Yamaha QY700 Sequencer

July 12, 1996 -- Getting professionally-scored musical compositions down fast before the inspiration evaporates is a constant challenge. Thankfully, ideas can be captured more and more effortlessly as Yamaha continues to expand its popular line of QY series compositional tools, with the introduction of the Yamaha QY700 music sequencer.

Dubbed the "world's smallest project studio in a box," the QY700 is a professional music sequencer that offers high quality music production capability and sound. It packs more than twice the data capacity (110,000 notes), twice the number of tracks (48: 32 Linear, 16 Pattern) and twice the sequencer polyphony (64 notes) of its groundbreaking little brother, the QY300. And for the first time, the QY700 incorporates the Yamaha XG format, which simply means that the voices take an extremely high sonic leap over General MIDI sounds, but still remain fully compatible to GM.

One of the things that makes the QY700 such a powerful tool is its huge database of nearly 4,000 drum, percussion, bass, guitar and keyboard phrases that can be used to create your own accompaniment easily and quickly - in a large number of styles ranging from classical to Techno Dance. Using the QY700's two-octave mini keyboard, you can easily assemble phrases - choose from the extensive library of intros, variations, fills and ending phrases - with engaging chord progressions to create the perfect passage for any composition. Right out of the gate, you have wonderful, fully-developed accompaniment.

But wait. There's much, much more. You can then go deep into any passage, right down to the phrase level, manipulate and adjust its attitude, and create an accompaniment that has your own personalized feel and signature. With the 32-tracks of linear sequencing available, you can build solo lines and other instrument tracks to make the music totally yours. Finally, you can significantly enhance the overall sonic environment by applying built-in effects such as Reverb and Chorus, as well as Variations, including "rotary speakers," and amp and speaker simulations.

"Nothing else on the market today allows you to go into a piece of music at the musical phrase level to manipulate it the way the QY700 does," said Avery Burdette, product manager at Yamaha. "It's like being able to write a best-selling novel immediately, without having to worry upfront about inventing the words and language. But then you can go back and learn the words, study sentence structure, change the words, sentences and meaning, so that not only is the finished novel great, but it also has all of your own creative ideas. But most important, it's something you will be proud to put your signature on."

"I am a total evangelist of Yamaha QY technology," said Frank Serafine, noted composer and sound designer. "There are some very powerful things in these boxes that many people don't realize yet. What I like most about it is that it's interactive. I can go in and program my own grooves and then interact with them. And it teaches me how to create interactive performances. This is the [music] technology for the future."

The QY700 features a huge 320x240 dot LCD display with backlight, eliminating the need for a costly computer and display. In addition, assignable pitch and modulation wheels, and programmable foot switches for start, stop, fill, etc., make the QY700 easy and enjoyable to use.

The suggested retail price of the Yamaha QY700 is $1,495. For more information, write Yamaha Corporation of America, Audio, Guitar and Synthesizer Division, Digital Musical Instruments Department, P.O. Box 6600, Buena Park, CA 90622; telephone (714) 522-9011; fax (714) 739-2680. Visit their web site at www.yamaha.com.