YAMAHA SY22 Vector Synthesizer 1990 | HQ DEMO
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- Опубліковано 7 лют 2025
- (c) 2011 by AnalogAudio1
I played the YAMAHA SY22 without any additional effects or eq.
The Yamaha SY22 came out 1990. It is an interesting vector synthesizer. Other vector synths are the Sequential Circuits Prophet VS and the Korg Wavestation - but the SY22 was the most affordable of its kind.
Although instruments like Roland D-50 and Kawai K-1 have joysticks to mix waveforms, they are not vector synths. A real vector synth can reproduce the vector moves in a sound program.
Rumors say that some ideas from the developer team of Sequential were implemented, since they worked for YAMAHA for a short period of time.
The SY22 is a quite simple vector synthesizer - also simple to use and to program. The SY22 has no filters at all. Interestingly, 4 elements can built a sound, 2 FM (4-op frequency modulation) and 2 AWM (sample playback).
It also has a built in effect processor for reverb and delay. You can not tweak the effects except intensity.
It's much more easier to program sounds on the SY22 than on a Korg Wavestation. The programming on a Korg WS is a nightmare, because you have to handle with the 34 patches / 50 performances problem. Also you can't program vector moves in realtime - like on the SY22.
Of course, a Wavestation sounds "bigger" in the end, but the SY22 sounds not bad, either. In contrary, the SY22 has something special to me. Although it has no filters, you can think of it as a good (4 operator) FM synth which can provide in a single sound prgramm 2x DX11 and 2x sample sounds at once. All mixable with a vector stick, all moves easily recordable in a patch. Which other synth has that to offer? You can imagine, how complex the sounds can be. It is an instrument for people who love complex, beautiful digital sounds and those who take their time to program own patches. It will reward you with amazing results. I will definitely keep mine, I like the SY22 very much.
The SY22 is best for strange, complex pads for soundtracks and ambient stuff. Don't try analog-style sounds on it ;-)
The most sounds you are hearing in this video are my own creations - so don't expect these sounds when you buy one...
This is a great and very underrated synth.
It is like having two synths in one (ROMpler + FM synth). It combines PCM samples (128 waves) with FM (256 waves). It has no filters, no resonance, no arpeggiator or sequencer... but the variety of sounds that it can make is very rich and ample. You can combine until 4 different voices (2 PCM + 2 FM)with different envelopes, tone, etc. It has 16 different kind of effects with reverb, delay and distortion.
The vector stick makes it a very funny and interesting synth, cause it allows you to mix the 4 voices whatever you want, play with them and to program this "movement" in the patch internal memory. Only a few synths can do that.
The resolution is only 12 bits, but for me this is a good thing, because gives it a very good retro/dark sound. It has 16 polyphonic voices and 8 multitimbral parts (split keyboard option, velocity and aftertouch). You can get amazing pads, strings, space and retro lo-fi sounds from this synth. For industrial ,ambient and atmospheric music is great.
12bit is all you need
This synth is under rated and the waldrof q is way over rated...
I miss my SY22. Bought it in 1992, sold it in 1998. I loved it. I even managed to program a decent tonewheel organ sound using the 37 Rok Organ patch as base.
@@weeg91 I hope so - I just got a 12-bit sampler. Life got better! Two 12-bit sound engines :)
@@zektorzvan5362 Waldorf Q is definitely NOT overrated.
A great demo of an interesting synth. I never knew Yamaha had a vector synth. I think in 1990, the Yamaha's flagship synth was possibly SY77 (AWM and AFM).
great demo! this is a really fun synth to play and program. the recordable and loopable vector movements add a huge amount, it's like having an extra layer of very organic sounding ADSR envelopes for both pitch and tuning. or a very sketchy looper. can add some interesting rhythmic elements with the LFOs. also if you change patches while holding a note you keep both patches running and still vector controllable which is kinda amazing.
