Question 1

Are the speakers loud enough to keep up with an acoustic guitar, or would it be drowned out?

Accepted Answer

I depends on how loud the guitar is. I've jammed with someone on guitar in a hotel room no problem.

Question 2

can you layer the sounds on the reface dx?

Accepted Answer

No layering unless you are controlling it from a keyboard with it's own sounds via MIDI.  But then you couldn't layer the keyboards that the YC emulates, either.  It's pretty true to the Hammond, Vox, Farfisa, Ace-Tone and the original Yamaha YC organ.  Knowledge of the tones for these organs will help you with getting the sound close to the original (like Farfisa not having a 5 1/3' or anything above 4' or the Vox Continental not having 5 1/3' or 1 1/3').  It's really sturdy for its size and I think it's great.  I own 2 Hammonds, have owned 2 Vox Continentals, a Farfisa Mini Compact, and still have an Elka Panther.  This board does the sounds extremely well.

Question 3

Can it emulate a clean (no synth) electric bass? A hand injury has made it impossible to fret the guitar, but keyboard is OK.

Accepted Answer

I have not tried to do this with my Reface CS, but there are so many sound combinations that I am certain a setting can be found to emulate this.  The synthesizer does not save settings without using a website connection, so you may be more interested in a digital synthesizer with a bass wavetable sample, which will emulate a bass guitar without experimentation.  Yamaha also has a Reface DX synthesizer which creates its synthesis in a different way (frequency modulation as opposed to simulated analog synthesis) but again, to get the exact tone you want, you would need to experiment with it.   If you want to do JUST bass, you might want to specifically search for products that are specialized for "keyboard bass".

Question 4

will it record a loop from a plugged in microphone for playback? or does it only record loops from within the machine?

Accepted Answer

Only internal sounds

ASIN	B010UXJZWA
Age Range Description	Adult
Brand Name	Yamaha
Color	Black
Connectivity Technology	Auxiliary
Connector Type	3.5mm Jack
Customer Reviews	4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars (563)
Finish Type	Polished
Global Trade Identification Number	00086792999531
Headphones Jack	3.5mm Jack
Included Components	Built-in speaker system
Instrument	Synthesizer
Item Dimensions	75 x 23.9 x 9.9 centimeters
Item Type Name	Portable FM Synthesizer, 37 Key Mini Keyboard, 4 Operator Sound Engine Interfaces, Built-in Speakers
Item Weight	6 Pounds
Manufacturer	Cascio Interstate Music
Manufacturer Part Number	REFACE DX
Model Name	REFACE DX
Model Number	reface DX
Number of Items	1
Number of Keys	37
Power Source	Battery Powered
Set Name	Pre-set Voices
Size	Synthesizer
Skill Level	All
Special Features	Portable
Style	FM Synthesizer
Supported Software	Ableton Live, Logic Pro, FL Studio
UPC	086792999531
Unit Count	1 Count

Yamaha REFACE DX Portable FM Synthesizer

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