Sunday Synth Jam: This video, shared by Juan Irming, aka Amplitude Problem, captures a synth jam on the Yamaha Reface DX FM synthesizer.
Along with capturing the synth jam, Irming shares his impressions of the Reface DX as text comments within the video.
Nice demo! Had my first play on the Refaces yesterday. DX and CS were my favourites. Would really like aftertouch on minikeys but that never seems to happen.
I’m surprised the CS impressed you. That looked like the runt of the litter to me. What did you like about it?
Just sounded nice and was easy to use. Admittedly it was through its internal speaker and in a fairly busy shop, but it made me smile, and that’s a good thing.
I’ve noticed that, while everyone seems to enjoy hating on these, everyone who’s actually used them seems to come back really liking them; Kind of seems that they must have got something right with them. Personally, they seem to sound OK from the demos, and look nice enough to use; I wouldn’t splash that kind of cash on them, but I don’t have that kind of cash to splash, anyhow.
It comes down to the minikeys and whether or not you think $500 is a lot for a synth or not.
When I tried the CS out, I took my time and came away really impressed by it. It sounds very good for a virtual analog and can create a huge variety of sounds.
It’s also much better sounding to me than most virtual analog polysynths, and certainly better than mini synths like the microKort or the miniNova, which always sound a little dull or ‘aliasy’. I have not tried the JD-Xi yet, so I’m not sure how that will compare.
The other thing is whether you think $500 is a lot to spend on a keyboard. I remember when you had to spend $2K to get a decent synth, so $500 for a decent poly synth is hard to believe, if it weren’t for the mini-keyboard. The MicroBrute seemed like a stupidly good deal to me, too.
Personally, I’m impressed at the synth you can get for $500 in the CS. It will make sense to people that grew up on things like the Pro-One or a Minimoog, because everything’s right in front of you and you have to know your stuff to make the most of it. If you’re a preset person, though, you’ll probably think it’s shite!
I think they’re great, but yeah…the minikeys are ridiculous since I plan to get a CS and probably DX and YC. If they came as little modules or something like the way roland has done with their boutique’s, I believe it would have been better. I plan on just using my silent upright piano with them since theres a midi out built into it and I probably won’t be touching the mini keys. It kind of takes up space with the keys, especially if I’ll be getting a couple of them. I’ll have to think about it. And definitely never pay retail. I don’t know why people talk so much about the retail price about items…I never buy anything retail because I know as soon as something leaves a shop, the price just drops and someone will eventually drop it on ebay for me to grab. It’s a second handers heaven. I get to choose the best looking item that’s barely been used, and for the best price. I don’t see how purchasing from any of these large retailers benefits me. If I need something repaired, I’ll call up Yamaha or whoever… so since these are at $500 retail, they’ll be 350 or less in a year. Just look at how the system-1’s are doing on ebay now compared to a year ago. I stupidly purchased it at about $420 on ebay last year because I was in a rush to get it, now I see them at 350….
Why no knobs, no sliders, no mod wheel ?
For long term usefulness; Is this heavy enough to stop a door from closing? How well would it function at weighting down papers in a draft? Does it have the build quality to withstand bouncing off a drummer’s head, or hitting a bassist in the the face repeatedly?
It seems like your commenting based on your biases, rather than saying anything meaningful about this guy’s synth jam.
I only ask comments based on the review, and it is labeled up as a review piece on Youtube, “Yamaha Reface DX Review / Demo” and not a jam. Synthopia and yourself are calling it a jam, I wouldn’t call it a jam, the person that made it isn’t calling it a jam – is that more meaningful? Yet more importantly, it is easy to see that my original comment is just a sarcastic quip regarding long term usefulness, you may be able to tinker a nice sound, but once that honeymoon is over we know what happens to things that aren’t the real deal?
When I’ve encountered sarcasm in the past, it always involved humor. So that was what through me off. I mistook your comments for an off-topic rant about assaulting people. Apologies!
I don’t feel you have a need to apologize.
While it is simple to understand that the humor was in the long term usefulness for a synth, instead being used for things that we use random objects for, like a paper weight, or punching a beat into a drummer – something I believed to be basic humor in most cultures, I wasn’t expecting that to be a little high-brow for some here.
But no one should ever apologize from a lack of understanding – just learn from the experience, so you can overcome your shortcomings in the future, without the need for careless comment.
sounds good.
the in picture comments, though, appear somewhat fishy. they mainly address common criticism.
Sorry if anything appears “fishy”. I don’t know why it would; these are my impressions of the synth. 🙂 If you know a way to get Yamaha to pay me, please let me know, haha. Thanks, Synthtopia, for featuring my little demo and I’m happy if it’s useful to someone. All the best!
I do not like them in a house.
I do not like them with a mouse.
I do not like them here or there.
I do not like them anywhere.
I have the Reface DX and it’s a wonderful little synth, the user interface is superb as is the sound. Can’t wait for my JX-03 to arrive, I’m sure they’ll be best friends ????
Lovely demo.