A music workstation is an electronic musical instrument providing the facilities of:
- a sound module,
- a music sequencer and
- (usually) a musical keyboard.
It enables a musician to compose electronic music using just one piece of equipment.
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Origin of concept
The concept of a music sequencer combined with a synthesizer originated in the late 1970s with the combination of microprocessors, mini-computers, digital synthesis, disk-based storage, and control devices such as musical keyboards becoming feasible to combine into a single piece of equipment that was affordable to high-end studios and producers, as well as being portable for performers. Prior to this, the integration between sequencing and synthesis was generally a manual function based on wiring of components in large modular synthesizers, and the storage of notes was simply based on potentiometer settings in an analog sequencer.
Multitimbrality
Polyphonic synthesizers such as Sequential Circuit Prophet-5 and Yamaha DX7 were capable of playing only one patch at a time (the DX7II could play 2 patches on 2 separate MIDI channels) There was some sequencing ability in some keyboards, but it was not MIDI sequencing.
In the mid to late 80s, workstation synths were manufactured more than single-patch keyboards. A workstation such as the Korg M1 was able to play out 8 different patches on 8 different MIDI channels, as well as playing a drum track, and had an onboard MIDI sequencer. The patches were often samples, but you could not record your own samples, as you could on a Fairlight. Having samples as the sound source is what made it possible to have various drum sounds in one patch. In contrast, a DX7 or a JX3P did not have the synthesis features to create all the sounds in a drum kit.
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First generation music workstations
Examples of early music workstations included the New England Digital Synclavier and the Fairlight CMI.
Key technologies for the first generation
The result was that music workstations evolved rapidly during this period, as new software releases could add more functionality, new voice cards developed, and new input technologies added.
Second generation music workstations
By 1982, the Fairlight CMI Series II represented another advance as it now offered more RAM-based sample memory than any other system with an improved sample rate, and in the Series III (1985) changed from 8-bit to 16-bit samples. The Synclavier introduced hard-disk based sampling in 1982, storing megabytes of samples for the first time.
Other products also combined synthesis and sequencing. For instance the Sequential Circuits Six-Trak provided this possibility. The Six-Trak was a polyphonic analog synthesizer, which featured an on-board six-track sequencer.
Still other products focused on combining sampling and sequencing. For instance the E-mu Emulator models, first introduced in 1982, combined sample memory (read from floppy disks) with a simple sequencer in the initial model, and an 8-track sequencer in later models.
The biggest change in the industry was the development of the MIDI standard in 1983 for representing musical note sequences. For the first time, sequences could be moved from one digitally controlled music device to another.
In the late 1980s, on-board MIDI sequencers began to appear more frequently on professional synthesizers. The Korg M1 (released 1988) was the first widely known and popular music workstation, and became the world's best-selling digital keyboard synthesizer of all time. During its six-year production period, more than 250,000 units were sold.
Key technologies for the second generation
Third generation music workstations
Although many music workstations have a keyboard, this is not always the case. In the 1990s, Yamaha, and then Roland, released a series of portable music workstations (starting with the Yamaha QY10 (1990)). These are sometimes called walkstations.
The concept of the workstation mutated around mid-1990s by the emergence of groove machine-concept birthed in mid-1980s - a keyless version of a workstation, still with a self-contained sound source and sequencer, mostly aimed at dance. Again, nowadays they also feature a sampler. The groove machines were realized in mid-1980s (ex. Linn 9000 (1984), SCI Studio 440 (1986), Korg DDD-1 (1986), Yamaha RX5 (1986), Simmons SDX (1987)), and by the wide acceptance of E-mu SP-12/SP-1200 (1985/1987) and Akai MPC60 (1988), finally the concept have been widely accepted. Then in mid 1990s, Roland entered to the hype with the MC-303 (1996), and also Korg and Yamaha re-entered the market. Korg created the much-used Electribe series (1999-).
Akai developed and refined the idea of the keyboard-less workstation, with the Music Production Center series (1988-) of sampler workstations. The MPC breed of sampler freed the composer from the rigidity of step sequencing which was a limitation of earlier grooveboxes.
Key technologies for the third generation
Modern music workstations
Yamaha, Roland and Korg now have sampling as a default option with the Yamaha Motif line (introduced 2001), the Roland Fantom series (introduced 2001) and the Korg Triton (introduced 1999), Korg OASYS, and Korg M3 Workstations have a fairly large screen to give a comprehensive overview of the sound, sequencer and sampling options. Since the display is one of the most expensive components of these workstations, Roland and Yamaha initially chose to keep costs down by not using a touch screen or high-resolution display, but have added such in later models.
Another path of music product development that started with the feature set of music workstations is to provide entirely software-based products, using virtual instruments. This is the concept of the digital audio workstation, and many of these products have emulated the multitrack recording metaphors of sequencers first developed in the music workstations.
Open Labs introduced the Production Station in 2003, which changed the relationship of the music workstation and the personal computer from a model where the music workstation interfaces to the PC into one where the music workstation is a PC with a music keyboard and a touch screen display.
A variation on Open Labs' approach, Korg released the Korg OASYS in 2005. OASYS housed inside a keyboard music workstation housing a computer running a custom operating system built on the Linux kernel. OASYS was an acronym for Open Architecture SYnthesis Studio, underscoring Korg's ability to release new capabilities via ongoing software updates. OASYS not only included a synthesizer, sampling, and a sequencer, but the ability to digitally record multi-track audio. OASYS was discontinued in 2009, and Korg Kronos, an updated version built on the same concept, was introduced in January, 2011.
Evaluation of a music workstation
While advances in digital technology have greatly reduced the price of a professional-grade music workstation, the 'time cost' of learning to operate a complex instrument like this cannot be underestimated. Hence, product selection is critical, and is typically based upon:
- Ease of use
- Number of tracks in the sequencer
- Expansion options and modularity
- Size of user and support community
- Support for standards such as MIDI, SMPTE, Internet, etc.
- Reliable functioning
- Adaptation to most requirements of music production.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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