Yamaha MDF2
A battery-powered floppy box that turned MIDI dumps into something you could carry in a gig bag.
Overview
The MDF2 MIDI Data Filer is a small, purpose-built box. It has a 3.5-inch floppy drive, a 16-character LCD, and enough MIDI I/O to copy the contents of any synth's memory onto a disk and send it back when the set list calls for it. Yamaha's own advertising listed it at $899.00, and collectors should treat that as the number that actually moved units.
The MDF2 does less than a sequencer and more than it sounds like. It stores MIDI data from any device with SysEx bulk-dump capability. It can also record MIDI in real time, so it doubles as a non-editable hardware sequencer. Think phrase player, not composing tool. The 3.5-inch drive reads and writes in real time, and each disk holds up to 99 sequence files. Playback tempo is variable between 30 and 250 bpm. The portable, battery-powered design (an AC adapter was available separately) mattered most to working players. The box could sit on a stage floor and never see a wall outlet.
Standard MIDI File compatibility is the quietly important spec. A filer that speaks SMF can move between studios and machines without a proprietary translator in the middle. The 16-character LCD is as stingy as it sounds, and you run this thing by memorized button sequences, not by browsing a menu. It does show a filename and a tempo, which is all you need mid-gig. One reader wrote to Sound on Sound (1996, p.14) asking about reliable MIDI data recorders for on-stage file playback, and people still seemed to be using their Yamaha MDF2s.
The MDF2 sits in an odd spot in the Yamaha catalog. It's not a synth, not a sequencer in the compositional sense, and not a sampler. It's a utility that every SysEx-heavy rig needed before flash memory and USB. It's the sort of device that gets tucked in a rack drawer and pulled out once a year, which is also why so many survive in working condition.
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