PSR-5700 (1992)

It's all about AWM, baby!

Release Date: 1992

Introduction: Goodbye FM

Frequency Modulation (FM) synthesis was the absolute king of Yamaha’s electronic instruments during almost one decade, and it was present in literally dozens of synthesizers, sound modules, organs, arrangers, sound keyboards, electronic pianos and even computers of the Japanese company during the 80s. Towards the end of the decade, though, Pulse Code Modulation (PCM) synthesis, that is, synthesis based on the reproduction of digital samples (which wasn’t in fact a very new technology) acquired a notable impulse, and more models were released as musicians demanded more realistic sounds.

In the case of Yamaha, though, there wasn’t an abrupt change from FM to PCM, as the company developed some hybrid technologies which combined both elements and placed them in some models from the late 80s and early 90s. The GEW-5 chip, which was the core of sound generation in models such as the PSR-4500/4600 and the PSR-6700, is a good example of this.

Though, in the design process of the new flagship arranger, the PSR-5700, Yamaha decided to use only PCM-based technology, and developed a new chip, the GEW-9, which was used for the first time, AFAIK, in the PSR-5700. This new chip is AWM (Advanced Wave Memory, Yamaha’s label for its PCM synthesis technology) only, and despite this might seem a step back from the previous GEW-5 (AWM + FM), it has some interesting new capabilities (see below).

A highlight of this model is that it’s the first Yamaha’s flagship arranger to be compatible with the (then) new General Midi (GM) standard. It has the “GM” logo printed in the left side of the panel. Nevertheless, General Midi is not the native mode in the PSR-5700, and it’s provided only as an extra, mainly for compatibility purposes. The native sound list is different, and in GM mode some features (like the second effects unit, or the extended drum kit) are not available.

What other changes does the new model introduce? Are all of them for the better? Let’s see.

Looks and Design

While in the inner parts of the keyboard (technology) changes are very significative, from the user’s perspective the differences between the new model and the previous PSR-6700 are not as relevant nor as evident, although there are a few to consider.

First, there are evident differences in the physical department. The new PSR-5700 is no longer a 76-key arranger and turns back to the more traditional and usual 61-key format, as most of the other models. The keyboard mechanism is the same as the older PS-6100/PSR-6300/DSR-2000, so the feeling of the keys is not as good as in the PSR-6700, although much better than in the PSR-4500/4600. The design of the case is more rounded, and it’s all made in plastic (with a good quality feel), making this keyboard remarkably lighter (more precisely, less heavy, because it weighs 15 kgs. or 33 lbs.) than the hefty PSR-6700. The backlit LCD screen is of the same size as in the previous model, and the layout of the buttons and controls is very similar, so an owner of the previous 6700 wouldn’t have much trouble in getting used to the 5700. This time, though, there is no lid, and all the buttons are directly visible and accessible. The pitch bend and modulation wheels are just like in the 6700 and many other Yamaha synths of that time (the SY-series). The back panel is virtually identical to the previous model, and following the same path, the “PSR-5700” logo is placed in the right end (from the spectator’s view) of the back.

Hardware and Technology

While in the external appearance the changes from the previous generation are not drastic, in the internals this is so, being the new GEW-9 sound generator the most important novelty. The GEW-9 has some relevant differences when compared to the older GEW-5. For instance, while the GEW-5 had only 8 voices of polyphony, the GEW-9 increases this figure to 38 voices. It’s true that the GEW-5 was able to be daisy-chained to provide more polyphony (the PSR-6700 mounts 5 chips to obtain 40 voices), but this solution increased costs and design complexity. So, in absolute terms, the PSR-5700 loses 2 voices of polyphony compared to its predecessor. 38 voices, though, is still a very good number, as many of the keyboards of that time, even high-end synthesizers, were usually limited to 32 voices. But the GEW-9 has also some other advantages.

