I decided to ask some of you users to give us your honest opinions about the Yamaha TG33. I'm starting to develope serious GAS for it. Somehow I'm really atracted to the unperfect sound of this unit. Something about the vector synthesis with the 12bit samples, I guess? Unfortunetly it doesn't seem to be easy to get my hands on one, ebay doesn't seem to have any right now. Perhaps you have some other favorite FM desktop units without a keyboard and with a similar sound? I personally wondered how the Yamaha DX200 compares in terms of FM synthesis (it is a dx7 with a sequncer after all) I am looking forward to hearing what you have to say trusty Geaslutz!

its def the bees knees for ambient music .. I also really used to enjoy assigning different percussion sets to each vector and messing around on the fly.. I know a lot of people diss on it but I really enjoyed it when I had one . also their stupid cheap .

Good for Industrial too. It can be very distorted and grainy at extreme ends of the keyboard and has a cool distortion effect too. It can do very unique sounds that would be really difficult to get on other synths. It can be programmed to emulate sounds from certain other synths including the DX series. The filter isn't... No filter sweeps - just tone and feedback controls for FM waves.
There is an editor out there I tried without success because it was made for the SY keyboard version and won't work with the TG unless you have a Midi merger in order to hear the changes you are making.
They are dirt cheap and for the $ you'll get alot of potential win out of it if you program your own patches. The presets with a few exceptions are fairly uninspiring.

I want to try that trick with the percussion sets - cool tip!

It's stunning, it goes from 1994-bad-cgi-museum/aquarium-documentary, to delicate and glassy, to insanely industrial and distorted, to horror film kitsch.

This was a fun thread, and included an mp3 demo and patches for you to peruse

https://gearspace.com/board/electron...e-patches.html

Xanderbeanz …..as always a couple steps ahead "1994 bad cgi mesuem documentary" thats hilarious and what's worse really speaks to me I actually finally pulled the trigger on a RY30 due to your awesome Demo, but I actually never saw this TG33 thread so thanks, will check it out. BUT that being said a nice refresher thread with user comments and usefull tips is always entertaining… PS. By the way, am I just not in luck on ebay now or are they really rare?? I can't find a unit around.

The RY30 and TG33 look so cool next to one another

I'm not sure how rare they are now, they're a bit marmite so I assumed lots of people are always selling them?

PS the FM side of things is very basic, just take preset FM waves and change the feedback amounts etc, though using sound diver you can open up the FM stuff more and set algorithms.

I'd love it even if there were no FM, I just love the 12 bit waveforms and the amazingly naive digital effects, especially that distortion.

The yamaha DEP 50 (I think) multi FX rack has the same effects (and more) in so I'm thinking of grabbing one soon to process other stuff.

If you like the TG33 demo then check out my TG55 one on the sequel thread as it has a similar feel to it, but with different waveforms and filters(!)

I had to wait wait for a few months this past Spring when I bought my TG33. They really don't come up that often. I actually bought it from a guy on Craigslist after searching various CL forums nationwide. ( not in my town either). They are stupid cheap- I think mine was $125 or so. Definitely the oddball out in my midi setup.

This is how I also was able to find my E-Mu E4XT Ultra W/RFX32 card... no way my sampler would have been as reasonable $$$ as it was instead of paying through the nose for that RFX32 card unit on Ebay bidding war.

That patch you have on the MP3 at 3:10. Thats that beauty right there WOW (congrats on the programing by the way) Later on at just over 8:00 it really reminds me of the good old Adrian Sherwood "twitch" days. That metallic "trapped in a garbage can" sound. Great Job!

It sounds great, but if a Korg Legacy-type VST was released I don't think I'd need to own the hardware. The TG33 really shines if you use the windows-based editor to turn it into a fully functional 4op FM synthesizer with sample layering

You're thinking of the GEP50, REX50, SPX50D. Those are derived from the SPX90.

The LDSP chip in the TG33 is capable of running the reverb, delay and distortion algorithms from the SPX90, but there's not enough total delay time to use the same reverbs, so new (worse) algorithms were made. I don't think they were ever available in a standalone processor, but IIRC they're in the SY22, SY35, TG33, SY/TG77 (reverb blocks only), SY/TG55, TQ5, V50, some PSR models, etc.

I got mine of ebay a month ago. Paid $200. It was like new and included a couple cartridges. I bought it after hearing demos I had heard online. When I first arrived I hated it and was about to immediately resell it. I can't stand romplers and there wasn't much I could do to get really creative sounds out of it... BUT..then I got the Syedit program to reprogram the FM and its an f'n beast. I spent a week just making FM patches. I've used over half the memory using patches that have the rompler parts muted (just use the Fm parts). Its become an awesome desktop FM module. I have a DX11 and the TG33 blows that away in many regards .

The FM is pretty great once you can edit it with software. It has the 8 DX11/TZ81z waveforms. There's different algorithms pre set-up with different names you can start with. The ratio of the operators are adjustable by the harmonic series. 80% of the time I use the vector detune to get awesome phase cancellation effects between the two parts. You can also assign the LFO to the modulator for filter like effects in the software but you can't achieve that from the front panel.

This thing can sound warm and crunchy using it as a an FM module. It can sound like primitive analog or chiptune, or have that modern FM sound. It's made unique sounds I haven't heard before and will be well-used piece of kit for me for a while. The only thing it lacks that I still need from the DX11 are the mono/portamento mode, velocity to modulator, and pitch envelope.

