Here's the YDS-150 manual:
https://uk.yamaha.com/files/download/other_assets/2/1361052/yds-150_en_om_b0.pdf

 

Is this just the modern day resurrection of the WX series or something significantly different?

 

I would say it seems more like a competitor to the Roland AE-10 than a successor to the WX, with it's attention to *saxophone* key placement and action.

 

I thought this was a prank at first. Then I saw the manual and thought, "Wow, someone really went to a lot of trouble with this prank." Then I realized Yamaha is actually marketing this. I suppose they perceive there is a market. Then I remembered the Klangbogen thread and realized there is practically a market for anything.

 

There already is a Klangbogen for this. Just connect a large capacitor to the ligature screws to "reduce electrical turbulance and stabilize the reed". Use one with tin leads for a bright sound and one with aluminum leads for a darker, more focused sound.

But seriously, I'm actually looking forward to hearing this thing. Would be great for doubling, practice and travel if it sounds decent. The fact that the promotional video has no sounds isn't a good sign though.

 

 

So it's kind of cool . . . okay . . . I'll admit to that!

 

I hope sax co uk does one of their nice thorough demo/ reviews of this thing.
I read all the materials and manual...so is there an acoustic sound that comes from the bell or is it just for the magic resonance feedback feel? Incredibly lame that the Yamaha video has no audio examples. 73 sounds including 56 different saxophone voices categorized by genre...hope they’re better than the “dub horns” or “live sax” patches available on midi and synth products.

 

I read all the materials and manual...so is there an acoustic sound that comes from the bell or is it just for the magic resonance feedback feel? Incredibly lame that the Yamaha video has no audio examples.

Agree that it is pretty lame that they didn't include any sounds (nor any video of someone actually playing it).

As far as I can tell it appears to have two speakers (one above the keys, near the mouthpiece end, and one at the bell). The documents refer to the instrument's "speakers" (plural), so I assume that means at least two but, again, it's pretty lame that they don't actually state any of this directly.

 

Oh noooo. I just got an Akai EWI Solo to add to my collection of Aerophone AE-10 and Yamaha WX. I'm a sucker for these things. I'ma maya hafta gonna getta Yamaha thingamajig.

But this site https://newatlas.com/music/yamaha-yds-150-digital-saxophone/
says "available from November for a suggested retail price of US$1,078."
Yikes. That's a bit rich for my blood. Unless the reviews are ecstatic and the videos of the sounds give me GAS.

 

Available for pre-order on WWBW for $799. So not a grand, but damn close.

I took the time to read thru the manual. They have restricted the range to that of the "standard" saxophone - Low A (with a thumb key, like a bari) to high F#. Every other wind controller I know of has a 5 to 7 octave range.

And the onboard sounds (73 - count 'em, 73!!!!) are mostly saxophone based. Like "Pop alto" and "Funk alto" ... you get the idea. 50 saxophone sounds, plus a few bagpipe / harmonica doodads. I wonder what the underlying synthesis technology is...

 

To all wondering about the function of the bell:

Drawing on our extensive know-how and experience of making acoustic instruments, we designed this bell to gorgeously reproduce the long reverberation peculiar to wind instruments as well as the delicate sonic nuances sounds when playing pianissimo. Moreover, the authentic resonance causes the entire instrument to vibrate, and lets you truly feel the music as you play it.

So it seems it's "just" a regular wind controller with a speaker in a fancy brass bell. I don't know if it works as they claim, but as a whole it does look pretty cool compared to competition.

 

To all wondering about the function of the bell:

So it seems it's "just" a regular wind controller with a speaker in a fancy brass bell. I don't know if it works as they claim, but as a whole it does look pretty cool compared to competition.

Substantively, and getting to the heart of the bell's function . . . Is it a one or two-piece bell? Is it annealed? Is it hand hammered? Is it yellow brass or French brass? Once those questions are answered, we can determine the true quality of this instrument.