A second, very relevant, advantage is that the new chip is no longer limited to 2 Megabytes of wave ROM memory, like the GEW-5 was. The PSR-5700 has a total of 6 Megabytes (48 Megabits) of wave ROM, and that’s three times more than the PSR-6700, and a very respectable figure for a keyboard from 1992. Although I haven’t been able to confirm this point, the GEW-9 can probably manage 16-bit samples, while the GEW-5 was limited to 12-bit samples at most.

A third and very important advantage of the GEW-9 compared to the GEW-5 is that the synthesis engine of the new chip includes a resonant low-pass filter. This allows for real changes in the tone (harmonics) of the sounds, to make the voices more expressive.

Finally, the new GEW-9 is now 16-part multitimbral (16 different instrument sounds can be played at once), as opposed to 8-part multitimbrality of the previous GEW-5.

In the effects department, the DSP is again the YM3413 (labelled “LDSP”), the same one as in the PSR-4500/4600 and PSR-6700. This time, though, is accompanied by another chip, the "LEF" (YM3415B). Both provide two effects units, one with different versions of reverb, delay, and other things such as distortion and tunnel, and a second one with tremolo, chorus, flanger and symphony (kind of chorus). Both the effect types and the quality of the algorithms is similar to the previous PSR-6700 (maybe a bit better).

The Sound

When I turned on and played the PSR-5700 for the first time, I was very pleasantly surprised by the piano voice. Honest, the piano is very good, to the point that it’s quite hard to think that this comes from a keyboard released in 1992! This might be, if not the best, one of the very best acoustic piano sounds from that time. It sounds clean, full, expressive and musical, and even if by today’s standards it’s no longer impressive or suitable for piano solos, it’s perfectly useable in a mix, even today, and sounds better that the piano voices of many keyboards released years later. Taking into account that there’s just two years between the PSR-4600 (1990) and the PSR-5700 (1992), the difference in quality of the piano sound is really amazing, and probably the highest quality leap in such a short time in all Yamaha’s arranger history.

The high quality of the piano may let you think that the rest of voices will be just as good, but sadly this is not the case. Don’t get me wrong, there are some very good voices there, and in general terms the overall quality is noticeably better than in the previous PSR-6700 (although there are some specific voices that IMHO are better in the older one), but it’s just that the piano is so good that maybe creates too high expectations for the rest 😉

Besides the higher quality of the samples (not sure if it’s because they are 16-bit of because of the bigger ROM memory which allows for more and longer samples), the fact that the new sound generator (the GEW-9) has a filter also benefits the expressiveness of the voices. A usual “trick” when programming voices is to link the filter cutoff frequency to the key velocity value, so the higher the velocity, the brighter the sound. This adds more expression and naturality to many “acoustic” voices, although of course it’s also a good resource for synthetic sounds.

As in the PSR-6700, there are 100 preset voices and memory for 100 more user ones. Presets from 90 to 97 are in fact “dual” voices, while presets 98 and 99 are drum kits. As usual in older arrangers, most of the voices emulate real instruments and there are less synthetic or electronic patches. In GM mode, of course, we have the usual 128 standard voices. Most of them are the same as in the “native” mode, although some others are slightly different (for example, the strings), and the ones which are not present in the native mode are mostly made by re-using the same waveforms.

The drum and percussion sounds also get better in the PSR-5700 when compared to the previous model. There are more variety of kicks and snares and it’s easier to find the sounds that fit better with the music style. There are also, for the first time, samples of analog drum machines (Roland TR-like) for dance and electronic kind of music. In GM mode, though, there are only the drum sounds that strictly conform to the standard, so you’re stuck with only two kick drums and two snares.

