As promised, here’s the hard-to-find manual for Yamaha’s last Vector synth.
Yamaha sent it to me as 4 separate PDFs (Service Manual, MIDI Implementation, Parts List, Expanded big PCB pages), plus a monster-sized TIFF of the schematic. They didn’t want anything for it, and they didn’t ask any questions. I assembled the files into a single PDF, then used the the web-based Compress PDF to reduce the file size (to 6.5 MB, down from about 12 MB).
Yeah, I grabbed one of Yamaha’s forgotten vectors a while back for a good price. The SY35 is a pretty sweet-sounding instrument that’s fun to program. I look forward to digging deep into its digital soul.
The unit I got had a couple of dead keys. I also noticed a couple of keys that were hyper-sensitive to velocity, i.e. they would always sound as though you struck them twice as hard as you actually did. So I took the keyboard apart and tried to clean the key contacts under the offending keys, which turned out to be a colossal waste of a lot of time. After a bit of research, I found that this keyboard mechanism is used on a lot of Yamaha keyboards including Continue reading
I think it was around 1994 when I was approached to contribute something for a compilation CD of Devo covers. At that time, “Mecha-Mania Boy” was only available (as far as I know) as the B-side of “Jerkin Back And Forth”, and it would still be a couple of years before it would be released on a CD. Only hardcore DEVO-TEES (and their close spud friends) had ever heard it – which is a shame, because it was one of their best.
Just scored this little retro curiosity for REAL CHEAP. I’m really excited for what I might end up doing with some of these old Combo Organs. Click on these images to enlarge.
It has a few issues and it will definitely need some TLC, but I’m very thankful for this awesome article on the “synthrepair” blog. Check it out for some great repair tips, and some decent shots of the organ’s innards.
Issues: the lowest E flat key is missing (I’ll probably never find a white one, so I think I might carve one out of hardwood or something). You can’t shut off the internal rhythm unit. There is a stuck note. Some keys are out of tune.
I also plan to take the hinges off of the keyboard lid so that it can actually be removed. Then the keyboard enclosure will become a good place for small keyboards and other gadgets. The Poly-800II seems to fit the space rather perfectly, but I could imagine some combo of a drum machine, the MS-20, the Microbrute, perhaps an fx pedal or two – this is actually the first self-standing keyboard I’ve ever owned and the possibilities excite me more than they would probably excite a normal person.
These songs were written by Steven Cowan, Glenn Gibson and Charles Watson. They were recorded between 1988-1990.
The old cassette copies sat in storage for over 20 years. Despite a little deterioration and print-through, the sound quality is surprisingly decent. Now, in 2014, I am attempting to make digital copies of all my old works. After digitizing, I applied a little corrective EQ and dynamic processing.