Yamaha TG55 Synth Module

Description

The Yamaha TG55 is a 1U rack module version of the SY55 keyboard. Launched in 1989, the TG55 is a ROMpler – a synth that plays back samples held in memory with filters, ADSR envelopes & modulation to modify the sounds. Rather than using oscillators for the basic sounds, like an analogue synthesisers, it uses 16-Bit PCM audio samples. Each sample oscillator is referred to as an element and each patch can have 1, 2, or 4 active elements

The TG55 has 16-note polyphony, is 16-part multitimbral and has 64 preset and 64 user patches. A number of pre-programmed expansion cards are available (S5502 Drums 1, S5504 Brass Section, S5531 Syn Wave 1 and S5551 Rock & Pop) and there’s a front-panel RAM card slot to store patches

“Sounds are decidedly varied – I’m tempted to call them idiosyncratic, although perhaps adventurous would be more appropriate”

“If I were to have this unit taken from me, would probably put a voodoo curse out on the nabbing bastard”

This was the state-of-the-art in the late eighties and, though things have moved on since then, the TG55 has a number of sounds that work well today and which sound different to modern synth patches