I bought one of these in June 22 and had to check it wasn't you I bought it from! It's a fascinating and underrated digital synth, designed by none other than Dave Smith (RIP) from Sequential Circuits. It's a direct descendent of the Prophet VS. The presets are a bit knobby for sure, but I think it's going to be a rewarding one once I go deep and make my own patches.
I didn’t know it was designed by Dave Smith 😢 I did love owning it and I did have fun playing it over the years I had it, but it just wasn’t for me. I think with my first proper synth being my Triton Extreme I have been spoilt by the ease of use of touch screens!
@@timothyverbist5795 you know what? So do I. They have a retro sound that even my MODX can’t replicate without a bit of editing trickery out of the box. But, for this video and also for my current projects, it just wasn’t going to get used so it was time to let it go to a new home!
I was given a non-working one of these about 25 years ago by a school in Ulverston (Cumbria, UK). I was unemployed an had no money at the time and to be given a broken one with missing keys was quite something. Even Yamaha UK helped me out by giving me some replacement keys... It was my keyboard at uni but after that I have no idea what happened to it... I remember there was one pretty good synth lead sound I liked.... also the piano was ok for the time... got me through uni... what can I say... :D
@@JDStoneCreations yeah I've had ARPs, Moogs, Yamaha Motif/Montage, Kronos, Oberheims and all kinds of things since then but I still think the SY35 had it's own charm...
It's just a shame you can't do much with the digital synth as far as FM is concerned. Only a "feedback" control. Even the old Portasounds give you more synthesis options with the same two operators. I've made some nice sounds with it all the same using the other options, like the envelope generator to mix sounds together. It was my first and only multitimbral synth. worked great with my Atari or amiga to get the creative juices flowing.
The SY22 is, I think, slightly lower bit rate/resolution (don’t quote me on that) than the SY35, so the 22 can sound more retro than the 35, a quick google will tell you the differences. As for other vector synths, I’ve only played THE vector synth, the Prophet VS... and the Yamaha crapped all over it. The chassis was wobbly, the buttons felt nasty, the sounds were lacklustre and the polyphony was halved. And it cost the owner 15 times what I paid for the SY35!
Yes... I think so 🤔 it’s been a while, and I can’t remember if you need the memory card for it to save the sounds or if it can be saved to internal memory... but you can definitely edit them!
yes there is also a pc sound editor available that lets you access more functions than you can via synth itself. im getting one SY35 later this week, cant wait :)
I bought one of these in June 22 and had to check it wasn't you I bought it from!
It's a fascinating and underrated digital synth, designed by none other than Dave Smith (RIP) from Sequential Circuits. It's a direct descendent of the Prophet VS. The presets are a bit knobby for sure, but I think it's going to be a rewarding one once I go deep and make my own patches.
I didn’t know it was designed by Dave Smith 😢 I did love owning it and I did have fun playing it over the years I had it, but it just wasn’t for me. I think with my first proper synth being my Triton Extreme I have been spoilt by the ease of use of touch screens!
TBH I like both the SY22 & the SY35
@@timothyverbist5795 you know what? So do I. They have a retro sound that even my MODX can’t replicate without a bit of editing trickery out of the box. But, for this video and also for my current projects, it just wasn’t going to get used so it was time to let it go to a new home!
@@JDStoneCreations Good to know. :)
0:00
Sounds like a laser canyon ready to shoot
I was given a non-working one of these about 25 years ago by a school in Ulverston (Cumbria, UK). I was unemployed an had no money at the time and to be given a broken one with missing keys was quite something. Even Yamaha UK helped me out by giving me some replacement keys... It was my keyboard at uni but after that I have no idea what happened to it... I remember there was one pretty good synth lead sound I liked.... also the piano was ok for the time... got me through uni... what can I say... :D
A keyboard for free is always great! That’s cool that Yamaha helped out with the parts too.
@@JDStoneCreations yeah I've had ARPs, Moogs, Yamaha Motif/Montage, Kronos, Oberheims and all kinds of things since then but I still think the SY35 had it's own charm...
It's just a shame you can't do much with the digital synth as far as FM is concerned. Only a "feedback" control. Even the old Portasounds give you more synthesis options with the same two operators. I've made some nice sounds with it all the same using the other options, like the envelope generator to mix sounds together. It was my first and only multitimbral synth. worked great with my Atari or amiga to get the creative juices flowing.
Which one is better sy22 or sy35 ? Which is the best vintage joystick vector synth ? Any other model ?
The SY22 is, I think, slightly lower bit rate/resolution (don’t quote me on that) than the SY35, so the 22 can sound more retro than the 35, a quick google will tell you the differences. As for other vector synths, I’ve only played THE vector synth, the Prophet VS... and the Yamaha crapped all over it. The chassis was wobbly, the buttons felt nasty, the sounds were lacklustre and the polyphony was halved. And it cost the owner 15 times what I paid for the SY35!
Just go for the TG33
The SY-22 is more LoFi with 12bit rate.
wait did you say that you can create and save your own sounds?
Yes... I think so 🤔 it’s been a while, and I can’t remember if you need the memory card for it to save the sounds or if it can be saved to internal memory... but you can definitely edit them!
yes there is also a pc sound editor available that lets you access more functions than you can via synth itself. im getting one SY35 later this week, cant wait :)
Tedious
Glad to have occupied your time 👍🏻