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MIDI is a technical standard that describes a communication protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, computers, and related audio devices for playing, editing, and recording music.
General MIDI is a standardized specification for electronic musical instruments that respond to MIDI messages. GM was developed by the American MIDI Manufacturers Association (MMA) and the Japan MIDI Standards Committee (JMSC) and first published in 1991. The official specification is available in English from the MMA, bound together with the MIDI 1.0 specification, and in Japanese from the Association of Musical Electronic Industry (AMEI).
An electronic keyboard, portable keyboard, or digital keyboard is an electronic musical instrument based on keyboard instruments. Electronic keyboards include synthesizers, digital pianos, stage pianos, electronic organs and digital audio workstations. In technical terms, an electronic keyboard is a rompler-based synthesizer with a low-wattage power amplifier and small loudspeakers.
Yamaha XG is an extension to the General MIDI standard, created by Yamaha. It is similar in purpose to the Roland GS standard.
The Roland MT-32 Multi-Timbre Sound Module is a MIDI synthesizer module first released in 1987 by Roland Corporation. It was originally marketed to amateur musicians as a budget external synthesizer with an original list price of $695. However, it became more famous along with its compatible modules as an early de facto standard in computer music. Since it was made prior to the release of the General MIDI standard, it uses its own proprietary format for MIDI file playback.
A sound module is an electronic musical instrument without a human-playable interface such as a piano-style musical keyboard. Sound modules have to be operated using an externally connected device, which is often a MIDI controller, of which the most common type is the musical keyboard. Another common way of controlling a sound module is through a sequencer, which is computer hardware or software designed to record and playback control information for sound-generating hardware. Connections between sound modules, controllers, and sequencers are generally made with MIDI, which is a standardized interface designed for this purpose.
There have been various families of Yamaha audio controllers labelled as YMF7xx.
The Yamaha RM1x is a groovebox manufactured by Yamaha from 1999 to 2002. It integrates several, commonly separate, pieces of music composition and performance hardware into a single unit: a step-programmable drum machine, a synthesizer, a music sequencer, and a control surface.
The Soundscape Elite was Ensoniq's high-end ISA PC sound card offering. It offers the highest MIDI quality of any PC sound card Ensoniq produced. The board is an evolution of the company's previous Soundscape S-2000. The Soundscape ELITE was launched in March 1995.
The Roland Sound Canvas lineup is a series of General MIDI (GM) based pulse-code modulation (PCM) sound modules and sound cards, primarily intended for computer music usage, created by Japanese manufacturer Roland Corporation. Some models include a serial or USB connection, to a personal computer.
The Roland SC-55 is a GS MIDI sound module released in 1991 by Roland. The SC-55 was the first sound module to incorporate the new General MIDI standard. It was the first in the Roland Sound Canvas series.
Roland GS, or just GS, sometimes expanded as General Standard or General Sound, is a MIDI specification. It requires that all GS-compatible equipment must meet a certain set of features and it documents interpretations of some MIDI commands and bytes sequences, thus defining instrument tones, controllers for sound effects, etc.
The Yamaha CS1x is a sample-based synthesizer released by the Yamaha Corporation in 1996. Aimed primarily at dance musicians, the CS1x features analogue synthesizer-style rotary controllers and monotimbral synth voices.
The CS1x was succeeded in 1999 by the CS2x synthesizer.
The Yamaha CS2x is a sample-based synthesizer released by the Yamaha Corporation in 1999. The CS2x is designed for maximum real-time control, according to Yamaha. It is the successor of the very successful Yamaha CS1x. Enhancements include 64-note polyphony, a bigger sample ROM, a 24 dB/oct LPF/HPF filter and a two-band EQ per part/layer. The CS acronym stands for Control Synthesizer.
The Sirius is a keyboard "groove-synth," featuring a subtractive hybrid-tone-generation synthesizer referred to as DTE synthesis introduced in 1997 by Quasimidi. The unit featured both real-time and step sequencers with pattern- and song-modes, capable of acting basic drum machine, groove-box, or sound-module.
The Split-8 is a polyphonic analogue keyboard synthesizer manufactured by Sequential Circuits. Built in Japan and going by the alternative name Pro-8 in some markets, this was one of the last synthesizers produced by the company and was assigned model number 608. It was released in 1985 at a list price of $1,199. This and some other Sequential Circuits synthesizers were built around the Curtis Electronics CEM 3394 "synth-on-a-chip" integrated circuit, and used a Z80 as their central microprocessor.
The Clavia Nord Drum is an analog modeling percussion synthesizer. It was first introduced at the NAMM Show in 2012, and was made available in March 2012. Since then, two updated versions have been released; the Nord Drum 2 & Nord Drum 3P.
The Roland ED SC-8850 is a GS-compatible MIDI sound module released in 1999 by Roland under the name RolandED. The SC-8850 was the first sound module to incorporate the new General MIDI Level 2 standard. The SC-8850 uses a PCM sampling engine based on that of the SC-88 Pro, and supports 128-voice polyphony with 64-part multitimbrality. It came preloaded with the soundsets of all older Sound Canvas models, as well as the CM-32 and MT-32. Aimed at personal computer users, the SC-8850 features 1,703 instrument patches, including the GS sounds and additional GM2 sounds. The selection of effects includes reverb, chorus, and Roland's own Insertion EFX, which adds effects like vibrato, distortion, tremolo, etc.
A digital accordion is an electronic musical instrument that uses the control features of a traditional accordion to trigger a digital sound module that produces synthesized or digitally sampled accordion sounds or, in most instruments, a range of non-accordion sounds, such as orchestral instruments, pipe organ, piano, guitar, and so on. Digital accordions typically encode and transmit key presses and other input as Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) messages. Most digital accordions need to be plugged into a keyboard amplifier or PA system to hear their sounds.