From ms20@u.washington.edu Sat Apr  9 23:11:56 1994
Date: Sat, 8 Jan 1994 12:38:06 -0800 (PST)
From: "P.A.S." <ms20@u.washington.edu>
To: Mike Perkowitz <map@cs.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: not-quite-analog questions


Have you ever played with the Yamaha RY30?  It's kind of a drum machine 
sequencer combo.  It's all digital, but it comes off sounding very 
analog, a little thin, but analog.  I'm trying to remember what all it 
does (sorry, it's only 12:30, I usually don't wake up until 6PM)....

It has 100 programmable sounds (something like 200+ waves to choose from, 
most are drums, but some are synth waves, plus a card expansion slot for 
more sounds).  The sound can consist of two waves, each can be detuned up 
or down several octaves.  Decay.  Pan.  Filtering, your choice of 12 or 
24 dB hi pass or lopass for each wave, plus resonance, plus an AD EG.  
Sensitivity settings for the pads (control pitch, amplitude, filter from 
pads).  Pitch EG.  

Each pattern can be 1 to 4 measures in length, in whatever quantization 
and time signature.  SOngs.  

It has 16 drum kits (banks), one of which is a pitch bank.  This is one I 
have a lot of fun with, because you can make sounds that sound like 
weirdo bleepoid synthesizers and sequence them.  It's a breeze to change 
sounds in this bank, like if you're laying down a bass rriff on top of a 
drum track, you can then choose some reso sounds and layer it on top.  
The kkicker is that you can sequence external modules too.  Each sound 
has its own MIDI channel.  

You can set it up to call up drum patterns from an external MIDI 
controller, say you have a 61 key keyboard, starting with the lowest key 
- pattern 1 up to 61 on the last key.  This is very close to dj-ing, imho.

It also has a nice little pitch wheel controller, for sweeping filter, 
pan, balance, pitch, and decay, which you can record into a pattern, of 
course.  

Step record, realtime record, parameter record.  The one thing that I 
don't like about this machine is that you can't flip between these modes 
without stopping.  You can edit voices while patterns are playing back or 
while recording.

Maybe this is the tool for you!  <G>

I've played with the 909, and I know what you mean about the built in 
sequencer track.  That was mighty cool.  This is the only thing that I've 
found as useful.  If you want to come over some time, you're welcome to 
check it out.

Romeo
--
ms20@u.washington.edu

