Stewart Wilkie
What is it?
It's a synthesiser, a drum machine, a sequencer, the size of
a video cassette, powered by batteries or adapter, and it uses sampled sounds.
I acquired the QY10 for 3 reasons:
1) It has good sounds and drums for the cash;
2) It's portable – very;
3) It's MIDI equipped.
Cost
It costs only £249 and there is a recently launched master
MIDI keyboard (2 octave, velocity sensitive, pitch and modulation wheels) from
Novation priced £149.
Features
It has an 8-track sequencer with 32-note polyphony, a tone
generator with 28-note polyphony plus 8 voice timbral, 30 PCM voices plus 26 realistic
drum sounds, a simple chord entry system, and editing facilities. There are 76
pre-set backing track patterns allocated to 4 of the tracks with 4 other tracks
for melody lines, bass lines or chords. You can create your own backing tracks
and sequence them together in a 'song' (it has capacity for 8 songs). All
backing patterns are created in the key of C7 which is transposed to the chord selected
in the sequenced song.
You can copy, create, insert, and combine tracks.
Quantisation is provided, and the step time record is easy to learn (especially
for AMPLE users). Real time (replace or overdub) recording can be done in a
limited way from the front panel - but clearly for performance you need a
keyboard.
Drawbacks
The mini-keyboard on the front panel is monophonic. You need
a MIDI keyboard for polyphonic play although there is a unique chord entry
(single key) option for recording to the 4 sequencer tracks. The pitch bend
needs a MIDI keyboard wheel.
There is no disc drive incorporated. I found that, despite
its 8-song capacity, memory is eaten up by complex compositions and extra
storage is eventually needed. This is fine if you have an Atari ST - a free librarian
disc called Squirrel is available and Apple Mac or PC-based sequencers allow
data transfer. It would be nice if a 'dump' program was available via the MIDI
In on the Music 2000 MIDI interface.
Conclusion
This is a great machine for step-time composing anywhere,
with full stereo playback via headphones - I use it in the office at lunchtime.
Complete and complex compositions can be produced in step-time alone using
measure, beat and clock positions. The QY10 could be used as a sound module
expander alongside the Music 5000 driven from AMPLE via the Music 2000 MIDI interface.
The drum instruments alone are good, strings not bad, brass great and the
trumpet is excellent. I like it!
Published in AMPLINEX 027, July 1992
