The Yamaha V50 is a hybrid

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. Origin ...

introduced in 1989. It combines a

sequencer Sequencer may refer to: Technology * Drum sequencer (controller), an electromechanical system for controlling a sequence of events automatically * DNA sequencer, a machine used to automatically produce a sequence readout from a biological DNA sam ...

, rhythm machine, an

FM synthesis Frequency modulation synthesis (or FM synthesis) is a form of sound synthesis whereby the frequency of a waveform is changed by modulating its frequency with a modulator. The frequency of an oscillator is altered "in accordance with the amplitude ...

-based sound module and a

MIDI keyboard A MIDI keyboard or controller keyboard is typically a piano-style electronic musical keyboard, often with other buttons, wheels and sliders, used for sending MIDI signals or commands over a USB or MIDI 5-pin cable to other musical devi ...

Features

The sequencer

The internal sequencer has 8 tracks, with an approximate capability of 16000 notes shared between maximum of 8 songs at a time.

Rhythm machine

The rhythm machine has 61

PCM Pulse-code modulation (PCM) is a method used to digitally represent sampled analog signals. It is the standard form of digital audio in computers, compact discs, digital telephony and other digital audio applications. In a PCM stream, the amp ...

samples, with

polyphony Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice, monophony, or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords, h ...

of 8 samples. The rhythm machine contains 100 preset short rhythm patterns and allows the user to create 100 additional patterns, known as "internal patterns". The patterns can be assembled into larger rhythm songs. The beauty of the rhythm machine is that you can adjust it "on the fly" (e.g. stop/start, tempo, volume, pattern select,...) whilst continuing to play a synthe sound patch or performance. You can also let the Rhythm play while you change/edit the synthe's Voice/Performance patch - excellent features for uninterrupted experimentation and live performance.

The sound module

The FM synthesis provided by the sound module is based on 4 analog DCO oscillators that could be chained by selecting one of the 8 available routings. Each oscillator can generate one of the 8 available waveforms. Additionally, in each of the algorithms, oscillator 4 can be set to modulate itself with a configurable amount of

feedback Feedback occurs when outputs of a system are routed back as inputs as part of a chain of cause-and-effect that forms a circuit or loop. The system can then be said to ''feed back'' into itself. The notion of cause-and-effect has to be handled ...

. The sound unit is basically a slightly upgraded variant of the

Yamaha TX81Z The Yamaha TX81Z is a rack version of Yamaha DX11 and rack-mounted ( keyboard-less) frequency modulation music synthesizer, which was released in 1987. Unlike previous FM synthesizers of the era, the TX81Z was the first to offer a range of osci ...

module, with increased polyphony and other minor tweaks. The synthesis unit has a 16-note polyphony and 8-instrument

multitimbral Monotimbral (from the root prefix ''mono'' meaning one, and ''timbre'' meaning a specific tone of a sound independent of its pitch) is usually used in reference to electronic synthesizers which can produce a single timbre at a given pitch when pre ...

capability. The unit contains 100 preset instruments stored on

ROM Rom, or ROM may refer to: Biomechanics and medicine * Risk of mortality, a medical classification to estimate the likelihood of death for a patient * Rupture of membranes, a term used during pregnancy to describe a rupture of the amniotic sac * R ...

and an additional 100 user-configurable sounds. Multiple sounds can be layered into so-called performances to provide more interesting sounds than one instrument could provide alone. One common way to use this feature is to include several instances of the same instrument in the same performance while detuning each of them slightly to create a "thicker" or more lively sound. e.g. you can layer or split (i.e. zone) the keyboard with up to 8 different (or same) "Single" voice patches to create a "Performance" patch which can result in very lush, complex and unique tones from just this one instrument. There are 11 "tunings" available including the standard "Equal Temperament" - useful if you wish to experiment, or to produce a performance of classical music in the tuning of its day. e.g. Pythagorean, Werckmeister, 1/4 tone, etc. Microtuning is also available allowing you to specify the pitch of each note to create unique tunings.

The keyboard

The V50 keyboard consists of 61 keys, covering 5 octaves. It supports both velocity sensitivity and channel

aftertouch Keyboard expression is the ability of a keyboard instrument, keyboard musical instrument to change tone or other qualities of the sound in response to velocity, pressure or other variations in how the performer depresses the keys of the musical k ...

. The MIDI transmit channel of the keyboard is configurable. Wheels for pitch bend and modulation control are provided on the left side of the keys.

Other features

The V50 has both a

double density Disk density is a capacity designation on magnetic storage, usually floppy disks. Each designation describes a set of characteristics that can affect the areal density of a disk or the efficiency of the encoded data. Such characteristics include ...

3.5"

floppy drive A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, or a diskette) is an obsolescent type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined w ...

and a memory card slot (MCD64 or MCD32) for storing and retrieving user- or third-party-created content. The unit also has a built-in effects unit with 31 different effects such as various types of reverb and delay. Most of the effects have configurable parameters. The unit is capable of only one effect at a time, shared both by the rhythm machine and the FM synthesis unit. The ratio of the processed and unprocessed sound in the output can be configured. The processing can also be toggled off for individual channels.

References

External links

A patch editor with support for the V50 sounds

An editor for Atari ST or Steem emulator
{{Yamaha V50 Music workstations Polyphonic synthesizers Digital synthesizers