I had an EX5 w hen they first came out and used it at a house gig. Two weeks later it was stolen and found smashed in an alley way. My heart broke. Just yesterday I found a decent shaped EX5 on Ebay for 679. I jumped on it. Now awaiting it
@@mr_floydst if he is anything like me, he's buying a backup unit for parts just in case. When I find a piece of gear I love and feel that I absolutely cannot produce music without, I try to acquire a backup unit (or two) when I can, if the price is right. Prices aren't ever going back down, so it makes sense to grab what you can now. I got my EX5R about 10 years ago for $375. I see them selling now for upwards of $1000- $1500, even $2000-$2500. Thanks to UA-cam, the masses (which includes the millions upon millions of Zoomers who have been diving headfirst into electronic music production - and who have the $$$ to buy gear thanks to their parents) have become aware of the existence and capabilities of instruments like the EX5, and are snatching anything they can from the pre-2000's era due to the incredible design and sound quality of this stuff.
I can relate to that. But my space is limited, so when it's over, it's over. ;-) I kind of wished Yamaha would reiterate the great ideas they had in the late 90s.
I was not aware that Sector101 sells 16MB flash RAM repops for the EX5. I hadn't even bothered with the sampler in the EX because I didn't have any flash to store it. It's a little more expensive to buy it from the states but not ridiculous. I always wanted to dive into the EX beyond just he presets. It's got outstanding presets, but the ability to do some sampling would be cool!
Thanks for watching! The flash RAM is really a necessity for sampling, as the SCSI interface is just too slow for having fun. Apart from that, you can already create unique things using the internal waves only.
Great content here. Really demonstrates what is seemingly hidden from most users. Alex, this video give access to the technologies of this grand instrument. The audio levels here for your voice are greatly improved. Thumbs up. a - Camera is on a stand and not wobbling around - although the viewpoint of the Yamaha screen could have been positioned better - too much of an angle b - Mic placement for your voice instruction is excellent c - Instruction pace and ease to understand is also good
I love my EX5R. Such a versatile and beautiful sounding piece of gear. Anyone who says digital synthesizers cannot compete with analog needs to sit down with one of these machines. It's in the same league as the Kurzweil K2000/2500 in my opinion. Digital synthesizer/sampler with soul. The design of the rack is pretty amazing. I love the interface on that thing.
Thanks for watching, once more! :-) For me, the EX5 is the best synth ever built. Which reminds me I wanted to investigate if you can loud your own samples into the new Yamaha Workstations (I guess you can).
I have both EX5 and K2500 and while K2500 has more tweaking and things it just doesn't sound nearly as good as EX5. It's like comparing a good brand 5pcs tool set that comes with the tools you know you will be using to 150 pcs tool set from a cheap brand with 145 tools you'll hardly use in your lifetime.
@@victorkrapivkin1863 I think that depends greatly on the music you make with it. I do noise/industrial and while I would gladly replace with ex5 if my k2661 died, I know there are some things I'd never be able to reproduce on the ex 5. I remember the ex5 sounding much better out of the box, and I think the only reason I didn't go for it at the time was that I was more certain that it wasn't going to be a synth line that continued. (As of 2021 K2700 just launched-fully backwards compatible .) I would also miss the ability to create arbitrary LFO functions--something I actually haven't seen done anywhere else.
@@NunyaB1s I just think that Yamaha actually created a very ambitious synth but, once again, did not learn from previous failure: The v50 was Yamaha´s first fm workstation after DX7 success. Musicians were more onto the KorgM1 and the workstation never had the MKT support nor the fair propaganda. People just moved to the next and fresh sound of the M1 leaving FM. Decades after, when Yamaha decided to gather all tech from the 80s 90s with the exception of FM, again people turn to a more "less intricated" OS, and the Triton, which its predecessor, the Trinity with TouchView screen, lead the path to a less complicated surf instead of diving into menu and sub-menu. And happens exactly the same with my Triton Karma: Too much sub-surfing that keeps musicians away,
@@victorkrapivkin1863 I have this Kurzweil SP4-8 with 128 sounds from the PC3 series and sounds terrific! Thank God I don´t have to choose coz I have this EX7 too. Both are good. To me more exactly, strings from Kurzweil to my ear, are only as good as EX´s I like my Karma...but strings.... these two "guys" are Top notch!
Great videos and tutorials, thank you! Question about that brass sound, CS-80 like one at the very beginning of this video: is it a factory patch or custom one? What’s the name?