 

Why the 1970's era red LED 3-digit 7-segment display?
Why not a modern OLED graphics display, that can show various settings in clear detail?

It can run off of 4 AA alkaline or 4 Ni-MH rechargeable cells. But for how long?
If you got a long gig, will you have to keep spare batteries? (when you cannot use plug-in AC-adapter power, i.e., outdoors).

The "headphone jack" instructions refer to there being a speaker(s) inside the bell.
So it can produce its own acoustical output, independent of any other equipment.
But there's no detail about that speaker in the specs. It does say water (spit) will drain out thru the bell (!), so, I hope they used a waterproof speaker

It seems to be purely a monophonic instrument. There's no mention about sending MIDI control data. (Though the specs do say "Compatible with Bluetooth Low Energy MIDI specification" ... ?!)

Maybe wait for version 2...?

 

This new digital sax appears promising. When the Aerophones (10 and then 05) came out I was very excited & looking forward to trying one. Based on multiple reviews on the net I thought I would have liked either one but that was not the case. I tried both more than once with the same results. While I was willing to accept digital sounds, the keywork was definitely a deal breaker.

I would also like to try an EWI solo but honestly I am not as excited as when the Aerophone came out. The Yamaha, however, appears to be the most similar to a sax. At any rate I would not buy either without trying. I do believe that Rolands and AKAIs are totally different instruments with their own quirks, limitations and certain advantages. Not what I am looking for though (an alternative to practice the sax). Not the embouchure but fingerings & being able to access new sounds to make music. For that the Yamaha seems to be most promising. We'll see.

 

Here are some clips of Mindi Abair and Thorsten Skringer playing that thing:

 

Great find!
Thanks for posting.

 

it looks really nice and the price is certainly attractive look forward to actually hear what it plays like

 

thanks, I am looking for a comprehensive built is sounds sampler, I guess soon there will be more videos to that effect.

I will be looking at this thing as soon ast it appears in a shop near me. I really don’t have a particular use for a “ silent” horn but you never know.

I think that having introduced this model at this point in time, with the virus keeping people at home and people using the internet to play together this may be a real winner for Yamaha.

 

... I really don't have a particular use for a " silent" horn but you never know.

...

Don't let that stop you... GAS is GAS!

That's the question I'm asking myself. The answer is that the Aerophone and the EWI both have different things about them that I like and different things I don't like. For the EWI solo, I like that there are 200 sounds compared to the Aerophone's 120, but I like the sound of some of the Aerophone's sounds better. I like that the Aerophone has upper left hand palm keys where the EWI doesn't. But the EWI has a 7-octave range compared to the Aerophone's 5 octaves. I like the EWI's rechargeable battery compared to the Aerophone's 6 AA batteries. Some people don't like the clicking of the keys on the Aerophone which you have to press down compared to the EWI on which the "keys" are contacts which don't move. I can play fast on the Aerophone but it seems like I'm faster on those contacts that don't move. The Aerophone is louder unamplified, but I play them both through a QSC powered speaker. The Aerophone is stereo so I can run it out to 2 stereo speakers. The EWI is mono. I've far more playing time on the Aerophone so right now I prefer it, but the more I play the EWI, the more I like it. I just wish it had those upper left hand palm keys. Old muscle memory dies hard.

Thanks for the detailed feedback!

 

I just sold off my AE-05 Aerophone Go.
I bought it for practicing in hotel rooms when i travel for work.
The thought was to keep my fingers going, work on faster and faster playing, scales, exercises, etc...not really to play tunes.
I also bought the SWAM sax engines (a significant leap in sound quality from Roland's sounds).
All that and what I found is that, for me, the buttons on the Aerophone Go just did not help for what i was trying to do.
This is a great alternative, at least it looks like it.
It is a midi controller, or so it says, has a USB port, etc, so getting it to do what I would need is easy.

My issue though, is it is BIG, as big as a soprano, so for me travelling around for work, this is bulkier, but that is just what I would want it for.
That said, being able to plug in headphones and go practice at lunch in the parking lot at work (if we every go back to the office) would be great, etc.

