Chapter 6: A New Chapter for Yamaha Synthesizers
The Reface Series, Born of an After-work Project
As the technologies at the heart of synthesizers and other products reach maturity, Yamaha continues developing exciting new products by taking the pulse of the market and anticipating the ever-evolving needs of musicians. In response, for example, to meticulous market research undertaken for new releases in the MOTIF series, and seeing music creators embrace the workstation synthesizer, we developed products that would satisfy the demand for greater affinity with Cubase and other music production software commonly known as the Digital Audio Workstations (DAW). But in today’s informationdriven society—overflowing with bigger and faster data—simply equating success with rapid reaction to market sentiment no longer cuts it. And it is against this backdrop that three young Yamaha engineers embarked upon an audacious quest.
It all began when the three, who would often talk passionately about their dream musical instruments, started getting together after work to actually create a new synthesizer. As kindred spirits, each having enjoyed tweaking the sounds of these instruments for years, they excitedly spoke of synth controllers that you would just want to grab and play with, and they got to work on a prototype.
Inspiration initially came from the highly interactive CS01, which Yamaha had released way back in 1982, because they wanted their extracurricular project to deliver more than a mere tool for playing songs, instead bringing the pure joy of playing with sound to new heights. Because wasn’t this, after all, what the synthesizer was originally supposed to do?
The next step was to convince colleagues at Yamaha to adopt their pet concept as an official development project. To this end, they created a mountain of presentation material and enthusiastically lobbied for their idea within the company, ultimately getting the nod to bring their extra-curricular venture in-house as a sub-project to be worked on during a portion of their regular work day.
The team started by evaluating the feasibility of the ES—a synthesizer that would ultimately evolve into the CS model in the reface series. Taking its name from the abbreviation of “Enjoy Synthesis”, this concept instrument was equipped with an analog-synthesis tone generator and simple controllers to better understand how users could really have fun with sound.
Starting with a mini keyboard and form factor like those of the CS01, the three engineers brainstormed new design features and functions they would like to add, and they arrived at the concept of a “small but serious” instrument that makes it easy to play with sound. They built the ES as an embodiment of this concept, yet they did not limit their early efforts to the analog approach alone and also experimented with other engines—namely, the DX frequency-modulation tone generator, the CP tone generator for electric pianos, and the YC organ tone generator.
The next phase was to build a prototype that could generate compelling sounds. To do so, the team added software, a keyboard, and other controller elements such as sliders to the AN analogmodelling tone generator already developed by Yamaha. Even at this relatively early stage, the team’s decision to delve into the emotive aspects of the user interface (UI) used to interact with the sound was a pivotal factor in successfully turning the reface into a small-but-serious musical instrument.
Long before it matured into the CS, this prototype started to develop an identity that was markedly different from the virtual analog synthesizers—that is, digital instruments that simulated the analog experience—on the market at the time. And this divergence of ways began as the engineers optimized how the sliders and parameters interact with one another.
A typical analog synthesizer creates sound using three main components: the oscillators that produce sawtooth, square, and other sound waves; the filters used to make these waves sound brighter or darker; and the amplifiers that control the volume of the resulting sound. In addition, envelopes can be used to change the behavior of each component over time, while low frequency oscillators modify them in a cyclical fashion. As a result, even the simplest of instruments has a formidable number of sound-sculpting parameters. But the ES was different. Just three sliders—Type, Texture, and Mod—offered almost complete control over the myriad of sounds that the AN tone generator could produce. Thanks to this innovation, playing with sound became even more exciting.
The ES prototype then underwent round after round of internal review, where the input from colleagues was instrumental in refining the tone generator, UI, and overall size. The original team then focused their attention on physical designs that would bring their small-but-serious concept even closer to fruition, enlisting the help of veteran designers who shared their passion for that vision.
Once people saw the original design concept in a physical form and experienced for themselves the joy of playing with its sound, they were sold. The decision was made to develop the synth as a totally new Yamaha product.
In addition to the body of the synth, they proposed new ideas for switches, levers, and sliders that would be fun to play with, as well as other eye-catching elements. All of these were combined into various design mock-ups. And with the physical form of the synth now starting to come into view, a palpable sense of excitement began to build at presentations updating colleagues on their progress. It became clear that building a fully-working prototype was a crucial next step, and approval was granted.
