Yamaha QY10 Synthesizer and Sequencer Author(s): Mark Kahrs and Tom Killian Source: Computer Music Journal, Vol. 17, No. 1 (Spring, 1993), pp. 82-83 Published by: The MIT Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3680580 Accessed: 19/03/2009 15:50
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Products of Interest
User'sReports loaded keys select either rhythm val- nized" to the key signature of the ues or chords. measure-by-heuristics.The following Yamaha QY10 Synthesizer The QY10 was designed to be a por- is from the manual: "In some pat- and Sequencer table composition tool for the cre- terns, however, certain notes have ation of popularmusic. A "song" is been omitted in orderto create a par- Reviewed by Mark Kahrs composed of bars of sequencer tracks ticular 'feel"' However, no detail is and Tom Killian built on top of the "backing"tracks. given about what exactly has been MurrayHill, New Jersey USA The backing tracks are built out of done. rhythmic patterns and backing As you enter the rhythm pattern, The design of convenient and por- chords. The QY10 has eight the feedback is only the increase in table electronic musical instruments "tracks"-four sequencer tracks and measure and beat count (in 96ths) has been of interest since the creation four backing tracks. Two of the back- that appearsin the LCD. There are of the transistor. In late 1982, a design ing tracks (called C-I and C-II)are de- minor details: rhythm notes are team at Sony, led by Kozo Ohsone, voted to chords, and the remaining sticky-hitting ENTERagain will get began development of a portable com- two tracks are bass BS and rhythm the same duration,but this doesn't pact disk player with the unheard of RT (anotherword for drum set). work for sequencer tracks. But when dimensions of 130 mm by 130 mm by A typical "recordingsession" be- entering sequencer notes, at least 40 mm. Two years later, the D-50 gins by selecting a "song," then a when you touch a keyboardkey, Discman was released in Japanto the "track,"and finally a recordmode you'll hear it. The same cannot be astonishment of consumers world- (that depends on which track you said for backing chords. wide. Comparably,Yamaha has re- chose). So, an example of tune con- We first tried to enter a score (in cently released the QY10 synthesizer- struction would be selection of a this case, a piano accompaniment)us- sequencer. Like the Sony D-50, the backing track, with chords being en- ing the techniques describedin the QY10 is most notable because of its tered first, then a rhythmic pattern tutorial section of the manual. The concept and not its performance:a being selected next. The final step is procedureis tedious at best, but the portable "music workstation" in a entering of the sequencer tracks. The nature of the feedback given to the small physical size (in this case, the full sequence of requiredactions can user makes it almost impossible. The size of a videocassette box). Like the best be shown by looking at the quick input language is based on common D-50, the QY10 packs considerable reference card supplied by Yamaha music notation and is fairly straight- music "versatility" in a small pack- (Fig.2). forward.However, the display is age despite a user interface that rivals The QY10 has 20 chords available based on MIDI time code (24 clicks to the worst found in videocassette re- and 100 rhythmic patterns (of which a quarternote) and simply indicates corders. 25 can be defined by the user; the the presence or absence of events. This review will concentrate on the other 75 are in read-only-memory). Notes can be heard,but not seen, as underlying compositional model and Note that the primaryuser inter- they are entered from the keyboard. the user interface of the QY10. We face is a 16-characterLCD. Some Chords are entered one note at a will conclude with some suggestions keys are overloaded:the "mini-key- time, but the result cannot be heard; for future improvement of portable board"of one octave of black and even though playback is polyphonic, compositional tools. white keys also selects the RT instru- the keyboardis monophonic. If a mis- A photographof the instrument mentation. It is also record track se- take is made, one is led to back up to shows a rather confusing layout of lect. The rhythm select is overloaded the beginning of a measure and try various shaped keys. The four round with chords and numbers. Some keys again, but this results in an overdub! white buttons to the left and below directly affect the menu shown on Errors,one discovers, are correctedin the liquid-crystal display (LCD)are the LCD display; others transferout edit mode, which requiresgoing the moded function keys. Note the of the menu mode. through a different top-level menu one octave of piano-like black and The user enters backing chords by and dealing with a different display white keys on the lower right. The root note on the mini-keyboardand format. In sum, we found this method triangularup and down keys are oc- pressing the ENTERkey. The feedback of score entry completely unusable. tave keys. The keys on the lower left is a click (not a chord).Note that the The QY10 also functions as a are the record keys, much like a tape chord progressions(in C major,by simple MIDI recorder,so we ended up recorder's.In the upper right, over- chord root) are automatically "harmo- feeding it the real-time output of an-
82 Computer Music Journal _liz
I Fig. 1. Yamaha QY10 micro musical Fig. 2. QY10 sequence recordingpro- workstation. cedure.
