Yamaha SU700

[TechMouse]

Been considering getting a hardware sample sequencer for some time now - mainly for use in Live PAs, but really fancy going about making tunes in a "non-PC" way too.

Mainly been looking at Akai MPC 1000, but opportunity to get a Yamaha SU700 quite cheap (around £200) has arisen.

If anyone has any anecdotal experiences to relate, opinions, cautionary tales, praise to relate then please do so - any information could be invaluable.

Currently formed the opinion that it might be a bit pointless unless I have a PC to create loops with anyway, but hoping someone can tell me otherwise.

Thanks in advance for any info!

[massplanck]

I think the best thing to do with the SU700 is buy two of them.....

[TechMouse]

I think the best thing to do with the SU700 is buy two of them.....
OK, I keep hearing this...

I notice this is what Joris Voorn does too, and Speedy J used to.

Why do you need two? If that's not a stupid question.

[massplanck]

Well first of all I reckon at that price its sequencer\sample memory is gonna be a bit constrained . I own a RS7000 and i reckon the ultimate liveset for me would for me to have two of them even though that has a huge memory... but at 1600 euro for the privlidge thats not gonna happen. It will just make things a hell of a lot easier and fun if you could have two of them playing seperate songs and being able to mix between them properly without shitting yourself about what you are gonna do when you want to change from one song to the next (trust me its one of the biggest problems with most standalone hardware) .

[TechMouse]

Well first of all I reckon at that price its sequencer\sample memory is gonna be a bit constrained . I own a RS7000 and i reckon the ultimate liveset for me would for me to have two of them even though that has a huge memory... but at 1600 euro for the privlidge thats not gonna happen. It will just make things a hell of a lot easier and fun if you could have two of them playing seperate songs and being able to mix between them properly without shitting yourself about what you are gonna do when you want to change from one song to the next (trust me its one of the biggest problems with most standalone hardware) .

I think it's only got 4MB in it at the mo (standard I think?) but shouldn't be too expensive to get it up to 68MB.

(2 X 32MB SIMMs + 4MB internal).

Hmmm, ok.

I guess my real question is this...

Is getting one of these for £200 a good investment?
or would I be better off saving up for an MPC?

[gumpy green]

its a loop based phrase sampler that plays any loop in time with each other.

it aint yer traditional sequencer.

[TechMouse]

its a loop based phrase sampler that plays any loop in time with each other.

it aint yer traditional sequencer.
OK, so say I load in a Kickdrum sample, can I get it to play one on each beat?

What about more complex patterns?

[pumpinglemma]

Well first of all I reckon at that price its sequencer\sample memory is gonna be a bit constrained . I own a RS7000 and i reckon the ultimate liveset for me would for me to have two of them even though that has a huge memory... but at 1600 euro for the privlidge thats not gonna happen. It will just make things a hell of a lot easier and fun if you could have two of them playing seperate songs and being able to mix between them properly without shitting yourself about what you are gonna do when you want to change from one song to the next (trust me its one of the biggest problems with most standalone hardware) .

They've come down a lot in price. There was a guy selling one for st£400 here recently.

[pumpinglemma]

its a loop based phrase sampler that plays any loop in time with each other.

it aint yer traditional sequencer.
OK, so say I load in a Kickdrum sample, can I get it to play one on each beat?

What about more complex patterns?

Not sure man but see my last mail. I'd pay the bit extra and get yourself an RS. it does the above and more.

[Evil G]

ya, the rs7000 looks sweet. it's almost like a cross between the a5000 (which i have and like a lot - it's very powerful) and su700.

[massplanck]

the RS7000 rocks... :rambo:

Its shit for sequencing full 'songs' but its a ****ing beast

i love it

[networkacid]

Serotone & Linas (two Melbourne live techno acts) both use the SU700 to amazing effect.

[g]

so did fanon last time i saw him

[daviec]

I just got hold of an SU700 for £175 with the memory expanded to 36Mb. From what I've read about it, it's exactly what I'm looking for.