After having read and agreeing with the comments below, I see that I am not alone in admiration for this orchestral Space-Synth (that's what it is for me!), and I can only add that when I played it on headphones and heard how I could make the 4 waveforms swirl around at will in the stereo field with the Vector control, I was hooked, over 20 years ago. It has it quirks, but this is a classic
Ach wie herrlich ist es ihn hier wieder zu treffen, den guten alten und leider zu unterschätzten SY22.Habe damals das gute Stück nagelneu im Laden erworben
seitdem unzertrennlich. :) Das Sound morphing mit dem Vectorstick ist an dieser Kiste einfach der Clou. Absolut gelungene Demo, das hat er sich wirklich verdient.
Wonderful example of how ancient machines can produce such good sounds. These machines are often underrated. I have a TG33 - love it -. PR
Nice demo. The SY22 seems capable of producing some very "ethereal" & "motion pad" type sounds.
Just got one for $100 yesterday. Impressed so far.
I would never sell my SY-22. playing it for 20 years now and it is still fun!
I bought one yesterday :-))
@Stephan Schmid the pitchbender does not automaticly return to the center, is this normal?
this is normal on Minimoog and Prophet-5, but since DX7 keyboards have springs in pitch wheels to return to center
I have two, one had a broken key and a missing spring in the adjacent key. Instead of dumping or selling it, I invested time and money to repair it. I would never sell any of them.
@@deauvillevrienden broken spring. Not normal.
Wow what a great demo. I'm impressed with the SY22.
Nice demo of an often underrated synth.
A totally underrated board from the early 90s. Just got mine, looks like brand new and can't wait to see what creative insipiration awaits. This fills the gaps my Kurzweil PC3 and Miniak leave. Thanks for the video!
There's a reason why you don't see the SY22 too often on Ebay. Now I know/HEAR why! It's an amazing synth!!! It's sounds almost ethereal/other-worldly. It sounds like an excellent synth for ambient music & soundtracks. I've gotta get one!
Yes it is perfect.
This is really cool. The choir patch sounds like it was used in the Miracle Mile soundtrack. really epic late 80's early 90's D and D fantasy like. Need to get me one of these
Listening to Hearts Of Space, The New Age Sampler and Experimental New Nights in The 90's influenced me to buy this. Love those Ambient Sounds. Foolishly sold it to buy video games which were a waste of money. I'll get another one eventually. Keep up the awesome job on improvising!
Sounds very good! I haven't done quite so lush ambient sound myself, but yes it's very capable. It took me years to mentally overcome the lack of filters! It does so great techno buzzing that with just LPF... ahh, but then, this synth is like this. I swapped mine for TG33, as I needed more polyphony. Splitting the polyphony in two groups is great: the strings on the other half can have long release part without interruption from other instruments and bigger effect (effect send can be set for each group). TG33 also has two stereo outputs, so I can run one stereo + two mono or even four mono outputs (by using group assignment and instrument PAN in the multi). I just love the animated stereo sounds that are possible with the vector programming, that I haven't yet tried external mixing. Of course, if you only need one patch from this, it's the best :)
Just bought one. Most fun keyboard I’ve ever played
SY-35 + Korg Wavestation SR is a pure vector-joy :)
Surprisingly good sounds for such a simple synth... You'd think that someone would build a VSTi that could perfectly emulate it. Thanks for the video!
87PM Music I think there is now!:)
Absynth can get you there
softsynths never seem to get you all the way there...i think it has something to do with the DA!
What's happening at 1:55 to 3:40 is beautiful! Warm, fuzzy, not so "hi def". Love it. Reminds me of early Klaus Schulze.
Great sounds, I have it for one week now and every day I like it more and more. Very suprising and inspiring program system, this synth has a nice flow.
I love mine. I have DECADES of great memories and great songs with this synth. It was one of my first synths. But now I’m moving to a smaller location and I’m afraid I’m going to have to let some of my boards go… it pains me to say it but this may be one. But NOT because it’s inadequate. But because of my collection, it is now redundant.
But I have dozens of boards. For most people this is an excellent addition. Especially since the explosion of the lo-fi and synth-hop genres.
I had one for a little while around 2008. I really enjoyed it at times. It was very unique I eventually sold it for something more versatile. It was an experimental period for me. Looking back on the 40+ synths I've owned, this is one I'd kind of like to own again, along with Alesis Ion, Waldorf Microwave, Kawai K3, Novation K/KS series, and even more.