Hi, thanks for watching! The CS 80 waves are built into the EX5, but that specific patch is a work of legendary EX5 sound designer "SKI". :-) You can find it here: www.ex5tech.co.uk/patches.html
Good video and tutorial. I love my EX5 but sampling and other features are SO VERY complicated. The manual is fairly useless in most respects. I hope Yamaha has gotten better with their newer products.
Thanks for watching! I though the manual was ok ;-) All the information is in there, but not necessarily in the order you need for certain things. But then again, the EX5 is packed with functionality...
@@mr_floydst The manual was very confusing to me. This is why videos like yours are so useful. Yamaha's FAQs were helpful too. I got a Yamaha PSR-280 keyboard for my daughter and the manual for it was much better. Perhaps it is because this keyboard is more for beginners.
Hi, very valuable guide. I hope for more guides on how to create sounds for Yamaha EX. great work! ps. is it possible for a contact, because I would have a few questions :)?
I will prepare my questions and write them here. I have first one: I have samples for Korg M1 piano (legal and original). I want to create patch for my EX. They are grouped by C in 8 octaves na F# in 8 octaves. What i have to do to create a good sounding patch? Your tutorial has inspirate me to start trying do something by myself, but this is my very first time :)
Depends how big (filesize) the samples are. If each individual file is < 1,4MB, then save it to a USB stick/floppy disk and load it into the EX5s RAM, and then build a wave as shown in this video from 7:52 on. If the samples are larger in filesize, you'll have to record them with the EX5s audio input as shown in this video… Or if you own a SCSI Zip Drive you could put your samples on there and load them, but these drives are very rare today. :-)
All together are about 8,5MB, but the single ones are about 0.5-0.8MB, so I can load them one by one. Unfortunately I don't have Flash RAM :( I am looking for SCSI, and I plan to mount a CF card instead of hard disk. It is possible to create an S1M file containing all of them after loading all the samples ?
Yes, it's possible. You can save your finished wave or patch (or everything) in one big file. But you'll have to use media which is big enough, so you'll have to use a scsi drive or flash ROM.
Hi! If you really want to do this yourself, that will be a lot of work. I'd rather suggest you download the "simplicity piano" patches from here: www.ex5tech.co.uk/patches.html The "simplicity 3" patch is a very nice ambient piano with a super long sustain, so you can work with the pedal like on a real piano. It's quite nice for classical music. You can use the second mod wheel to make it sound like an upright. It's one of my favourite piano patches.
Thanks for watching! I should do that video once again some day in a proper "camera from above" way (this is one of my older videos and I didn't have a rig to place the camera right above the screen)
@@mr_floydst yeah the EX is on my wishlist. i am following you now. one more question: the EX5 offers AN synthesis, as well as the AN1X. So this means the EX5 has the same AN synthesis inside as well as the AN1X?
@@marcelfrehse Well, it's a big difference to be able to play 10 notes at once vs 2 notes at once. Apart from that, both sound the same. And that wave shaping feature is still quite unique. Plus the EX5 gives you the VL and FDSP engine, too (the latter one can apply effects to every single individual note you play, which produces some unique sounds, too).
Hey im thinking about getting the ex5r as my 2nd digital Synth. Is it still worth it to invest into old technology? I really love the Sounds but yeah a microbrute sounds nice too:D
For some reason, I just got notified on this comment, omg. :-) Well, you're asking a rather biased person here, getting this is absolutely worth it. If you're into creating your own sounds, the EX5's sound creation possibilities and tools vastly outnumber those of a Minibrute. But as others pointed out, you can't really compare them. The Minibrute is much more hands-on, while the EX5 requires menu-diving and careful consideration what you're trying to achieve.
I owned an EX5 for many years but didn't really appreciate how much was packed into this monster. Its achilles heel was that it lacked processing power but regardless, for its time, it was way ahead of the competition.
Thanks for watching! You're right, it's CPU is tragically underpowered. No one wants to wait 20 minutes for a set of samples to load - what were they thinking? Other than that, it's a superb synth. So many things you can do and all of them sound really great.
Yamaha EX is one of the best Synth has ever produced :) I played EX about 20 years ago, and from that time I dreamed of it. I bought it a few months ago :)
Everything else is fine. But. Sampling? Why not always get the original. Ok, multisampled pianos are actually nowadays quite good, but such would be not possible on an EX5 anyway. 10 layers of velocity on every note. Old Ableton had a "House Piano" with 4 layers on every 3 notes, which one can import to other sample players. Not so bad, then. But EX5 does actually shine on other sides.
Those are musical notations for velocity. p=piano (relative moderate), ppp= pianissimo ("did you play a note?"), f=forte, fff=fortissimo ("stop hitting my synth with a hammer") You can use these in the sequencer as a shortcut for entering velocity values.
