Various TG77 & SY77 manuals and information. Despite Yamaha calling the sound engine "Realtime Convolution and Modulation Synthesis", that's a mouthful of nothing to say it's: FM Synthesis + ROMpler. Although one unique thing about its synthesis engine is from what I understand the ROMpler waveforms can be used as FM synthesis carriers, which is a first. It also has looping envelope generators which you don't see too often.
I've no idea why Yamaha split the TG77 manual in three parts. It's not the original source (they must have lost it?) so they just had someone scan in a printed copy during their lunch break.
External patch editors for the SY77/TG77 are few and far between. A good portion of those serious just ended up using the physical panel as it's good enough and usable (unlike the FS1R!!!)
Ctrlr's Editor: https://ctrlr.org/yamaha-sy-tg77-editor/
Unfortunately it looks like Ctrlr's editor is basically abandonware. There isn't anywhere to download 5.3.83, and you need that because the prior version has some SERIOUS bugs.
MIDI-Quest's oldskool editor (paid): https://squest.com/Products/MidiQuest12/Instruments/YamahaTG77/
Coffeeshopped's editor (paid and mac-only): https://coffeeshopped.com/patch-base/editor/yamaha/tg77
TG7/SY77 MIDI Designer Template (paid and iOS-only): https://mididesigner.com/qa/4128/layout-yamaha-sy77-tg77-voice-editor
Free editor created with JUCE: https://github.com/nseaSeb/Sysex77
A lot of people refer to these as TG-77s or SY-77s (with the dashes). The official product name does not have a dash; Roland is notorious for placing dashes so this is what most likely sticks in peoples' subconscious. I have to admit even myself I'm always having to train myself to exclude it :p
To be honest I think there should be a dash, but whatever... it was Yamaha's decision to omit it.
You may have noticed that the display on the TG77 or SY77 is getting pretty dim! The reason is, they don't use a fluorescent backlight but instead use a electroluminescent layer. Electroluminescent backlights are more prone to fading out over time than either fluorescent or LED backlights. The actual liquid crystal display itself is generally fine though.
There are in fact many different replacement panels and options available: (new) electroluminescent, (new old stock) fluorescent, (new) LED, and (new) OLED backlights: but the most common now are the LED backlight panels of which vary in colour. In my opinion the OLED ones looked the sharpest. None of the replacements except the electroluminescent replacements offer the original "ice blue" colour, so if that's important to you, there is a method of getting that restored.
2023 Update: Stephen @ Lux Displays has temporarily paused the display business due to the workload, it will most likely be resumed at an indetermined amount of time.
If you're going for a conventional LED replacement, you may need to perform a simple mod to prevent over-volting, Don Solaris has an article about that here, and I've also included the PDF for the installation process:
Alright, you want that original Ice Blue aesthetic! You'll have to buy some replacement foil and perform a little surgery and soldering to get it installed.
NESynth is selling some replacement electroluminescent layers that have ice blue (there were some other sellers with them, and you're free to shop around of course, but these were the most vibrant I saw and vibrance is what we want):
And here's the PDF process for replacing the ELD foil:
That about does it, enjoy the Ice Blue experience of electroluminescence. Of course there are other colours too, but I think it's nice to keep the original stock look for the synthesizer.
Silverlight2004 has some good demos and custom patches on the TG77:
To order them as per the descriptions on the YouTube descriptions:
"Vol 4 is available as a sysex file by email (as are Vols 1 - 3) by sending USD$10 to my paypal at silverlight2004@hotmail.com"
For buying all four volumes, it would be: $40 USD.
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