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Kevin Nolan · Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 2:33 am Post subject:

Dan, I'm a bit surprised by your response. I mean, examine what they have produced since the EX5 in 1998 - beyond Motif. Literally nothing.

But I made my point haven spoken to people in Yamaha over the past 5 years or more on and off on this, and although my facts are admittedly a year or two out of date, I’ve had it repeatedly confirmed that Yamaha indeed had let swathes of designers go or retire, and simply do not have that experience in - house anymore. Yamaha Ireland (sadly closed down three years ago and which was in close connection with Yamaha Kemble UK and who I knew very well) confirmed to me repeatedly of the dismantlement of Yamaha synthesizer design all though the noughties. I'm a huge Yamaha user (as you know I own three mint conditiconCS80s, but also own and use the CS70M, CS40M, CS30, DX1, SY77, SY99, VL1, EX5, AN1x, 01V96 and many other Yamaha equipment (indeed I'm a Korg 'blow in' by comparison)); so I've had a lot of intimate contact with personnel in Yamaha Ireland and UK for twenty years; and this is what has been fed to me.

But even disregarding that - surely it is clear that the design experience of the CS80, CP80, DX1, SY77 and even the VL1 are long since gone - sure these are technologies and techniques of decades past - none of this expertise has been called upon since the EX5. Surely you don't think it's still readily available? All of this has bee redeployed.

As mentioned, my information is a year or two out of date - so I accept that there may be new movements in Yamaha to develop new synthesizers and proper workstations beyond Motif; but as of a few years ago I had it on authority that there was literally nothing in development other than Motif. And you can see it - their release of the recent KX series controllers was an utter embarrassment, even to a few employees in Yamaha I knew when released.

In any case, anything new and exciting from Yamaha will have to come from a brand new start, and I would not hold my breath on that (but hope I'm wrong of course because I have been traditionally a huge Yamaha user). But in this instance I'm not merely surmising - I'm going on what I've been told continually through the noughties.

If you know different as of now or recent times please tell - I'd be delighted to hear things have changed on this front. But even if new developments arise, the golden era of Yamaha is gone forever - that list of classics are part of a past era of innovation that is not sustainable these days.

Kevin.

danatkorg · Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 6:48 am Post subject:

dimitris · Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 1:53 pm Post subject:

Dan is right!
I am a Korg guy but, I know that Yamaha is a very big and respectable company!
I am sure that Yamaha must have "secret plans for the future"!!

Regards,
Dimitris
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McHale · Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 3:05 pm Post subject:

rumor has it that they are going to merge their product lines in a similar way that Korg has done with the Kronos.

Mark me down for a V-Max with 128 note polyphony!
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Current Korg Gear: KRONOS 88 (4GB), M50-73 (PS mod), RADIAS-73, Electribe MX, Triton Pro (MOSS, SCSI, CF, 64MB RAM), SQ-64, DVP-1, MEX-8000, MR-1, KAOSSilator, nanoKey, nanoKontrol, 3x nanoPad 2, 3x DS1H, 7x PS1, FC7 (yes Korg, NOT Yamaha).

jimknopf · Platinum Member Joined: 17 Jan 2011 Posts: 3374

It simply doesn't matter, until Yamaha or whoever comes up with something concrete.

Else EVERYBODY of the big three plus Kurzweil plus Clavia can develop something interesting. Or as a famous soccer trainer said: After the game is before the game. Always. Laughing

There is NOTHING special about that: it will go on like that. It just isn't worth discussing things without even being on the horizon. Rumors are totally irrelevant.

EXer · Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 4:29 pm Post subject:

Kevin Nolan · Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 5:13 pm Post subject:

Hi Dan -

I'm confident that Yamaha sources I've spoken to are reliable. But I did qualify that my sources are a year or so out of date.

That said, I'm basing my point from a fairly constant feed of information over ten or more years. Even Yamaha cannot reinvent the wheel over night - if they are to engage synthesizers again in earnest it will be a whole new beginning. So as said I am confident that, irrespective of the no doubt huge research going on in Yamaha across a plethora of acoustic and electronic fields, that the feedback I've recieved about their legacy of synthesizer know how listed in previous posts is now well and truly gone. I think everything Yamaha have done in the past ten years (as in absolutely nothing) more than confirm this anyway. There can be little doubt that the culture in Yamaha that led to the GX1, CP80, GS1, DX1 and VL1 is gone, and as said, I'v had this (broadly) confirmed to me on many, many occasions over the years.

I've also looked bierfly over the patents you mention and they all look to me to be based on digital piano technology - and some are quite theoretical - on this quick look I see little evidence of the development of serious and innovative new syjthesizers or workstations to be available any time soon (admittedly if they are developing a new string model it might make its way into a workstation but it looks more likely to be a piano modelling algorithm).

From this thread and others I realise you think I'm a bit dogmatic and superficial in my appraisals and thoughts because I'm not working in the instrument development industry - but I'll stick to my position on this occasion - I feel I have a fairly true understanding of Yamaha w.r.t to any pending development in serious synthesizer technology. But as I always say in these posts - I'll be only too delighted to be proven wrong - I would absolutely love it if Yamaha were to re-engage synthesizers once again. As it stands, they are firmly out of that space for now and I for one see no evidence that they are interested in re-engaging this market.

Kevin.

McHale · Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 5:17 pm Post subject:

danatkorg · Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 5:45 pm Post subject:

The patents show that at least some of the engineers who worked on the VL-1 and related products are still around and filing audio-related patents for Yamaha. So, they're not all gone.

I have no idea what will come in the future, but the gamut of products from the Motif (with its experimental iPad control apps) to the Tenori-On to the Tyros to the CP-1 makes it look to me like they're still moving ahead on multiple fronts.

Best regards,

Dan
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peter_schwartz · Full Member Joined: 14 Jan 2011 Posts: 206

Sina172 · Platinum Member Joined: 29 May 2007 Posts: 1194

rrricky rrrecordo · Senior Member Joined: 26 Jan 2011 Posts: 448

Our local Yammie rep informed us that Stephen has purchased controlling interest in Yamaha. Seems they were hurtin' and offered a huge number of company shares to him for pennies on the dollar, so Stephen snapped them up.

Further, it's been rumoured that Boy George has begun reworking his timeless classic for the rejuvenated company's new ad campaign: "KarmaYama KarmaYama Karma Kameleon".

Our rep know his stuff so it's gotta be true!

peter_schwartz · Full Member Joined: 14 Jan 2011 Posts: 206

rrricky rrrecordo · Senior Member Joined: 26 Jan 2011 Posts: 448