There is no truer form of craftsmanship than extracting an idea from one’s imagination and giving it a physical form, and in this spirit, the team then came together day after day following their regular duties, working tirelessly until the prototype was built. Inspired by the small-but-serious instrument in their mind’s eye, a combination of creativity, ingenuity, and dedication saw them through. They now had a working prototype.
But even as this corner was turned, the team faced a new set of challenges, such as marketability and manufacturability, that would need to be addressed. In particular, a new type of keyboard—both playable and highly compact—would have to be developed in order to successfully realize their small-but-serious musical instrument. In fact, the team knew that they would need the world’s most playable mini keyboard if they were to be successful, and with the help of specialist keyboard designers, they got to work. Yamaha’s Pianica—an educational keyboard instrument—served as a valuable start point, and playability was further enhanced using longer individual keys than those of other compact instruments such as the CS01 and DX100. No detail was overlooked in bringing this new keyboard to fruition, and as the shape of the keys’ upper surface has a major bearing on playing comfort when they are held down or played glissando, it was the focus of particular attention. Because this effort was driven by the three core members, who shared a unique understanding and passion for the project, there was no doubt when the keyboard was finished that it was worthy of the original design concept.
All of the main elements of the reface had now come together, but many hurdles remained before it could be released as a Yamaha product. For a start, working out how to assemble critical components into tight spaces in the case without completely redoing the design was a major challenge. And it was not simply a case of using slightly thinner components here and there to save a millimeter or two: the entire internal structure would have to facilitate mass production on the company’s assembly lines. In addition, our synthesizer development team had no built-in speakers that could satisfy the “small but serious” design concept, so they had to be designed from scratch.
Part of this involved careful selection of digital-analog converters (or DACs) on which sound quality hinges.
In parallel with these efforts, design of the instrument’s unique sound proceeded in a totally uncompromising fashion. In the ES—precursor to the reface CS—the team focused on the parameters that controlled the oscillators; while in the DX, the FM synthesis algorithms and the UI were both revamped to make the complex FM tone generator easier to understand and operate. Voice-specific parameters such as drive and tremolo were fine tuned for the CP, and for the YC, the team meticulously recorded new samples from the exquisite organ of the same name.
Scheduled for release in July 2015, the reface CS, reface DX, reface CP, and reface YC were the fruit of this unyielding effort, dedication, and commitment to the original concept. They provided owners with an opportunity to once again come face to face with musical instruments, and this inspired the “reface” name.
Made possible by the fervent desire of their developers to again experience their favorite synths as new products, the dream of the three engineers who conceived the small-but-serious concept comes true whenever users do the same.
Focusing on Advances in Music with the MONTAGE
Reigning as flagship of the Yamaha synthesizer lineup for over the decade and a half since its launch in 2001, the MOTIF was designed to be the ultimate workstation synthesizer. It established a virtually unassailable position in the market, but as the years went by, end users and artists were increasingly keen for Yamaha to offer a new flagship. Yamaha responded, but instead of just releasing a new MOTIF, we decided to reevaluate the intrinsic merits of the hardware synthesizer itself.
This was no easy task, so to start, we sought to understand whether this type of instrument could realistically hold its own with the DAW, now in its golden era. In this, we considered whether the whole point of the hardware synth was the creativity that could be found in physically making and controlling sounds. We asked ourselves what it is to create the sounds worthy of a flagship synth and to control them in a meaningful way.
The developers of the new flagship focused on the role of the synth in contemporary music, the ways in which users produce music today, and how such an instrument should sound. Their efforts led to the conclusion that two new synthesizer features held the key to almost limitless expression.
The first of these is the ability to manipulate sound in a multidimensional fashion. The tones produced by conventional synthesizers are shaped by, for example, changing filter parameters to make them brighter or darker. Character can also be added in a number of other ways, such as modulating the volume and adding special audio effects, and as a result, these instruments feature a wide range of controllable parameters. Yet these parameters must be adjusted one by one to sculpt the sound. The ability to change a number of them simultaneously is the basic concept behind multidimensional modulation.
Parameters can, of course, be assigned to knobs, sliders, and other controllers and adjusted in real time if so desired, but manipulating controllers with both hands like a DJ would leave none free to actually play the keyboard. Moreover, the way in which parameters change in unison with one another also has a huge effect on how well morphing sounds overall—a good example being the filter’s cutoff and resonance parameters. It was soon concluded that no existing control methods could solve these problems, so Yamaha designers came up with the Super Knob as a means of easily modulating many parameters in a multidimensional manner while also playing the keyboard.
