An electronic musical instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound using electronic circuitry. Such an instrument sounds by outputting an electrical, electronic or digital audio signal that ultimately is plugged into a power amplifier which drives a loudspeaker, creating the sound heard by the performer and listener.
The graphical user interface is a form of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices through graphical icons and visual indicators such as secondary notation, instead of text-based user interfaces, typed command labels or text navigation. GUIs were introduced in reaction to the perceived steep learning curve of command-line interfaces (CLIs), which require commands to be typed on a computer keyboard.
MIDI is a technical standard that describes a communications 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. A single MIDI link through a MIDI cable can carry up to sixteen channels of information, each of which can be routed to a separate device or instrument. This could be sixteen different digital instruments, for example.
The Synclavier was an early digital synthesizer, polyphonic digital sampling system, and music workstation manufactured by New England Digital Corporation of Norwich, Vermont. It was produced in various forms from the late 1970s into the early 1990s. The instrument has been used by prominent musicians.
A music sequencer is a device or application software that can record, edit, or play back music, by handling note and performance information in several forms, typically CV/Gate, MIDI, or Open Sound Control (OSC), and possibly audio and automation data for DAWs and plug-ins.
A software synthesizer, also known as a softsynth, or software instrument is a computer program, or plug-in that generates digital audio, usually for music. Computer software that can create sounds or music is not new, but advances in processing speed now allow softsynths to accomplish the same tasks that previously required the dedicated hardware of a conventional synthesizer. Softsynths are usually cheaper and more portable than dedicated hardware, and easier to interface with other music software such as music sequencers.
A digital piano is a type of electronic keyboard designed to serve primarily as an alternative to the traditional piano, both in the way it feels to play and in the sound produced. It is intended to provide an accurate simulation of an acoustic piano. Some digital pianos are also designed to look like an ordinary piano, both the upright or grand piano. Digital pianos use either a synthesized emulation or samples of an actual piano, which are then amplified through an internal loudspeaker. Digital pianos incorporate weighted keys, which recreate the feel of an acoustic piano.
A music workstation is an electronic musical instrument providing the facilities of:
An electronic keyboard or digital keyboard is an electronic musical instrument, an electronic or digital derivative of keyboard instruments.
Broadly speaking, the term electronic keyboard or just a keyboard can refer to any type of digital or electronic keyboard instrument. These include synthesizers, digital pianos, stage pianos, electronic organs and digital audio workstations. However, an electronic keyboard is more specifically a synthesizer with a built-in low-wattage power amplifier and small loudspeakers.
Reason is a digital audio workstation for creating and editing music and audio developed by Swedish software developers Propellerhead Software. It emulates a rack of hardware synthesizers, samplers, signal processors, sequencers, and mixers, all of which can be freely interconnected in an arbitrary manner. Reason can be used either as a complete virtual music studio or as a set of virtual instruments to be used with other sequencing software in a fashion that mimics live performance.
A digital audio workstation (DAW) is an electronic device or application software used for recording, editing and producing audio files. DAWs come in a wide variety of configurations from a single software program on a laptop, to an integrated stand-alone unit, all the way to a highly complex configuration of numerous components controlled by a central computer. Regardless of configuration, modern DAWs have a central interface that allows the user to alter and mix multiple recordings and tracks into a final produced piece.
The Korg DW-8000 synthesizer was an eight-voice polyphonic hybrid digital-analog synthesizer 61-note keyboard instrument released in 1985. By the time of its launch Korg had already begun a common trend in 1980s synthesizer design: using numerical codes to access or change parameters with the Korg Poly-61, which was widely regarded as the company's first 'knobless' synthesizer. This was a move away from the heavily laden, complex control panels of earlier designs.
Studio Session is a 1986 software program for Macintosh computers, for music creation and playback. It was created by Macintosh and Newton pioneer Steve Capps and musician Ed Bogas. The program was published by Impulse, Inc..
The Roland MC-909 Sampling Groovebox combines the features of a synthesizer, sequencer, and sampler, with extensive hands-on control of both the sound engine and the sequencing flow. It was intended primarily for live performance of pre-programmed patterns consisting of up to 16 tracks of MIDI data. It was released by Roland Corporation on October 8, 2002. This product was announced at the AES Fall Convention in 2002. It is the direct successor to the Roland MC-505, and is the predecessor to the Roland MC-808 which eventually ended the "Groovebox" line of products by Roland which began in the mid 1990s with the original MC-303.
It was developed from the blueprint of Roland's own "Fantom" workstation and uses the same structure and operating system, with some differences regarding the Patterns section, not implemented in the Fantom.
The Roland MC-808 is Roland's latest and final groovebox, announced at the Winter NAMM in 2006. It is the successor to the late Roland MC-303, Roland MC-307, Roland MC-505 and Roland MC-909. Though cheaper than the Roland MC-909, it has a number of features the Roland MC-909 lacked including double the polyphony (128-voice) and motorized faders. It lacks SRX card expandability, and turntable emulation, which the Roland MC-909 has. It supports more flash memory and more RAM than did the Roland MC-909. It has a 2-line segment built-in LCD that is less flexible - similar to the late Roland MC-505, and much smaller than the Roland MC-909 large LCD screen. It also has a large LED display, similar to the late Roland MC-303. The Roland MC-808 requires a USB connection to a computer for full patch editing, unlike the Roland MC-909.
The Yamaha PortaSound VSS-200 is a portable musical keyboard released by the Yamaha Corporation in 1988.
The LG enV3 is a mobile phone built by LG Electronics, and released from Verizon Wireless in the United States and Telus Mobility in Canada. It succeeded the LG enV2. Along with a slimmer design, the enV3 also boasts a full keyboard, a 2.6-inch screen and a 3.0-megapixel camera. In addition to standard phone and text messaging capabilities, the enV3 can be used as a portable music player as well as Internet capabilities such as e-mail and web browsing. The phone is Bluetooth enabled.
The Kaleidica Light Instrument, is software developed by Chuck Henderson and published by Fishrock Studios for creating symmetrical and abstract pattern art, animations and real-time user-generated light-shows much like a mechanical kaleidoscope. Kaleidica creates imagery and script-generated animations based on a number of geometric algorithms that arrange arrays of images or animation clips in various user-determined patterns. Composed of multiple internal "studios," Kaleidica can produce patterns reminiscent of kaleidoscope art, Arabic tapestries, psychedelic "op-art," mandala and yantra meditative patterns, and abstract forms akin to Kandinsky or Renoir. Kaleidica uses images as brushes that are selected from a collection of image libraries. Images libraries can be changed and new libraries can be created by users. Animated brush effects are created by cycling through a series of images creating three dimensional and abstract effects.
