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. The specification originates in the paper Universal Synthesizer Interface published by Dave Smith and Chet Wood of Sequential Circuits at the 1981 Audio Engineering Society conference in New York City.
A digital piano is a type of electronic keyboard instrument designed to serve primarily as an alternative to the traditional acoustic piano, both in the way it feels to play and in the sound produced. Digital pianos use either synthesized emulation or recorded samples of an acoustic piano, which are sounded through an internal loudspeaker. They also incorporate weighted keys, which recreate the feel of an acoustic piano. Some digital pianos are designed to also look like an upright or grand piano. Others may be very simple, without a stand.
An electronic keyboard, portable keyboard, or digital keyboard is an electronic musical instrument, an electronic derivative of keyboard instruments. Electronic keyboards include synthesizers, digital pianos, stage pianos, electronic organs and digital audio workstations. In technical terms, an electronic keyboard is a synthesizer with a low-wattage power amplifier and small loudspeakers.
The keytar is a lightweight synthesizer that is supported by a strap around the neck and shoulders, similar to the way a guitar is supported by a strap. Keytars allow players a greater range of movement onstage, compared to conventional keyboards, which are placed on stationary stands or which are part of heavy, floor-mounted structures. The instrument has a musical keyboard for triggering musical notes and sounds. Various controls are placed on the instrument's "neck", including those for pitch bends, vibrato, portamento, and sustain.
Yamaha XG is an extension to the General MIDI standard, created by Yamaha. It is similar in purpose to the Roland GS standard.
Kurzweil Music Systems is an American company that produces electronic musical instruments. It was founded in 1982 by Stevie Wonder (musician), Ray Kurzweil (innovator) and Bruce Cichowlas.
The Clavinova is a long-running line of digital pianos created by the Yamaha Corporation. The name is a portmanteau of the two words Clavier meaning 'keyboard instrument' and nova meaning 'new'.
Electone is the trademark used for electronic organs produced by Yamaha. With the exception of the top end performance models, most Electones are based on the design of the spinet electronic organ. Current models are completely digital and contain a variety of sounds, effects, and accompaniments, on top of the ability to store programming data onto memory devices.
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.
A stage piano is an electronic musical instrument designed for use in live performances on stage or in a studio, as well as for music recording in jazz and popular music. While stage pianos share some of the same features as digital pianos designed for home use and synthesizers, they have a number of features which set them apart. Stage pianos usually provide a smaller number of sounds, with these being of higher quality than the ones found on regular digital pianos and home synthesizers.
The Yamaha Motif is a series of music workstation synthesizers, first released by Yamaha Corporation in August 2001. The Motif replaced the EX series in Yamaha's line-up and was also based on the early Yamaha S series. Other workstations in the same class are the Korg Kronos and the Roland Fantom G. The series' successor is Yamaha Montage.
The Nord Stage is a digital keyboard or stage piano, manufactured by Clavia Digital Music Instruments of Stockholm, Sweden. There have been five editions of the instrument: the original Nord Stage in 2005, the Nord Stage EX in 2008, the Nord Stage 2 in 2011, the Nord Stage 2 EX in 2015, and the Nord Stage 3 in 2017.
The Yamaha Tyros2 is a digital arranger workstation 61-key keyboard produced by Yamaha Corporation in 2005. It was produced and designed by Kazuhisa Ueki and Soichiro Tanaka, respectively. The Tyros2 introduced several new features to the Tyros series, such as 'SuperArticulation! Voices', allowing for more realistic sounding voices during performances, and hard-disk recording allowing users to export audio recordings. Many features seen in the original Tyros returned to the Tyros2, including MegaVoice, primarily used in MIDI recording, which use velocity switching to add realism; Live!, Sweet! and Cool! voices, that are sampled using stereo and multilayered samples to better capture the natural presence expression and vibrato of the real instruments; and Internet Direct Connection, allowing users to download content directly to the instrument.
Disklavier is a brand of reproducing pianos manufactured by Yamaha Corporation. The first Disklavier was introduced in the United States in 1987.
The Yamaha YMF278B, also known as the OPL4, is a sound chip that incorporates both FM synthesis and sample-based synthesis by Yamaha.
The Yamaha PSR-550 is a portable arranger workstation electronic keyboard produced in 2001.
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.
The Roland MKS-20 is a digital piano-type sound module released by Roland Corporation in 1986. It is a rackmount version of the popular 1980s-era Roland RD-1000 digital piano. The RD-1000 has the exact same sound engine mounted in a musical keyboard-type MIDI controller. Both use Roland's "structured adaptive synthesis approach" to provide eight keyboard sounds, including grand piano, electric piano, harpsichord, vibraphone, and clavinet. Both have three effects units built in: stereo chorus, stereo tremolo, and a three-band equalizer with a sweepable mid-range.
Home screen
Right corps with voice, songs, style
Left features with metronome, stand by button, recording button, etc.