The impetus for this all-powerful controller was provided by automation—a common feature of DAWs that automatically controls the tone, effect levels, and other parameters of recorded audio and MIDI as the tracks play. But automation can only reproduce parameter changes that have been recorded in advance, and in the live-performance arena, it is totally unsuitable to ad-hoc, improvisational changes inspired by the music or the excitement level of the audience. The Super Knob was thus proposed as a way of replicating the automation feature in real time with a single controller.
The second key to boundless expression involves rhythmical modulation of the sound. It goes without saying that rhythmic sound changes are a fundamental part of any tune, but in today’s music in particular, this type of synchronized modulation extends beyond pitch, note length, and other information that can be recorded on the musical stave to also encompass tone, effect levels, and so forth.
Shaping of sound in this way became a crucial aspect in development of the new Yamaha flagship, and the designers efforts to address it paid dividends in the form of three new features— namely, the Motion Sequencer, the Envelope Follower, and Audio Beat Sync.
The first of these—the Motion Sequencer—allows sound to be manipulated in time with parameter change sequences that have been set up in advance. With each motion sequence containing up to sixteen individual steps, highly complex rhythmic patterns can be created by switching between sequences or running them together. The sequences themselves can even be changed in real time using controllers.
The Envelope Follower makes it possible to control parameters using the envelope of audio signals received via the A/D Input block—or more specifically, the way in which their volume changes over time— thereby achieving multidimensional modulation that reflects the beat of the input audio. Meanwhile, Audio Beat Sync detects the tempo of this audio input and synchronizes the synth with it. These functions were designed and developed with live performance mind, so as well as synchronization with a DAW, they also cater for situations where the drummer drives the rhythm and the synth’s sounds are modulated in time with that.
Although the development team settled on this core concept of realtime multidimensional sound modulation in rhythmic sync with the music, the tone generator, which functions as the heart of any synthesizer, would need supercharging to make this a reality.
Since its inclusion in the MOTIF as a sampling tone generator, the AWM2 had evolved significantly in terms of functionality and fidelity. Nevertheless, all of its sampled sounds, as well as those created from them in a process known as voicing, were continually enhanced over an extended period of time in order to achieve the highest possible levels of expressivity and sound quality. Yet the conventional approach to sound creation comprising sampling, filters, and effects would not suffice if the maximum potential of multidimensional sound modulation was to be achieved. The designers thus came to the conclusion that the instrument’s tone generator would need to be capable of dramatically modulating the oscillator waveforms themselves. The obvious solution was frequency modulation—a legendary sound production method originally developed by Yamaha for its much-loved DX line of synthesizers.
At that time, Yamaha was already working on a custom tonegenerator chip containing a next-generation FM synthesis engine, and its planned completion coincided with development of the new flagship. One of the things that makes the FM tone generator unique is its ability to instantaneously morph from, for example, a sine wave with little or no overtones to a full-on metallic clang. Convinced that this capability would elevate the potential of the Super Knob and Motion Sequencer to new heights, the development team decided to combine the AWM2 engine with their new FM at the heart of their instrument.
Christened FM-X, this new FM engine boasted eight operators, which are the fundamental elements for creating and modulating sound in this type of synthesis, together with 88 algorithms. And as if that wasn’t enough, the operators could now also use waves other than sine waves, and new Spectral Skirt and Spectral Resonance parameters made it possible to shape the harmonics of those nonsine shapes. All this, combined with the ability for every FM parameter to be adjusted to a much greater degree of precision than ever before, thereby providing for smoother modulation between tones, made the new FM-X far more expressive than any FM synthesizers that preceded it.
The tone-generator section of the new flagship synthesizer would thus be built on the twin pillars of the AWM2 and FM-X engines. It is common for code names to be assigned to products currently under development, and the new flagship was no different: as the term Dual Algorithm Interactive Synthesizer had already been coined for the new multidimensional modulating instrument, the code name was formed from its abbreviation, “Daisy.”
In tandem with their work on the Daisy’s tone-generation specs and the core Motion Control feature—that is, modulation features such as the Super Knob and Motion Sequencer—the development team also evaluated different UI approaches and form-factor designs. Unlike the MOTIF music production synthesizer, the Daisy was always intended to be a live performance synth, so they armed it with new, powerful features for this particular environment, notable examples being Live Sets, which allow 16 sounds to be freely arranged on-screen and switched with a single tap; Seamless Sound Switching (SSS) to ensure that switching between sounds does not result in any audio drop out; and Scenes for instantaneously jumping between sound snapshots. And in designing the UI for the newly adopted touchscreen, the team gave careful consideration to ease of use, arranging the buttons on the Live Set screen in the most convenient way possible while maximizing the distance between them.