@@mr_floydst This is such a bloody good explanation! I had completely forgotten those terms from a few months of piano classes when I was six...Nice one, thanks!😉
@@mr_floydst Hey Alex, howsitgoing? What are the main (non - manual) mentioned uses of having two sets of midi ports? I am re-watching your great tutorials and hope that more are coming soon. Love your reaction to you hearing your "chorus of me!" . I finally got myself an Ex5 last week (16mb Flash).
I had an EX5 w hen they first came out and used it at a house gig. Two weeks later it was stolen and found smashed in an alley way. My heart broke. Just yesterday I found a decent shaped EX5 on Ebay for 679. I jumped on it. Now awaiting it
Thanks for watching! What a story. Congrats on the new old machine!
@@mr_floydst Thank you sir :)
@@mr_floydst Update: Now having my machine, I am having a lot of fun with it :)
Just found one for £450 - pick it up tomorrow!
@andywatts8654 congrats! Years of exploring hidden features are ahead of you. :)
i am getting tomorrow my 2nd EX5...*Love* the sound of this amazing synthesizer (and the Roland V-Synth ;-) )
Congratulations! What are you planning to do with 2 of them?
@@mr_floydst if he is anything like me, he's buying a backup unit for parts just in case. When I find a piece of gear I love and feel that I absolutely cannot produce music without, I try to acquire a backup unit (or two) when I can, if the price is right. Prices aren't ever going back down, so it makes sense to grab what you can now. I got my EX5R about 10 years ago for $375. I see them selling now for upwards of $1000- $1500, even $2000-$2500. Thanks to UA-cam, the masses (which includes the millions upon millions of Zoomers who have been diving headfirst into electronic music production - and who have the $$$ to buy gear thanks to their parents) have become aware of the existence and capabilities of instruments like the EX5, and are snatching anything they can from the pre-2000's era due to the incredible design and sound quality of this stuff.
I can relate to that. But my space is limited, so when it's over, it's over. ;-) I kind of wished Yamaha would reiterate the great ideas they had in the late 90s.
wow... more of this tutorials please! very nice!
Thanks! Please have a look at my channel - there's an EX5 playlist there with plenty of tutorials.
Floyd Steinberg yes thank you! i just digged in
I was not aware that Sector101 sells 16MB flash RAM repops for the EX5. I hadn't even bothered with the sampler in the EX because I didn't have any flash to store it. It's a little more expensive to buy it from the states but not ridiculous. I always wanted to dive into the EX beyond just he presets. It's got outstanding presets, but the ability to do some sampling would be cool!
Thanks for watching! The flash RAM is really a necessity for sampling, as the SCSI interface is just too slow for having fun.
Apart from that, you can already create unique things using the internal waves only.
Great content here. Really demonstrates what is seemingly hidden from most users. Alex, this video give access to the technologies of this grand instrument. The audio levels here for your voice are greatly improved. Thumbs up.
a - Camera is on a stand and not wobbling around - although the viewpoint of the Yamaha screen could have been positioned better - too much of an angle
b - Mic placement for your voice instruction is excellent
c - Instruction pace and ease to understand is also good
You make me want to buy a EX5- but I suspect it would sound different in my hands.
Oh, absolutely. It's the person that creates the sound. The synth you use only adds some shading to your model, so to speak. ;-)
another fantastic demo - thanks alex
I love my EX5R. Such a versatile and beautiful sounding piece of gear. Anyone who says digital synthesizers cannot compete with analog needs to sit down with one of these machines. It's in the same league as the Kurzweil K2000/2500 in my opinion. Digital synthesizer/sampler with soul. The design of the rack is pretty amazing. I love the interface on that thing.
Thanks for watching, once more! :-) For me, the EX5 is the best synth ever built. Which reminds me I wanted to investigate if you can loud your own samples into the new Yamaha Workstations (I guess you can).
I have both EX5 and K2500 and while K2500 has more tweaking and things it just doesn't sound nearly as good as EX5. It's like comparing a good brand 5pcs tool set that comes with the tools you know you will be using to 150 pcs tool set from a cheap brand with 145 tools you'll hardly use in your lifetime.
@@victorkrapivkin1863 I think that depends greatly on the music you make with it. I do noise/industrial and while I would gladly replace with ex5 if my k2661 died, I know there are some things I'd never be able to reproduce on the ex 5. I remember the ex5 sounding much better out of the box, and I think the only reason I didn't go for it at the time was that I was more certain that it wasn't going to be a synth line that continued. (As of 2021 K2700 just launched-fully backwards compatible .) I would also miss the ability to create arbitrary LFO functions--something I actually haven't seen done anywhere else.
