This Yamaha computer was specialised in music and sound production. In fact it was a classic MSX 1, with a special Yamaha synthesizer built-in (SFG-01) and optional piano keyboard. It was clearly designed to be a computer for musicians.
You got 48 internal voices with a really suprising quality for that time. It was a real synthesizer (equivalent of the Yamaha DX-9 synth.), with which you could change or create your own sounds.
The CX5M was in fact the same computer as the Yamaha YS-503, but it had the SFG-01 Sound Module and MIDI interface integrated.
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Malcolm Ramage adds:
The FM sound module in the CX5M was the synthesizer guts of Yamaha's FB-01 sound module and with a little utility, you could swap sounds between the CX5 and the FB-01.
Yamaha also released the C1 music laptop, this was an IBM compatable laptop, with 4 inbuilt MIDI ports for musicians on the move. The only other laptops that had anything similar were the Atari STacy and the ST Book.
John's memories:
This was truly an innovative piece of equipment. Not only was it a DOS (MSX-DOS) computer, but it was just like having a DX-9 synth, if you had the YK-10/20 keyboard, which I, of course owned along with it.
I composed so many songs, concertos, hymns, etc on it. I had quite a few of the ROM cartridges, the disk drive, the SERIAL printer, the YK-20 keyboard and the FB-01 sound module (a DX-7 in a box).
You could edit all the sounds-EASILY! You could write and print music. You could write text documents. This thing was not only fast, but easy to program in BASIC. I wish I still had it. Someone should come up with something similar today....
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