Yamaha UW500 Audio/MIDI Personal Studio Brings Recording Home

YAMAHA UW500 AUDIO/MIDI PERSONAL STUDIO BRINGS RECORDING HOME

—Single, High-Speed USB Connection Turns PC Into Comprehensive, Easy-to-Use Recording Studio for Any Musician—

BUENA PARK, CA (October 25, 2000)—Yamaha Corporation of America, Pro Audio & Combo Division, Digital Musical Instruments, continues its industry lead in providing music production tools for the growing home recording and project studio markets with the introduction of the UW500 Audio/MIDI Personal Studio, an all-in-one recording solution. With comprehensive analog inputs, digital in/out, multi-port MIDI capability, plus software for sequencing, tone generation and editing, the UW500 allows anyone with a PC—even a laptop—to transform their creative ideas into professional quality recordings faster than ever before.

UW500 front panel, showing analog and digital inputs.

"The UW500 is the perfect introductory package for musicians who are learning to use their computers to make music," stated Athan Billias, marketing manager, Digital Musical Instruments. "Using the UW500 is as easy as using a tape recorder, yet it utilizes technology which, only a few years ago, would have only been found in a high-tech recording studio. It's really a complete system."

By simply plugging a microphone, guitar, keyboard or other audio source into the UW500, users may record directly to their computer and simultaneously play back up to 100 tracks of MIDI and audio. A standard USB connection eliminates the need for multiple cables, providing high-speed transfer of audio and MIDI data.

UW500 rear panel.

The unit contains two 1/4-in. TRS phone jack inputs with MIC/GUITAR/LINE selector switches and level controls, with a third input reserved for line level signals. An optical digital input/output will accept a CD player, tone generator or other digital source and provide output for first generation recording to DAT or MD formats. Tracks may be monitored via the headphone output or an external stereo system. Selectable sampling rate (48/44.1/32 kHz) and 20-bit A/D, D/A converters deliver clear digital sound. The UW500 also features MIDI IN/OUT terminals, plus a special TO TG terminal, which provides 2 MIDI ins and 6 MIDI outs (32 in and 96 out with a compatible tone generator).

The inclusive Yamaha software package gets the studio up and running right away: the XGworks lite V3.0A Sequencer contains a full 100 tracks and comprehensive database of musical styles which allows users to record, cut, copy, paste and play back MIDI and audio data.

"The main advantage of the XGworks lite V3.0A software is that having a musical database of styles with drums, bass and keyboard tracks makes it easy for musicians who are not typically 'MIDI-oriented,' such as guitar players and vocalists, to start making computer-based MIDI music almost immediately," added Avery Burdette, product manager, Digital Musical Instruments.

The S-YXG50 SoftSynthesizer is a "virtual" synthesizer that uses the computer's processing power to generate sound from the MIDI tracks of XGworks lite V3.0A. TWE Wave Editor provides detailed editing for recorded audio data. A USB-MIDI Driver provides "plug and play" installation to a Windows computer, and a virtual patch bay which allows MIDI port assignments to be changed without repatching actual cables. System requirements include a host computer with MMX Pentium 166 MHz (or faster) CPU, with at least 32 MB RAM, a USB port and Windows 98 (or higher).

One of the UW500's strong points is the unique Trackdown function. Once a user creates MIDI tracks, they may be overdubbed and mixed with audio recordings. MIDI data in XGworks lite V3.0A plays back voices on the S-YXG50 SoftSynthesizer, and are then automatically mixed with audio tracks on the UW500—such as a vocal or guitar—and sent directly to the computer to be saved as a single audio file, where they may be used to create MP3 files or to burn CDs.

For more information on the UW500 USB Audio/MIDI Personal Studio, write Yamaha Corporation of America, Pro Audio & Combo Division, Digital Musical Instruments, P.O. Box 6600, Buena Park, CA 90622; telephone (714) 522-9011; e-mail info@yamaha.com; visit www.yamaha.com or www.yamahasynth.com.

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