to direct those hands to manipulate the synthesizer. I build layers of sound by programming the computer. These are recorded one by one on separate tracks of a tape machine and finally all mixed together for the end result. I consider myself a sound animator, much the same as an animator of film cartoons. I have used my computer in creating practically all the pieces contained in this album. It is made in Japan by Roland - model MC-8 - and is perhaps the best in the world with regard to memory capacity and accuracy. Although I cannot walk onto a stage and have the joy of struggling to perform my music before an audience, I struggle to select the right numbers on my computer to build a creative entity that displays my musical personality."

Hideki Matsutake was far too underappreciated, handling the two MC-8s during the live performances was crazy

The YMO style track is great!

"And that, kids, is why MIDI was a big deal." Thank you Alex, amazing video as always!

End track is an absolute banger!

EVERYBODY, save this video! Any time you get frustrated with your DAW's limitations just open up the Tubes and play this back. Reset. Doesn't that make you feel better? I'm still marveling that you only fucked up once inputting that bass line, Alex. You're the man; and one helluva mimic. Long live Yellow Magic Orchestra!

I once played a gig in 1988 where I had to load in drum samples to a Casio RZ1 (4 x 0.2 seconds) from a cassette. The gap was covered by a 2 minute “link” tune on tape. It took 2 minutes and had never failed in rehearsal… but on the gig night, I got a screen message “Load failed”. Panic. Sweat. I had to play all the tracks from the pre-recorded links tape to the end and try a reload. Fortunately the samples loaded a couple of seconds before there would have been total silence. Panic over and rewind the links tape back to its intended place. Primitive days indeed!

I first discovered YMO when I was 16 and I'm now 61. Went to see them live in London in 1980. It was amazing. You could have made a video of how they folded their underpants and I would watch it. Thanks Alex for the tribute to such a fantastic band. RIP Ryuichi and Yukihiro.

YMO live at the Greek Theater is legit my favorite live performance ever. I love that they've been getting more attention lately and I love seeing this insight into their groundbreaking composition!

Nah not falling for it, this is clearly a cash register

I still have nightmares of volatile memory 45 years later. Wrote my first soundtrack on a MC8 , System 700, Jupiter 8 , and an 808. Unbelievably stressful.

Nothing but respect for those brilliant folks who actually made music with these things. I've never felt so dumb and bewildered watching someone make music with a num pad.

I saw the thumbnail and Rydeen just jumped into my head immediately... YMO is an amazing band :)

You sir, are a scholar and a wizard. If anything, this video makes me even more impressed by YMO, none of those songs could have come easy. Also, nobody can convince me that the end track isn't an unreleased YMO-track, it's absolutely bang on!

日本のYMOファン、シンセ好きには最高の動画です！ Great Video, thank you Alex ! !

スウェーデンのYMOファン向けでもあります。 2からのご挨拶！Love your interpretation Alex🙂

YMO has been a fave for over 30 years. Thanks, Alex!

Early Japanese synth pop and tech have contributed so much to my musical life. Thanks for covering YMO and their tech connections.

“Hello my fellow dorks,” is a top-tier opening line that caught me by surprise. 😂 Synth dorks are the best dorks. Great film as usual….RIP Ryuichi Sakamoto & Yukihiro Takahashi. (The closing track is such a great tribute to YMO too!)

There is an old German documentary from the mid 1960s where they show how composers of modern classical avant-garde (then called "electronic music") used to put in pitch and gate information step-by-step on even more rudimentary, clunky semi-mechanical devices. This job would be carried out by an assistant following a written score. I wonder if Roland's device was informed by that older practice, and invented partially with those composers in mind. Perhaps that's what also inspired its "Composer" name. Also, it's fascinating how that type of "composing" got carried over to the 303.

YES! There isn't enough about YMO. I'm still waiting for someone to make a documentary about their influence on early electro and rap. 1000 Knives of Ryuichi Sakamoto is also incredible.

The homage to YMO at the end was fantastic!

Nailed the YMO sound! Killer song.

YMO, Devo and the Buggles are the ones who inspired me to play keys. Great video Alex :)

You ll need to be a superman like the famous japanese trio to program it and get the wonderful tunes of the first YMO albums. Congrats to Alex ..nice effort and very nice YMO style tune!!

YMO Computer Games bring me to my childhood, I used to have the 45 record also I remember hearing that song in the arcade room in my local shopping mall, that was around 78 or 79. The MC-8 was also used by Martin Rushent in Human League Dare album with a System 700, the equipment is listed in the album. And like always your videos and your tunes are outstanding, thanks Alex.

A computer? That sequences music??? I never thought I'd see the day! (great-sounding track, BTW)

There's no way that I'm typing out a melody like this. But it's mind blowing to see how far that music production has come since these were in use.

I was fortunate enough to work with the YMO in the early 80's. In addition to the musicians in the studio there were 3 or 4 engineers from Roland present who continually built, patched and tinkered with all kinds of wild & wonderful prototypes. They spoke no English, we spoke no Japanese so much hilarity ensued on a daily basis over decoding sign language!

The YMO tribute was fantastic. Excellent stuff.

