TG500
Tone Generator
The Yamaha TG500 is, more or less, the rack version of the SY85. When this module came out, it was the first to offer a 64-voice polyphony. In 1993, this was a big deal, because back then 8-16 voices were still acceptable, and 24-32 would have been considered very good. The TG500 features the improved AWM2, Yamaha's 2nd-generation Advanced Wave Memory technology. There's plenty of memory: 8MB of waveform ROM, and even an Expandable Waveform RAM: up to 1MB of waveform RAM can be installed to allow loading of external samples via waveform cards or the MIDI Sample Dump protocol. Voices can be played individually, or up to
four voices can be combined |
|
The TG500 also provides RAM memory for 16 multi-play setups. Programmable digital filters allow the TG500 sound to be tailored as required. The filters also feature a resonance parameter equivalent to that found on the SY77 and SY99 Music Synthesizers. The basic quality of the TG500 voices is further enhanced by a
range of programmable effects offering quality rivaling some of the finest
separate signal processing systems. |
Here are the Yamaha TG500's on board demo songs:
and here are demos from the unit:
Stream all Preset Voice I mp3 examples below
Preset Voice I | |
Voice name with audio demo | My comments |
00 AP Grand | A spiky, expressive and powerful concert grand piano. |
02 AP Dance | Typical early '90s house piano, similar to the classic Korg M1 piano |
04 AP Tack | Cool prepared piano sound, works great even for ragtime |
06 BA Wood | Warm contrabass. |
08 BA Fingr | Realistic fingered electric bass |
09 BA Frtls | Beautiful chorused fretless bass, typical fusion style. |
10 BA Pick1 | Picked electric bass with a nice tone. |
15 BA Syn 2 | Nice analog+FMish synth bass |
17 BA Syn 4 | Moogy. |
18 BA Syn 5 | Classic '80s synth bass. |
19 BA Syn 6 | Superbly expressive resonant synth bass. |
25 BA Syn12 | Reminds of the ARP Odyssey tone in Herbie Hancock's "Chameleon". |
26 BR Trump | Quality trumpet. |
27 BR Mute | Classic muted jazz trumpet |
38 BR Syn 2 | Fantastic, warm and synthy analog brass. |
44 BR Tooth | Nice Oberheim style syn brass. |
46 BR Toto | Does a very good job emulating the FM brass used by Steve Porcaro of Toto. |
48 CH Aah | Airy, spacious choir - great as a pad also. |
49 CH Ooh | Typical pop choir |
54 CH Vespa | Barbershop vocals |
55 CH Vocod | Nice vocoder vox |
56 FI Blue1 | Sweet blues harmonica |
60 FI DulcM | Nice dulcimer sound |
61 FI Harp | Warm and nice |
63 DR Kit | Excellent, punchy and realistic drums. |
Stream all Preset Voice II mp3 examples below
Preset Voice II | |
Voice name with audio demo | My comments |
00 FI Lip | Beautiful, smooth whistling sound |
01 FI Sitar | Nice sitar patch |
02 GT Nylon | Fantastic flamenco guitar |
07 GT Strt1 | Beautiful Stratocaster through reverb and delay |
15 GT Warm | Great electric guitar with creamy distortion. |
18 KY EP 1 | Superb Fender Rhodes electric piano, responds realistically to velocity. Mod wheel adds classic tremolo effect. |
19 KY EP 2 | Pop version of the electric piano, mellow and romantic - perfect for ballads. |
21 KY EP 4 | Classic DX7 FM piano. The modulation wheel adds the symphonic effect (chorus-like). |
30 KY Clav1 | Powerful Hohner Clavinet reproduction. |
33 KY Acrdn | Charming accordion patch. |
35 KY Cali2 | Divine calliope voice! |
38 ME Grind | Stunning special effect |
40 ME Kali | A kalimba from outer space |
41 ME Mello | Enchanting twirly pad |
43 ME Orch2 | Classic orchestra hits |
46 ME Templ | Fantastic ethnic percussion |
50 OR Jaz B | Standard Hammond B-3. Mod wheel engages fast spinning rotary speaker. |
55 OR Pipes | Angelic church harmonium |
Stream all Preset Voice III mp3 examples below
Preset Voice III | |
Voice name with audio demo | My comments |
01 SC Digi3 | Classic 1980s comp synth (FM + analog combination) |