@@NunyaB1s I just think that Yamaha actually created a very ambitious synth but, once again, did not learn from previous failure: The v50 was Yamaha´s first fm workstation after DX7 success. Musicians were more onto the KorgM1 and the workstation never had the MKT support nor the fair propaganda. People just moved to the next and fresh sound of the M1 leaving FM. Decades after, when Yamaha decided to gather all tech from the 80s 90s with the exception of FM, again people turn to a more "less intricated" OS, and the Triton, which its predecessor, the Trinity with TouchView screen, lead the path to a less complicated surf instead of diving into menu and sub-menu. And happens exactly the same with my Triton Karma: Too much sub-surfing that keeps musicians away,
@@victorkrapivkin1863 I have this Kurzweil SP4-8 with 128 sounds from the PC3 series and sounds terrific! Thank God I don´t have to choose coz I have this EX7 too. Both are good. To me more exactly, strings from Kurzweil to my ear, are only as good as EX´s I like my Karma...but strings.... these two "guys" are Top notch!
Great videos and tutorials, thank you! Question about that brass sound, CS-80 like one at the very beginning of this video: is it a factory patch or custom one? What’s the name?
Hi, thanks for watching! The CS 80 waves are built into the EX5, but that specific patch is a work of legendary EX5 sound designer "SKI". :-) You can find it here: www.ex5tech.co.uk/patches.html
Good video and tutorial. I love my EX5 but sampling and other features are SO VERY complicated. The manual is fairly useless in most respects. I hope Yamaha has gotten better with their newer products.
Thanks for watching! I though the manual was ok ;-) All the information is in there, but not necessarily in the order you need for certain things. But then again, the EX5 is packed with functionality...
@@mr_floydst The manual was very confusing to me. This is why videos like yours are so useful. Yamaha's FAQs were helpful too. I got a Yamaha PSR-280 keyboard for my daughter and the manual for it was much better. Perhaps it is because this keyboard is more for beginners.
Not to mention it is over 300 pages.
Super Video cool, danke
Alex Hello, please tell me where to find the right end of the body or the whole body of the entire yamaha ex 5?
Hi, thanks for watching. Try eBay, or this syntaur.com/yamaha_ex.html - I think I also have the right end but it's slightly damaged...
Hi, very valuable guide. I hope for more guides on how to create sounds for Yamaha EX. great work!
ps. is it possible for a contact, because I would have a few questions :)?
Hi, thanks for watching! Why don't you post your questions here so maybe we can start a discussion :-)
I will prepare my questions and write them here.
I have first one:
I have samples for Korg M1 piano (legal and original). I want to create patch for my EX. They are grouped by C in 8 octaves na F# in 8 octaves. What i have to do to create a good sounding patch? Your tutorial has inspirate me to start trying do something by myself, but this is my very first time :)
Depends how big (filesize) the samples are. If each individual file is < 1,4MB, then save it to a USB stick/floppy disk and load it into the EX5s RAM, and then build a wave as shown in this video from 7:52 on.
If the samples are larger in filesize, you'll have to record them with the EX5s audio input as shown in this video… Or if you own a SCSI Zip Drive you could put your samples on there and load them, but these drives are very rare today. :-)
All together are about 8,5MB, but the single ones are about 0.5-0.8MB, so I can load them one by one. Unfortunately I don't have Flash RAM :( I am looking for SCSI, and I plan to mount a CF card instead of hard disk. It is possible to create an S1M file containing all of them after loading all the samples ?
Yes, it's possible. You can save your finished wave or patch (or everything) in one big file. But you'll have to use media which is big enough, so you'll have to use a scsi drive or flash ROM.
Hi, please i need tutorial to insert sample of piano... i don't loading other voices...
Hi! If you really want to do this yourself, that will be a lot of work. I'd rather suggest you download the "simplicity piano" patches from here: www.ex5tech.co.uk/patches.html
The "simplicity 3" patch is a very nice ambient piano with a super long sustain, so you can work with the pedal like on a real piano. It's quite nice for classical music. You can use the second mod wheel to make it sound like an upright. It's one of my favourite piano patches.
@@mr_floydst thanks for help me man!... but not find "simplicity piano" in list... sorry, Where is it?
@@TheRafhaelwar On that page, hit "strg+f" and search for "simplicity"...
