Before entering the final SampleRobot 7 testing stage and the release sprint afterwards we had the chance to visit Japan and were invited by Yamaha to see Innovation Road in Hamamatsu. This is where Yamaha shows what they have done in the past decades in respect of musical instruments and audio technology, accompanied by some off-topic developments like battledores, motorcycles and golf clubs. One can experience quite an amazing collection of extraordinary electronic instruments, some of them, like the mighty Vangelis-favorite CS-80, the groundbraking DX1 Frequency Modulation flagship and the out of this world VP1 Virtual Acoustic synthesizer, are not rivaled to this day.
If you ever wondered if those three legendary and very heavy instruments can share a single keyboard stand, yes, they can - at least at Yamaha. Don't try this at home!
The right side of Innovation Road's main hall reminds one a bit of the end sequence of the movie '2001' by Stanley Kubrick where Dave Bowman sits in a white room having a meal while rapidly traveling through time and space. So here we are back in time, starting with a space age product by Italian designer Mario Bellini, the TC-800GL stereo cassette player from the mid seventies.
Talking about '2001' this black hovering monolith is a DMP7 mixer which made digital mixing affordable in 1987 with a futuristic form factor, motorized faders and a small footprint.
A little larger one coming in at about 660 lbs / 300 kg has the GX1 organ synthesizer that shares some of the features found on the Yamaha CS-80 including the wonderful back ribbon controller. The GX1 makes the CS brother look quite portable. If you ever have the chance to play this 'Electone' organ you can look forward to some massive sounds.
And yes, Yamaha also built music computers in the 1980s following the MSX standard and later featuring 4 operator FM synthesis. If one didn't know what to do with it back then, how about a nice match of Badminton with Yamaha equipment?
Another not so well know classic is the GS1 which does not look like an electric piano from a distance. All electronics are hidden behind a wooden enclosure. This instrument has a fantastic powerful and dynamic sound premiering Frequency Modulation synthesis (4 OP) and a special magnetic stripe reader to import new sounds. It came out in 1980 before the DX7 skyrocketed 3 years later.
Just a little larger but somehow still portable is another true classic, the Yamaha CP-80 with its characteristic electro-acoustic sound, piano hammer touch response and build-in tremolo effect. Good thing, you can carry it in two pieces if you need to.
In another room there is a colorful selection of desktop music production tools and groove gear from the last century, some of them capable of playing custom samples.
One instrument that offers battery-powered sample Ram and a very good effects section (amongst advanced FM) is the SY99 'music synthesizer'. It could be expanded with five 512 Kilobyte modules to a total of 3 MB user Ram. In the meantime smart people have found out that it could even address 8 MB Ram internally with a special modification (Magic Memory Board). Together with the card slot's 8MB the last instrument of the SY series can access 16 MB of battery-powered RAM, not bad for a synthesizer released in 1991. It shares its Innovation Road space with the duophonic VL1, the little sister of the VP1 which also creates sounds based on physical acoustic models.
So what's new regarding sampling? Instead of sampling instruments via audio Yamaha has developed a new technology where humans are sampled in a band context. While playing their instruments in a group live the Yamaha engineers sampled/recorded all of the physical playing expression and interaction of each musician with special equipment by measuring vibrations of strings, drumheads and cymbals etc. After that process the instruments are equipped with computer-controlled magnets and triggers that can simulate the articulations of the humans. So you have a playing bass, drumset and piano but no human player, just the sampled phrase that triggers the real acoustic instrument with a flat video screen of the player behind it. Does it work? In terms of technical proof of concept this was really fascinating and captured the sonic vibe of the band impressively. On the other hand it was a bit spooky and also boring seeing instruments with no one playing them exept a computer. At least we need some humanoid robots to play the sampled articulation phrases. Maybe next year then.
Thank you very much Junichi Onodera and Yuya Fuketa from Yamaha for showing us around Innovation Road. We appreciate it a lot.