I just this year re purchased a SY35 and a Micron. Fab synths!
! ! ! BRO ! ! ! this synth is bad asssssssss. lucky you to have one.
Got one recently for a reasonable price. Beautiful sound engine. Great demo.
WHAT DO WE WANT
the hidden sysex parameters ✋🏻
WHEN DO WE WANT IT
now ✊🏻
chrisarndt.de/files/yamaha/SY%20Programming%20v0.40.pdf
Lol🤣
@@deauvillevrienden Quite interesting, thanks :-)
Wait a second, I know you
@@deauvillevrienden the link is expired!!!
Now I see that vector lever is a predecessor of today's wanderknob on Yamaha Montage series. It can be a valuable toy in hands of good user.
sometimes you need thin nice digital sounds, when fat, analog sounds do not fit in your track ;-)
AnalogAudio1 ...i agree
Good point. Ear of the beholder so to speak. Some may hear this as harsh and thin, but a pragmatist may hear it for what it is: bright and dynamic.
I'm not even a keyboard player but I loved playing around with this thing. This motivated me to plug it in again after 2 years or so :). By the way, at 8:19 I think that is a preset called 'nostromo'. Wicked sound.
I haven't heard/read many good things about the SY22, but I must say that it has some great & unique sounds. Very interesting little keyboard.
Absolutely mezmerizing! 😮
Very nice demo! Thank you :)
Some of these tones remind me of the beginning of ELP “Tarkus”!
Ah, those nineties airy "aaahs" and "ooohs"... *swoon*
+mantra3000 Rather reminds me of "Babylon5" ^^
Some stunning sounds - nice demo thank you.
I think it sounds better than my 55
Haha I’ve got one of those, I think it’s coz this mixes the AWM samples with FM.
The 55 can be good if you’ve got time to spare fiddling with the effects and filters, Ive made some DX and Roland D50 type sounds
Samples, FM, maybe even something like wavetables? Seems quite powerful even by today's standards, and an absolute monster for old school trance right out the box.
i have one of these and the sy editor so programming is real easy .. nice video glad to hear new sounds i have had mine about 6 months and i havent even scratched the surface with it yet... i also have a yamaha pss480 and it is a little monster full midi and synth can be programmed in real time like a little dx7 bought it for £18 on ebay and awsome midi to the sy22
Amazing sounds, you play very well !!! : )
OMFG! It sounds so sweet, clear, crisp, smooth & creamy as hell! it doesn't have a very warm sound, but it's not cold either. At times it sounds a bit thin, but not brittle. It has a digital sound, but in a good way. Bottom line, like the Kawai K5000, the SY22 has an exceptionally "unique" sound. Do you know if the SY22 & TG33 sound the same? I'd like to get one/either or, but the TG33 is cheaper & easier to find. I've read it's the same as the SY22, only a bit more powerful/memory.
I love these sounds. Reminds me of Twin Peaks and Star Trek TNG.
k___g___ b___ definitely some tng vibes
That was mostly a d50 and wavestation though
Seems to me something like an external analog filterbank or one of those MoogerFooger pedals could really cream up the sound on this interesting and inspiring synth.
This is gorgeous.
Nice demo man....
Thanks!
awesome demo! excellent job!
my god! this is a beauty!!
beautiful programming. great sounding digi synth
those are preset patches
I love those sounds.
amaazing!! have one of this years ago..
Shocked at how rich this old digital sounds.
I bought a SY22 last month with 1 broken key (so in search of extreme right white key)
The pitchbender does not automaticly return to the center, is this normal?
Seems great for trance pads...
Favourite synth I own. Bought it a year ago now and I've had some great fun with it
This reminds me of both the Wavestation and the D-50
It is related to the Wavestation. Dave Smith of Sequential Circuits created the Prophet VS, which was the last synth before SCI folded. The technology of the Prophet Vs was sold to Yamaha who created the SY22, 35, and TG33 synthesizers using Smith's vector synthesis. That technology then was sold off to Korg (I may have that wrong. SCI may have sold the technology to Korg who then leased the technology to Yamaha), who then created the Wavestation, which IMO is the best of all of them.