@@mr_floydst thanks for help me...right... sy, you try this? I did not find =/
@@TheRafhaelwar It's the one labeled "Piano Patch using stock EX5 Waves" (and the file after that) somewhere in the bottom third of that list.
could be a bladerunner soundtrack
Thanks. I was aiming for that sound and athmosphere indeed .
@@mr_floydst I thought the same.
@leondustar is an Electribe ESX legend by the way!
Great info but could you not have pointed the camera at the screen?
Thanks for watching! I should do that video once again some day in a proper "camera from above" way (this is one of my older videos and I didn't have a rig to place the camera right above the screen)
how much memory does the flash ram have for saving waves?
Thanks for watching! It's up to 16MB, that's roughly one minute of stereo samples or 2 minutes mono.
@@mr_floydst yeah the EX is on my wishlist. i am following you now. one more question: the EX5 offers AN synthesis, as well as the AN1X. So this means the EX5 has the same AN synthesis inside as well as the AN1X?
@@marcelfrehse Yes, it's the same, but with only 2 voices instead of 10. And thanks for subscribing! :)
@@mr_floydst is that really a big difference to hear?
@@marcelfrehse Well, it's a big difference to be able to play 10 notes at once vs 2 notes at once. Apart from that, both sound the same. And that wave shaping feature is still quite unique. Plus the EX5 gives you the VL and FDSP engine, too (the latter one can apply effects to every single individual note you play, which produces some unique sounds, too).
Hey im thinking about getting the ex5r as my 2nd digital Synth. Is it still worth it to invest into old technology? I really love the Sounds but yeah a microbrute sounds nice too:D
I have the exact same doubt: an EX5R or a Minibrute?
Apples and oranges
For some reason, I just got notified on this comment, omg. :-) Well, you're asking a rather biased person here, getting this is absolutely worth it. If you're into creating your own sounds, the EX5's sound creation possibilities and tools vastly outnumber those of a Minibrute. But as others pointed out, you can't really compare them. The Minibrute is much more hands-on, while the EX5 requires menu-diving and careful consideration what you're trying to achieve.
Microbrute is much easier to program BUT, ive had mine about 6 years and it recently shit the bed. Wont stay in tune AT ALL.
Please, do tutorial of reset factory, thanks and success!
I owned an EX5 for many years but didn't really appreciate how much was packed into this monster. Its achilles heel was that it lacked processing power but regardless, for its time, it was way ahead of the competition.
Thanks for watching! You're right, it's CPU is tragically underpowered. No one wants to wait 20 minutes for a set of samples to load - what were they thinking?
Other than that, it's a superb synth. So many things you can do and all of them sound really great.
Really cool Alex! I've always wanted to know what the Yamaha EX5 is like, as I've never seen one in person.
Yamaha EX is one of the best Synth has ever produced :) I played EX about 20 years ago, and from that time I dreamed of it. I bought it a few months ago :)
Everything else is fine. But. Sampling? Why not always get the original.
Ok, multisampled pianos are actually nowadays quite good, but such would be not possible on an EX5 anyway.
10 layers of velocity on every note. Old Ableton had a "House Piano" with 4 layers on every 3 notes, which one can import to other sample players.
Not so bad, then. But EX5 does actually shine on other sides.
But I want to sample my cat. Right. There U go. U can sample U cat on an EX5.
Hi, thanks for watching! EX5 can do some cool things with those samples and FDSP e.g. use them for FM)
Whats with all the pp ppp in italics etc on the number pad ...looks well scientific!!
Those are musical notations for velocity. p=piano (relative moderate), ppp= pianissimo ("did you play a note?"), f=forte, fff=fortissimo ("stop hitting my synth with a hammer")
You can use these in the sequencer as a shortcut for entering velocity values.
@@mr_floydst This is such a bloody good explanation! I had completely forgotten those terms from a few months of piano classes when I was six...Nice one, thanks!😉
@@oblongtom :-)
@@mr_floydst Hey Alex, howsitgoing? What are the main (non - manual) mentioned uses of having two sets of midi ports? I am re-watching your great tutorials and hope that more are coming soon. Love your reaction to you hearing your "chorus of me!" . I finally got myself an Ex5 last week (16mb Flash).
Hey Why do u use that kind of Cable i can see at 1:57. Its a 3.5 to 2x 6.3 mm. Can´t i use 1x 3.5 to 1x 6.3 and plug it into the mono A/D Input?
You can totally use that. I used this because that's what I had at hand.
Dear Alex will you please do a how to make a multi track beat using step mode ? thank you . Great video by the way .
Hi! Thanks for watching. I was planning to do a video on the sequencer in the future.