Original owner of 77 and 99. Bought them in 1990 and 92. Gigged with them 92-95. Just upgraded the disk drives to USB in the last year and upgraded the backlight on the displays. They had faded considerably. Also had their 2nd battery replacement. Love them both. Keybed is excellent. I purchased a good number of SoundSource patches as programming was not my thing in the 90s. When gigging I utilized the sequencer for backing tracks as our duo could not always afford to pay for a bassist or drummer. I could load 5 five minute songs at a time. The sequencer drove an RY30 for our drums. Simple midi setup for the time and on a budget. The 77 and 99 set me back about 5 grand total and I was young, stupid, and poor! We made it work and it never glitched live or in rehearsals. Good luck in your project. I purchased an OpSix recently and I will say it has made programming FM easier.
Hi @jamesdefrancesco7765 What a great recount of how you used the Yamaha SY77 and Yamaha SY99. Buying synths is never a young and stupid thing. But it definitely makes you poor in cash but rich in creativity. Jon
I just bought one that had a lot of work done. New batteries, new switches, new display and a new usb drive (floppy emulator). Every year prices go up. I paid € 850,00 which seems a lot but it isn't if you consider how much work was done on it. After cleaning the keys the synth is now in mint condition. No scratches, no nothing anywhere which is awesome for a 32 year old keyboard. I love the old beast and I won't sell it... ever.
Hi @Lunytunes62 For an immaculate Yamaha SY99 that is probably a little high. But it is not about what it cost, it is about the value the synth has to you. I have bought synths in the past, I might add in a sorry state of repairs at over what they are worth, because I wanted that synth in my collection. As you have said everything has been maintained on this synthesiser, so apart from changing the battery in 5 or so years you will have trouble free music making for years to come. Jon
Except for the broken key, you got a near virgin surfboard. All the buttons still have the printing on. With extensive use at least the "Exit" and "Enter" buttons will be blank.
I jump, i jump. The SY85 has much better sounds from the then developed samples and the effect section. The SY85 is though a Rompler like the Korg M1. But much better. In sound. In places, not in layering capabilities. It sucks there. But you got these little "sliders" there, to modify filter settings, live, bit ruff as well, cant see Emerson riding these with his teeth.
Hi @Free State I will at this point defer to you judgement on the quality of the sound between the SY99 and SY85. The SY85 was the last of the SY Synths to be launched and it is obvious from the internals of the synth this was not developed by the same team that did the SY77 or SY99. As you say it is a samples based instrument so the basis of the tone generation is completely different. Over the winter during the long cold nights who knows what creativity will be undertaken. Jon
I bought one last week too. Seller said it had "a few problems"... Which he had conveniently not included in the sales post. I did some research (I haven't received it yet, because the seller is out travelling), and I think the problems may be: A faulty display. The floppy disk drive and possibly dead CR2032 batteries. I hope the keys themselves are ok. I also own a Yamaha DX7 mk 2. Its battery is dead and a couple of the keys have fallen down and need replacing.
