Yamaha W7

This was, oddly enough, the little brother to Yamaha's W5 workstation, which had the exact same features, apart from being 61 keys instead of 76, and not having the semi-weighted feel or aftertouch. It's a full size sequencer. I've been in bands, playing live, and composing for quite some time now.

Got it on a trade for an old Marshall guitar amp that wasn't getting any use in my house. They usually run in the ballpark of $700 or so.

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Great string and pad sounds. The AWM2 system has 8MB of wave memory, which leads to some pretty decent sounds. The main thing I use it for is for strings and pads. The pianos and wurly sounds are decent and passable, but they've long been surpassed since then. The sequencer side of it is really easy to use, and the voice editing templates and presets make dialing in sounds pretty breezy. The fact that it's a combination synth/sequencer/performance board alone makes it worth while.

The real drawback for this board right now is the sounds. There's no way to import them due to it's older interface, but it's still an excellent and easy board to use that doesn't require the user to have a perfect grasp of subtractive synthesis to operate it.

It's heavy duty, that's for sure. And it sure is heavy for a board of this size. But I'm fine carting it around. It's not delicate.

It's been since replaced by Yamaha's EX-5 and EX-7, which are overall much better boards, but people still like the sound of the W series that Yamaha made, whether out of nostalgia, the fact that it's interface is still much easier to use than the EX series, or just because it has a certain tonal quality that the newer boards don't. Whatever it is, it's still somewhat sought after by a niche market. I'm keeping mine just for the string patches, if that tells you anything.

<img src="http://www.vintagesynth.com/yamaha/w7.jpg" />

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

Synth type "workstation" 61 ratings
Modulation, PB
MIDI connectors complte, a single pair of audio outputs
Many factory sounds (around 400, of memory), reverb, chorus and delay affects all 16 instruments (channel = = squenceur tracks) + 3 playable simultanment assignable effects track particles in
Squenceur 100 000 Notes
Remember the polyphony, a note must be 32 (limit on large squence!)

UTILIZATION

Config gnrale quite simple, especially for the part squenceur: the 16 tracks appear in the form of the notch mixer, each of them is IMMEDIATE accessible places in the keys 'screen.
I used to edit little or CRER sounds (a few touch-ups), but to compose and models, it is a pleasure, it is intuitive trs.

SOUNDS

Sometimes sounds a little cold but quality. The pianos are a little slammin (frquent the era), good bass, nice tablecloths and strings.
Synth aftertouch sensitive, which is always a plus. on the other hand, keyboard a bit lightweight VLOC to dose correctly.

OVERALL OPINION

It was my first synth t bought 12 years ago. I do not use more than occasionally, the house models.
Dear the era of its release (in 12 000 F), even when I served a while as a group and a t good for me to enter into a trs Contents in the world of keyboards numriques.
Its main strength: squenceur a powerful and practical and easy to use MIDI.