Revitalizing a Lofi Legend: The Yamaha QY70

CAT

Bought one in the UK when they came out. Hard to get over how limited people’s options were back then. Particularly for those who didn’t want to build a studio but just wanted a means of getting their ideas down. This was the first portable sequencer and sound option to do that (there was a Roland one with a stylus but was a UI nightmare). That’s exactly what people at the time like Bjork, Tricky and Jah Wobble used them for: as sketch pads. I bought one for the same reason but then made the discovery that you have. That it’s also very usable multi-timbal midi sound module. I paired mine with my MPC 3000 drum machine to sequence and a midi keyboard for playing/ inputting and it was great. I was doing R&B and particularly when the Neptunes/Timbaland sound arrived a lot of those more odd ball sounds were fantastic. I kept using mine even when I got dedicated sound modules as some of its sounds were so good.

This was a fascinating watch Yukes, I love how thorough you are. Thank you so much for taking the time and effort to make this. I've been eyeing the QY70 for a long while, particularly because a lot of my favourite artists used it to create to create some of their best songs (e.g. Bjork, Bat for Lashes). Also having a portable standalone device with so many instruments, effects, adsr and even EQ and mixing capabilities does hold a strong appeal for me. I struggle to find a device these days that packs such a punch in terms of versatility and usability, even if the sound quality and instruments aren't the best. Thanks so much again :)

This may just be the best walkthrough of a musical instrument I’ve ever seen on YouTube. You speak incredibly clearly. You don’t over explain or talk down to the viewer, yet you cover every bit of jargon. And of course it’s well filmed. Additionally the on screen charts are incredibly helpful! Pro tip you can polish those 90s era plastic screens with pretty simple abrasive compounds. Just look up a video of someone restoring an old game boy, same techniques can be applied to any screen from that era. It won’t make it brighter but it’ll clear up those scratches.

It remains one of the most underrated pieces of tech to ever be put out there. It's capable of producing masterpieces anywhere in the right hands. And has not been bettered as far as I'm concerned. Brilliant, brilliant video to show some of its magic.

It's really amazing how things made by Yamaha ~30 years ago are actually still more feature-rich and polished than almost all of the gear released recently. Oh, and usually they sound better, too.

Perfect Walkthrough across this marvellous device. Love my QY-70 now even more

So in love with the sounds coming from this thing, and the size profile is perfect for my tiny ass room and small needs/wants for dawless jamming, got mine in from Japan this week then got the stomach flue the day it arrived lol. Managed to snipe the OG power supply for 11$ + shipping so I can't wait to crack into it after the work weekend and my PSU arrives. I just wish it had an SD card so I could save songs physically instead of still needing to record them to REAPER! haha.

I was sitting here today with my “battle station.” An MPC 1000 that I rebuilt, an SP-404 that I rebuilt, and a LoFi-12. I was thinking, “self, there’s still something missing. With three different types of samplers, you still don’t have a synth that makes sounds like instruments…” Yes, I have some packs for my 1000, but it would be nice to have a battery powered synth that makes a Brazilian noises (how many is a Brazilian anyway)… Then your video pops up…. And I damn near lose my mind. Jump on Reverb thinking, “they’re probably like $500 at this point…” I got one shipped for less than $100. Thank you, Are Gato, Dhan’yavada, xie xie, vielen Dank, Hvala, kiitos…. I really appreciate it.

This was my 1st sequencer and it taught me most of what I needed to know about a mixing desk and effects when I moved on. There are some advanced features I liked, groove templates for drums that are actually groovy, custom drum kits where you can tune and mix some of the drum sounds individually and the effects, which have controls that are the same as rack units. Some of the parameters on the effects go up to 11 too. It's hard to learn everything but a midi keyboard and this can sketch out 16 tracks of midi pretty fast.

As for 21:28. you can edit each drum sound in detail when selecting one of the two DrumSet patches at the very end. Once selected you get a new MENU appears entry where you can select the drum kit it's based on and then edit each element (well, the QY doesnt allow editing each element but technically it's possible) and change pitch, decay, pan volume, filter, etc. I have the QY70 and QY100 and made a few music videos with it that you can find on my channel.

Sit on the train, plug it into the power socket, use it as a scratchpad and get some ideas down. I sometimes use it to control other equipment and fine tune the sound I need on that.

I still have the QY10... I think I got it in like 91-92 it was my first piece of electronic music gear, it was a total game changer for me for song writing I have like 3-4 90 minute cassettes worth of songs I recorded on my 4 track recorder...this video was a flashback to some good creative times, thanks for the video

I love the QY 70 The QY 70 was the primary workhorse for my favorite synthpop band from when I was a kid called Freezepop. They got me into synths and drum machines. Great tips and tricks for incorporating it into studios along with a nice review of the little powerhouse of days past

I only recently found your channel and I must say, the quality of your content is phenomenal. Every single video of yours that I've seen has such a warm, calming quality to it. It's a joy to view your content. Your channel has a bright future ahead of it. I'm sure of that. Good luck man! :)

Man I've been looking for something simple and kinda all-inclusive to help make YouTube video background music, and this seems like just the ticket. You did an amazing job showing the capabilities. I'm going to go hunt one down.

The Qy70 is still the best portable music making device , use it wisely, you can combine the presets to make some awesome sounds , it’s a romper but so is the CS1x and that helped make some big hits

This is a wonderful walk through.

Years ago I sequenced the score for "Joseph & the Amazing Tech..." on my QY70 loaded onto a SmartMedia card. Being able to enter music via a MIDI keyboard at a slow tempo, then raising the tempo to full speed was terrific. I don't think I'll ever sell it. Replacing the internal battery is the only maintenance I've done. I'm currently still using it to step enter a 12-tone piano score which, for me, is too difficult to play in real time.

Just randomly discovered your channel through a SP404 video. Loving the quality content you produce. Keep it up!