Title link takes you to shots pulled via this auction.Some details (see the auction for more):
"The VL1 was truly revolutionary and expensive ($6K) when it was first introduced. Although Yamaha was expected to release an even pricier polyphonic synth (the mythic VP1), soft sales of the VL1 led Yamaha to go the other way, cut the capabilities and release the VL-70m, which is roughly half the device. Although the VL70 can be tweaked to produce a satisfactory sound, and although some sort of physical modeling is included in the capabilities of a wide variety of synths today, most discerning players would agree that the VL1 has never been matched, particularly in the way that the sounds can be customized. You can hear this for yourself by comparing the sounds presented on the sites listed above [below in this post] with the sounds of any other synth, real or virtual. Others may sound similar, but the VL1 has an added depth and realism that can be clearly heard.
This synth is the sound designer's holy grail, and sound design is what I used it for. An unbelievable range of sounds can be produced quite quickly, and there's almost no limit if you're willing to spend time digging into the parameters. The time spent is truly enjoyable... you'll see hours slip by as you revel in your creations. You can program sounds on the device itself, or there are two programs that Yamaha released for Macintosh OS 9: a Visual Editor and an Expert Editor (the Expert Editor has been replicated for Windows 98). The visual editor is pure fun, and quite easy... you can mix and match a number of different parameters by simply clicking on options. The Expert Editor is where you can dive deep and really tweak things to either make them more real or truly unreal. I will include the Visual Editor for Mac OS 9 and the Expert Editor for both OS 9 and Windows 98 on a CD, along with the original floppy disks supplied by Yamaha."
Sound On Sound magazine's original 1994 review of the VL1 (the keyboard version)
Ken Barry's web page devoted to the VL1-m, including sounds generated by his Yamaha WX7
International Wind Synthesis Association
A couple of Harmony Central user reviews
Patchman Music patch samples for the VL1
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