02 SC Ecko | Another great '80s comp synth |
04 SC Housy | Elegant and classic house-style analog synth |
11 SC Spike | Interesting and different cross between synth and FM bass. |
15 SC Vocal | Cool vox type |
18 SC Wondr | Beautiful patch, perfect for modern styles |
22 SE Chou | Superb sci-fi fx |
24 SE Dropr | Another excellent sci-fi effect |
27 SE Hell | yep... |
28 SE Hyena | ridens |
30 SE It | Cool! |
35 SE S&H | Inside the alien mother ship... |
36 SE Star | Flying by.. |
37 SE Up&Up | It never stops! |
40 SL Digi | Stunning resonant synth, perfect for expressive solos or comps. |
47 SL Saw 2 | Minimoog'ish |
50 SL Whisl | Another great analog lead |
51 SP Abyss | Gorgeous synth pad |
55 SP Glass | Pure crystalline beauty. |
56 SP Goner | Nice vector-style evolving synth. |
57 SP Hyper | Marvelous shifting pad |
60 SP Movie | Perfect for soundtracks |
62 SP Nehan | Just a great, moving pad. |
63 DR GMIDI | Very nice drum set that follows the General MIDI layout (more or less.) |
Stream all Preset Voice IV mp3 examples below
Preset Voice IV | |
Voice name with audio demo | My comments |
01 SP Phaze | Happy synth strings |
03 SP SawSt | Deliciously '80s |
08 SP Sweep | Gentle, evolving pad |
09 SP Sweet | Ravishing string synth |
13 ST JeanL | Presumably inspired by great Jean-Luc Ponty's violin tone |
14 ST Sectn | Nice chamber string orchestra |
15 ST Power | Beautiful and ominous at the same time |
17 ST Dark | Classic string ensemble, useful for many styles of music. |
19 ST Arco | Realistic and expressive |
27 ST Combo | Fantastic synthesized strings. |
28 TP Glock | Beautiful, dreamy glockenspiel |
33 TP Siam | Interesting ethnic percussion |
36 TP Bambu | Nice |
38 TP Timp | Realistic orchestral timpani |
44 WN Sopr | Expressive soprano saxophone. |
45 WN Alto | Soulful alto sax |
46 WN Tenor | Nice and jazzy tenor sax |
47 WN Bari | And here's a cool baritone sax |
49 WN Picc | Piccolo flute with outstanding vibrato |
53 WN Oboe | Very nice |
63 DR Efect | Showing off the excellent effects section of the TG500. |
Stream all Internal Voice I mp3 examples below
Internal Voice I | |
Voice name with audio demo | My comments |
01 AP Dark | Incredibly beautiful grand piano eq'd for classical music. |
04 BA Soul | Super cool shake-the-room synth bass |
07 BA Head | Nice acid bassline |
08 BA Tri | You need to have big woofers to hear this... standard for drum 'n' bass |
13 BR CS80 | The classic and rare Yamaha analog polysynth... |
20 CH Analg | Charming analog vox. |
24 FI Koto | Incredibly expressive koto. |
28 GT Amod | Superb tremolo guitar a la David Lynch/Twin Peaks |
31 GT Dist2 | Mega-distorted guitar chords |
41 ME Bnshe | Silly banshees |
42 ME Bubbl | Very cool special effect |
45 ME Mojo | Typical early/mid '90s house/techno chord |
46 ME Poot | Wash of synth |
47 ME Sweep | Good resonant filters in this machine. |
49 ME Treml | Reminds of the Korg M1 and its successors... |
52 OR Door0 | Classic Vox Continental organ as used by The Doors |
53 OR Jazz | Another good Hammond organ with Leslie |
57 SC Anti | Superb '80s comp synth. |
59 SC Bhind | More synths from the '80s. |
Stream all Internal Voice II mp3 examples below
Internal Voice II | |
Voice name with audio demo | My comments |
00 SC Hool | Nice Wurlitzer-like electric piano |
06 SC Reflx | Springy metallic synth. |
08 SC Thumb | Excellent, chorused slap bass. |
09 SC Uzzy | Very responsive, resonant filters, a joy to play. |
14 SE Alien | This is actually scary! |
15 SE Clox | The clock shop's gone crazy. |
16 SE Crck | A summer night |
18 SE Duel | Perfect to score independent sci-fi movies |
19 SE Fear | Cool progressive metallic synth. |
21 SE Lava | Too close to the volcano! |
26 SE Vaqum | Good sound effect, useful. |
27 SE Vektr | Cool vector-like synth |
29 SL Ick | Different. Fun. |
