On several occasions I've seen the Yamaha SY-77 being used on stage. Could anyone tell me about this synth? Specs, when it was made, in-built sounds, expanding possibilities, experiences etc..
In advance thanks!

SY77 first appeared on market in 1988-1989.
This is hybrid of FM and sample playback (AWM) synth. It can produce sounds consisting of 1 and up to 4 elements. I.e. sound can contain for example 1 FM element, or 1 AWM element, or 1 FM and 1 AWM element, or 2 and 2, or 4 of one of a kind, etc. Practically it is 2 SYTNH in one case!!! Each of them is 16 notes polyphonic what gives 32 notes polyphony together. It is 16 parts multitimbral. The FM part of synth looks the latest DX7 models. It has 6 operators that can be connected in 40 different ways (algorithms). For each operator you can select from 16 sinewaves that differs from each others by harmonics parts. All that means that each FM voice is produced by 6 generators. There are also 2 LFOs for FM voices.(main and secondary).
The Sample Playback part of synth has 113 waveforms ROM that possible to expand with waveform cards. Of course th resulting sound could be passed through two 12db/octave filters. Each element has Envelope Generator on Pitch and Amplitude. Filters either have it.
The most interesting feature is the ability to pass AWM (sample) sound through the FM operators. Really COO-O-O-L!
Besides all that it has 4 DSP effects section with 40 types of effects.
For each element dynamic pan can be programmed from 64 preset pan sets or 32 user pan sets....
.... pooh! Waht else? I'm tired already.
Oh yes! 16 tracks sequencer with reach recording and editing capabilities. It is really sophisticated.
.... three wheels (Pitch Band, Modulation and Programmable), floppy disk.

Just ask me about anything else. It will be easy to answer.

ICQ#7621306