I got my QY100's today and I'm going to give you a quick report while I'm here in my store.
First, I expected this to be just like the QY70 for patterns and features but I'm wrong. There are much better patterns and phrases and they are much more organized. First, the patterns (128) are arranged like this:
Rock (001 - 020) all types
Hard Rock (021 -028) includes 60's, 70's, etc.
Metal (029 -033)
Hip-Hop (034 -039)
Dance (040 -055)
Pop (056 -065)
Rhythm & Blues (066 -072)
Rock and Roll (073-078)
Funk(079-083)
Jazz(084-090)
Ballad(091-097)
Country & Western(098-103)
Latin (104-112)
Reggae(113 -117)
World (118 -128)
Many of the original styles I liked before are still here, but the ones I personally disliked have been replaced with really good styles. Many of the old styles I thought were unusuable but not the new ones.
For those of you familiar with the older QY products there has never been a way to start and stop the QY's without having to use your finger on the start stop key. Also, there was no way to change the section of the pattern without having to push the section keys on the QY. Now, I am really happy to let you know that Yamaha has added a footswitch jack which allows you to plug in an FC-4 or FC-5 pedal and start and stop the QY100 or use it to change the parts of the pattern (intro, main A, main B, fills, endings, etc.) If you push the footswitch in song mode and you have assigned it to start stop, the song will pause when you stop and continue playing when you push it again. In pattern mode it always starts at the top of the pattern when you re-start. If you use the foot pedal in the section mode for Songs, everytime you push the footswitch, the song will jump to the next programmed section change after the current measure finishes, and if it is at the spot where a blank section is playing, playback will jump to the section immediately following the intro section. With this mode it will now be able to replay songs without having to stop the song if you are using it live and you need to continue playing without stopping. I hope I explained this new feature well enough.You can also use the footswitch to turn of and off the new amp simulator button which will either turn off the amp simulator or if you are using the amp simulator switch to turn off Reverb, Echo or chorus, the footswitch will turn these effects on and off.
Moving to the effects for Mic/Guitar, these are really great. You now have a mic/guitar 1/4" input on the back with a gain control. You can store guitar multi's and microphone multi's ready to use in a live situation .There are 18 amp simulator setups designed specifically for guitar and 5 mic setups designed specificallly for vocalists. All parameters can be "tweaked".There are three main blocks for the vocal effects. Delay, Reverb and Chorus. The tree blocks for Guitar are Pramp, Chorus and Reverb.Preamp contains, Volume parameters, Drive parameters, EQ parameters.
The final new feature is the ability to use smart media cards from 2 MB to 32 MB to conveniently save and load data as required. The data that may be saved is All, Song, Style, SMF and SMF + XG(which adds the required XG data to the header of a single selected song and saves the son in SMF format.You can create and name separate directories in which you organize your files.
The internal 16 track sequencer has a 32,000 memory 480 clock per quarter note resolution, 8 pattern tracks, 20 song memory. There are 3 really good demo songs inside.There are 64 locations for custom patterns which include 6 sections in each and there are 4,285 preset phrases and 48 user phrase locations. The tone generation is AWM2 32 note polyphony and is 24 part multi-timbral. There are 547 normal voices and 22 drum sets.
This box is great. I have always loved the QY70 and what it does, but now, with the mic/Guitar, Smart Media Card storage, and the footswitch added, along with new phrases and patterns which sound really good, and a list price of $629.00 which is only $29.00 more than the old QY70 I am really thrilled to be able to offer these to my customers.
Any specific questions? Please ask!
George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California

Hello G.,

Please could you help me with your opinion since you tried the QY100.
I had for a long time korg i2 and I really liked its styles/arr, especialy the fact that
I was able to edit and modify its preset styles.
I am buying Yamaha s80 and already have CS1x
so it will be little bit too much to buy another keyboard which could replace i2 (i30)
so I would like to buy a module which will have similar capabilities as i30.
The i40m doesn't have stile edit so it is "out of scope".
Please,could you compare the quality of QY100/QY700 and i30 ?

Thanks a million !

orient

Orient,
what you won't like about the QY products is the fact that you don't have things like sync. start and you don't have dedicated buttons to push like fill ins and endings. The QY's are mostly to record one man band songs and although there is a fingered chord mode, these boxes are not designed to be an arranger keyboard first as the i series and other modules are. First, the QY100 and QY700 are sequencers and the rest of the features are add ons.
I would like to suggest a few other arranger modules for you if you like the i30 Korg. You are right when you say the i40m can't record styles. Only if you load them in from floppy disks made on the i30 can you put user styles in the i40m. If you have an i30 and would like to load styles made in here into the i40m then you might decide to get the i40m although these i series products have been discontinued here in the USA. I don't know if they are still available around the world. I still have one i40m left in my store. It is the only Korg i series left.
The other two products I would recommend are the generalmusic WK2 arranger module or the Solton X4 module. Both are user programmable for the styles, and the WK2 arranger has a hard drive, a floppy drive and a vocal harmonizer and guitar effects processor built in. The selling price of this module is $1095.00. The only negative of this module would be that you can only record songs with two melody tracks and the accomp. style track. You can play back 16 track SMF files but you can't record a 16 track song. However, in it's price range this is a great module. The Solton X4 on the other hand sells for around $2000.00 but offers much more features. 16 track recording and it will hold up to 200 user styles. The WK2 arranger can hold 8 user styles. The X4 can be purchased with a hard drive and a vocal harmonizer but at an extra charge. I would suggest both of these other modules to you if you want quality styles and user recording of styles. You can get EMC styleworks software for either of these two keyboards if you want to convert Korg styles to Solton or Generalmusic. Fran Carango sells this software.
George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, Ca.

George,

How would you describe the style quality of the i40M compared to the X4. How about using external sound sources to replace (or add to) the i40M internal ones. I can get a i40M here in Europe but hesitate with a X4 twice as expensive;

George,

Thanks a lot !
You really helped me with your comments.

orient

P.S
How I can contact your music store ?
Do you have a web site ?

Orient,
I don't have a website but I do sponsor a local Los Angeles Music Website. If you go to www.lasyndicate.com and click on sponsors you will see Kaye's Music Scene listed, click on this and there are pictures of me in my music store.
I think the sounds in the i40m are good, and the styles are good too, just not as good as the X4, but you are correct that the x4 is much more expensive and should be that much better than the i40m. My problem with the i40m has always been that the intro's and endings are fabulous, but the 4 variations aren't up to how good the intros and endings seem to be. Everything else in this module is very good. It has a good vocal harmonizer and a very good sequencer with both real time and step time recording.
I can be reached Monday through Saturday at my store which is located in Reseda, California (in Los Angeles) at 818-881-5566 or by email at kayeland@aol.com.
George Kaye

George, I'm wondering if you have a way to contact Fran. i'm interested in thhe EMC styleworks software and was about to order from Germany.
also a qy100 question: did Yamaha make it any easier to mute accompaniment tracks in pattern mode? as I recall it was a pain on the qy70.

Tom,
Fran is local for you: 215-949-2528
or: francarango@nni.com

1)Can the QY-100 edit and add Bank Select messages to song files?
2)Can it also edit and add any Midi message
in the current Midi protocol?
3)Will it convert type 0 to type 1 SMFs?

Thanks.

Hey George,
If you have the time, could you please
help me find the answers to my last
post on 3-12-01.
I'm trying to find out if the QY-100 is
feasible to use to save, edit, and play
Midi files.
Thanks much.