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bas Fat | h fuu)l| iio na tch3.bnrehds ht ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~d:r?`sws-f -f BACKING -M(Xnb pa). RECORD 0o 0 0 U h The .,S .' I?I. -;Il?? Sele B recordtype. ndd Hotz MIDI Translator,an exten- ^ i i 11 S 11 S1 -~~~~~~~~~~~~~/??I1 baclngra ts. T a t al asi r Io and RT) inser sive software system, together with wit o Rrdf to r m :?!I:.??;/?;?'" r m CQYl l RT trackandpapof thebeacordthe measure kee sequener the Hotz Box, provides a comprehen- sive system of music composition RECORD o O O O Select CeR ecord tlye. with Atari computers. The Hotz Box is a new kind of musical controller other sequencer. This worked more or needed for pop music-after all, the that replaces the conventional key- less as expected, but because of small Beatles got away with not writing board.The software can be used, al- differences in clock rates the down- downbers; notes).useof a Thereal displayaddition would of a real mean beit with some difficulty, independ- beat would drift back and forth across displaymark alsothe ~~~~~~~~~Uto makesbeginning editing and muchending ofracks ently of the Hotz Box, using instead bar lines, so the QYlO's measure easier. It's impossible to use the any conventional device such as a numbers were unreliable. The proper QY10 without a opad of paperto keep musical keyboardto introduce musi- way to load data from another ma- track of the measure and beat num- cal input. This review was under- chine, of course, is to send the QY10 bers; use of a real display would mean taken with the software only, a system-exclusive message. A quick it would be possible to use cursors without the Hotz Box, using a musi- glance at the documentation makes it to mark the beginning and ending of cal keyboardfor input, and accord- clear that this is possible, but, incred- selected passages and apply various ingly may be somewhat handicapped ibly, the format is not specified. A editing operations to it. The same dis- in judgingthe ease of operation of the fully described output format (NSEQ)is play could easily be used for piano- system as a whole. given, but this is not accepted as in- roll notation. The first thing to say about the put; the documentation describes Complicated rhythmic patterns translatorprogram is that it is long only the header bytes of the input for- (say, beating 2 against 3) are just not and complex and will take a long mat (QYSEQ).One wonders whether within the realm of possibility. The time to master. In this it is by no this is a deliberate insult or merely an knowledge of harmony is so limited means unique; most professional se- oversight that will be correctedin the that it doesn't know aboutanything quencer programsare complex. The next printing. other than chords. Perhapsa better manual, which is massive, detailed, As to the final acoustic result, we method of entering notes would be to and thorough, promises useful under- found that very few QY10 voices are establish a key or mode, then entered standing within a few days of opera- useful for accompaniment. In general, notes would be with respect to that tion; and that is indeed true, in the they seem designed to impress or se- key or mode. same sense that a few days of inten- duce the listener and do not wear What about the sounds themselves? sive work will permit an average well over prolongedperiods. The pi- A full range of orchestral instruments adult to play a recogni7abletune on ano and organ are acceptable, but together withsome knowledge about the piano. It also warns that complete simple, decent strings and woodwinds transposition would have been appre- mastery takes a long (unspecified) are sorely lacking. A programmable ciated. Also, as stated above, if a true time; this also is patently true. voice capability would probablysolve synthesizer is included, then the user I have not invested the time and ef- this problem nicely. must be able to programit. A thin re- fort necessary to master this program; Here we make some suggestions for movable disk would have been nice thereforeI am not in a position to possible improvements in a portable too. comment on the yield of such an in- synthesizer/sequencer. Although Extraspecial thanks are due to vestment. I can, however, offer a judg- much more expensive, a real two-staff Tech Kunii, of Yamaha Communica- ment on what the usefulness of display with real bar lines and key tions, New York, who providedus mastering this system will be to a signatures would have been delight- with the QY10 and thereby made us composer. ful. The QY10 pretends that music think about the problems of user in- The Hotz software system is orga- notation doesn't exist (perhapsit isn't terfaces in small boxes. nized in terms of conventional har-
Products of Interest 83