Hi @Mikael Biilmann Are yes ‘Caveat Emptor’. But I have to say if you use a portal like e-bay for the transaction then you can actually get your money back. I got a keyboard off e-bay a few years back for a series of videos that I undertook. The keyboard was sold as fully working, but wasn’t. So I asks the vendor to cover the repairs which were about £100. He refused, raised a dispute with e-bay and they awarded me the $100 as I video documented all the issues and sent them to e-bay to support my case. Anyway I digress. People are selling plug and play displays there is a group on Facebook ‘Music Gear Display retrofits’ that has a lot of information on display swaps and good sources. Although I would warn you that a plug’n’play display is likely to cost you about £100. The floppy disk drive should be easy enough to find. You should be able to get a direct drive as I suspect the drive might not be the problem more the drive belt and while cheaper, if you intend to keep it the direct drive is a better replacement. Or of course you could put a Gotek or similar drive into the machine. And well the battery is easy enough, although I would change the battery to a holder based system so that you don’t have to solder it next time around. Dead keys are potentially a nightmare so many things could go wrong burned out contacts, broken tracks, mechanicals broken etc. But you won’t find that out until you have stripped the keyboard down. Great to receive the comments. Jon
Hi @user-xe5ob6qj1x The things that springs to mind. Is the replacement battery pushing out 3.2V. I always test my batteries before they are inserted. You have no idea how long the battery has been sitting around. Especially the Yamaha batteries as they are standard CR2032 with solder tags welded to them, so probably do not have the same turnover as a standard CR2032. Is the battery fully soldered into place. You don't have a dry joint or have lifted the pad during the removal and installation process. Failing these two obvious areas then it could be an issue with the circuit that monitors the voltage on the battery and reports this back to a display chip. I'd look at the voltage on the pins that are permanently connected and see what you are getting. If lower than 2.9/2.8V and the battery is holding at 3>0 or greater then you have something between the battery and chip that is consuming energy. Trace the circuit back looking for components that look damaged. Hope this helps you move this forward. Jon
How do you do the factory reset? Also i have a “white noise” that comes from all of the outputs, its quiet, but audible depending on the volume output. I dont hear it on yours so why does mine do that?
Hi @DVaderOfMusic Firstly check out this video for the answer to the factory reset process: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-UYbKO_BOFt8.html In answer to your second question, it could be a number of thinks that are causing the noise on the audio circuits. I would start by giving the audio circuits a visual inspection to see if it looks like components have failed board discoloured or visible dry joints indicated by solder cracks. You might need a magnifying glass like: Bench LED Magnifying Glass: themusictechguyuk.me/3ubVv9o to do this correctly. If either of these are found then these can be fairly easily corrected. If it is not this then you might need to start tracking back through the audio circuit to find out at what stage in the audio generation the noise is introduced. Is the noise also on the head phone output? That might give a clue to where in the signal path the noises is being introduced. Hope this helps? Jon
did you end up unleashing the 8mb memory or using the sector101 chips? also how about the gotek floppy disc emulators, do you think they are a good idea? i have a sy99 and i am going to get a bunch of mods done, fix aftertouch, replace screen, internal battery, etc. currently gathering as much info on the memory upgrade front, what would you recommend? Also im really looking forward to more sy99 content!
Hi @KUPHSER More Yamaha SY-99 content is coming. All the videos are a little backed up! My intention is to use the Sector 101 chips to up the memory. Yes there are guys selling the original modules, but they are as old as the synth and the Sector 101 is a modern alternative that is tried and trusted. More comfort over longevity! I also need to do the battery and I am also considering a screen replacement. A modern white on blue or black screen is far easier to read than the legacy black on green. But that will come down to budget once I cost up the other stuff. GoTek or similar are I think personal preference. I don’t have anything against the concept, but just haven’t swapped any of my keyboards permanently to the platform. I always say go for the expensive USB drives, the ones with the OLED displays that list the folder names and file names. The other drive which are being sold on e-bay for $20-$30 drive people nuts as you have to manually catalogue everything!!! Jon
Does anyone knows how to factory reset sy99? I do not have disk and hard drive no longer works. I was told to press VOICE/Bank D Then 8 on the 16 buttons But nothing happens. Then i tried number 8 in the numeric key pad and still nothing happens. Any one can help please?
Hi @enriquezapata4139 Checkout ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-UYbKO_BOFt8.html. You have the right key combinations and all must be pressed together. If it is not going into Diagnostic mode which is how you perform the reset then my guess is one or more of the tack switches needs replacing. Jon
Hi @Steven Bailey Disk not ready means that the synth cannot detect a SY99 disk in the disk drive. It can be caused by a number of things, but top of the list are a damaged or incorrectly formatted disk and a failing disk drive. To check the disk drive put a disk in it that you don't mind loosing the data on. Format it. If the format completes then can the SY99 read it? If so, try saving something to it. Remove the disk and then put it back and see if the synth can read it. If successful then the drive is OK and it is your disk that is corrupt. If unsuccessful then you may need to repair or replace the floppy disk drive. Hope this helps. Jon