How does it compare to a wavestation? If one could only have one, where the sy22 would be 1/4th the price which would you choose?
i love the sy22, thanks to Moby's main string sound (from the sy22), I had to pick one up myself. For the price it's a cool synth. Love the videos by the way!
I used to have a sy22 but I didn't really experiment with it enough.
Hello AnalogAudio1. I have a question. Does the SY22 & TG33 sound identical? The TG33 is basically just a table-top SY22 w/o keys, yes? Sound wise, they're the same?
Exactly the same soundwise. TG33 has four analog outputs (two stereo, but you can pan the sounds L/R in the multi so you get mono outs or 1 stereo, 2 mono if you want). TG33 has better quality analog output. SY22 has some noise/buzz, but nothing drastic.
very good showcased, AnalogAudio! I sold my sy22 10 years ago for lame about 100 euros, I regret it..:-( thank god I sampled it before, well but thats not the same...
sounds great!
do you need of a floppy disk to program your own sounds? I have one of these wonderful keyboards and I never succeeded to create a sound
Don't need special tools. Just VOICE mode and EDIT
Jesus, what a wonderfull sounds! O.o
nice sounding!
Excellent sounds, i just bought a SY 35 (not a SY22), i would love to be able to get those sounds myself, did you have to stray far from the preset to achive those sounds ??
I think the SY22 has 12 bit sounds and the SY35 has 16 bit sounds and I know they are different in other ways too... I'm not sure how much of their wave rom is the same and that's where the sounds come from...
@Desmaad
If you watch the movie in 720P Fullscreen you can see it is a DC-30 :)
Wow!!! RESPEKT!!!! sehr schön programmiert!!! Kann man die progs abkaufen??? bittöööö ;-)
+Amir Zahirovic Online for free.
+Funbia_dude ja, aber bestimmt nicht die im Video
I had the rack version the TG33. I sounded cheap to me and got rid of it. But if I hear these rich sounds, I cry. I forgot the rack arms when I sold it. I use these arms with some modification as a placeholder for my gk controller of my Roland synthesizer on my guitar. That is the only leftover of the TG33.
true, thats because of the faulty wet dry mix adjustments on many of the SY77 presets. Just bypass the fx section and the SY77 sounds much powerful.
This or a Kawai K1?
The great news is that someone has spent all this year making a VST plugin emulation of the K1. He initally used existing samples but was not happy, so he started from scratch by desoldering the chip on his K1m that holds the raw sample wave data. He then used his science, physics, maths and games programming background to work out how the rest of the synth works. So the end result is an emulation that is pretty close to 100% accurate, and even imports and exports system exclusive data to and from a real K1! Download it for free here and donate to him if you can manage to www.nilsschneider.de/wp/nils-k1v/ and here is the blog of how he developed the plugin www.nilsschneider.de/wp/kawai-k1-vsti/
Some sounds sound better on low keys (even the lowest octave) whilst others sound brilliant in mid-section or upper keys. You have to experiment to find the best part of the keyboard for the best sounds ... :)
Sounds great, do you have these presets in one set for download?
No, sorry.
I loved that preset 9:00 Was also on the TG33 (but not SY35) :/
I used the TG33 for 20years. I now have the SY35 for nostalgia.
Here are some tracks I made on the TG33 if one wants to hear it in a multitimbral/demo context. All sounds are from TG33 with no outboard effects.
soundcloud.com/squishmusic/sets/from-the-analogue-graves
The Police's "Once Upon a Daydream" has a similar sound
Thanks Excellent Demo :}
Cool! Got my eye on one at the moment. Do you use an editor on the computer to edit the FM? Apparently it's possible, but the Plompy editor people mention doesn't run anymore. Thanks!
geecen you can edit the fm with sysex otherwise there are a few parameters with fixed routings you can program in the synth. I think when you do wild stuff I'm the sysex it won't save some of those parameters in the patches.
gorgeous pads - what note steps/scale are you using to create your chords around 1:27 ?