Amazing, as a YMO fan and a fellow dork, I had no idea they used the MC-8. What a stunningly made video documentary - as always, Alex !

I heard Firecracker by YMO a few years ago and now is part of my regular song roster

The track you wrote with this relic is an absolute belter mate!!!

What I think is great about this era of instruments is the user interface and physical package of the instrument. Solid buttons that make a confident click, lovely knobs, metal front panel and beautiful wood side panels.

Blimey, as musician myself, I take my hat off to you!!! YMO are a HUGE influence, so this stuff really resonates with me. Nice one.

This makes trackers interfaces look positively heavenly.

Roland knew the MC8 would be ahead of its time, that's why the left hand section is labelled with the abbreviation for Laugh My Ass Off.

NGL Alex, this is actually better than YMO who I love. Never mind the epochs of geological time spent programming the MC8. You're a compositional monster - the chord voicings and clever resolutions at the end of each section made me laugh out loud. Absolutely pitch perfect, and one of the best things ever on RU-vid, seriously.

Great homage Alex! Incredible YMO style end track!! Plus vrai que les vrais ! (vocoder + synth bells down and up at 17:01 are perfect!) RIP Maestro Sakamoto and Takahashi Yukihiro 🙏

This gem will for sure soon replace all our DAWs , VST and all that software crap!! This is amazing!!! It's the future!!

your song perfectly captured the spirit of YMO

I think it would definitely possible to convince someone that the song you made was a lost YMO composition, you really nailed their style!

Unbelievable. YMO has been my favorite band since I was 14 (44 now) and the song at the end is absolutely perfect. YMO is criminally underrated outside of Japan. Thank you for keeping their sound alive!

Thanks for your video, always wondered how the hell you could program stuff into these boxes. That YMO-influenced song at the end was lovely !

It would be criminal for you not to make more YMO style music. Your YMO is as on point as the real thing, seriously, top notch Alex.

Always a pleasure to land on one of these videos early! Just got my Siel Mono up and running again so I'm in a very synthy mood!

Wow pretty cool vintage piece of music equipment and history great tribute to YMO 🎶

Round of applause for Jeff, Hillary and Susan for their valuable contribution!! Fantastic video Alex! 🙂

Wow...Talk about nostalgia! I haven't listened to my YMO albums in *YEARS*! What a delight listening to you explain this really tedious method of sequencing! and your homage to YMO's music with your stylized composition was just toe-tapping! I do remember looking at the back of one of their albums and seeing the list of equipment that they used to record that album and thinking to myself that it must be so amazing to have access to all those wonderful machines and synths and wishing I had just one of those things! Today, I enjoy my Yamaha DX7 FDII that I've had for 20+ years and a whole host of Korg Volcas and my latest acquisition, a Deepmind 12. That and my birthday present to myself, the NDLR and I can get some pretty decent stuff out of it. Thanks for rekindling my enjoyment or YMO...now I gotta dig out their albums and relisten to them again!

YMO not to be underestimated! Great hommage to these masters.

Man, complicated times back then. We are so spoiled now. Great track, love YMO!

That song is really a "happy moment" song. Buying it promptly.

The demo songs you do never cease to amaze me. You clearly have a ton of musical talent and a great production ability, and the fact you use them for tech demos just shows how much you love these instruments. Really captured the YMO vibe on this one!

Indeed, that was way out for the late 70's

Damn. You are a treasure, Alex. It’s one thing to love these obscure and dorky devices like we do, and it’s another thing to make these wonderful demonstration/explanation videos but, my oh my, the demo music you make with them is absolutely stunning. If you were the only reason the internet/RU-vid were invented, it’s almost worth enduring all the other crap. Bravo!!!

What a delight! Thanks so much for making this video. Matsutake and YMO are legends :)

In 1999 I purchased an Alesis MMT-8. I hated it and blame my need for reading glasses on the four years I spent staring at that little screen. This video made me remember these horrible days and the headache I would get behind my eyes. LOL BUT, I can see why this method of working would be freeing to a composer. It's a step above notation and if you know what you are doing can deliver some amazing results. I still would never, EVER want to return to this workflow.

This project is wonderful! By the way, for my music, I operated the MC-4. Hideki Matsutake (who was said to be the fourth YMO member) I won the award for excellence in the show's contest.

Legendary! So incredible you are covering this Alex, thank you for all your hard work ❤

The b-roll of pressing the buttons in the "LOAD" section is a true delight. ETA: All of this b-roll is a delight. Thank you, Mr. Ball.

Ive always said tec gets in the way of inspiration & actually making music, just shows how YMO and alike pushed through and came up with some great music, whilst having to divert and learn the new tec. How easy we have it now, and i suppose thats why modern music sounds the same.Big fan of YMO since the late 70's. Good track you did here, Thank you.

Just wild that classics like Rydeen and Kimi ni Mune Kyun were put together this way!! Very informative and great song.

Of all the equipment YMO used, the MC-8 was definitely the one piece most responsible for their sound. Thanks for doing a YMO doc, Alex. I’d love to know more about the LMD-649 sampler they used, but I don’t know if it exists anymore!

