A great module on its own, an amazing complement to everything else in the studio

You may be familiar with Yamaha's other more popular offerings from before the MU series and after - the SY/TG units and the Motif series. This to me is pretty much a hybridization of those two. The sounds are very synthetic, which is to be expected considering the era and target audience, but unlike the competition (other modules like the Roland SC units, for example), it fully embraces its artificialness.

I wanna give a special shoutout to the seller who I imported this module from - it's by far the most well-kept item I have in my collection so far, the LCD is so crisp, the display itself has a very pristine contrast level, and there's absolutely no visible scuffs or marks or anything. It's a delight to look at, even if the buttons on mine are a bit yellowed (that's common, sadly, but they still work! That's the most important part).

Looks wise, it honestly looks like a miniature Akai unit. It's far too different to be an Akai unit, but you can make out an S950 or S1100 if you squint your eyes a bit, and I love it for that. It stands out in my rack because of that (and well because it's so pristine! Many thanks once again, seller on Yahoo! Auctions).

Inputs and outputs - you have 2 MIDI inputs, one out, and a thru. You also have a MIDI port on the front, for ease of connectivity with keyboards and whatnot, but I personally don't need it. You also have a pair of RCA plugs for an output, and also an input, typically you'd pipe your PC audio through the input and pipe the output to your speakers. Here, though, I'm passing through other synthesizers because I don't have a mixer.

If you have an old PC with a set of appropriate drivers, you can access two more sets of MIDI channels, bringing up the total to 64. Over plain ol' MIDI you can only use 32, and personally I don't care to use more than 16 (since I already have so many other synths, and honestly I don't really have a need to use more than 16 parts anyway).

You also have a pair of A/D inputs on the front. You can treat it as two mono inputs (microphone, guitar, keyboard, whatever), or a single stereo input (for "raw" audio stuff, or just as another passthrough). I'm happy to say that these work flawlessly on my unit, I've heard that these are a common failure point on these units. You can even pass this audio through effects on the unit itself, meaning it ALSO doubles as an effects box! That right there is a very niche feature that Yamaha didn't even need to implement, yet they chose to anyway.

In fact, a lot of little niche "fun" features were implemented that make this box even more of a delight to use. None of this really matters sound wise, or even usability wise, but seeing the cat just pop in sometimes to wave or to put sunglasses on is always nice. I sadly don't get to see this all the time, because my MU128 is in the rack, not on my desktop. I want to put it on my desktop now, it'd be easier to use that way too, since the interface is meant to be interacted with...

Sounds wise, though... hoo, boy. This synth has a CHARM, the sounds are very artificial and fake, yeah, but they have a quality and timbre that... honestly no other synth in my collection does. It's the perfect late-90s SNES-PSX kinda sound that I've been craving, and this delivers and then some. It's the PERFECT compliment to my other synths that tend to have a more down-to-earth, fuller, more realistic sound, where this is just bright and peppy and plastic-y (for a lack of better word). You can make entire tracks with just this thing, and it's meant for that. However, combining it with other synths really brings out the best in both worlds.

Heck - it even works wonders in video games! I've been playing through DOOM (the DOS one) with a map pack and just had this thing blast a soundtrack out, and it sounded so, so nice. I had a grin from end to end from what I was hearing, I felt like I was a kid in the late 90s (despite only having been born in the early 00s). The sounds are entirely different, but they're ultimately trying to be the same thing. The balancing, mix and overall sound stays just as great to my ears as it would on a SC-55 (and seeing as this module claims to be General MIDI compatible, that's to be expected, but even the SC8850, which is a direct successor sometimes falters).

It's safe to say this is a keeper, and probably would be my desert island synth (at least for the time being). I've only been with it for a few days, but if you can get this reaction out of me with just a few days of messing around, then I'd say you successfully sold a product to me (and well it's not like you can buy this new, so haha).

From Gear Setup

Very nostalgic sounds!

I still love Yamaha XG patches and drums! I like the 1xx series more than the early 50/80 incarnations, as the 1xx series shares patches with my first ever keyboard, the Yamaha PSR-280 (especially the Piano and Strings).