Others must be excited about it, as sax.co.uk is already sold out!

 

Maybe they can develop a foldable model for easy transport.

 

it's electronic, why would it not do altissimo? key combinations are just lines of software code.

 

Well the fingering chart in the manual doesn't show any altissimo, and it only has one octave key. Similar electronic instruments have multiple octave keys. So please enlighten us on how this is done by pressing or not pressing just the one button. As a guy who writes software for a living, I'd be very interested to know how to get 3 or more states out of a 2 state input. The only ways I can think of are it's a rocker that goes up an octave if you press the bottom or 2 octaves if you press the top, or a double press goes up two or more pressure goes up two, or some combo of the octave key and some other key. Then how do you go back down from the top octave to the middle? There's no mention of any of that in the manual.

 

I am sure that it is only a software thing

 

are you talking about altissimo or overtones? most altissimo uses unique key combinations, not in the normal range.

 

An electronic instrument like this uses standard middle range fingerings for altissimo plus some way to make it sound up an octave or more. Given the fact that the fingering chart has no altissimo fingerings whatsoever and that a single sax altissimo note can have dozens of different fingerings, an octave key or keys is the only practical way to do it. If you look at the video I'm talking about, the "altissimo" G#6 is the same fingering as G#5 and G#4, but we can't see what's happening with the octave key. So the question remains, how is he telling the instrument to play up more than one octave.

 

I am not sure that someone programmed the keys combinations , but since the range is shiftable you can surely play higher than “ normal” range , the old Yamaha had a 6 (+/- 3 octave ) octave range if memory serves , so I suppose they could easily reach incredibly high notes with normal fingering and octave switch

 

FWIW my Aerophone GO does not document altissimo in their manual either but it does react to the few odd fingerings I know producing the right altissimo notes.
The benefit of having these keys programmed in is of course that you can practice them to later play on your regular sax, as opposed to the extended octaves concept.
Which BTW, on the Aerophone, there is a lower octave key that allows me to go to the octave below the lowest on a regular sax.

 

I think we are slightly overthinking the scope of this thing

 

I simply made the observation that someone was able to go up more than one octave and was wondering how he did it since there is no hint of multiple octaves above F#5 in the manual. If "altissimo" is the wrong term, then call it whatever you want. Since altissimo literally means "very high", I figured that was a valid description for it.

Mmichel has the most plausible theory about repurposing the low A key as a second octave key. Since this is undocumented, we'll just have to wait and get our answer after more people get their hands on one of these.

 

I didn’t say that anyone in particular was overthinking this in fact if anyone it is certainly not you mdavej , I simply said that this is an electronic saxophone, mostly targeted to play at home in an environment where loud instruments would not be accepted ( great in this day and age!) with some extended performance possibilities for in case someone wants to perform with this.

I think that Yamaha has targeted this for a very large market (as they mostly do being the largest music corporation in the world) and may not have built in so many characteristics which are appreciable mostly buy a very select group.

I agree that altissimo fingerings may not be at all within the scope of such an instrument.

 

I think Mindi nailed it in the video where she said it’s fun to mess around on and a great thing for people who don’t play saxophone to get a sax-like sound.
Someone mentioned portability...would be cool if the magical resonance bell detached, especially since it appears it’s completely non-essential to the functionality of the instrument.

 

I don't see any mention of a pitch bend sensor in the mouthpiece, or any setting to adjust one. There's a little thumb control called the "analog controller", which mostly does pitch bend, depending on which voice is chosen.

Am I missing something, or is there no way to bend the pitch with bite pressure - just like on the Casio DH-100?

 

I had noticed that too, since the horn uses a “ regular” mouthpiece this couldn’t be like the WX-5 where under the reed there was a pitch bend sensor

 

Maybe the YDS-62III will have better patches and altissimo?

 

The thing that disappointed me most in that first Mindi video is when she mentioned her husband. Well, I'm too old for her anyway ...