Floyd Tatum Posted February 7 Share Posted February 7 Just for the h-e-double-hockeysticks of it, I've been looking at some old Yamaha stuff recently - mostly early digital pianos. I went to the Yamaha manual site, and just looked up all the digital pianos. The first one I found is the YP-40 from 1983. The manual says it's using FM (the DX7 was also from 1983). It doesn't appear to have MIDI. BORING HISTORY - READ AT YOUR PERIL: FM synthesis seems to go back as far as Don Buchla in the 60's. Before that, even? John Chowning developed it further at Stanford, and licenced it to Yamaha in 1973. Yamaha released the first FM synth, the GS1, in 1980 (came in a wood case that looked like a small baby grand). GS2 came in a Rhodes-like wooden case. I think the DX-7 was next in 1983. END OF BORING HISTORY Yamaha was well on their way with FM when they made the YP-10, YP-20, YP-30, and YP-40, which all looked similar except number of keys. Here's a Youtube vid of the YP-40 being played. It doesn't use sampling, so it doesn't sound as good as what we're used to now. But, not bad, for FM, I guess. The thing I found interesting was the form factor: It looks almost identical to the beloved CP-300 from 2005! The plug-in sustain pedal (not visible here) looks identical to one that they still sell. Re-using form designs is a smart thing for a manufacturer to do - just re-tool your old machine presses, or whatever. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eric Posted February 7 Share Posted February 7 Not bad. Sounds like FM harp blended with FM piano on the sound they were using. Cool form factor! Are you getting one? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CEB Posted February 7 Share Posted February 7 That is neat. The earliest I remember off the top of my head was the Yamaha pf80. I remember the action as decent… but that was a while back. Quote "It doesn't have to be difficult to be cool" - Mitch Towne "A great musician can bring tears to your eyes!!! So can a auto Mechanic." - Stokes Hunt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Floyd Tatum Posted February 7 Author Share Posted February 7 57 minutes ago, eric said: Not bad. Sounds like FM harp blended with FM piano on the sound they were using. Cool form factor! Are you getting one? Get one? Not a chance! 🙂 This is how I satisfy gear-lust now. Instead of actually buying stuff, I just look at videos of gear, read reviews, manuals, and such. Looking at really old stuff makes it even easier to resist GAS! I've spent my fair share on GAS. Now I don't have anything left to spend (pensioner on fixed income, gross), so I don't really have "disposable income" any more. (Disposable income - what a concept! In the long run, unfortunately, none of it is truly disposable. But I guess I shouldn't say that on a forum about gear!) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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