The Yamaha EX5 is a
synthesizer/
workstation
A workstation is a special computer designed for technical or scientific applications. Intended primarily to be used by a single user, they are commonly connected to a local area network and run multi-user operating systems. The term ''workstat ...
produced by
Yamaha Yamaha may refer to:
* Yamaha Corporation, a Japanese company with a wide range of products and services, established in 1887. The company is the largest shareholder of Yamaha Motor Company (below).
** Yamaha Music Foundation, an organization estab ...
from 1998 to 2000. The EX5 combines several methods of sound generation (see below). The later released EX7 was a cheaper version of the EX5 with fewer keys, polyphony, sounds and functions. The Yamaha EX music synthesizers, along with the early
Yamaha S series, were the predecessors of the
Motif workstation series.
Features
The Yamaha EX5 (EX stands for Extended Synthesis) uses four different
tone generators for generating sounds. These are AWM2 (Advanced Wave Memory), AN (Analog Physical Modeling), FDSP (Formulated Digital Sound Processing) and VL (Virtual Acoustic) synthesis. The fifth sound source is
Sample-based synthesis
Sample-based synthesis is a form of audio synthesis that can be contrasted to either subtractive synthesis or additive synthesis. The principal difference with sample-based synthesis is that the seed waveforms are sampled sounds or instruments ...
. Sounds can be assembled up to a maximum of 4 tones, each from a different tone generator.
The EX5 has extensive sampling capabilities. Samples can be used in AWM sounds, or assigned to individual keys on the keyboard and saved to
floppy disk or an external storage device. The sample memory is 1MB, and this can be expanded to 65MB with volatile
SIMM
A SIMM (single in-line memory module) is a type of memory module containing random-access memory used in computers from the early 1980s to the early 2000s. It differs from a dual in-line memory module (DIMM), the most predominant form of memory ...
memory. Non-volatile Flash Memory can be installed to allow samples to be retained between power cycles. Flash memory capacity can be either 8MB or 16MB.
EX5 has a built-in 16-track
sequencer, and a 4-track arpeggiator with 50 preset patterns.
There was a limited edition released at the end of production, Yamaha EX5S (also known as the "Millennium Edition"). This model came in a silver casing and is only distributed for the
Asia
Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...
n market. There were only 500 copies produced.
EX5R
The EX5 also came as a
sound module
A sound module is an electronic musical instrument without a human-playable interface such as a piano-style musical keyboard. Sound modules have to be operated using an externally connected device, which is often a MIDI controller, of which th ...
on the market. This model was the EX5R and had all the functions of the EX5, except a keyboard.
See also
*
Synthesizer
*
Music workstation
A music workstation is an electronic musical instrument providing the facilities of:
*a sound module,
*a music sequencer and
*(usually) a musical keyboard.
It enables a musician to compose electronic music using just one piece of equipment.
Origi ...
References
Vintage Synth Explorer May 1998
Website Yamaha USA
External links
*
{{Yamaha
EX5
Digital synthesizers
Virtual analog synthesizers
Samplers (musical instrument)
Music workstations