{"id":2928,"date":"2026-08-25T10:42:03","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T10:42:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/?page_id=2928"},"modified":"2026-08-27T07:31:26","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T07:31:26","slug":"swayed-sy77-emulation-%f0%9f%a7%bb%f0%9f%a7%bb%f0%9f%a7%bb%f0%9f%92%a9","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/swayed-sy77-emulation-%f0%9f%a7%bb%f0%9f%a7%bb%f0%9f%a7%bb%f0%9f%92%a9\/","title":{"rendered":"Swayed (SY77 emulation) \ud83e\uddfb\ud83e\uddfb\ud83e\uddfb\ud83d\udca9"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

First of all – have a look at my post on the Yamaha TG77\/SY77<\/a>. Read about weight, about large slabs of metal and the gymnastics involved: I had an SY77, it was like a large metal dog that wouldn’t get off the couch. My more recent TG77 has aspirations to that – but being smaller it concentrates heft into a tighter space. I once made an album called CUISINE<\/em> which was based on the SY77 and an Amiga running Bars And Pipes<\/em> if that gives you the time frame. That album has just been re-issued. In 2026. Bloody hell. I had better dust off the Realtime Convolution and Modulation Synthesis<\/strong> manual…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I’ve long been waiting for a virtual SY77. But Yamaha are more interested in moving the line along with Montages and the like. Fair enough. The technology has moved on<\/a>. And I have a fully software relative<\/a> of that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So along comes Swayed<\/em> – that’s apparently a joke on S-Y<\/em> that I don’t get. The FM part of it is relatively easy, there’s been FM here there and everywhere. The main issue is in the samples – firstly they are Yamaha’s <\/em>samples, and that means a license. Not particularly wonderful, good enough decades ago – these days you could improve them BUT they have to act as complex oscillators in that good old Realtime Convolution and Modulation Synthesis<\/strong>. If you update them 1990s patches won’t work. Including mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the software author had the problem of not breaking copyright while coming up with a near exact sound alike. I’d cheat if it were me. That’s why I don’t make software. Has he succeeded? It’s been a long time since I had to get a .syx<\/em> file out of a hardware synthesiser – completely forgot that sort of thing. A bit of to and fro with MIDIox<\/a> and … for me it’s pretty good. One particular sound is not quite right, others are probably perfect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Software cares<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The 1989 hardware SY77 was a complete pain the arse to program. Swayed is a far kinder interface – and can also program the hardware (it says – I haven’t gone that far). The interface is as you would expect in 2026 – graphs and knobs all over. The odd bits acknowledge the unusual nature of the original. With this interface I can now unpack how I made sounds back in the day – at the time having near no idea what the hell was going on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why should you choose Swayed<\/em>? It made sense for me to buy it just in case we have to perform some oldies. I can’t see that this particular use of FM will appeal to modern users. For most people there’s much better FM synthesisers now – some with more samples as well. In the 90s this was the forefront of synthesis but I’d be straight onto some other tool if I was young now. The online community is all whining about the samples, authenticity and other refuges of the musical scoundrel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Later on Yamaha did the SY99 – and then canned the whole idea. Let me at least link you to a sensible account of Realtime Convolution and Modulation Synthesis<\/strong> – https:\/\/www.muzines.co.uk\/articles\/sy77-the-power-behind-the-buttons\/5757<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First of all – have a look at my post on the Yamaha TG77\/SY77. Read about weight, about large slabs of metal and the gymnastics involved: I had an SY77, it was like a large metal dog that wouldn’t get off the couch. My more recent TG77 has aspirations to that – but being smaller […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[11,4],"class_list":["post-2928","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","tag-fm","tag-virtual-analogue"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2928"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2944,"href":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2928\/revisions\/2944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}