SY series
SY85 inherits the PCM section of SY99. While the polyphony is increased to 30, AFM section is discarded in 85. The PCM voice architecture are similar. BEF (Band Eliminate Filter) is added in SY85, but SY99's two-tiered filter is lost.
SY55/TG55 can be seen as the base model of SY85, as their synth engine is exactly the PCM section of SY77/99. But I feel TG55 sounds warmer. I don't know it's due to the differences of the synth engine, or of the sample ROM.
TG500 is the rackmount version of SY85 with added polyphony (64 voices, though theres's some limitation depending on what wave bank is used). The waveform ROM is expanded to 8MB in TG500, and TG500 can receive polyphonic aftertouch. TG500 has no Layer Voice Edit, and its RAM can be expanded up to 1MB.
YAMAHA SY99 (1991)
YAMAHA TG500 (1992)
YAMAHA released W5 / W7 to compete with other rompler workstations - Roland JV-1000, KORG 01/W and others. W series has the newly made 8MB ROM with GM oriented sounds. The expansion ROM board is made available instead of sample RAM - as if to catch up with Roland JV. The synth engine is the same with SY85, but is updated to 4-oscillator architecture.
YAMAHA W5 (1994)
Roland JV-80 came out slightly earlier than SY85. The 40*2 LCD and the 8 editing sliders made them look similar. Both are rather simple romplers. Later, Roland released JV-1000, the workstation version. JV is expandable with ROM boards, while SY85 had sample RAM.
Roland JV-80 (1992)
Roland JV-1000 (1993)
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SY85
Deep Synthesis: Home10. 15. 2005