Yamaha have taken their time in entering the market for all‑in‑one dance workstation sequencers, but their new RM1x looks set to be a heavyweight contender.
The arrival of Yamaha's new RM1x Sequence Remixer set us musing on the recent rash of 'dance‑in‑a‑box' units, including Quasimidi's 309 and Roland's MC303 and its big brother, the MC505. It occurred to us that while this new wave of instruments might seem like a gear subset of its own, these boxes are really just the hardware sequencer reinvented for the late '90s.
You might recall a period a few years ago when numbers of new hardware sequencers began to seriously dwindle: musicians were turning to computer sequencers in droves and almost the only manufacturers supporting the dedicated sequencer were Roland, with the MC50 MkII, and Yamaha, with the QY range. The latter began (with the miniature QY10 Walkstation) as another way of repackaging the hardware sequencer to do something the computer sequencer couldn't: fit in your pocket.
With the addition of contemporary paint jobs and styling, dance‑oriented sounds and patterns, tactile, knobby front panels, and all sorts of on‑the‑fly jiggery‑pokery potential, hardware sequencers once again look like escaping oblivion at the hands of the all‑powerful PC. They've been re‑christened 'Groovebox', 'Rave‑O‑Lution' or 'Sequence Remixer' and given the kind of spin that Peter Mandelson would be proud of, but they're still essentially doing the job that hardware sequencers have always done.
Mixing It
All this talk of hardware sequencers metamorphosing into boxes full of grooves is especially apposite in the case of Yamaha's late entry into the groove stakes, the RM1x, because while it might have a body for dance, it has a mind for serious sequencing. What Yamaha have done, most cleverly, is take the power and sophistication of the still‑current and top‑notch £999 QY700 (described in a November 1996 SOS review by Paul Wiffen, a man who certainly should know, as "the best hardware sequencer ever made") and meld it with the kind of hands‑on composition and performance features demanded by a dance market which still shows no signs of going away. If they've done the job well, what the RM1x could end up being is an immediate, hands‑on instrument which will serve the needs of the groove merchant in studio and club, and continue to fit the bill if and when sequencing requirements grow more sophisticated.
The RM1x adds an interchangeable alternative to the resolutely pattern‑based approach of the likes of the MC505. The user can create a finished piece by simply chaining basic building blocks — custom or preset patterns — or by taking the more advanced and demanding linear sequencing route (through composing a piece of up to 999 measures), or by using a mixture of the two. At the risk of giving things away too soon, Yamaha have also accorded the RM1x a potentially killer advantage: they've maintained the QY700's 3.5‑inch, HD, Standard MIDI File‑compatible floppy drive, so that saving patterns, Songs or the entire memory is cheap and easy, and doesn't require any additional hardware.
In fact, Yamaha have retained most of the facilities of the QY700, with only a handful missing, as far as we can tell. For example: the QY had two MIDI outputs and could record data on 32 separate MIDI channels; it had a separate chord track, which played a further 16 onboard sounds; and it possessed a much larger display which provided almost computer‑like graphics and editing options. It would have been nice to see the latter, especially, on the RM1x, but some omissions are inevitable to reach a lower price tag, and the RM's display as it stands is more than acceptable.
Back To Basics
Offering 16 tracks of sequencing, the RM1x immediately goes eight better than the competition, which has a maximum of eight (though in the case of Roland's MC505, this could be pushed higher when phrases are spun in over the top of a pattern). The other facts and figures don't look too bad either:
- 960 preset, up‑to‑the‑minute, dance‑slanted patterns (60 Styles with 16 Variations each).
- Up to 800 User patterns
- GM‑compatible AWM2 sound source offering over 800 voices (including drum kits), many specially programmed.
- Maximum 32‑note polyphony (though the sequencer can handle 64 simultaneous notes when used with additional sound sources).
- 16‑part multitimbrality.
- Eight real‑time control knobs.
- Four dials for changing parameters.
- Micro‑keyboard laid out like a piano keyboard (also doubling as a numeric keypad, pattern selector, transpose tool and mute matrix).
- Arpeggiator.
- Variable Low Boost parameter with a +/‑24dB range for beefing up the bass end when required.
While the RM1x lacks the huge LCD of Yamaha's top‑of‑the‑range QY700, its clear and well laid out display compares favourably to those of its competitors.Effects are on board, of course, in the shape of three processors providing, respectively, reverb, chorus and flange‑type effects, and variations(basically a grab‑bag of delays, distortion, rotary speaker simulations, and so on). The latter can work as a 'system' effect applied to everything, or as an 'insert' effect on one voice at a time. While the micro‑keyboard's pads aren't velocity sensitive, the RM1x will respond to, and record, a full range of MIDI information, including velocity and aftertouch, if an attached MIDI keyboard can generate it.
Physically, the RM1x has the obligatory metal casing, finished in deep blue‑green. The whole package is a bit smaller than the MC505 and, though not quite as hip in appearance, is very attractive. The panel is dominated by the large, clear and informative backlit green LCD, borrowed from the 01V digital mixer, which is augmented by a 4‑digit LED showing tempo or current song/pattern position. The MC505 has the edge when it comes to sheer numbers of dedicated knobs and hands‑on controls, but there are enough on the RM1x to keep anyone happy for quite a while.
