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The Yamaha TX16W, the annoying sampler
- Jonathan Dean
- Dec 29, 2025
- 4 min read
Let me start this blog by saying I own 2 of these annoying samplers released by Yamaha to the market in 1988.
Why is this sampler annoying?
From a sound perspective the tones generated by this sampler are still relevant. The Yamaha TX16W's sampling engine is 12-bit so a slightly more advanced than some of the other units that were being retailed in the late 1980's.
It also has the capability to playback multiple samples through multiple audio outputs on the rear of the unit. A great feature for the small studio to use when composing the stable dance tracks of the era.
It is not the sampling and sound playback that is the problem with this sampler, it is actually crackers / bonkers operating system that was included with the sampler.
Operating System Updates
At the point of powering up the sampler requests a disk as there is no operating system stored in a Read Only Memory (ROM) on the unit. This was not uncommon as several keyboards from this era also used this method for initiating the keyboard functions. In some ways this was a good move:
Keyboards produced prior to this had their operating systems on a ROM. If the manufacturer released an update to the operating system, then the musician would be required to take the keyboard to a service centre where one or more chips would need to be removed and replaced with chips containing the new code. In some instances, there were also minor circuit board modifications that had to be made to accommodate the new operating system and fix bugs.
Where the operating system is loaded from disk each time the instrument is booted a new version of the operating system can be loaded by simply updating the code stored on the disk. That is assuming that the bugs identified didn't also need modifications to the internal electronics.
The Yamaha Operating System
Obviously to make the sampler work Yamaha released version 1 of the operating system with the sampler. Over the course 1988 Yamaha released several versions of the operating system culminating in version 2.1 being the final version.
If Yamaha were releasing new versions of the operating system addressing the issues why was it still not liked. Musicians still called the operating system user-unfriendly, complex and cumbersome.
Yamaha structured the functions into a series of menus that were accessed through the interface on the front of the sampler. This sampler did not have a Visual Display Unit (VDU) output like many of its peers. To make it do something the musician would be constantly going up and down the menu structure.
The other annoying thing I have found using this menu structure is that there is no <BACK> button. This means it you select the wrong option you must start at the top of the structure again.
Not all the functions that the sampler can perform are loaded into the memory of the sampler when the initial operating system is loaded. This is true even when the sampler has had its memory fully expanded like the 2 samplers that I own. Often you need to put the operating system disk back into the sampler to perform the function selected. The most common annoyance for me is formatting a floppy disk to save data to. This is an important task as, in general, you can only save data to disks that have been formatted in the Yamaha TX16W.
The workflow for creating and saving sampler data was not intuitive. The sequence to create and save the parameters of the sample had to be followed and if the musician missed a step they might have to start the process again.
The Yamaha TX16W was well specified for the time it was released, but the poor implementation of the operating system. The memory on the sampler had to be expanded as the initial operating system and filter table implementation would occupy a good chunk of the 1.5Mb that the unit shipped with.
The obvious question was why didn't Yamaha fix these issues with one of the operating system releases?
Other Operating Systems
The answer to the question is why Yamaha didn't fix the issues. No one really knows.
About 6 years after the Yamaha TX16W was released. A software engineer reverse engineered the hardware and wrote a new operating system, Typhoon. The engineer thought about what he was trying to achieve and created an operating system that was considered easier to navigate and occupied a smaller footprint in the memory.
The same engineer also created a conversion program for the samples that were created in the original Yamaha operating system to work in the Typhoon operating system. This was only in one direction Yamaha operating system to Typhoon operating system.
It is for this reason that most users of the Yamaha TX16W will use Typhoon as its operating system.
Other Yamaha TX16W programs
Other software engineers wrote utility programs for this sampler. Utilities were written to:
Format floppy disks in a fraction of the time that the original operating system did,
Copy data between disks to allow a backup to be made again in a fraction of the time that the original operating system did.
These utility disks worked by loading in a stripped-down version of the operating system, that was dedicated to the task it was written for.
There are other utilities that are lurking in the corners of the internet. It is not clear whether these were licenced originally, but most appear to be shareware now.
Until next time!
About the Author
Jon describes himself as a frustrated musician with a passion for the electronic instruments that help him and other musicians be creative. He started playing keyboards in his late teens and re-ignited his passion, building a new studio following his separation.
About the Blog
The Music Tech Guy UK's Blog, Website, and YouTube channel were started to share Jon's experiences and views on the industry at large, how they affect small musicians, and provide technical tips on configuring and maintaining the equipment he owns.