Brilliant video (as always) and DAMN, the YMOesque song you did so lovingly on all the period gear is wonderfully spot on. Bravo!

Man, first the DAF sequencer, and now YMO's sequencer! ❤

You are very talented and patient Alex. I am impressed. I had a step time sequencer once: Firstman and then Roland MC50. The song in the style of YMO you composed is also excellent.

I am always taken aback by your talent with these machines and your inate musical abilities. And also your use of "crotchet" and "quaver" et al. As a yank I am so unaccustomed to the British way of describing subdivisions of the bar. It's pretty cool to have something so foreign to me yet be the same language. It's kinda like watching "are you being served" back in the day. 😂 Cheers

Very user friendly. Duration doesn't have to be in CPU cycles :) I really enjoyed this. Thank you. I used to attend every electro-acoustic performance during the 70s. Performances were held in a new configurable auditorium and we would be surrounded by speakers. These concerts were free as all the groups featured were touring with grants from culture ministries. " - People on the high rows please come down. There will be an acoustic bombardment." I will never forget this.

Insane how well the 8th note bass ideas CARRY this tune, but ofcourse the harmonies - Argh, I just love it

And I thought the QX1 was a ball ache!! Brilliant stuff, as per!

Really grateful for this video in helping to understand how this thing was used and how Ymo used it. Yes, it was time consuming compared to today, but I’m impressed with the Roland person’s well thought out design and usability (like hitting enter again instead of having to re-input the same number)

I’ll never moan about the Logic Pro edit page EVER again. Great vid!

That is pretty advanced for 1977. Definitely a small revolution in music production right there. It kinda reminds me of how you'd do music in tracker programs by programming each note. Or the apt comparison you brought up with the TB-303. Roland is just amazing.

Ahh. Programming those was so satisfying and also a goddamn headache trying to remember your riff long enough to input it. Thats what the manual input was good for. Don't miss those keys either, a bit crap feel, maybe foam and foil? Even with the extra noise, tactile feedback is nice in the studio.

Wonderful. I love pure number based sequencing. It’s on a totally different level, but I’m reminded of the sequencing on my 1st drum machine, the DR660, back in the early 90s. I knew it so well I could program whole beats without ever having to listen to what I was doing, just adding notes to 124, 148, 172, 196 etc. I didn’t know any different so it felt utterly intuitive to do it like that. I imagine the feeling was similar for seasoned users of this machine.

Sweet! These beasts are pure synth exotica. Banger of a song too 😁

What else is there to write as a comment on this channel without getting lost in eternal hymns of praise, which would also be absolutely justified? Perhaps this: I am a fan of this channel's "Land of the Rising Sound". While this was already a small masterpiece in itself in my eyes, the quality of the individual contributions has generally not diminished at all and this channel is definitely the most important channel dedicated to the presentation of historical electronic musical instruments and also packages and presents this in a way that is unrivalled.

Incredible amount of work, loved it!

Brilliant !! Can definitely see where the TB-303’s sequencer ‘logic’ came from!

This is so effing cool. I never knew anything but sequencing with the Mac (MasterTracks Pro!) when I started in 1990. It's amazing how music recording technology has gone from pressing vibrations into a foil cylinder into a a near-limitless DAW with emulations of every piece of gear ever... inside a laptop.

The discipline necessary to put your inspiration through such a process and achieve something musical, impressive.

Also, this makes me appreciate the fact that I learned how to sequence I. 1987 on an Ensoniq ESQ-1, which was a BREEZE! I wanted a Sequential Six Trak but had to wait until a friend bought the Ensoniq for me to borrow it. Life changing stuff.

Fantastic effort - both in that track at the end and in programming the MC-8! Love it.

Wonderful video as per, and the track at the end is superb 👌🏻

Really interesting and entertaining video! I love to hear the history and bits of arcana of this classic equipment. You are so talented. Thanks!

You just gave me the most beautiful smile on my face !! Thank you !! Love this so much !! ♥️

Wow, thanks for this walkthrough of a beautiful piece of Roland gear. What a stunning design! Keep up the great work!

I love the music, I love the editing, this is an impressive work. Amazing quality.

Thank you! This video was very insightful and the song at the end absolutely kills it! I didn't know what 16kb of RAM can be capable of. Your passion and technical as well as musical skill makes it look almost easy to program this beast. I'm honestly impressed. ...and if anybody ever calls a music tracker interface "daunting" again, I'll show them this video.

YMO is a legendary group!

Thank you Alex! This song is also a treat, I can sense that you put quality work into it...

I'm always here just for the ending tracks, because i know they are absolute bangers! great job as usual Alex!

Thank you Alex for the highest compliment you can give. I enjoy your channel and they don’t get much dorkier than me.

Such a great song and incredible detailed video about MC-8 and YMO! Many thanks from Tokyo🗼

Thank you! Enjoyed Lovers in Tokyo immensely!

This is my favorite episode you’ve done!

What an amazing piece of gear and an equally amazing video. I am always impressed with how much work is put into these videos, even without the programming of an MC-8! Love it!