Yahama Ry9 Rhythm Programmer
(Homepage - http://www.shirleyjbutler.ic24.net) The Yamaha RY9 is a great little piece of work, and I wish I had had one of these little beauties back in the 60's and 70's. It's one of the best gizmos that I have ever used to get practice with, and I wouldn't like to be without it now that I have acquainted myself with it. It is very easy to program it with whatever chord sequences and rhythm patterns you want. And what have you got at the end of the programming? You've got a ready made group with which you can get hours of practice, and they never get tired, and they never get grouchy if you make mistakes or play a bum note or two. I learned how to program it within half an hour from the manual that comes with the RY9 - or as it is also known Big Jam. There are loads of patterns that you can use to create songs on the RY9 for R&R. heavy rock, ballads and such. However, if you want to keep your creations that you have programmed into the RY9 then it's a good idea to run it on batteries, that way there is always a feed of juice to keep the memories intact. A very nice feature of the RY9 is that you can plug a pair of headphones in so you don't disturb anyone, and there is an input that allows you to plug in a guitar and practice with the programmed backing and hear the whole performance in the headphones - you could rock all night long and your neighbours would never know - or you could plug it into your amp, crank it up, and your neighbours could end up believing that you've got one of the best groups around. There is no end to what you can do with this super little gizmo.
	This is a very nice little piece of kit. It's not quite the size of a VHS tape but it's packed with features that make it very nice and very useful. I've got nothing but praise for this little doosey. It's a real kik ass when you need some intensive practice to iron out some riffs or to play a particular piece. I LOVE IT. This is great for creating drum patterns and backing tracks. It is MIDI compatible and has the facility that allows you to plug in a guitar and play any of the 50 built-in AWM voices. It is very versatile and has to be seen and heard to believe how great it is. By the way, the RRP for this is about $299 USD.
On the left hand side of the RY9 is an output volume slider. There is also a socket for headphones so that you can use the unit without disturbing anyone else. Built into it are about 49 songs already created for you. However, you can soon learn how to create new ones for your self.
	Here we have the back of the unit. There are sockets to allow you to plug it into an amplifier, midi sockets in and out, Ext In which allows you to plug in a guitar, a DC socket and an on and standby switch.
Here you can see a close up of some of the control buttons and selectors that allow you to do some rather natty stuff with this incredible little gizmo.
	Here you can see more close ups of the buttons that you use to control this little sweet-heart. You can also see the tape type transport buttons that allow you to record and playback patterns and tracks.
Back