Some examples of PSR-5700’s voices:

Acoustic Piano

Electric Piano (Rhodes)

Electric Piano (FM)

Accordion

Jazz Organ

Nylon Guitar

Strings

Brass

Harmonica

Marimba

Saxophone

Tutti

Whistle

Atmos

Crystal

Poly Syn

And this is one of the built-in demo tracks:

Demo 2

As sated above, the PSR-5700 has a generous amount of memory for custom voices (100), because it has synthesizer functions that allow to modify the preset sounds and adjust them to your own preference. At first glance, given the user’s interface, it seems that it’s more or less like the synthesizer of the PSR-6700, but it’s not so. In fact, the 6700 was more flexible and let the user build a voice from scratch, selecting the basic waveforms of the sound. In the 5700 it’s not possible to select the waveforms and all the adjustments are done starting from the base of the preset sound. It’s possible to modify some parameters such as the envelope generator of the amplitude (attack, decay, sustain and release), the modulation depth and speed, the pitch bend range (up to +/- 3 semitones), the octave and panning and a few other things. The most interesting is, of course, the filter. It’s possible to adjust the cutoff frequency (the frequency at which the low pass filter takes effect, thus making the sound brighter or darker), and the filter resonance (for increasing or decreasing the amplitude of the frequencies which are close to the filter cutoff). The filter settings is what can lead to real changes in the character of the tone.

A very interesting thing, nevertheless, is that, in contrast to the previous PSR-6700, drum and percussion voices can also be edited. It’s possible to set, for each individual drum sound, the pitch (frequency), the panning, and the filter.

Styles with a Touch

In the accompaniments department, the PSR-5700 follows the same scheme as its predecessor. The preset list also focused on quality rather than on quantity, with just 36 styles. As in the previous PSR-6700, there is space for 6 more custom accompaniments, which can be loaded/saved to a floppy disk.

In general terms, they are very well done, with good arrangements. It’s also noticeable that they are also more “playable” than before. I mean, as already pointed out, the accompaniments on the previous PSR-4500/4600 and PSR-6700 were sometimes too much “elaborated”, with some melodic lines and/or harmonies that sometimes didn’t fit well with the melody the player intended to play. In the PSR-5700 this does not happen so often.

Their structure is also the same, with drums, bass and two chord parts (each one with its own individual volume control), and with the same 5 different sections: Verse 1/2, Chorus 1/2, and Solo, plus three different intros, and ending, and two fill-in patterns, one that goes back to the same section, and one that changes from verse to chorus or vice-versa. This model keeps the “Interactive Accompaniment” (IA) function that was introduced in the PSR-6700, which automatically changes between sections according to what it’s been playing (or not playing) in the right hand.

The same comments when reviewing the “solo” and the “IA” features in the PSR-6700 could be applied to the PSR-5700 as well. While the “Solo” arrangements are pretty well done and are quite long (you can listen to some demos below), their utility, from the perspective of the player, it’s not clear to say the least, as it’s just like listening to a demo. Regarding the “Interactive Accompaniment” feature, my advice is leaving it off, as it often leads to strange or unwanted results.

Here there are some demos of styles with the IA function active (no melody is played and Solo parts are automatically activated):

Reggae

Cha-Cha

There is, nevertheless, a very interesting new feature introduced in the styles department with the PSR-5700, the “Super Style Play”. This is a direct ancestor of the well known “One Touch Setting” (OTS) of more recent Yamaha’s arrangers. Basically, it sets automatically the voices, volumes, effects and some other parameters for the currently selected style with a touch of a single button. Or four, in this case, to be more exact. The PSR-5700 has 4 buttons in the Super Style Section of the panel, labelled as the main accompaniment sections (Verse 1, Verse 2, Chorus 1 and Chorus 2), which set the corresponding adjustments for each style. In principle, each button sets the most appropriate settings for the corresponding section (verse 1, etc.), but the player can freely choose what she wants, and the settings do not change automatically when the accompaniment section is changed (i.e., if the “Verse 1” section and the corresponding “Verse 1” voice settings are active, those settings are not changed when the section changes, for instance, to “Chorus 1”).

Some more examples of PSR-5700’s preset styles:

Bossanova

Funk Shuffle

Latin Pop

Piano Ballad

March

The Sequencer

As in the previous PSR-6700, the PSR-5700 provides a fully featured 8-track sequencer, comparable to the most advanced synth workstations of that time, although in a same questionable decision as before, Yamaha doesn’t provide information about its capacity in the manual.

