The Yamaha YS200 is 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 ...

er and workstation 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 ...

, introduced in 1988. It combines a sequencer, rhythm machine, an FM synthesis soundchip and a

MIDI MIDI (; Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a technical standard that describes a communications protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, computers, and re ...

keyboard. It was called the EOS YS200 in Japan and was also released as a more home-oriented keyboard in the form of the Yamaha EOS B200, which also featured built-in stereo speakers. The YS200 is the keyboard equivalent of the Yamaha TQ5 module. The forerunner of the YS200 was the almost-identical Yamaha YS100.

The sound module

The

frequency modulation Frequency modulation (FM) is the encoding of information in a carrier wave by varying the instantaneous frequency of the wave. The technology is used in telecommunications, radio broadcasting, signal processing, and Run-length limited#FM: .280. ...

synthesis provided by the YS/TQ sound engine is very similar to many other 4-op synths released by Yamaha during the 1980s. The YS/TQ is nearly fully compatible - aside from lacking

portamento In music, portamento (plural: ''portamenti'', from old it, portamento, meaning "carriage" or "carrying") is a pitch sliding from one note to another. The term originated from the Italian expression "''portamento della voce''" ("carriage of the v ...

- with voices and

sysex MIDI (; Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a technical standard that describes a communications protocol, Digital electronics, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments ...

for the earlier DX11,

DX21 The Yamaha DX21 is a digital controlled bi-timbral programmable digital FM synthesizer with a four operator synth voice generator which was released in 1985. It uses sine wave-based frequency modulation (FM) synthesis. It has two FM tone generato ...

, DX27, DX100, and TX81Z. The synthesis unit has an 8-note polyphony and 8-instrument multitimbral capability. The synthesis itself is based on 4 operators (each being an

oscillator Oscillation is the repetitive or periodic variation, typically in time, of some measure about a central value (often a point of equilibrium) or between two or more different states. Familiar examples of oscillation include a swinging pendulum ...

plus an

envelope generator In sound and music, an envelope describes how a sound changes over time. It may relate to elements such as amplitude (volume), frequencies (with the use of filters) or pitch. For example, a piano key, when struck and held, creates a near-immedi ...

), which could be chained in various combinations by selecting one of the 8 available algorithms. Each operator can generate one of 8 selectable waveforms. Additionally, in each of the algorithms, operator 4 can be set to modulate itself with a configurable amount of feedback. The sound-producing unit is the same 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 oscilla ...

module, namely the

Yamaha YM2414 The YM2414, a.k.a. OPZ, is an eight-channel sound chip developed by Yamaha Corporation, Yamaha. It was used in many mid-market Frequency modulation synthesis, phase/frequency modulation-based synthesizers, including Yamaha's Yamaha TX81Z, TX81Z ( ...

soundchip. The YS/TQ units contain 100 preset voices stored on ROM and an additional 100 user-configurable sounds in RAM. Voices can be assigned to up to 8 Instruments, which in turn can be layered into configurations called Performances, thus providing more interesting sounds than one voice could alone. One common way to use this feature is to include several instances of the same voice in the same performance while detuning each of them slightly to create a "thicker" or more lively sound. The engine also provides a number of effects, including reverb, delay, and distortion.

The keyboard

The YS200's keyboard consists of 61 keys, covering 5 octaves. It supports both velocity sensitivity and monophonic aftertouch. 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.

The sequencer

The internal sequencer has 8 tracks, with an approximate capability of 16000 notes shared between maximum of 8 songs at a time. Songs are stored in RAM and can also be saved to or loaded from an optional MCD memory card inserted into the built-in slot.

Yamaha YS100

The Yamaha YS100 was the previous YS

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

released by

, the only differences with the YS200 are that the YS100 lacks the built-in sequencer and aftertouch.

References

External links