Tony Bacon reports from Yamaha's HQ in Hamamatsu, Japan, on the company's new products for 1988.

As we revealed exclusively in these pages last month, Yamaha will have some important new gear on its way to your local music shop in 1988. Having met the people in Japan responsible for the design and manufacture of new products, I'll fill in some detail. Please bear in mind that there is only a vague "some time in 1988" arrival date set for these instruments in the UK.

The occasion for the Japanese gathering of selected members of the European press was Yamaha's centenary — yes, it was way back in 1887 that Torakusu Yamaha built his first organ. To celebrate, Yamaha have produced special limited Centennial Edition versions of some instruments: like the 76-key DX7II Centennial model, with a silver body and gold buttons, sliders and wheels, costing half a million yen (around £2300), and limited to 300 units worldwide; and the 100th Anniversary YEG100A electric six-string with an ornately carved bout and a delicately inlaid bird design on the upper body.

But let's look at the new products for 1988. First, the long awaited Yamaha sampler. The 12-bit TX16W's attractive features include its three sampling rates (16.75kHz — 16.3 seconds maximum; 33.3kHz — 7.9 secs; and 50kHz — 5.2 secs), with stereo capability on the 33.3 rate; its maximum of six megabytes internal memory (achieved with three expansion boards); its 16-note polyphony; and its noise-defeating digital filter. You get seven discs with the machine; an operating system disc, plus six voice discs (pianos, brass, strings, choirs, basses, guitars), and Yamaha expect at least an additional 40 voice discs almost immediately, with more to follow. Most of the samples which we heard at Hamamatsu were at the 33.3 rate, and sounded good, despite the toppy sound system being used. Yamaha have yet to set a UK price for the TX16W, but we would estimate about £1900.

There are two main innovations on the new DX11 synthesiser (which has been renamed from the original Japanese model, the V2 — "this is a little strange for some British people" said a Yamaha person). The DX11 is multi-timbral (which recalls Korg's FM-based DS8 synth), and it marks Yamaha's first real attempt to make FM editing easier to mere mortals — the Quick Edit feature gives instant access to brilliance, volume, attack time and release time of any voice.

The DX11 is a four-operator, eight-voice, eight-waveform, multi-timbral FM synth with 61 keys and six potential split points. Well solid, we figure. It features: 128 preset voices, with 32 onboard spaces for user presets plus 64 per cartridge (voice data is compatible with the TX81Z, DX21, 27 and 100); stereo outs with pannable voices; built-in fx including a repeat delay (with pitch variation), an autopan effect, one-note chords (up to four simultaneous notes anywhere within two octaves of the keyed note), and Alternative mode, which cycles through voices as you hold one note or chord; and microtuning (as on the DX7II).

At the Yamaha HQ demo, a member of the DX11 design team told us, "People have said that FM instruments are somewhat difficult to program, so we have to try to make an instrument that is easy to use — but we still have to put the maximum capabilities into it." Again, no price has been set yet, but we estimate roughly £700.

There were three other main electronic product launches at Hamamatsu in November, and in all cases the arrival date and price in the UK are not yet finalised. The RX7 drum machine was rather overshadowed by the attention lavished on the sampler and the synth, but it looked and sounded to be a very useful, less expensive version of the RX5 (approximately half the price, we'd guess). Anständiges features include: 100 PCM sampled voices — virtually you name it, it's got it, from bass drum to "camera shutter click", and including the much-used-in Japanese-demo cry of "Get funky!"; you can stretch a voice out into a scale over 12 keys and play it like a keyboard; there are ten preset key assignments so that the machine instantly sets up a particular 'drum kit'; up to 100 99-measure patterns can make 20 'songs', which you can combine into three 'chains'; pitch, volume, pan and decay are editable for each voice, and up to three delayed repeats; and gradual tempo and volume changes can be effected within songs.

The TX1P piano tone generator uses the same Advanced Wave Memory sampling employed on the TX16W to deliver five piano presets, imaginatively called Piano 1, Piano 2, Electric Piano, Harpsichord, and Vibraphone, all treatable via the on-board chorus, transposed delay, and one-note chord maker. This might cost around £650, we'd estimate. The DEQ7 takes the SPX90 idea of preset effects and applies it to digital equalisation: 30 basic preset EQ 'types' are modifiable to your precise requirements and storable in 60 user memory spaces. We think this may sell for about £1200.

The Pro Audio division showed us some more new products, including some new mixers, a new twin-bass-driver version of the NS10M monitor called the NS40M, and some new mikes; the recording products boss told me he thought they'd be producing a digital home recording machine within "one to two years". Would that be tape-based, using DAT perhaps? "Possibly — or maybe using some other type of tape." Hmm.

We also managed to see some guitars, basses and FX not yet available in the UK — indeed I'm assured that many of them won't be sold here. Like the 900-odd quid HR1 — it appears to have such strangenesses as an on-board compressor, piezo pickups in the Rockin' Magic tremolo bridge, and a tuner built in to the top edge of the body. Unfortunately the horrific shape is "not very Britain", as a Yamaha UK person put it. I also spotted some Yamaha Select By EMG pickups, a range of new SDS pedals, including the GB100 bass equaliser and GC100 equaliser with compressor, and some lovely Centennial edition snares, including a luscious SD135 3½in brass piccolo drum.

The first time I interviewed a Japanese band I used an interpreter, and my first, rather dull question was, "What's the background to the Yellow Magic Orchestra?" Some time later the answer came back, "Mount Fuji." Served me right. Anyway, there'll be more Mount Fuji to Yamaha Japan's activities next month.