Not every issue could, however, be resolved by using a touchscreen for the main display. One of the biggest disadvantages of this type of interface is the lack of a tactile response to “pressing” of on-screen buttons due to its highly visual nature and inherent flatness, and as such, it is not ideally suited to rapid, reliable actions. For that reason, the developers opted to make every setting also possible without the screen; however this presented an additional challenge in that usability would suffer if the relationships between the buttons onscreen were not fully consistent with those between the physical buttons. The 32 Voice-selection buttons to the right of the display were thus also arranged in a uniform grid, and when the Live Set feature is being used, the four-by-four array of buttons in the left half of the grid corresponds to the performances displayed on-screen; meanwhile, the four-by-four array in the right half can be used to select different Live Set pages.
The development team also fully revisited modes of button operation, aiming for an easy-to-understand, tactile UI. The layout and operation of buttons ultimately differed somewhat from those of the MOTIF, but the dogged insistence of the developers on operational ease undoubtedly benefited from their willingness to think outside the box, unconstrained by convention.
When it came to case design, the team was unshakeable in their pursuit of a range of new features, and in contrast to the highly-linear MOTIF, they advanced many design ideas centered more on the curve. In particular, a concave back surface had never before been seen on a Yamaha synth. Overall, they took an uncompromising approach to ease of use and comfort—one notable example being careful consideration of the curvature and finish of areas that come into contact with the palm of the hand when operating the pitch bend or modulation wheel.
Meanwhile, the DACs, analog circuitry, and other sound-defining components were also optimized in an exhaustive fashion. Armed with more CPU power, the developers could produce more complex, higher resolution sounds, but these would ultimately need to be converted into analog electrical signals if they were ever to be heard. For this reason, the analog circuits by which the sounds depart the instrument and enter the audible world were perfected through meticulous, systematic listening tests and component selection. Users of software synthesizers are fully aware that their audio interface greatly affects the final sound and they can select accordingly, but the developer of the hardware synth must deliver a complete package, including this final link in the sound production chain. To satisfy these needs, the team created the Pure Analog Circuit (PAC)—an audio output system that surpassed even the MOTIF XF in terms of musicality. Thanks to the PAC, the breathtaking sound of the Motion Control Synthesis Engine, which combined the new tone-generation system and Motion Control, could be heard in all its glory.
Now complete, the Daisy was officially named the MONTAGE in preparation for release. This name was inspired by the French for “assembly”, and it is also commonly used in the movie industry to refer to an editing process whereby multiple sections of film are pieced together to form a continuous whole. In selecting it, the developers hoped to inspire users of the new flagship synth to create totally new forms of musical expression by manipulating sound with the Motion Control feature. In May 2016, Yamaha proudly released its next-generation series of flagship synths in the form of the MONTAGE 6, 7, and 8.
Even as the baton passed from MOTIF to MONTAGE, the core concept behind these synths differed, meaning that the MONTAGE could not necessarily do everything the MOTIF could. For example, the two series differed considerably in terms of sequencer functionality: whereas the MOTIF can be used to create songs using the synth alone, functions best performed by a DAW were intentionally left out of the MONTAGE to keep the focus on performance. Phrase ideas could be recorded, of course, and MIDI sequences could be played as backing tracks or manipulated live.
Since that initial release in 2016, the MONTAGE firmware has been updated a number of times with many new functions and sounds being added. Thus, the Yamaha flagship synth continues to evolve together with the ever-changing world of music to create new music and sound, as indicated by Yamaha’s 2018 release of the MODX—a compact, lightweight synthesizer that fully embraced all the design concepts of the MONTAGE.
In an age when the role of the hardware synth was in constant flux, Yamaha provided a new proposal for a music production synthesizer in the form of the MONTAGE, a flagship employing a totally different approach from the MOTIF and focusing on live performance.
The Stage Piano Reinvented
In January 2019, over four decades after Yamaha’s 1976 release of the CP-70 as a stage piano simultaneously portable and capable of delivering a powerful sound, we returned to this arena with a pair of totally reimagined instruments—the CP88 and CP73. With names that evoke memories of the famous CP-80 and CP-70, these new stage pianos have a compelling story to tell about how they came into being.