You can put a kick drum sample in and get it to play it on every beat or whatever. You can have other samples that just loop constantly, and you have "free2 samples that just play whenever you hit the pad, or have them sequenced.

I've never really used hardware before, so I'm looking forward to getting stuck in about it, and see what i can do.

I've also bought an MC-307, and I plan to use the two of them as part of my dj set up when I'm gigging.

[slavestudios]

Yamaha RM1X & Akia S2000 incl extra outs



you'll pick that up for £250 & have mental fun.. killer combination for buttons

[RDR]

We use an Rs7000 in the live set, and it rocks underneath my mates fingers. Typical yamaha sound tho.. little sterile.

[massplanck]

We use an Rs7000 in the live set, and it rocks underneath my mates fingers. Typical yamaha sound tho.. little sterile.

use it with an electribe... :rambo: :rambo:

[RDR]

We use an Rs7000 in the live set, and it rocks underneath my mates fingers. Typical yamaha sound tho.. little sterile.

use it with an electribe... :rambo: :rambo:

euch... sorry cant stand korg stuff. (IMO of course chief - whatever floats ya boat ;)

We use it with a novation k-station and ableton live 5 running behind a Yamaha O1x (oh yes that rocks...)

[massplanck]

euch... sorry cant stand korg stuff. (IMO of course chief - whatever floats ya boat ;)

We use it with a novation k-station and ableton live 5 running behind a Yamaha O1x (oh yes that rocks...)


:shock: :shock:

Horses for courses... I love the sound of the electribes.

I take you hate all Neil Landstrumms livesets & releases then?

[TechMouse]

Horses for courses... I love the sound of the electribes.

I take you hate all Neil Landstrumms livesets & releases then?

& Databomber

[daviec]

I'm getting to grips with my su700 now and it's more powerful than I thought. I'd prefer to have some other storage medium than then FDD, but I didn't get the cables that I'd need to add the scsi board so I'll need to make do with loading a bundle of floppies each time I switch it on.

But for now I'm just using it to drop one or two bar loops in and out while I'm playing, and some one hits. The fx are top class as well.

[daviec]

Double post :oops:

[RDR]

euch... sorry cant stand korg stuff. (IMO of course chief - whatever floats ya boat ;)

We use it with a novation k-station and ableton live 5 running behind a Yamaha O1x (oh yes that rocks...)


:shock: :shock:

Horses for courses... I love the sound of the electribes.

I take you hate all Neil Landstrumms livesets & releases then?

What a ridiculous thing to say...

Did i say i didnt like the sound? and why would i say that? I dont like korg because every "Groove box type thing" i played with broke down at some point, the earlier korg stuff like the x5dr is a great piece of kit.

And so you are telling me that Landstrumm uses Korg exclusively???

:eh: :lol:

[acidsaturation]

On the SU700 - was gonna mention the storage - yeah it's not gonna be expensive to upgrade, but you'll then need an external disk unless you fancy loading 50 floppys...

When you change patterns on it, do they change instantly or wait until the end of the pattern - 'cos on the RM1-x they change instantly making at a pig to sync to other kit - a few ms out isn't noticable if you just use one sequencer, but if something else is synced to it after a few pattern changes it gets well out!

[Komplex]

On the SU700 - was gonna mention the storage - yeah it's not gonna be expensive to upgrade, but you'll then need an external disk unless you fancy loading 50 floppys...

When you change patterns on it, do they change instantly or wait until the end of the pattern - 'cos on the RM1-x they change instantly making at a pig to sync to other kit - a few ms out isn't noticable if you just use one sequencer, but if something else is synced to it after a few pattern changes it gets well out!

the rm1x waits till the next bar to change. check your settings :)

Setup -> 3-Pattern Quantize. Set it to 1 measure and not 1/16

[acidsaturation]

Edit that, found it...

That's a bit better... might have another go making friends with mine now...

[TechMouse]

PS: I've borrowed it.