The Yamaha SY85 and Yamaha Motif are advanced music workstations with robust features for musicians. Both use Yamaha's Advanced Wave Memory (AWM) technology. The SY85 offers 30-note polyphony and a 6 MB waveform ROM, while the Motif has an 84 MB equivalent waveform ROM and 62-note polyphony. The SY85 features 256 voices and 128 performance combinations, whereas the Motif provides 384 factory voices and 128 user voice memories. Both have programmable digital filters and high-quality effects, with the Motif offering more comprehensive effects processing. The SY85 includes pitch and modulation wheels with eight slide controls, while the Motif adds four assignable sliders and knobs. The SY85 has a 9-track, 10-song sequencer, and the Motif boasts a 16-track linear/pattern-based sequencer with a 110,000-note capacity. Storage methods differ, with the SY85 using floppy disks and the Motif utilizing SmartMedia cards and SCSI drives.

Dreaming of an Akai S950, E-mu E4X Hollywood Gold, or an Ensoniq ASR-10? These fantastic devices are full of charm and character, but they've become nearly unreachable due to their skyrocketing prices. They still provide that coveted vintage vibe, but they're increasingly hard to find without being overused to the point of abuse.

What about the rest of us? Those with an eager desire to sample the old way but not wanting to sell a kidney or rob a bank just to buy a dream sampler? Well, I'm happy to say we have a path to follow — one that won't break the bank while still delivering authentic vintage sampling goodness.

Let me introduce you to some hidden gems from the golden era of hardware samplers that deliver professional-grade sampling at a fraction of the cost. These  models flew under the radar compared to their more famous siblings, but they pack serious sampling power that deserves your attention today!

It all started in 1985 with the Akai S612, which was the first in a series of relatively affordable samplers designed in a 19-inch studio-rack format. It could hold only a single sample at a time, which was loaded into memory via a separate disk drive utilizing 2.8-inch Quick Disks. It featured an analog filter - a farewell goodbye to the analog era, a characteristic which would rocket launch its price 30 years later. Being half-computer itself, the S612 paved the way for dozens of successors that invaded the market so quickly that the rackmount sampler concept became inextricably linked to Akai to this day, even though Akai does not exist anymore as that '80s company and has not created any new rackmount sampler since the Z-series of 2002. Why, would you ask? Well, "because of computers" would be a generic answer. But let's better dive into the history and see how Akai progressed and which models were produced.

2018 is the year of hybrid sound synthesis. Half of the synthesizers in the ranking is a delicious blend of analog + digital synthesis in different proportions. Sometimes even digital + digital, which is also interesting. Another half is an attempt to recreate the behavior of cult synthesizers of past years. This is our only chart for 3 years in which there are two MOOG synthesizers at once! This is an interesting and versatile chart, which you should familiarize yourself with and express your opinion, because otherwise you definitely risk missing something important!

FM synthesis is revitalized last years with the advent of a large number of new instruments, starting with cheap KORG volca FM and ending with the top Yamaha Montage. At the NAMM 2018, Elektron introduced its new synthesizer - Digitone, which offers its own version of multi-engine synthesis. Read further about the features of the Swedish company's new tool.