The TQ-5 was an entry level FM Workstation in a keyboardless, sparsely decorated desktop unit. It takes after the smaller line of FM synthesizers like the DX-100, DX-21, DX-11, TX81Z, and FB-01. These featured 4 FM operators per voice, and 8 voices of polyphony. And like the latter three, 8-parts multitimbrality was featured. The TQ-5 also had easy "Quick Edit" keys to access some basic parameters for instant tweaks. The TQ-5 was capable of many of the good (and the bad) sounds FM synthesizers made.

The TQ-5 featured built-in digital effects and an 8-track sequencer (with 8 song capacity) rounding out the "workstation" aspect of this machine. Designed for use as a stand-alone FM workstation or as a MIDI module, the TQ-5 was poised to bring high-end FM sounds to entry-level users. Unfortunately it was released in 1990 when the DX and FM synthesizers were no longer the "in" thing in the market, so the TQ-5 tanked. Really low second hand prices help it to retain its original purpose...to provide an FM workstation for entry-level for musicians on a budget.

12 VISITOR COMMENTS

TheWolf

February 4, 2012 @ 1:03 pm

Hey everyone, I just picked one of these up the other day and am looking for an editor. I found yseditor, but it requires an atari st emulator to run, and getting this working has proved much too difficult for me. MidiQuest supports the tq5, but whenever I try to send edited patches from my comp to the tq, I get a checksum error on the tq's screen. Anyone have ANY ideas, or solutions to this problem? Thank you!

Mike

January 30, 2012 @ 7:00 pm

Just picked up one of these for $25, surprisingly warm and a decent set of FM synth sounds to be messed with. Excited to see whats under the hood!

Vukan

November 11, 2011 @ 12:56 am

Some nice TQ-5 Factory Presets (HQ):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTPdDdXCktQ

Enjoy!

c64remixer

June 22, 2011 @ 10:44 am

An under rated synth that on the surface may appeared humdrum at the time but get a PC.Mac editor and this becomes a fantastic 4 op FM synth to own with FX. Stack sounds to get monster basses or use a controller to really get expression from the sounds you make with this synth. Second hand prices are now going up as musicians discover the power of this forgotton late 80's machine.

NEPZ

June 9, 2011 @ 4:36 am

i had to change the volume knob of my Tq-5, i found exactly the same one at Mouser.com the ref is : Alps RK09K12C0A19, i'm going to replace the battery now, thanks to roy ;)

http://be.mouser.com/Search/ProductDetail.aspx?R=RK09K12C0 A19virtualkey68800000virtualkey688-RK09K12C0A19

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