It all began when a producer from the reface development team was placed in charge of Yamaha’s new CP instruments. Not a stage-piano player, he tasked himself with getting to know the people who were. To this end, he visited live music venues where Yamaha and other stage pianos were played and also conducted a range of interviews to get a feel for the users of this instrument.
One important takeaway from his fact-finding mission was that, while Yamaha’s products were very popular, many musicians just used them as pianos, never really changing any other settings. In addition, he identified two distinct groups of people who played Yamaha stage pianos—those who accepted no compromise whatsoever when it came to the actual keyboard, and those who valued portability over all else and did not worry much about the feel of the keyboard or how many keys it had. And it was also confirmed that the latter group mainly used electric-piano type sounds or configured their stage piano as part of a two-keyboard setup. This led to the obvious conclusion that making one size fit all was not the best approach, and this realization is reflected in the CP88 and CP73 having different keyboard actions as well as a different number of keys.
Once the basic concept for the new models was thus established, the development team members agreed upon a general direction for the technical specifications and UI. Prototypes were then built in a coordinated manner with the relevant development sections, and these were subjected to various rounds of testing and verification.
The UI came under particular attention during this process. First of all, the developers wanted to make sure that acoustic pianos, electric pianos, and other instruments like strings were clearly separated from one another when it came to choosing voices. Through an extensive process of trial and error, the development team worked to identify the best means of preventing the wrong voice being selected during live performances; for example, abandoning buttons for toggle switches and other interface elements more suited to the function at hand, and arranging the best parameters for each instrument in close proximity to one another. Unlike synth players, stage-piano owners are not necessarily technical experts when it comes to music hardware, so a lot of effort was put into ensuring simplicity and making it unnecessary to read the manual in selecting Voices, storing of voices created by the user, and configuring overlaid layers of, for example, piano and strings.
The weight of the instruments was another serious consideration. For a start, 20 kg was identified as the total weight beyond which a single person would have difficulty moving around and setting up a stage piano. City-dwellers also prefer lighter keyboards as they are more likely to travel to and from practice and gigs by train and not car. Every effort was thus made to address these real needs by keeping the new stage pianos as light as possible. The CP4 STAGE and CP40 STAGE already weighed around 17 kg, and the plastic construction of their bodies made scratches incurred when transporting them or setting them up, so the developers started looking into lightweight alternatives that would be suitable for a durable, reliable musical instrument.
One promising material was aluminum, but the benefit afforded by its light weight is offset by a lack of rigidity, and this is particularly true when used for flat surfaces, of which there are many on a keyboard instrument. Reinforcement would thus be needed to make this material usable, so the development team enlisted the help of specialist case designers, and together, they optimized the physical structure by exhaustively evaluating a range of different approaches, ultimately arriving at the aluminum bodies of today’s CP88 and CP73.
Design constraints were also extremely tight when it came to the overall size of the stage pianos. Normally, most of the circuit boards in an electronic musical instrument are installed in parallel with the control panel, but the analog boards of the CP88 and CP73 were arranged at right angles to this surface in order to keep the instruments as slim as possible.
At the same time as these efforts to achieve the ideal form factor were underway, equal attention was given to the all-important sound of the stage pianos by finely balancing the keyboard and overall tone and then rigorously evaluating and verifying the results. The CP88 and CP73 would need the highest-quality samples—particularly for electric piano sounds—so all were completely rerecorded.
As such, the CP88 and CP73 were more than just enhanced versions of the previous models with incrementally better user interfaces, form factors, and tone generators. They were new instruments in their own right, completely redeveloped from the ground up in order to bolster the series. The user research undertaken at the start of the project had revealed that the user group insistent on the best possible keyboard prefers it to feel like that of a grand piano and have the same number of keys; meanwhile, those musicians who prioritize portability favor a lighter touch and less keys. To satisfy both, these two new CP models each offered different numbers of keys with a different feel. And it was also decided that the 88-key model should have an NW-GH3 keyboard with synthetic ivory keytops, ebony finish, and a graded hammer action, while the 73-key model should have a BHK keyboard with matte-finish black keys and balanced hammer action.
The development of Yamaha synths and stage pianos released between 2015 and 2019—namely the reface series, the MONTAGE, and the CP88 and CP73 stage pianos—did not depend solely on technological advances even though they were all fundamentally electronic instruments; instead, we went right back to the drawing board with a focus on novel ways of enjoying sound, innovative modes of expression, and new musical instrument formats.
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