The back panel hosts MIDI In and Out (but no dedicated Thru), left (mono) and right jack outputs, a headphone out, power switch, contrast control for the LCD, and the DC input for the (huge!) external PSU.
The RM1x has a single pair of audio outputs, and lacks a dedicated MIDI Thru.
Making Tracks
As mentioned earlier, the RM1x's 16‑track sequencer offers two ways of working: pattern mode, where patterns are recorded and chained together, and Song mode, where linear sequences can be recorded from start to finish, and edited with a variety of tools (though there are, surprisingly, no familiar operations such as cut and paste in this latter case). A linear Song can be chopped into patterns and, likewise, a pattern chain can be converted into a Song (which compensates somewhat for the lack of cut and paste facilities in Song mode). Work can be imported or exported as Standard MIDI Files, so you can easily move to a computer‑based environment or take advantage of commercial MIDI song and building block files.
Cracking The Modes
Some of the terminology used in Yamaha's manual doesn't help much when it comes to describing the RM1x's sequencing capabilities. Pattern mode is where the confusion lies, but we'll try to sum it up fairly simply. The RM1x user encounters the following in pattern mode:
- STYLES: 60 preset and 50 user.
- SECTIONS: Each Style is made up of 16 Sections (each with 16 tracks) of up to 256 bars long. It's easier to think of a Section as a pattern, so that's the term we're going to use in the course of this review.
- PHRASES: When a track is recorded into a pattern(Section), Yamaha call this single track a Phrase (a similar system operates in Quasimidi's Rave‑O‑Lution). There are "over 7000 preset Phrases" on board already, and these can be used to create new patterns, if you like. There are, despite what the manual might lead you to believe, 256 User Phrase memories per pattern, though this is all tempered by a 110,000 note limit for the sequencer.
- PATTERN CHAINS: Up to 999 bars of patterns can be connected in a pattern chain.
Creating a composition is straightforward: if working in a pattern‑based fashion, select an empty user Style from the 50 available. If you want to compose in a linear way, an empty Song slot would be in order. Whichever way you work, there are a set of basic parameters to define before starting to record: time signature (1/16‑16/16, 1/8‑16/8, 1/4‑8/4 — rather more extensive than is usual for the other 'dance' instruments on the market, which largely stick with 4/4), tempo, between 25 and 300bpm, number of measures (up to 256 in a pattern, or up to 999 in a Song), and pad velocity. There are several record modes: when dealing with patterns, overdub, replace, step and grid are the options, while Songs also have a punch‑in mode.
The RM1x's sequencer controls (top) allow both linear and pattern‑based recording in a number of different record modes, and note data can be entered using the built‑in mini‑keyboard at the bottom.
The grid option is a step‑like mode that allows you to input notes using the 16 white keys of the micro‑keyboard — like the MC505 and older Roland drum machines. Real‑time input is just as with any other sequencer, but though it's possible to quantise your work in a very sophisticated way after it's been recorded, there's no quantise while recording. One big difference between pattern and Song mode is that Songs have an additional tempo track. It's possible for each step of a pattern chain to have its own tempo, but Song mode's dedicated tempo track allows subtle (or not so subtle) tempo changes over time.
While it might have a body for dance, the RM1x has a mind for serious sequencing.
New patterns can also be created by mixing and matching the factory Phrases, though if you've recorded some Phrases of your own, naturally these could be used. Choosing Phrases is undertaken in a subset of pattern mode, dubbed, confusingly and with no further explanation, 'Patch'!
In the event of mistakes, or if a performance just needs tweaking, a huge list of editing options is available. The Event List is accessed via the Edit button, and here it's possible to alter, move, delete or insert individual notes and other MIDI events. The Job button accesses a list of general editing controls, including Undo/Redo, post‑quantising, altering gate time, changing velocity, thinning controller data, inserting a crescendo, clock offset, and even time‑stretching, as well as copying, pasting and otherwise moving Phrases, Tracks and patterns around. In a sequencing context, perhaps time‑stretch, a concept familiar to anyone who uses a sampler or audio editor, needs a bit more explanation: the RM1x allows you to alter individual tracks to fit given spaces, or simply double or halve their tempo.
The Song mode editing options are slightly more restricted than the above. As mentioned earlier, there are no cut, copy and paste options when editing Songs, but all note and MIDI event Job options are identical to those available in pattern mode. New measures can be inserted into a Song and unwanted measures deleted, and a range of events can be copied or extracted from one track to another, but if you want to move sections of a Song around you could always split the Song into shorter patterns and re‑chain them in pattern mode.
When chaining patterns, it's worth remembering that each step in a chain can have its own time signature, which should be matched to the time signature of the pattern being placed at that step. Any strange 1‑bar 11/8 patterns you fancy inserting will be cut short if they appear at a 4/4 step! Note also that each chain step has a 1‑bar value, so if you insert a 16‑bar pattern you'll need to leave the 15 steps (measures) after the first step empty so that it can play in full. Measures can be muted, and a whole chain can be told to stop with an 'End' command.