The sequencer is very comprehensive, allowing for different track recording modes (Replace, Overdub and Punch), and functions such as quantize, mix tracks, insert, individual event editing, note shifting (transposition), and the like. It’s practically identical to the sequencer of the PSR-6700 but this time it’s possible to record up to 6 different songs in the internal memory, and not just one. Of course, it’s possible to load/save songs from/to floppy disk.

According to the manual, it gives the impression that the custom accompaniment programmer also allows to use up to 8 tracks for a style, as long as the memory capacity is not exhausted. I haven’t confirmed that, though. The style patterns can be up to 8 measures long.

Other Functions, Connections, Amplification and MIDI

In general terms, regarding the rest of the functions, the PSR-5700 follows the same path opened by the previous PSR-6700. There are also 16 panel registrations available (2 banks of 8). A new feature, though, is that the 8 pads above the keyboard (which are not velocity-sensitive as those of the PSR-6700) are no longer limited to percussion sounds (although that's one of its functions). In the PSR-5700, they are more like the "multi pads" of the more recent keyboards. They can be used, for instance, for playing pre-programmed musical phrases.

The connections are the same: stereo inputs and outputs (with the difference that the inputs are no longer RCA but the more professional jack connectors), headphones jack, the usual three MIDI terminals, and 3 pedal connectors: sustain (jack), pedal switch (jack) and expression pedal (RCA). The pedal switch jack can control several different functions, from accompaniment star/stop to glide to effect switch to playing individual drum or percussion sounds, among other things.

Fortunately, things are not the same as before when it comes to amplification and speakers. On paper, the specs are virtually identical as in the PSR-6700: 10 watts per channel, and two-way speakers with 16 cm (6.5”) woofer cones. In practice, though, the PSR-5700 sounds much better than the 6700 through the internal speakers: sound is crisper, fuller and better balanced. Internal speakers would never compete with good quality external amplification, but this time, and IMHO, for the first time, the quality matches what it’s expected for a high-end arranger keyboard.

Regarding MIDI, the most relevant change is that now, MIDI specs must conform to the minimum requirements of the General MIDI standard. This goes beyond the well-known 24-voice polyphony, 128 instrument map and 47 drum and percussion sounds; it also implies that, at least, it has to be 16-part multitimbral, it must respond at least to pitch bend and MIDI CC (Control Change) messages 1 (modulation), 7 (volume), 10 (pan), 11 (expression), 64 (sustain), and some RPNs. In addition to that, the PSR-5700 responds to MIDI CC 80 (foot controller), 91 (reverb depth), 0 and 32 (MSB/LSB), and 6 and 38 (data entry). This makes life much easier for anyone who wants to use the PSR-5700 as a sound source in a DAW.

These are some examples of MIDI sequencing using the PSR-5700 in a DAW:

Count

Take 5

Sledgehammer

Superstition

Uptown Funk

Verdict:

The PSR-5700 is a very round product, perhaps not the best keyboard in any particular department, but very well balanced and of a high quality in almost every aspect.

Pros:

·        A significantly extended wave memory size compared to previous models, with some very good sounds for its time, particularly the acoustic piano

·        The synthesis engine now includes a resonant low pass filter, and it’s 16-part multitimbral

·        A much better MIDI implementation and compatibility with the (then) new GM standard

·        A highly improved internal amplification and speaker system

·        Generous user memory for custom patches, and a pro-quality sequencer for up to 6 songs

·        Reasonable weight and portability

Cons:

·        Back again to 61 keys, and keyboard mechanism not as good as the one of the previous PSR-6700

·        Limited number of styles, with dubiously useful (albeit nice) “Solo” sections and an awkward “Intelligent Accompaniment” function.

·        Much more limited synthesizer functions than the previous PSR-6700

·        The General Midi mode is very limited and only for compatibility purposes

Other Resources

Getting Started Manual

Advanced Features Manual

Service Manual