If it worked like a Kawai K4 module I would use the ROM voices. The K4 has a filter for these voices as well as the ability to ring modulate the FM and ROM voices so I could mangle them and find them usable. I also wish the TG33 would let you detune the ROM voice more than an octave as well.

The effects are certainly usable, but I don't use them and that goes to show the potential strength of the FM section. I had to pull an old slow as crap PC out of storage to edit it but well worth it.

i had one it was pretty cool, i created my own creepy holloween music for the trick or treaters one year with it but never really fell in love with it and sold it when i got my TG55 which i think is an amazing synth for what they go for these days, i think i paid $20 for mine? the filters aren't bad either. the random feature on the TG33 was cool tought.

Easily the most cyberpunk synth I've ever heard.

Which editor?

I believe the 22 and 33 are identical, the SY35 adds 16 bit waves and a few different ones.

Just remember if you can run an Atari ST emulator on your computer you can use any synth editor made for the Atari.

are there any editors for the TG33 that will run on iOS?

I didnt find any use for it's thin and brittle sound and sold it. It just didnt sit right in the mix with my other synth. The joy stick blending feature however is cool and a fast way to create soundscapes. I prefer my Ensoniq SQ80 over both, DX-Series and TG33...

The TG33/SY22 are not instantly lovable synths. Like many Yamaha music products, they are excellent tools available at a fair price. You can get great results from them if you take the time to learn them, and bad results if you are looking for immediate satisfaction.

The real question to think about isn't the price, but about whether they provide something to your music that is worth the time investment. They have never commanded high prices because they aren't user friendly and do not sound very sexy.

I got my first TG33 in 1996 and I used it for awhile and didn't get very good results because I didn't know what I was doing. I bought an SY22 in 2008 and it has been one of my go-to synths for the last six years. The results I get from it are directly related to my skill level as a producer. It isn't instantly sexy like a Juno106 or SH101, it is hard to use and sounds small and brittle. That being said, it is easy to make it sit in a busy mix because it sounds so small. It is a useful tool if you accept its limitations and work around them.

I don't vote on the tg33. It's not particularly good for vector, nor do I like the effects, the rom set is typical yamaha of its era, and you need a computer to dive into the FM. Also, to my ears, having listened to a lot of 90s jeff mills, the soundset has been done to death.

Not that it doesn't have its charms, however for weird evolving rompler grunge, I get more mileage out of cheap korgs and kawai.

It is definitely overprice IMO these days -- worth picking up for a fun at <$50.

But that means the SY35 still has the 12bit waves as well, right?

I regret selling mine. At the time i was looKing for more muted analog tones. Wish i could pick one up again. Even $200, which is on the high end, is imo worth it.

So what you all seem to be saying is that the onboard control of the fm is minimal without the PC editing? Can you at least prepare certain, lets say "starter" patches and then have some editing flexibility onboard later to change the sound to some extent? I'm a bit worried of the PC editing: A. I would have to revive my old PC B. I hate computer editing, it just kills the flow for me. One of the reasons I miss out on some great soft synth functionality. When ever I sit in front of a computer it reminds me of work and bills, totally uninspiring… Somehow even the tidious menu diving on yamaha synths is more fun and rewarding. I must also admit that IMO the TG33 is one of those machines thats so butt ugly that it's actually beautiful. I get the feeling that chilling with it in front of you, with some nice patches, messing around with the joystick could make for for some productive fun. ...Somehow that sounded strange :face palm: but you know what I'm saying

Yes. The joystick will 'morph' the patches and can be v dramatic. But setting up your patches is limited. You would at least want to make some different patches with an editor then you could get on with the joystick in a track etc. they are getting rarer it seems but the price isn't too high. This prob feeds my gas to pick one up.

You don't need a PC to edit the thing for good results. It is by no means difficult to program form the front panel in fact I find it relatively simple. There are also great shortcuts such as element copy and vector copy which can speed things up considerably for certain types of patches.
I learned my way around the machine well enough after a single evening without the user manual to create new patches that I found to be very usable and interesting. Then when I did get my hands on the manual off the net I was disappointed to find that there was very little left for me to learn besides multi-play mode.
Also the randomizer is a very helpful tool to get you started.

Sclr, your saying the prices are still good but to be honest I haven't seen any around in 1.5 month or so, how do you know? I mean I might be just a bit unlucky and impatient I realize. By the way if anybody has some intel PM me please. Like I mentioned I am interested in getting one.

Nope.

It has 90% the same waves, but they've ALL been upgraded to 16 bit for the SY35. And the other 10% have been changed.

Same number of waves, but they're all 16 bit now and a few have been swapped.

Yeah last one i saw was six months ago for $150. Just have ebay mail you when one pops up and hope it has a buy it now. Scour craigslist evry day or have an rss feed send you mail when one pops up. Don't tell anyone but check out rogue music as well. They have been around forever and yeah sometimes the prices are high but they have agood selection and tend to get things that other places don't.

Oh totally forgot about the randomizer! Yes you can get good results with just the interface. And copying and editing existing patches makes for some good starts as well, but you really want to dig into the fm thats onboard. This is just my opinion. How you see fit to use it may well not include computer editors. But i feel you. using a computer on hardware interupts workflow for me as well.

I have an SY35, and yeah, I would swap it in a heartbeat for an SQ80.

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