Yamaha-May is MIDI Month Platinum Sponsor

Yamaha has been intimately involved with the development of MIDI since the very beginning. We pioneered groundbreaking technology by making the first all digital FM synthesizer, the epoch making DX7. Yamaha synths like the Motif and the Montage have been the standard for touring and studio professionals for the past 2 decades.  Recently Yamaha has been innovating with Web MIDI by developing the first social sound sharing community- SoundMondo.  At the 2018 NAMM, the MIDI-CI specification initiaitive which was spearheaded by Yamaha was adopted by the MMA paving the way for a new MIDI protocol in the near future. Yamaha makes more MIDI-enabled musical instruments than any other company on the planet. ​

---

 Montage 

---

Reface and Soundmondo

---

                    SoundMondo Social Sound Sharing Site

Soundmondo is a social sound-sharing website and one of the first sites to implement WebMIDI, a W3C (API) pioneered by Google in Chrome. WebMIDI connects MIDI devices to your browser allowing musical instruments to play online synthesizers, as well as save or share sounds with Soundmondo. Because WebMIDI is part of the Chrome, Soundmondo works on Mac, PC, and Android devices. There is also a Soundmondo iOS application. 

The reface Soundmondo iOS app lets you store, recall reface Voices on iOS and share them on Soundmondo. Each stored Voice can be rated, named and given a custom image from your photo library.

There are over 10,000 sounds available for browsing and sharing. 

---

The Disklavier MIDI Acoustic Piano

The Yamaha Disklavier is one of the most amazing MIDI instruments in the world. 

The Yamaha Disklavier E3 combines technology with tradition to open up a whole new world of musical possibilities to explore.The E3’s innovative features help you find your own customized way to relax. When you pick up the remote control, you are instantly ready to enjoy new music over the Internet or listen to an old favorite from your personal CD collection.The E3 also comes with built-in speakers as well as exclusive Yamaha CD’s, allowing you to start listening right away without a complicated set-up process. And no matter where you live, when you connect the E3 to the Internet, you gain access to a treasure trove of musical performances from the finest musicians in the world.

The history of the piano is a history of technological change and innovation, starting over 300 years ago with the escapement action of Bartolomeo Cristofori and continuing with knee levers, pedals, action modifications, cast iron frame, and so much more. This dynamic history has been the result of the passionate interaction between keyboard players, composers, and instrument makers.

In the 1970s, solenoid-based player systems were added to pianos for the first time. In 1987, Yamaha took that concept to a new level of quality and ease of use by introducing the Disklavier reproducing piano to North America.

The term Disklavier is a clever combination of the words disk (as in floppy disk) and Klavier, the German word for keyboard. At the time that the Disklavier was introduced, recordings were stored on 3 ½ inch floppy disks.

The Disklavier is fundamentally a traditional, acoustic piano with a built-in record-and-playback system. The record-and-playback system and its related features have changed substantially over the years, but one aspect of the Disklavier has remained constant: The Disklavier system has always been offered as a factory-installed system—never as a retrofit for existing pianos

by George Litterst- The History of the Disklavier on the Disklavier Educational Network

                     
                     Dan Tepfer uses the Yamaha Disklavier and MIDI to create unique compositions

Dan Tepfer is a jazz musician who has developed software to allow him to “improvise” with his computer. When Tepfer plays a note on his Disklavier,  MIDI is sent to Super Collider, an open source tool for programming algorithmic music.  Tepfer has created different algorithms to augment his playing for example retrogrades to invert whatever he plays, or echoing notes in different octaves. He can even trigger cascades of notes based on harmonic patterns.

 For more details on Dan Tepfer’s work, check out these two articles from Engadget and NPR.

For many years, Yamaha has sponsored the piano e-competition. Classical pianists from all over the world come to have the opportunity to perform on Yamaha CFX concert grand pianos equipped with state-of-the-art Disklavier Pro recording technology. This system, which was pioneered by Yamaha, is the fusion of the acoustic piano and computer electronics and allows all solo rounds of the competition to be downloaded via MIDI to be enjoyed anywhere in the world.  This year Google also joined as piano e competition sponsor and is using the e-competition’s classical MIDI files to train their Music AI engine. 

Check out our articles on Google Music AI initatives and on the e piano competition.