30 SL 2VCO1 | Classic '70s analog modular synth sound. |
34 SL Sqsaw | Nice solo synth |
36 SP 1980 | Even 1983 I'd say. |
39 SP Glas2 | Pureness. |
48 SP Ray | Reminds of Vangelis, Tomita, and the other '70s greats. |
51 ST Cntra | Very realistic contrabass. |
61 WN Flut1 | Nice flute |
Stream all Preset Performance I mp3 examples below
Preset Performance I | |
Performance name with audio demo | My comments |
00 CO Dream | Stupendous. Stupendous. |
02 SP Aztec | Very nice, airy synth vox pad. |
08 CO Soire | Elegant piano. |
18 SP Faery | Superb evolving pad. |
20 CH OohAh | Awesome - this reminds me of the backing vox pads used by Enya. |
32 CO Jazzr | Typical contrabass/ride cymbal on the left + piano on the right. Velocity adds crash too. |
33 OR Gimme | Incredible emulation of Steve Winwood's organ sound in "Gimme Some Lovin'"! |
37 BA Rezzo | Powerful synth bass. |
40 CO E.S.P | Hypnotic performance, very seventies, a la Ashra Tempel |
42 SP Stars | Perfect for ambient/new age |
49 OR Nave | Another great church organ. |
50 SP Ace | Lost in it. |
52 CH Comet | Beautiful. |
53 BA Guppy | Very guppy. Whatever that means. |
55 BR Fatti | Quintessential synth brass. Very Jupiter-8. |
56 CO Inca | Great setup. |
Stream all Preset Performance II mp3 examples below
Preset Performance II | |
Performance name with audio demo | My comments |
02 SP Carol | Merry Christmas |
03 SL Mitey | Mighty modular indeed... |
04 ME Orion | Superb syn pad. |
06 SE Rolls | Outstanding special fx |
20 ME Honto | Flying saucers |
38 SE Zoom | Washing machine in space |
44 ME Alien | The good alien. |
48 CO Kings | Seriously good choir. |
54 SE Flies | Fun |
56 CO Happi | Killer little setup! |
59 TP Bells | Very good quality. |
60 ME Hit | When only sampled waves will do... |
Stream all Internal Performance mp3 examples below
Internal Performance | |
Performance name with audio demo | My comments |
00 CO Aster | Incredibly beautiful setup, with synth bass+ana-strings, and a Mellotron'ish flute |
02 SP Mtrix | Oberheim influence here... |
04 ME Sprk2 | The perfect new age pad... |
15 BA Susud | Presumably inspired by Phil Collins' "Sussudio"'s bass line. |
19 GT Pedal | Decent pedal steel guitar. |
34 ME Chorl | Fantasy pad. |
40 CO Clock | WHAT TIME IS IT?! |
42 SP Wind | Elegant and charming strings. |
48 CO Nuage | For busy new age tracks. |
51 CO Japan | Pardon my (very) limited knowledge of Asian playing techniques... |
58 ST Solo | Nicely expressive violin. |
60 GT Wires | Very U2. |
63 CO Fire | This reminds me of the (great) Generalmusic S-series. |
Factory Voices & Performances:
AP ...............Acoustic Piano
OR...............Organ
KY ...............Keyboard
BR ...............Brass
ST................Strings
BA ...............Bass
GT ...............Guitar
FI .................Folk Instruments
WN ..............Wind
CH ...............Chorus
TP................Tuned Percussion
SP ...............Synth Pad
SC ...............Synth Comp
SL................Synth Lead
ME...............Musical Effect
SE ...............Sound Effect
DR ...............Drums
Year of release: | 1993 |
Polyphony: | 64 |
Sound generation method: | AWM2 |
Preset memories | 4x64 preset voices, 2x64 internal voices, 2x64 preset performances, 1x64 internal performances |
MIDI: | in, out, thru |
Sound expansion capabilities: | 2 sets of data/waveform card slots |
Sequencer | no |
Arpeggiator | no |
Effects | yes |
Power on the TG500 while pressing "PLAY MODE", "UTILITY/SELECT" and "EXIT" at the same time. the display will briefly show
== TG500 Initialize ==
Internal memory vanished :-)
An alternative method found on the internet is:
Power the TG500 on and then:
[EXIT]=EXIT, [COPY]=FCTRY
[-1]=AUTO, [+1]=MANUAL
available at www.yamaha.com
SITE | Type of resource | DESCRIPTION |
www.yamaha.com | home page | |
Yamaha TG500 review with audio demo