Yamaha DX7
Cosmo Watts is a multi-talented musician and songwriter who played an important role in the music products industry as a sound designer, synthesizer programmer and music teacher. Growing up in a home surrounded by music, his father was close friends with big band vibraphonist Red Norvo. Cosmo began...
Phil Burk has had a passion for electronics since he was a kid growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area. He built radio circuits before he was a teen and combined that interest with his love of music. He later developed his skills at Mills College Center for Contemporary Music and worked in the...
James Brady was front and center during the MIDI boom, working within the keyboard department at Rushworth’s Music House in Liverpool. The year was 1986 and the synthesizer was at its peak in popularity. As a musician, who was already using electric keyboards and analog synths to create his own...
Greg Mathieson spoke passionately about his career in music during his NAMM Oral History interview. He brought up some very interesting points, such as his views on working on the road vs in the recording studio, and his experiences of developing a true musical connection with the vocalists he...
Peter Schwartz is a pianist, composer, and synthesist who has worked for KORG on such projects as the M1, Wavestation, Prophecy and OASYS. After a wonderful experience with his classical music education and growing up alongside the explosion of synthesizer technology, Peter landed his first job in...
John Maier had parents that were both singers and would often hang out at the theater where his parents would perform. He used to get in trouble for tapping his pencil during tests and would have to take his test outside of the classroom – early signs of a promising drummer! After developing a love...
David Sancious always had records playing in his home growing up and his dad would take him to jazz clubs when he was just a child to sit by the stage so he could see the piano player. As an early member of the E Street Band, David toured with Bruce Springsteen as synthesizers and MIDI were...
Titus Tost studied computer programming in the mid-1980s in East Germany. He enrolled in a newly established study program called the Studio for Electronic Sound Generation (SEKD) in Dresden. Titus found the perfect outlet for his programming genius and passion for music. The Commodore 64 (later an...
Gary Leunberger opened a music store in San Francisco during the 1980s that soon specialized in electronic keyboards and synthesizers. Being a top seller of Yamaha instruments led the company to hire Gary to help program their products. Gary created the voice presets for the DX7, among others,...
Ken Oda was hired by Yamaha in 1967 to run their retail store in San Francisco, California. He continued to work for the company until his retirement at which point he joined Fender Musical Instruments. While at Yamaha he met and worked with Bill Schultz who later hired Ken to help grow the Asian...