This was an amazing decade to be a synth player, with all the weird mixups of ROM, FM, wavetable, vector, etc.. Today's synthesizers are more like a 100-in-one electronic experimenter's kit.
I will get one soon, can one change the internal battery yourself? I will get MIDIOX and dump the sounds via SYSex, (hope that works) would be nice to hear if you have done this! Nice demo! greets - Levi
The Tg33 has some hidden features inside the engine, there was a web page with a Sounddiver adaptation in order to reach and edit them. Unluckily the page is no more available on the web, but maybe some user groups have both the .sit Sounddiver adaptation file and the explaination how to use it. Since the Sy22 has exactly the same engine of a Tg33, worths trying....
You are referring to the FM operator envelopes perhaps? I have noticed from some preset FM waveforms that they have a changing tone at release, but only if I don't modify the envelope. When I edit the envelope, say release, both the carrier and modulator release get matching values (I assume, the relation is changed from the preset). Anyway, via sys-ex patch data you can input parameters that are not accessible from the LCD. TG33 also has every button remote controllable + have the LCD contents sent back (I recall). I have never seen it implemented though. TG33 has better analogue output stage than SY22 (less noise and no buzzing). There are other differences as well, like the lack of setting midi channel for multi instruments - instrument #1 will always be channel #1 and so on. No layering with just one channel!
@@SamiJumppanen
thanks for Your explainations! I can't now remember how the Sounddiver adaptation influences the machine. I am trying to find rhe page.
@@SamiJumppanen
here it is!! Unluckily not everything on archive.org can be rescued. Sometimes we are lucky, sometimes not, but worth trying.
web.archive.org/web/20120215053417/homepage.mac.com/synth_seal/html/tg33b.html
I love this
hi, you made some great sounds. can you please explain how to create a new sound / patch. tnx
+Izaq Hazan hit "random "as many times as it takes :D
Future classic. Not far off in the future.
Hy, how much sounds inside? Tnx
How did you do the title cards? They're an incredibly realistic emulation of old film titles
There is no new synth sounds since late 80s and 90s to the present time because all sounds in this years are back to 70s and early 80s so the latest synthesizer is in 1985 or 86
No FX? After 09:00 it sounds really big. Great!
Amazing, but how to purchase these patches from you?
Thanks, but they are not available. They are simply lost.
@@AnalogAudio1 these amazing patches lost :((( I will recreate them and send them back to you:) First I need to invent magic though.
These sounds are really nice!
would it be possible to get the presets from you?
Cheers Tim
No, sorry....
Got it, thanks!
Is it possible to save performances/ sound patches with this synth? Do you have to back up everything to tape? If I remember correctly you can't store anything on it as it has no back up.
backing up is via sysex
literally just had to order one. got it for 150 pounds and excellent condition. that a good price ?
thats a decent price. you'll never sell it, its got that kind of sound you may need when your other synths dont if that makes sense
4:50 - 5:00 is so fuckin cool... could be a basis for a whole track
Great job. I had one of these. Played it into the ground, to the point that I busted two keys and the 4 way joystick thing. I'm all in the box these days, but I was a big "low end" Yamaha guy back in the day. I also owned a DX27 and a TX81Z.
Is that a Roland DC-30 or DC-20, 'cause either way, consider yourself lucky! That is a damn good delay!
Why did Yamaha not keep the vector tech and the vector controller?
because Yamaha realized, that at that time most musicians wanted workstation keyboards, not real synthesizers.
What a same. I am looking to purchase the E-MU MORPHEUS Z-Plane Synthesizer - listening on UA-cam, that is an incredible sound engine, along with the Yamaha SY-22.
9:34 Where have I heard that before? Sounds so familiar...
Sam R sounds like a ringtone!
This was probably yamaha's answer to korg wavestation
interesting warm digital synth.
Tengo uno de estos pero me Tira un solo Sonido en todas Las octavas. Osea una Sola Nota alguien me puede ayudar..nesecito algun programa??
I have one. I love so.
Ooh, I like dark sounding... but being all over the map is fantastic... I'm just gonna go curl up and cry, lol.
These patches are divine. Are you selling them?
no, they are lost